Hidden Pictures

by Carolyn Keene

  I hadn’t thought about that. I looked at Bess and hoped this information didn’t hurt her feelings, since she was closer to Lucas than either me or George. She didn’t look upset, though. She looked a little surprised by all this new information, but more than anything she looked pleased to have some answers and to have helped solve a piece of this mystery.

  “So what now?” asked George. “What evidence do we have?”

  I looked back over to where Mrs. Park was still sitting at the front counter. “I was really hoping to see Mrs. Park’s records,” I said. “Emily said that Lucas had written his name down here. It would be the most concrete piece of evidence we have. Especially if he wrote down what kind of project he was working on.”

  The three of us thought about this for a moment, before Bess got a determined look in her eye and began walking back in Mrs. Park’s direction.

  “What is she doing?” George whispered to me, but I could only shrug in response. Mrs. Park had already told us that she couldn’t help us.

  When Bess reached the front desk, she said, “Hi, Mrs. Park,” in a sweet tone of voice.

  George and I looked at each other and then hurried after her. We stood on either side of Bess and leaned up against the counter.

  “Hi, dear,” said Mrs. Park. “But like I told your friend, I just can’t let you see my records.”

  “No, I know,” said Bess. “That’s okay. But maybe you could just tell us, did a boy named Lucas ever come in here? Maybe he did a photography project, something like the nice plates you have on your wall?”

  Mrs. Park was fidgeting and looking a little uncomfortable about answering the question. But eventually she seemed to give in. “I suppose there’s no harm in answering that question,” she said. “Yes, he did. He came in a few different times, as a matter of fact. Three times, I believe.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  A New Exhibit

  AFTER PUTTING TOGETHER ALL THE clues we’d gotten in Mrs. Park’s arts and crafts store and finally figuring out who was behind the mysterious photographs, the three of us rushed over to the police station to find Officer Patty. It took a little convincing to get him to listen to us, but once he heard everything we had to say, he had no choice but to bring Lucas in for questioning.

  As soon as they saw Lucas entering the police station, Grace and Jacob immediately caved and told the police officers everything. They must have known there was no way out for them, now that Lucas had been caught. The two of them told Officer Patty that they were all cousins, the last living descendants of Terry Lawrence. They told him how it had all been Lucas’s idea. There had once been a fire in a museum that had housed some of DeSantos’s photographs, but all of the incidents after that, the missing people and the museums shutting down, had just been rumors started by Terry Lawrence. In his will, Lawrence even set aside a sum of money for any of his family members willing to keep the idea of the curse alive.

  The police held Lucas, Grace, and Jacob overnight. Bess, George, and I went back to the hotel for some well-deserved rest. Almost as soon as we made it back to the Elder Root Inn, Bess and George were in their beds and fast asleep. The lack of sleep had finally caught up with me as well, and I couldn’t help but follow soon after them.

  The next morning I told Bess and George that I wanted to stop by the police station one last time. I was eager to know what would happen to Lucas, Grace, and Jacob now that they had confessed. My two friends said they would meet me at the museum whenever I had finished speaking to Officer Patty.

  By the time I left the police station, the sun was peeking through the heavy clouds that had been hanging over Shady Oaks for most of the morning. I took my time walking in the direction of the museum. It was one of the first strolls through Shady Oaks where I could really enjoy the town and all its fall foliage. I had my red raincoat on once more, though I really didn’t feel as though I needed it, and Riley’s camera was still hanging around my neck. I hadn’t yet had a moment to find her and give it back to her.

  I reached the Carlisle Museum and noticed that Susan and Beverly were standing outside and pointing toward some of the more run-down sections of the building. Even from a distance, I could tell that their relationship was looking much less strained than it had been in the past. Susan seemed much happier to be speaking to Beverly, and Beverly was even smiling. Well, as much as I imagined Beverly DeSantos ever smiled.

  I waved at them both as I approached the museum.

  “Nancy!” said Susan. “Come to take one last look at the DeSantos photographs?”

  “Sort of,” I said. Really, I was there to meet Bess and George, but I supposed I could take a final look around.

  “Well, get your fill of these photographs, and then make sure to come back in the spring,” said Susan. “Beverly here has just agreed to donate an entirely new exhibit, as a permanent installment.”

  “Wow,” I said. “Really?” I looked toward Beverly as I said this. After her experience with this first exhibit, and with the way I knew she felt about being in the public eye, I was surprised she was willing to donate more of her personal photographs.

  Beverly shrugged. “I think it’s what my grandfather would have wanted,” she said. “And if someone tries to sabotage the exhibit again, we can just call you.” She said this lightheartedly, and I couldn’t help but smile back at her.

  Before I could really respond, however, Susan began speaking again. “That’s not all,” she said. “With the publicity the museum’s received from this whole debacle, we’ve made enough money to reopen the closed sections of the museum! I’m going to make the DeSantos photographs that were tampered with a permanent exhibit. People love looking at them!”

  “Oh,” I said. “Great.” Memorializing a faked curse didn’t seem like a very good idea to me, but it didn’t feel like my place to say anything.

  It appeared that Beverly felt the same way I did. I watched as she rolled her eyes behind Susan’s back. So maybe their working relationship wasn’t entirely fixed.

  “Hey,” I said. “Have you seen my friends Bess and George anywhere? I was supposed to be meeting them.”

  Both Susan and Beverly shook their heads. I thanked them anyway and then peeked inside the museum. They weren’t there. Then I looked around the front entryway before heading back outside. They were nowhere to be found. For a moment I became worried that perhaps this whole case wasn’t really over, that now my friends were missing. But then I spotted them just around the corner from the museum, sitting at the park picnic bench where George and I had once spent some time talking.

  I began heading in their direction, and Bess waved to me over George’s shoulder. George turned around and waved at me as well.

  “Were you just talking to Susan and Beverly?” Bess asked once I was in earshot.

  I nodded. I told them what Susan had said, about making the installations permanent. Both Bess and George looked conflicted over the idea that the images of fake missing people—including one of me—would now be hanging in a museum long term.

  “That’s… interesting,” said Bess.

  “And what about the police station?” asked George. “What did Officer Patty say?”

  “Not much,” I admitted. “He still didn’t want to share too much information with me about what would happen to Lucas, Grace, and Jacob. But they have all confessed to faking the curse.”

  “What about the defacement of art?” said George. “Isn’t that against the law?”

  “Actually,” I said, “Officer Patty did tell me that the photographs are fine. It was like I had guessed: Lucas transferred the images of me, Grace, and Jacob to three pieces of glass, which he then switched with the glass in each of the picture frames. The photographs were never touched.”

  Bess looked thoughtful, and then said, “Lucas did love photography. He didn’t lie about studying historical photographs in school. Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to ruin a photograph, in the end. Even if it was one taken by his grandfather’s riva
l.”

  I couldn’t help but wonder if this was another case of Bess attempting to find the best in someone, even when they didn’t deserve it. I decided that perhaps this time I’d try to believe that she was right. “Yeah,” I told her. “Maybe that’s true.”

  Eventually the three of us stood and headed back in the direction of the Carlisle Museum. I did want to take one last look at the photographs before we left town.

  As we were walking over, I spotted Riley and her red hair glowing in the sunlight. I called out to her and held up her camera so she could see it.

  When we were close enough to each other, I handed the camera back over to her. “Thanks for letting me borrow this,” I told her. “It was a huge help. Sorry I’m getting it back to you so late.”

  “That’s all right!” said Riley. But I noticed she was holding on to her camera very tightly. She slipped it back over her neck and seemed instantly more comfortable, like it had perhaps been a part of her that was missing.

  “Hey,” I said. “Could I ask you for one more favor?”

  Riley gripped her camera like I might try and take it from her again, but she still said, “Sure. What is it?”

  “Would you mind taking a picture of me, Bess, and George? Just here, in front of the museum.”

  “Oh!” said Riley. “Of course.” She looked relieved that I hadn’t tried to separate her from her camera again. “How about over there?”

  The three of us headed in the direction that Riley had been pointing and posed with our arms around each other. Riley took a few photographs before I had another idea.

  Susan had disappeared inside, but Beverly was still standing off to the side of the museum, looking up at the potential work to be done.

  “Hey, Beverly,” I said, jogging over to her. “Would you take a picture with us? Only if you want to.” Beverly had so many happy photographs of herself and her family. I wondered how long it had been since she’d last taken a photograph like that, and if she would want to take one with us now.

  Beverly thought about my question for a moment, before smiling brightly and walking over to join us.

  Dear Diary,

  I MEANT WHAT I SAID to Susan and Beverly. When they opened their new Christopher DeSantos exhibit in the spring, I was eager to drive back to Shady Oaks and see it for myself!

  Ned and I made a fun day trip of it, staying long enough to take a good look at all the new photographs. I even showed Ned the image of me trapped in a DeSantos photograph, which was still hanging up at the Carlisle. Now that the mystery behind the photograph was solved, it was pretty cool to see it again. But I think I’ve had my fill of mysterious photographs for a while!

  More from this Series

  The Vanishing Statue

  Book 20

  A Nancy Drew Christmas

  Curse of the Arctic Star

  Book 1

  Strangers on a Train

  Book 2

  More from the Author

  Captive Witness

  The Twin Dilemma

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Carolyn Keene is the bestselling author of the popular Nancy Drew series of books.

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  NANCY DREW DIARIES

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  #6 Secret at Mystic Lake

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  A Nancy Drew Christmas

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  Coming soon:

  #20 The Vanishing Statue

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  First Aladdin paperback edition January 2020

  Text copyright © 2020 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Cover illustration copyright © 2020 by Erin McGuire

  Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

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  Series designed by Karin Paprocki

  Cover designed by Heather Palisi

  Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Keene, Carolyn, author.

  Title: Hidden pictures / by Carolyn Keene.

  Description: First Aladdin hardcover/paperback edition. | New York : Aladdin, 2020. | Series: Nancy Drew diaries ; #19 | Summary: In the sleepy town of Shady Oaks, Nancy Drew and her friends investigate an exhibit of photographs, rumored to be cursed, and their connection to the disappearance of two people. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019003847 (print) | LCCN 2019006508 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534421042 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534421028 (pbk) | ISBN 9781534421035 (hardcover)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Photographs—Fiction. | Museums—Fiction. | Missing persons—Fiction. | Blessing and cursing—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.K23 (eBook) | LCC PZ7.K23 Hf 2020 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003847