DISCLAIMER: Not with the owning of the Drew and the Nancy…

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry, sorry, so sorry! My computer broke. PLEASE read and review. Tell me what you think and what you guys want to see next. THANKS!

Chapter 04

"Whoa, whoa," George said, shaking her head and looking at the presumptuous little jerk on the doorstep. "What? Nancy Drew broke the law? Are you sure you aren't looking for me?"

"I don't have time for game, Miss," Moore hissed at the brunette.

Nancy had been sizing the man up. He had to be two, maybe three years older than her… max. His attitude annoyed her, but she said nothing about it.

"How exactly did I 'break the law?'" Nancy asked finally.

He looked her over as if he pitied the poor, stupid girl standing before him. When he spoke it was condescendingly.

"Miss Drew," he drawled. "You may not be aware of this simple fact, but it is against the law to invite a mail carrier into your home when he is on duty."

"Maybe," Nancy responded curtly, still trying to play off some kind of polite tone to her voice. "But don't you think this is an exception to the case? Ira Nixon is an elderly man and he'd been out in the wind for a long time. He was cold and exhausted. Besides, he didn't even bring the mail into our house with him. He left here at the entrance."

"Ha! Even worse," Moore crowed obnoxiously and Hannah put on hand on George's arm, restraining her. "Our mail carriers know the rules. One of the most important rules is that they always keep their mailbags with them."

"Are you aware that Ira is in the hospital? The hospital?" Bess asked.

"I had heard something like that. Still, it doesn't excuse him. It doesn't excuse you, either."

"That's fine," Nancy said, rising to the challenge. "I'll take the heat. Let me call my father and he'll drop by your office later today."

Moore, however, wasn't going to leave that easy. "What does your father have to do with this?"

"Well, you're quite familiar with the law, right?" Nancy snapped, unable to control herself anymore. "Well, according to the law, it says that every free citizen is allowed to confer with their lawyer. It just so happens that my dad is my lawyer."

Moore was thrown back at that. He blinked several times, trying to regain his composure. "I guess you're right. When the postal inspector returns I'll give him the message."

"Good."

"Hey," George said. "You know what our most important rule is?"

Moore looked at her, shaking his head.

George slammed the door in his face.

"Ass!" Bess called towards the door.

They watched out the window as he turned and walked towards his car, shaken. Nancy huffed, pissed, and clenched her fists.

"What a prick!" she said.

"Nancy!" Hannah gasped. "Your language!"

"Sorry, but he is."

"True, but still…"

"Anyway, the postal inspector is a reasonable man-"

"A reasonable, likeable man," George added, still angry.

"Yeah. I'm sure he'll understand. I mean, Ira's been in this business for a long, long time and he's never once failed them. They know that and I'm sure they'll cut him a break." Nancy sighed.

They all stopped suddenly as they heard the front door open and close. A few seconds later, Mr. Drew appeared in the doorway, shrugging out of his coat and setting his briefcase down.

"Hey," he greeted with a smile and gave Hannah an appreciative look as she put a hot mug of cocoa into his hands. "Thanks."

"Hi dad," Nancy said, a little surprised. "What are you doing home so early?"

"Truth is, I was so curious about this whole mail thing that I just ducked out early. What happened when you hung up with me? The whole thing is outrageous."

"Oh, you'll love this," George said with a grin. "The whole thing gets better and better by the second."

Between Nancy, Bess, and George, with a few side comments from Hannah, Carson was told about Mr. Horace Moore and what he'd said. George very happily explained how he'd been dismissed. Mr. Drew laughed at that and squeezed her shoulder.

"You always did have people skills, George," he said with a smile. "That was smart saying that you'd be talking to your lawyer, Nancy. That kid was way out of line. He can't pin any blame on you, it wasn't your fault. I'm sure that the actual Postal Inspector will agree and I'm pretty sure that he'll be pretty lenient towards Ira."

Nancy sighed and shrugged. "How's that woman? The one who sent you the money through the mail. What was her name? Ms. Squiggles?"

Her father laughed again. "Mrs. Quigley was pretty thrown. My secretary had to bring in some black coffee. She broke down and started crying. She finally admitted that I was right and she should've listened to me and sent a check."

They talked for a while about the mail theft. After about an hour, George and Bess said that they had to go home for dinner. A little while after that, a call came in for Mr. Drew from a client. HHHHe'd gotten into a bad accident and needed Mr. Drew to come right away. He kissed Nancy goodbye, said he'd probably come home late, then walked out the door, adjusting his tie. Hannah suggested that they go to a movie, and Nancy complied. She got home and went to sleep, still thinking about the mail incident at her house. In the morning, Ned called her.

"Hey Ned," she greeted with a smile.

"Well, hello. What are you up to?" Ned's voice replied from the other end of the line.

Nancy shrugged. "Not much, but I have to tell you what happened when I got back home yesterday."

She launched into her story and Ned listened quietly, letting her finish. When she was done, he sighed and Nancy could tell he was shaking his head.

"Jesus, you live an interesting life Nancy Drew," he said. "I can tell that I'm in for a bumpy ride, aren't I?"

Nancy bit her lip shyly. "It depends on you. You don't have to stay on for the whole journey. You know you can climb off any time you want."

"Oh shut up," Ned said and dismissed the subject. "So, what is going to happen now. You'd better still be coming for the game."

"Of course I'm coming for the game. I just need to find out about this London letter and then I need to find out who stole all the mail."

"You know, River Heights does employ a police force. They can do the job just as much as you can. Maybe not as well, but whatever."

Nancy laughed. "You know what they say. If you want something done right, do it yourself."

Ned sighed again. "Speaking of the game…"

"Uh huh," Nancy said, intrigued.

"I need a little favor…"

After Nancy's phone call with Ned, she went to the hospital to visit Ira Nixon. Hannah had forced her to take him some soup in a container, even though Nancy told her that they would just make her throw it out. She had the soup smuggled in her large purse and was ushered in to see the mail carrier.

"Hey, Ira, how are you feeling?" she asked, smiling at him and squeezing his hand.

"Oh, I'm fine, believe me. These doctors just won't let me go home. They're quite a paranoid lot, aren't they?" Ira comment, obviously a little annoyed.

"That's doctors for you. I brought you some soup that Hannah sent. It's contraband so eat it quick."

Ira smiled thankfully and began eating the soup. His cheeks flushed with color and the man seemed to perk up afterwards.

"I'll bet I know why you're here to see me," Ira said with a twinkle in his eye.

"I'm here to see how you are," Nancy said, feigning surprise at the thought of her having come with some other intention.

"Oh please, I know what the driving force was though. You wanted to know if I can give you any more information on that letter of your from London."

Nancy smiled sheepishly. "Well, no that you bring it up, I was kind of wondering about it."

Ira laughed. He stirred the last of his soup around as he sobered. He didn't look up at the girl when he spoke next. "I think I should tell you why I fainted yesterday at your house. Mind you, I need you to know that I don't believe what I'm about to say, it was just an initial shock reaction."

Nancy nodded, and leaned forward to listen to him. He told her all about his brother Edgar. They story was basically the same one as Hannah's, only less prejudiced and with sweeter words than the ones Hannah used. He said that when she described the jacket and the car, he had thought of his brother instantly, but that, although Edgar was a pest, he was sure that he wasn't as cruel as stooping to thievery for revenge.

Nancy thought a moment. "What did Tommy mean by a yellow jacket. Do you think he meant tan?"

Ira shrugged. "The one my brother owns is yellow. Quite shocking actually. Edgar has always had an… eccentric taste. He's always liked things that are flashy and that stand out. He has a yellow, leather jacket, like a biker's jacket. He used to have a motorcycle and he thought that the jacket was extraordinary because he'd never seen one like it before. Actually, Edgar can pull it off if anyone ever could, he's really a good-looking man." He sighed and then his mood changed into old Ira again. "Sorry that I can't tell you any more about your letter to London."

"Don't worry. I have to get going anyway. Thanks for talking with me, Ira, and please get better soon."

"I'm better now, if only those doctors would admit it."

Nancy laughed and waved goodbye. One her way back home, she called her father.

"Hey dad," she said. "I wanted to ask you something."

"Tell me," Carson replied.

"Do you think that with the name Ira gave me, Malmsbury, we might be able to ask for a copy of the letter that was sent to me? I know it's a slim chance and all, but maybe there's something in it."

"Well, we can sure as hell try. Let me call around and I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, dad, thanks. Love you."

"Me too. Bye."

Nancy went home and took a shower. It wasn't until Monday, midmorning that Mr. Drew got back to her. He called her just before lunch with the news.

"Hey, sweetie, I called a lawyer friend of mine in London. He owed me a favor."

"Really?" Nancy said ecstatically. "What did her find out?"

"Well, he managed to track down a law firm in the city by the name of Malmsbury and Bates-Jones."

"That has to be it! Ira said it had three names," Nancy said enthusiastically.

Mr. Drew laughed. "I hope so. Anyway, he's going to call them up and see if they'll send a duplicate letter based on the circumstances. If it's not them, he's going to keep looking for whoever it was that did write you."

"Awesome! That's so great. Maybe in a few days the whole London mystery will be over."

"Sometimes you're still such a kid. Like I've told you a million times before, don't get your hopes up too high, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay. Thanks for the help, dad," Nancy said and hung up with her father.

Nancy was sitting in the kitchen, thinking, while Hannah cleaned up from breakfast. She knew that the girl was deep in thought because she was carefully chewing on her bottom lip and looking off into the distance. Nancy stood suddenly, shaking herself awake again.

"I need to get out of this house," she said.

"Where are you going to go?" Hannah asked.

Nancy shrugged. "I don't know. I was thinking of maybe stopping by Ira's house. I know that he rents and I was hoping that the woman would maybe be there. I know it's a long shot, but I'm kind of out of options. I need to talk to someone and see if maybe they can give me some more information about Ira or his brother."

"Might as well give it a shot. Be careful and keep your phone on," Hannah said as the girl grabbed her coat, kissed the housekeeper goodbye and walked out the door.

Ira lived on the other side of River Heights in a small house. She drove into his street and singled out the little place. It was an old house, and worn, but he'd done a good job of keeping it presentable. The garden was well tended and the house was clean-looking. It might not have been as updated as the houses around it, but it had an old charm. Nancy parked in front of the house and got out of her car. She looked around, hoping to find someone there, but there was no one at the house. The only people around where two women who were sweeping up some trash from the street. Nancy walked up to the door and knocked, but like she knew, no one answered. She hesitated, not wanting to give up on her search. She turned back to the women across the street and headed over to them.

"Excuse me," she called out and the women turned.

"Yes? Can we help you?" one of them asked with a kind smile. The other stopped what she was doing to pay attention.

Nancy smiled charmingly. "I was wondering if you knew the man across the street, Ira Nixon."

"Of course," the second woman said. "Poor Ira. He's in the hospital now."

"Yeah, actually I was just there."

"Were you? How is he doing?"

"He's a lot better and he should be getting out soon. He's resting now. I know it sounds weird, but it's actually a good thing that he's in the hospital now. He kind of got a mini break from life and it let him kind of catch up on sleep."

"That's great," the first woman said. "He needed it."

"Especially with that no good brother of his," the other mentioned.

"His brother?" Nancy asked, pretending to know nothing.

"Oh yeah. Edgar Nixon is a horrible man. He was here today, but he couldn't get in of course."

"He comes by in that nasty, old car of his. Today he let a bunch of trash fall out of it. He completely littered the street with some old letters. We just finished picking the last of them up."

"Letters?" Nancy repeated, pleasantly surprised at this new clue. "Do you mind if I…?"

"No, of course not. Have a ball," they both said, motioning towards a large garbage can on the lawn.

Nancy walked to it and peeked in, hoping that her luck held. With a sigh of relief, she reached in and grabbed a handful of crumpled, dirty letters that had smeared addresses from her block. Most of them looked like they have been wet and a lot of them were illegible. She stopped cold as, after lifting a handful of letters, she found one that had been ripped open and badly stuffed back into the envelope. She was unable to make out most of the letter, but what there was left caught her attention. She dropped the other letters back into the bin and carefully pulled out the letter in question.

"…Drew… money has been sent…"

This is it! she said to herself. This is the letter from London!

Nancy began to think that maybe what George had once told her was true. Maybe she wasn't as talented as everyone believed, maybe she just worked on incredible luck. She turned to the two ladies, who were watching her, waiting.

"Do you mind if I take this one with me?" Nancy asked.

They shook their heads. "Not at all. It's just a bunch of trash."

"Thank you. Thank you so much," Nancy said, turning back to her car. "By the way, you may want to call the postal inspector about those letters."

Nancy got into her car and started back towards her house when she noticed a yellow car crossed slowly across the street perpendicular to her. From the distance, she couldn't see the driver, but a thought occurred to her. Maybe Edgar, or, giving him the benefit of the doubt, whoever had stolen the letters, was checking up on Ira to see if he was home. Maybe they were watching out at his house. With this thought, she turned down the street after the car as it revved up and sped off. She tried to keep up, but she was losing them. After a couple more turns, she sighed and gave up. She headed towards home.

When she got in, she called Chief McGinnis on the phone and told him what she'd found out. She told him about the car.

"It might not be Edgar," she said to her friend. "But, whoever it was, I got his license plate number and it starts the same as the car that was here at my house."