Written for ulstergirl for a challenge over at nancydrewfic.
I hope everyone enjoys the holidays:)
"She was wearing a pink sweater," Clare Anderson described stoically, tears shining in her eyes. "And a white and purple striped skirt. God, this is a nightmare. Why didn't I keep a hold of her hand? Then none of this would even be happening."
"It's not your fault, Claire," her husband murmured soothingly, laying a hand supportively over hers. "You can't keep blaming yourself."
"I know," Claire sobbed, though she clearly didn't believe it herself.
"When was the last time you remember Anna being by your side?" Nancy demanded intently, a notebook in her hand as she jotted down the requite information.
"About seven o' clock," Claire replied, tears trailing down her cheeks as she recalled her daughter's final moments "We were walking through the town and all of a sudden she was gone. It was freaking insane, like one moment she was there skipping beside me and the next minute she had vanished into thin air."
"What happened then?" Nancy asked, her pen poised in the air as she waited for the woman to continue.
"I totally freaked out. I started running through the street searching for her, asking everyone who passed if they saw her but nobody did. The police became involved pretty quickly and mounted a search party but again, nothing. It was as though Anna had just literally disappeared.
Tears coursing down her face, Claire was starting to get visibly distressed. "I'm sorry," she murmured, swiping a hand across her cheeks in an attempt to compose herself. "It's just, I need to know she's okay and the police either can't or won't tell us anything. They've had no real leads on the case, since this began and I'm worried they're starting to wind down the investigation. I know they think Anna's dead but she's not," Claire informed Nancy tearfully, pressing a crumpled tissue to her reddened eyes. "I would know if Anna was dead. I would feel it. She's still out there somewhere waiting for us to find her and we've got to that. You can help us, can't you, Nancy?" she pleaded desperately.
"I will certainly try my best," Nancy offered hopefully, though inwardly she sighed.
The stats didn't bode well for Anna Wills. More than seventy percent of abducted children were dead within the first three hours and hope of finding the child alive after that decreased with every passing second. Anna Wills had been missing for over two weeks. The truth was that the child was most likely dead but the fact that her body remained as of yet unfound offered Claire and Jake Wills a small glimmer of hope.
"I'm about to melt," Bess moaned, taking another drink from her bottle of diet coke. "It must be over a ninety degrees out here."
Nancy couldn't argue with that. It hadn't rained in weeks and the grass was burnished a most unhealthy shade of brown. Hannah was despairing, having lost several of her prized rose bushes to the unrelenting heat and Nancy was equally as tired of the unnaturally high temperatures Chicago was experiencing. Her morning jogs had had to be curtailed for weeks now and the routine stake outs that her job as detective demanded, were rendered a hundred times harder by the sweltering heat.
"If you were a four-year-old, where would you want to go?" Nancy asked Bess, accepting her friend's offer of the bottle of soda gratefully.
"To the park, I guess," Bess shrugged uncertainly, her blue eyes scanning the pristinely maintained storefronts of Huntington. "I always loved going on the swings on the way home from school."
"It's as good a place as any to start," Nancy replied with forced cheeriness, raking her fingers through her red-blonde hair. A picture of Anna's smiling face was pasted onto every lamp post and wall, her small hand clutching onto a stuffed teddy bear and suddenly Nancy was overwhelmed by the task in front of her. If a team of over forty police officers had failed to find any trace of Anna Wills, how in the hell was she going to?
The park was unsurprisingly busy, children reveling in the sunny temperatures as they scrambled up the brightly colored climbing frame and pleaded with their parent's to push them on the swing.
"We had better separate or else we'll be here all day" Nancy decided, to which Bess immediately agreed. "You take the people standing over by the playground and I'll talk to the women sitting over there on the benches. Surely someone knows something."
"Let's hope," Bess replied with a small smile though her voice didn't sound very hopeful.
"Hello," Nancy greeted a blonde haired woman, who regarded her in surprise. "My name is Nancy Drew and I'm investigating the disappearance of Anna Wills. Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?"
"Not at all," the woman replied uncertainly, gesturing at Nancy to take a seat beside her on the bench. A baby lay sleepily in her arms, her rosebud lips suckling quietly at a bottle. "It's just, I don't know how much help I'll be."
"You'll be fine," Nancy murmured encouragingly, smiling despite herself seeing the baby's blue eyes lazily closed before she dozed off into a contented slumber. "She's really cute. What's her name?"
"Amy," the woman smiled back, cupping a hand protectively under the baby's head. "And believe me, she wasn't this cute at three o' clock this morning, when I spent almost an hour trying to get her to go back to sleep. I swear, I haven't had a full night's sleep since she was born."
Smiling sympathetically, Nancy pulled a notebook out of her purse before returning to the subject of Anna Wills.
"Anna went missing on the 7th of August. Can you remember if you were in town that day?" Nancy asked curiously, tucking a length of red-blonde hair behind her ear.
"I was actually staying with my mother in Chicago that weekend," the woman replied with an apologetic shrug. "It wasn't until I got back on the Sunday evening that my neighbor informed me of Anna's disappearance. I can't even begin to tell you how shocked I was. Huntington has always been a very safe place."
"So nothing like this has ever happened before."
"Never," she replied firmly, casting a concerned glance at her sleeping daughter who shifted slightly in her arms before resuming a deep sleep. "I grew up in Huntington and it has never been anything but safe. Until now, of course." she finished darkly. "People aren't leaving their kids out of their sight."
Crossing her long legs, Nancy gazed at the woman frankly. "Do you remember was there anything that was different in Huntington that week? Something that stood out as being out of the ordinary?"
"Nothing," she answered, a pensive expression on her face. "Although there was a bit of excitement over the carnival that came to town. They were advertising some kind of gravity defying roller coaster. Half the kids in town had tickets to go on it."
"Where was the carnival located?" Nancy demanded, excitement starting to color her voice. This might be just the lead they were looking for. What child wouldn't be attracted by all the bright lights of the fair ground?"
"Two miles out Longview Drive," she replied, gesturing vaguely behind her. "But as far as I know, it has already packed up and has moved onto the next town."
"Though they were all sympathetic and eager to help, nobody I interviewed managed to provide me with any actual concrete information." Bess sighed dismally, pulling her pale-blonde hair back into a loose ponytail.
"Same here." Nancy agreed with a shrug, as she walked alongside Bess back to her car. "Everyone I talked to seemed to know everything about the disappearance of Anna Wills but most of what they told me was just the usual rumors."
"So we've got nothing?" Bess asked, taking a grateful drink from a bottle of water she had purchased from a street vendor.
"Well, one woman did tell me that there had been a carnival in town that week but it had been located over two miles away, so it's not much of a lead. There's no way a three-year-old could have managed to walk that far without being spotted."
"True," Bess mused quietly, collapsing in relief into the passenger seat of Nancy's mustang. "I mean, I wouldn't walk that far and I'm a hell of a lot older than a toddler. What do we do now?"
"I still think it's worth checking out though," Nancy interjected thoughtfully. "It's not like we have much else to go on and if it turns out to be a dead end then at least we'll get to eat cotton candy, right?"
"Maybe you will, Nan," Bess replied with a sad shrug. "But I just started back on the zone this morning and all sugar is banned for the first week. Although, I guess cotton candy isn't strictly sugar," she murmured thoughtfully, casting a hopeful glance at her friend. "It's more like fluff isn't it?"
"Whatever you say, Bess." Nancy replied with an amused smile.
The sky was a brilliant blue as Nancy pulled into the makeshift car lot that was located in a vast field, the grass trampled on and crushed dismally by the wheels of the cars. The sun still shining in the sky, the evening was sticky and warm and Nancy and Bess were uncomfortably hot after the thirty minute drive.
"This weather is killing me." Bess moaned miserably, scraping back her pale-blonde hair into a ponytail. "It's too hot even to sunbathe and my tan is seriously suffering."
"Tell me about it," Nancy agreed, side stepping around an elderly couple who traipsed wearily towards the entrance of the carnival. "It's hell."
The fairground was a garish tangle of lights, the air scented with the smell of buttery, greasy popcorn mingled with sickly-sweet candy floss. Discarded food containers and crumpled tickets littered the ground and the night was alive with the excited screams of the local high school students who had braved the gravity defying loops of the towering roller coaster.
Running a hand over her red-blonde hair, Nancy approached a surly faced teen attending a hoopla stall with what she hoped was a friendly smile.
"Hi," Nancy greeted the girl brightly, undaunted by the teen's blank stare. "My name is Nancy Drew and I'm investigating the disappearance of Anna Wills. You might have seen the story in the news."
"Yeah, I heard about her," she answered dully, pushing her greasy hair out of her face.
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Nancy forced a patient smile onto her face before passing over a smiling photograph of Anna into the teen's hands. "Take a look at this and try and remember if you saw Anna at any time at all over the three days the carnival was at Huntington."
"Are you kidding me?" the girl replied back with a disbelieving sneer on her face. "I must have seen hundreds of blonde haired kids just like this one, today alone. How the hell can you expect me to remember one?"
"Because her picture has been plastered all over the paper and the story of Anna's disappearance covered on every news channel." Nancy retorted in utter frustration.
"Well, I haven't seen her," the girl shrugged, handing Nancy back the photograph before slouching unenthusiastically over to a waiting customer.
"Nancy!"
Hearing her friends familiar voice, Nancy whirled around in naive anticipation, eager to see if Bess had uncovered some vital clue or some witness that might lead to the eventual untangling of the case. She was to be sorely disappointed.
Breathless with excitement, Bess practically skipped over to her and reached for her hand. "Nancy, you've got to come with me. You'll never guess who's here."
"Johnny Depp?" Nancy tried with a teasing smile.
"Even better. It's Madame Rosa," Bess thrilled excitedly, her cheeks flushed becomingly. "We have to go, Nancy." she declared dramatically, her blue eyes widened for emphasis. "I've been waiting for Barry to ask me out for weeks now and I need to know, if he actually likes me or if I've been wasting my time wearing all those mini skirts and low cut tops."
"Do we have to, Bess?" Nancy groaned, horrified at the thought of having to hear some sort of so-called fortune teller tell her that she would get married and live happily ever after with five kids in some sort of white picket fence illusion.
"Yes." Bess replied firmly, pulling Nancy towards a caravan, the once vibrant reds and blue long faded to a grayish variation of the colors. "You don't want me to end up alone, now do you?" she demanded gravely, an expression of absolute indignation in her blue eyes. "The very future of my love life is depending on Madame Rosa's guidance."
The warm glow of a lantern lit up the three steps to the rickety old caravan and reaching for the door, Bess gestured at Nancy to go first. The inside of the caravan was warm, almost uncomfortably so, the colorful materials draped over every possible surface giving the place a comfortably shabby appearance.
"Come in," Madame Rosa greeted them from the shadows, her dark hair streaked with grey and pulled back into a tight bun.
Smiling kindly at Nancy and Bess, she gestured at them to sit down on a two-seater sofa that was scattered liberally with a covering of worn, faded cushions.
"I can tell you two have been friends for a long time," she informed them with a knowing smile and Bess nodded impressed. Nancy on her part, resisted the urge to roll her eyes in annoyance.
"So, why wants to go first?"
"Oh, no, I'm fine," Nancy insisted, gesturing at Bess. "I'm just here with my friend. I don't need my fortune told."
"Nancy, come on," Bess urged her, gazing pleadingly at her friend. "Weren't you just saying earlier that you need to have more fun? Now here's your chance. Take it."
"Okay," Nancy relented with a sigh, knowing how persistent Bess could be.
The woman's face lined with wrinkles, she reached for Nancy's hand and started tracing her fingers over her palm.
"You have led an unusual life, my dear." Madame Rosa began, raising her icy blue eyes to meet Nancy's.
"You could say that," Bess giggled before Madame Rosa silenced her with a glare.
"You are a hardworking, loyal girl," the woman continued in uneasy, hushed tones, her fingers deftly running over Nancy's palm. "And I can see you that suffered a great loss when you were very young."
The words startling her, Nancy gazed at Madame Rosa in surprise before internally rationalizing that the woman could merely have recognized her and must have read about her mother's death in the newspaper.
"There's a man you are in love with." Madame Rosa uttered knowingly, her expression suddenly changing as she reached for the locket hanging around Nancy's neck. "He gave you this."
"Was," Nancy chuckled harshly, a familiar stab of pain piercing her chest when she reflected on her disastrous relationship with Ned Nickerson.
"No, you are still very much in love with this man." Madame Rosa insisted, an uneasy expression in her pale, searching eyes.
"If by love you mean that I would take pleasure in gouging his eyes out, then yes. I guess, I am still in love with Ned."
"This isn't a joking matter, my dear," Madame Rosa interjected firmly and there was something in the woman's voice that sent shivers up Nancy's spine. "You are in grave danger. If you don't reconcile with your love before a week is up, something terrible will happen."
"Like what?" Bess gasped in horror and Nancy pulled away her hand feeling a little shaken up.
"You never can tell," Madame Rosa replied in a somber voice. "But if I were you my dear, I'd be tracking down that man of yours. The hand doesn't lie."
Satisfied with her reading, Madame Rosa turned to Bess, taking her hand with a flourish.
"You, my dear are destined to lead a very exciting love life."
Squealing with excitement, Bess listened enthralled as the fortune teller read her her fortune in low, hushed tones. Nancy barely listened. Her job as detective meant she dealt solely in fact and certainty and she was not one to put much stock into the whole area of the supernatural. Still, there was something about the woman.
"Would you mind looking a picture for me?" Nancy asked Madame Rosa when she finally finished reading Bess' hand, Bess delighted after the fortune teller declared that she would meet the man of her dreams before the year was up. "It's of a three-year-old girl named Anna Wills. She disappeared a fortnight ago and hasn't been seen since."
"Of course," the woman replied softly, accepting the photograph and studying it carefully. "I'm afraid that I won't be of much use though. I tripped over some rope a few months ago when we were set up at Belleville. I had to have surgery and was in recovery for almost two months. I only just returned to Foster's this week. The poor little thing. I hope you find her."
The sky was ominously black when Nancy and Bess finally pushed their way out of the caravan and the girls shivered in their thin shirts.
"What the hell?" Bess muttered indignantly as the first patter of rain started to fall. "Where's our summer gone?"
By the time Bess and Nancy had managed to make it to the car, they were soaked to their skin, the rain pouring furiously down and flashes of lightening illuminating the murky sky.
Hearing the low buzz of her alarm emanate from beside her, Nancy fumbled desperately for her cell phone. Her head ached and each beep of her alarm pierced through her brain like a knife.
"God, my head," she mumbled unhappily, forcing her eyes open, her eyelids feeling as though they were lined with sandpaper.
Stepping out of bed, Nancy reached for her bathrobe, pulling the soft material tightly around her. The smell of bacon wafting up the stairs normally quickened Nancy's pace but today she felt listless and uncertain, the mere thought of having to shower leaving her exhausted.
"You look terrible, Nancy." Hannah informed with a concerned expression, busying herself with placing the plates of steaming food on the table. "Not that I'm surprised," she continued, with a knowing shake of her head. "The second, I saw you get in yesterday soaked to the skin, I just knew that you'd catch a cold. And look, I was right, wasn't I?"
This wasn't helping.
"No, I'm fine." Nancy lied, the thought of having to put up with Hannah's insufferable sighs a million times worse than the cold she had been inexplicably inflicted with. Who gets a cold during the summer? Especially during a heatwave. "Just a bit tired, you know?" she smiled, forcing herself to tuck into her breakfast with extra gusto.
Her father was on a rare vacation, enjoying some much needed rest with his girlfriend, Avery Fallon and the house seemed unnaturally quiet without his presence.
"You can't fool me, Nancy Drew." Hannah clucked disapprovingly and Nancy merely smiled in reply, spearing her last piece of bacon and popping it into her mouth.
After, lying stretched out on her bed, Nancy started idly googling newspaper articles of girls who had disappeared in the past twelve months. She hadn't arranged to meet Bess and George for another hour and the thought of having to immediately dress and look someway presentable was exhausting.
They were a depressing read.
Some of the stories had a happy ending, the child having merely ran away or got lost and was eventually reconciled with their parents but those were the lucky ones. Most of the stories were unfinished, the parents still searching desperately for their missing child and somehow even worse were the ones that ended in a dead body, the child's body usually having been found mere days after the disappearance.
One story though in particular caught Nancy's attention. It was about a three-year-old girl called Jessica who had gone missing from Belleville almost two-months ago, when her mother had been distracted, trying to feed her infant son.
There was something else as well, a picture of a four-year-old girl, Grace, that seemed vaguely familiar. The article the picture came from was over twelve years old. Printing off the article, Nancy folded the page carefully before slotting it into her bag.
"Oh my God, you look really crappy, Nan," Bess greeted her friend sympathetically, when Nancy finally summoned the energy to dress and meet Bess and George in a local diner. "What the hell happened?"
The diner was a favorite amongst locals, the place famed for it's blueberry pancakes. Today it was quietly bustling, a group of teens enjoying the summer reprieve from their studies gathered around a table and trading scandalous snippets of gossip, while a young mother stationed in the corner was struggling to retain control of her boisterous red-haired toddler.
"Thanks for the concern, Bess," Nancy chuckled, her head aching violently. "And for informing me how absolutely horrendous I look. I must have caught a cold from that soaking we got yesterday. Which is really annoying considering how much work we need to do today."
"So Madame Rosa was right," Bess exclaimed excitedly, pushing a cup of steaming coffee towards her friend.
"What?" Nancy muttered in disbelief, taking a grateful drink from the steaming liquid.
"Let's look at the evidence, shall we?" Bess replied with a smirk. "We speak to Madame Rosa. She says that something terrible will happen if you don't get back with Ned and almost immediately a freaking thunder storm happens and now you're sick. It can't be a coincidence," she exclaimed, gesturing dramatically with her hands.
"Bess, don't be ridiculous." George snorted, shaking her head in disbelief. "It was raining, Nancy got wet and then got sick. The story's hardly a candidate for unsolved mysteries."
"Well, don't say I told you so." Bess countered with a shrug, turning her attention back to her stack of pancakes.
"Ned and I weren't right for each other. We have different priorities." Nancy sighed heavily, refusing to meet Bess' expectant gaze.
"As in Ned makes you his priority and you don't make him yours. Yeah, that sounds about right." Bess shot back with an amused grin. "Nancy, Ned is a great guy. I've been dating guys for years and I've never met anyone who was even half as sweet and good looking as Ned. I think you were crazy to just let your relationship go like that."
"Look Bess, this isn't really up for discussion. If me and Ned were meant to be together, then he wouldn't be dating Denise Mason, now would he?" she shrugged, her mood rapidly deteriorating at the thought of her ex. "Can we just let this drop?"
Shrugging resignedly, Bess had no choice but to agree.
"How's your father?" Chief McGinnis asked cordially, causing Nancy to roll her eyes in amusement.
"Busy, as usual." Nancy smiled, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. Time was running out for Anna Wills and if Nancy had any hope of finding the girl alive, she needed to act fast. Pleasantries and idle chat about her father were nice but they weren't going to solve the case.
"I suppose you want to know what I found out?" Chief McGinnis asked knowingly and there was more than a teasing note in his voice.
"Please," Nancy pleaded, her every muscle tensed with anticipation. This had to be it. It was the only thing that made sense. If it wasn't then Nancy was starting from scratch and with the hours and days rapidly falling away, any chance of finding Anna Wills would disappear with it.
"You were right, Nancy. In the previous five years alone, four girls have gone missing from various towns while the carnival was in town. The towns are spread across four different states and as the girls never directly disappeared from the carnival grounds themselves, the connection between the girls' deaths was probably never established. Now don't get your hopes up. It could be nothing," the man added warningly.
"It's not," Nancy realized immediately. "There's someone in that carnival who is making those girls disappear and I intend to find out who it is."
"If you need anymore help, you know where to find me, Nancy,"
"Thanks," Nancy finished, about to slide her cell phone shut when another call came through.
"Nancy, thank God you answered." Hannah's voice immediately came down the line, panic evident in her voice. "I've been trying to get through to your cell for the last ten minutes."
"I was on the phone to Chief McGinnis," Nancy replied uneasily, dread starting to build up in her stomach. "Is there something wrong?"
"We've had a break-in, Nan." Hannah informed her shakily, and at the housekeeper's words, Nancy tightened the grip on her phone. What the hell else was going to go wrong? "I was out picking up a few groceries and when I got back the back door was swinging open and the place is in an absolute mess. When do you think you can be back?"
Living in the Drew household, Hannah was witness to a Nancy couldn't remember the last time Hannah had been so distressed.
"I'm leaving right now, Hannah. I will be home in ten minutes." Nancy promised the housekeeper consolingly. "Have you phoned the police?"
"They're on the way," Hannah sighed, "I'll see you in a minute, so."
"You're cursed." Bess declared firmly, taking a seat beside George in the Drew's cosy den. "It's the only explanation. Madame Rosa warned you of the consequences if you didn't get back with Ned and now look what's after happening?"
An entire afternoon of sorting and clearing had returned the Drew home to some sort of normality, though the cracked pane of glass on the backdoor bore testament to the unsettling events of the day. Hannah had retired to bed with a headache and the girls spoke in low, hushed voices so as not to disturb her.
"You can't tell me you believe what Madame Rosa actually said, Bess," Nancy demanded, looking to George for support and was surprised not to see the girl's usual scorn for all matters of the supernatural.
"I don't know, Nancy," George shrugged, her cheeks reddening a little. "You know, I usually don't have any time for all that crystal ball bullshit but even you've got to admit this is very strange."
"You think I should get back with Ned after what he did?" Nancy demanded unhappily, her cheeks reddening in anger. "He's probably out on a hot date with Denise or something. I doubt would he want to hear from me."
"Give him a call, at least." Bess said gently, placing a supportive hand on Nancy's arm. "What harm could that do?"
A lot, Nancy knew, though she didn't verbalize her fears.
Nancy had loved Ned so much and though she wouldn't admit as much to her friends, a big part of her still did. Still, too much had happened and too much had been said though they'd been through rough patches before and come out the other side intact, Nancy wasn't entirely sure, they could do the same this time.
"I can't." Nancy sighed resignedly and the trio changed the subject, choosing instead to mull over the new developments Chief McGinnis had unearthed in the case.
John Malley had worked in Foster's all his life, his father and his grandfather before him having taken great pride in operating a number of side stalls and games. The shabbily painted walls of the caravan that served as his office were plastered with black-and-white photographs of the fun fair throughout the years, featuring a man, Nancy presumed was his grandfather.
"I heard about the little girl," John murmured thoughtfully, his brown eyes carefully examining the photograph Nancy had handed him. "I have a daughter myself, so I can only imagine what the family are going through. What can I do for you?"
"Mr. Malley," Nancy began before the man cut her short.
"You can call me, John." he informed her with a wide smile, gesturing at her to take a seat opposite him at his desk.
"John," Nancy began again, gracefully sitting down on the hard, plastic chair. "I have reason to suspect that one of your employees is involved in the disappearance of Anna Wills."
"Are you sure?" the man uttered in shock, his previously ruddy complexion gone a startling shade of white. "I've worked with most of these people for years and they are a group of the most hardworking, genuine people you would ever meet. I couldn't imagine any of them being involved in this."
"And you may well be right, John." Nancy assured him, "But I have to investigate every possibility no matter how unlikely the scenario. You do understand, don't you?"
"I guess." the man agreed uncertainly, though he was cooperative, allowing Nancy access to employee records stretching back fifteen years.
"Thank you, John." Nancy smiled, extending her hand to accept the man's firm handshake. "I'll be in touch."
"Something smells good," Nancy smiled, shrugging her shoulder bag down off her shoulder before walking into the kitchen to give Hannah a quick hug.
"It's steak and baked potatoes. Your favorite." Hannah informed her with an indulgent smile. "I thought you deserved it yesterday after all the work you did. I don't know what I would have done, if you hadn't been around."
Nancy's stomach grumbling in anticipation of some much needed food, she took a seat at the table and started nibbling idly at a breadstick. "It was no problem, Hannah." she reassured the woman with a wide smile. "There was no need to go to so much trouble."
"I know but I wanted to," Hannah revealed, placing a plate heaped high with food in front of Nancy. "Now tuck in. There's plenty more there if you want it."
Pouring herself a glass of water, Nancy was about to slice off a piece the perfectly cooked steak, when the sound of the phone ringing in the hall startled her. "That's probably Chief McGinnis," she murmured, starting to get to her feet when Hannah gestured at her to sit back down.
"Eat your dinner." Hannah commanded in her best 'Do as you're told' tone and Nancy knew better than to argue with her. "I'll talk to Chief McGinnis and tell him you'll call him after you've had something to eat. Nothing can be so important that it can't wait five minutes."
When Hannah came back into the room two minutes later, Nancy didn't have to ask her if something is wrong. The look on the woman's face said it all.
"What did Chief McGinnis want?" Nancy demanded urgently, a million different nightmarish scenarios racing through her brain. "Did they find Anna?"
"It wasn't Chief McGinnis on the phone." Hannah replied shakily, "It was Avery. They were involved in a crash and your father is in hospital."
"Is he okay?"
"I don't know, Nancy. Avery sounds very upset. She's waiting to speak with you."
"Avery, how's my dad?" Nancy demanded the second she picked up the phone, not even entertaining the usual pleasantries. "He's okay, isn't he?"
"I don't know, Nancy," Avery replied tearfully, and Nancy's head started to swim. "They won't tell me anything. He's in surgery at the moment."
"I'll get the next flight out." Ring me the second you hear anything, okay?"
"I can't catch a flight until Monday," Nancy sighed, her voice breaking and the first of the tears starting to streak down her cheeks.
"He'll be okay, Nancy." Hannah murmured comfortingly, wrapping an arm around Nancy's shoulders and pulling her close and though Nancy could tell Hannah was shocked by the news, she hid her feelings well.
"You don't know that," Nancy cried and Hannah pulled her close making soft, comforting noises.
"This is all my fault. Madame Rosa warned me about this and I just ignored it. And now look what's after happening. I got sick, the house got robbed and now this is after happening. I should have just done what Madame Rosa said and called Ned."
"Madame Rosa?" Hannah asked in confusion.
"She's a fortune teller that Bess dragged me to," Nancy shrugged dismally, the lighthearted banter the girls had shared that day feeling like a million years ago.
"You can ring him now." Hannah murmured encouragingly, handing Nancy a tissue and taking her hand and leading her to the sofa. "I don't know why you two ever broke up in the first place anyway. Ned's such a wonderful boy."
Rummaging in her cell phone for her bag, Nancy hesitated only for a second before punching in Ned's number.
"Nancy?" Ned answered disbelievingly, his surprise at her call not exactly surprising considering they hadn't spoken in almost a year. "How are you?"
He sounded hopeful, somehow, but in her present state of emotional turmoil, Nancy couldn't even consider indulging herself with frivolous thoughts regarding Ned's feelings for her.
The break-up had been between Nancy and Ned had been rocky for weeks and then Nancy took off to Peru on a case, miles away from any means of communication. Arriving back to Emerson with the expectation of being welcomed back into Ned's arms for a loving hug and kiss, Nancy instead walked in on Ned and Denise, the pair wrapped cosily around each other in his dorm room. Nancy hadn't waited for an explanation, choosing instead to storm out of the room and ignore his calls for her to come back. They hadn't spoken since. Nancy had cried for days but never in front of anyone else, choosing instead to cloak her heartbreak beneath an icy exterior.
"I'm fine." Nancy lied, knowing that if she even verged on disclosing her true feelings, she could dissolve into a blubbering mess. "Ned, I really need to see you. Would you be available to meet later today?"
Either Ned genuinely wanted to see her or else he sensed the desperation in the voice. Either way he agreed pretty easily. "Well, sure." he replied and Nancy could hear a small note of hesitance in his voice.
"See you in half an hour." Nancy signed off, the pair arranging to meet at a local pizzeria.
When Nancy pushed in the heavy door of the pizzeria, a tinkling bell above her head announced her arrival. Ned was already waiting for her, she saw, wearing a shirt she had never seen before, though she had to admit it really brought out the brown of his eyes.
Denise probably picked it out of him. Nancy thought bitterly but she forced herself to put all thoughts of Denise Mason out of her head as she crossed the busy restaurant to Ned. She was doing this for her father, after all. Not for herself. Ned could see who he liked, be with who he liked as long as he was with her for as long as it would take to break Madame Rosa's curse.
"You look great, Nan,"
That was a lie. Despite the concealer she had hastily rubbed under her eyes, Nancy knew she looked a mess, her eyes red rimmed and miserable and and her skin blotchy.
Sliding into the booth opposite Ned, Nancy kept her phone gripped tightly in her hand, terrified she might miss Avery's vital call.
"How are you doing?" Ned began softly, his words trailing away as though he was at a loss what else to say.
Nancy understood. Before they had spoken to one another everyday and never ran out of things to say. Now they hadn't spoken in a year and neither one knew what to say.
"Terrible," Nancy admitted, finding it impossible to reveal her true feelings from Ned. "My dad's been in a car crash and I don't know how he is and the next flight I can get out there isn't leaving until Monday. I'm going crazy."
"That's terrible," Ned murmured in sympathy, reaching out and tentatively taking her hand. "You must be in bits."
"Pretty much," Nancy agreed with a small shrug, her eyes shining with tears. "and the worst part is that the next flight I can catch isn't until Monday. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to do until then?"
Ned didn't even try to placate her with empty promises and false hopes.
"You know, I'm here for you," he murmured, sliding out of the booth and taking his place beside her, his hand warm over hers.
"I know," Nancy agreed, swiping a hand across her damp eyes and willing herself to retain some level of composure.
Being with Ned like this reminded Nancy so much of why she had loved him. He really was such a thoughtful, caring guy.
"I miss being with you like this." he murmured softly, causing a fresh wave of tears to fall down Nancy's cheeks.
And though Nancy didn't say anything she missed being with him too.
"I've looked into every member of staff that's worked at the carnival for the last fifteen years and the only person who prompts even the slightest hint of suspicion is a girl called Jean Buckley. Would you believe there's no record of the girl before the age of five? No birth certificate. No medical records, nothing." Chief McGinnis informed her, looking well and truly baffled by the days findings.
When Nancy had stated her intention to carry on investigating the case, Hannah had muttered under her breath that she should be in bed recovering from her cold, not galavanting around the countryside. In truth, Nancy needed the distraction. The news Nancy received from Avery the previous night had been vague and uncertain, her father's condition though improved slightly, still far from the 'He'll be out of hospital in the next few days' Nancy needed to hear.
"That is strange," Nancy agreed, leaning forward in her chair to take a look at the picture of the girl in question. Jean Buckley, Nancy mused thoughtfully, taking the photograph in her hands and examining it carefully. Nancy had met her before.
"Jean Buckley runs the hoopla stall over at Fosters. I met her the other day and I have to say she is a most unpleasant girl." Nancy sighed, sliding the photograph back to Chief McGinnis.
"Well, there's something strange about this whole thing," Chief McGinnis mumbled, shaking his head in confusion. "Jean Buckley wasn't Jean Buckley ten years ago. Either the girl's working in the country illegally or else she's had her name changed. I'm going to have to take her in for questioning."
"Call me if you hear anything." Nancy finished, thanking the chief before making her way to the door.
Even superheroes need a break. I'm taking you out tonight. No excuses. Pick you up at eight.
Nancy's heart softened as she read Ned's words. My God, he was sweet. The warmth of his smile and the feel of his hand over hers had almost been enough yesterday, to make her forget all about Denise and the events of last year. Almost. Nancy still felt sick remembering Denise's arms wrapped around Ned and it would take a lot more than dinner to make her forget that.
Running a brush through her hair, Nancy's eyes caught sight of one of the newspaper articles she had printed out but had forgotten about in the confusion during the past days. Grace Harrington had gone missing twelve years before and her parents hadn't given up their appeal to find their daughter. Four-year-old Grace was blonde and brown-eyed but even with her hair dyed black and shortened in a choppy cut, Nancy recognized her immediately.
"I know where Anna Wills is," Nancy spat out excitedly, the second Chief McGinnis answered the phone.
Ned had taken Nancy to a cosy Italian restaurant in River Heights and with the gentle glow of candle light flickering on the table, the scene was very reminiscent of so many dates they had shared over the years.
"So Malley had been the one all the time?" Ned sounded in shock, taking a drink from his glass of wine.
"He's been taking the girls for years." Nancy replied, pushing her salad around the plate. So far he's suspected of killing at least six children but that number is expected to rise when the detectives have concluded their investigation.
Anna Wills had been found earlier that day in some ancient outbuildings which had been registered under Malley's name. Though scared and tired, Malley had taken reasonably good care of her and the child was expected to make a full recovery after a short stay in hospital.
"I still don't understand how you made the connection." Ned murmured disbelievingly, raising his brown eyes to meet Nancy's.
"Malley had apparently taken guardianship of his cousin's child, after her parents died. Well, that was the story he told everyone, anyway." Nancy explained, placing her cutlery down resignedly on her plate. "Turns out, the girl he claimed was his adopted daughter was actually Grace Harrington, a child who had gone missing twelve years ago. Malley raised her as his own, changing her name to Jean Buckley. When Chief McGinnis looked into the background of the employees and discovered there was no records for Jean before the age of five, the pieces started coming together. A newspaper article about Grace Harrington's disappearance cemented what we already knew. Jean Buckley was in fact Grace. She was reunited with her parents last night."
"Wow. You really are a superhero, Nan," Ned teased lightly, reaching out and taking her hand in his. "All I've done over the past few days is work a few shifts at Gino's and play a game of football with the guys and you've managed to find a missing child and reunite two families. Way to make a guy feel bad."
"You weren't seeing Denise," Nancy blurted out, before she could stop herself, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment as she realized what she had just said.
"Nancy, you never let me explain, last year," Ned replied, catching her gaze and holding it. "If you had actually answered one of the tens of phone calls I made to you, you would have realized that I never did anything with Denise. She came up to my room to grab some notes for a class she had missed and tried it on a little. You know how she is?"
"Yeah." Nancy agreed darkly. "She's a boyfriend stealing whore. But that doesn't explain why you didn't tell her to stop. I mean, she was practically wrapped around you. It was hard to tell where Ned Nickerson started and Denise Mason ended."
"I was mad at you," Ned admitted with a shrug. "I hadn't seen nor heard from you in weeks and then you just thought that you could show up and act like everything was normal. But nothing happened, I swear to you. The second you stormed out of the room, I told Denise to leave and I haven't spoken to her since."
"I'm sorry." Nancy sighed, twisting her bracelet around her wrist nervously. "I do love you but I know that sometimes I'm not very good at showing it."
"You love me?" Ned asked cautiously, resting back in his chair and gazing at Nancy frankly.
"Yeah," Nancy murmured softly, her heart soaring as Ned came over to her side of the table and took her hand in his.
"Well, I love you too." he whispered gently, pressing his lips to hers softly. "How about we give this relationship another shot?"
"Definitely." Nancy agreed, the appreciative whistles and catcalls fading into the background as their lips met in a deep and sizzling kiss.
The sky was a perfect blue as Nancy and Ned walked out into the waiting sunshine, his hand wrapped warmly around hers. Nancy was feeling horribly conflicted knowing she should be ecstatic to be back with Ned but finding it hard to derive any sort of joy when for all she knew, her father could be dead.
"He'll be okay, Nan." Ned murmured comfortingly, squeezing her hand in his.
Sighing heavily, Nancy shook her head, trying to will the tears building up in her eyes away.
Hearing her cellphone ring, Nancy rummaged in her bag, ready to ignore the call when she saw the name lit up on the display.
"Avery. How's my dad?" Nancy immediately demanded, her words practically falling over one another in her desperation to get them out.
"That's why I'm ringing you, Nancy. You're father is doing a lot better. The doctors are hoping he'll be out of hospital Wednesday."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Nancy finally allowed the tears to fall, allowing Ned to take her in his arms and hold her close.