The Mysterious Mannequin Page 9

  “I think I’ll stop at Mr. Anthony’s tailor shop and see if Haw-Haw is there. Maybe I can get him to answer a few questions. I’m sure that funny old fellow knows more than he’s telling!”

  Fortunately he was there, perched as usual on a bench in the corner of the shop. As soon as he saw Nancy, Haw-Haw began to laugh on a crescendo note that resembled a shriek. It sent chills up and down the girl’s spine.

  Finally he stopped laughing and said, “You keep coming back here, miss. You think that mannequin’s a-hidin’ somewhere around this place?”

  “Maybe. If you see her, let me know,” Nancy replied. Then she walked over to the man and looked straight at him. On a sudden hunch she asked, “What I want to know is, who is the man you’re giving information to about me?”

  For once Haw-Haw did not laugh. His eyes shifted nervously. The young detective was sure that she had hit upon the truth!

  Finally he said, “How’d you find out? I didn’t think it would hurt.”

  Nancy was thrilled that he had fallen into her trap! Still looking stern, she said, “It matters a great deal. Now tell me, who is he?”

  The wizened old man wilted. He looked all around, then whispered, “He’s a cousin of Tunay Arik. Pretty near his double, I’d say. He’s from Istybull.”

  Haw-Haw’s lighter side returned. He gave a low chuckle. “All this time you thought Tunay Arik was the burglar when really it was his cousin.”

  “They’ve got an interesting grapevine,” Nancy said to herself. “Tunay told his cousin about our encounter at the carpet factory. The cousin in turn told Haw-Haw.”

  Realizing the old man knew even more than she had suspected, Nancy asked him why Arik’s cousin wanted the rug.

  “He found out Farouk sent the rug to your father and thought that valuable jewels were sewn into it. He went right over to your house and tried to steal it.”

  Nancy was elated with the information. She said, “When the burglar found out there weren’t any jewels in the rug, he became furious. He left me a scimitar as a souvenir. Do you know why?”

  Haw-Haw’s jaw sagged and his eyes bulged. He was the very picture of a terrified man. Finally he spoke, “I’ll show you something,” he said.

  He put one hand inside his coat. Suddenly it occurred to Nancy that he might be reaching for a weapon!

  CHAPTER XVI

  Important Confession

  HAW-HAW pulled a scimitar from his inside coat pocket. Before he might have a chance to use it, Nancy grabbed his arm and yanked it upward.

  “Ga-ga-ga—” the man gurgled.

  The scimitar fell to the floor. Then, to Nancy’s horror, Haw-Haw collapsed.

  “What you do?” the tailor cried, getting up from his chair and rushing over.

  Nancy tried to explain that she was afraid Haw-Haw was going to stab her, but Mr. Anthony did not seem to understand. By this time Nancy had laid Haw-Haw flat on his back.

  Nancy tried to resuscitate him but realized that the victim probably needed oxygen.

  “Do you have a phone?” she asked the tailor.

  “No.”

  “I’ll be back,” Nancy said. “Do not move him.”

  Alarmed, she raced to a street telephone booth and called for the police ambulance. It arrived quickly. A doctor and an officer hurried into the tailor shop. Nancy recognized the latter as one of the two policemen who were going to hunt down the person that had thrown the stone at her father’s car.

  After a quick examination the doctor called for a pulmotor. As the officer administered oxygen, the physician gave the old man a heart massage.

  While the men were working, Nancy picked up the scimitar. It was a duplicate of the one which had nearly injured Ned!

  All this while the little tailor had been pacing back and forth, wringing his hands and evidently praying. He stopped when he saw Nancy gazing at the scimitar. He looked at it too.

  “His?” he asked, pointing toward Haw-Haw.

  “I think not,” Nancy replied. “There is a name on here. It is Aslanapa.”

  The tailor shook his head. “I not know him.”

  Nancy decided that whoever had planted the scimitar in the prayer rug had made sure there was no mark of identification on the weapon. She wondered if Aslanapa was the name of the maker or possibly of the burglar. She would just have to wait until Haw-Haw revived and ask him.

  When he did regain consciousness, the old man was too weak to talk. The physician ordered that he be taken to the hospital at once, so Nancy had no chance to question him.

  While Haw-Haw was being placed in the ambulance, the officer turned to Nancy. “Miss Drew, we meet again. I’m sorry I haven’t any news for you. We didn’t find any witnesses to the rock incident, much less suspects.”

  Nancy had assumed as much. She showed the officer the scimitar and pointed out the name on it. She then explained it had been in Mr. Hyde’s possession.

  “It’s a duplicate of the one which was left at my house by an unknown intruder,” she said.

  “Chief McGinnis has every man on the alert. We’ll get him!” the officer assured her.

  He made some notes in his report book, then the ambulance went off, its siren shrieking. Nancy went home, thinking this certainly had been an eventful day. She hoped Haw-Haw would be all right.

  Nancy found Hannah getting Mr. Drew’s clothes ready for the trip. She told her what had happened.

  The housekeeper looked concerned, but then smiled. “I presume you’ll keep on having adventures up till the moment you get on the plane. I suggest that you start thinking about your own wardrobe. Are you going to pack the rug too?”

  Nancy shook her head. “No. It will take up too much room.”

  Nancy was just entering her bedroom when the telephone rang. She answered it in her father’s study. The hospital was calling and had a message for her from Mr. Hyde.

  “He’s much better,” the nurse reported, “and the doctor said he might have visitors. Mr. Hyde insists he must see you at once. He has something very important to tell you.”

  “I’ll be right down,” Nancy replied.

  The hospital had put Mr. Hyde in a room with three other men. The old man motioned her to come close to his side.

  “What I got to say to you is private,” he whispered. “I wanted you to know you weren’t to blame for what happened to me. I often get these heart spells.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” Nancy murmured.

  Haw-Haw went on, “Mostly I wanted you to know I wasn’t going to hurt you. When you mentioned the scimitar I just wanted to show you the one I had.”

  “Where did you get it?” Nancy asked.

  Mr. Hyde said it belonged to a man named Aslanapa. “I call him Nappy for short. He left it with me to sell.”

  “Who is he?” Nancy asked quickly.

  “Nappy is the cousin to Arik I told you about, but Arik don’t pay him no mind. He don’t like him or trust him.”

  “Why?” Nancy’s mind teemed with questions. If it was true that Tunay and his cousin did not get along, then why hadn’t Arik admitted he had a double? Why hadn’t he told her about his evil cousin? Was Arik afraid of his cousin, or perhaps involved in the scheme after all?

  Haw-Haw said he did not know why Arik distrusted his cousin. Nappy seemed all right to him. “He makes master keys and scimitars. Pays me a good commission for selling them.”

  Haw-Haw heaved a great sigh. “I guess it ain’t right at that and I want to tell you I ain’t goin’ to do it no more.”

  “If it’s not legitimate, I’m glad to hear you’re giving it up,” said Nancy. “Tell me, where does Aslanapa live?”

  “I don’t know, and that’s honest,” said the wizened Mr. Hyde.

  “Then,” Nancy told him, “he carried on his business with you away from his house?”

  “That’s right. We made all the exchanges in the tailor shop. Fortunately Tony don’t understand English much so we could say anything we wanted to and he never suspected
anything.”

  Nancy asked him how he got the names of people who wanted to buy master keys. Haw-Haw took a long time before answering.

  “I got quite a few friends in the underworld,” he finally answered. “I expect they’ll be mighty upset when they find out I’m not goin’ to deal in those fancy keys no more.”

  Nancy thought, “And a lot of other people, including the police, will be glad to know it.”

  Haw-Haw went on to say that Nancy was probably wondering why he was telling her all this. The reason was that he had had a good scare a while ago and it had taught him a lesson.

  “I could’ve died,” he said, “and I’d hate to have what I’ve been telling you on my mind. I might even tell the police,” he finished.

  Nancy could see that the old man was getting tired, but before she had to leave him, she wanted to find out the answer to one more question.

  “Mr. Hyde, once when I asked you about the mannequin in Farouk Tahmasp’s window you laughed at me.”

  “Yep, I did, but I wasn’t laughin’ at you. I was recollectin’ about Farouk and that wax figure—or whatever it was—of a girl he had in his window. The way he used to treat her! I could almost believe he was in love with that dummy!”

  “What made you think so?” Nancy asked, surprised.

  Haw-Haw grinned. “Why, you know, sometimes when he thought nobody on the street was lookin’ he’d reach in the window and pat that thing and stroke her head. Once I even saw him kiss her cheek.”

  Nancy burst into laughter. Then she became serious again. “Have you any idea where Farouk put the mannequin when he left?”

  Haw-Haw looked surprised. “You think he left her behind? No sirree. He thought too much of that Turkish mannequin. I’m sure he took her along.”

  Just then a nurse came in and said that the visiting period was up. Nancy said good-by to the old man and wished him a speedy recovery.

  Her next stop was River Heights Police Head. quarters.

  “Why, Nancy, what a pleasant surprise!” Chief McGinnis greeted her.

  Briefly she related what Haw-Haw Hyde had told her regarding the burglar and scimitar incident at her house.

  “I’m afraid I was a bit hasty thinking Mr. Hyde would harm me,” she added.

  “Can’t be too careful in your kind of work,” the chief replied.

  When she reached home Nancy went at once to her bedroom to do some packing. Hannah was already there. “I thought I’d give you some help,” she said.

  The housekeeper listened in amazement to the story of Haw-Haw’s confession. All the time Nancy was talking she was pulling articles for the trip from her bureau drawers. Suddenly Togo began to bark wildly in the front hall.

  “Somebody must be on the porch,” said Hannah, “but I didn’t hear the bell ring.”

  “Maybe the bell is out of order,” Nancy suggested. “I’ll go down and see who it is.”

  As she reached the foot of the steps, Togo was jumping up against the door, whining and barking frantically.

  Nancy opened the front door. At once Togo dashed outside and sprang at a huge Belgian shepherd dog!

  “Oh, Togo will be torn to bits!” Nancy thought frantically and rushed out.

  To her utter astonishment the big dog snarled at Togo but did not attack him. Instead he glared balefully at Nancy, then jumped on the girl and knocked her down. She tried to get up but he bowled her over again. This time she landed face down. He planted his huge front paws on her back and with all his weight held her there.

  In vain Nancy tried to rise but the muscular animal was too strong for her. Now he began to growl. Any moment he might sink his teeth into her!

  “Help!” Nancy cried out.

  CHAPTER XVII

  “Yok! Yok!”

  HANNAH Gruen looked out the window. She was horrified by the sight below her.

  “Oh Nancy! ”she wailed.

  The housekeeper hurried down the front stairway as fast as she could and raced out the front door. As she approached the Belgian shepherd he growled menacingly, while still pinning Nancy to the ground.

  Suddenly courage returned to Hannah Gruen. She rushed around the corner of the house to where a hose was coiled around a hook in the foundation. After quickly unwinding it, she turned on the water full force, then hurried to the front.

  “Sorry to get you wet, Nancy,” she called. “But I hope this will drive the beast away.”

  The dog did not like the water and kept twisting his head to avoid it. As Hannah approached him and the stream became more forceful, he suddenly shifted his position. His paws slipped from Nancy’s back. She was free!

  Keeping her back to Hannah, Nancy stepped out of the dog’s way until she had reached the housekeeper’s side. The animal, almost blinded by the hard stream of water, gradually turned away, whimpering and growling alternately. Finally he gave up and dripping wet slunk down the street.

  Togo had escaped long before this and had hidden behind a large rhododendron bush. Now he reappeared, ran toward the sidewalk, and barked importantly as if he had been responsible for outwitting the big Belgian shepherd.

  Hannah looked at Nancy. “You’re certainly a sight. How do you feel?”

  Nancy replied, “I feel like following that dog to his house. But I don’t have to. I know whom he belongs to. I saw the name on his collar just before he knocked me down.”

  “Who owns such a fierce beast?”

  “Aslanapa.”

  Hannah looked alarmed. “The man with the scimitars?”

  The young detective nodded. “Hannah, it seems as if we are calling the police morning, noon, and night. But would you mind reporting that dog and the name on his collar?”

  The housekeeper did this while Nancy went to take a shower. When she came downstairs, Mrs. Gruen told her that the police had already captured the dog.

  “They think he was set on you on purpose,” she reported. “They traced the dog through its license tag and picked him up at the house where Aslanapa had been living. The police learned that he had told the boarding-house owner he was leaving, but did not say where he was going. Aslanapa had packed his clothes, taken the dog along, and said good-by.

  “The police said this was not unusual, because roomers come and go frequently.”

  Nancy’s brow furrowed in anger. “That man is a heartless crook!” she cried. “He apparently abandoned the dog.”

  “It’s a good thing,” Hannah replied. “The police said that the dog is a killer—that he had been army-trained. It was fortunate he didn’t bite you. Perhaps he smelled Togo’s scent on you and figured you weren’t unfriendly. He’s at the pound in solitary confinement.”

  Nancy realized how lucky she had been. The dog might have killed her. She put the frightening incident out of her mind and said, “I wonder if Aslanapa, when he realized the rug did not contain valuable jewels, decided to go back to Turkey.”

  The Drews reported this possibility to the police who said they would stop the man if he tried to leave the country. They were sure that he intended to sneak out, probably under an assumed name.

  Nancy finished her packing, then checked with her friends and with the travel bureau. Everything seemed to be running smoothly. Mr. Drew and the four girls from River Heights were to meet the boys in New York the following afternoon. From there they would fly to Brussels, Belgium, then go directly to Istanbul.

  That evening Nancy got in touch with Chief McGinnis, but he had no leads on the vanished Aslanapa. The next day when Nancy told the full story to the group at the New York airport, all of them were sure her path and Aslanapa’s would cross in Istanbul.

  “I hope he won’t set another ferocious dog on you! ”Bess said.

  The wait in Brussels was short and the travelers reached the Istanbul airport a few hours later. Sunday had literally flown by and according to Turkish time it was near noon on Monday.

  Ned spoke up, “Our group is so large, I guess we’ll have to go in two dolmus.” He grinned at t
he others. “That means taxi.”

  The tour leader, Mr. Randolph, wished them all a pleasant stay in Istanbul. “Now you’re on your own.”

  All this time Aisha had been looking around for her parents. Suddenly she saw them. The others smiled as the couple clasped her in their arms. Then she introduced Mr. and Mrs. Hatun. Aisha looked just like her pretty mother.

  The family lived in western Turkey but had arranged for rooms at the homes of two friends with large houses. The girls would stay at one, Mr. Drew and the boys at the other.

  “My parents will spend a short time here,” Aisha said. “When you leave, I will go and make them a long visit.”

  After their luggage was assembled, two dolmus were summoned. Mrs. Hatun invited the girls to ride with her and her daughter. Since the mother spoke little English, Aisha became their guide.

  Mr. Drew and the boys joined Mr. Hatun in the other taxi. Their driver, who spoke fluent English, introduced himself as a student at the University of Istanbul. Once they were on their way, he did not have to be prompted to identify the famous landmarks.

  The airport was out of town, but as they approached the city, both guides pointed out a mammoth circular wall. “That encompassed the old city,” Aisha told the girls.

  Soon they came to a bridge which was named for Ataturk, Turkey’s first president, and crossed the narrow stretch of water called the Golden Horn that connected with the Bosporus Strait.

  There were so many things to see Nancy craned her neck this way and that so as not to miss anything. Since it was noon hour, the streets were crowded with businessmen, shoppers, and foreign visitors.

  “I notice there is a preponderance of men,” Nancy remarked. “Also that some of the peasant women wear traditional long black skirts and head scarves drawn over their faces.”