The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book Page 3

  Chief McGinnis said, “By getting your club members to help, you have added a valuable bit of information to the case. We didn’t know the masked man in Mr. Wright’s store had a partner. So, she’s a red-haired woman!”

  Peg spoke up. “Do you know what the man looked like?”

  “No,” the chief admitted. “Mr. Wright couldn’t give us a detailed description. And the thief must have worn gloves because he left no fingerprints.”

  “We got a lead from a cabdriver who saw the couple run out of the store and drive off in a dark sedan,” Peg told the officer. There was a tone of mixed pride and teasing in her remark as she related their conversation with the taxi driver.

  “Very good sleuthing,” the chief said. He pushed a buzzer on his desk, and another officer walked in.

  “This is Sergeant Walsh, ladies,” Chief McGinnis said. “Mike, meet the Detective Club. They’ve brought some valuable clues about the Wright robbery. Will you see if there’s a record of a tall, thin man with sharp features and slightly pointed ears whose partner is a heavyset woman with red hair?”

  Mike left and returned a few minutes later with startling news. “The couple are husband and wife and are wanted in several cities for robberies. Apparently, they are now working the smaller towns.”

  “Send out an alarm for them at once,” McGinnis ordered. Then he turned to the girls. “Thanks for your help. And good luck on your next mystery.”

  After the group had left, Nancy said, “Let’s do some more inquiring.” She led the club members back to Wright’s, and they searched along the scraped curb for anything that might further identify the suspects or their sedan.

  Martie pointed out the marks that indicated a car had scraped roughly along the curbing. They even noticed little pieces of rubber.

  “That cabdriver wasn’t exaggerating,” Nancy said. “It’s a slim chance, but let’s hunt for a dark car with scraped tires on the right side.” She hailed a limousine taxi, and all of the girls piled in.

  “Where to?” the driver inquired.

  For a moment, Nancy was embarrassed. Finally she said, “Just drive around until we spot a dark sedan with bad scrape marks on the right wheels.”

  “I know exactly where it is,” the cabbie replied, much to the girls’ surprise. “I passed it at the edge of town, where both tires blew out. I stopped to see if I could help, and the man said, ‘No. I only have one spare. But there’s a garage nearby. Ask them to send a tow truck here!’”

  “What did the people in the car look like?” Martie asked.

  “The man had a thin face and funny-looking ears. The woman with him had light red hair and was kind of heavy.”

  “That’s the couple we’re trying to find!” Martie blurted out. “They’re thieves!”

  “Don’t let these people get away! They’re wanted for assault and robbery! ”

  “What!” the driver exclaimed.

  Nancy urged him to go to the garage as fast as possible. He set off with a roar and soon pulled up in front of the repair shop. The girls jumped out, and Nancy quickly paid their fare.

  “Be careful!” the driver warned as the girls hurried toward the building.

  A car was just being lowered from the right lift. The two suspected thieves were standing alongside it.

  The instant Nancy saw them, she dashed into the office and said to the owner, “Don’t let these people get away! They’re wanted for assault and robbery at Wright’s Jewelry Store. May I use your phone?”

  “Go ahead,” the man replied. “I’ll keep the couple here.”

  Nancy dialed police headquarters and spoke to Chief McGinnis. When he heard her amazing report, he said, “We’ll be there at once.”

  Within five minutes, three officers arrived, and the suspects were held while their car was searched. The jewelry found in it was identified by Mr. Wright, who had been hastily summoned. He also identified the mask worn by his attacker.

  Martie took the telltale light red hairs from her purse. They matched the woman’s hair perfectly. The couple was arrested and taken away in the police car.

  ACTIVITY

  Nancy suggests that readers write down descriptions of people they pass in the street or in a car.

  Look for traits according to the following list. Your observation skills will improve with practice.

  Sex

  Ethnicity

  Age

  Height

  Weight

  Build

  Hair

  Eyes

  Nose

  Ears

  Shape of head

  Shape of face

  Glasses

  Complexion

  Scars or marks

  Tattoos

  Any peculiarities

  CHAPTER IV

  THE HIDDEN INHERITANCE

  Codes

  NANCY brought her three-legged childhood blackboard from the attic and set it up in the living room. She took a piece of chalk from a box, consulted a slip of paper in her left hand, then wrote:WECANCERTAINLYN

  OTEACOTEBY

  THECOOING

  A few minutes later, the members of her Detective Club began to arrive. In turn, each one asked, “What’s that?”

  “A code for you to figure out,” Nancy replied. “Buried in a sentence is a name you know well. What does the sentence say, and what is the name hidden inside?”

  The girls stared at the blackboard for several minutes. Each one finally said, “I give up.”

  Nancy smiled. “A good detective absolutely never gives up.”

  She asked the girls to take their notebooks and work on the puzzle. “Most codes are based on the transposition of letters or numbers,” she said. “This one is based on letters.”

  She left the room for ten minutes. When the young detective returned, she asked, “Any luck?”

  “A little,” Peg spoke up. “The first line says, ‘We can certainly,’ but what’s the N for?”

  Nancy laughed. “How about hooking it to the beginning of the next line?”

  Peg did. “The next word could be note.”

  “Good. Keep going.”

  Presently, Sue called out, “Note a cote. A cote’s where you keep pigeons, isn’t it?”

  Nancy nodded. “So far you have, ‘We can certainly note a cote.‘ What’s next?”

  “Ah, I know,” Karen exclaimed. “Pigeons coo. The sentence is, ‘We can certainly note a cote by the cooing. ’”

  The others clapped, then Peg asked, “How do we find the hidden name?”

  Nancy suggested that the girls try using numerical relationships in the sentence this time, like perhaps the first letter in each word. “But that isn’t the answer in this case, so try something else.”

  “How do we find the hidden name? ” Peg asked.

  At once the Detective Club members began to count on their fingers. After a while, Peg held up five fingers, and Nancy nodded.

  “Girls,” said Peg, “try every fifth letter.”

  They did, and called out in unison, “It’s Nancy! The hidden name is Nancy!”

  There was much laughter, and the girls remarked, “Well, what do you know?” “Pretty clever and tricky,” and “How come we couldn’t figure it out ourselves?”

  When the noise subsided, Nancy said, “You just aren’t used to codes, but don’t worry—there’s plenty more where that came from. This was just a teaser. Karen and I have a mystery for all of us to solve. She will tell you about it.”

  Karen stood up and showed the others a paper that looked as if words on it might be a sentence, but the message made no sense.

  “This is a copy of a piece of paper my father found at the bank in the safe-deposit box of a Mr. Carvello who died. Dad is an executor and is trying to settle the estate. In the will, Mr. Carvello left everything to a children’s home, but nothing of value has been found in his house except a few pieces of furniture. Since Mr. Carvello was reputed to be wealthy, this seems strange. But Dad did tell me the man was an ec
centric.”

  Nancy asked, “Does your dad think this paper may contain a clue to something of value that’s hidden?”

  “He does,” Karen replied. “He planned to take the message to a specialist in breaking codes, but he said if the members of our Detective Club wanted to work on it, he’d wait a couple of days.”

  “We’ll certainly try,” Nancy replied, and the other girls said, “You bet.”

  Nancy took the paper and copied the strange words on the blackboard.

  FSSU CSI KZFPZAFX IXOZIB VG CZFQX CFSSI

  Peg called out, “It looks like some foreign language!”

  “It sure does,” Martie agreed. “Nancy, how do we tackle this?”

  “First, look for double letters. Then, figure out what double letters occur most frequently in words.”

  After several moments Honey said, “Not AA, except in ‘baa, baa,’ but that’s not likely to be in a code. Say, how about EE?”

  Nancy nodded, and Peg said, “Double I isn’t usual, but double O is. And there’s BB and CC and DD and FF and GG and LL and MM and NN and double P and—”

  “You’d better try the vowels first,” Nancy advised.

  Karen was saying, “Feed, feel ...”

  Sue struggled with BOO. “Maybe book. COO— perhaps cool. Maybe fool, food ...”

  Nancy reminded the club members that she doubted the first F meant F, rather some other transposed letter.

  Sue continued as she had started. “GOO, LOO. Maybe the word is look!”

  “That’s a clever guess,” Nancy said. She wrote down the letters of the alphabet, one under the other. Then she put S next to O, F next to L, and wrote U alongside K.

  Peg had another clue. “The last word has an SS for OO and an F for an L. Could the word be floor?”

  “Let’s try it,” said Nancy. “If it’s correct, it would give us C for F and F for L, and S for O, and I for R.”

  The girls were excited. Now it was easy to fill in FALSE FLOOR. Sure they were on the right track, each member worked diligently. Letter after letter was chalked on the board.

  Suddenly, Peg cried out, “I think I can see the pattern!”

  Nancy smiled. “I see it, too.”

  “I suppose I’m slow,” Cathy said, “but I don’t get it. Will you tell me?”

  “It’s the last letter of the alphabet, then the first,” Peg explained. “Then comes the second to last and the second, the third to last and the third, and so on.”

  Peg slapped her forehead with her palm. “Of course! How could I have missed it?”

  “It’s quite confusing,” Nancy admitted. “Just to get it all clear in our minds, let’s write each code letter followed by the corresponding letter in the alphabet.”

  The girls did, and came up with the following columns:Z=A

  A=B

  Y=C

  B=D

  X = E

  C=F

  W=G

  D=H

  V=I

  E=J

  U=K

  F=L

  T=M

  G=N

  S=O

  H=P

  R = Q

  I=R

  Q = S

  J=T

  P=U

  K=V

  O=W

  L = X

  N=Y

  M=Z

  When this was done, Nancy said, “Now let’s see if we can decipher the mysterious message. Just write the corresponding letters underneath the code letters.”

  The girls did, and cried out in amazement.

  FSSU CSI KZFPZAFX IXOZIB VG CZFQT CFSSI LOOK FOR VALUABLE REWARD IN FALSE FLOOR

  Karen jumped up. “I must tell my dad about this right away!”

  Nancy said, “Ask him if we may go out to Mr. Carvello’s mansion and try to find the false floor and the treasure!”

  Karen called her father and talked for a long time. Then she hung up, smiling. “Dad was absolutely thrilled. Doesn’t see how we broke the code so fast. He’s leaving the front-door key at his office. He’s sorry he can’t wait for us, but he has to go to a business meeting. Says we’ll need extra nourishment for our afternoon’s work, so he’s treating us all to lunch at the golf club. We’ll take my station wagon.”

  Two hours later the girls reached Mr. Carvello’s residence, and Karen let them in.

  “What a gloomy place!” Cathy Chase exclaimed, discovering that the electricity had been turned off. “Imagine living here all alone!”

  Nancy pointed out that the curtains were drawn.

  “Let’s open them,” Cathy urged. “This place gives me the creeps the way it is.”

  The girls lifted shades and pulled back drapes. Instantly, the first floor became very attractive as sunlight fell on the rugs, furniture, and pictures.

  The searchers began to turn back the carpeting and move the furnishings, hunting for a false floor. They went from room to room examining every inch, but found nothing.

  Finally Peg stood up to stretch her back. “We’ve sure made a mess of this place, and yet haven’t discovered the treasure.” She sighed.

  The others restored the furniture to the proper places and went to the second floor. Here it was difficult to work, as beds and bureaus were heavy to move. It took the girls over an hour to finish their search of the upstairs.

  “And no false floor,” Sue complained.

  Nancy smiled. “A good detective never allows herself to be discouraged. Come on, let’s try the third floor.”

  The Detective Club members climbed the steep steps. At the top they saw two bedrooms and an attic.

  “My hunch is,” said Nancy, “that these rooms won’t give us a clue, but the attic may. Suppose two of you examine the bedrooms. The rest of us will check the attic.”

  It was soon evident that neither of the rooms contained a false floor, so all of the girls concentrated on the big, open attic. There were many trunks and boxes, and the place was cluttered. In order to examine the wooden floor beneath, the young detectives had to shift the objects around until their arms ached.

  “Nancy, do you think Mr. Carvello might have meant the floor of a trunk?” Peg asked, rubbing her left shoulder.

  “He could have. Let’s find out.”

  Each trunk was turned upside down and tapped thoroughly. They proved to be solid.

  “Guess again, Peg,” Cathy teased.

  “I’m all out of guesses. We’ve certainly covered this house from top to bottom!”

  “With one exception,” Nancy reminded her. “The cellar.”

  “Oh, no!” Sue groaned. “I’m exhausted!”

  But she trooped down to the basement with the others, not wanting to admit defeat.

  Each trunk was turned upside down and tapped thoroughly.

  “That false floor had better be here,” Karen declared, “or I’ll never bother to decipher another code!”

  A series of rooms made up the basement. First the club members entered a canned fruit closet, its shelves bare. The floor was solid cement. While the girls were busy examining a rec room, they suddenly noticed that Nancy was missing.

  “Where’d she go?” Karen asked, and called her friend’s name.

  There was no answer! Worried, she and the others ran along the corridor calling the young detective and opening doors. Finally they came to a large door and had a hard time opening it. When it budged, they were relieved and surprised. Nancy stood inside!

  “You gave us a real scare!” Karen said.

  “I’m sorry,” Nancy apologized. “But I found this refrigeration room—”

  “This is the biggest freezer I’ve ever seen!” Sue giggled.

  “It certainly is huge,” Nancy agreed. “I had a sudden hunch that maybe the code meant the floor of a refrigerator or freezer, so I hunted for one. I walked in here and examined the box thoroughly, but found nothing. By the way, it’s a good thing the power was turned off, or I’d be frozen by now.”

  “Icicle Nancy,” Sue kidded.

  “Girls,”
Nancy said suddenly, “I have another hunch. Look at what we’re standing on!”

  For the first time the others realized that the floor was a heavy, wooden slatted mat on top of cement.

  Karen exclaimed, “The false floor! Oh, let’s pick the mat up and see what’s underneath! ”

  It took the combined strength of all to turn the mat up on end. They stared at what was underneath—a two-foot-square section set into the cement with a pull ring!

  Karen tugged at it. At last, with Sue’s help, she pulled up the slab of cement. Underneath lay a metal box. The girls lifted it out.

  “This must contain the treasure!” Karen cried out. She tried to open the lid of the metal container, but it would not budge.

  Everyone sighed in frustration, then Nancy spoke up. “Karen, maybe your dad has a key to this.”

  “Right. Let’s take the box to his office.”

  The girls locked the house and left hurriedly in the station wagon. Mr. Carpenter had returned from his meeting and stared unbelievingly at the metal box when Karen set it on his desk. Quickly she told how the girls had solved the mystery.

  “Please open it if you have a key,” she begged.

  Her father took a large bunch of keys from his desk drawer. “I hope one of these fits,” he said. “I found them in Mr. Carvello’s house, but they were not marked.”

  After several tries he picked a slender key that fit. There was a click of the lock, then he raised the lid.

  “Money!” Karen cried out.

  Bills were tied in bundles. Mr. Carpenter lifted them out one by one and asked the girls to count them. For several minutes no one spoke, then one by one the club members called out a sum.

  Karen’s father added them on a machine. Finally he exclaimed, “That’s unbelievable! There is a hundred and fifty thousand dollars here!”

  “And it’s all for the children’s home!” Karen exclaimed.

  Her father looked at Nancy Drew. “This is an amazing bit of detective work.”

  She smiled and said, “There are very bright girls in our club.”