Heart of Danger Read online

  “What did you learn?” Nancy asked. “Was the doctor able to tell you anything specific?”

  Mr. Reigert shrugged. “Doctors are all alike,” he muttered in disgust. “They take samples of all kinds and ask too many dumb questions. And then in the end they tell you that you’ll just have to wait for the lab tests to come back.”

  Nancy’s heart sank. She had hoped for some definite news before this evening. “Couldn’t he even speculate?” she asked.

  “Nope. But he did ask a bunch of questions about the funny garlic taste I’ve been getting,” Mr. Reigert said, lying back wearily. “And he asked if I’d been losing any hair lately, or if I’d been short of breath.”

  “Losing hair?”

  Mr. Reigert snorted. “Yeah. Crazy, isn’t it? Of course I’m losing my hair, I told him. And I’m short of breath most of the time. That’s what happens to people when they get to be my age.”

  “Did he say why he was asking these questions?”

  “No,” Mr. Reigert said shortly and closed his eyes. “Are you having any luck?”

  “Yes, a little,” Nancy said. Mr. Reigert’s eyes flickered open. “But I don’t want to talk about it just yet,” she said hurriedly. If her plan was going to work, surprise was the most important part of it. She suspected that if Mr. Reigert knew about his daughter, he wouldn’t be able to keep the secret very well. With a simple look or a gesture he could spoil everything.

  “I’ll let you know as soon as I find out anything definite,” she promised. “By the way,” she added, “my friend Ned would like to stay for supper. Would you have any objections?”

  “Right now, I’m too tired to object to anything.” Mr. Reigert sighed. “Guess I’m getting old. Do whatever you want to do. Invite anybody you want to invite.” He opened one eye. “Except for Billy McPhee, of course. Now git. I need some sleep.”

  • • •

  The rest of the afternoon seemed to crawl by. Nancy told Mrs. Reigert that there would be a guest for dinner. Mrs. Reigert didn’t seem very pleased, but when Nancy said that Mr. Reigert had already given his permission, she nodded sullenly. Then Nancy and Ned sat under one of the large cottonwoods and talked over the events of the case while they waited for Gene to get back, bringing the lab report with him.

  Finally, it was six o’clock, and the pickup pulled into the driveway. A few minutes later Ned and Nancy, Gene, Catarina, and Mrs. Arguello met in the office. Nancy locked the door and closed the blinds.

  “What did you find out from the lab?” she asked Gene.

  Gene put the little bottle on the desk. It was empty. “Poison, all right,” he said. “The lab chief says it’s called thallium sulfate. Some company up in Dallas used to sell it as an ant killer, but it was banned some years ago. Apparently, though, cans and bags of it are still being found in garages and barns where people have stored it and forgotten it.”

  He chuckled a little. “They took the stuff away from me. Guess they were afraid I might decide to use it on somebody.”

  Mrs. Arguello stared at the empty bottle. “I think we used something like that years ago,” she said. “To kill ants. The last time I saw it, it was in a can in the stable.”

  Gene looked troubled. “The chief also said that it would take only a gram of this stuff, administered cumulatively, to kill somebody.”

  Nancy glanced at him. “Do the symptoms of thallium poisoning include hair loss?” she asked. “The taste of garlic, shortness of breath?”

  “How do you know all that?” Catarina asked in surprise as Gene nodded.

  Ned grinned at Nancy. “Superior detective work,” he replied. “Nancy Drew didn’t get her reputation for nothing.”

  “Well, it looks like we’ve identified the poison,” Nancy said. “Chances are that the would-be killer found this stuff here on the ranch somewhere, recognized it, and decided to use it. Our problem is to get the killer to confess to his crime.” She looked around at the four intent faces. “Here’s what I think we ought to do.” They all leaned forward to listen to her plan.

  • • •

  It was nearly seven by the time everyone gathered around the dinner table. They were all there—Mr. Reigert, Mrs. Reigert and Mark, Gene, Joe Bob, Nancy and Ned. Nancy introduced Ned to Mark and Joe Bob, and they all sat down.

  “Well, Nancy,” Mark said heartily, passing her a plate heaped with corn bread, “what did you and your friend do today?”

  “Not much,” Nancy admitted, helping herself to one. “We went for a horseback ride, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon making notes on Mr. Reigert’s project.” It was all quite true, she thought to herself as she buttered her bread. Except that Mr. Reigert’s “project” was very different from what Mark imagined.

  “Well, I hope this thing isn’t going to take much longer,” Mrs. Reigert said pointedly. “I know you want to get it finished so that you can get on to other—”

  She broke off her sentence and looked up sharply. Mrs. Arguello had come into the room and was leaning against the door, a wild-eyed expression on her face. “Mrs. Arguello, whatever are you doing?” she demanded. “We’re waiting for the rest of our meal! What’s keeping you?”

  Mrs. Arguello looked around, her face ashen. “Madre Dios,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “It’s the girl! In the library, on the floor. She’s—she’s—”

  Nancy jumped up, knocking her chair over. She ran to Mrs. Arguello and shook her arm roughly. “What’s happened?” she asked. “What are you trying to tell us?”

  “Come on, woman,” Mr. Reigert demanded impatiently. “You look like death itself! Spit it out! What’s wrong?”

  Suddenly Mrs. Arguello uttered a loud shriek, her eyes rolling back in her head. “It’s the housemaid!” she cried. “She’s dead!”

  Chapter

  Seventeen

  DEAD?” MRS. REIGERT screamed. “Oh, no!”

  “But how?” Mr. Reigert asked, bewildered.

  “Come on,” Nancy commanded, and they all rushed into the library. On the floor, beside a large leather chair, lay the housemaid’s crumpled body. At the sight of it, Mark’s face went white. The girl’s fingers were curled around the little bottle that she had taken from his room. But now the bottle was empty.

  Nancy knelt beside the still form and felt for a pulse. After a moment she looked up. “Mrs. Arguello is right,” she said soberly. “The girl is dead.”

  “But I just don’t see how—” Mr. Reigert muttered. He sank into the leather chair. “It’s unbelievable. She’s so young!”

  Nancy pulled out a handkerchief and carefully picked up the bottle. She opened the cap and sniffed it. “It’s my guess that this is poison,” she said. “In fact, it looks like it might be thallium sulfate, an ant poison commonly found in this part of the country.”

  She put the bottle down beside the body. “Gene, I think it’s time to send for the sheriff.”

  “The sheriff?” Mark asked sharply. He licked his lips.

  Gene made his way to the phone and began to dial. Mark took a step toward the body, his eyes on the bottle.

  “Stay back,” Nancy warned Mark while Gene asked to speak to the sheriff. “The body shouldn’t be touched until the police arrive. They’ll be especially interested in the fingerprints they find on that bottle.” Then her eyes fell on something under Angela’s hand and she picked it up. It was the silver button she had found under Mr. Reigert’s window after the robbery.

  Nancy looked up. “Mrs. Reigert,” she said as if she were just remembering something, “didn’t I see you wearing a shirt with buttons exactly like this on the day I arrived?”

  Mrs. Reigert’s mouth fell open and the blood drained from her face. “I—I—don’t think—”

  “Perhaps it would be a good idea if you would get that shirt and show us that it has all of its buttons,” Nancy said.

  “No!” Mrs. Reigert exclaimed. “I mean—” She turned to Mark. “Mark, what have you done?” she cried, her voice breaking. Her hand
s were clenched, her long fingernails digging into the palms of her hands. She was obviously on the verge of losing control. “Are you trying to—”

  Suddenly she seemed to realize what she was saying, and she clamped her mouth shut and went rigid. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said to Nancy.

  Nancy turned to Mark. His eyes were like dark wells in his face and he was breathing in great gulps. “Of course,” she said carefully, watching Mark, “the first thing the police will do is take everyone’s fingerprints. There are sure to be prints on the bottle. It will be a simple matter of matching them up.”

  Suddenly Mark broke. “I’m not going to let you frame me, Jonelle!” he shouted. He reached for her throat and pulled her in front of him, dragging a gun out from under his shirt. “You’re the one who stole that bottle of ant poison out of my room, aren’t you!” he screamed, holding her by the throat, her back to him. “You poisoned the girl just to frame me, so you could have all the money for yourself!”

  Jonelle Reigert’s fingers clutched at Mark’s forearm as she tried to pull it from her throat. “No!” she said, choking, her face red with exertion. “You’re the one who’s trying to frame me, putting my button under the body! You want them to think that I’m the one who did it! I don’t know anything about any poison! I’d never have agreed to anything like murder!”

  “Of course you knew about the poison,” Mark growled menacingly into her ear, his grip tightening. It was as if the two of them, in their panic, had forgotten that the others were in the room. “Don’t act so innocent! You couldn’t possibly have thought that those stomach attacks were natural. You wanted the old man dead as much as I did.”

  Jonelle sagged against him, gasping for air. “Why would I?” she cried. “At least, not until I got my hands on the ransom money.”

  Mark put the gun behind Jonelle’s ear. “What ransom money?” His eyes were narrow slits. “What are you talking about?”

  “The half a million dollars that Jonelle took from the safe in Mr. Reigert’s bedroom,” Nancy said calmly, stepping forward. “You see, Mark, Jonelle was playing a clever little game, all for herself. She was taking Mr. Reigert for a fortune, and she didn’t intend to let you have a penny.”

  “Half a million dollars?” Mark asked. His eyes darted in Nancy’s direction.

  “You know, it’s a real shame, Mark,” Nancy went on in a sympathetic voice. “Your plans might have worked out very nicely if Jonelle hadn’t gotten greedy and decided to double-cross you.”

  “I didn’t double-cross you, I swear it, Mark!” Jonelle cried, writhing in his tightening grasp. “I was planning to tell you about it, and as soon as the coast was clear we could—”

  “You’re lying,” Mark said. His voice was steely. “I know you. You were out to take care of Number One. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

  “Me? Well, what do you call that smuggling scheme you dreamed up without telling me? Why, that stupid little get-rich-quick trick nearly blew the whole thing! Kangaroos and spotted deer running around all over the place!”

  “No, Jonelle,” Nancy said. “It was your ransom scheme that blew everything. If it hadn’t been for that, you and your friend Mark might have gotten out of this thing scot-free.”

  “Her friend Mark?” Mr. Reigert gasped, his eyes wide and staring.

  “That’s right, Mr. Reigert,” Nancy said. “This pair of con artists aren’t really mother and son.” She gestured toward Ned. “Ned’s found evidence that indicates what their backgrounds really are. And they aren’t pretty, that’s for sure.”

  With a great wrench, Jonelle finally managed to pull herself free of Mark’s grasp. “It doesn’t matter who we are or what we’ve done,” she snarled. “You’re not going to be able to press charges. Because if you do before we’re far away, I’ll have Catarina Reigert killed!” She turned to Mr. Reigert, smiling cagily. “You see, Robert, I’m the only one who knows where your daughter is.”

  “No, Jonelle,” Nancy corrected her gently. “You don’t know. In fact, I think you’re going to be rather surprised when you learn just where Catarina is.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jonelle demanded. She’s being held in Dallas. By some friends of mine. And if you don’t let us go, she’ll be killed.” She turned triumphantly to Mr. Reigert. “Your precious daughter—dead! How would you like that?”

  Mr. Reigert moaned. “We can’t do anything, Nancy,” he whispered, dropping his head into his hands. “I want my daughter back! I don’t care what it costs!”

  “You’ll have her, Mr. Reigert,” Nancy promised. She turned to the figure lying on the floor. “It’s time, Catarina,” she said. “You can get up now.”

  And with a smile on her face, Catarina got to her feet and ran to Mr. Reigert. “Here I am, Father,” she whispered, pulling his hands away from his face.

  “Angela? Catarina?” Mr. Reigert gasped, bewildered. “Is it true? Is it really true?”

  “Show him, Catarina,” Nancy commanded.

  Catarina lifted her ankle, pulling back her skirt. “The birthmark, Father,” she said proudly.

  For a moment Mr. Reigert stared at her. And then he pulled her down into the chair with him, enveloping her in an enormous embrace. “Catarina,” he murmured into her hair. “My child! It is really you, after all these years!”

  “Oh, no,” Jonelle Reigert groaned tearfully. “I don’t believe it!”

  “Well, you’re not going to stop me from getting away,” Mark screamed. “I’ve still got all the aces.” He brandished the gun. “Okay, everybody line up against that wall, hands over your—oomph!” In an instant the gun had gone flying, Mark had been pushed into Jonelle, and Ned was standing coolly over both of them.

  “That’s the end of that,” he said, dusting his hands.

  “Maybe,” Nancy said, smiling at Mr. Reigert and his daughter, still holding each other. “But wouldn’t you say that it’s just the beginning of something else?”

  • • •

  “I don’t understand how I could have been so stupid,” Mr. Reigert said. “How could I have been taken in so thoroughly?”

  They were sitting around the kitchen table, having a quiet cup of coffee after Billy McPhee had come and carted Mark and Jonelle off to the Rio Hondo jail for safekeeping. Apparently the sheriff was skilled at collecting criminals and taking confessions, even though he might not have been much good at apprehending them or figuring out what they were up to.

  “They’re pretty slick characters,” Nancy said. “And you’re obviously not the first person they’ve taken.”

  “Right,” Ned observed from his seat next to Nancy. “The police know of at least one person they’ve conned in Dallas. I assume there are many more.”

  “Have we tied up all the other loose ends?” Gene asked, holding up his cup so that Mrs. Arguello could pour him another cup of coffee. He leaned back in his chair and put his arm around Catarina’s shoulders as she smiled happily at him.

  Nancy began to tick the items off on her fingers. “As far as the phony kidnapping was concerned, it looks as if Jonelle was responsible for that all alone,” she said.

  “She planned to make off with the ransom money and leave Mark in the lurch. From what she said before the sheriff came to pick her up, I gather that she must have gotten the idea for the fake kidnapping when she came across the clothing stored in the attic. Then she sent the ranson notes and hired someone to impersonate Catarina on the videotape.

  “The night of the robbery, she looked out her window and saw Mr. Lawson and me and con eluded that he was bringing the money. It was an easy matter to unlock the safe, using the combination she had copied out of Mr. Reigert’s drawer. But now the money’s back in Mr. Reigert’s safe.

  “Mark was solely responsible for the smuggling scheme and the poisoning,” Mr. Reigert said thoughtfully. “Apparently, my wife didn’t know anything about that part of it.” He grimaced as he said the word wife.

  �
�Yes,” Nancy agreed. After Ned had knocked Mark down, he had fallen apart, confessing everything, confirming what she and Ned already suspected about the smuggling operation. “The animals we saw in the canyon represented just one shipment, a half dozen extremely rare Sika deer from Formosa. There had been several other shipments of rare or endangered species, all smuggled in from Asia.”

  Ned turned his coffee cup in his hand. “They were trucking the animals across the Rio Grande from Mexico,” he said, “pasturing them in that canyon until buyers were found. Then they trucked them out again. Apparently, it was quite a lucrative business.”

  “You know, Gene,” Mr. Reigert said thoughtfully, “it might not be such a bad idea to look into the exotic game business—legally, of course,” he added hastily.

  Gene laughed. “That’s just what I was thinking,” he said.

  Mr. Reigert turned to Nancy. “And what about the poison?” he asked. He frowned. “I’m not going to die, am I—at least, not from that stuff?”

  “According to the report that Gene brought back from the lab in San Antonio, it turns out to be a case of thallium poisoning,” Nancy said. “Mark must have found the tin that was stored in the stables, recognizing its potential, and begun to use it very judiciously, knowing that it’s a cumulative poison. Of course, he figured that nobody would suspect anything when you died, since the poisoning would look like a chronic stomach condition. And he and Jonelle could easily ensure that there wouldn’t be an autopsy.”

  Mr. Reigert shuddered. “I hate to think what would have happened if you hadn’t figured it all out, Nancy.”

  Nancy grinned. “It doesn’t look like you’ve suffered any permanent damage,” she said. “But it might not be a bad idea to go back to that doctor in Rio Hondo for another checkup.”

  “Not on your life!” Mr. Reigert said, banging his fist on the table. “Now that this is over, you won’t catch me dead in that doctor’s office!”

  “Now, Father,” Catarina said softly. She got up and stood behind him, putting her arms around his neck. “Won’t you be reasonable about this? Just for me?”