Captive Witness Read online

  “Would that be so terrible?” George asked.

  “No. It’s just that when I arrive in Vienna I’ll probably need a car to get around.”

  “You could not get on a bus,” came a booming voice they all recognized. It was Herr Gutterman struggling up out of the depths of an armchair that had concealed even his massive bulk. He waddled over to their table and, making an elaborate, somewhat comic bow, he said good morning.

  “May I sit down with you lovely ladies?” he asked, and then pulled out a chair before anyone could reply. “Ah, I thank you. Now, Miss Drew, you must not think of taking a bus to Vienna. You have no idea how crowded they are at this time. Probably you would have to stand, and who wants to stand when they are on their vacation, ja?”

  Nancy smiled sweetly. “I don’t think I have much choice. ”

  “Ah, but you do, beautiful lady! I myself will see that you get to Vienna in the perfect safety and comfort of my own automobile driven by my own chauffeur.”

  At this point, Ned Nickerson strode into the dining room. The sound of the boorish Herr Gutterman offering Nancy a ride to Vienna made him almost trip and spill the cup of coffee he was carrying.

  Continuing to smile sweetly at Herr Gutterman and looking over his shoulder directly at Ned, Nancy said, “Herr Gutterman, that is extremely nice of you. I accept your offer if we can leave within the next hour or two.”

  Both Bess and George had to struggle hard not to say something, and Nancy felt George’s foot nudge her own under the table.

  “Excellent, excellent,” Herr Gutterman bellowed as he heaved himself to his feet. “I will make arrangements immediately and we shall leave—at noon?”

  “That would be wonderful,” Nancy said. “Thank you so very much.”

  Rubbing his hands with pleasure, Herr Gutterman left the hotel while Ned rushed over and sank down in the vacated seat.

  “Nancy,” he said, his eyes filled with disbelief, “you are going to accept a ride to Vienna with that man?”

  “Yes,” Nancy replied, her eyes twinkling. “What’s so upsetting about that?”

  Ned began to feel hot under the collar. “You and that two-ton creep?” he asked again, his voice rising. “Wait a minute. Let’s back up. Why are you going to Vienna today? Another detective assignment?”

  Nancy nodded.

  “In the middle of our tour? Oh, now, Nancy.” Then he remembered his original objection. “And you’re going with Gutterman?”

  Nancy couldn’t contain her laughter any longer and she doubled up.

  “What’s so funny?” Ned cried, genuinely upset.

  “Nothing, nothing.” She giggled. “And don’t get all strung out. Here’s the joke on Herr Gutterman. I want you to go with me to Vienna! Just imagine Gutterman’s face when he sees both you and me waiting for him! You will come, won’t you?”

  6

  Kidnapped!

  Ned’s face changed from a look of intense anxiety to one of such unrestrained happiness that all three girls began laughing.

  “Very funny, Nancy Drew,” said Ned. “Very funny. You are the worst tease I ever met. Now what would you do if I said no?”

  Nancy wrinkled her nose at him. “I suppose I’d have to drop into a hole in the earth when Herr Gutterman came to pick me up. You wouldn’t let that happen, would you?”

  “Of course he wouldn’t,” George said. “He would follow you to the ends of the earth. ”

  “To Vienna, anyway,” Ned declared.

  The young people split up, Nancy and Ned making their good-byes and explaining to Professor Bagley that they would meet him and the tour in Vienna on Sunday. At noon, they were both standing in front of the hotel with their bags.

  Within a few minutes, a beautiful brown sedan pulled up with Herr Gutterman at the wheel. He was beaming happily as he fought his way out from under the steering wheel which pressed against his bulging stomach.

  Hurrying around the car, he picked up Nancy’s bags and placed them in the trunk. As he did so, Nancy glanced around for Ned. He was gone! And Herr Gutterman was opening the rear door and gesturing for her to enter and be seated.

  “Oh,” Nancy said, “could you wait a moment, please? I’ve forgotten something.” Turning, she dashed back into the hotel where Bess and George were watching the scene through a window.

  “Did you lose something, Nancy?” Bess giggled.

  “Where is Ned?” Nancy cried.

  “Oh, Ned!” Bess said. “You’re looking for Ned?”

  “Come on, you two, what are you doing to me?” She stopped. “Oh, I get it. He’s getting even for my teasing this morning. Okay, I apologize. Now please tell me where he is.”

  Ned appeared, almost magically, at Nancy’s elbow. “Oh, Nancy, I’m so sorry.” He grinned. “I just wanted to make sure you really wanted me to go.”

  “Oh, you!” Nancy laughed.

  The two young people hurried outside where Herr Gutterman waited impatiently. Nancy smiled at him. “Herr Gutterman, I hope you won’t mind, but my friend Ned Nickerson also has to go to Vienna. I thought that with so much room in your big car perhaps you wouldn’t mind giving him a lift, too.”

  “I’d very much appreciate it,” Ned said, using his most humble tone.

  The barest flicker of annoyance passed over Herr Gutterman’s face, but he quickly covered it by laughing loudly, assuring Ned he was delighted. For good measure, he slapped him on the back—a bit harder than necessary.

  With great ceremony, he ushered them into the back seat, then trotted around front and squeezed himself into the driver’s seat. He called through the speaking tube into the rear seat. “You will pardon me if I do the driving myself until we pick up my chauffeur. He is on the other side of town.”

  “Perfectly all right,” Nancy called, settling back in the plush interior. “What a beautiful car,” she said. “I see that it’s been freshly painted.” Some of the paint had come off on Nancy’s finger as she touched the door.

  “Yes,” Herr Gutterman replied, “I try to keep my cars looking new.”

  “Hmm,” Ned said, “a refrigerator, a telephone, a television set. Herr Gutterman, you travel in style.”

  Nancy noted a clicking sound. Herr Gutterman had locked all the doors electronically. Well, thought Nancy, nothing unusual about that. Dad’s car operates that way. Even so, the gesture made her uneasy.

  As they crossed Salzburg and slowed down to enter an alley adjoining an old building, a warning sounded in her brain. A freshly painted car. Why? A ride to Vienna. Why? Hotel rooms just when they needed them. Why was this seemingly innocuous pest so solicitous of the Americans?

  Nancy felt a shiver as Ned said, “Nancy, do you hear the engine of this car?”

  “No.”

  They both realized, simultaneously, what this meant. “Like the black car,” Ned whispered. “The same silent engine.”

  “It’s the same car, Ned. They painted it yesterday. The paint is still wet—and the doors are locked. ”

  Who was this Gutterman?

  As Nancy asked the question, the car pulled up to a doorway and a man dashed out. Gutterman squeezed out from behind the driver’s seat and the chauffeur slid in, turning to stare at Nancy and Ned. They gasped as they realized he was the short, wiry man with the pitted face—the man who had stolen the bus in Munich.

  Now the fat man began to take off his coat. Underneath he wore great pads that, as he slipped them off, made him lose seventy-five pounds in appearance. Next he removed his wig and began tugging at his mustache. With blond hair, no mustache, and considerably lighter in weight, he was the same man who had attempted the luggage theft at the Munich airport.

  “I can’t believe it,” Ned murmured.

  “Well, we saw it with our own eyes,” Nancy said. “And I thought I was so clever to get Herr Gutterman to drive us to Vienna. ”

  “Yeah,” Ned said. “Now what?”

  “Relax, I guess,” the girl detective said, “while we try to figure a way
out. ”

  “But there is nothing you can do, Nancy Drew,” came Gutterman’s voice through the communications system. “The doors are locked. The windows are tinted so that you can see out but no one can see into the rear compartment. I can see you by switching on a secret electrical impulse which clears the window separating us. All I have to do is press the button.”

  “Don’t worry, Nancy,” Ned whispered, “we’ve got to stop sometime, and there are bound to be cars nearby. Then we’ll yell our heads off. Someone will notice us.”

  Nancy nodded and then, as luck would have it, they found themselves side by side with a police car at a red light. Instantly, the two young people set up the loudest racket they could.

  “Help us!” Ned cried. “Help! Help!”

  “We’re being kidnapped,” Nancy yelled.

  But the more they shouted the less effect it seemed to have. The policemen sat, talking casually to each other. Not once did they turn in the right direction. At last, the police car drove away and Herr Gutterman’s annoying voice broke in on them again.

  “You shouldn’t shout like that.” Gutterman laughed. “You’ll ruin your voices. It’s futile, because the rear compartment is completely sound-proofed. I guess I forgot to tell you that. In fact, it is airtight. If air were not pumped in to you constantly, you could not breathe.”

  “What do you intend to do with us, Herr Gutterman—or whatever your name is?” Nancy questioned, looking at him, her blue eyes now like ice.

  “Herr Gutterman is as good a name as any,” their captor said. “My chauffeur is Herr Burger. As to what we will do with you, well, we will take you to a place where you will not be able to meddle in matters that don’t concern you. Whether you ever come back, I have not yet decided.”

  7

  Hazardous Ride

  Resigned to the fact that they could do nothing until their captors, at some point, opened the doors, Nancy and Ned did their best to relax as the silent brown car headed south and began climbing higher and higher into the magnificent Austrian Alps.

  Since every word could be monitored by Herr Gutterman, the couple talked of trivial matters while at the same time writing surreptitious notes on the pad Nancy kept in her bag.

  “Lovely weather, isn’t it?” Nancy asked as she scrawled a note.

  “Charming,” Ned replied as he watched Nancy’s words form on the page. “Charming. And with such delightful traveling companions.”

  Ned, Nancy had written, they must stop eventually if only to stretch their legs. When they do, let’s remember that I have this. Nancy pointed to a small, innocent-looking book with a blue cover which she held in her lap. She turned it slightly and Ned saw that along the spine, in the middle of the title, there were actually small holes cut out of the center of two o’s. The title made Ned grin: Noodles.

  Ned took the pad from Nancy, very casually, and scribbled his reply. Haven’t read the book. But I loved the movie. Why the holes?

  Nancy took back the pad and wrote two words: Tear gas. Reading them, Ned could hardly restrain himself. He wanted to shout but refrained. Instead, he wrote on the pad, Cleverest girl in River Heights. When the time comes, try to spray the big guy. I’ll jump the little fellow.

  My hero, Nancy wrote, stifling a giggle. Why don’t you jump the big one?

  “Beautiful scenery,” Ned said aloud. “Do you suppose Herr Gutterman and Herr Burger appreciate it?”

  “Why, of course,” Nancy said, adding, “I bet that before this trip is over, you’ll find tears in their eyes.”

  Herr Gutterman, who could hear everything they said, guffawed. “Enjoy the view, little ones,” he called out. “Enjoy it while you can.”

  “Is that a threat?” Nancy asked coolly.

  “Oh, let’s say, a final warning,” Gutterman rasped.

  “A warning about what?” Nancy asked, baiting the man. “What were we doing that could ever justify our abduction?”

  “Abduction? Oh, my, my, my, what a harsh word.”

  “That’s what the police would call it,” Ned chimed in.

  “The police! The police are so stupid and slow. You and I, Nancy Drew, are much quicker than the police. Much brighter.”

  “Very flattering,” Nancy said, “but I know too many policemen who catch too many people like you, so I can’t buy that line.”

  Gutterman laughed. “Like the ones in the police car a little while ago?” He roared again. “We don’t worry about the police, but we do worry about people who have big ideas. ”

  “Big ideas about what?” Nancy persisted, trying to find out just how much Gutterman knew of her activities. What, if anything, did he know about the mission to save the orphans; and did he also know about Nancy’s personal mission to find the stolen documentary, Captive Witness? Or was it possible that he was involved in some unknown project that concerned neither the orphans nor the film?

  Whatever the answers, Herr Gutterman remained silent, refusing to be drawn out on the subject. He sat sideways, keeping his eyes riveted on them, his mouth twisted in a mysterious, sardonic grin.

  As the car climbed higher, the road became more dangerous. They began traveling along two lines cut out of the mountainside with sheer cliffs falling away into beautiful, lush, green valleys across which wandered lovely, clear streams fed by the melting glaciers and snows of the Austrian Alps.

  Traffic was sparse with no cars traveling in their direction and only an occasional car or truck coming the other way. The open road made Herr Burger feel slightly exhilarated.

  “I’m a bit bored with this slow driving,” he called back to them. “I think I’ll show you how experienced Alpine drivers take these roads.”

  “Here we go.” Ned groaned. “A Saturday night cowboy. They’ve got them all over the world, I guess.”

  “Just hang on,” Nancy said. “No matter what Herr Burger does, I’m sure he wants to stay alive just as much as we do. ”

  Within the next few minutes, the couple began to doubt whether that was true. Herr Burger speeded up until he had the beautiful car careening around turns, spraying dust, pebbles, and bits of tire rubber into the air. Then, roaring down a relatively straight stretch of road, he threw the car into a skidding loop that took them within six inches of a cliff edge where there was no guardrail. Herr Gutterman’s only response was a bemused look and a question thrown over his shoulder at his captives.

  “Do you enjoy this, Miss Drew? Your friend seems a little blue around the lips. ”

  “Sorry about that,” Ned said. “I always turn blue when I’m happy.”

  “Is this fast enough for you, Miss Drew, or would you like Herr Burger to speed up? Are you frightened, Miss Drew? We wouldn’t want to frighten you.”

  Nancy looked at Ned. “He’s unbelievable,” she said. “He’s like some childish villain out of a bad movie. ”

  “Miss Drew? You’re not frightened, are you?” The noise of the squealing brakes and the flying gravel were making it difficult for Gutterman to hear them up front where the windows were open. He was gazing back at her, smiling cruelly.

  “No, no, I’m not frightened,” Nancy said, swinging wildly and hanging on to the strap. “Mr. Nickerson and I are terribly impressed, as a matter of fact. ”

  Gutterman’s face flushed beet-red. “Oh, is that so?” he snarled. “We’ll see how impressed you are when we start questioning you.”

  “Oh, please don’t question us,” Ned cried mockingly.

  Gutterman grew extremely angry at his prisoners’ refusal to show fear. His anger finally intensified to the breaking point when Herr Burger, negotiating another dangerous, screaming turn, caused Herr Gutterman to bang his head sharply against the window.

  The big man let fly a stream of German invective mixed with French and German phrases that gave Nancy the impression that Gutterman was calling Burger a lunatic and moron. Burger was so upset, he wound up swerving into the opposite lane where the car faced a huge truck coming the other way.

  For
a split second, it appeared the two vehicles would collide but at the last moment both drivers veered sharply and barely missed each other. The danger of a head-on smash, however, was avoided at the price of a worse possibility. Herr Burger, completely rattled, was now driving straight toward the edge of a cliff!

  “Look out!” Nancy and Ned cried with one voice as they both dropped down to the floor and covered their heads to minimize injuries in an accident.

  As they crouched there, doubled over, they felt the car veer violently again, and heard a splintering, crunching sound. The car stopped, and there was silence.

  Nancy was the first to bring her head slowly up to look out the window. “Oh, Ned,” she gasped quietly, “We’d better start praying. Look where we are.”

  8

  Danger in the Alps

  “Don’t move!” It was Gutterman’s voice, trembling and filled with fear. “Don’t even breathe.”

  All four passengers had good reason to obey the order because the car had gone partially through the guardrail and was teetering over the cliff. It’s right rear wheel hung out in space and the left one was poised on the very edge.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Burger cried, starting to climb out on his side, which was safely on the road.

  Gutterman stopped him with a snarl. “If you lay one foot on the ground, I’ll make you wish you were never born!”

  “But what can we do?” Burger whined.

  Gutterman pondered the question carefully. “It seems to me that you and I can’t get out because the weight of our friends in back will then topple the car right over the edge.”

  “You could open the back door on your side, Herr Burger. Just push the switch and unlock it, and Ned and I will get out slowly. Then you can get out, too,” Nancy said steadily.

  “No, you don’t,” Gutterman responded. “You two might make it and Burger could jump. With all the motion, the car would go over and take me with it. ”

  “Well, you can’t get out your side,” Nancy pointed out. “You’d step into space, just as I would.”