037 Last Dance

by Carolyn Keene

  “Why not?” Nancy wanted to know.

  Laurie’s expression was troubled. Nancy knew there was something her friend was keeping from her. “I just don’t want them to know, that’s all. If you really care about me, Nancy, you won’t say anything.”

  Nancy wanted to find out what Laurie was hiding, but she knew it would be useless to try that night. Instead, she asked Laurie for a flashlight, and the two of them went outside and circled the house to look for clues. Nancy was hoping to find tracks in the flowerbeds or the lawn, or something that the intruder might have dropped, but there was nothing.

  She and Laurie were just completing the search when the Weavers came home.

  “Who’s there?” Mr. Weaver immediately called out, teeing the flashlight.

  “It’s only us, Daddy,” Laurie called. “Nancy lost one of her earrings at the party yesterday afternoon, and we were hoping to find it.”

  Mrs. Weaver’s voice was warm and full of concern. “Surely you’d have a better chance of finding the earring in the daylight,” she suggested.

  “We thought maybe it would catch the light,” Laurie answered.

  Nancy was amazed at the web of lies her friend had woven in the space of a minute or so, but she didn’t say anything. If Laurie wanted to keep secrets from her parents, Nancy wouldn’t stop her—yet. But she did want to find out why Laurie insisted on being so secretive.

  Laurie followed Nancy to her car. That haunted expression was still in Laurie’s eyes, and Nancy couldn’t resist asking, “What is it that you’re not telling me?”

  Laurie sighed miserably. “Jon didn’t leave the club to meet us when he said he did,” she confessed. “I know, because I called him before you and Ned got there and Pam told me he’d already been gone for a long time.”

  So Jon could have come to Laurie’s house and put the noose in place, along with the note. Nancy was positive he’d lied about his flat tire. He was looking more suspicious by the minute.

  Nancy sighed. “Be careful,” she said, slipping her key into the ignition.

  Laurie’s smile was sudden and filled with confidence. “I’ve got Nancy Drew, famous detective, on my side,” she said. “What do I have to worry about?”

  “Be careful, anyway,” Nancy said, before starting the engine and driving away.

  • • •

  The next afternoon, after spending the morning at the country club, Nancy decided to pay an unexpected visit to Moves to investigate Jon Villiers.

  Nancy sat in the parking lot at Moves for a few minutes, looking at the long, low building and thinking. There were no other cars there except for Jon’s and an old convertible with a dented fender. What was she going to say to Jon Villiers, anyway? What exactly was she hoping to find out? She didn’t know, but the trouble had begun at Moves, so the investigation might as well start there, too.

  Nancy tried the club’s front door. Locked. She went around the side and tried another door. Locked again.

  At the back of the club, Nancy found the delivery entrance open and stepped into an empty kitchen.

  “Hello?” she called, though not very loudly.

  She heard music in the distance, soft and romantic.

  “Hello?” she said again, crossing the kitchen and entering a long hallway. The music was louder now, and Nancy recognized the tune. It was a love song.

  To Nancy’s right was a short hallway with a frosted glass door marked Office. She knocked. There was no answer, so she tried the knob. It gave and Nancy peeked inside, but before she could investigate, the music stopped. She was alert in the sudden silence, listening for a voice or an approaching footstep.

  When the same love song started playing all over again, she decided to check out who was playing the music. Nancy moved quietly down the hallway and inched open the door leading into the main part of the club, not sure that she wanted to be seen.

  Black lights blazed, making the white checkers on the floor glow eerily. The TV monitors all showed a strange, shifting pattern of colored light. Music rolled from the giant speakers, soft and sad.

  In the center of the floor, Jon and Pam moved together in a slow dance, their movements smooth and practiced. It occurred to Nancy that they must have danced together many times before. Her mind raced through the possibilities as she stood looking on, unseen, from the doorway.

  Pam looked up at Jon and laid one hand tenderly against his face. He stared down at her for a long time, then slowly, deliberately backed up away from her. “It’s over,” he said. “We have to forget the past.”

  Nancy could feel Pam’s rage, even from a distance. The girl glared up at Jon for a long moment, then whirled away, her movements sharp and defiant “There’s one thing I’m never going to forget, Jon Villiers,” she spat out. “I’m never going to forget what a criminal you are!”

  Chapter

  Five

  HIS EXPRESSION UNREADABLE, Jon turned on his heel and strode toward the doorway where Nancy was standing. She eased the door closed and barely had time to duck into a supply closet. Jon went into his office and slammed the door.

  Nancy sneaked out through the kitchen and to the safety of her car. She didn’t want to confront Jon and Pam about what she’d heard until she’d had time to piece it together.

  She drove off, the wheels in her mind turning as fast as her tires. What if Pam acted on her anger? Could Laurie be in danger?

  By the time Nancy reached George’s house the only thing she’d decided was to investigate Jon Villiers’s background.

  George met her at the front door, looking none the worst for the morning she had spent at the dentist’s office. “What’s happening?” George asked immediately.

  Nancy told her everything that had happened that morning.

  “What now?” George asked.

  “We’ve got to do some serious investigation,” Nancy answered. “I have a plan, and I need you guys to distract Jon for me tonight. After we’ve picked Bess up, I’ll tell you the details.”

  • • •

  Jon Villiers was in the sound booth that evening. “He looks as terrific as ever,” Bess said. And Nancy wondered if there really could be a crook lurking behind that handsome face.

  George and Bess sidled through the crowd to a table near the booth as Nancy watched. She smiled. No one would think they were out to do anything but have a good time, the way they talked and laughed with everyone around them. But Nancy knew they were ready to stop Jon if he left the booth and keep him distracted until she gave them the all-clear signal.

  She waited until a new dance began before starting toward the back of the club, where Jon’s office was. Nancy checked to make sure there was no one in the long hallway to the kitchen. No waiters or waitresses around. She tore down the hall and into the short hallway where Jon’s office was located.

  The squeak of sneakers on linoleum flattened her against the wall. A tall, gangly waiter with a shock of blond hair staggered by, beneath a giant tray, followed by Pam.

  Once the area was quiet again, Nancy turned the doorknob to Jon’s office. It was locked, but Nancy opened it quickly with a credit card. She slipped inside and stood perfectly still until her eyes adjusted and she was able to see by the dim light coming in through the window behind Jon’s desk.

  Nancy made her way across the room and pulled a tiny penlight from her pocket. All the time she was flipping through the papers on Jon’s desk, she listened. If someone found her in this room, in the dark, no excuse in the world would be good enough to get her off the hook.

  After five minutes of searching, Nancy found a bank statement and a stack of cancelled checks. There were four different ones, made out for large amounts, all to the same man. Flipping them over, Nancy saw that they’d been cashed at a Chicago bank—

  In the same instant Nancy’s heart practically stopped. There were voices in the hall.

  She flicked off the penlight and crouched down behind the desk. The only other way out was through the window, and she listene
d to the people outside the door as she slowly eased the window up.

  “I really care about you, Laurie, you know that,” Jon was saying, “but I don’t think we should see each other anymore—at least not for a while.”

  Nancy could hear tears in Laurie’s voice when she answered. “You can’t do this. I broke up with Adam for you—you mean everything to me!”

  Jon sounded sad, but reasonable. And much nearer. Nancy lunged out the open window only an instant before she heard Jon’s key in the lock.

  “I’m not good enough for you,” Nancy heard him say.

  Nancy, who was standing outside, with her back to the wall, heard Laurie cry, “Don’t say things like that! The past is over!”

  “How did that window get open?” Jon muttered.

  Nancy knew he was about to look out the window, so she didn’t hang around to hear more. She scurried off into the shadows.

  After a few minutes she wandered back inside the club and took a seat at George and Bess’s table. Pam was standing nearby, and Nancy felt as if she had been watching her.

  “Thanks a tot for keeping Jon occupied,” she muttered. “He almost caught me.”

  “We tried,” Bess insisted. “But once he saw Laurie, there was no keeping him away. Did you find out anything?”

  Nancy looked around. She saw Brenda Carlton sitting at a table nearby. Her old rival smiled a syrupy smile and waggled three fingers in greeting. Everything about her said, “I know you’re up to something, Nancy Drew.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it here,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  “But I didn’t get to dance yet,” Bess complained.

  “All right,” Nancy agreed with a smile. “Go ahead and dance.”

  “There’s Laurie,” George said, looking across the crowded club. “She looks upset.”

  “Maybe we’d better go and talk to her,” Nancy said. She already knew what the problem was, but she’d have to wait to explain it to George.

  Pam pushed past Nancy with a tray full of sodas just as she and George reached Laurie. She stopped to serve the drinks at a nearby table, but she was frowning at Laurie with an expression of real dislike.

  “Are you okay?” George asked Laurie, touching her arm.

  Laurie’s face was streaked with tears, but she smiled and said, “Sure. I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” With that, she turned and hurried off.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy saw Pam glance curiously in her direction, but she paid no attention. Laurie was leaving. Nancy followed her to the parking lot.

  “Why don’t you wait and go out for a bite with us?” Nancy asked her friend.

  Laurie shook her head. “I need to be alone,” she said, looking and sounding calmer than before. “You can do one thing for me, though. Stop your investigation. I don’t want anything to upset Jon. I’ve got to keep him, Nancy.”

  There was nothing Nancy could do but watch Laurie drive away. She turned and went back inside to wait for Bess and George.

  • • •

  Hannah was vacuuming the living room the next morning when Nancy went into her father’s study. She closed the door and flipped through his phone directory until she found the number of a contact named Mack Simpson. Mack was a detective on the Chicago police force.

  He was delighted to hear from Nancy. “On a new case, are you?” he teased. “Well, I hope you’re being careful.”

  “I am,” Nancy assured him. “I need some information, Mack, and I was wondering if you could help.”

  “For Carson Drew’s daughter, anything,” Mack replied. “What do you need?”

  Nancy gave him Jon Villiers’s name. “I want to know if this man’s ever been in any serious trouble with the police,” she said. “He’s involved with a friend of mine, and—well—some suspicious things have been happening lately.”

  “No problem,” Mack answered. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve run this guy through the computer.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Mack called back. Jon Villiers had a prior record—a conviction for burglary two years earlier. And there was something else—he’d been charged with assaulting a police officer! Nancy called George and then Bess and arranged to meet them at the pizza place in the mall. She wanted to discuss this news in person.

  “Well?” Bess demanded, when they were all together.

  “What’s happened?” George asked, a breath after Bess had spoken.

  “I told you last night about finding the checks made out to a man in Chicago,” Nancy said. “Wei, today I called the police department there and they ran a make on Jon Villiers for me. He’s got a prior record for burglary—and he assaulted a police officer.”

  Bess was round-eyed. “That does it. Jon is a crook. Maybe he’s setting Laurie’s folks’ up for a kidnapping or something. We’ve got to warn Laurie right away!”

  Nancy sighed, remembering how torn up Laurie had sounded the night before, when Jon had told her they shouldn’t see each other anymore.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on,” she said. “From what I heard last night, Jon wants to break off the relationship. Maybe he really does want what’s best for Laurie.”

  “What do you think, George?” Bess asked her cousin.

  George’s expression was serious. “I think Nancy’s right. Granted, it doesn’t look good, Jon’s having a police record and all, but lots of people make a mistake when they’re young and then straighten out later on.”

  Nancy nodded. “Besides, it’s also obvious from what I heard Laurie say to Jon last night that she knows something about his past already.”

  Then she went on. “There are a lot of pieces that don’t fit together, though. Why is Jon trying to break off with Laurie all of a sudden, when anybody could see he’s still crazy about her? And what does the noose left on Laurie’s porch have to do with all this?”

  Bess only shrugged and ordered another soda.

  “It’s possible that we’ve got two games going on here, instead of just one,” Nancy continued. “Maybe Adam and Jon are both involved, in different ways and for different reasons.”

  “I say we figure this out at the lake,” Bess said. “It’s summer, and as long as we’re just going to be thinking, let’s do it someplace fun.”

  Nancy and George agreed, and when Nancy got home to pick up her suit, she noticed the message light on her answering machine blinking. She pushed the button to rewind it and called Ned to ask Mm to meet them at the lake.

  After she hung up, she turned the machine on and stiffened at the message and voice. “You’re dancing with danger, Nancy Drew,” a horribly distorted, grating voice warned. “You’d better stop snooping where you don’t belong.”

  Nancy played the message again, listening carefully, but she still didn’t recognize the voice. It sounded mechanical.

  Well, if someone thinks a telephone threat is going to stop me, he or she is wrong, Nancy reflected. But as she changed into her bathing suit, she had to admit that the case was turning into something much bigger—and much scarier—than a simple act of vandalism. And she had to find out who was behind it all—before it was too late.

  • • •

  Nancy told George and Bess about the call the minute she’d picked them up at Bess’s house.

  “You’ve got to tell the police the whole story,” Bess told Nancy. “First the slashed tires and now a threatening message on your answering machine. Not to mention Laurie’s noose. This is getting dangerous, Nan.”

  Nancy thought over what Bess had said while they picked their way through the crowd on the beach. Ned wasn’t there yet, but Nancy did spot Laurie. Apparently she and Jon had ironed out their differences, because they were together. She recognized several of the waitresses from Moves, including Pam. Adam Boyd was hovering off to the side, watching Laurie and Jon with a venomous expression on his face.

  Bess and George had stopped to greet friends, but Nancy, anxious to dive in, took off by herself. She dove from a pier and cut throug
h the water in a sleek dive. She started to pull herself back to the surface with strong strokes.

  But just as she should have reached the top, Nancy felt strong fingers grip her ankles and draw her back down to the bottom.

  For a moment Nancy was too startled to be scared. Then as she was dragged deeper, her lungs began to burn with the need for oxygen. She tried to see her attacker, but the water was too murky, and she could make out nothing more than a slim, quick-moving shadow beneath her.

  Nancy kicked hard, but couldn’t free herself. Her mouth and nose were filling with water. She flailed her arms in an effort to reach the surface. No use.

  She was going to drown!

  Chapter

  Six

  WITH HER LAST BREATH, Nancy folded over into a sharp jackknife to reach down to try to break the grip on her ankles. Just then whoever had been grasping her ankles let go. And just as suddenly solid hands grabbed her waist and propelled her to the surface.

  Sunlight and air rushed at Nancy when her head broke the surface of the water. Gasping and choking, she found herself looking into Ned’s eyes.

  “Somebody—somebody was pulling me down—” Nancy choked out the words.

  After Ned helped her back onto the pier, she lay panting to catch her breath.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Nancy saw Jon walking out of the lake, and down farther Adam Boyd. Either of them, or any of dozens of swimmers, could have been her attacker.

  Seeing that Nancy would be all right, Ned said, “I’ve got to watch you every minute.” Nancy wasn’t fooled by his teasing tone. He’d been almost as scared as she was. “Turn my back on you for a day and what do you do? You almost drown.”

  Nancy laughed and kissed him, glad to be alive, glad that Ned was with her. She still felt a little shaky. “Thanks for the help, Nickerson,” she retorted with a forced grin. “You have this great habit of showing up just in the nick of time.”