Foreword by author: Thank you for the five wonderful reviews! I enjoy teaming up Frank, Joe, and Nancy together. But this is not going to be like the Super Mysteries in many ways.There will be more action,twists in plot, and tricks in making the impossible crimes possible. Be sure to come back for the next update!
4
Stalked By DangerNancy felt a chill down her spine as she saw the cold stare. Could the person possibly be the one who stole the vase?
Bravely, Nancy turned around to face the stalker. "Who are you?" she asked, preparing to run if the man started running toward her. She knew she could outrun him. It was not even ten yards away from the front porch of her friend's house. And she could run a mile with ease if she had to.
The man seemed to smirk beneath his mask. "I'm warning you, Nancy Drew," he said as he stopped walking. "This is just the beginning of your last case."
With those words, the man turned around and started running instead to the other direction.
Nancy was confused. In an instant, she remembered that she should follow him instead. She started running after him. He turned the corner as he ran about a mile. Ten seconds later, Nancy turned around the same corner.
"What the…?"
As she turned around the corner, she bumped into a dead end! She looked around. No, there wasn't a door on either side of the wall, and the wall was too high for anybody to jump over. Then, how did the man manage to escape?
Nancy was astounded. He just disappeared into thin air! Again, she looked back. There was no mistake; he had come into this dead end, but he managed to escape—somehow.
Knowing that she let the man escape, Nancy turned around when she stepped on a piece of paper. "What's this?" she murmured to herself as she picked it up. She saw that it was a magazine clipping from today's New York Times. It was an ad saying: "Spectacles await at Grande Wallace Theatre! Come by today to watch the latest play, Romance By Envy, starring the famous Cornelia Yaupon from Lights Out, a popular play directed by Jacob Sisisky."
"Cornelia Yaupon? Wasn't she—?" Nancy suddenly felt something light up in her mind. "Maybe this theater is the one where Dad is investigating his case."
Nancy looked at the right hand corner of the piece of paper. "Call Henry Saraland for details."
Henry Saraland! She was right. It was the right theater.
"Now all I have to do is go there…" Nancy returned to the house. She saw the two Hardys standing on the balcony on the third floor of Mrs. Dilworth's mansion. They seemed like they were thinking about something.
"Hey! Frank! Joe!" called Nancy, waving her hand at her two friends.
Frank and Joe seemed to notice and waved back. "I think I've solved the case!" Joe shouted.
"You mean, 'we' solved the case," Frank said, elbowing his brother playfully.
After a minute, the Hardys got out of the house and were walking toward the girl detective.
"What do you mean you solved the case?" Nancy asked with a surprised expression. "So you know the thief now?"
Frank and Joe shook their heads. "No. We figured out that the thief could have been other people besides your friend, Nancy," Frank said.
The three went into the house. Mrs. Dilworth came to greet them.
"You say that you've found how the person got in and out of the house?" she asked, surprised, as they told her their discovery.
Nodding, Frank told her, "I'll show you. Please come to the kitchen." He looked and winked at Joe, who grinned and nodded as a response.
When the mistress entered the kitchen, Frank said, "Imagine that Joe here is the crook. We just noticed you come into the kitchen."
"O…okay…" Mrs. Dilworth said. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
Suddenly, Joe turned and ran into the dining room. "Follow me," he called as he went upstairs. Hesitantly, Mrs. Dilworth followed Joe, Frank, and Nancy upstairs. Then, the 'thief' turned and went up to the third floor.
As Joe ran into the room leading to the balcony, he closed the door behind him as he went inside. Frank went and opened the door. Mrs. Dilworth looked inside and gasped. "He is gone!"
Frank and Nancy went to the balcony and looked down. "Look!" Frank shouted. "There is a set of footprints leading from this mansion to the neighboring one!"
Turning around to face Mrs. Dilworth, Frank smiled. "And that's how the burglar got away."
"Wait a minute!" Nancy said. "Then, where did Joe go?"
"I'm over here!"
Nancy and Mrs. Dilworth looked down to see Joe waving from the balcony right under the one on the third floor. He landed on the second floor balcony, not on the ground!
"Oh, I get it now!" Nancy shouted. "The reason the thief went to the third floor was because he needed to escape to the second floor and let Mr. and Mrs. Dilworth notice that the thief ran to Bailey's house!"
"You got it!" Joe said, entering the room they were in. "The thief must have used a hook to temporarily get the rope ready to use. When he was on the second floor, he just raise the rope up in order to retrieve the hook.
"He had more than enough time to do this, since the door had only one master key to open and he locked the door from the inside. The door is too thick to break down, so he knew that in order to get in, you would have had to use the key, Mrs. Dilworth."
"And that was the reason we found some white paint on the footprint. It was from the balcony, and the culprit must have scratched it off as he was retrieving the hook from the balcony," Frank explained.
Mrs. Dilworth was relieved for a moment. "Then, who actually did this?"
Nancy spoke up. "Think we should do more investigating in order to narrow the suspects. We can't search for suspects in a city as big as New York."
The three detectives excused themselves from the mansion. On their way to Bailey's residence, Nancy looked back at the place where she met the man in black coat.
No, she decided, I won't tell that to Frank and Joe—yet.
But still, many things baffled Nancy. How did the man manage to disappear into thin air when he was about her height and size?
Nancy had lots of questions that were not answered, but she had no lead.
I know that Bailey is innocent. But then, who is the real culprit? And how am I supposed to find him in the United States' city with the largest population?
Frank and Joe were thinking the same thing: why did the culprit choose Bailey as a scapegoat?
As Nancy and the Hardys entered the house, they noticed that Bailey was waiting for them in the kitchen.
"Well? Nancy?" Bailey asked, excited. "Did you find out who the thief was?"
Smiling weakly, Nancy shook her head. "But don't worry. I'm sure he will be caught soon."
Bailey's expression changed into a sad one. "But you've got to understand that I'm not the thief, Nancy! Please don't let them think that I'm the one who stole the vase!"
Frank thought for a moment. "In the years of experience, this case might not only be an act of robbery, but an act of revenge as well.
"Revenge?" asked Bailey, her face tight in surprise.
"Yeah," said Joe. "I think that the person who left the footprints leading from the house to yours is trying to frame you. In that case, the person who is the thief might be holding a grudge against you."
"A grudge, huh?" Bailey thought for a moment. "Speaking of it, I think I do have an idea of the person who has a grudge against me."
"Really? Who?" Nancy asked, excited now that she had some leads.
Bailey explained, "During the last two years, Clarissa Pevely, a freshman in nearby university, has been mad at me for stealing her boyfriend."
Nancy gasped. "Did you really?" she asked.
Bailey laughed and shook her head. "I had no idea Ian Kolinsky even had a girlfriend. He just came to me and asked me to the school dance when I was a junior in high school."
"And anyone else?" Joe asked.
"Yes, speaking of Ian, he is angry at me now because I broke up with him."
"You broke up?" questioned Frank. "Why?"
Bailey shrugged. "I don't really like him. He was just too persistent and asked me if I had any other boyfriends. Of course, I didn't, but he was always thinking about that, and finally, we broke up a year ago. Well, I made him break up with me. I once saw him with another girl in the school, so I talked to him about it. He didn't admit, of course, so I told him that I wanted to break up with him. And he finally agreed. Now he might want revenge."
The eighteen-year-old girl bit her lip. "And there is one more person. His name is Alan Humphrey, a student in York University of Science. He studies the growth of a certain bacteria and has been keeping a record of it since the beginning of the year. On the notebook, there were many notes scribbled on each page.
"I was once working in that university to clean the lab to gain some cash during the summer vacation last year. I was in a rush to clean the place, since I was running late for my next job. Wiping the desks thoroughly, I didn't remember anything in specific, but I think I saw a notebook. I just tossed it into the garbage bin and left. When I came back, Alan was angry with me for throwing his notebook away. It had lots of information that was needed to continue the experiments."
She paused. Then, she continued, "But it wasn't my fault! I just did my job, and he didn't even put his name on the notebook."
Nancy thought for a moment. Then, she faced Frank and Joe. "I think the best thing to do here is to talk to those three suspects and find what their alibis were for the time of the theft." Nancy wanted to say, "and just now," but she stopped, since she didn't want to worry her friends.
"Oh, no!" Bailey looked at her watch and gasped. "I have to go. My job at the café is from three to eight, so I'm almost late. See you guys after that!" She then ran out of the door. As she went outside, she turned around for a brief moment and smiled at the three detectives. "And Nancy? I hope you can catch the thief as soon as possible. Thanks a lot, you guys."
Nancy watched as her friend's burgundy sedan turned around the corner and disappear into the busy traffic.
"Now," she said as she faced Frank and Joe. "Time to do some detective work!"
Just then, she heard the telephone ring in the kitchen. Mrs. Higgins had already gone out for shopping, so the house was empty. Nancy answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Is this Miss Nancy Drew?" a male voice asked from the other side of the line.
"Yes," Nancy answered, surprised.
The person sounded as though he was in a rush. "Great. This is Dr. Bryce. Please come to Saint Comrade Hospital as soon as you can, Miss Drew. This is an emergency. Your father has been found knocked out in Grande Wallace Theatre. Right now he is in a coma!"
P.S. I will update the story once every seven to nine days, so come back in a week or so and you'll be able to read the next chapter!
