Nancy Clue Mysteries 1 - The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse

by Mabel Maney

"I went to my best friend's house, a nice Catholic girl named Margaret O'Malley. I just went to say good-bye. I was going to hit the road, ride the rails. I could have just blended right in. My plan was to pass as a boy; I figured it would be safer that way.

  "Peg told me about this really sweet nun she knew who really liked to help young girls. While we were talking, my dad showed up at her house and started beating the bejesus out of me.

  "So, I shot him, and Peg and I ran. I found out later I didn't kill him, but I came pretty darn close.

  "We went to see that nun, and she brought us here. Her aunt-the Mother Superior at that time-is retired now. But for years she was many girls' link with a better life.

  "She helped me and Peg disappear. She got papers for us, new identification cards, even money. Peg had her make up a high school diploma, and letters of recommendation, and with it, she got a scholarship to a nursing school in Seattle, where she practices today, as Head Nurse Margaret Marstad.

  "In fact, she's Cherry's boss at the hospital."

  "Does Cherry know all this?" Jackie cried.

  Midge shook her head. "Those of us who have gone through the underground agree to protect one another's identities," Midge said, adding, "I'm only telling you this because I'm sure we're never getting out of here.

  "Anyway, I was so grateful to the nuns, I decided to work for them. Believe it or not, I wasn't arrested taking someone across state lines, or carrying forged I.D. papers, or any of the illegal things I used to do. I was picked up during a raid on a bar, and when they ran a check on me, they discovered the old warrant for my arrest for the attempted murder of my father.

  "As if he hadn't nearly killed me every time he was drunk," she said bitterly.

  "So I was sent to jail, where I met Velma. She was my English teacher. I fell instantly in love, and we began a torrid affair from afar. She helped me escape," Midge said proudly.

  "No one ever suspected her. As Velma says, everyone just thinks of her as an old maid school teacher. That term sounds so dry. Not at all like Velma," Midge chuckled.

  "And now it ends here. Funny, I'm back at the place where my freedom began. And except for a few hard times, it wasn't too bad a ride."

  "We're going to get out of here," Jackie assured her. "And when we do, I'm going to destroy all the records on you, Midge. I have friends all over the state. When we're finished, there'll be no trace of you in any police file anywhere."

  "Let's search for a way out!" Lauren cried.

  "The moon's full, so we have some light," Midge said hopefully, joining the search. They ran their hands over the rough stone walls. "Isn't it odd that a convent would have prison cells?" Jackie commented.

  "Well, this is a cell, but it's not for prisoners. Twenty years ago, these were the nuns' bedrooms," she said. "In fact, I spent my first night in this convent in a room just like this."

  "Gosh, you've lived so long and had so many adventures," Lauren said breathlessly.

  "Haven't you had any adventures yet?" Jackie teased.

  "Just one. My best friend and I were fooling around but my mother walked in on us. I told her we were conducting an experiment for health class, but I don't think she believed me. She's watched me like a hawk ever since."

  "So how come they left you alone when they went on vacation?"

  "Oh, I have a babysitter. My gym teacher, Miss Rutherford. She's probably asleep, though. She's pretty old-at least thirty-five."

  "Thirty-five!" Midge gasped. "And she's still teaching? At that age?"

  "You're making fun of me!" Lauren cried, stamping her foot. As she did, a small stone fell out of the wall to reveal a tiny opening.

  "Lauren, you doll!" Jackie cried. Midge shone the flashlight down the opening. The small opening was narrow-not big enough for a hand-yet seemingly endless.

  Midge peered into it. "What could possibly fit through here?" she asked. Just as she did, something came running out at them!

  The three girls jumped back as a small brown mouse flew out of the wall and landed at their feet.

  "Just like home," said Midge, kneeling on the cold stone floor. She put out her hand and the mouse jumped into her palm. It scurried up her arm to her shoulder, and nibbled on her ear.

  "Oh, it's tame," Lauren said, petting the tiny, light brown mouse.

  The mouse seemed to enjoy the attention. It jumped into Midge's hair and began to squeak. Midge pulled it from her hair and placed it in her palm, rubbing its stomach. "Look, it's wearing a thin silver chain around its neck!" she cried. "She's definitely trained. That gives me an idea. But first, I need a pen."

  Lauren reached into her baggy overalls and pulled out an assortment of writing tools.

  "Got any paper in there?" Midge asked.

  Lauren shook out the entire contents of her pocket, but was unable to find even a scrap of paper.

  "I hate to do this," Midge said, taking Lana's book from her pocket. "But it looks like this is the only paper we've got."

  "Don't tell anyone," she said as she gently peeled back the end paper from the inside cover of the book. She found that the paper had been glued using a minimum of paste, and pulled up easily from the inside cover. "It comes right off," she said happily. "I can probably fix it later, and no one will ever know."

  She worked the paper until she could tear off a two-inch square. On a scrap of the paper, Midge wrote:

  IS THAT YOU, KITTY?

  "My nickname for Velma," she explained with a sheepish grin.

  Midge wrapped the note around the tiny neck and secured it with the chain. She petted the little animal and shooed it down the tiny tunnel. The mouse scampered away.

  "She knows what to do," said Midge. "I know my rodents. I once spent a great deal of time training small animals to do amusing things."

  It seemed for now their fate was in the hands of this tiny creature. They sat down to wait. Midge picked distractedly at the ripped book.

  "What's this?" she exclaimed, finding a small envelope stuck between the end paper and the cover. She carefully pulled it out and opened it. "There's a negative in here!" she cried.

  Even with the moonlight shining in on them, it was too dark to make out a photographic negative clearly. "Lauren, hand me your matches. You don't have a magnifying glass on you, do you?" Jackie joked.

  "Cherry would have one," Midge noted.

  Even with the match, it took a bit of examining to make out the image.

  "There's a girl posing on a rock," Jackie said, describing what she was seeing. "She's naked. She's not bad looking, either," Jackie reported, in a matter-of-fact tone. "Behind her is a man. It's hard to see, but it looks like he's wearing a long black outfit."

  Midge took a look. "Why, I think it's Father Helmes. And he's-what's this? He's dragging a body!"

  "I bet it's that corpse we saw in the chapel! " Jackie exclaimed.

  "This is great!" Lauren said. "All we have to do is convince him to trade Velma for this negative!"

  "But that's not enough," Midge said. "We have to find a way to protect the convent. If they go through with their plans to turn it into a playground for priests, they'll destroy an important institution for females on the run."

  "So many lives are at stake here," Jackie said somberly. "We have to move very carefully! If they find out we have this negative, they'll probably just kill us for it."

  "What do we do now?" Lauren cried.

  "What can we do?" Midge sighed. "Except wait."

  Midge sat down and lit a cigarette. "I hate to wait," she said, to no one in particular.

  The three felt silent. Suddenly a little ball of fur came hurtling out of the hole in the wall.

  "Oh, no, The note's still there!" Jackie cried. "We didn't contact Velma."

  "Not so fast," said Midge, taking the note from Jackie. While there was no added writing, the word "Kitty" had been carefully torn from the paper.

  "We've reached Velma!" Midge cried.

  "How do you know?" asked Jackie and Lauren.

/>   "We saw this in an old movie one night; the heroine had no pen, so she ripped a part of the message instead to let her rescuers know she was still alive."

  "Now that we know she's alive, all we have to do is find her," Midge declared.

  But their continued search for a way out was futile. They finally agreed to get some sleep, taking turns staying awake in case any of their jailers decided to pay them a visit.

  "I wonder what Cherry's doing right now," Midge sighed, staring at the full moon. "I sure hope she's having a better time than we are."

  "Could there be a worse time than this?" Lauren sighed dramatically.

  Jackie started to laugh. "Yes, there is a worse time than this, and her name is Trixie."

  "Not Trixie with the poodles!" Midge cried.

  "Oh, no! You, too?"

  Lauren grumbled and turned over. She had no idea what they were talking about, and she was frankly too exhausted to care! When she fell asleep five minutes later, Midge and Jackie were still laughing.

  Midge's turn as sentry came as the sun was rising. She had slept badly on the cold stone floor, and she was hungry, but all she could think of was her beloved Velma.

  "Soon we'll be together again," she prayed. She stroked the tiny mouse, asleep in her palm, and watched the sun rise.

  Without warning the door swung open, and two deacons stormed in. One of them was armed with a rifle!

  Midge jumped up. "Aren't you boys a little old to be playing dress-up?" she taunted the men.

  "Shut up!" the gunman cried. His partner grabbed Midge, who could have overpowered the man had she not had a gun pointed at her head.

  The gunman suddenly shrieked. "I've been bitten," he cried, dropping his gun and grabbing his right ankle.

  "Aargh!" he screamed, grabbing his other foot. "I've been bitten again."

  Midge threw his partner against the stone wall, knocking him cold. Within seconds the girls had jumped the gunman.

  Midge pointed the gun at his head. "Tell us where you've got the girl," she demanded.

  "She's in the boiler room," the man blurted out, before fainting from fear.

  "I'd just as soon kill these guys," Midge said. "But we might need them later," she pointed out. "We might not be able to find Velma all by ourselves."

  "Good thinking," Jackie agreed. "Let's tie them up. Drat! They took our rope away from us last night, remember?"

  Midge's eyes lit up. "I almost forgot-I've got handcuffs in my pocket!"

  She expertly cuffed the men together. "There, these boys won't be going anywhere soon," she said. She held up the little key she kept on a chain around her neck.

  "Gee, hope I don't lose this," she said sarcastically, tossing it out the window. "Darn shame to waste a good pair of cuffs on these losers," Midge said ruefully.

  "Don't worry," Jackie consoled Midge. "When we get back to the city, I'll get you another pair-government issue."

  The little brown mouse sat atop the deacons, chattering her teeth.

  "What's she trying to say?" asked Jackie.

  "That's how mice laugh," Midge explained.

  The mouse kept chattering, causing the three girls to break out in giggles, which they tried to suppress.

  "Shhh," said Jackie. "There's at least three more of these guys, remember? Not to mention that jerky altar boy we met out front."

  The girls stifled their laugher, but the stone corridors continued to echo.

  "Why, that sounds like the laughter of children," Jackie gasped. "Could it be that Father Helms is so dastardly that he's holding children hostage, too?"

  * * *

  CHAPTER 19

  * * *

  An Unfortunate Slip

  "If Velma's in the boiler room, she's in worse danger than we imagined!" Midge cried. "We've got to get down there, quick!"

  Midge raced into a long dark corridor with rows of identical doors, Lauren and Jackie following close behind her.

  "This is so creepy," Lauren shivered, peeking through the windows of the cells. "They're all the same," she declared. "I can't believe anyone used to live here!"

  "I remember there was a stone staircase at the end of a corridor on the eastern side of the building that led down to the lower levels," Midge explained. "But I was so dizzy after that priest slugged me, I lost my sense of direction coming in.

  "Sister Agnes once explained to me that these corridors are built in the shape of a cross. We're right at the intersection. We have to figure out which way is east."

  Lauren pulled a compass from her pocket and checked their position. "We should head that way!" she pointed.

  "Under the convent are hot mineral springs," Midge explained as the three hurried down the corridor. "In the late 1930s, Sister Julia, who was particularly adept at engineering, figured out a way to run the steam through pipes, thus heating the entire convent. The door is always kept securely locked; only qualified nun technicians are allowed to go down there.

  "Why, the water is so scalding, it would take a miracle for someone to survive a plunge in it," Midge shivered.

  "Look!" Jackie said. They had found the staircase, but their exit was blocked by an iron-bar door, which had been padlocked shut.

  Luckily, the keys they had taken from the two deacons, who now lay cuffed together in the girls' cell, opened the rusty padlock!

  In a flash the three girls were running down the white stone staircase, following the spiraling path down, down, down. Electric lights had been hung at intervals along the crumbly dirt walls.

  The stairs emptied into a well-lit cellar that had large wooden shelves along one wall and low sinks lining another. The shelves were filled with dozens of jars of fruit. In the middle of the room was an old oak work table, scarred with many years' use.

  "This is where the nuns do their canning," Midge whispered, keeping her voice low in case the enemy was nearby.

  Jackie spied an open jar of pears on the counter next to the sink. "Someone's been here recently for a snack," she said, upon examining the jar. The fruit seemed fresh, and not at all spoilt.

  The sound of footsteps heading their way startled the girls. "We've got to hide!" Jackie whispered, gesturing toward a large wardrobe at the far end of the room. But, hard as they tried, they couldn't get the old cabinet open. And the footsteps were getting closer!

  "I know where we can hide," Midge whispered urgently. "The laundry room!" She pulled her chums through a curtain at the back of the room. The smell of starch hung in the air. Neatly folded linens and freshly starched wimples were stacked on a table. In the middle of the room was a large chute that came out of the ceiling and emptied into an enormous hamper.

  "Jump in!" Midge whispered urgently. The three girls climbed over the side and disappeared into a sea of black serge habits.

  Lauren wanted to giggle when she came up for air. Something about being in a sea of habits struck her as funny, but she changed her mind when Jackie put a cautionary finger to her lips. Someone was in the next room!

  They listened with bated breath while someone rummaged through the jars of food. "All day long, it's fetch this and fetch that," a boy was complaining to himself.

  "It's the altar boy," Jackie said in a low tone. Jackie looked at the disgusted expression in Midge's eyes and knew they were thinking the same thing. They should have eliminated him when they had the chance!

  They held their breath until they heard the altar boy go back up the stairs. Jackie and Midge leapt out of their hiding place, but had to help Lauren, who had become tangled in the heap of clothing and emerged with her head through the neck of a nun's habit.

  "These horrible habits are so darn itchy," she declared, struggling free of the confining outfit. "No wonder my teachers are always so crabby with me."

  "That must be it," Midge said dryly. "Now, let's go!" She led them back through the main room. "Figures, he didn't clean up after himself," Midge sneered. She vowed that when this was all over she'd personally teach that boy some manners!

  "No
w, if I remember correctly, the boiler room is through this door and down a tunnel," she said, heading toward a dark corner underneath the stairway.

  "Oh no, the door's been wrenched open. He must be down there with Velma right now," she said, ducking through the small stone portal. Lauren and Jackie shivered as they found themselves in a dark, damp tunnel.

  The girls crept single-file over the hard dirt floor, guided only by Lauren's dwindling supply of matches. Suddenly Midge halted the procession. They could see a sliver of light shining through the slightly open door ahead. She signaled the girls to stop.

  "Be very quiet," she said in a voice so low it was barely a whisper. "I'll go ahead. You two stay here until I give a signal that I need your help. Give me the gun, Jackie."

  Jackie hesitated. She felt she should be the one to go in first. After all, she was a police officer and knew how to handle this kind of dangerous situation. But she also knew that she'd get nowhere arguing with Midge, who'd do anything to save Velma.

  She reluctantly handed Midge the gun. She only hoped she was making the right decision!

  Midge leaned close to Jackie's ear. "If Velma and I don't make it, take Lauren and scram.There's an escape hatch right under the hamper we were hiding in. It leads to the underground rooms; they're probably holding the nuns there." She gave Jackie a swift hug and patted Lauren on the head.

  Midge crept the few last feet to the boiler room, and cautiously peeked though the crack in the open door.

  There was Velma, bound to a chair, and leaning over her in a menacing manner was the evil priest, Father Helms.

  And right behind them was the bubbling pool of scalding water! Would it be Velma's final resting place?

  Midge stuck the gun in her belt, and cautiously pushed open the door, praying that the priest wouldn't notice the door creaking.

  "It's about time you boys got here," Father Helms hissed, his back still to Midge.

  "Lucky break," Midge thought. "Those dumb deacons are good for something after all." She crept across the floor.

  Edging into the room, Midge took the gun from her belt and aimed at the priest. "The minute he moves away from Velma, he's a dead man," she thought, wiping sweat from her brow.