At the end of the aisle was a door to an enclosed room. On the door hung a sign: NO ADMITTANCE.
“What’s in there?” Nancy asked.
“It’s an experiment room,” Kiki replied, but did not elaborate.
This must be where the secret orchid research was carried on, Nancy thought. How could she find out, yet not seem too curious? Her mind whirled. Was there something else going on in there now? Was it a legitimate business or an undercover operation?
“Nancy, we must go and see the rest of the property,” Mr. Drew spoke up. He turned and headed back to the entrance. Nancy followed.
Hendricks and Kiki jumped into a small truck and led the way to the attractive colonial house.
As the group entered, Nancy gasped. A winding stairway stretched upward from a gracious hall. Halfway down from the second floor stood a ghostly figure. It had long straight white hair, a pretty snow-white face, and wore a flowing, tiered white chiffon gown. Its right hand, which was stretched to the side, held a glass tube from which dripped a dark blue fluid.
Hendricks gave a startled gurgle and bolted out the front door, followed by Kiki. Nancy and her father continued to stare. The ghost moved closer to them. Upon reaching the hall, however, it turned, went under the stairway and disappeared.
“Where did it go?” Mr. Drew asked.
Nancy pointed to a door under the stairway, ran to it, and yanked the door open. The ghost was not there. A stairway led downward.
As Nancy put one foot onto the step below, Mr. Drew grabbed her arm. “No,” he said, “you mustn’t take chances.”
“Oh, Dad, please don’t stop me. Come with me,” Nancy pleaded. She touched a wall switch, flooding the basement with light.
Reluctantly her father followed, but kept tight hold of her arm. Within seconds both the Drews began to sneeze. The place was damp and smelled quite moldy. The ghost was not in sight.
The Drews were amazed at the basement, which seemed to be a sunless greenhouse. Many rows of benches held pots of potting material, but no growth showed above the surface. Nancy poked a finger down into a pot and felt a tiny bulb.
“An orchid!” she exclaimed. “I guess the growers start these in the dark.”
Mr. Drew sighed with a smile. “Nancy, I’m beginning to have second thoughts about buying Orchidiana for you. Even without the ghost to worry about, there’s more to do here than I think you could manage.”
Nancy chuckled softly, then suddenly turned serious. “Dad, let’s go back upstairs. I want to examine that dark blue fluid. I have a hunch about it.”
When they reached the front hall, Nancy began searching the floor for spots. Finding one, she wiped it up with her finger, smelled it, then transferred the sticky smear to a tissue from her pocket. “It’s almost like glue,” she said. “I guess it could be a sap mixed with blue dye of some kind.”
Was this part of Mr. La Forge’s secret formula?
Nancy decided to try to find out and bounded up the staircase. On the second floor she searched for the master bedroom, and identified it by initials on embroidered pillowcases on the bed. An old-fashioned desk with many pigeonholes and racks stood against one wall. It was open. Papers lay scattered on the top. The racks were filled with bottles, all containing fluid. Each one was numbered in sequence.
Nancy thought they must indicate a succession of experiments. She now noticed that in some of the low-numbered bottles the color had changed to a deep green. None held a true dark blue. Where had the tube the ghost used come from?
Bewildered, Nancy glanced around, and moments later her eyes detected a card on the desk which read FORMULA FOR BLUE. It was too complicated for her to memorize.
There must be a laboratory up here, the girl detective thought. Seeing the door to an adjoining room ajar, she pushed it open. A laboratory indeed! And a well-equipped one, it seemed. Its untidy appearance indicated that the lab had been used recently.
The ghost must have been at work, heard the visitors enter the house, and then used the ghost scare routine, which had failed to frighten off the callers. So the spectre had to escape in a hurry. Nancy was convinced by this time that the ghost was a live person playing the part. But who? And why? No doubt someone connected with the orchid secret.
On a hunch that the formula might be stolen, Nancy pulled her tiny high-speed camera from her pocket and quickly snapped photographs of the probably unfinished formula. Suddenly, she heard a noise behind her.
Turning, she was confronted by Hendricks. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed at her, grabbing for the camera.
Nancy managed to hold on to it, quickly squeezed past him, and hurried down the stairs.
Her father met her. “Where have you been so long?” he asked her. “And who was that upstairs?”
She told him. The lawyer smiled. “I’m proud of you. The pictures of the formula could be very valuable for La Forge’s children.
“Dad,” Nancy whispered, “I think Hendricks is up to something. Do you?”
“Yes, but I’m not sure what.”
Nancy pondered the mystery, and was suddenly struck with a thought. The ghost on the stairway had a very clear, pretty face.
“Dad,” she said, “is any specific girl or woman connected with the La Forge mystery?”
The lawyer looked at his daughter intently. “Come to think of it, yes. Some of the estate money was left to Kiki’s wife, who worked for La Forge as a secretary. It was a larger amount than was left to Hendricks, and he of course resented this. His wife didn’t get a thing.”
“I’ll bet he was pretty angry,” Nancy replied thoughtfully.
On a sudden hunch, Nancy went back upstairs to the lab. Hendricks was gone, and while searching the room for clues, she opened a desk drawer. Inside lay a white wig.
The ghost, Nancy thought, and picked it up. On the canvas lining was stamped the number “23L 109.” In tiny letters against the “L” was “omax.”
Nancy grinned. The wig had been rented or purchased at the Lomax Beauty Salon in River Heights! She replaced the wig and hurried downstairs to her father.
“Let’s go, Dad!” she urged. “I have an errand in town.”
It was not until they were in the car that she told him about the clue of the wig. They stopped at the Lomax shop and Nancy went in.
“You wish to make an appointment?” the woman at the desk asked.
“No, thank you,” Nancy replied, “but I’d like to rent a wig like the one you gave to a young woman. Would you mind looking up your records? The number was 23L 109.”
“This is most unusual,” the woman said. “What is her name?”
“I don’t know. I saw the wig backstage at a theater and looked inside.”
The woman riffled through cards in a box and finally pulled one out. “This was a special order,” she said. “If you want one, I’ll have to make one up for you.”
“How long would it take?” Nancy asked.
“A couple of weeks, but we have one to rent.”
As Nancy thought about the mystery, she strained to catch a glimpse of the name on the card. What she saw was no surprise. In the upper righthand corner was written “Hendricks”! So his wife was indeed the ghost! She and her husband must be working as partners!
“I’ll let you know about renting a wig like this one,” Nancy said quickly and left the shop.
As the young detective rejoined her father, her mind was in a whirl. Then suddenly a new idea came to her.
“Dad,” she said, “would you mind taking me home to get my car? I think I’ll ask Bess and George to spend some time with me at the La Forge place. Okay?”
“As co-executor of the estate I can give you permission, but keep all your wits about you—and call me the minute there’s any trouble.”
When Nancy’s close girlfriends received the invitation, George was eager to help solve the mystery of Orchidiana. But when Bess heard about the ghost, she was reluctant to go.
“You know I don�
�t like even the mere mention of ghosts,” she said, “real or otherwise!”
In the end, however, she agreed to go, rather than be called chicken. The girls went food shopping, then set off at five o’clock.
When they drove into the grounds of Orchidiana, George could not resist teasing Nancy. “What a great place for you and Ned to settle down!”
Bess sighed. “I wouldn’t live in a house with a ghost in it, even for free.”
Once settled inside, the girls cooked their dinner and sat down to watch TV. Soon afterward, dusk turned to darkness. In a few minutes they heard a piercing screech.
Bess jumped in her chair. “What on earth was that?”
“Only a cat,” George replied.
“I’ll bet it’s a black one,” Bess said, always pessimistic.
Nancy flashed her strong lantern out the window, then laughed. “Only half your luck will be bad, Bess. The cat has pure white paws.”
“You win again, Nancy,” said Bess and sighed. “Just the same, I wish that cat would stop its horrible screeching.”
George said to her cousin, “You might try throwing water on it. I’ve heard that’s the thing to do.”
Bess said no more and paid strict attention to the TV program until the three girls were startled by the sudden slamming of a front window shutter.
“That’s funny,” George remarked. “There’s no wind tonight.”
Nancy hurried to the window and gasped.
“What is it?” Bess asked nervously.
“The ghost!” Nancy replied.
George went to look. A figure with long white hair, wearing a filmy, tiered, full-length white gown was dancing on the lawn. Every few seconds it would stop, make a bow, then continue as if an audience were demanding an encore.
“I must get closer,” Nancy announced, squaring her shoulders, and ran outdoors. Bess and George watched from the window as their friend sped across the lawn after the dancer, who was running away from the young detective.
“Stop! Stop! I must talk to you!” Nancy cried out.
Instead of stopping, the dancing ghost ran faster. The chase led to the big greenhouse. The ghost rushed inside, slammed the door, and locked it.
Nancy raced to an adjoining shed, hurried through it and burst into the main building. The ghost was not in sight. Had she gone back to the house to change clothes?
Before leaving the greenhouse, the girl detective beamed her light under every bench and arbor. No one was in hiding. Nancy decided to go back to the house and search there for the elusive ghost. Again she was disappointed.
Oh, dear, she thought. Now what?
A sudden idea came to her. She retraced her steps to the room where she had seen the long, white-haired wig. The door was open, but no one was inside. Nancy went at once to the bureau and opened the top drawer. The wig lay inside. She felt it. Warm! It had been used recently.
At this moment a small woman walked in. She wore a nightie and dressing gown. “What are you doing?” she asked. “And who are you? Let me guess. You’re Nancy Drew, the snooping girl detective!”
Nancy did not answer. Instead she asked, “You’re Mrs. Hendricks?”
“It’s none of your business who I am. You don’t belong here, so get out and stay out.”
Nancy asked, “You don’t own this house. It belongs to the La Forge estate.”
The woman glared at her. “You think you know it all, but you’ll never find out the real secret of the place!” she yelled.
Bess and George, wondering what had become of Nancy, heard the loud talking and came to investigate. By now the woman had shoved Nancy into the hall and locked herself in.
“Nancy, what happened?” Bess asked.
The girl detective put a finger to her lips and motioned for the girls to follow her along the hall. On the way she spotted a telephone on a table. Impulsively she picked it up, thinking she’d call her father.
As she held the receiver to her ear, a man’s voice said, “Hi! Mrs. Hendricks?”
Nancy’s mind raced. “Yes. Anything new?” she asked.
“Yes. Tell your husband I’m ready to meet his offer.”
“That’s good,” Nancy said, trying to figure a way to get the man’s name. She asked, “How do you spell your last name?”
“With a ’y.’ Smythe. Ed Smythe in Eastville. And remember, no one can know about this.”
“I’ll remember,” Nancy said, “and thank you.”
As soon as the caller hung up, Nancy dialed her father at home and guardedly told him of the conversation. It was not until the next morning that she learned the real significance of the call. Mr. Drew drove out to the La Forge residence and told the girls that Ed Smythe was president of the Eastville Greenhouses, a large wholesale florist. He was a rival of La Forge’s and La Forge would never sell the secret formula of the blue orchid.
Nancy asked, “You don’t think Mr. Hendricks is selling the formula and intending to keep the money, do you? He doesn’t even know the entire thing anyway. No one does!”
“It looks that way,” the lawyer replied. “But your good detecting, Nancy, has foiled him if that’s what he planned. I’ll talk to Ed Smythe myself. In the meantime keep on with your work there. Hendricks might have figured out the remaining portion.”
After he had left, Nancy decided on a bold move. “Let’s go talk to Kiki,” she suggested to the girls.
They found him in the workshop of the greenhouse unpacking a large box of pink orchids. “Oh, how beautiful!” Nancy exclaimed. “Where did they come from?”
“Hawaii,” he replied. “My family grows them. When La Forge nurseries gets a big order, my folks send flowers to me.”
Nancy looked at the young man and asked, “Kiki, have you ever mixed a formula to change the color of the flowers?”
“No, I never have, but I’d like to try—only I don’t have the formula.”
“I have part of it,” Nancy said. “Shall we mix some of the sticky sap into the dark blue fluid and immerse the orchids’ stems in it?”
“Let’s go into the cold room,” he said eagerly.
The cold room proved to be the NO ADMITTANCE room. Part of the space had been reserved for experimenting; test tubes hung in racks along the wall. Tools lay on benches. Buckets and empty glass bottles stood nearby.
“Where are the liquids?” Nancy asked.
Kiki opened a closet door. Inside were many shelves, all filled with liquids of various colors.
Nancy fumbled in her pocket for the paper on which the formula was written. She read it, then selected three bottles—red, blue, and one marked “sap.” She poured a little of the two colors into a test tube and added water. Almost instantly a beautiful deep purple appeared. Nancy was disappointed.
“How am I ever going to get blue?” she said to Kiki, who merely shrugged and replied, “That’s a pretty color.”
Rather than waste it, Nancy poured the fluid into a bottle, added some sap, then put the stem of a white orchid into it. She and Kiki watched intently. Gradually the petals of the flower began to change, first to lavender, then deeper and deeper.
All this time Bess and George had been waiting in the greenhouse and enjoying the orchid display. Suddenly Bess grabbed George’s arm.
“Someone’s coming!” she whispered, seeing a woman walk through the entrance door. “We should warn Nancy.”
George raced toward the NO ADMITTANCE room. At the same time the woman started to run after her.
“You can’t go in there!” she shouted at George.
George paid no attention. She threw open the door and warned Nancy and Kiki, who immediately stopped their testing. “Mrs. Hendricks,” he muttered nervously. Quickly he closed and locked the door.
Mrs. Hendricks pushed George aside and tried to get in. Failing, she grew red in the face and screamed, “I’ll fix you!”
On a nearby wall was a small red wheel with a sign above it: TEMPERATURE CONTROL. She turned the wheel to the mark for freezing.
“That’ll take care of unwanted visitors,” she said with a sly smile to Bess and George. “Don’t try to turn that off. It’s automatic and will change itself in twelve hours and open the door—which is now locked from the outside!” She fled from the greenhouse.
Bess was in a panic. “Nancy’ll freeze to death.”
George jumped to the wheel. “I don’t believe that horrible creature,” she said, “Bess, pound on the door.” At the same time she tried to turn the wheel back to NORMAL, but she couldn’t find the button to unlock the wheel from its position. Minutes ticked by, and finally Bess, feeling blindly around a huge nearby switch panel, found the button on the underside.
The door opened. Nancy and Kiki staggered out, shivering, and were told what had happened. The two victims sighed in relief.
Kiki said, “Thanks for saving the priceless orchids in there.”
“To say nothing of priceless us!” Nancy added.
Bess and George nodded. “But what are we going to do about that awful woman?” George asked finally.
“I have a plan,” Nancy replied. “Right now we girls are going to leave here, but we’re coming back secretly tonight.” She led the way out of the greenhouse to her car. They climbed in and Nancy drove off.
“What’s your big plan, Nancy?” Bess asked.
“To meet the ghost on her own ground.”
As they rode into town, Nancy stopped at the Lomax Beauty Salon and went inside. She said she would rent the wig and paid the girl at the desk. After leaving Bess and George at their houses, she went to her own home and hurried to a bedroom closet. Nancy selected a pale pink bridesmaid’s dress that she had once worn to an older friend’s wedding.
She folded it carefully and put it in a suit box together with the long platinum blond wig from the beauty salon.
Directly after supper Nancy picked up Bess and George for the ride back to Orchidiana. Her friends begged for some details of Nancy’s plan.
After hearing it, George asked, “How can you be sure the greenhouse ghost will appear on the lawn?”
“If she doesn’t,” Nancy said, “you’re to coax her outside so she will!”
Near dusk, Nancy put on her disguise and walked to the greenhouse. Bess and George watched from a window. Presently, the white-haired ghost came outside, carrying a vial of dark fluid. She danced across the grass, sprinkling the fluid as she went.
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall Page 11
