“You’re not really going to use that,” Nancy said, trying to keep her voice firm.
“Try me,” Colleen said, cocking the trigger of the gun.
“How are you going to explain a dead body to your husband?” Nancy prodded. “That’s going to be a lot harder than telling him you did time for stealing.”
A tiny muscle in Colleen’s cheek twitched. “So you read about that, huh? Well, you’re going to take that secret to your grave. I’ll just tell Fred you were trying to steal my jewelry. I’ll say the gun is yours and it went off accidentally. It’s unregistered, so Fred will never know I was the one who pulled the trigger.”
Nancy shivered at the cool, matter-of-fact way Colleen was talking about murder. So much for the selfless socialite who wanted to make the world a better place.
“You’d do anything to hide the truth from him, wouldn’t you?” Nancy challenged.
“You bet I would,” Colleen said. “He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Nobody’s going to ruin what we have together.” She frowned slightly. “But you have a point—a dead body will ruin the carpet. Turn around, slowly, and open the other door.”
Stalling for time, Nancy asked, “Where are we going?”
“Never mind where. Just open the door and start walking.”
Nancy’s mind raced, trying to figure a way out. She had to obey Colleen, but at least she could leave something behind, some sign so her friends would know she’d been here.
Reaching up as if to scratch her neck, Nancy undid the clasp of the pendant Ned had given her for Valentine’s Day and let the pendant slip down the front of her sweater to the white carpet. Then, opening the other door of the study, she entered a narrow, dimly lit back stairway. As she made her way down the stairs, she was acutely aware of the hard barrel of Colleen’s gun pressed against her back.
“Now, down the hall and out the door,” Colleen directed.
Nancy did as she was told and found herself in a four-car garage. The car nearest her was a dark green Jaguar. Colleen gestured for Nancy to get in behind the wheel, while Colleen got in beside her. The car keys were dangling from the ignition.
Pressing a small remote clipped to the sun visor, Colleen opened one of the garage doors. “Drive,” she commanded.
“Where are we going?” Nancy asked.
“To the inn. We’re going to put an end to this once and for all. You’re going to disappear very mysteriously, without a trace, in fact. Even if they question me about it, they’ll never be able to pin anything on me.”
Nancy gripped the wheel tightly to keep her hands from trembling as she backed the car out of the garage and turned it around.
“You won’t get away with this,” she said firmly, turning onto the quiet street with its large, stately homes. “The police and my friends already know about your connection to Guy Lewis. If anything happens to me, they’ll know you were responsible.”
“The fact that I knew Guy in high school means nothing,” Colleen said. “No one else around here knows I was involved in anything illegal, and I don’t have a record.”
Nancy’s curiosity got the better of her fear, and she asked, “Why don’t the police know about your involvement with the theft ring?”
“I was only fifteen when I got arrested,” Colleen said. “If you’re convicted as a minor, they wipe your slate clean when you turn eighteen.”
“How convenient for you,” Nancy said dryly.
“It was, until Guy came back into my life,” Colleen said. The gun in her hand glinted as they passed beneath the streetlights. “Now that you know about it, too, I’ll have to take care of both of you.”
Glancing at Colleen, Nancy said, “But other people must have known about it, since it was in the papers.”
“That was years ago,” Colleen said. “It only made the local papers, anyway. When I got out of juvenile hall, my parents moved to another town and put me in a private school where no one knew me. I got a fresh start. I did better in school, and I got into a good college. I turned my life around.”
“And look where you are today,” Nancy said. “You’ve moved up to murdering an innocent person.”
Colleen shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Today doesn’t count. Once you’re out of the picture, I’ll go back to my wonderful life with Fred. He’s such a kind, generous man. I can’t let him find out about my past. I’m afraid he really would divorce me. Then where would I be?”
Nancy couldn’t believe how twisted Colleen was. She actually thought it was worse to lose a rich husband than to kill someone!
Soon Nancy turned onto the winding road leading up to Moon Lake. The road was pitch-black, with no streetlights, so she could only judge where she was going by the double yellow lines illuminated by her headlights.
“I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” Colleen said after a short silence. “I was just trying to scare people away until I could find the evidence and get rid of it. But everyone was down there in the basement with me, and there was so much stuff. There was no way I could find the articles quickly. I had to create a diversion to buy time.”
“You call pushing Ned off the balcony a diversion?” Nancy asked angrily.
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” Colleen insisted with a dismissive wave of her gun. “That must have been an accident.”
Colleen actually sounded sincere, but considering the situation, Nancy wasn’t about to give her the benefit of the doubt.
“What about the chandelier?” Nancy demanded. “I suppose that was an accident, too?”
Colleen’s green eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “Nope. I severed the cable the night before, as you so cleverly deduced.”
“And you made a copy of Andrew’s keys?” Nancy guessed.
“Very good,” Colleen complimented her. “Too bad I couldn’t get one to the basement, or none of this might have happened. Andrew only has one copy of that key, and he keeps it in his pocket.”
“I’ll bet you stole Blaster’s sound-effects tapes, too,” Nancy said.
Colleen bristled. “I didn’t steal them, I borrowed them. I put the keys back, and the tapes, too, after I’d made copies.”
Nancy didn’t bother to mention that Colleen hadn’t returned the soldering iron and drill. “And that sheet you rigged up to look like a ghost—that was to scare Andrew off the renovation, wasn’t it?”
“I heard Blaster mention ghost stories, so I figured the subject would eventually come up during your little sleepover,” Colleen said. “Too bad Andrew didn’t take the hint.”
“And the dummy we found hanging in the noose?”
“Me again,” Colleen said, almost proudly.
“And of course you’re the one who wrote the threatening notes and called in the arson tip to the police,” Nancy said. “But if you were trying to frame Andrew, it didn’t work. I spoke to the officer at the scene and told her the call came before the fire.”
“So what?” Colleen asked as Nancy pulled into the empty parking lot of the Lakeside Inn. “Other people will look guiltier than me. Blaster, for instance, especially after the business with the tapes. Or maybe, when I finally see Guy again, I’ll make it look like he did it.”
Nancy shot Colleen a curious glance. “So you don’t know where Guy is?” she asked.
“He never said, and I’m in no hurry to see him.”
Nancy parked and turned off the ignition. As she and Colleen got out of the car, Nancy cast a longing look at the dark woods bordering the inn. She was too far away to risk running toward the forest, though. Colleen would probably shoot her down before she got there.
“Up the driveway,” Colleen directed Nancy, shoving a key in her hand. “Open the front door, then head for the basement.”
The front entrance was still sealed with bright yellow tape. Nancy had to peel it off before she could unlock the door. Once the door was open, a burned smell assaulted her nose. The odor grew even stronger as she opened the door to the basement and felt her way down the stairs,
with Colleen right behind her.
As Nancy’s eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she was able to make out the distant stone walls and the heaps of charred furniture. Slivers of moonlight crept in through the dusty transom windows.
Nancy looked around for some kind of weapon she could use or an escape route.
“You must have read my mind,” Colleen said as Nancy’s gaze fell upon several shovels beneath the stairs. “Pick up one of those shovels.” When Nancy had obeyed, Colleen directed her to start digging a hole.
Nancy hesitated before plunging the metal blade of the shovel into the hard-packed earth. “What for?” she asked, but the terrible answer came to her before Colleen even opened her mouth.
Nancy was digging her own grave.
“It’s the perfect plan,” Colleen said proudly. “After you’re done digging the hole, you lie down in it and I shoot you. All I’ll have to do is throw the dirt back over you, along with Guy’s letters and the articles. Then, tomorrow, when the concrete is poured, the evidence will be buried forever.”
Nancy shivered. The last thing she intended to do was lie down in the grave and wait for Colleen to shoot her. She’d rather die while trying to run up the stairs. She could only hope that Colleen would make some small slip so she could make a break for it. For now, though, the gun was trained steadily on Nancy, so she dug.
Clink!
Both Nancy and Colleen started at the sound as Nancy’s shovel struck something metallic. Scraping away some of the dirt with the edge of her shovel, Nancy saw the corner of a metal box.
“What is it?” Colleen demanded.
“Something’s buried here.”
“Dig it up,” Colleen ordered, an excited look on her face. “Hurry!”
In a few minutes Nancy had unearthed the small metal box, which she handed to Colleen. After opening the box, Colleen removed a few slips of newsprint. “You found it!” she cried triumphantly.
“What is it?” Nancy inquired.
“The articles. Guy buried them! No wonder I couldn’t find them. This is my lucky night. I’ll be able to get rid of the articles and you.”
Colleen’s expression became deadly serious as she pointed her gun once again at Nancy. “Now, keep digging.”
After a while, Nancy had dug a shallow hole about six feet long and three feet wide.
“You know what to do now,” Colleen prodded, gesturing with the gun. “Jump in.”
Nancy took a deep breath. This was it—her only chance. She moved behind the hole so that it was between Colleen and herself, then started to bend over, as if she were about to put the shovel down. Then, in a sudden, springing motion, Nancy leapt forward, over the hole, toward Colleen, thrusting the blade of the shovel forward like a bayonet.
At the same moment Nancy heard Colleen’s gun go off with a deafening explosion.
Chapter
Sixteen
NANCY FROZE, stunned, as the bullet ricocheted off her shovel and whizzed past her head. Then the air was filled with the sound of shattering glass.
As fragments of glass rained down on the floor, Colleen turned for a split second toward the broken transom window above Nancy. That was all the time Nancy needed.
With a powerful thrust she dived for Colleen’s arm, knocking the gun out of her hand. As they fell to the floor, Nancy heard Colleen hit with a thud, then her body went limp.
With a feeling of dread Nancy quickly checked Colleen’s pulse, then let out a relieved breath. Colleen was unconscious, but her pulse was strong. She must have hit her head in the fall.
A moment later Nancy heard loud footsteps rumbling across the lobby floor above. “Nancy!” several voices cried out from the top of the stairs. The work lights in the basement blinked on, and Nancy saw Ned, Bess, and Andrew come running down the stairs. She did a double take when she saw who was with them—Julie Ross!—but she’d have to find out about that later. Right now they had to take care of Colleen.
“How did you find me?” Nancy asked as Andrew picked up the discarded gun and stood over Colleen’s unconscious form. He took off his jacket and padded it gently beneath Colleen’s head.
Nancy slumped against Ned as he placed his good arm around her and pulled her close. “I got worried when you didn’t come back downstairs for a long time,” he said, answering Nancy’s question. “Then I noticed that Colleen wasn’t around, either, so I went upstairs and looked for you. That was when I found your pendant in that little room.”
“So Ned came downstairs and got me,” Bess continued the story. “When we went outside and saw that one of the garage doors was open, we figured Colleen had taken you somewhere, so we called the police. They sent out a couple of squad cars to look for you.”
“It’s a good thing we guessed she’d come here,” Andrew put in. “One of the police cars should be here any minute.”
Nancy showed everyone Guy’s blackmail letters and the old articles about the theft ring. “Wow,” Andrew said, shaking his head. “I never would have guessed.”
“I didn’t have time to tell you what we learned at Bentley High School,” Nancy told Andrew, “what with the fire and the police taking you in for questioning.”
“Ned filled me in on the way here,” Andrew told her. He glanced down to where Colleen still lay unconscious, her sequined dress wrinkled and dirty. “I still can’t believe it.”
“Looking back,” Nancy went on, “I realize there were things I didn’t pick up on—like all the time Colleen spent in the basement and the fact that she got rid of Lewis’s stuff so fast. And all those times she tried to talk you into putting off the renovation for a couple of days.”
“Yeah,” Andrew agreed. “I guess it wasn’t for the kids’ safety, like she said. It was so she could have more time to find the articles that Guy Lewis left.”
Grinning at Nancy, Bess said, “Leave it to Nan to get to the bottom of things,” she said proudly. “She always solves the mystery in the end.”
“Speaking of mysteries . . .” Nancy said, turning to Andrew. Julie had gone over to him, and the two were holding hands. “Are you two back together?”
Julie smiled up at Andrew, who leaned down and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“I guess that answers my question,” Nancy said.
“After I got out of the police station this afternoon, I realized how much trouble this inn thing has been and how little I cared about it in the first place,” Andrew explained. “So when the police released me, I went straight to Julie’s and told her I’d made up my mind. I’m going to stand up to my father, once and for all, and tell him I’m moving to California with Julie.”
Nancy was glad to see him looking so determined and happy. “We’re going to get married,” Andrew went on, “and I’m going to try to make it as an actor. Of course, I didn’t know if Julie would say yes or not, after everything we’ve been through.”
Julie hugged Andrew tight. “Of course I said yes. I never stopped loving you, even after I broke up with you.”
“Is that why you were hanging around the inn?” Nancy asked. The last pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.
Julie nodded, and her face reddened. “I know there’s supposed to be a ghost haunting the place. Well, I guess I was the one haunting it, just to keep an eye on Andrew. I was so afraid he’d meet someone else.”
“I knew you two would make up,” Ned said.
As Julie looked at Ned, a troubled look came into her eyes. “You might not be so happy when you know what I did, Ned,” she said nervously.
“What?” Ned asked.
Julie’s gray eyes filled with tears. “I’m the reason you fell off the balcony,” she said softly.
“You pushed him?” Andrew asked, taking a step back to look at Julie.
“No, of course not,” Julie said quickly. “But I was hiding up in the balcony that day, spying on you, and you started walking right toward me. I was so afraid you’d see me, I turned out all the lights!”
“So I
did slip,” Ned said, shaking his head. “I didn’t think I’d felt anybody push me.”
“Can you ever forgive me?” Julie begged. “If I’d known you were going to fall, I would have left the lights on, even if Andrew had found me. I never meant for you to get hurt.”
Ned smiled at Julie. “I can’t say I’m happy I fell, but I won’t hold a grudge. I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”
For the second time that day Nancy heard the sound of sirens approaching the inn.
“The police are on their way,” Bess said with a relieved smile.
“Uhhhh . . .” Colleen groaned. As everyone turned to look at her, Colleen’s eyelids fluttered open.
“Perfect timing,” Andrew said, as Colleen groggily tried to prop herself up on one elbow.
Colleen’s eyes focused on the group of people towering over her, and she let her head drop back to the ground. “Tell me this isn’t happening. . . .”
“It’s happening,” Nancy assured her. “You made it happen.”
The tread of heavy footsteps on the stairs announced the arrival of the police. Nancy saw that Lieutenant Oscarson was the first to reach the bottom. Three other officers were behind her. As Andrew handed Oscarson the gun, Nancy stepped over to the police officer and gave her the newspaper articles, briefly explaining the situation.
“I just wish we knew what happened to Guy Lewis,” Nancy finished. “Why hasn’t he come forward to get the blackmail money?”
As the other officers helped Colleen to her feet, Lieutenant Oscarson asked Nancy, “Are you Nancy Drew?” When Nancy nodded, the officer said, “I got a call from a Chief McGinnis in River Heights. He seems to be a fan of yours.”
Bess and Ned both grinned at Nancy.
“He was asking about this same person,” Lieutenant Oscarson went on. Then she announced solemnly, “We’ve just gotten word that Guy Lewis is dead. He was attempting to burglarize a house the other night, and he fell from a second-floor window. Broke his neck.”
Colleen let out a gasp. “But . . . why didn’t I hear about that?” she demanded. “Why wasn’t it in the papers?”
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