Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys and am making no money off this. Well, Happy New Year! I hope to continue to bring you entertainment in 2019 and improve my writing.
And as always all comments including constructive criticism continue to be welcomed
The world came back to Nancy with a jolt of pain. Opening her eyes, she saw Bess and Callie hovering over her. The two girls were kneeling either side of her.
"What happened?" Callie asked. "We heard a thump upstairs and when we came down, we found you out cold on the floor."
Nancy told them what happened.
"Are you okay?" Bess asked, the concern evident in her voice.
"I'm fine," Nancy answered. "I'm going to take a look around and see what clues our night visitor may have left behind."
She got to her feet and started walking around the living room. The first thing that drew her eye was the poker lying on the carpet and the fact that one was clearly missing from beside the fireplace.
"Callie, why don't you and Bess check the rest of the house?" Nancy said. "You'll have a better chance of spotting if anything's missing than I will."
After a quick trip upstairs to put on her robe and some tennis shoes, Nancy hurried outside. She stood on the Shaws' front lawn inspecting the soil in the flowerbeds. Suddenly, she spotted a pattern of hexagons impressed into the soil. It looked like part of the footprint that Frank had shown her a couple of days before.
Nancy headed back inside and found Callie and Bess standing in the living room. "I don't get it," Callie said. "Nothing's missing and we have some pretty valuable stuff. My mom's got some antique china and we just got a state of the art DVD player. Why would anyone go to all this trouble and then not take anything?"
"I think I know what they might have been after," Nancy said. She told the other two what she had discovered outside. "I think whoever it was might have been after your bear, Callie."
"But why would anyone want my bear? Especially if they already have the original Happy Birthday Bear?" Callie asked.
"I don't know," Nancy answered. "But I'm letting Frank and Joe know about it first thing in the morning."
###
"So, what do you make of what happened at Callie's last night?" Joe asked Frank as they drove to Kirkland the next morning.
"It doesn't make any sense," Frank replied.
"Yeah," Joe said. "Why try and swipe a two hundred and fifty dollar copy when you've got the fifteen thousand dollar original?"
Eventually, the brothers pulled up to the address Larry O'Keefe had given them. The warehouse was a grey, long, low building with a loading dock at the far end.
The brothers entered the building and found themselves in a brightly lit reception area. A college aged guy sat behind a desk.
"Can I help you?" the guy asked.
"Yes you can," Frank answered. "We're after information on whether a particular shipment was picked up yesterday at around five pm."
"I may be able to do that. Who should I say is asking?"
"Frank and Joe Hardy."
"Let me just make a call and see if anyone's available to speak with you."
After a while an older muscular man entered the room. "You Fenton Hardy's boys?" he asked.
"That's us," Frank answered.
"About ten years ago, your dad helped break up a major cargo theft ring. That saved me from going bankrupt. I wasn't your dad's client at the time so I never got to pay him back. But now I can. What do you need?"
"We need to know if Larry O'Keefe picked up the shipment for Beary Wonderful and when," Frank replied.
"I should be able to do that. Just give me a couple of minutes." He made a call on his cellphone and after speaking to the other person for a few minutes hung up. "O'Keefe picked the shipment up at ten to five," he reported to Frank.
"Ten to five?" Frank echoed. "You're sure?"
"My manager remembers because O'Keefe asked the time. Claimed that he had to finish up by six pm."
"That checks out with what he told us," Joe commented. "Bayport's about half an hour away. There's no way he could have gotten back in time to pull off the theft."
"Well, I gotta get back to work. I hope that was helpful."
"It was," Frank said.
The two brothers stepped back outside. Almost immediately Frank noticed that their van was lower to the ground than it should be. "Something's up," he said.
"Do you need me to hang back?" Joe asked.
"I don't think so."
Frank and Joe inched toward the van. As they got closer, Frank realized, to his horror, that all four tyres had been slashed.
"I'll take care of getting hold of a tow truck and finding someone to give us a ride home," Joe said.
"I'll see if whoever did this dropped anything that might give us some clue to who they are," Frank said. He began to walk in a slow circle around the van, alert for even the smallest clue to the vandal's identity.
It didn't take long for Frank to spot a small white square tucked under the van's wipers. "Looks like someone left us a message," he remarked.
"Tow truck's on its way and Vanessa's coming to get us as soon as she's done helping her mom," Joe reported, joining his brother.
Meanwhile, Frank had lifted one of the wipers and slid the square of paper out from under it. He unfolded it and held it out so Joe could read it.
The note was in blue ink and read: STOP SNOOPING OR ELSE! THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING!
"Well, someone clearly doesn't believe in beating around the bush," Joe remarked.
"There's one thing that we know now," Frank said.
"What's that?" Joe asked.
"Whoever the culprit is, they're either one of the people who know we're looking into this or learned about it from one of those people."
###
"Wow, this place looks just like Jowell's back in River Heights!" Bess said as she and Nancy stepped inside Albermarle's department store.
Nancy agreed. Even though Albermarle's didn't look exactly like the department store in their home town, it had the same air of old fashioned elegance and charm.
Helen Irvin came up to them. "Kerry and I are here to make sure that everything goes without a hitch. The agency's had some teething problems so we're here as a precaution."
They were walking through the grand entrance hall when Nancy thought she saw Angela but when she looked again the young woman had melted into the crowd.
The group took the elevator up to the second floor. "We're headed for Wave," Helen Irwin said.
Wave turned out to be a separate department for high school and college kids. The décor was sleek and modern and a hit R n' B song filled the air. The place had a fun vibe to it.
"Nancy Drew?" the person who had spoken was an efficient looking young woman in a blue business suit.
"I'm Nancy Drew and this is Bess Marvin."
"My name is Ms Ball," the young woman said. She had black hair swept into a professional bun. "I'll be co-ordinating everything today. If both of you would like to step into the changing rooms and put on the outfits labelled number one and we can get started.
After changing, Nancy couldn't help admiring herself in the mirror. The green velvet party dress she had on really suited her and Bess' gold minidress also looked stunning.
"We're going to take a few pictures of you two on the mezzanine balcony," Ms Ball explained. "We're going for the effect of the two of you attending a party at some grand estate."
"Sounds great," Bess said.
After having their hair and make-up done, Nancy and Bess followed Ms Ball back down to the first floor and up a double staircase to the mezzanine. There on the balcony, a small corner had been decorated to look like it was the holidays.
The two girls were introduced to the photographer, a young woman wearing a baseball cap. "If you girls would lean against the balcony looking out. Try to look as if you're at a great party and have just stopped to catch your breath," she instructed.
For the next hour, Nancy concentrated on doing a good job as a model. Eventually she and Bess were allowed to take a half hour break. Bess went to the store's cafe to grab a snack for both of them while Nancy took a walk around the mezzanine. Pausing a moment to admire the store's architecture, Nancy leaned her elbows on the polished wood top of the balcony railing.
Suddenly, Nancy felt someone give her a hard shove. She grabbed at the railing trying to keep her balance but her assailant gave her another push and she toppled over the railing towards the marble floor of the entrance hall below.