Foreword: I bet many of you were surprised when you read the last word in the previous chapter! In this chapter, most of the questions you had in mind will be answered, and I hope you already read The Secret of the Old Clock. This chapter explains why Bailey, who was the only one Nancy could trust in New York, actually turned out to be the kidnapper! Behind the crimes she committed, there was also a very sad past, and the unfortunate event forced Bailey to turn against her friend. I hope you will enjoy the climax, and please review after you read! My goal is to have fifty reviews by the time I finish this story.
15
Friendship of Deception
"Nan…cy…Nancy…Nancy!"
Nancy opened her eyes. Bess was right in front of her, looking at her with a worried look.
"Wha…Where am I?"
Nancy tried to get up, but she immediately felt the pain in her wrists and her ankles. Startled, she looked down, and sure enough, her hands and feet were tied tightly with a strong rope.
The girl detective looked around. It was a small, dark room. She was kept in the room with Bess. But she then saw George tied as well sitting next to her. "Glad to see you here, Nance!" she said cheerily.
"Bess! George! Why are you here?" asked Nancy. Then, her head ached so badly she groaned. "Oh, I remember."
Nancy remembered the face she saw when she lit the flashlight at the attacker's face. The face haunted her memory. It was familiar. Of course it was familiar. It was the face of the person who she thought she could trust. The face belonged to the only person she thought she could trust in the whole city of New York. The face…
"It was Bailey, wasn't it?" Nancy asked sadly.
Bess and George looked at each other with worried looks. "I'm sorry about this, Nancy," George said. "I should have been more careful."
"Tell me, how were you two kidnapped?" asked the redheaded girl of the trio.
George sighed. "I was investigating the theater when I found this set of footprints. When I followed the footprints, I came to this pillar. This pillar was actually a secret door leading to this small room. Bailey then opened the door from inside and dragged me into it."
Then, Bess explained, "I was waiting for you, Frank, and Joe to come back after they took you to the hospital when you fainted. I waited there for a few minutes, then the doorbell rang. I answered it, and Bailey was standing there with a stun gun, and…"
Bess began to sob. "Oh, cheer up," George said, trying to sound cheerful. "I heard everything from Bess. Are you okay, Nancy? She said you fainted."
Nancy grinned embarrassedly. "The doctor said that I needed to take some rest. He said that I was working too hard on the case."
"Don't you always?" chuckled George. "Anyway, we have to find a way out of here."
"But tell me," Nancy asked again. "Where is this place?"
"It's the hidden room beneath the theater. They built it hundreds of years ago so they could store food and wine, just in case of a catastrophe."
Nancy looked up with surprise. The voice belonged to Bailey. The girl was standing there with a wicked grin.
The girl detective shivered. It was not the grin she saw on her friend's face before. It was not the grin she was used to seeing. It was the evil, wicked grin a crazed culprit would have.
"And I finally have you where I wanted," Bailey said. Her voice was now as sinister as her expression. "Welcome, Nancy. Welcome to the club." She then chuckled.
"Bailey!" Nancy finally shouted. "I thought you were our friend! I thought you needed our help to prove you innocent! I trusted you! I thought of you as my close friend!"
Bailey's grin disappeared and her expression hardened. It seemed that her face was hardened with hatred.
"I don't want to even consider you my friend, Nancy. If you considered me a friend, you would never have done that."
"Done what?"
"Oh, you know very well, Nancy Drew. What happened two years ago?"
"Well, many things," interrupted Bess. "Nancy is a famous detective. She solved many cases from the time she was sixteen. She brought villains to justice, and I can't remember even a single time when she was doing anything bad to you or anybody I know of!"
George joined her cousin. "Yeah! Nancy is the kindest friend I know! She would never lie to anyone or hurt anyone. All she did was to bring happiness and justice to the places where she went."
Bailey suddenly broke out laughing. Her laughter filled the small room and Nancy was suddenly afraid of her. Now, she was not a friend anymore. Now, she was just like John Dilworth: dangerous and insane.
"You have two loyal friends, Nancy," Bailey said, still laughing. "And all you did was to bring happiness and justice? You have to be kidding!"
She took out a locket she had and opened it up. In the dim light, Nancy couldn't see whose photograph it contained. As Bailey continued looking at it, tears started coming out of her eyes. The tears weren't the tears of sorrow. They were tears of fury and hatred.
"But you are wrong, Bess and George! My father didn't just leave us; he died! And do you know who killed him? None other than Nancy Drew!"
Frank and Joe ran from the backstage to the main stage and dashed for the exit. As they jumped off the stage, the men running toward them took out guns and shouted, "Put your hands in the air! This is the police! Stop running right now or we'll shoot!"
"Huh?"
Frank and Joe stopped abruptly. Police? What were they doing here?
"Wait," Joe said as he turned toward the men with guns. "You are the police? Not some gangsters?"
One of the men laughed. It was Kendall. "So it was you all along!" he said. "Okay, men. These two aren't the culprits we're looking for!"
The plainclothesmen put their gun away immediately. Kendall walked toward the boys, who were startled when they heard that they were policemen.
"I'm sorry for surprising you two. I know very well that you are the sons of Fenton Hardy. I'm Kendall Hawkins, a police investigator. I'm on a case about the sabotaged theater and the theft of a rare vase. I believe you two know quite a lot about these two mysteries."
"Sure we do. We were the ones who caught the culprit who stole the vase," Frank said. "But why did you keep stalking Nancy?"
Kendall laughed out loud again. "No, I wasn't stalking her. I was following Bailey Higgins."
"Bailey?" The Hardys were surprised. "But… Why did you do that?"
"Well, she was a suspect, and I had to find out if she really was the thief or not. It seems like she visited Nancy quite a lot and stayed with her for a long time, so I ended up following the redheaded detective as well."
Frank and Joe nodded understandingly.
"And we were so sure Miss Higgins was the culprit and were trying our hardest to find any evidence against her. But just this afternoon, I got the news that the culprits for the theft were captured, so I ended up investigating my old case: the vandalism at the Grande Wallace Theatre."
"Then," Frank asked, "why didn't you tell us about this before when we cracked your code and followed you to the gas station at Bayport? You just ran away from us. If only you could have explained, we wouldn't have been so suspicious about you before."
"Well," Kendall scratched his head, trying to find the right word to describe this, "to me, you three looked like gang members they were talking about in the news a few weeks ago, so I just ran for my safety. It was after I got here when I realized that you were the sons of Fenton Hardy, a famous private investigator, and were detectives yourselves."
Frank and Joe looked at each other and grinned. "Wow!" Joe said. "That explains a lot! Wait till Nancy hears about this…"
But then, he stopped his sentence. Frank gasped and looked around.
"But… Where's Nancy?"
"I thought she was running with us!" Joe exclaimed. "Nancy!"
There was no reply. The policemen were looking around for the girl sleuth, but she was nowhere in sight.
"Maybe we should check the backdoor. Maybe she ran away from the door and are calling the police right now," Frank suggested.
"No," Kendall said. "We locked the backdoor from outside. There was no way she could have escaped! The door to the corridor is also locked. And with five of officers here, she couldn't have crept away without our noticing her."
Frank was shocked. "Then, you mean…"
"She disappeared into thin air!" Joe said.
"Or was kidnapped like Bess and George," Frank added. "It seems like there's another hidden entrance here in the Grande Wallace Theatre!"
"What?" Bess couldn't believe her ears. "No way! Nancy never hurt a fly before in her life. There's no way she would ever kill a person!"
George was infuriated. "You have to be joking, Bailey. I thought you were our friend! I thought you needed our help, so we came here. But what do you pay Nancy for solving this mystery? By kidnapping us and blaming her for your father's death? I wouldn't say that's the gift Nancy would like to receive from you!"
"Shut up!" Bailey said. Her eyes were flaming with fury. "You don't know anything about me! You thought I was your friend. You thought! I was never you friend from the first place, Nancy Drew! I hated you from the bottom of my heart! Well, after you solved that mystery about the Crowley clock and Josiah Crowley's second will, I despised you all along, but I played along so you'd think I was your friend. That's right! I was your enemy even from the first mystery you ever solved! You were my enemy from the time you solved The Secret of the Old Clock!"
A short silence filled the air as Bailey shouted the last sentence. Bess and George were surprised, but Nancy was astounded. How did Bailey know about the first mystery Nancy ever solved? Her name was never mentioned in the newspaper article that talked about the case, since she was only sixteen years old at that time. She was a minor, and a minor's name was never mentioned on the newspaper because of the law. How did she know?
Bailey noticed the questioning look in Nancy's eyes and snickered. "You might wonder how I know about your first mystery. Well, because I was supposed to get the fortune if it wasn't for you!"
"Huh?" Nancy was confused. "I found Josiah Crowley's will because so many people depended upon the money they were supposed to receive! But those rotten Tophams robbed them of the fortune they deserved. I just did what was right!"
"What was right? No, you thought it was what you should have done. Well, did you consider about the Tophams' side of story? Did you? Did you consider the pain they had to suffer just because they couldn't get their hands on the money? Well? Did you?"
Nancy bit her lips. "No! They didn't deserve to get the money! They—"
"They did!" Bailey interrupted. "They were supposed to get the money! They weren't as evil as you thought they were! They were actually very kind and altruistic. I am related to them! I am a Topham, too!"
Bess, George, and Nancy all couldn't believe their ears. Bess stuttered, "But… But…"
"Not having the last name Topham doesn't mean I'm not related to them, you know. My mother is Aunt Topham's sister. That's why they weren't sharing the same last name after they got married to different people. That makes me cousin of Ada and Isabel. They were very playful and kind to me. After my father got really sick, we found that only a huge amount of money could get him to have an operation. The Tophams decided to give us three-fourths of the entire Crowley fortune if they were to get the money. They were giving all those money to us so Dad could get well. He could have been there with my mom and me, laughing in front of the fireplace."
Bailey then turned a menacing look at Nancy. "But this fancy-schmancy girl detective robbed us! She instead gave the money to those who didn't need them to survive! They weren't like my dad! That's why he died, Nancy. He died half a year after the Josiah Crowley's fortune got away from him. It was all your fault!"
Nancy was confused. "But why did you kidnap Bess and George, too? I understand that you wanted to avenge your father's death and wanted to kidnap me and harm my dad, but Bess and George have nothing to do with this case! They were still in Arizona helping their aunt and uncle's farm for the summer. They weren't even in River Heights back then!"
"They weren't. But I used them to lure you here. I kidnapped them instead because you weren't at the theater or at the hotel when I got there. You kept getting away, so I decided to kidnap them and then lure you here. I would then get you."
Bailey took out a kitchen knife. "Less talk now. This is the final step in avenging my father's death…" She pointed the knife right in front of Nancy's face.
"Now!" Nancy suddenly broke the rope and stood up, ready to defend herself.
"Huh?" Bailey was startled. "How did you cut the rope?"
"You didn't notice, but I had my credit card in my back pocket. I used that to cut this old rope when you were talking. I stalled you long enough."
"Argh!" Bailey threw an old rag at Nancy. She blocked it, but then she realized that she was completely off guard!
Bess and George gasped helplessly as they watched Bailey stab Nancy in the chest. Nancy had a shocked look on her face for a moment, then fell on the dusty floor, clutching her chest in pain.
Postscript: This would be the best part to stop the chapter! The reason I wanted you to read the original version was that Nancy was still sixteen and I used the names from that edition. I would appreciate some comments about this story and am preparing to write the next one. The chapters in the next story will be shorter, since I think you don't want to read a chapter that goes on and on. If you want four-page chapters instead of six-page ones, please mention it in your review. But please have in mind that if I make these chapters four pages long each, then some of them will not have those cliffhangers like this story, but I will be able to update more often with that format. Thanks for reading this chapter!
James Stapleton
