DISCLAIMER: I of course, do not own the Nancy Drew Series. They were made up by the late great Carolyn Keene, who had the wit and imagination to create all this.

Chapter 06

"You know this is useless," George stated, looking out the window. "And stupid. And impossible. And you're just giving Bess more time to grill Ned."

Nancy sighed and shook her head. "Yes, I am very aware of this fact, believe me. But, we have to try. Now look for Mrs. Swenson."

"We're not going to find her."

Nancy was slowly heading back to the Swenson house by the main road. She was hoping to spot Mrs. Swenson walking along the rode and casually offer her a lift home. George watched the side walk. She leaned forward suddenly, squinting at a dirty-blond figure, walking dejectedly down the sidewalk. The head was downcast and the posture stooped.

"Not possible," George muttered, leaning closer. She sat back as Mrs. Swenson came into view. Crossing her arms, she snuffed at Nancy's smug smile. "I've come to the conclusion that you're not as good as everyone says you are, you just work on the most incredible luck."

Nancy lowered her window. "Mrs. Swenson!"

The woman turned at the sound of the voice and gave a weary smile as she recognized the girls. She was a pretty woman with watery blue eyes and an air of pride. However, she was pale and she looked exhausted most of the time, emotional drain clear on her face.

"Nancy," she replied. "George, what a pleasure to see you again. What brings you into Sandy Creek?"

Nancy shrugged. "We were visiting a friend. Would you like a ride home?"

George was already out of the car to pull the seat forward and crawl into the backseat. Mrs. Swenson only hesitated a moment, then gave a smile.

"Thank you, I can't walk another step," she said, and walked around the car to get in.

Nancy smiled at her. "You look tired."

"Quite. I was just coming from the post office." The girls noticed that she didn't carry any mail with her. Nothing yet from her husband. The woman sighed. "I just don't understand it. Joe was never one to break a promise. Not to me and not to Honey. He is an incredible man, Nancy, I wish you could meet him."

"I'd have liked that," Nancy said.

"Man, I'm starving," George said from the backseat, cuing Nancy.

"Me too," Nancy added. "Mrs. Swenson, have you eaten lunch yet?"

"No, but I have to go home and feed Honey as well," the woman said evasively.

"Oh, of course. Actually, our friends Bess and Ned are following us in the car behind. We were going to go to Ned's house and cook. I just did a bunch of groceries and I was going to cook. Would you join us? We could do it at your house and that way Honey can eat with us too. What do you say?"

"You have to say yes, Mrs. Swenson," George insisted, leaning forward towards the woman. "Nancy's got some of Hannah's recipes and you haven't lived until you have one of Hannah Gruen's recipes."

Again, Mrs. Swenson hesitated. She was battling with her pride, the girls could see, but she gave a smile. "I'd love to join you. Honey will be glad to see you girls again, she talks about you all the time."

"Great," Nancy said, speeding towards the Swenson cottage.

She pulled into the driveway. Honey was great actress, she acted like she hadn't seen the girls since the carnival. Nancy and her friends had to work quickly. Ned was introduced to Mrs. Swenson and then Nancy began bringing the bags of groceries into the house. Mrs. Swenson watched, opening her mouth to protest to all the food being piled into her fridge by Bess and the bags that kept coming from Nancy's trunk, but she couldn't get a word in edgewise. They all pretended to be oblivious to Mrs. Swenson's interrupted objections and they talked without stopping to avoid her saying anything. Nancy had bought enough food for at least a week and a half. Still talking, Nancy started to fry up some steaks. Bess started mashing potatoes and Ned distracted Mrs. Swenson with charming conversation and tempting smiles.

George and helped Honey to set the table. Ned snapped to and began transporting Nancy and Bess's steaming dishes to the set table. Mrs. Swenson wasn't allowed to help at all. As they all sat down to eat, Nancy handed Hans a bone to chew on. Ned had helped sneak in a large bag of dog food into the Swenson's pantry.

The food was delicious. There was steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and macaroni salad. Nancy had bought some sodas. George and Ned entertained the group with witty banter. After the steak had been devoured, Nancy disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared with a chocolate frosted cake and ice cream. Honey gave a gasp and a smile as Bess started to serve. Mrs. Swenson gave Nancy a significantly grateful smile and her eyes were moistening. Mrs. Swenson and the girls picked up the table as Ned entertained Honey. They walked into the small living room.

"Your house is really pretty," Nancy commented on the simple, but elegant style of the family.

"Thank you," Mrs. Swenson said. "Most of these things my husband's family sent over from Sweden."

Nancy walked to the entertainment center, devoid of TV. There were pictures of Honey everywhere from when she was a baby, to a toddler, to her present age. There was a picture of what Nancy assumed was Mrs. Swenson when she was a young girl. She stopped, her blood running cold as she stared at the next picture down the line.

"Who is this?" she asked, struggling to make her voice sound normal.

Mrs. Swenson gazed over her shoulder. "Oh, that's my husband, Joe. Isn't he handsome?"

Nancy swallowed hard and forced a convincing smile on her face. "Absolutely."

The man gazing at her through the picture frame was the same guy she'd seen running through the back bushes of the Raybolt estate. Could it be possible that Honey's father was an arsonist? Could the reason Joe Swenson hadn't contacted his family be because he was a fugitive? Nancy pushed the thoughts out of her head. Impossible, she didn't even know half the story, she shouldn't be jumping to conclusions.

"Absolutely," Honey repeated. "You want to see some of the toys my daddy made me? He's an in… an inventor."

Nancy's heart jumped into her throat. George noticed her friend's expression and gave her a questioning look. Nancy gave a miniscule shake of her head and Honey ran to her room and reappeared with ingeniously designed dolls. She began explaining them. They were beautiful little dolls.

"Come and see our chickens. I have ten chicks of my own," Honey pled, grabbing Ned's hand and jumping up and down. "Please, come on!"

George and Bess followed the pair out the back door. Mrs. Swenson was in the kitchen washing the dishes. Nancy began to help her dry.

"So, you and your husband came over from Sweden when you were married?"

The woman nodded. "Honey was just a toddler. Joe wanted to come to America because he thought he'd have a better chance of selling his inventions. He was always making those toys for Honey and even for the dog. He is a very smart man." Mrs. Swenson's face suddenly fell. "Christ, I can't do this anymore. Nancy, I'm really scared. I think something's happened to Joe."

"I doubt it," Nancy said too quickly.

Mrs. Swenson turned to her, eyes wide. "Why do you say that?"

Nancy floundered for a second, but never showed it. "If something happened to your husband, you'd have heard by now. Bad news travels fast and no news is good news, as Hannah says."

"Maybe, but there is no reason why Joe wouldn't be writing. He promised me he would, and Joe has never broken a promise before. Not to me. Not to Honey."

"Well, you know, my dad's a lawyer and he's got some good connections. Maybe I can help… that is, if you want me to," Nancy said, a little afraid of the answer.

Mrs. Swenson hesitated, then nodded. "Thank you."

"First of all, why don't you tell me the whole story?"

"We came to this country about two years ago. Like I said, Joe is a brilliant man, very well educated. He wanted to sell his inventions and he figured that America would be the place to do it. He got around to patenting a certain invention, but he got robbed on the deal."

Something in Nancy's head clicked. Things were starting to look black for the Swenson family. She managed to say in her normal voice, "Robbed?"

"Yes. He handed over the drawings to a thief named Raybolt." Nancy held her tongue, but found it hard to swallow.

"Felix Raybolt?" Nancy commented, not making eye-contact. "I heard his house burned down."

"What?" Mrs. Swenson was shocked. "Oh my lord, was anyone hurt?"

"Not according to the police."

"Well, Raybolt may be a horrible man, but it's still a shame."

"So you say that Mr. Raybolt stole Mr. Swenson's invention?"

"Yes, he took out the patents under his own name. Joe was counting on that money, and in truth it was a whole lot of money that would've been coming to us. But now, since we don't have it, Joe went to look for a job. He said he'd found something temporary in a nearby town and that he would write, but I haven't heard a word. It's been two weeks and the truth is, I won't be able to manage much longer."

Nancy smiled at the woman as they finished the dishes. "Look, everything will turn out alright, I promise. I'll talk to my dad when I get home and see what he can do about the patent issue."

"I don't want a scandal," Mrs. Swenson said fearfully.

"There won't be, I promise. Hush-hush," Nancy said, and Mrs. Swenson reciprocated it, a little less lustrous. "Is there anything that I can show my father?"

Mrs. Swenson thought for a few seconds. Her eyes lit up. "My husband did keep a diary."

"Did he," Nancy said, almost sarcastically. George was right, it seemed that Nancy worked on incredible luck.

"Yes, there might me something worthwhile in there, but Joe always carries it with him. It was a gift from his mother."

At that moment, the others walked in from the backyard. Honey was excitedly talking to Ned with a look of complete admiration. Ned was smiling and humoring the child. Mrs. Swenson tactfully pulled her daughter away from him and stood her near her.

"I think we'd better go," Bess said. "We have school tomorrow."

"Yeah, thanks for having dinner with us, Mrs. Swenson," George added. "It was great to see you again."

Mrs. Swenson waved them good bye, then she took Nancy aside for a moment and said in a quiet voice, "I really appreciate what you did tonight. We will always be indebted to you."

"No problem, Mrs. Swenson. Our pleasure. See you soon," Nancy promised.

The teens walked to the car and Nancy was finally able to speak to Ned. He looked at her with a smile, hands in his pockets.

"That was a really sweet thing you did for them," he said.

"Thanks," Nancy said.

"Not that you did anything to help," George added mockingly.

"Yeah, well, I felt guilty about that. So I hid about fifty bucks in fives around the house. She can't exactly get offended if she finds five dollars in her silverware drawer. And in the mouth of one of the girl's toys. And on her nightstand."

"When did you go to her bedroom?"

Ned just grinned.

"You really are a sweetheart," Bess said with a smile.

"Yeah, well," Ned replied. "See you girls." They got into Nancy's car and Ned leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "See you on Thursday."

Nancy smiled at him. "Yeah, see you."

When they were on the road back, Bess grinned at her friend.

"Nancy and Ned, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"Shut up."

"So what were you and Mrs. Swenson talking about?" George asked.

Nancy's face fell and she related the conversation in the kitchen. George whistled and Bess grimaced.

"Not looking to good for Mr. Swenson," George stated. "Poor little girl."

Nancy didn't say anything. When they got to the Drew house, the cousins got their things and drove away in George's yellow Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Hannah greeted her when she came in.

"Hey Hannah," she called out. "Is daddy home yet?"

"Not yet, he says he's getting in late, not to wait for him. There's some mail for you on the table."

Nancy grunted and went to grab the envelope waiting for her. She ripped it open and sighed. It was the bill for her car repair. She would call Baylor Weston after school the next morning. She went up to her room and pulled out Joe Swenson's diary. At the back, in English, she found something that looked like a list of materials and companies, or factories that sold them. They all seemed to be manufacturing factories. Something Mrs. Swenson said triggered a vague hunch. Joe Swenson was looking for a job and he'd probably look for a job in something he was good at, like assembling things in a factory. Maybe she'd call around to these places and see if they'd made any new hires. Nancy set the book down, satisfied and fell asleep.