Enemy Match, Page 2

  “I certainly didn’t mean to suggest that. But where did you learn such things?”

  “My friend Morton the mechanic showed me. Besides, people steal cars in my neighborhood, and I watch them sometimes. I’ve helped the police catch thieves lots of times.”

  “Do you go to school?” Nancy asked.

  “Sure, but school’s out for the summer. So I could work for you full-time for two months. I’ve got a suitcase. I could travel. I wouldn’t even expect any composition at first.” “Compensation,” Nancy corrected. Then she stopped. “Did you mean to say salary?”

  Midge nodded a bit anxiously. “Just kind of an allowance?”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “You know, for taxis when I have to trail suspects. Or when I have to bribe somebody.” Nancy shook her head. “Good detectives don’t have to do that. My father taught me that witnesses who can be bribed usually aren’t reliable.”

  “Okay, I won’t bribe anyone. But what do you say, Nancy? Couldn’t I help you?”

  “I’ll think about it,” Nancy said.

  “Oh, then you’ll say yes.”

  “I said, I’ll think about it.”

  “That’s good enough for me. Now I’m going to give you my first tip. A green Chevy, four doors, with dark-tinted windows and no license plate in front, has been following us all this time!”

  3. Nina’s Story

  Startled by Midge’s revelation, Nancy checked the rear-view mirror. “Why, I didn’t even notice that car. I should have. A detective has to be alert and not let herself be distracted by anything.”

  “Like me, huh?” Midge demanded.

  Nancy smiled. “Not fair, Midge.”

  When she pulled up to Midge’s trim, modest house, the green car smoothly turned to the right, giving no clear view of the driver or the rear license plate. He’ll be waiting, Nancy thought.

  Midge eagerly pulled Nancy up the steps. “Pop,” she shouted. “Look who brought me home. Nancy Drew!”

  Nancy found the living room tidy but sparsely furnished. Mr. Watson was a thin, pleasant-looking man with a tired, lined face. He stood up smiling and extended his hand.

  “I’m glad to meet you, Nancy. Won’t you sit down?”

  “Nancy may let me be her assistant, Pop,” Midge said, grinning from ear to ear. Then she dashed for the kitchen. “I’ll be right back.”

  Mr. Watson smiled. “You have to forgive her. You see, you’re her heroine. She reads everything she can find about you.”

  “That’s very flattering,” Nancy said, blushing.

  “Midge is a good child,” Mr. Watson said. “A little too forward, but she has a good heart and she’s bright. Since we lost her mother, she’s been a big help to me.”

  Midge appeared with a tray of cookies and served them with great care.

  “I lost my job some time ago,” Mr. Watson said, “and it’s been hard. I haven’t been able to give Midge the things a young girl ought to have.”

  “Sure you have, Pop. We’re doing fine,” Midge put in.

  As Nancy looked at the pair, she felt a surge of respect and admiration for them.

  “You want to earn some money to help your dad, don’t you, Midge?” the girl detective said.

  “No, that wouldn’t be right,” Mr. Watson replied. “Whatever Midge earns goes into the bank for her college education.”

  As he talked, Nancy knew she was very close to taking on an assistant. But she needed more time to think about the responsibility involved.

  “So,” Mr. Watson went on, “if you could hire Midge, I’m sure you’d find her a loyal helper. I’d be very grateful and I’d trust you completely to take care of her. Your reputation and that of your father are the best in River Heights.” Nancy reached out and patted his arm. “That’s one of the nicest things that anyone has ever said to me. Midge is a fine girl. But I need a day to think it over. I have to go to New Brighton tomorrow, so I’ll call you in a day or two.”

  “Watch out for the guy in the mystery car,” Midge whispered as she walked Nancy to the curb. Nancy gave her a hug and then drove off. Within a few blocks, the green Chevy reappeared and Nancy tensed behind her wheel.

  I have to lose it, she thought as she moved along in the downtown traffic. But how? She was driving in the left lane and saw a large truck on her right, going rather slowly. She stayed next to the truck and waited urtil they came up to a bank building that had a dive way on one side leading to its parking lot in the back.

  “Here’s my chance,” Nancy said to herself. She accelerated until she was ahead of the truck, then cut over to the right lane jus: before the driveway. A moment later she turned in to it.

  “I hope when my shadow catches up, the truck will be blocking the driveway entrance,” she murmured as she stopped the car behind the bank building. With bated breath, she waited for the green Chevy to appear. But several minutes passed and there was no sign of it. “I did it!” Nancy cried jubilantly. “I foiled him!” Quickly she drove out of the parking lot and sped home.

  As Nancy pulled into her own garage, she pondered the mysterious sedan. Could it have something to do with Nina’s case? Time would tell.

  That night Nancy packed her suitcase while Hannah prepared a Thermos jug and more sandwiches and fruit than Nancy could possibly eat. Nancy protested that New Brighton was under a hundred miles away, and besides, she was meeting her friend Nina in a coffee shop!

  "Well,” Hannah said, laughing, “you never know, you might run out of gas, you might have car trouble, or worse—the coffee shop might be closed!”

  Nancy shook her head, kissed Hannah goodnight, then stopped by her father’s study to deliver a goodnight kiss.

  The next morning she started out at nine after a last-minute phone call from Bess, who again begged her to hurry and finish the case.

  As she traveled the lonely road to New Brighton, she glanced into her rear-view mirror from time to time. Ten miles out, the green Chevy appeared again! Faced with a long drive on an open highway, Nancy had little opportunity to lose her shadow.

  Good thing I’m early, she thought. It’ll give me a chance to get rid of him once I get into town. But if I do, it probably won’t be for long. This guy seems to know every move I make!

  When Nancy reached the outskirts of New Brighton, she drove around for a while to familiarize herself with the area. Then, in a quick, skillful maneuver, she escaped from her shadow through a narrow side street.

  When she was sure that the green Chevy was no longer behind her, she parked in a lot behind Benton’s coffee shop. Nina wasn’t there yet, so she took a seat facing the door.

  In a few minutes, her old friend appeared, looking tanned and fit. She wore her thick chestnut hair long now and her blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses.

  “Oh, Nancy,” the young tennis player cried, embracing the young detective. “I was so afraid something would happen and you wouldn’t come.”

  “Not a chance,” Nancy said with a smile. “After all, what are friends for? Remember when we were little kids and we had our old cardboard clubhouse behind the Marvins’ garage? Remember the secret handshake and the No Boys Allowed sign and how we misspelled it, A-l-o-u-d?”

  Nina laughed, took her glasses off, and the two chattered on for several minutes before Nancy was jolted back to the present by the nervous, frightened look in her friend’s eyes.

  “Nina, you must tell me what happened to your dad and what threats you’ve been getting. I’ve been a wreck worrying.”

  Nina took a deep breath and gave a complete rundown of events. Her father and his partner, Aaron Calisher, had had a successful business dealing in securities. About a year before, her father had suddenly been accused of an illegal stock transaction that involved the fraudulent use of the mails. It was a complicated charge and Mr. Ford was innocent. But the proof of his innocence was in a small safe that had been stolen from his private office in the company building the night prior to his arrest.

  Nanc
y tapped her fingers on the table. “That’s a strange coincidence,” she said. “It looks as if someone inside the company framed your dad and then got rid of the proof that would clear him.”

  Nina nodded. “That’s what I think. Yet, the burglary was so odd that I keep hoping it was just a coincidence and that the safe can still be found.”

  Nancy pinched her eyes. “You do? What makes you say that?”

  “Well,” said Nina, “two men were seen taking the safe from the company office that night. It was a small box, weighing about three hundred pounds. The man who saw them was an off-duty policeman. He shouted to them to stop, but one of the burglars and the safe were already in the car. He apparently panicked and drove off without his accomplice, who escaped on foot. The off-duty policeman gave chase in his car and pursued the thief along the road to River Heights. Other police cars joined in the hunt but they lost sight of him for several minutes. Then they found the car abandoned in a small village on the first road that turned off the highway.”

  “And the safe?” Nancy asked.

  Nina shrugged. “It was nowhere in sight.” “Maybe it was transferred to another car.” “Well, the fugitive did steal another car but a short time later he was found slumped over the wheel, unconscious. And the safe wasn’t in that car, either!”

  “That’s incredible,” Nancy said, “but since he was captured, he must have said something to the police.”

  “He couldn’t. He died of a heart attack that same night.”

  “Oh boy, this is complicated,” Nancy said. “And you say his accomplice escaped?” “That’s right, and he was never caught!” Nancy was thoughtful. “Do you suppose the man who died transferred the safe to a third car somewhere along the way? But then, why would he do that? And if he did, why didn’t he go along in that car? Why, as a matter of fact, did he abandon the first car?”

  “Would you believe he ran out of gas?” Nancy smiled. “Crooks can be stupid sometimes. Of course, he may have hidden the safe somewhere.”

  “The police thought of that, too,” Nina said, "hut they said he wouldn’t have had time. Anyway, one mar couldn’t have hauled a safe that size.”

  Nancy swizzled her soda with the straw while Nina twisted her fingers nervously. "What do you think, Nancy?”

  “Well, there’s one other possibility. He could have pulled off the road for a minute and dumped the safe. But, of course, I’m sure the police checked the entire area.”

  Nina nodded. “There were twenty officers in the search party.”

  Nancy sighed. “Then it must have been an inside job. The people who stole the safe probably worked for your father. They staged the burglary so no one would suspect they were really only after the evidence that would prove your father’s innocence. Maybe they even took the documents before they stole the safe!” Nina looked shocked at first, then she brightened. “But my father was the only person who knew the combination, and he had checked the contents an hour or so before the burglary took place.”

  “So,” Nancy continued, “there would have been no way for the thieves to have opened the safe before the man who drove off with it died. And since the burglary hadn’t gone as planned, the thief who escaped on foot could not have known what happened to the safe.”

  I hope the safe is still somewhere along that road, she thought, and that the police missed it somehow.

  “Well,” the young detective said aloud, “finding the safe is my problem. But now, tell me about your dad.”

  Tears filled Nina’s eyes and she swallowed hard.

  4. Telephone Threats

  Nancy tried to put Nina at ease as her distraught friend struggled to speak of her father.

  “The police were taking him to the penitentiary in a squad car,” she began. “When they drove across the bridge, the river had already started to crest over the top. A big tree trunk slammed into the bridge and the car was swept away in a flood of water. The police managed to get out of the car, but poor Dad, in handcuffs—he didn’t have a chance.”

  “Nina, you mustn’t think he didn’t have a chance,” Nancy said. “There is hope that he’s alive somewhere, because when a body is lost in a river this far from the sea, it’s found eventually. And since no one has found your father, I think the odds are good that he escaped.”

  For the first time, Nina smiled without tension. “Really, Nancy. You think so?” Then her face clouded. She was staring at something over Nancy’s shoulder.

  “Nina, what is it?” the girl detective asked. “Please don’t turn around,” Nina muttered. “It’s them. They mustn’t see me.”

  As Nina spoke with fear, she hunched down in the booth. Nancy did the same, though she was aching to turn around to see who was causing her friend such anxiety.

  “Who is it?” Nancy whispered again. “Are they the people who are threatening you?” Nina shook her head. “No, they’re the Calishers.”

  Nancy gaped in confusion. “The people you’re living with? Why in the world are you afraid to have them see you?”

  Nina did not answer right away. She watched the couple take a booth around the corner. “It’s hard to explain, except that they’ve become nervous wrecks about my tennis game. Every so often, just before a match, they go to pieces worrying whether I’ll win or lose. Then I get nervous.”

  Nina leaned toward Nancy and continued. “After I was threatened over the telephone yesterday, I wasn’t too scared until Uncle Aaron— I call the Calishers Uncle Aaron and Aunt Emily— anyway, until Uncle Aaron heard about it. I thought he’d have a heart attack! This morning, I got another call while he was out and when he came home and heard about it, he turned beet-red. He started gasping for breath and had to lie down.

  “So you see, I don’t want to do anything to upset him. He’s really been this way ever since I Dad disappeared a few months ago. That’s why I don’t want him to know that you’re reopening the case, much less that I told you about the threats.”

  Nancy was puzzled as she ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t understand the phone calls,” she said. “Didn’t you tell the police?” "No,” Nina said. “We haven’t. No one wants to tell the police for fear it will hurt the image of tennis. You see, the man who called me said, Tf you want to stay alive, you’d better plan on losing your first big tennis match’!”

  “Oh, my goodness,” Nancy said.

  “Similar things have been happening to other players since the tournament began last week.” Nancy knew that the annual New Brighton Invitational Tennis Tournament was already under way. The local club had long sponsored what had become one of the most prestigious and important competitions in the country. It was considered an honor to be invited to participate, and several of the world’s topflight players came each year.

  Nancy had always felt that the reason Nina and her father had moved to New Brighton was the fact that there she could get the best training in the country. In the past, Nancy and her friends had often attended the exciting matches, but this year Nancy’s spare time was spent on plans for the River Heights Bicentennial and she had not kept up to date on the tournament.

  “One player,” Nina continued, “was delayed for a match by what turned out to be a fake phone call telling him his father was seriously ill. Another couldn’t get to his first match because somebody put sugar in his gas tank and the car stalled. Both men were favored to win and both lost their matches by default. Now we think the same crooks are threatening me.” Nancy sighed. “It sounds as if some big-time gamblers might be involved in this. The authorities should be told what’s going on.” “Yes,” Nina said hesitantly, “I guess they should, but—”

  “If the gamblers can throw a champion off stride or prevent another from showing up, all they have to do is bet on his or her opponent and take the winnings. Have the tournament officials been informed?”

  Nina bit her lip. “I don’t know, Nancy. Probably not,” she said, pausing. “I’ll tell you what.

  I promise to do it as soon as I get
home. I’ll make sure that the officials know, if only you will help me find out what happened to my lather and try to clear his name.”

  Nancy touched her hand. “Okay. First things first. I’m going to check in at the New Brighton Motor Lodge and start work tomorrow, bright und early.”

  The beaming smile on Nina’s face brought one to Nancy’s as she looked around the coffee shop. “Now, how are we going to get you out of here without the Calishers seeing you?” “Well,” Nina replied, “you could leave first. Then if I meet them they won’t suspect anything. If we ran into them together, I’m sure they’d remember you from River Heights.” Nancy agreed with her friend’s strategy and started to get up when the door of the coffee shop was flung open and Midge Watson came tearing in. She skidded to a stop in front of the girls’ table.

  “Nancy,” she yelled, “come quick! Some guy’s been trying to fool with your brakes. Hurry!” Then she bolted out the door.

  Nancy chased after Midge around the comer into the parking lot just in time to see the now familiar green Chevy vanishing from the opposite exit.

  ‘“I caught him trying to fix your brakes, Nancy. And I mean fix them so they wouldn’t work! His back was turned so I couldn’t get a good look at him, but the minute I shouted, I saw his right hand. It had an anchor tattooed on the back. How’s that for a clue? Aren’t you proud of me? Boy, am I starved. This looks like a great place to eat.”

  Still talking, Midge led Nancy back into the coffee shop to Nina’s table. The Calishers, attracted by the uproar, had joined the girl. They looked confused, and Nina, obviously uncomfortable, tried to appear cheerful.

  She reintroduced Nancy to the Calishers, who remembered her from prior years in River Heights. Nancy then introduced Midge and explained the reason for her unusual behavior.

  Mr. Calisher, a thin man with watery blue eyes, sparse brown hair, and a nervous manner, stared at Nancy. He seemed curious about why she was meeting Nina after so many years. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Nancy,” he said, and Mrs. Calisher, a plump, mousy-haired woman, chimed in.