Nancy Clue Mysteries 2 - The Case of the Good-for-Nothing Girlfriend

by Mabel Maney

  Cherry raced out of the courtroom, her cheeks all aflame. "The letters are in the moosehead!" she cried. "Let's go. I'll explain later."

  They crowded in George's jalopy and raced across town to Lindy Lane. On the way Cherry told them everything she knew. It wasn't much.

  "Then Nancy asked if I was going to be waiting for her when she got out of prison," Cherry practically sobbed.

  "What did you say?" her friends chorused.

  "I didn't have time to tell Nancy the truth-that I don't know what I want!" Cherry cried. "Everything happened so fast. Then she kissed me, and I got all confused. I just don't know. Velma, is it cruel to let Nancy think things that might not be true?" Cherry wondered.

  "I wouldn't break up with someone in the middle of her murder trial, if that's what you're asking," Velma said softly.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 48

  * * *

  Drop That Moose!

  Jackie, Midge, and George strained under the weight of the gigantic moosehead. "This thing weighs a ton and it stinks, besides," George complained.

  "Careful, honey," Bess said worriedly as the three girls finally got the stuffed head off the wall and lowered it into Cherry and Velma's arms.

  "Golly! " Cherry exclaimed when she saw the massive beast up close. "Look how its eyes sparkle yellow in the sunlight. Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd say these eyes were made of amber!"

  "Drop the moose or I'll shoot," a sinister voice rang out from behind them. When Cherry turned and saw who was on the other end of the gun-a middleaged man in a straw hat and a dark-haired woman in a simple Navy suit, the very same woman she had found crouched in their convertible in Kornville-she released her grip on the stuffed head and it crashed to the floor.

  "The jewel thieves!" Cherry gasped.

  "Look!" the others cried as a veritable treasure chest of jewelry laden with rubies, diamonds, pearls, emeralds, garnets, and opals-came pouring from the hollow head. The woman took a pearl-handled revolver from her purse and trained it on the girls while her accomplice removed his straw hat and scooped the gems into it. Cherry gasped.

  "Thanks for finding the Chief's booty," the woman laughed. "After we heard the news that our boss left town, we were afraid he'd taken the loot with him." She came closer. Cherry was only a few feet away from the gun!

  "Well, if it isn't that cute little nurse-the one who practically gave us her friend's jewelry," the woman chuckled. "Your friend's things brought a pretty penny in this town. Hey, doll, you want to come over to our side? Harold, think we could use a nurse?" But Harold was too busy playing with his newfound treasure to pay attention.

  Cherry was near tears. Jackie was livid. "If only Cherry wasn't directly in the line of fire, why I'd-"

  At that moment, Lauren came into the room, saying, "Hey, you guys, look at the keen rose quartz the Chief had on his bedroom bureau!"

  The armed jewel thief, startled by Lauren's sudden appearance, whirled around just as the teen took quick aim and beaned the woman on the head with the sharp rock.

  The woman stumbled and dropped her gun.

  "You're under arrest," Jackie proclaimed as she whipped out her handcuffs and secured both crooks with them. She flashed her badge. "Detective Jackie Jones, SFPD."

  "I'll tell you everything!" the woman cried out. She pointed an accusing finger at her husband. "He was behind all this," she insisted.

  "It was all her idea," he shot back.

  "No, it's all your fault," the woman cried. "If you hadn't racked up all those gambling debts that were sold to the Chief, we wouldn't have been forced to go out and do his bidding in the first place!"

  "You mean Chief Chumley is your leader?" Cherry gasped. "That means he sent you all the way to Pocatello so you could follow us practically across the whole country and steal Nancy's jewels?"

  The woman shook her head. "It was just dumb luck that we met up with you," she said bitterly. "I told Harold we shouldn't follow you girls so far. We normally don't work the Midwest. Besides, I wanted to stay in Pocatello and work the philatelist convention. Now those are people with money!"

  While the others were mesmerized by the woman's tale, Velma was the one who remembered a girl sitting in leg irons, awaiting a special delivery. She reached inside the moosehead and felt around until she laid her hands on what they had come for-the crucial evidence.

  "Look everyone! " she exclaimed. "I've found Nancy's letters! "

  * * *

  CHAPTER 49

  * * *

  The Secret Revealed

  At the courthouse, the girls quickly found seats and waited for the trial to resume. This afternoon would mark the beginning of the __ defense's case, and everyone was eager to see how Hannah's attorney would staunch the flood of damage from that morning's shocking revelations from Mrs. Meeks. Mr. Donald, who had been unable to get a seat for the morning's proceedings, squeezed in next to Bess, and she filled him in on Mrs. Meeks's outrageous testimony and the exciting events that had unfolded at the Chief's house.

  "And we've found Nancy's evidence," Velma said triumphantly.

  "It's in my purse," Bess added with a smile.

  Mr. Donald glared at Mrs. Meeks when he heard about her false testimony. The matron, who was sitting in the front row behind the district attorney, had run home to slip into a fresh outfit-a lavender summer suit with black piping, a purple cloche hat with a veil that fell to just above her little pug nose, and a silver-and-diamond brooch pinned over her right bosom. She smiled and waved at the group.

  Mr. Donald smiled back through clenched teeth. "One of these days I'll get the opportunity to pay her back for all the misery she's caused," he promised himself.

  Mrs. Meeks busied herself greeting other townswomen, all decked out in their finest summer outfits for the afternoon's event.

  "It's like she's holding court up there while Hannah's life hangs in the balance," Velma said angrily.

  "The nerve of her, showing up after what she said earlier," Bess hissed.

  "You'd never know she was such a monster; she's always so well dressed and looks every bit the lady! " Cherry exclaimed. She took Nancy's binoculars from her purse and trained them on Mrs. Meeks.

  "That suit is awfully flattering for a fuller-busted figure," Cherry thought as she examined every inch of the meddlesome matron's form. "And she was wise to choose a simple brooch as an ornament instead of fussy beads that would call attention to her rather large endowment. And what a pretty brooch it is, and so unusual, too," Cherry thought to herself as she got a closer look at the simple silver horseshoe pin studded with sparkling diamonds.

  "A simple silver horseshoe studded with sparkling diamonds!" she gasped. Why, Mrs. Meeks was wearing Nancy's missing brooch!

  "Cherry, what is it?" her chums cried. She passed around the binoculars. "Look at Mrs. Meeks's bosom," she whispered urgently. Her chums looked perplexed. "I mean, look at the brooch pinned to her bosom. It's Nancy's; it's just got to be!"

  Midge saw that Cherry was right. She handed the binoculars back to Cherry. "Check out all her chums," Midge whispered. "I may be wrong, but doesn't it look like they're all wearing some of Nancy's jewelry?"

  Cherry, who knew Nancy's gems better than anyone, gasped when she trained the spyglass on the crowd of socialites hanging on Mrs. Meeks's every word. She was able to identify most of their accessories.

  "I'm going up there and snatch that brooch off her suit," Cherry declared angrily.

  "No, don't," Mr. Donald implored.

  "Why not?" the girls chorused.

  "Because Nancy may need some insurance," he said mysteriously. A mischievous grin spread over his handsome face. His green eyes sparkled with delight. "I think I've got the perfect plan," he whispered. "Midge, Jackie, George, I may need some muscle on this. You interested?"

  "And how!" they cried. Just then Micky Meeks slipped into the bench beside them. "Hey," she said softly. "I hear it's all over town about the Chief and Nancy."

  "Goo
d job, Micky," Midge praised their new chum.

  "Want to do another job?" Mr. Donald asked with a sly grin. Micky nodded eagerly.

  "Go persuade your mother to go to the ladies' lounge," Mr. Donald directed. "Tell her her slip is showing. That will send her off in a panic," he chuckled.

  Micky eagerly obeyed. Soon Mrs. Meeks was racing out of the courtroom, gingerly holding the hem of her skirt.

  "The Leading Lady exits," Mr. Donald said with delight.

  The girls exchanged puzzled glances. Something very exciting was going to happen; but what?

  "Now, girls," he said to Cherry, Velma, and Bess. "I'll need to borrow your cosmetics." They gladly turned their compacts and lipsticks over to their friend, who stowed them in the pocket of his white canvas summer slacks. A matching white duck smock brightened by a lime-green neck scarf tied in a gay knot at his throat completed Mr. Donald perfect-fora-summer's-day ensemble.

  "Let's go," he said to Jackie, Midge, Micky, and George, with a twinkle in his eyes. The grin lighting up his handsome face told the girls they were in for a delightful surprise! They raced out of the courtroom.

  "All rise."

  The spectators eagerly jumped to their feet. Nancy was led to her table from a side door and sat down next to Defense Attorney Gerald Gloon.

  The girls could scarcely keep their minds on the courtroom drama at hand, so curious were they about Mr. Donald's plan. They soon stopped wondering about Mr. Donald, however, when Attorney Gloon stood up and declared, "The defense rests, your honor."

  Everyone gasped. He hadn't cross-examined any of the prosecution's witnesses that morning, and now it looked as if he wasn't planning to call any of his own! Why, it was practically unheard of! "That's it?" Bess cried. "The trial's over? Just like that?" An excited roar raced through the courtroom. The bailiff spent several minutes restoring order.

  "Sit down!" Judge Milton Meeks ordered. Just then, Mrs. Milton Meeks raced into the courtroom with Midge, Jackie, George, and Micky right behind.

  But where was Mr. Donald?

  "I've got something to say," Mrs. Meeks stated as she clutched her purse to her bosom and gasped for breath.

  "No, I've got something to say! " Nancy said suddenly. The courtroom grew still.

  Nancy turned around in her seat and searched the gallery until she found her friends. "Did you get the letters?" her glance asked. Bess nodded and pointed to her purse.

  Nancy stood and ripped off her mask and wig, revealing her true identity!

  "It's not Hannah at all; why, it's Nancy Clue!" everyone gasped in alarm. Matrons fainted; somewhere outside a dog began to howl.

  "What a story!" Miss Gladys Gertz cried from the press gallery as Miss Mannish snapped Nancy's picture. "Stop the presses!"

  "What is the meaning of this?" Judge Milton Meeks pounded his gavel. "Order in the court. Sit down, I tell you. Sit! " Once a semblance of order had been restored, Judge Meeks pointed his thick wooden gavel at Nancy and declared, "You've got quite a bit of explaining to do, young lady! The first order of business is to determine the location of the real murderess!"

  A hush fell over the courtroom.

  Nancy broke the silence: "She's right here in the courtroom, your honor."

  The spectators looked around the room with dread. Was Hannah hiding somewhere in their midst?

  "She must be in disguise!" a man cried out. People began peering at one another in suspicion. "It could be anyone," a woman replied. "Oh, horrors!"

  The courtroom again dissolved into general mayhem.

  "Let her speak!" someone shouted.

  Nancy took a deep breath. Her next words were perhaps the most important of her life. She had waited years for this moment. She wanted to make sure she said it just right.

  "I killed Father!" she blurted out.

  "What?" everyone cried in alarm. "It just can't be!"

  "But it's true! " Nancy cried. She told them the whole sordid story, sparing no detail.

  "I have a secret; a secret I've kept for many years," Nancy began in a low tone. Everyone crowded close to hear with the young sleuth had to say. A murmur spread through the crowd. "Nancy? A secret?"

  Nancy put up her hands to quiet the court. Her voice was shaky, but her words rang loud and true.

  "It was only to protect me and my secret that Hannah confessed to the murder," she said dramatically.

  "My father was not who you thought he was," Nancy revealed. "To you he was a civic leader and a respected attor ney, but in his own home he was a bully," she paused for a moment, "and worse!"

  "Worse than a bully? How can that be?" someone cried.

  "He forced me to do things!" Nancy exclaimed. "At night. In my bedroom." She shook in anger. There was a fire in her eyes.

  "Go, Nancy," Midge murmured. She squeezed Velma's hand.

  Everyone recoiled in horror as it became clear Nancy was talking about something so monstrous, so evil, there were scarcely words to describe it. "Don't tell us any more," someone gasped.

  "No, I must!" Nancy cried.

  She struggled to continue. "I would awake in the mornings and tell myself I'd had another bad dream. But they weren't dreams at all. What happened to me was all too real!

  "After a few years, Father stopped coming to my room, and I thought it was all over. I did my best to forget and after a while I even believed, sometimes, that I had made the whole thing up. That it had been a bad dream.

  "But it all came flooding back one dreadful day when I found Father in the back yard behind the lilac bushes paying particular attention to the neighbor girl.

  "When I saw him with that little girl, I knew I had to do something! I ran and told Hannah, and when she threatened to report him to the proper authorities, Father attacked her!"

  Nancy trembled when she remembered the sight of the elderly, gray-haired housekeeper pinned in the strong grasp of her angry, evil father. "I was so afraid he really would kill her, I ran to the den to telephone someone, anyone, and that's when I spied father's hunting rifle on the gun rack above the mantle. I grabbed it and raced back to the kitchen.

  "I had no intention of shooting him," Nancy explained earnestly, adding, "I thought I could... could... scare him into releasing her. But I must have pulled the trigger, because the next thing I knew, he was lying on the floor, right in front of our twodoor Goldenrod Frigidaire. And there was blood everywhere."

  Bess clucked in sympathy. "They redecorated the kitchen just last summer, and Hannah was so proud of the way it looked," she whispered sadly.

  "I threw some frocks in a bag and headed for San Francisco to start a new life. But I found I couldn't! I had to come home and tell the truth.

  "And I'm not sorry I shot him," Nancy cried out angrily.

  "I'd do it again!"

  There was not one sound in the courtroom save the surprising, soft sobs coming from Mrs. Milton Meeks. Then an angry murmur started.

  "How can you possibly think we'd believe such loathsome libel about our beloved Carson Clue?" a man cried from the back of the room.

  "You shouldn't have come home, Nancy Clue!" someone joined his protest. "You should have stayed away and kept your filthy lies to yourself!"

  "Wait! I have the evidence to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what my father truly was!" she cried. "Letters written in his own hand. Letters whose contents would sicken and shock any decent person's sensibilities."

  "How could evidence of this nature possibly exist?" someone demanded.

  "I'll tell you how, if you only let me!" Nancy retorted. "One summer, while I was away at Camp Winnebago, father wrote me letters revealing his feelings for me. Although he didn't sign them, anyone who knew him will surely recognize his bold, slanted penmanship," she added hastily.

  "I was so afraid someone would see these dreadful letters," Nancy confessed. "I was tempted to throw them in the bonfire at the nightly weenie-roast, but I changed my mind and when I returned home, I hid them in the false bottom drawer of my hope chest, where they
sat for years. Until now." Nancy turned an eager eye to Bess. She held out her hand. "The letters please," she said.

  Bess opened her purse and handed Nancy a packet of letters. When Nancy unfolded one so she could present it to the court, a queer look crossed her face. She caught a glimpse of the words, "Darling Rebecca," written in the girlish penmanship of her Aunt Helen Clue. "Oh no, Bess, these are another mystery!" Nancy half-smiled as she handed the packet back to her chum.

  "Oops," Bess giggled nervously. She gave Nancy the correct bundle.

  Nancy triumphantly waved the letters around the courtroom. "Who wants to read them?" she cried. "These prove everything I just told you."

  The crowd pulled back. No one wanted anything to do with the sordid missives. "What about you, Mrs. Meeks?" Nancy exclaimed bitterly. "Surely you want a peek at these. I know you don't believe me, Mrs. Meeks."

  "I do believe you, Nancy Clue!" Mrs. Milton Meeks cried out suddenly. The crowd gasped as River Depths' most influential and respected matron jumped up and hugged Nancy to her ample bosom. Nancy's chums gasped. What had happened to Mrs. Milton Meeks to make her change her tune? Sudden tears came to Nancy's eyes.

  Mrs. Meeks took a hankie from her black alligator bag and wiped Nancy's tears. "There, there, dear," she comforted the crying girl. "Mrs. Meeks will make it all better." Nancy looked gratefully at the transformed matron. But to her great surprise, instead of Mrs. Meeks's beady little blue eyes, Mr. Donald's sparkling green eyes-the kindest she had ever seenlooked back. Mr. Donald winked.

  Mr. Donald straightened his skirt and adjusted his bosom. He cleared his throat, and when he opened his mouth, the voice of Mrs. Meeks came out.

  "I've seen those letters with my own eyes, don't ask me how. I'm sworn to secrecy, but I can tell you they're every bit as disgusting as Nancy claims!" he cried. "And, what's more, anyone who doesn't believe her can just leave town as far as I'm concerned. After all the good Nancy's done-exposing horsetheft rings, finding stolen heirlooms, ridding more than one mansion in this town of a ghost-I'd think you'd all rush to her defense. Nancy deserves our utmost sympathy and deep respect, and no less!"