The Whispering Statue (14 page)
Read The Whispering Statue Online
Authors: Carolyn Keene
Tags: #Art Thieves, #Yacht Clubs, #Women Detectives, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Girls & Women, #Adventures and Adventures, #Adventure and Adventurers, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mothers and Sons, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Fiction, #Art Objects - Reproduction, #Fraud, #Mystery Fiction, #Adventure Stories, #Art Objects, #Swindlers and Swindling, #Drew; Nancy (Fictitious Character), #Statues, #Mystery and Detective Stories
“What a gorgeous home!” Nancy murmured.
Ned nodded, then grinned. “Fit for a king!”
Nancy laughed at the pun, and turned toward the living room. Mrs. King rose from a chair and came into the hall. Her eyes opened wide upon seeing Nancy.
She held out both hands to the girl. “I’m delighted to meet you, Nancy. And I think your search has ended. You look exactly like my beautiful statue.”
Then she turned to Ned. “Good evening,” she said. “I’m so glad you both came. Well, I’m sure you’re eager to see the statue so follow me.”
Mrs. King led the way through the living room and a recreation room, then into a large glassed-in sunroom. It was decorated in pure white except for a few green palms and other plants attractively arranged around the room. The statue stood in the center of a plot of artificial grass.
Nancy and Ned gazed at it in awe. How fine and delicate it was!
Ned looked at Nancy, then at Mrs. King. He said, “Nancy could have posed for this.”
“Indeed she could have,” the woman agreed. “I’ve never heard that the statue had a name. I think now I’ll call her Nancy.”
The young sleuth smiled. “Does the statue whisper?”
Mrs. King looked surprised. “Whisper? No. Why did you ask?” She invited them to sit down.
Nancy told Mrs. King the story of the stolen whispering statue, including details of her search for it.
Ned interrupted. “Mrs. King, I think it only fair to tell you that Nancy is an amateur detective and has solved many cases. This is her latest.”
Mrs. King sank back in her chair. “Stolen?” she repeated. “I had no idea!”
“I’m sorry to bring you such bad news,” Nancy said. “The thief, or thieves, had a reproduction made which is very good but doesn’t have the lovely patina this statue does.”
“What are we going to do?” the woman asked. “As much as I love this piece, I don’t want stolen property in my house. I’ll cooperate with you in any way I can to find the culprit.”
“Tell us,” said Nancy, “who sold this statue to you?”
“An art dealer in New York City. He brought photos of the statue and I fell in love with it.”
Mrs. King said the man was Thomas Mott. At Nancy’s request she described him.
Ned spoke up. “He must be Mr. Atkin.”
Nancy nodded and explained that Mr. Atkin was one of the men under suspicion.
Mrs. King said she had paid the art dealer five thousand dollars when he delivered the statue. “He came in a car followed by a truck.”
“Did you see the man who was driving the truck?” Nancy queried.
“To tell the truth, I hardly noticed him. But he was a big man—and my, how strong! He carried the statue indoors by himself and it’s very, very heavy.
“I have always felt,” Mrs. King went on, “that I got the statue at a great bargain. I had it appraised since and was told it’s worth much more than I paid for it.”
Ned asked her if Mr. Mott had brought credentials.
“Oh yes,” the woman replied. “He seemed very refined and showed me pictures of his shop in New York. I gave him a check, which he accepted without question.”
“Well, I should think he would,” Ned remarked, “and I’ll bet he cashed it in a big hurry.”
“Mrs. King,” said Nancy, “by any chance do you still have your canceled check here? I’d like to see how it was endorsed.”
Mrs. King stood up, saying she thought she could locate it easily. The woman went off. Nancy and Ned looked carefully at the statue to see if they could figure out what had made it whisper.
In a few minutes Mrs. King came back. “Here it is,” she said, handing the check to Nancy.
The young sleuth turned it over. The Thomas Mott signature was in Mr. Basswood’s handwriting!
“Mrs. King, this is another clue in the mystery,” Nancy told her. “When a trial comes up, you may be asked to show the check.”
“I’ll be glad to,” the gracious woman replied.
Nancy asked her if she would be willing to have a sculptor from New York City come and look at her statue. “He’s Sylvester Holden, a friend of my father’s.”
“I’ve heard of Mr. Holden,” said Mrs. King.
“May I use your phone to call him?” Nancy asked.
“Go ahead,” said Mrs. King. “I’d be glad to have this thing settled. There’s a phone in the recreation room.”
Nancy went off to put in the call. Fortunately Mr. Holden was at home. He was astounded to learn what Nancy had found out and said he would be glad to come to Mrs. King’s the day after tomorrow.
“Wonderful,” said Nancy. “And please see if you can figure out why the statue used to whisper and doesn’t any more.”
Before going back to the other room, Nancy decided to telephone her father collect. He had just arrived home from Washington and was amazed to learn all that Nancy had been doing.
“My congratulations, dear. I think we should try to keep Atkin in the hospital. I know the superintendent. I’ll explain why and ask him to talk to Atkin’s doctor about keeping him there at least another day.”
After saying good-by to her father, Nancy returned to the sunroom. She told Mrs. King that Mr. Holden would be there Friday.
“I hope to get back myself,” Nancy added. “And now Ned and I must go. Friends of ours are waiting for us in town. And besides, we have to drive to the Waterford Yacht Club.”
Mrs. King walked to the front door with her guests and said again how delighted she was to have met them. She smiled. “I don’t usually say that to people who bring me bad news.”
Nancy and Ned chuckled and they both shook hands with her. Then they went outside and drove off. Nancy put on the long black wig and her sunglasses.
When the couple reached the restaurant, they found Bess, George, and Dick still there. The trio reported that Basswood and De Keer were still in the motel.
“We can’t stay here all night,” Bess spoke up. “What are we going to do about having the men watched?”
Nancy said she did not want to ask the police to do it. “After all, we need more evidence against the men. They could deny everything.”
“That’s right,” Ned agreed. “How about a private detective agency? There must be one in town.”
Nancy made the call and introduced herself as the daughter of Carson Drew. The agency knew him by reputation and said they would send a man over to talk to her. When he arrived the young people briefed him on the case.
He said, “If the men leave the motel, I’ll follow them. Tomorrow morning I’ll phone you, Miss Drew, about the result of my shadowing.”
When Nancy and her friends were ready to leave, Ned said that as long as Nancy had a ride, he would go directly to the lake resort where he was staying. The others said good-by to him and climbed into Dick’s sports car.
Upon reaching the yacht club, the girls thanked Dick for all his help. He grinned. “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
While Nancy was getting ready for bed, her father telephoned. “I just had a call from the hospital superintendent,” he reported. “Atkin sneaked out. Nobody knows where he went.”
“Too bad,” Nancy said. “I wonder if he knows where Mr. Basswood is.”
“I imagine he plans to join him,” Mr. Drew replied. “The police went to the house where Atkin boarded. He has not been there and left the hospital several hours ago.”
Nancy suggested that perhaps Basswood and Marco De Keer were waiting for Atkin at the motel. When he arrived, they would take off.
“That’s a good hunch,” her father said. “If you hear anything, let me know.”
In the morning the private detective called Nancy. He said that neither Basswood nor his companion had left the motel. Using Dick’s car, she drove with Bess and George to police headquarters. The officers had no report on the owner of the art shop.
“May I have the key?” she requested. “I’d like to look around there again.”
The sergeant on duty handed it over and said with a smile, “Keep in touch with us.”
“I will,” Nancy promised.
It was a gloomy day and the art shop was dark and rather chilly. The girls turned on all the lights. Everything was the same as Nancy had left it the day before.
Bess hunched her shoulders. “Ugh, it’s dismal and spooky in here! Let’s go!”
Before Nancy could answer, a customer knocked on the front door.
Bess begged her not to open the door, but Nancy said, “I may as well wait on the person.”
Within five minutes two other customers arrived and the three girls found themselves having a busy morning. By noontime they had taken in a sizable sum of money.
George remarked, “Basswood certainly isn’t going to pay you any salary. Why don’t you just quit the job? I’m sure you aren’t going to find any more clues here.”
Nancy was inclined to agree and finally said she would lock the place.
“Thank goodness,” said Bess. “My feet hurt from being on them all morning. Let’s go to that sandwich shop where we can sit down and get something to eat.”
“First we’ll go to the police,” George told her. “We aren’t going to carry all this money around.”
They walked to headquarters. Nancy turned in the cash and the key and said that she was locking the shop for the day. She suggested that the officers keep an eye on it.
“We’ll do that,” the sergeant told her.
While the girls were eating, Nancy said she wanted to drive to De Keer’s barn studio. “To see if he too has moved out.”
Before heading for the barn, Nancy telephoned Ned to ask if he would like to go along. He agreed, saying he would meet her there as soon as he could.
When they reached the barn, the girls found it wide open and apparently nothing had been taken from either the inside or the outside. But De Keer was not there. A tall, heavy-set man was busy brushing a rubbery material over a statue to make a mold.
Nancy asked when Mr. De Keer would arrive. The answer startled her. “He won’t be back,” the man said. “My name is Herbert Michaels and I’m the new owner. What do you want?”
“I’m looking for an inexpensive statuette,” Nancy replied.
“Well, look around,” Mr. Michaels said. “I can’t leave this job right now.”
The girls sensed that the man was watching them closely so they separated to look around the place. Nancy became intrigued with the two hollowed-out halves of a life-size reproduction. It lay on the floor near the rear door of the barn.
“I’d like to ask Mr. Michaels about it,” Nancy thought, but at the moment he and her friends were out of sight.
As Nancy examined the reproduction, two huge arms encircled her shoulders. She started to scream, but a gag was jammed into her mouth. Her efforts to free herself were futile. The next moment Nancy was pushed into one half of the statue and the other half was fastened into place on top of her.
Within seconds the statue was lifted, carried a distance, and laid down. As Nancy became drowsy from the lack of enough air, she heard a motor start. She was in some kind of vehicle, being driven away!
CHAPTER XX
A Startling Revelation
THOUGH Nancy had panicked when she was encased in the statue, she finally managed to overcome her fright. Her first thought was, “I can breathe. There must be holes in this statue, and they’re near my head.”
The vehicle was traveling at a fast speed and the statue jounced badly.
“I wonder how long my kidnapper will keep me in here,” she asked herself. Then a horrifying thought came to her. “Maybe he doesn’t intend to let me out. He may drop me off some place and leave me to starve to death! Oh, Ned, why didn’t you come?”
Back at the barn Bess and George were searching for Nancy. When they did not find her and discovered that Mr. Michaels was gone, they began calling Nancy’s name. There was no answer and they were concerned.
“Look!” Bess exclaimed. “The two halves of that life-size statue are gone.” She grabbed her cousin’s arm. “Do you suppose Nancy could have been put in it and carried off in a car?”
George was stunned by the thought but admitted that Bess was probably right. She rushed to the rear door. “The truck is gone!” she cried out.
The girls rushed around the barn looking for a clue as to where Nancy might have been taken.
“Here’s her wig!” Bess called. “It’s not far from where the two halves of that statue lay on the floor.”
At that moment a car pulled into the driveway. George and Bess went to the door to see who was arriving.
Ned and Dick!
“Oh boys!” Bess yelled. “Nancy has been kidnapped!”
“What!” Ned and Dick burst out. “When? How did it happen?”
The girls told their story and Dick said, “Ned was afraid there might be trouble here. So he picked me up and we rushed over. And now we’re too late!”
“Maybe not,” said Ned. “We can try to follow the tire treads of the man’s truck on the macadam road. By the way, who was he?”
“He gave his name as Michaels,” George replied as she hurried to Ned’s car.
Bess paused to pick up Nancy’s purse and her wig. Evidently the young sleuth had struggled with her abductor and the wig had come off. Bess got into Dick’s car and they followed Ned.
There was little conversation between Ned and George, but both were thinking, “We must overtake that truck. I hope we’ll be in time to save Nancy!”
Both Ned and Dick were driving as fast as they dared and fifteen minutes later they saw a truck in the distance.
“Is that the one?” Ned asked George.
As he drew closer, she said excitedly, “Yes! Yes, it is!”
The two boys put on a burst of speed and came alongside the truck. Gradually they edged it toward the side of the road, hoping to make the driver stop. But he was determined not to and yelled at Ned to get out of the way.
“Here comes a state trooper!” George cried out.
Ned waved his arm out the window signaling for the trooper to stop the truck. The officer in turn waved the driver over and in a moment Michaels was forced to come to a halt.
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