Chapter 2 The Stolen Owl
The shopkeeper, a nervous little man in a tweed suit named Mr. Barnaby, carefully recounted the events of the day.
From what he said, many people had come in to see the Emerald Owl. It was difficult to keep up with every individual. He received offers ranging from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars for the statue. Mr. Barnaby always refused. The Emerald Owl was the last remaining work of art from master sculptor Fernando Fleck. Mr. Barnaby believed that the Emerald Owl belonged in a museum so that it can be enjoyed by anyone.
"Mr. Barnaby," started Nancy delicately, "Do you remember any suspicious customers? Ones that got really angry when you denied them purchase?"
"I don't remember anyone in particular, they were all so angry that they couldn't take the Owl right then and there," he said, tears welling in his eyes. He had been looking for the Emerald Owl for many years, and to have it taken away before he could give it to the museum was taking a toll on him.
"Sir, do you mind if I look around?" Nancy asked, "Maybe I can help you find it." She added to soothe him.
Mr. Barnaby smiled. He was familiar with Nancy's work in town. He had seen her picture in the newspaper. Nancy Drew: Amateur Detective had solved at least a dozen cases in town, ranging from stolen cats to kidnapping cases. He would gladly accept her help. The police were notified of the theft, but they were convinced that the Owl would show up around town. With the flashy kidnapping of Winter Foley, daughter of the wealthiest man in town, a missing owl statue did not seem that high of a priority to the small police force in town. They gave their blessings to Nancy to investigate the case.
Nancy spent three hours combing through each and every spot in Mr. Barnaby's antique store. There were many footprints and there were no security cameras in the store. The owner had a Rottweiler named Toby to guard the back door, but poor Toby was hit with a tranquilizer dart and spent the night in a forced slumber.
Nancy started back by Toby. When Mr. Barnaby gave a guest his favor in front of Toby, Toby became a sweetheart and came up to Nancy for belly rubs. Nancy laughed and gave some attention to the big pup. When she started around Toby's area, she noticed two distinct footprints. She reached into her satchel and retrieved a magnifying glass. She observed the footprint and saw that one foot dug deeper into the soft dirt. The dirt also was flat under the footprint. These were the same for the trail of footprints leading to the store. These seemed to indicate that the intruder had a slight limp and was wearing fancy shoes. Nancy also noticed a third print next to the footprints. It was a small indent, circular.
The intruder had a cane. The strange part was that based on the conical shape of the indent, it also seems that the cane came to a sharp point.
Nancy followed this set of prints right into the shop. The lock on the door was disintegrated, some kind of high-powered acid. Nancy did not like to speak ill of the River Heights Police Department, but this did not seem like your run-of-the-mill criminal here. Acid is not usually in the inventory of the common River Heights criminal.
The casing that enveloped the Emerald Owl was crafted from bulletproof glass and secured with a heavy metal lock. In this case, the glass had been cut through with precision. No fingerprints on the glass, but a high-powered blade had cut a perfect circle through the glass. The Owl was lifted out of its case and taken away.
Combing the shop for a third time did not gain Nancy any results. It was only after exhausting every option that she thought of that she noticed something odd about the floor vent below the jewel casing. She bent down to get a closer look. Something was lodged in the vent. She dug through her satchel until she found her multi-tool (a gift from her father for Christmas). She used the flathead piece to pry up the vent. She reached in her hand and retrieved the object. It was soft and light. She held it up to the light.
It was a bird feather! Solid black plumes. It was much larger than the feather of a crow or raven. She stared curiously at the feather. She couldn't remember any bird around town that this feather could have come from. Is it possible that it was stuck to the clothing of the intruder?
Nancy jotted down every one of her notes in her journal, attaching measurements of the foot sizes and the bird feather. She would have some investigating to do.