The Case of the Vanishing Veil Read online

  The girls looked at each other nervously.

  “Fraz, dear, this is Cecelia. Call me ASAP. Toodles,” said a familiar voice from the answering machine.

  One thing was now clear in Nancy’s mind. If the veil was there, she was going to have to find it fast.

  While Bess and George searched upstairs, Nancy attacked the living room. She opened one drawer after another, one cabinet after another. Magazines, stationery, bills, check receipts… This guy was organized. There was a whole drawer of seashells and another whole drawer filled with different kinds of knives. Too bad he didn’t have a drawer for veils.

  Then Nancy heard a loud crash upstairs. She sucked in her breath. Had they broken something?

  “Don’t worry,” Bess shouted a second later. “Nothing’s broken.”

  Nancy was working in the dining room by then. Silverware, plates, tablecloths, napkins, candlesticks, candles, matches — everything had its own drawer.

  “Five minutes are up!” yelled George. Slam-bang. Drawers opening and closing. The linen closet — towels, washcloths, soap — and a large plastic trash bag with a lace wedding veil! Nancy pulled it out and examined it closely. The veil had a feathered border — just like the one in Meredith’s photo!

  “Hold everything!” Nancy yelled. “I’ve got it. I’m holding it! I’ve actually got Meredith’s veil!”

  Bess and George dashed down the stairs and joined Nancy in the dining room to look at the veil.

  “Great,” George said. “Now let’s get out of here.”

  The girls slipped out the back door and got into their car.

  As Bess drove away, she said, “I can’t believe it. We’ve really got it this time. Meredith’s own veil.”

  “I wonder what Frazier will be more angry about. Our finding the veil or messing up his house,” George said.

  Nancy rode in silence for the next few miles, enjoying her success. Why didn’t it feel like a perfect triumph? Something was still nagging at her in the back of her mind.

  “Every time I think I’ve solved this case, something tells me I haven’t,” Nancy said. She spread the veil out in her lap and admired the delicate rose pattern. It was a beautiful, simple design — just one enormous rose with many petals clustered in the middle.

  “You found the thieves and you found the veil,” George said. “Sounds to me like the score is two-nothing in your favor.”

  “Cecelia wouldn’t steal something for the fun of it. She’d only steal this veil if it were worth a fortune,” Nancy said. She thought for a moment, and then suddenly the answer seemed so clear. Cecelia and money. Of course! “What’s the only big money up for grabs these days?” Nancy said.

  “The Thorndike fortune,” Bess answered quickly.

  “Right. And I think I see the connection,” Nancy said.

  She looked up and saw that they were stopped at a red light. Across the street was a small cluster of shops. Impulsively, Nancy hopped out of the car with the veil. “I’ll be right back,” she shouted.

  “What should we do?” Bess called. “Park the car?”

  “Yes,” Nancy said. “Wait for me!”

  Nancy zipped across the street and into a photocopy shop.

  “Hi. I want you to blow something up,” she said to the clerk.

  “This is a copy shop, not a terrorist headquarters,” said the young man behind the counter. Then he laughed with his entire thin body. “I never get tired of that joke,” he said. “Anyway, this is a do-it-yourself place. Pick a machine. I’m just here to bother people.”

  Nancy put her two sketches of the Thorndike crest on the glass and enlarged them 155%. But the enlargements still weren’t as big as she wanted so she enlarged the copies. The crests looked bigger, but still not perfect.

  “What are these?” the shop clerk asked, examining the crests.

  “They’re sketches of family crests,” Nancy explained. “I’m trying to enlarge the sketched designs to match this.” Nancy took the veil out of its bag and looked at the rose tatted on the center back. Then she made a third set of copies. This time the enlargements were as big as the rose on the veil.

  The clerk pointed to the sketch from the mahogany drawers. “This one’s all junked up and busy in the middle. And this one,” he said about the crest from the old plates, “is simpler. It’s less crowded in the center.”

  “That’s right,” Nancy said. “Watch this.”

  She placed the veil over the photocopy of the crest from the china plates. The rose fit perfectly in the uncluttered center of the design.

  “Hey, now that one looks just like the other drawing,” the clerk said.

  “I know,” Nancy said, smiling triumphantly and thinking to herself: That’s because this rose is part of the famous Thorndike crest!

  14

  Kidnapped!

  Nancy quickly paid the clerk for the copies and then carefully laid the veil back in its plastic bag.

  She rushed out of the store, almost bumping into someone on the sidewalk.

  “Sorry,” Nancy said, looking up and down the

  street for the rental car and Bess and George.

  BRAAP! — a car horn blast.

  Bess was signaling to Nancy from across the street and halfway down the block. But Nancy’s mind was spinning with all the new information. She saw the passing cars and her friends waving. But she didn’t see the silver car parked right across from the store, nor did she see the tall blond man coming right up behind her.

  Nancy started to cross the street, weaving through the traffic until she reached the yellow line in the middle. I have a lot of questions for Meredith’s grandmother, Nancy thought to her, self, such as question number one: Where did she get a veil with the Thorndike crest on it?

  Suddenly hands grabbed her from behind, locking her arms tightly.

  “Nancy!” Bess’s voice came from down the street.

  Nancy turned her head and looked straight into the glaring face of Frazier Bancroft. The sun glinted off his diamond earring.

  “Let me help you across the street,” he said, forcing her quickly, roughly toward his car. “Don’t you know you can get hurt jaywalking?”

  Nancy struggled to get away, but Frazier was too strong. He flung open the door on the driver’s side of his car and brutally shoved Nancy inside, pushing her across the front seat.

  Nancy could see George and Bess running toward the silver car as Frazier slipped behind the wheel. But before they reached the car, Frazier slammed and locked the car doors tight.

  Nancy’s last chance to tell her friends about the veil was slipping away.

  “The veil!” she mouthed to them through the glass windows. “It has the crest! Rose Strauss is a Thorndike!”

  “You just made a big mistake,” Frazier said.

  Nancy reached for the door handle but Frazier grabbed her wrist and held it tight.

  With his free hand he quickly reached into the glove compartment between the seats and pulled a dirty, ugly-smelling rag from a plastic bag. Then he powerfully clamped the rag over Nancy’s face.

  “Chloroform…“ The word came from her lips and trailed off to a whisper as the world got farther and farther away.

  The screeching of the car’s front tires on asphalt was the last thing Nancy heard as she passed out.

  Road noise woke Nancy up. It was the roar of tires on the road at high speeds. Her wrists hurt and so did her legs. This was the second time this creep had tied her up while she was unconscious!

  She opened her eyes just a little. She was lying cramped in a C-shape in the backseat. Frazier was driving with one hand on the wheel and one hand gripping a car telephone.

  He kept changing lanes in short, fast moves, bouncing Nancy all over the back of the car.

  “I’m trying to keep up with them, but they know we’re following,” he said into the phone.

  As Nancy’s mind slowly began functioning again, she realized what Frazier was talking about. It must be George and Bess! He wa
s following them. She wasn’t sure where they were going, but she could make a good guess. They were probably on their way to Rose Strauss’s house.

  “Hey, look,” Frazier said angrily into the car phone. “I kept the veil because I wanted to keep the veil, all right? Try going around in that circle for a while.”

  Nancy didn’t want Frazier to know she was awake. She cautiously stretched her neck until she could peek out the back window. They were on a highway — a fairly deserted highway. Behind them, six car lengths back, was the one car she didn’t want to see: Cecelia’s milky white limo with its LICORICE license plate.

  “Look, sis,” said Frazier. He changed lanes quickly again. “People think you’re just a crazy, flaky nut. That’s fine. But I grew up with you. I learned through experience to keep my back covered. You want to know why I didn’t burn the veil? Because it’s my insurance policy that you’ll pay me what you owe me.”

  Nancy closed her eyes again and pretended to be asleep. But it was hard to keep her eyes closed when she heard what he said next.

  “Sure, it’s going to look just like an accident,” Frazier stud suddenly. “Three girls and an old lady driving around seeing the sights. Suddenly they misjudge a turn and drive off a cliff. Too bad. Trust me, sis. There won’t be anything left when they’re finished bouncing off the rocks.”

  Bouncing off the rocks. The words made Nancy shiver. These people were serious — dead serious. They weren’t planning to scare her anymore. They were planning murder!

  Frazier hung up the phone.

  “Hey, Miss Detective,” he said, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “Are you awake? You’ve worked so hard to mess everything up for us — but now it’s our turn. And I don’t want you to miss the fun.”

  “I’m awake,” Nancy said. “Enough to know that you’re in big trouble. Assault, kidnapping, theft — those are just a few of the charges facing you.

  “What are you? Some kind of lawyer?”

  “I’m a lawyer’s daughter, so I know,” Nancy said. “Who do you think is going to fall the hardest? You or Cecelia?”

  “You are,” Frazier said with a big laugh. “Right off a cliff.” He laughed so hard the car veered dangerously to the right. Nancy felt the tires leave the pavement and kick up stones from the shoulder of the road.

  Then the car phone rang and Frazier had to straighten out the car before he could answer it.

  “What do you want now, sis?” There was a moment of silence. “I’ll tell you what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the weather, that’s all,” he said, laughing. “I am watching the road. Nice talking to you.” He slammed the phone down, then popped a cassette into the tape player and turned up the volume.

  The rest of the trip to Rose Strauss’s house in Kennebunkport, Maine, was made with no further conversation. Ahead of them in the rented car were Bess and George, and behind them was the milky white limo — all three cars in a row, speeding after each other.

  When she felt the car getting off the highway, Nancy struggled to sit up so she could see the digital clock on the car radio. More than two hours had passed since they had left Boston. Frazier was sticking closer to George and Bess now. Eventually Bess turned into a tree-lined street of small houses and slowed down.

  At the end of the road, Nancy saw a cedar house with boards stained dark brown. The long driveway sloped and curved down toward the house, which was set back from the road. When Bess turned into the driveway, she pulled out of Nancy’s sight. Tall pine trees all around obscured Nancy’s view.

  Frazier waited at the mouth of the driveway a moment, and Nancy could only imagine the action. George and Bess were probably jumping from the car. Then they would run to the front door and ring the bell.

  If she was home, Rose Strauss would let them in.

  A few minutes later Frazier steered the car into the driveway and coasted to a stop. “Well, looks like this little tea party is just about over,” he said to Nancy as he got out.

  There was no question about what Frazier meant. If she couldn’t get out of the car and get help soon, she would be dead. No — that wasn’t a fair way to put it. Bess, George, and Rose Strauss would be dead, too.

  Think quick, Nancy said to herself.

  Then she heard other car doors open and close.

  “Frazier.”

  Nancy recognized Cecelia’s voice, calling to her brother from behind.

  “Leave car windows open a crack in warm weather. Don’t forget: Pets have to breathe, too.” Cecelia looked in at Nancy and smiled. It wasn’t the same innocent and warm smile it had been. “Aren’t you just as sorry as I am that you ever left

  River Heights?”

  “Come on, Cecelia. Time is money,” said another voice. Nancy knew that voice, too. She turned to the other side and saw the calm, confident face of Jason Moss!

  “I’m having second thoughts, Jason,” Cecelia said, watching sadly as Nancy squirmed against her ropes.

  “About what?” Jason asked with surprise. “The windows. Close them up tight and lock the doors, Frazier,” Cecelia said. “It won’t do us any good to havesomeone hear her scream.”

  Frazier did what he was told, and through the closed windows Nancy heard Cecelia say, “Well, we have the veil, and we have a hostage. I think we’re ready to pay a visit.”

  15

  The Grandmother of the Bride

  As soon as the threesome vanished from view, Nancy set to work. She was determined to stop them from hurting anyone. She managed to loosen the ropes tied around her wrists and ankles, but she was still stuck in the backseat of Frazier’s car. So she started to rock back and forth, back and forth, moving toward the front of the car. She twisted and climbed onto her knees and pressed her face close against the car window. Then, with her teeth, she lifted the door lock button. It hurt her mouth to do it, but she pressed her lips around the door handle and gently pulled. At last the door swung open and Nancy climbed out, onto the ground.

  She looked up into a face hovering over her. It was George.

  “I went straight in the front and out the back door, before Cecelia and Jason came in. I had Bess tell them I’d gotten carsick and had to lie down,” George said, explaining her appearance as she untied Nancy’s ropes. “We knew they were following us the whole way. Where did Frazier learn to drive, anyway? In a video arcade?”

  Nancy shook the blood back into her hands and feet. “Quick,” she said. “Hand me Frazier’s car phone.” Nancy dialed a familiar number and then heard a familiar voice.

  “Lieutenant Flood speaking.”

  As quickly as she could, she told the lieutenant where she was and what was going on.

  The lieutenant thought for a few seconds. “This is risky, but I’m going to take a chance,” Flood said. “I want you and your friend to go back in the house before anyone gets suspicious. That way you’ll be able to stall until the police arrive. Keep the suspects talking for as long as you can.

  “In the meantime I’ll call the Kennebunkport police,” Flood went on. “But I don’t know how long it’ll take them to get to you. Call me the minute it’s over. I won’t leave my desk.”

  Nancy thanked the lieutenant and hung up. Taking a deep breath, she and George marched into Rose Strauss’s house. Under other circumstances the house might have seemed homey and quaint, but Nancy was too busy thinking about what lay ahead to look much at her surroundings.

  “Anybody home?” Nancy asked, imitating Cecelia at the church.

  “Nancy!” shouted Bess.

  Nancy and George walked into a cozy living room. To Nancy’s surprise, everyone inside was drinking hot tea. Bess and Rose Strauss sat stiffly on a couch, with Cecelia across from them in a straight-backed rocking chair. Jason Moss sat in an oversized chair which had room left over for one more person. Only Frazier was not sitting. He was pouring tea.

  The veil sat in a heap on a round wooden table in the middle of the room.

  The group looked startled to see Nancy and
George in the doorway.

  “Well, you’re very good at attending parties you aren’t invited to, aren’t you, dear?” Cecelia said, regaining her composure. “My friend Greta

  thought you were most charming.”

  Rose Strauss remained silent.

  “Now that we’ve gotten this little scare out of our systems,” Cecelia said cheerfully, “let’s get down to work.” She leaned forward and looked directly at Rose Strauss. “Where is it?” Cecelia asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rose said.

  Nancy smiled. She knew Mrs. Strauss was being evasive — and she also suspected that the older woman could be very, very stubborn.

  “What is she talking about, Nancy?” Bess

  asked quietly.

  “Wait a minute, Cecelia,” Nancy interrupted. “Mrs. Strauss, you have another piece of lace that goes with this veil, don’t you?”

  “Stay out of this, young woman,” Rose said.

  “You don’t understand, Mrs. Strauss,” Nancy

  said. “My friends and I have been in this since the wedding. We’ve been chased, drugged, pushed, tied up, and threatened by these people. They are very dangerous, and I think you should tell them what they want to know.”

  “Or we could play your little game of Find the Bone,” Jason said. “But in that case, you’d force us to search your house inch by inch.”

  The old woman sat for a moment. Then slowly she raised her cane and pointed it toward a dresser on the other side of the room. Frazier immediately started rummaging through it. In the back of the second drawer he found an old black leather box. Inside was another veil, exactly the same size and color as the one Cecelia had stolen from Meredith. But instead of a rose on the back, this veil had a ring of tulips, with stems intertwined tightly in the center.

  Frazier tossed the second veil onto the table in the middle of the room.

  Everyone leaned forward, intensely interested, as Nancy picked it up.

  “These two veils are to be worn together, aren’t they, Mrs. Strauss?” Nancy said. “I can see from these loose threads that they were once connected.”