The Suspect Next Door

“You mean, where was I last night?” Charlene finished for her.

  Nancy nodded. “I was at the movies until about eleven,” Charlene explained. “Then I went home. You can call my parents if you don’t believe me.”

  “I believe you, Charlene,” Nancy told her. “Which movie did you see?”

  “High Speed” she told Nancy.

  “Sounds interesting. What’s it about?”

  “About? Oh, it’s a police story. There’s a jewel heist from a museum, and the cops chase the thieves all over the world. . . .” Charlene’s voice trailed off.

  Nancy had seen High Speed. It was a love story. Not a policeman in it. And Charlene had been standing outside The Return of the Spider People. Obviously, she hadn’t seen either movie.

  “I’d like to talk, but I really should be behind the counter,” Charlene finally said.

  “Sure. Go ahead,” Nancy said. There was no sense confronting Charlene head on. Besides, all the employees at Vanities were being so evasive that they all seemed guilty.

  After she checked the back door and the storeroom and didn’t find any clues, Nancy left Vanities and headed home. She planned to take a quick nap so that later she could spend the night staking the place out.

  Once she was home Nancy checked the answering machine in her bedroom. There were two messages. The first was from Ned.

  “Hi, Nan. Well, it’s Saturday and I know we talked about tonight, but I haven’t heard from you. I guess you’re busy with that new case of yours. I sure would like to see you, though. Summer’s almost gone, and so am I. Call me, okay?”

  Nancy only hoped Ned wouldn’t be disappointed with their date that night. A mall stake out was probably not the kind of date he had in mind.

  The second message was from Nikki, and she sounded positively frantic:

  “Nancy—it’s me—I’m scared, Nancy, and I—Something just happened, and—please, come over as soon as you get this message! Please!”

  In no time Nancy was out the door. Whatever had happened to Nikki, it sounded serious. She only hoped she wasn’t too late!

  Chapter

  Eight

  NANCY FLEW across the lawn to the Masterses’ house and leaned on the doorbell. In a few minutes a shaken Nikki came to the door. A wave of relief coursed through Nancy. At least she was an one piece. On the phone she’d sounded as if she was in real danger.

  “Thank goodness you’re here!” Nikki began, drawing Nancy inside and shutting the front door behind them. “Dan was waiting for me when I left the house this morning. He was hiding behind the bushes and jumped out to greet me. Oh, Nancy, he looks terrible! His whole face was swollen, and his eye—”

  Nancy led Nikki over to the sofa and sat her down. “Take it easy,” she said soothingly. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

  “He was all disheveled, and he had this wild look in his eye,” Nikki went on. From the way she described the scene, Nancy realized Nikki was seeing it all again in her mind. “He tried to get me to take another gift from him. He kept insisting and insisting.”

  “What was it?”

  “I don’t know, I didn’t take it,” Nikki answered. “I know you would have wanted to see it, Nancy, but I couldn’t. He would have thought I wanted him back again, and I don’t! I feel for Dan and everything, but I don’t know how to help him, and I’m starting to be afraid of him. Not that I actually think he’d hurt me, but—”

  “When people are unstable, Nikki, you never know,” Nancy cautioned.

  “Not Dan,” Nikki insisted. “He loves me. He would never hurt me.”

  “Did you get a look at the gift?” Nancy asked. “It could be important.”

  Nikki stared at her in confusion. “Actually, now that I think of it, I’m not even sure it was a gift. It was a big fat envelope,” she said nervously. “He tried to give it to me about six times. He said that I wouldn’t even have to open it. Weird, huh? No wonder my friends are so worried about me and my relationship with him.”

  Nikki burst into bitter tears. Nancy could tell her neighbor was torn between caring for Dan and protecting herself. “Oh, Nancy,” she begged. “Can you do anything? Talk to his parents or something? They won’t speak to me. Please,” Nikki begged again.

  Along with helping her friend, an excursion to Dan’s house might be very revealing, Nancy decided. “All right, Nikki, I’ll go over there today. Meantime, I think you should get out a little. Isn’t there some safe way to have fun? Someplace where there are lots of people around?”

  “It’s funny you should mention that.” Nikki smiled wistfully. “Jeremy Pratt is throwing a party tonight. Robin and Lacey offered to pick me up and walk me there and back, and I said no. But I’ll call them and tell them I changed my mind.”

  “I take it Dan isn’t invited,” Nancy concluded.

  “No way,” Nikki said with a laugh. “That’s why Lacey and Robin thought I should go.”

  “You should—definitely!” Nancy said.

  “Well, I guess I’ll call them, then,” Nikki said, getting to her feet. She looked worlds better than when Nancy had come in. The color was back in her cheeks, and there was a spring in her step. Suddenly Nikki looked sixteen again, fresh and radiant.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Nancy told her. “You can fill me in on your night out, and I’ll give you the story on Mr. and Mrs. Taylor.”

  “Right.” Nikki waved goodbye to her at the door and went back inside.

  As she went down the Masterses’ porch steps, Nancy swore to herself that she was going to help Nikki Masters out of the mess she was in, no matter what. But to do that, she had to find out what was really going on in Dan Taylor’s life.

  Nancy wondered what Dan was doing with that envelope. Guys who write love letters normally want girls to read them. What could Dan have meant when he said “You don’t even have to open it, just take it”?

  As Nancy was letting herself into her house, the phone was ringing. She ran to pick it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Ned!” Nancy said jubilantly. “I was just about to call you.”

  “Great,” came the warm response. “So are we on for tonight?”

  “We are. But there’s just one thing. I’m on the job tonight.”

  “Oh. Does that mean you need to be alone? Or do you want some company?”

  Nancy’s face brightened. “Ned, you’re a sweetheart. I was hoping you’d offer. I’m going to be staking out Vanities. I have a feeling nothing will happen, but I can’t chance it. There was another theft last night. So I’m hoping it’ll be real quiet. We’d be all alone. . . .”

  “Hmmm. Sounds pretty perfect. What time should I pick you up?”

  “I’ll meet you at the mall. There’s an ice-cream shop opposite Vanities. Nine o’clock?”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Great.” Nancy hung up the phone and picked up the River Heights phone book to look for the phone number for Dan Taylor’s parents. Nancy dialed and waited. The phone rang on and on, but there was no answer. Nancy hung up and decided to try to reach them later.

  Why hadn’t Dan asked Nikki to open that envelope? That question was dominating Nancy’s thoughts as she went to the kitchen to fix herself a late lunch. If only Nikki had taken it. Whatever was in that envelope might have given Nancy the piece she needed to complete her puzzle.

  She was on her way to the dining room when the doorbell rang. Nancy set her sandwich down on the table and ran to the front door. George and Bess were standing on the porch, their faces flushed.

  “Hi, Nan,” they both gasped, forcing their way past her into the house. Bess plopped down on the sofa, breathing hard, while George paced the living room.

  “Nancy!” George cried, the first to get her wind. “Wait till you hear what we saw!”

  Bess had recovered sufficiently to take over. “We decided to do a little snooping of our own, so we went to Vanities. I tried on some truly incredible stuff, by the way.”

  “Never mind t
hat!” George cut her off. “We saw something you should know about!”

  “Remember that girl with the blond hair you pointed out at the movie theater?” Bess asked.

  “Trisha. Yes?”

  “Well, her boyfriend came into the store while we were there. The one with the cowboy hat,” George went on.

  “We saw them kissing when they thought no one was looking,” Bess added with a grin.

  “Hmmm,” Nancy nodded, impressed. “Did you find out anything about him?”

  Bess sat forward. “He’s from Denver, it turns out.”

  “Denver?” Nancy said, narrowing her eyes and trying to put things together.

  “Wait!” Bess practically jumped up on the sofa now. “That’s not the incredible thing we saw! That guy Max, do you know the one we mean? Muscles out to here?” Bess outlined invisible biceps on her own arms. “He was at the movies last night.”

  “I know exactly who you mean,” Nancy said.

  George continued the story. “He passed a note to Charlene, the salesgirl who got yelled at that first day we were there. We saw him give it to her.”

  “And when she read it, she practically passed out!” Bess finished. “She looked super scared after that. Right, George?”

  George nodded. “Terrified.”

  “Can you believe it?” Bess went on. “Nan, I bet those two are the thieves. They’ve got to be!”

  “Not so fast, Bess,” Nancy said. “That’s not exactly conclusive evidence.” She paused. “But I sure would like to get my hands on that note.”

  “Gee, Nan,” Bess said, crestfallen. “I thought we’d solved your case for you.”

  “Well, you certainly have helped and probably provided a good lead—” Nancy began. But she never got to finish her thought.

  At that moment, with a crash, the front window shattered.

  The girls shielded their faces from the flying shards as a brick landed on the living-room floor.

  Once the last shards of glass had fallen, Nancy ran to the window. Whoever had thrown the brick was nowhere to be seen.

  “There’s a note tied to it!” George cried.

  Nancy bent down and picked up the brick. She unwrapped the note. Written in a crude, childish scrawl was a message.

  Next time this brick won’t just break a window! Back off, Nancy Drew!

  Chapter

  Nine

  WHO DO YOU THINK it was, Nan?” George asked, her eyes wide with shock.

  Before Nancy could answer, Bess jumped in. “It’s the guy with the cowboy hat, I just know it! He has a dangerous kind of look in his eye. It’s him and that girl Trisha! I feel it in my bones! Or maybe it was Max and Charlene,” she finished weakly.

  “Oh, Bess,” George said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve been watching too many movies. Right, Nan? Nan?”

  Nancy was staring down at the broken glass at her feet, lost in thought. “You know,” she murmured softly, “the problem is that I’m zeroing in on two cases at once. Maybe Dan Taylor threw the brick. He might think I’m meddling with his relationship with Nikki. Or it could be someone trying to warn me off the Vanities case.”

  “How can you be so calm about something like this?” Bess asked heatedly.

  “Well, Bess,” Nancy replied with a hint of a smile. “I’m not exactly thrilled about someone throwing a brick through my window. But at least it shows me that I’m making progress. I’m making somebody nervous. And nervous people make mistakes.”

  Jumping up, Nancy went to the phone. “I’m going to call a glazier and do some cleaning up. Why don’t you two go over to Vanities? Do a little snooping around before they close. See if anybody looks nervous.”

  • • •

  The glazier had told Nancy he’d be at her house by six, but at seven-fifteen he still hadn’t shown up. Nancy considered forgetting the whole thing and just leaving, but with her dad away on business and Hannah Gruen not due back from visiting her sister until the next day, she knew she had to stay and wait. She just hoped he’d be finished in time for her to meet Ned at nine at the mall.

  Finally, at seven-thirty, the glazier pulled up in an old pickup.

  “Sorry I’m late,” he said to her through the broken window as he stood on the front porch. The glazier raised his eyebrows and assessed the damage. “This is a big job,” he said. “Oddshaped pane. It’s gonna take me a while, okay?”

  What could Nancy do? “Okay,” she said. She knew that if she didn’t show up right at nine, Ned would start the stakeout without her, but she had hoped to stop by the Taylors’ house first to try to talk to Dan’s parents.

  At eight the window man was still getting his tools out and sipping a cup of hot coffee he’d asked Nancy to make for him. Was she going to have to skip the visit to the Taylors? She hoped not.

  Looking out the broken window, Nancy saw a cab pulling up in front of her house. A door opened and out stepped Hannah Gruen.

  “Hannah!” Nancy cried happily, going out to help the housekeeper with her luggage. “You came home early!”

  “What’s this?” Hannah said, indicating the space where the window should have been.

  “Oh, someone threw a brick through the window, that’s all,” Nancy said, with a wink and a hug. “Welcome home! Did you have a good time with your family?”

  “You’re on a new case?” Hannah asked with a knowing nod.

  “You bet I am,” Nancy said as she lifted Hannah’s bags and walked toward the house. “And I’m especially glad to see you because I need to go out right away.”

  “Go!” Hannah said with a wry smile, when they reached the front door. “You can tell me all about it in the morning.”

  “Thanks,” Nancy said. She picked up her sea green cotton sweater and her purse and flew to her car. If the Taylors’ light was on, she’d take a chance and ring their bell. If not, she’d head on to the mall to meet Ned.

  After looking up their address on her local map, Nancy found the Taylors’ house in a development on the far side of town. As she pulled up in front of their house, Nancy was pleased that the light was on.

  She parked her car and walked up to the front door. The bushes needed some trimming, but all in all the house seemed well kept. Taking a breath, she rang the bell.

  “Hello?” a woman’s puzzled voice called. Who is it?”

  “Mrs. Taylor?” Nancy asked through the closed door. “I’m a friend of Dan’s. Can I talk to you for a minute?”

  A slender woman of about forty-five opened he door. She was wearing jeans and was drying her hands on a dish towel. “Come in,” she said, holding the door open.

  “My name is Nancy, Mrs. Taylor.”

  “Hello, Nancy. That’s my husband, Ernie, over there. And I’m Marie.”

  A man of about fifty was lying on the sofa, matching a sitcom on TV. When Nancy stepped into the living room, he nodded once quickly and went back to his program.

  “He loves that show,” Dan’s mother said. “Let’s talk in the kitchen. I can get you something to drink. A soda? Juice?”

  “Juice would be fine,” Nancy answered.

  “So, what was it you wanted to talk about?” Marie asked once she had led Nancy through the cramped but comfortable house to the kitchen.

  “Dan,” Nancy answered simply. She looked straight at Mrs. Taylor.

  Marie Taylor raised an eyebrow and looked Nancy over. “Oh, I understand,” she cooed. “You like Dan. Is that it?”

  “Well, yes,” Nancy said. She felt bad about letting her get the wrong idea, but it was necessary.

  “I’m very happy to hear there’s someone else in Dan’s life. He’s been going out with this girl Nikki, but I can’t stand her. She’s stuck-up and too young for him. She really put Danny through the grinder, that one.”

  “Well, I’m just getting to know him, and I thought it might be nice to meet you.”

  Not only did Mrs. Taylor swallow this, she seemed overjoyed. “He’s a wonderful boy, Nancy. We’re very proud of him,” s
he gushed, setting a glass of apple juice on the table and motioning for Nancy to sit. “Not many boys have achieved what Danny has.”

  Nancy smiled pleasantly but tilted her head questioningly. “Dan’s so modest,” she murmured. “I guess I don’t know much about his, um, achievements.”

  “Oh, well, he’s a real success at that store. He’s only been there a short time, and he already has a very responsible position. They send him on business trips, and he does a lot of decision making for them. Oh, my, Danny’s got a real future there. He’s good friends with the store manager, and everybody there loves him.” Marie Taylor was beaming.

  “Do you mean at Vanities?” Nancy ventured.

  “Yes. It’s a lovely store. I walked by once, but I felt strange about going in. Danny doesn’t like it when I interfere in his life. Boys are like that. But I’m so pleased to meet you,” she said, still beaming. “That other one, Nikki. What a liar. She was always calling me up to tell me all kinds of things about Danny.”

  Nancy wasn’t sure how to play this. But she knew one thing: someone had to alert Mrs. Taylor to the fact that her son was in trouble. Dan’s mother had obviously been taken in by his lies.

  “You’ve got a lot more maturity about you than she does, Nancy, and you’re every bit as pretty. I don’t want to pry, but how did you and Danny meet?”

  Nancy wasn’t about to tell Mrs. Taylor about the night before and how she had really met Dan Taylor. “Mrs. Taylor,” she said gently, “I’ve got to level with you. I’m worried about Danny. That’s why I’m here.”

  Marie Taylor’s features darkened. “What’s the matter? Is something wrong?” Maybe underneath all that overdone pride, Mrs. Taylor sensed the truth—that Dan wasn’t the big success he claimed to be.

  “Have you noticed anything strange about Dan lately?” Nancy asked gently.

  “Strange?” Dan’s mother looked confused. “Oh! You mean the bruises? He got those yesterday, Nancy. He was out of town for the day on business. Would you believe a shelf fell on top of him at the store he was visiting? Isn’t that something!” Marie laughed nervously. “You poor kid. You probably saw those bruises and thought he’d been beaten up by somebody!”