Foreword: Thank you for the reviews! I just need four more reviews for me to break my record!

To Belladonna: In my previous novel, Missing in Action, I already mentioned that in my stories, River Heights is in New Jersey, not Illinois. The reason I did so is because I wanted Nancy and the Hardy Boys to be closer together, so they could solve more mysteries. Also, this story takes place between The Thirteenth Pearl and The Triple Hoax, since I only wanted Nancy to solve 56 mysteries (no more, no less) and because I only consider the original series to be...well...original!

If you didn't, read my previous story. It will familiarize you with the style I write in.

Anyway, that's all I need to say for now. Enjoy the tenth chapter and please review (as always). Oh, and by the way, I will complete the story by the end of this year at the latest. I'm not the person to leave my works unfinished. Once again, enjoy this chapter.


10

Something to Hide

"What does it mean?"

The person who asked this was Joe Hardy. He was puzzled to find a threatening note in the victim's suitcase. Could this be the note sent by the murderer?

Frank studied the note. Then, he looked at the envelope. "It seems like this letter was sent from Florida quite recently."

"How do you know that?" Joe asked.

"The sender used a stamp with the picture of Kennedy Space Center on it. This stamp was released to the public just a few weeks ago."

"So you think that the person who sent the letter was from Florida?"

Frank nodded. "I'm not completely positive, but I think so. I don't think a person would come from another state and then buy a stamp sold in Florida. If my guess is right, the person who sent the threat is the one who murdered Sam and framed me for the murder. When this letter was sent to Sam, he was still living in Wisconsin, so this proves that the person who sent this letter and possibly killed him was from Florida and lived there or stayed there for a long time, or at least a few weeks.

"So that proves that the residents in this hotel are more likely to be suspects now."

"I see…" Joe said. "If you're right, which you are most the time, then the killer might be the ones who actually live in this state. That means Mrs. Morley, Mr. Morley, Percival, Jerome, and Kent."

But then, Joe was confused. "But wait… If Sam got this threatening letter, why didn't he tell the police about it and keep it a secret?"

His brother thought for a moment. "I think I know why."

Ned Nickerson looked at the bunch of letters in front of him. He sighed, then started looking at them one by one. It was easy sorting the letters into three categories: the junk, the business, and the personal. The most difficult part was telling the difference between a junk mail and a business letter. The ones sent personally to Sam from his friends and family were easy to spot because the addresses were handwritten and the letter had stamps. After ten minutes of agonizing work, he leaned back onto the back of the chair.

"Whew! My eyes are sore already!" he murmured. He rubbed his eyes gently and opened them again. Now, in front of him, was an envelope without a stamp. He took it and looked at it. The sender was Sam Cantu, and the recipient was Percival Stuart. "Huh? What's this?"

This was obviously a letter which Sam wanted to send to Percival but never did. But something odd struck Ned's mind. Percival was staying in the same inn that Sam was staying! Why would Sam send a letter to the person who lives just a few yards away from the room he was staying at?

Ned opened the letter. The strange thing was that the recipient's address was the inn, but the sender's address was in Wisconsin. "So that's where Sam lived before he came here to stay for vacation," he murmured. "So Sam must have written this letter before he came here."

The teenager knew this was a violation of privacy and law, but he reminded himself that it was an investigation. Besides, the sender was already dead. He couldn't complain even if he wanted to.

The message was short and simple. Sam only wrote a paragraph that took up only three lines on the lined sheet of paper.

But the moment Ned read the message, his eyes got wide with surprise.

Nancy Drew closed the compartment in the restroom. She took a cursory look at the bathroom. There was a toilet, a garbage bin, and the shower. Sam obviously didn't use the shower, since the packages of soap and conditioning shampoo provided by the inn wasn't opened and the shower cap was dry. So Nancy made a guess that Sam never spent a night there, unless he was the person who didn't shower daily.

"Yuck," Nancy muttered disgustedly as her imagination ran wild again. She sat down onto the toilet seat and thought for a moment.

"If Sam never spent a night here, then he wouldn't make an enemy here in Miami. So the killer must have known Sam from a long time ago. Hmmm… I think I should talk to the Morleys, Percival, Jerome, and Kent. Those five are my prime suspects in this case!"

George took her hands out of the pockets of the suit she was searching. She had been assigned to the cabinet, and all she could find were ties and suits. Nothing seemed interesting until the moment she felt something.

"A piece of paper?" George was surprised. She opened the crumpled piece of paper. Inside there were names written on it. The list of names started with Eladio Anton to Alberto Zarco.

"Hmmm… They sure sound Spanish," George muttered. "I took Spanish when I was in high school, and these names are like the names that come up on the textbook. I wonder why Sam was keeping a list… Maybe these are the names of his friends in Miami. After all, there are many Spanish-speaking people in Miami."

George searched the other pocket. There she found a small notebook. She opened it and read the first page:

"My summerhouse in Miami: 549 Sabal Palm Road, Miami FL 33137."

The brunette quickly jotted down the address and pushed the note into her pocket. She then flipped the page. To her surprise, all the other pages were torn out of the book! Why did Sam do this? Was it because he kept valuable information in the notebook? Or is it because…

George then thought for a moment.

Wait a minute! Sam's keeping a list of Spanish names, he had been killed, he had a summerhouse in Miami, and the pages had been torn off in his small notebook?

Was it he who tore the notes away or was it someone else who thought the information would be dangerous for him if the police had found it? And did that person kill Sam so he wouldn't leak the information to the authority?

George's expression changed. "I have to tell the others," she whispered to herself. "The killer must be in this inn!"

Unbeknownst to George, everyone else in the room already found out some sort of clue leading to the fact that one of the five suspects in the inn was the murderer. The information they had uncovered led to the assurance that the killer wasn't from outside the inn; he was inside all along.

All five detectives were ready to share their findings. The first person was Nancy. She told them about the unused toiletries. Then came George. Frank and Joe told the others what they had found in the suitcase, and Ned was the last one to tell them the shocking news.

"I just found this letter Sam was planning to send to Percival. I'll read the paragraph: 'The process was successful. Another 200 had been brought in this week. Expect payment by end of month. SC.'"

"What? Process? 200?" George asked. She and Joe seemed perplexed. Nancy and Frank, on the other hand, got the message.

"Those two are bringing in illegal aliens!" Nancy shouted. "Now I get it! I think the reason Sam was killed has something to do with the illegal importing of Mexican workers!"

George and Joe were still confused.

"How can they do that?"

"Follow me." It was Frank. He went to the door and opened it. He gestured the others to follow him. "I think I know how they did it," he murmured. The detectives went out from the front door quietly. Mrs. Morley wasn't there, so they were sure that they weren't being watched. When he got outside, Frank turned right and went to the direction of the burned cabin.

Nancy got the idea, too. She went after Frank and kept the pace up. The others followed silently.

When they got to the cliff, Frank carefully walked through the path that led to the shore. When he got to the shore, he looked around.

Then, Frank found what he was looking for. "I found it!" he said to the others. They all went to see the discovery.

Frank pointed to the shallow water just a few feet away from them. There was an anchor beneath the surface. "It looks like it was there for a short time. I think it's been like that for less than a week.

"So the importing of illegal aliens was done here. Sam and Percival must have stopped the ship here and brought the foreigners here. And they might have had a car parked nearby to take them to Miami, where they would be released."

"I can't believe it!" George said in awe.

"So in order to get a solid clue, we must go to the summerhouse George mentioned earlier," Nancy said.

"And I found the key, too," George mentioned. "It was in the same pocket where he kept his notebook."

The detectives agreed upon going to the summerhouse to investigate more.

It took the teenagers one and a half hours to get to the summerhouse Sam mentioned. The house was a two-storied building located right along Biscayne Bay. It was north of highway I-95 and US-1. Ironically, the criminal's home was located just minutes of driving away from the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum.

The house itself seemed quite typical. Its siding was painted with creamy yellow paint and its roof was gray. The garden was devoid of flowers but the grass was very green. The lawn was mowed recently and the grass was nice and even.

George took out the key and opened the door. Inside, the detectives saw almost nothing! The only things in the house were an old couch, a wide screen television, a table, and some chairs. Sam turned out to be smarter than the detectives had thought; he kept all the information in his head, leaving no trace of clue anywhere in the entire house!

George bit her lip. "Dead end?"

Nancy had to agree. "Yeah, but we still know that Percival is involved with this. When he comes back from his office, we'll ask him so many questions so fast his head will spin!"

Nancy then felt a strange tingling in her stomach. She then remembered that she didn't eat much when the team was at the restaurant.

"But first, can we get something to eat? I know I already ate, but all this investigating sure made me hungry. Look, it's already three o'clock!"

George shook his head in disbelieve. "Alright, Nancy. We'll go to a McDonald's nearby and grab a burger for you."

The detectives headed toward the nearest McDonald's they could find. There wasn't a parking lot nearby, so they decided that Nancy would go inside and the others would wait outside in the car.

Nancy got out of the car and slammed the door shut. McDonald's was located right across the street, at the left side of the lane. Nancy looked around and made sure no car was nearby. She started walking.

Suddenly, a black car turned around the corner. Nancy stopped and let the car go past, but it didn't. Instead, it headed straight toward Nancy, who was standing in the middle of the road with nowhere to run.

"Nancy!"

George cried out. "Run!"

But Nancy couldn't; her feet were stuck to the ground as if someone had glued them down on the road.

It looked like the car was running at the speed of about sixty miles per hour. The car was gaining speed now, but Nancy was too shocked to move an inch. She was a target for the car, and if she didn't move, the car would surely hit her!

Postscript: Reminder! Only two more chapters until the end of "challenge" portion. The last three chapters will be the "solution" portion in which I will tell you the killer and the trick he/she used to frame Frank. If you know who the killer is by now, then state it in you review. If not, I will give you more hints in the next two chapters.

Keywords: unlawful lawyer, broken vase, a bad day for Frank