by Mabel Maney
"And the officials never suspected you?" Cherry wanted to know.
"Not a thing. I am obviously much too prim and proper to ever participate in anything like a jail break," Velma said.
"You're just an old spinster school teacher," Midge joked.
"We moved to Warm Springs, and we've been together ever since."
Cherry wiped a tear from her eye. "Golly," she gulped. "This is the most romantic story I've ever heard!"
"How do you live without an identity?" Nancy wanted to know.
Midge shrugged. "Velma handles all the paperwork, like leases and stuff, and when I need some sort of identification, I just make it." She showed them a wallet full of convincinglooking I.D. cards. "The nuns taught me well," she grinned.
"You're a member of Police Benevolent League?" Jackie asked in amazement.
Midge laughed. "Not really," she said. "It just comes in handy sometimes."
"What a terrific story," Nancy exclaimed. "It would make a great book."
"Or a movie!" Cherry suggested. "I even met a movie star in the bar last night who could play you," she suddenly remembered.
"Yes, Miss Cherry Aimless, what about last night?" Midge wanted to know. "How did you find Nancy Clue?"
Cherry blushed and groped for words. What could she possibly tell them about last night?
Nancy swiftly saved the day. "Cherry is a very good sleuth," she said. "She operated as any top-notch detective would have. She asked a lot of questions and covered a lot of territory. After an exhaustive search, she put two and two together and tracked me down!"
Everyone was impressed with the clear-headed detective job their chum Cherry had done, and said so.
"But how on earth did you find us in that boiler room?" Velma wanted to know.
"Yeah, Cherry, you came just in the nick of time. You saved our lives!" Lauren cried. "How did you do it?"
Cherry couldn't lie to her chums. "It was because of Nancy," she said proudly. "When we got to the convent, that horrid altar boy was out front. Nancy had the bright idea for us to pretend to be tourists, so we walked right up to him and asked him all sorts of questions about the convent. He told us about the layout of the place, including the'really keen' boiler room far underground."
She giggled. "Boy, was he ever surprised when Nancy slugged him in the head with her purse and then left him in a bush, all tied up with his own robe! Once we got inside, we raced to the cellar. We heard that loudmouth priest boasting about his plans, and as we were preparing an attack, I slipped and stumbled right through the doorway and smack into that priest!
"You see, I'm really wearing the wrong kind of shoes for traversing tunnels," she explained.
Nancy gasped. "We forgot all about the altar boy," she exclaimed. She raced to the window, and peered through the heavy curtains out at the bushes. "He's still there," she grinned.
"We'll have to call someone to come and get him. Some day," Midge cracked.
"Well, accident or no accident, you girls sure saved the day," Aunt Gert cheered. "Hip, hip, hooray!"
Everyone looked happy, except for Cherry. She had a peculiar look on her face. "There's just one thing that puzzles me," Cherry blurted out. "Oh, Aunt Gert, are you really a nun?"
Gert laughed. "No, honey, I'm not. But my girlfriend is."
* * *
CHAPTER 23
* * *
A Shocking Revelation
"Wait a minute," Cherry cried. "Nuns aren't allowed to date, are they?" Gert and Lana just laughed.
"How did you two meet?" Jackie wanted to know.
"We met ten years ago at a costume party at the What If Club," Gert replied. "It took Lana several days to convince me she was really a nun."
"Nuns go to bars?" Cherry asked in a shocked tone.
"Does the Pope know about this?" Lauren wondered.
"Oh, you young girls are such prudes," Aunt Gert giggled. "Nuns do a lot of things the Pope doesn't know about. The way I see it, if the Pope can wear a dress, I can wear these pants," she said.
They all had a good laugh. Lana continued her story.
"Gert and I met and knew instantly that we were meant for each other. We were married nine years ago, not in the eyes of the church, but in the eyes of God."
"Or, whoever," Aunt Gert added, picking up the story. "We were happy here, until this land struggle started. I was in San Francisco the morning Lana disappeared with the evidence of the priest's wrongdoings. I was sitting down to my first cup of coffee when two armed deacons burst into my house, threw me in my car and brought me here. I was beside myself with worry; no one knew where Lana had gone! They trapped us down in that underground room, with no way out! We spent most of our time in the storage room, trying to fashion makeshift weapons. We were preparing for an attack when you girls showed up and saved us."
"I shudder to think what would have happened if you girls hadn't come along," Aunt Gert added.
"What really impressed me, Nancy, is how you tied up those deacons using only one short rope," Midge broke in.
Nancy explained that she had learned to tie fifty different knots in the Girl Scouts. "It's an old trick; with the right training anyone can do it," she said modestly. She agreed to give them all a little demonstration the next day.
Sister Kimi appeared at the door. "Telephone for Jackie," she announced.
When Jackie left the room, Midge leaned over and whispered something in Nurse Marstad's ear. Cherry couldn't make out what she was saying, but she could see that it made quite an impression on Nurse Marstad, who giggled and turned bright pink!
"What's going on?" Cherry cried. "There's still so much that's a mystery to me. I don't know why you're here, Nurse Marstad. Not that it's any of my business," she added hurriedly. She hadn't meant to sound so bossy!
Nurse Marstad grinned, showing off her darling dimples. "Call me Peg, Cherry. All my friends do."
Cherry gulped. Golly, friends with Nurse Marstad? It was more than she could have hoped for!
"I left the hospital immediately after I spoke with you. I knew all along who our amnesia patient was. I followed the deacons' trail back here, but was caught sneaking around the outside of the convent."
Jackie returned as Nurse Marstad was finishing her story. She balanced on the arm of the head nurse's chair.
"Good news, Midge," she announced. "You are no longer a wanted criminal."
"Hip, hip, hooray!" the gang proclaimed.
"And I am no longer a patrol officer," Jackie added.
"What?" Cherry cried, stunned to hear the news. "Why, you put your life on the line saving all these people, while the boys at the station were busy laughing off possible leads. That can't be!"
Jackie's broad grin told her she was putting them on. "I'm no longer a patrol officer because I'm now the first black female detective in the SFPD!"
"Yes!" Midge exclaimed. Everyone broke out in wild cheering. Everyone except Nurse Marstad, who planted a big kiss on Jackie's cheek.
"There's still so much I want to know," Cherry cried. "Midge, you never told me why you carry those handcuffs. And, Velma, what about..." Cherry stifled a yawn. She hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days.
Midge yawned, too. "I am so tired!" she exclaimed. She took Velma's hand. "Come on, honey, you look tired. Time for bed."
Velma, who frankly looked wide awake, yawned too.
Aunt Gert suggested they all get a good night's sleep and meet again in the morning for one of her famous brunches.
"Why, we've got a lot of time to get to know each other! " Lana declared, inviting them all to stay as long as they liked in the spacious and comfortable convent.
"Now that all the big mysteries are cleared up, I can finally sleep," Cherry declared as she began neatly stacking the dessert plates and coffee cups.
All the girls pitched in and got the job done quickly. Suddenly Nancy, who had said very little all evening, spoke up.
"As long as we're telling the truth..." she started, her face
turning red and her voice trailing off into a whisper.
"What is it, Nancy?" Aunt Gert went to the trembling girl and put an arm around her.
"This is very difficult to talk about," Nancy said. "But I must do it!" Everyone sat down and patiently waited for Nancy to have her say.
Nancy was in tears, unable to speak. Cherry rushed to her side.
"If it's about your father and his murder, we know all about it," she declared, squeezing her chum's hand.
Nancy shook her head.
"No, no!" she cried. "You don't know! Nobody knows!"
"Tell us what happened," Aunt Gert said gently.
After a few minutes, Nancy regained her composure. What she said next startled even the most hardened of the group.
"My father was not killed by Hannah Gruel! It was I who shot him!" she declared.
Cherry could scarcely believe what she was hearing. "Nancy Clue, you killed your own father? But why?"
"He was a monster!" Nancy cried. "To other people he was a civic leader and a respected attorney and even kind to animals. But in his own home he was a bully!"
She told them the whole horrible story.
"My mother died when I was three. Hannah Gruel was like a mother to me. For several years, things were good. Father was gone a lot on business and Hannah and I became the best of chums. But as I entered my teens, Father began spending more and more time around the house.
"The first time I got involved in a case with him, he was so pleased! I thought perhaps he had been lonely all those years without Mother. He seemed so happy to have someone to share in his interests.
"But pretty soon he wanted my help on all his cases, especially after all the publicity we received as a father-daughter team. After a while I barely had time for school and friends of my own! He frightened my best chums Bess and George so much they stopped coming to the house.
"He became obsessed with my appearance, insisting I wear grown-up dresses and stylish hairdos. After we'd fight he'd always buy me something big and flashy, like a new car. The neighbors thought he was the greatest!"
She hung her head. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"When I was thirteen I started maturing; I was becoming a woman. It was then he..." Her voice grew grim.
She took a deep breath. "From that time on until the day I shot him, my father ...well, he forced me to do things."
She started to sob. "It was as if I were his wife!" she gasped. "The whole world thought he was the best dad ever. No one would have ever guessed what really went on in that tidy house in the exclusive neighborhood of River Depths.
"When he started bothering me, he told me that if I told anyone he'd harm Hannah," Nancy sobbed. "So I kept it a secret. No one else knows it, but Mother died in an asylum," she said, "and he used to say I was crazy, just like her! And he'd add, 'I could have you put away, just like I did her!'
"One day I couldn't stand it anymore! Hannah was going to visit her sister Hattie for a month, and I just knew it would get worse with her gone. I broke down and told her, and when my father came home, she confronted him.
"She said she was going to tell everyone what he really was, but he just laughed. 'Who'd believe you over me?' he said." Nancy put her hands over her ears. "Oh," she cried. "I can still hear his laughter.
"When Hannah picked up the phone to call the police, he pulled it out of the wall. I thought he was going to kill her, so I ran to the den and got one of his guns.
"`Father!' I screamed. He turned and faced me. I shot him right through the heart. He was dead before he hit the floor.
"Hannah begged me to let her say she did it, and I agreed. I was so scared and upset; I wasn't sure what I was doing! I packed some clothes, jumped in my car and headed west.
"She told me to forget and never tell anyone what had happened. But I can't."
Nancy wiped her face on a clean handkerchief from Cherry.
"You're safe now; that's what matters," Aunt Gertrude said, putting her arms around the sobbing girl.
"Am I?" Nancy asked no one in particular. "Now I know what I've got to do," she said, rising from her chair looking very determined.
"I've got to go back to River Depths and free Hannah-no matter what it takes!"
"And we'll go with you!" Midge said.
"That's right!" cried Jackie. "There's got to be some way to prove what kind of man your father really was."
"There were letters he wrote to me," Nancy said. "Disgusting things that would prove his nature beyond a shadow of a doubt. Those and the diary I kept. I left them in my room; I was in such a panic that I forgot to take them."
"We'll go back and get that evidence!" Velma cried.
"You're not alone, Nancy!" Jackie added, already planning the investigation. "Why, with those letters and your diary, we're sure to get Hannah released, and clear you, too."
Lauren pulled a pencil from her overalls and grabbed some paper from the desk. "Gather round, girls," she cried. "We need a plan!"
* * *
CHAPTER 24
* * *
Cornered
Aunt Gert interrupted the excited girls. "We can plan everything tomorrow, girls," she said. "Right now I think Nancy needs some rest." She escorted Nancy and Cherry to a charming bedroom and lit a fire in the fireplace facing the comfortable double bed.
"This is lovely!" Cherry exclaimed, looking around at the cozy bedroom which had been decorated in warm coral tones. Cherry recognized the old oak bed. Why, it was Grandma Aimless's. She found the place in the headboard where, as a child, she had carved her initials.
"C.A., R.N.," she read as she ran her hand over the deep marks in the wood. "Why even then I knew I'd be a nurse someday," she murmured.
While Nancy washed her face and scrubbed her teeth in the little bathroom adjoining the bedroom, Cherry changed into flannel pajamas and fuzzy slippers on loan from Aunt Gert.
Midge and Velma, clad in matching blue-checked pajamas, stopped in to say goodnight. They expressed their concern about Nancy, and urged Cherry to awaken them if she needed anything.
Then Lauren appeared at the door, drowning in pajamas three times her size. Jackie was at her heels. "Great! You get to sleep with each other and I get stuck with the squirt," Jackie groaned.
"And you'd better not snore," Lauren warned her.
"I just know you're a cover hog," Jackie teased.
"I guess I'm the only one sleeping alone here," a soft voice teased. It was Nurse Marstad, clad in a luxurious green satin lounging robe that accentuated her large gray eyes.
Why, Cherry had never noticed before that under the confines of a stiffly-starched nurse's uniform was the voluptuous body of a glamorous woman!
Cherry wasn't the only one who had noticed.
"That's a crying shame," Jackie said huskily, as she let her eyes roam the length of the head nurse's shapely form.
The teasing stopped when Nancy appeared. She looked worn and pale and very tiny in her flannel pajamas. Her hair was brushed off her forehead. Her sky-blue eyes looked luminous against her pale skin.
Jackie hugged her goodnight. "If there's anything you need, just give a whistle."
Aunt Gert appeared at the door. Cherry giggled-she couldn't help herself. Aunt Gert looked so cute in her blue flannel pajamas and slippers. Using her best housemother voice, Gertrude Aimless shooed them all off to bed.
"I'll call you at five a.m. for morning mass," she called after them.
"Five a.m.!" they chorused in dismay.
Aunt Gert giggled. "Fooled you." Her laugh echoed down the hall.
The girls bade each other a hasty goodnight. Nancy fell to sleep instantly, but Cherry lay awake, thinking of the horrible tale Nancy had told them. She tossed and turned for an hour, unable to sleep. Finally she put on her robe and slippers and crept quietly out of the room.
"If I can remember which room is the study, maybe I can find a good book and perhaps a piece of that delicious coconut cake to go with it," she thought.
"Oops!" she cried.
Midge and Velma were wide awake, and their flannel pajamas were strewn about the floor. "You'll catch your death of cold in this drafty stone house," Cherry scolded.
Midge and Velma laughed, and promised they would put their pajamas back on soon. Cherry, satisfied that she would not have to worry about her chums, left to find the study.
A light under a distant door beckoned. "I'm earning my trailblazer badge for sure," Cherry smiled to herself. She quietly opened the door. She saw someone bending over Lana's desk. Cherry felt a chill run down her back-something was very wrong!
"Father Helms-you're alive," she gasped. Indeed, the evil priest was very much alive, and was at this very minute rifling through Lana's desk.
Cherry wanted to scream, but she was too frightened. She backed up, accidentally shutting the door behind her, trapping herself in the room.
The priest came toward her. His hands and face were badly burned; his clothes were in tatters. "You left me for dead in that steamy grave," he said hoarsely, walking ever closer toward the frightened nurse.
Cherry tried to speak; she tried to yell and warn the others, but she couldn't.
"No one imagined I could survive the intense heat, but I did! I clung onto a sharp rock in the side of the wall, and waited. Waited for all of you damn nuns to go to bed so I could exact my revenge! Perhaps with you as my prize, I'll get the deed to this land yet," he cackled.
Cherry gasped. She just couldn't be the reason Lana would lose her land. "Oh! " she cried, backing up. She groped behind her for something she could use as a weapon. Her hands closed on a statue. She yanked it off its pedestal and knocked the priest over the head with it.