Nobody's Business, Page 2

  Nancy stared at Andrew. “I wonder why he didn’t show up,” she mused. Unless he was the one responsible, she added to herself. Blaster had left the ballroom a few minutes before the ghostly wails replaced the music. That was long enough for him to have changed the tapes himself.

  Then she shook herself. Stop playing detective, she told herself. You’re on vacation, remember?

  Nancy looked up as Andrew let out a groan. “Every time there’s a delay like this, it costs me money,” he said, taking off his glasses and wearily rubbing his eyes. “My father’s going to kill me if I go over budget.”

  “Don’t worry about him,” Ned said, clapping Andrew on the back.

  As Ned spoke consolingly to Andrew, Nancy wandered toward the shadowy stairway. Just before the entrance to the balcony, she noticed an alcove she hadn’t seen before. A metal plate was attached to the wall there, with several black dials on it and some holes with bare wires sticking out. It looked like a master light switch.

  Before she could take a closer look, Nancy heard a sound on the stairs below her. She froze and listened. Were those retreating footsteps? Maybe the intruder was still nearby.

  “Where are you going?” Bess asked as Nancy ran from the balcony.

  “I’ll be right back,” Nancy called over her shoulder. She rushed down the stairs two at a time, trying to make out a figure in the darkness.

  When Nancy got to the bottom, she realized that there was a hallway that led from the ballroom. The footsteps sounded far away, but Nancy ran blindly down the hallway toward them. Suddenly she saw a rectangle of daylight appear in the distance and a silhouetted figure pass through it before the hall went dark again. It was a door leading outside.

  Picking up her pace, Nancy barreled the rest of the way down the hall, flung open the door, and felt a cold rush of winter air slap her in the face. She was standing a few yards from the rocky shore of Moon Lake.

  Hearing a snapping, crackling sound to her right, Nancy turned and saw a slender girl with dark curly hair running toward a grove of trees. Though the girl was far away, Nancy could also see that she had a single streak of coppery red in the middle of her curls.

  Nancy took off after the girl, but she kept losing sight of her among the dense evergreen trees. Then the girl disappeared altogether. Nancy stopped to listen, but the woods were still except for the sound of her own heavy breathing.

  With a sigh of frustration, she trudged back to the inn. The sun was already setting over the lake, bathing the stone building in an orange glow.

  The back door was ajar. As Nancy approached it from the rear, she pulled it open—then stopped short. “Blaster, what are you doing here?” she asked in surprise.

  The wiry teenager looked just as surprised to see her. “Just, uh, getting some air,” he mumbled. Then, turning his back to Nancy, he headed down the dark hallway toward the ballroom.

  It was clear Blaster was covering something up. Could he have had something to do with the eerie music, or with the girl who’d just run off?

  Nancy hurried to catch up with him. “Did you see anyone just now?” she asked. “A girl with curly dark hair?”

  “I didn’t see anybody,” Blaster said, striding the last few steps to the door and throwing it open. “Like I said, I was just getting some air.” Hands in his pockets, he walked past the other teenagers and left the ballroom.

  “What happened to you, Nancy?” Bess asked as she, Ned, and Andrew hurried over to her. “You’re sweating!”

  Quickly Nancy described what she’d seen, adding Blaster’s strange behavior. “Does that girl sound like anyone working here?” Nancy asked Andrew.

  Andrew glanced uneasily at Nancy. “Not that I know of,” he replied after a moment.

  “Wait a minute,” Ned said, turning to Andrew. “That sounds exactly like Jul—”

  Andrew cut off Ned with an angry glare.

  “Sorry,” Ned said, backing off. “I know you don’t like to talk about her.”

  “Talk about who?” Nancy asked. “If you have any idea who she might be, you should tell us. She could be the one causing the problems here.”

  Ignoring Nancy, Andrew said gruffly, “It’s five o’clock—quitting time. Why don’t you guys go home and meet me back here tomorrow morning at eight?”

  Nancy studied Andrew’s tensely set jaw and the troubled look in his hazel eyes. What had come over him all of a sudden?

  “You know, Andrew,” Bess said, laying a hand on his arm, “I feel so embarrassed at the way I freaked out over the ghost. I hope you won’t hold it against me.”

  Andrew looked right over the top of Bess’s head at two teenage boys pretending to duel with strips of wood, banging them together with loud clacks. “Hey!” Andrew shouted, striding away from Nancy and her friends. “Stop messing around!”

  “Oh, well,” Bess whispered to Nancy. “I guess I didn’t make much of an impression on Andrew.”

  “Don’t let it get you down, Bess,” Ned said. “You wouldn’t have had a chance with him no matter what.”

  “Oh, great,” Bess said, rolling her eyes. “That’s comforting.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” He shot Andrew a quick look, then said, “Let’s go get some dinner. I’ll explain then. There’s a great Mexican restaurant right up the road.”

  “Thanks for driving me, by the way,” Ned said. “I can’t believe my car’s in the shop—again.”

  “No problem,” Nancy said, slipping her arm around his waist. “The more time we spend together, the better I like it. Consider me your personal chauffeur for the next three weeks.”

  After waving goodbye to Andrew, the three of them got their jackets in the lobby, then went out to Nancy’s Mustang. Ned directed Nancy to a narrow road that curved around the lake. In a few minutes they saw a cluster of small buildings, among them a crafts boutique called A Show of Hands, a post office, a bank, a small grocery store, and a Mexican restaurant, Paquito’s.

  Nancy parked, then she and her friends entered the tiny restaurant. A half dozen wooden booths filled the room, and the stone walls were draped with colorfully striped blankets.

  “So tell me,” Nancy said, sliding into a wooden booth beside Ned. “What’s the story with Andrew? What’s he hiding about this J person?”

  “He’s not hiding anything, exactly,” Ned began. “It just hurts him to talk about it. A few weeks ago his fiancée, Julie Ross, broke up with him. He’s been really devastated ever since. I don’t think he could even look at another girl.”

  “And you think that girl I saw was Julie?” Nancy asked.

  Ned nodded. “She fits the description perfectly. How many girls have brown hair with a red streak running through it? And she works right next door here, at A Show of Hands. It’s just a short walk from the inn.”

  “Why did Julie break up with him?” Bess asked. “He seems like a nice guy.”

  Ned plucked a tortilla chip from a bowl on the table and dipped it in salsa. “She got tired of waiting for Andrew to make up his mind,” he explained. “See, Mr. Lockwood doesn’t just own the inn. He owns a lot of real estate around here, and he wants to bring Andrew into the business now that he’s out of college.”

  “I get it,” Nancy put in. “This renovation project is like a trial run.”

  “Exactly,” Ned told her. “The thing is, Andrew really wanted to be an actor. He planned to marry Julie and move with her to Los Angeles. He was going to start auditioning and taking acting classes. Julie’s a sculptor, and she was applying to art school there.”

  “Sounds romantic,” Bess said, her blue eyes shining. “Did Julie go to Emerson, too?”

  Ned shook his head. “Actually, Andrew’s four years older than Julie—she’s nineteen. They met doing community theater in Melborne. That’s where they’re both from. It’s about ten minutes from here. Andrew was acting, and Julie was painting sets. It was love at first sight.”

  “If they were so in love, then what was the problem?” she asked
Ned.

  “Andrew was really torn between Julie and his father, and he kept putting off moving. I think he’s really afraid to disobey his father. Mr. Lockwood’s a real dragon. Finally Julie just ran out of patience. She decided she’d rather break up with Andrew than wait any longer.”

  “I feel sorry for Andrew and Julie,” Bess said, sighing.

  “It is too bad,” Nancy agreed, “but it could explain what’s going on at the inn. Julie might still be so resentful that she’s causing trouble just to get back at Andrew and his father.”

  “It’s possible,” Ned said. “So that’s the story, Bess. I hope you’re not too disappointed.”

  “I’ll get over it,” Bess said cheerfully. “Besides, I happened to notice that Master Blaster’s really cute, too.”

  A waitress came to take their order, and soon the table was filled with steaming, cheesy enchiladas, crisp tacos, and rice and beans.

  As they ate, Nancy kept thinking about Andrew’s predicament. “No wonder Andrew kept mentioning how angry his father’s going to be,” she said aloud, nibbling on her taco. “It sounds as though Mr. Lockwood will have a fit if the inn isn’t a success.”

  “You said it,” Ned agreed. “Andrew’s petrified. He’s almost used up all the money his father gave him for the renovation, and there’s still a ton of work to be done. Plasterboard, floors, fixtures. If anything else goes wrong, he’ll be a nervous wreck.”

  “Maybe we can help,” Nancy offered. “I mean, if we can figure out who’s behind the pranks, that will be one less thing for him to worry about.”

  Ned was about to object, but then he leaned over to kiss Nancy on the cheek. “So much for taking a break from detecting,” he joked. “I bet Andrew would appreciate your help.”

  Tapping the table with her fingernail, Nancy said, “Too bad we can’t go back for another look right now. It’d be easier to check out the place without everyone else there, but it’s probably locked, right?”

  Ned pulled a key from his pocket. “Not to me,” he announced. “Andrew gave me this. It’s for the back door, so I can get in when he’s not there.”

  After dinner Nancy, Ned, and Bess drove back to the inn and let themselves in the back door. It was the same one Julie had escaped through, Nancy realized. The long hallway was even darker than it had been earlier, and Nancy couldn’t find a light switch. She fumbled in her purse for her penlight but couldn’t find it.

  “Uh-oh,” Bess said as the three of them felt their way down the pitch-black corridor. “This place is even creepier at night than in the daytime.”

  At last they reached the door to the ballroom. After quietly opening it, they stepped into the cavernous room, which was already glowing from the shafts of moonlight slanting in through the windows. The dark shadows of sawhorses and ladders made irregular shapes on the floor.

  “Aha! Here it is,” Nancy crowed, finally finding her penlight in her purse. Flicking it on, she said, “Let’s start at the front entrance.”

  Shining the small, powerful beam, she led the way out of the ballroom and down the main hall. As they stepped into the lobby, she shone her penlight over the sawdust-covered floor, then raised it higher.

  Nancy tensed as her beam barely caught a strange swinging movement over their heads.

  “What’s that?” Bess asked nervously as a faint, creaking noise sounded.

  Nancy swept the beam of light toward the ceiling—and her mouth fell open in silent horror.

  Hanging from the rafters in a noose was a limp, lifeless body!

  Chapter

  Three

  BESS GAVE A piercing scream. “He’s dead!”

  Nancy felt stiff with fear, but she forced herself to shine the penlight over the hanging form, from the bottom up.

  The person wore no shoes, just white sweat socks and a pair of old, baggy jeans tied tightly around the waist with a rope. Aiming the beam higher, Nancy saw that the torso was covered by a plain gray sweatshirt tucked into the jeans.

  Taking a deep breath, she aimed the light at the person’s face.

  “It’s a dummy!” Ned exclaimed as the penlight illuminated a cloth bag filled with soft stuffing.

  Nancy felt her whole body slump with relief. “Somebody find a light switch,” she said.

  A few seconds later some bare bulbs in an overhead fixture went on, casting eerie shadows against the walls. Ned stood by a light switch at the foot of one of the sweeping staircases. Near him Bess was leaning against a ladder, staring in horror at the life-size hanging dummy.

  “That beam’s too high for someone to reach without a ladder,” Nancy pointed out. “Bess, don’t move or touch the ladder with your hands. I want to check for fingerprints.”

  Bess carefully lifted her elbow off the ladder, and Nancy took a closer look. “Hmm, it looks like someone wiped it clean,” Nancy said. “There’s not a speck on it, but everything else is covered with sawdust.”

  She cast her eyes downward. “All these footprints are too scuffed to see clearly,” she added, frowning. “Whoever hung the dummy went to extra trouble not to leave fingerprints or footprints.”

  “I don’t get it,” Ned commented, coming over to the ladder. “If there is a practical joker working here, why would they do something like this? It’s not funny at all.”

  Nancy thought for a moment. “I don’t think the person is trying to be funny,” she said. “I think they’re trying to scare us, or Andrew, or someone else.”

  “But why?” Bess wondered aloud. “What could they possibly gain by it?”

  “Good question,” Nancy said. “Let’s search the rest of the inn to see if we can figure out an answer.”

  “What are we looking for?” Bess asked.

  “Just keep an eye out for any tools or anything that looks strange,” Nancy told her. “But first let’s cut this thing down so it won’t scare anybody else.”

  After the dummy had been laid to rest on the dusty floor, Nancy, Ned, and Bess examined the front and back doors. “No sign of forced entry,” Nancy observed. “The intruder had to have a key.”

  Next the three teens searched the downstairs rooms, offices, and hallways. They didn’t see anything unusual, or find any of the missing tools, but it was hard to see much in the dim light of the few work lights. A search of the upstairs bedrooms proved equally fruitless.

  “The only place we haven’t checked is the basement,” Nancy said when they returned to the lobby.

  “I think it’s still locked,” Ned told her, “and Andrew has the only key. He doesn’t want anyone going down there unsupervised because the stairs are rickety and it’s too filled with junk to walk around in.”

  “Let’s try it, anyway,” Nancy suggested. “I want to be sure.”

  Pulling back one of the white drop cloths hanging beneath the left staircase, Ned revealed a solid oak door with a rusted knob. He turned the knob and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Oh, well,” Nancy said. “We can check again tomorrow, as soon as it’s light.”

  “Good idea,” Bess agreed. “Now let’s get out of this spooky place before we run into Rosalie Murray’s ghost!”

  • • •

  “And that’s when we found this,” Nancy told Andrew early the next morning, holding up the dummy in the noose to show him. She, Ned, and Bess had arrived before eight so they could talk to Andrew before the Teen Works crew arrived.

  “It was hanging from the rafter up there,” Ned added, pointing.

  “We thought it was a person,” Bess said, putting her hands in the pockets of her pastel pink overalls, which she wore over a matching long-sleeved T-shirt.

  Andrew tucked the dummy under his arm and looked anxiously around the empty lobby. “Please don’t mention this to anyone else,” he said. “If word of this gets out, my work crew might panic, and I can’t afford any more delays. I’m going to throw this thing out before anybody sees it.”

  Nancy followed as Andrew walked to the front door, flung it open, and w
ent outside. The day was so cloudy and overcast that everything seemed to melt into a monotonous dark gray.

  “Do you have any idea who might have put the dummy there?” Nancy asked.

  Andrew shrugged, then tossed the dummy into a large green Dumpster just outside the entrance. He covered the dummy with some large plastic garbage bags that had been lying on top of the other debris.

  “Andrew,” Nancy said gently, “I know about Julie. If you think she’s out to get you, I wish you’d tell me. The only way I can help you is if you’re honest with me.”

  “It’s not Julie,” Andrew said, staring at the trees beyond the inn. “I know her. She’d never do something like this.”

  Nancy couldn’t tell if Andrew really believed what he was saying or if he was covering up for Julie. Maybe he still loved her and didn’t want her to get in trouble. After all, Andrew hadn’t been the one who wanted to break off their engagement.

  “Look,” he said, turning to face Nancy. His hazel eyes were troubled behind his wire-rimmed glasses. “I appreciate the fact that you’re looking into these pranks for me. But lay off Julie, okay?”

  “I know you still care about her,” Nancy sympathized, “but I can’t ignore the facts. Julie was in the inn yesterday, and she ran away from me right after the wailing music was played.”

  Honk! Honk!

  Nancy turned toward the parking lot and saw a small caravan of cars pull in, followed by the red Teen Works bus.

  Andrew put on a cheerful smile and waved at the teenagers who were piling out of the bus. “Let’s just try to forget about all this stuff, okay?” he said to Nancy. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  “Hi, Andrew!” Colleen called, stepping out of the bus in a full-length sheepskin coat and striding up the path in brown lizard-skin cowboy boots similar to the black ones she’d worn the day before.

  “What’s on the agenda for today?” Colleen asked as several of the teenagers gathered around her. Most of them wore jeans, sweatshirts, and sneakers.

  “Don’t tell me,” said Natalia Diaz. “We have to climb on more ladders and do more wiring.”