by Mabel Maney
She shot straight up. "Exotic Entomology? Golly! Bees!" Suddenly, everything made sense. "When Velma took that threatening phone call for me, she recalled hearing a buzzing sound over the telephone. At the time I dismissed it as a bad connection, but now I see it was an important clue. The Chief must have been calling me from his office, where he was housing the deadly bee while awaiting my return.
"And to think I fell right into his trap. I'm the one who sent him straight to the evidence! Oh, how could I have been so trusting?" she chastised herself.
Nancy tossed and turned on the stiff narrow cot. There was one thing she didn't understand. "Why is the Chief so anxious to get rid of both me and Hannah? What could he possible gain?
"And where are my letters?
"Tomorrow I've got to let Cherry and the others know that it is Chief Chumley who's behind all this!" Nancy thought in horror. "If he's underhanded enough to let a killer bee loose in my basement, there's no telling what he'll do next!"
For an hour she lay awake, trying to think of where he could have hidden her letters. "Where would the Chief hide something that important? If they were in his desk drawer, the one I saw him slam shut, he's no doubt found a better hiding place by now, and probably at his home where fewer people are likely to congregate."
"Put yourself in your suspect's shoes," the Chief had once told her while they were tracking a dangerous dognapper. Nancy knew people often hid important things in, around, or under a favorite or sentimental place or belonging-often right under the nose of the sleuths.
"Why, in The Case of the Purloined Poodle, old Miss Pringle's prize-winning pet Pierre turned up in the pianoforte!
"What means more than anything in the world to Chief Chumley?" Nancy mused. "The tommy gun he took off Shifty Malone early on in his career? His professional bowling ball in its handsome black leather monogrammed case, a gift from the River Depths Merchants Association?"
But neither of these possessions seemed right for hiding a packet of letters. Nancy put her fingertips to her temples and thought hard. She closed her eyes and pictured Chief Chumley's living room-the musty curtains, dark paneled walls, disheveled furniture, the ash-filled fireplace adorned by a matted, ragged moosehead. The moosehead!
"It's the moosehead!" Nancy stifled a cry. The very same moosehead that had fallen off the wall at the Men's Club and killed Ted Tickerson had been confiscated by the police, and eventually ended up on proud display at the Chief's house.
"He's as proud of that moosehead as if he had stuffed it himself," Nancy thought. And if she remembered correctly from her work on The Mystery of the Squashed Squirrel, that head should be hollow-the perfect place to hide important documents!
"Tomorrow I have to get this information to my chums before the courtroom proceedings begin, so they can snatch back the letters. But until the letters are in my hand-until the moment I'm free to speak the truth-I have to convince everyone that I am Hannah.
"Tomorrow I have to give the performance of my life!"
* * *
CHAPTER 46
* * *
A Shocking Rumor
"We are going to be late!" Midge bellowed up the stairs. She jangled the car keys in her pocket in frustration. "We are not going to a fashion show, ladies, we are going to court. Cherry and Velma, let's go! " She rolled her eyes at Jackie. "Whadda we gonna do with them?" she grinned.
They had spent most of the night turning the Chief's house upside down without results. Nancy's letters were nowhere to be found. Midge began to wish they hadn't run over the Chief. "Not at least until we got him to sing," she sighed.
"A little cranky this morning, are we?" Velma teased as she raced down the stairs holding a can of hair spray in one hand and comb in the other. "You know, if I had short hair, I'd be ready by now," she pointed out.
"Get in the car," Midge ordered.
Velma raced out the door, but not before giving Midge a good pinch on her right bicep. "Yes, dad," Velma laughed.
Midge chased after her. "Where's Cherry?" she grumbled when she got to the car. Bess, George, and Lauren had already roared off in George's old jalopy, and Terry was upstairs nursing Hannah, who was making a swift recovery. But Cherry was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm here," Cherry sniffled. She was standing on the front porch holding the letter Nancy had penned to her on the way to prison. In the other hand was a damp hankie, and on her face was an expression of woe.
"Come and sit in the back seat with me, Cherry," Jackie offered generously. Cherry got into the car and lay her head on Jackie's shoulder. "Tell me everything, baby," Jackie said softly as she stroked Cherry's hair. "Is it a Dear John letter?"
Cherry looked puzzled. "No, it's addressed to me," she replied. Jackie had to smile. That Cherry! But her grin turned into a grimace when she heard what came next.
"Nancy's asked me to forgive her for her scandalous behavior of the other evening and is begging me to stay here in River Depths," Cherry blurted out. "Forever!"
"After all Nancy's put you through, you're not going to go back with her, are you?" Jackie wanted to cry, but she held her tongue. She remembered Midge's wise words. She would let Cherry come to her on her own!
Midge and Velma, who had been sitting in the front seat quarreling lightly, were shocked into silence. "I guess we'd better go," Midge muttered as she started the engine and pulled Nancy's convertible, which George had graciously scrubbed clean, out of the circular drive. Midge kept her eyes on the road and her ears tuned to the drama unfolding in the back seat.
"Are you going to?" Jackie asked quietly, struggling to keep her tone nonchalant.
"I don't know," Cherry admitted. She breathed a big sigh of relief. There. She had said it. "For days I've dreamt of the moment when Nancy would declare her love for me, but now I don't know if that's even what I want!" she admitted ruefully. "Last night, when I was at the Tin Tan Club, and everyone was being so nice to me, I realized something shocking," she wailed.
"What?" the girls chorused eagerly.
"I really don't think Nancy's been a very good girlfriend lately! "
Midge bit her lip. Velma gripped her thigh.
"And now she's saying all the right things, and I feel all cold inside. But I want to be in love, I really do. Oh, Jackie, what's wrong with me?"
"Right feeling, wrong girl," Jackie almost blurted out. Instead she hugged Cherry even harder.
"Will I ever love again?" Cherry cried.
"Maybe sooner than you think," Midge exclaimed. "Ouch! No pinching the driver. Besides, we're here," she announced as she pulled the car into a spot near the courthouse. They hopped out of the car and made their way to the majestic marble building surrounded by weeping willow trees. It was only nine o'clock, but the summer sun was already heating up the day. People had taken refuge in the shade and were sitting on blankets, sipping cool lemonade. A man was selling hot pretzels from a cart in front of the stairs.
"Oh, look," Cherry exclaimed. "Someone's selling little miniature replicas of the Clue memorial statue. Oh, they're pencil sharpeners; what a clever idea." She wondered if she should get one for Nancy.
"It looks like a carnival," Midge proclaimed as they passed people carrying picnic baskets and folding lawn chairs. "Look, there are George and Bess on the courthouse steps. Who's that fella with them?" Midge wondered. "Oh, that's Lauren," she quickly corrected herself. "I'm still not used her funny new haircut."
"I think Lauren looks mighty cute with her hair all cut off like that," Velma asserted.
"You do?" Midge scowled. "I think she looks like a scrub brush."
"Yoo hoo!" a woman called to them. "Over here!" It was Mrs. Milton Meeks, and she was attractively attired in her sedate gray morning suit, simple pearls, and plain pumps. She gestured wildly at them.
"This will be interesting," Midge grinned. "Let's see if Micky managed to get the news out about the Chief. That's her mother, Mrs. Meeks, the meanest matron in town," she quickly explained to Jackie.
; "Oh girls!" Mrs. Meeks ran over to them. "You'll never guess what's happened!" She dropped her voice. "I have the most scandalous information about Chief Chumley," she whispered conspiratorially.
"You do?" the girls chorused, doing their best to look surprised.
Mrs. Meeks looked around furtively. "Now don't go spreading this around, but I have heard from a very reliable source that Chief Chumley has run off with money confiscated in last week's River Depths Savings and Loan robbery!"
"He has?" Cherry said in alarm. She shot a nervous glance across the street to the town square, where the Chief had taken his place among other honored River Depthians. People were admiring the new addition to the park, and a few birds had already perched on his shoulders.
"What a surprise," Midge said.
"Isn't it?" the matron exclaimed. "Early this morning I went to the Chief's office to speak to him about a pressing community matter, but he wasn't there. Deputy Drone said his top drawer had been cleaned out and his papers thrown all asunder, as if the Chief had left in a hurry.
"Gracious!" the girls gasped.
"That's not all. A large sum of unmarked bills-evidence from the bank robbery-is missing! "
Mrs. Meeks grabbed a hankie from her purse and started to fan herself. "Oh, I just remembered; I found this under his desk." She showed them the linen handkerchief with the initials NC monogrammed on it. Cherry gasped. It was Nancy's hankie!
"It's Nancy's," Cherry blurted out without thinking.
"Why, so it is!" Mrs. Meeks realized. She puzzled over the scrap of cloth in her hand. "Why isn't Nancy with you, lank?"
"I don't know," Midge confessed sadly in a deep, masculine manner. A mischievous gleam came into her eyes. "Mrs. Meeks, Nancy's disappeared!"
"Isn't it an odd coincidence that both the Chief and Nancy are suddenly nowhere to be found?" Mrs. Meeks remarked.
"Are you insinuating that the Chief and my fiancee have run off together?" Midge cried.
"That's exactly what I mean!" Mrs. Meeks exclaimed.
Cherry interjected with, "But she's-"
"Young enough to be his daughter," Midge quickly finished Cherry's sentence.
"I know! Isn't it shocking?" the matron moaned in delight. "Those two have run off together, and I have the proof linking them! But don't worry, Frank dear," Mrs. Meeks clasped Midge's hand. "This shameful secret will stay right here. Although, if it's really true that Nancy's run off with that man, I wonder if you would be interested in meeting my own lovely daughter?"
"Thank you, Mrs. Meeks," Midge said. "You are a true friend."
"I can't talk now, dear, I've got some people to see," the matron hurried away.
"Midge, why did you tell her that horrible lie?" Cherry castigated her chum.
"Don't you see, Cherry? This way, no one will ever suspect what is really going on-that Nancy has disguised herself as Hannah and is standing trial in her stead, that Hannah is hiding out in the attic, being nursed back to health by a Navy Nurse, and the Chief, well, that he's become a park fixture."
"You're right, Midge. It would be dreadful if anyone guessed the truth!"
* * *
CHAPTER 47
* * *
The State of Illinois
v. Hannah P. Gruel
"Oh, did you hear that the Chief and Nancy have run off together with the money from the bank robbery?" Mrs. Thaddeus Tweeds exclaimed when she spied the girls sitting in the back row of the courtroom. "Someone saw them at the train station at the crack of dawn!" she reported. "Frank, you poor dear. You must be nearly frantic with worry about your fiancee," Mrs. Tweeds twittered.
"All rise," the bailiff barked. "The Honorable Judge Milton Meeks presiding." Mrs. Tweeds raced to her front-row seat. The spectators jumped to their feet. The courtroom was so packed the girls were lucky to have found seats at all, even in the very last row of the gallery. Cherry craned her neck to see as Nancy was brought out. She breathed in sharply when she saw the sad, stooped little figure bound in leg irons and handcuffs.
"She really does look just like Hannah," Bess whispered in George's ear. "Right down to the pressed, gray house dress and starched white apron." She squeezed George's hand. The trial was about to begin. Golly, she was nervous.
The prosecuting attorney stood and faced the jury, made up of twelve of River Depths' leading businessmen. "The state will prove, gentlemen, that on July 5, 1959, housekeeper Hannah P. Gruel did wantonly murder her longtime employer, Carson Clue, in the kitchen of his tidy, three-story brick house at 36 Maple Street."
The girls sat in shocked silence as the prosecution laid out a solid case against the hapless housekeeper. The Chief's top deputy positively identified Mr. Clue's hunting rifle as the murder weapon, and matched the prints on the barrel to those taken from Hannah the day of her arrest. Then Hannah's signed confession was passed around the jury box, and a murmur rippled through the courtroom.
"It's going to be the shortest murder trial in history," a man in front of them whispered to his companion. "I'll be surprised if it lasts the week! "
With deadly precision, the district attorney painted a picture of a frustrated housekeeper constantly at odds with her employer.
The girls gasped when Mrs. Milton Meeks was called to the stand. Bess grew red with anger. What would that horrid woman say?
Mrs. Meeks held up her gloved right hand, swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She sat down in the witness chair, primly smoothed her skirt over her knees, and proceeded to tell one falsehood after the other.
"I saw this coming a mile away," Mrs. Meeks declared when she was asked if she had been shocked by news of the murder. "I knew one day that woman was going to snap," she declared. "Some people do, you know. They snap. Just like that."
"Mrs. Meeks, could you characterize Hannah's relationship with her employer?" the district attorney asked.
"Yes, I'd be delighted to," she replied haughtily. "Perhaps an anecdote will serve. I remember it like it was yesterday. Hannah had been hired at a good wage to help tidy up after a Ladies' Club Luncheon. After the other maids had done their chores and caught their buses home, Hannah cornered me and begged me to let her come clean my house! She said she hated Mr. Clue and that Nancy was a demanding, spoilt child whose extensive wardrobe required hours of ironing. 'If I don't get out of that house, I promise you something terrible will happen!' were her exact words!"
"But you didn't hire her, did you?"
"Of course not," Mrs. Meeks cried indignantly. "I would never dream of stealing someone else's maid!"
"She'd make a nice statue," Midge growled to Jackie.
"A short time later, I asked Miss Gruel to bake me a huckleberry pie," Mrs. Meeks remembered. "Oh, I paid her for ita whole fifty cents! I took one bite, and I knew there was something awfully wrong with it. Why, it was poison, I tell you. Poison! She was trying to get back at me for not employing her! " Mrs. Meeks swooned into the arms of the district attorney and had to be helped to her place beside her friend Mrs. Tweeds.
Members of the jury were on the edges of their seats. Mrs. Meeks was one of the town's most respected community leaders, and her testimony had proven to be quite damaging for Hannah!
Just then, an unexpected thing happened. Nancy struggled to her feet, clutching the long, oak table in front of her for support. She turned and faced the back of the courtroom. She looked Cherry straight in the eye.
"Miss Gruel, please take your seat," the judge demanded.
"I...fear ...I...am...going ...to...faint," she whispered right before she pitched forward. Everyone jumped up in alarm. Lucky for Cherry, she had had the foresight to throw bandages, germicidal ointment, smelling salts, aspirin, and her spare nurse's cap in her purse that very morning. "I'm a nurse," she cried as she pinned on her cap. "Stand back!"
Cherry leapt over the railing and caught Nancy just before she hit the floor. "Give her some air," Cherry ordered. The crowd took a step back. Nancy opened one eye and smiled slyly. "
I fooled them didn't I?" she whispered. Cherry realized Nancy had been putting on a very convincing act. Why, she hadn't fainted at all!
"I just had to talk to you," Nancy whispered urgently. "I've figured out where the Chief has hidden the evidence."
Cherry grew alarmed at the mention of the Chief. "Lie back," she said in a shaky voice. "I'm going to check your heart rate."
"We haven't much time," Nancy whispered. "Listen carefully. The evidence has got to be in the moosehead hanging in the Chief's living room. I'm sure of it!"
Cherry nodded. "Your heartbeat is dangerously fast, Nancy," she whispered.
"You know why, don't you?" Nancy murmured. "It's because you're here. Did you get my letter?" she asked softly. "I've got to know, Cherry. Will you be waiting for me when I get out?"
Cherry blinked back tears. She couldn't answer. She didn't know!
"Maybe this will convince you," Nancy murmured. She swung her handcuffed hands around Cherry's head and pulled her girlfriend down, kissing her full on the lips. At first Cherry struggled to break the embrace, but soon found that her body had a mind of its own. She surrendered to Nancy's warm kiss.
A murmur went through the crowd. "What's going on?" someone yelled.
"It's the kiss of life," a woman explained knowingly.
"The court will recess for lunch," Judge Meeks pounded his gavel. Two prison guards came to take Nancy away.
Jackie fled the courtroom with Midge at her heels. "That Nancy! I'll bet she's playing on Cherry's naturally sympathetic nature to win her back," she exclaimed. She buried her head in her hands. "What am I saying here? Where's my professional distance? What's wrong with me?" she groaned.
Midge slapped her on the back. "You're in love," she said. "Ain't it grand?"
