WARNING! This story continues from my previous novel, titled Out of Tune,and will have spoilers of that novel! So if you didn't read Out of Tune, I advise you to read it first and then read this novel. However, this novel itself is a decent mystery and is not, I repeat, is not a sequel, just a continuation, and the characters from the last novel will not appear again, so it's still as hard to guess who the killer is as before :-)

Disclaimer: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are properties of Simon and Schuster. I made this story follow as closely to the original 56 books in the Nancy Drew series and 58 in Hardy Boys series as possible, but most of these facts are based on my own interpretations.

Foreword: Happy New Years! Also, my last novel got 2700 hits! Yay! So, here is another brand-new mystery. Frank, Ned, Callie, and Nancy are off to Maine to solve a perplexing mystery concerning a cloaked figure who appears in the hotel only at midnight. And then, the ghost-hunting turns into a murder case (doesn't it ever?), where the killer could have been none other than a ghost! The mystery deepens when Nancy remembers a certain thing about her mother, who was murdered... Read and Review, please! I'll update more often when I have more reviews.

Prologue

The Flashback

"Should we go shopping, Nancy?"

Nancy Drew, who just turned three, looked up at her mother and nodded. Mrs. Drew smiled warmly and took the little girl's hand.

"Today, we'll be going to get a perfect gift for your daddy for his birthday!" said the loving woman, looking out the window. "Oh, no, it's raining. I guess we should bring umbrella with us. Come on, Nancy."

Little Nancy smiled. Her mouth was filled with the baby teeth. One in front of the mouth was about to fall down. The little titian-haired girl wiggled the tooth until a sharp pain shot up to her head. She winced and touched the loose tooth no more.

As Mrs. Drew led Nancy to the car, she opened the garage door and then the car door. She let her daughter bounce on the passenger seat while she went around the car and got in to the driver's seat. After putting her daughter's seat belt on, she did her own. She slowly backed the car and got out of the garage.

The River Heights Mall was as crowded as ever. Because it was a week before the great celebration on Fourth of July, people were walking here and there, looking for something to delight their patriotism. United States' flag was hung everywhere, and no store was found that didn't have a flag either hanging from the pole in front of the door or pasted on the window. The air smelled delightful, since many restaurants and cafés were baking special holiday cookies and cakes. Nancy looked around her and saw many kinds of people, from ones who were barely taller than she to ones as tall as her mother.

The two went into a store. In it, there were many kinds of notebooks, watches, and office supplies. Mrs. Drew picked up a watch from the shelf and grinned. "Do you think this will fit Daddy?" she asked Nancy.

Nancy nodded with a broad grin that showed her the loose tooth. "I like it!" she said.

"Then I guess we should buy him this one, then."

After paying for the watch, which was gold-plated and very charming, the mother and daughter went back out the entrance of the mall.

As they got out of the mall, a car came rushing from nowhere and headed toward Nancy and her mother. Mrs. Drew immediately heard and noticed the car. The driver didn't seem to stop.

"Nancy! Run!" she shouted, pushing Nancy away. The girl landed on her face. A sharp pain hit her face, and she noticed that her loose tooth fell off. With an astonished expression, the young girl started to cry.

She turned around, crying and wiping her eyes. Then, she saw Mrs. Drew lying on the ground.

"Mommy?"

The beautiful blonde hair Mrs. Drew had was now dirty. Her face was down on the ground, and she didn't move. Around her, a pool of dark liquid formed. Nancy was confused. She stood there, holding the grocery bag that contained the watch which was to be given to Mr. Drew.

"Mommy?"

Nancy Drew woke up. It was just a dream, but the dream was too real. She almost thought that her mother's death happened just yesterday when it happened fifteen years ago. She looked at the framed photograph on the wall right next to her bed. There was a picture of Nancy standing with her mother, who looked very much like her. A drop of tear rolled down the girl detective's cheek. She had forgotten that day for fifteen years. Because of the shock, she went into a state of amnesia because her mind didn't want to remember the tragedy that took place on the rainy day in June fifteen years ago, the tragedy that changed Nancy and her father's lives forever.

She had been having this kind of nightmare ever since Mrs. Fontaine told her about her mother's death…

"What do you mean? I thought she died of an illness!" Nancy had asked Mrs. Fontaine when the latter mentioned that her mother was killed. She couldn't believe it when Mrs. Fontaine, who was her mother's roommate when they were in the same university, said that the killer was still not found.

Mrs. Fontaine looked startled. "Didn't you know, dear? She was run over by a car when you just turned three."

Nancy thought she was going to faint. She held on to the edge of the table to support her. The memory of her mother was a huge blur. The only thing she remembered was that her mother looked very much like her and that she used to take her out to shopping and to restaurants. But for some reason, the memory from the summer of the year when Nancy turned three was a blank. Nancy had a good memory, but she couldn't remember her mother in her deathbed, even though Mr. Drew told her that she died in her bed.

"I can't believe it," she muttered, her hand holding the side of her head. "My dad was lying to me for fifteen years?"

Bess Marvin, who was one of Nancy's best friends, said, "But why do you say that the killer was never found?"

Mrs. Fontaine sighed. "That's because he was never caught. Even though many people saw the car and the accident, the killer's face was not seen, for the passersby were too far away to see his face. And after they reported the numbers of the license plate, the car was found ditched in a deserted field just a few miles outside of River Heights. It has been investigated by many officers but was left as an unsolved mystery."

Nancy covered her face with her hands.

"Nancy! Run!"

She opened her eyes in an instant. The voice was coming back into her head. It was the last thing her mother had ever spoken to her, and she could never forget it as long as she lived.

"Mom…"

Nancy rolled over in her bed and tried to sleep. Looking at the electronic alarm clock next to her, she realized that it was still five o'clock in a typical Thursday morning.

Five days had passed since Nancy had last seen Frank and Joe Hardy, who were her friends and also amateur detectives. They solved three cases with her, and Nancy was proud of them. The first case happened more than half a year ago, just before Christmas in New York City. She liked to call the case Missing in Action, since Bess and George were kidnapped in the process when Nancy was the main target.

The next one they solved was Ocean of Deceit. When the detectives went to Miami to investigate, Frank was found with a dead body and was the prime suspect, since the room was completely sealed with no secret passageway. The killer seemed to vanish into thin air, but the detectives later found out the ingenious trick the murderer used and prevented another death.

The last and most recent one was Out of Tune, where the detectives went to Seattle to listen to a friend's concert. The concert turned into a murder case, and the detectives were faced with a tough situation, for no suspect could have committed the crime.

Nancy smiled. It was nice to work with the Hardy boys for a change. Her hometown of River Heights was where she did most of her detective work, though, since the time when she was eight. Of course, at that time, she wasn't solving vandalisms and murders but was acting as a little sleuth who solved cases in her classrooms and sometimes in her friend's birthday party.

The girl detective decided to get up. Changing her clothes, she yawned and looked out the window. The sun was barely over the horizon, and the outside world was not yet fully awake. The town of River Heights was hushed and still. It was like looking at a photograph, frozen eternally in time.

Nancy finished dressing and decided to make herself a sandwich for breakfast. Since she didn't want to wake either Mr. Drew or Hannah Gruen, her family's housekeeper, she tiptoed down the staircase.

Mr. Drew was an attorney. It was rumored that he was always victorious no matter whose side he was on. His impressive reputation earned him the title as one of the most prominent attorneys in River Heights.

His intelligence went to Nancy, obviously. She was intelligent enough to figure out the solutions to the most baffling of all cases. Chief McGinnis was somewhat disturbed by seeing the fact that the girl detective solved more cases in one year than some of his men would in two or three years. The reason she got herself into the criminal law business was not only because she was smart. She had a superior sense for justice which her father said she got from him and his mother. But that was all he said.

Nancy suddenly remembered the time she solved her first mystery with the police. It was the case about The Secret of the Old Clock, and she found a will but faced many dangers along the way. Her father, after finding out that Nancy was involved in the case, seemed prideful and concerned at the same time. After the missing will was read, Nancy saw her father's face. He was very concerned, but Nancy didn't know what he was concerned about.

Passing by Mr. Drew and Mrs. Gruen's rooms, Nancy heard the two soundly asleep in their beds.

Hannah Gruen was a nice lady. She lived with Nancy and her father ever since Nancy's mother passed away. She and Mr. Drew had a mutual friend who advised that Mr. Drew hire a housekeeper when he lost his wife. Mr. Drew agreed and hired Mrs. Gruen as their housekeeper, a position she would keep for fifteen years and counting. A little plump and motherly, she cooked and cleaned the house just like a normal mother would. This was a big help for the Drews, since an attorney father and a three-year-old daughter was not a great combination when it came to time. It was such a bad combination that when Mrs. Gruen first came to their home, she was awestricken.

"Words fail me!" she said, staring at the living room full of newspapers, old files, toys, pieces of paper with doodles scribbled on them, and crayons. She looked at Mr. Drew. "Have you ever considered cleaning before, Mr. Drew?"

Mr. Drew had grinned embarrassedly. "Well, I was hoping you could do that for me, since I'm really busy these days."

And that was how the family lived for fifteen years. It was a really long time indeed, but Nancy was thankful of Mrs. Gruen. She and her father started calling her Hannah a month after she came to the Drews, and she would respond well than when they had called her "Mrs. Gruen."

Nancy then stopped and listened. Togo was barking.

Togo was Nancy's dog and was a Jack Russell Terrier. His entire head was brown, but his nose was white. A white line ran from the tip of his nose all the way up to the top of his head, and that separated his head into two parts. His stomach was white and his back brown. Whenever he felt happy or excited, he would bark and shake his little tail, which was white on one side and brown on the other.

Nancy knew that he would frequently bark at passersby, but it occurred to her that it was still five in the morning. What kind of person would go walking outside at this hour?

The girl detective then went down the staircase. When she went to the first floor, she noticed that the door to her father's file room was open and the lights were turned on.

"What?" she thought. "Dad's still in his bed. Did he leave his lights on?"

But she then knew that it wasn't her father. She almost gasped as she saw a person in black search through her father's confidential law files.

It was a burglar!

Postscript: Nancy faces a mystery even before she meets the Hardys! Who could this thief be? What will Nancy do? Please review!