The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book Page 5

b. Straight

  c. Wavy

  d. Kinky

  “Next come the eyes,” said Nancy. She drew a line from one eye to the margin. “Get out your notebooks, girls, and copy what we have so far.”

  While they did this she wrote in the margin:

  4. Eyesa. Color

  b. Shape: oval, round, almond

  c. Size

  d. Bloodshot

  e. Excessive blinking

  The next facial feature to be studied was the forehead. Nancy wrote the following descriptions on the blackboard:

  5. Foreheada. Bulging

  b. Prominent

  c. Wrinkled

  The girls jotted this down, then Sue asked, “How about the shape of the face?”

  “That’s next,” Nancy said, and wrote:

  6. Shape of facea. Round

  b. Oval

  c. Broad

  d. Long

  “That’s easy,” Karen remarked. “You can’t change the shape of a person’s face, because of the skull structure.”

  Nancy said, “But look carefully for scars, cuts, rashes, and of course beards and mustaches. Does the beard nearly cover the face, or only partially? Is it well trimmed? Is the mustache long or short? Does it match the beard and hair?”

  Peg groaned as she took notes. “This lesson is a big order. I don’t see how I can remember all these things.”

  Nancy chuckled. “We haven’t finished yet. Peg, how many kinds of eyebrows are there?”

  “Heavy, skimpy.” She thought a moment. “Long, short—I give up.”

  Martie raised her hand. “Straight and arched.”

  “I know a couple,” Sue called out. “Slanted, plucked.”

  “What about color?” Nancy asked. “Is it different from the hair, beard, or mustache?”

  Sue giggled. “My eyebrows are darker than my hair.”

  “Now we come to the nose and mouth,” Nancy went on. “Noses certainly come in many varieties: short, medium, long, straight, tilted, hooked, thick, or thin. Look for injuries—a scar, or a nose that’s deformed from an accident, like in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, or boxing.”

  Karen spoke up. “Or just by getting into an ordinary fight with another person. My brother got his nose broken and had to have cosmetic surgery to fix it.”

  Nancy nodded, then mentioned the mouth. She suggested that the girls describe as many shapes as they could think of.

  Honey’s eyes lit up. “The biggest one belongs to a clown. Wouldn’t that be a great disguise for someone? Nobody could identify the person behind the makeup.”

  “I can think of the opposite,” said Peg. “A rosebud-sized mouth. And how about thin lips and thick lips.”

  “And notice the teeth,” Nancy added. “Are they real or artificial, white or discolored, and are there spaces between any of them?”

  Sue added, “You wouldn’t see that if the suspect was running away from you.”

  “True,” Nancy replied, “but sometimes you might be spying and have a good chance to make note of these points.”

  She stood up. “Now let’s go and describe some real people.”

  “Where?” Karen asked.

  “The River Heights Airport. It’s a busy place with thousands of incoming and outgoing travelers.”

  “Sounds great!” Sue exclaimed. “Maybe we can catch a villain!”

  Excitedly, the Detective Club members set off in Nancy’s car. Twenty minutes later they reached the airport, which was alive with activity. After they parked, the girls went into the main building. A man banged his heavy suitcase against Sue as he dashed past her, but did not apologize.

  “You have a nerve!” she muttered.

  He turned for a second, and she glimpsed an angular face with a square-set jaw and piercing black eyes.

  Just then a very stout woman wearing a shawl over her head and shoulders hurried past the group.

  “What did you notice about her?” Nancy asked.

  The girls looked at one another.

  “She was heavy,” Karen said. “But what else?”

  Their teacher smiled. “The woman had short curly hair and sunken cheeks, as if she had no teeth. She had small hands and feet, and wore bedroom slippers.”

  “Nancy,” said Peg, “you’re positively too much for me. But here comes an elderly man. Let’s see if we can describe him better.”

  As the gentleman passed the bench where the club members had seated themselves, he smiled. After he was gone, the girls compared notes.

  “He had gray hair,” Sue said, “and blue eyes. A long thin neck, and long legs. He wore a gray suit and black shoes. His hair was short, straight, and thick.”

  “That’s much better,” Nancy commented. “Keep your eyes open.”

  A flight had arrived at gate 1, and a group of people walked down a corridor toward the girls’ bench. They all kept a normal pace except for one young woman who elbowed her way through the crowd at a fast clip. She held a beaded clutch purse in one hand and a large shopping bag in the other.

  At once Nancy thought, That’s an expensive purse, probably imported, and my guess is there’s a lot of money in it.

  The young woman’s plain dark blue suit and tailored blouse were not the appropriate attire to accompany such a purse. It was definitely meant to be carried with evening clothes.

  “Watch that woman,” Nancy directed her companions.

  “How can I?” Sue complained. “She’s running fast.”

  “She’s probably trying to make a connecting plane,” Karen observed. “She’s turning toward gate three.”

  “She’s having trouble running while wearing her high heels, too,” Honey added.

  “What about her hair, eyes, nose, and mouth?” Nancy asked.

  “She has big lips and plenty of lipstick,” Martie replied.

  None of the club members could tell the color of the stranger’s eyes, but they agreed that her hair was dark brown. They were still discussing her when, suddenly, a woman’s shrill cry rang through the terminal.

  “I’ve been robbed! Quick, somebody catch the thief!”

  My guess is there ’s a lot of money in that purse, Nancy thought.

  Nancy and her friends hurried toward the distressed passenger.

  “What does the thief look like?” Karen asked the elderly woman.

  “I don’t know! Suddenly, I missed my beaded black purse. It must have happened while we were coming off the plane.”

  Instantly, Nancy thought of the young woman in the blue outfit. Before she could say anything, a guard joined the group and asked if he could be of help. After hearing the story, he asked, “Did anyone see a person snatch Mrs. Allen’s purse?”

  “No!” a passerby replied.

  “Are you a police officer?” Nancy asked. “Do you have the authority to make arrests?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “I think we have a lead. Will you and Mrs. Allen please follow us? We saw a woman with a purse just like Mrs. Allen described.”

  The guard looked surprised. “You did?”

  “Yes. If we hurry, I’m sure we’ll catch her in time.”

  The Detective Club members started off, with the guard close at their heels. Mrs. Allen could not keep up the pace and fell behind. The guard turned back, but she begged him to go ahead with the girls.

  Soon the group rushed up to the metal detector at gate 3. The guard asked the attendant if she had noticed a young woman in a blue suit carrying a beaded purse and a large shopping bag.

  “I noticed a woman who fits your description, but she had no purse.”

  “She probably hid it in the shopping bag,” Honey spoke up.

  “No doubt,” the guard said, and quickly explained the situation. The attendant waved the group through the gate, and they hurried on.

  The last passengers were just boarding. The guard asked the stewardess to delay takeoff while his group hunted for the suspect. She telephoned the pilot, and within seconds he appeared. When he heard t
he story, the pilot said to Nancy, “Point her out. We’ll get to the bottom of this!”

  Nancy led the way down the aisle. The other girls followed behind the pilot and the guard.

  The passengers looked up in surprise and craned their necks as the group went by. Toward the rear of the plane, Nancy suddenly stopped. She had found the young woman sitting next to the cruel-looking man who had banged his bag into Sue in the terminal!

  “There she is,” Nancy whispered to the men, and her friends nodded in agreement.

  The guard leaned over and asked the suspect if she had a black beaded purse.

  “Of course not!” the young woman snapped.

  “May I see the bag you are carrying?”

  “No. It’s none of your business!”

  The guard showed his police badge. “I want to see it.”

  At this point her companion spoke up. “Listen, this lady’s got rights!”

  “I have a whole group of witnesses who saw her with a black beaded purse that may be stolen,” the guard replied evenly.

  There was a disturbance in the background as Mrs. Allen pushed her way forward. “I own the stolen purse and everything in it! Give it to me at once!”

  She and the suspect glared at each other. Then to everyone’s amazement, the woman began to cry. “Yes, I have it. I don’t want to go to jail. He—he”—she looked at her companion—“he made me do it!”

  “What are you talking about?” the man bellowed. “I don’t even know you!”

  The guard looked at him intently. “Ah, but I recognize you! You’re called Sneaky-Eyed Pete and were in prison for smuggling diamonds, and you escaped. The two of you had better come along with me.”

  The couple did not budge, but Mrs. Allen did. Pushing the guard aside, she reached down and swooped up the woman’s shopping bag. She rummaged inside and drew out a beautiful beaded black purse.

  “This is mine!” she cried out triumphantly, and un-snapped it. “My money’s still in it, and so are the diamonds. My husband is a jeweler, and I bought them for him.”

  “I don’t want to go to jail. He made me do it!” the woman cried out.

  “Where?” the guard inquired.

  “A dealer in New York.”

  After glancing at the stones, the guard said, “I’m inclined to believe that those diamonds are part of a shipment stolen in Holland and smuggled into this country.”

  “What!” Mrs. Allen was shocked. “You mean I bought stolen merchandise?”

  “Perhaps not,” the guard calmed her. “Don’t worry about it. But give me the name of the dealer, and the police will investigate it and let you know.”

  The pilot now conferred briefly with the guard, then said, “It’s past takeoff time. Will all of you please disembark?”

  The two men forced the thief and the smuggler to unstrap their seat belts and go with the guard.

  “I’ll call for another officer to help you,” the *pilot offered as the group walked toward the front of the plane.

  “I can’t thank you enough,” Mrs. Allen said gratefully to the girls. “You certainly have sharp eyes.”

  The club members smiled, and Nancy said she hoped Mrs. Allen would have no trouble recovering her money from the New York dealer if the diamonds had been smuggled. She said good-bye to the woman, who followed the prisoners and the guards into the security office. Then the girls left the terminal and walked to the parking lot.

  “Wow!” Sue exclaimed as they climbed into the car. “And I was only kidding when I said we might catch a villain!”

  Nancy chuckled. “We didn’t only catch one, we caught two!”

  ACTIVITY

  Nancy suggests that you play detective-for-the-day and go to your local mall or movie theater and observe people’s traits. Write down your notes and observations of passersby. Always remember to be subtle and try not to stare ... too hard.

  CHAPTER VII

  THE QUEEN’S CAMEO

  Lost and Found

  “I HAVE a great mystery for us to solve!” said Honey Rushmore as the Detective Club members met at Nancy Drew’s home. “There’s only one problem. The mystery is a year old.”

  “A year is a long time,” Nancy said with a chuckle. “But tell us, what is it all about?”

  “My mother took a trip last July. She was wearing a valuable cameo that was very old and had once belonged to a queen.”

  “A queen’s possession?” Peg asked in awe. “How did your mother get it?”

  “I really don’t know,” Honey replied. “But I remember as a child I was never allowed to touch the cameo because it was so valuable.”

  “What’s the mystery?” Karen interrupted impatiently.

  “Sometime after Mother boarded the sleeper train back to River Heights,” Honey went on, “she lost the pin. She has no idea whether it came off her dress in the station, on the train, or in the street. When she arrived home, she discovered it was gone.”

  Sue wanted to know whether Mrs. Rushmore had been in touch with the police.

  “Oh, yes,” Honey answered. “They made a search of the station and the train, but they didn’t find the cameo. Then Mother contacted her insurance company, and they searched, too. But still the pin did not turn up. Finally the insurance company paid her what they considered it was worth. But Mother’s convinced that its value was at least ten times that much. She feels very bad about the loss because the brooch had been in her family a long time.”

  Cathy sighed. “If the police and the insurance people couldn’t find the cameo, it seems to me there isn’t much chance we can.”

  Nancy smiled. “Don’t forget that the members of this Detective Club never give up. I classify this case under Lost and Found. I’ll give you some hints on how to go about the sleuthing. First of all, did the police and insurance company go to all the pawnshops and fences in this area?”

  “What are fences?” Sue asked.

  Nancy explained that these were little-known places where people take stolen property to be sold illegally. “Such stores differ from legitimate pawnshops, where a person can leave an item in exchange for cash. The pawnbroker will not sell it for a certain length of time and will return it to the owner when he or she pays back the money with interest.”

  Honey assured the girls that pawnshops had been investigated. “I don’t know about fences, and I don’t believe my mother would. But I’m sure the police and the insurance company must.”

  “Why does your mother want to look for the cameo now?” Peg inquired.

  “She saw a similar pin in a jewelry shop downtown,” Honey explained. “It was priced much higher than what Mother had received from the insurance company. Now, suddenly, she wants to try finding it again and has given us the job.”

  “That’s very flattering,” Nancy remarked. “We’ll certainly do our best.”

  “But where do we start?” Martie asked.

  Nancy said she would like to hear more about Mrs. Rushmore’s train trip. “Honey, what car was your mother in? How often did she go to the dining car? Did she leave her own car for any other reason than to eat?”

  “I have no idea,” Honey said.

  “Do you think we could talk to your mother, if she’s at home?”

  “Oh, she’s home,” Honey replied. “She was hoping you would take the case and said she would wait to find out.”

  Nancy brought out her car, and the club members piled in. They reached the Rushmore house a few minutes later.

  Honey’s mother greeted the girls with a smile. “I just knew you’d agree to look for my brooch,” she said.

  “Yes,” Nancy replied. “We’d like to try.”

  After the girls were seated in the living room, she said, “Mrs. Rushmore, we want to ask you a few questions. First of all, what was the name of your sleeping car?”

  “Mount Rushmore. It was such an amazing coincidence. That’s probably why I can still remember it.”

  Honey’s mother went on to say that she had gone to the din
ing car once during her journey, but other than that had not left the sleeper.

  Nancy asked whether anyone in the dining car had remarked about her cameo.

  Mrs. Rushmore smiled. “Yes, now that you ask me, I remember. I sat across the table from a charming woman. She admired the pin and thought it was quite unique. She had never seen one like it.”

  “Then,” Nancy concluded, “we can rule out the possibility that you lost your cameo getting on the train.”

  Mrs. Rushmore nodded.

  Sue spoke up. “Did you talk to anyone else during your trip?”

  Mrs. Rushmore thought a moment, then replied, “No. I read most of the time. There weren’t many passengers on the train, and no one sat near me.”

  “Were you jostled at any time, including when you got on and off the sleeper?” Nancy inquired.

  “No. Not that I remember.”

  “After arriving in River Heights,” Cathy said, “how did you go home?”

  “Our car was parked at the station. And it was carefully inspected, of course. The pin was not in it.”

  “From what you’ve told me,” Nancy said, “I think the cameo was lost rather than stolen.”

  “Why?” Honey wanted to know.

  “If a thief had taken the pin, he was probably exclusively a jewel thief. I think only a knowledgeable jewel thief would have recognized the cameo’s value. And the police had plenty of time to track him down in the past year. They have a record of known jewel thieves and their fences. Also, the fact that few people were on the train and you don’t remember being jostled suggest that you probably lost the brooch.”

  “But then why wasn’t it found?” Mrs. Rushmore asked.

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’d like to call my dad. There’s something I want to do, and he can help us.”

  Honey directed her to the hall telephone, and Nancy dialed her father’s number. When Mr. Drew answered, she said, “Dad, I’m working on a case that has to do with sleeping cars. Don’t I recall that several of them are in the railroad yard of River Heights? We’re looking for one called Mount Rushmore. Could you find out if it’s there and, if so, arrange for the Detective Club to investigate it?”