J.M.J.

Author's note: One of the frustrating things about the current glitching is that I don't know if anyone's reading, if you're trying to leave reviews but aren't able to, or if no one's reading because they can't or because they aren't interested or because this site has turned into a ghost town primarily haunted by art scam bots. I've blocked all the scammers that have reviewed or PMed and will continue to do so, although they might be the only ones reading, lol. Anyway, if you are a real person, I hope you're able to read this and that you enjoy the story! Thank you for taking the time to read! God bless!

III

"Why would anyone intentionally flatten your tire?" Nancy asked Alex Marquette in astonishment.

Alex shrugged in disgust. "Somebody seems dedicated to giving me the biggest headache possible, and I don't know why. I didn't think my uncle had such a grudge against me personally, and whoever this is doesn't seem to be going after my dad."

"That is an interesting point," Carson agreed. "Of course, you are a handier scapegoat for the burglaries than your dad. I just don't see how slashing your tire would accomplish anything."

"Well, it wasn't exactly slashed," Alex admitted reluctantly. "There was a nail in it."

"But then how do you know it was done on purpose?" Nancy objected.

"I can't prove it, but I'm sure that nail wasn't there when I parked it earlier today, and the tire was completely flat. They don't usually deflate that fast when it's just a nail. But someone could have punctured it, pulled the nail out to let the air out completely, and then put the nail back in."

Nancy was about to object that even that would have taken some time and that someone behaving in such a strange way was bound to have been noticed, but Carson spoke up before she could. "You've no idea who might have done it?"

"None at all," Alex maintained. "The only thing I can say is it might be the real burglar."

Carson nodded slowly. "At the very least, it looks like the person who sent that threatening message to your uncle could be the one."

"That seems pretty obvious," Alex said. "I'm sure they're all the same person. The only question is who."

"Tell us about this threatening message," Carson requested. "Do you know what was said? Do you know the email address it was sent from?"

"I don't know much about it," Alex admitted. "My uncle called me about and just totally blew up about it, but he didn't give me much for details. All I know is that it's a threat of some kind against him and he thinks I'm the one who sent it."

"Has he reported it to the police?" Nancy asked.

Alex nodded. "And he told them I sent it. There's no evidence, though, so all they did was ask me some questions. I'll admit, I was pretty steamed at that point and might have said a few things I shouldn't have."

"You shouldn't have said anything at all and waited for me to get there," Carson told him.

"But I didn't send it," Alex protested. "I didn't have anything to hide."

"I know, but sometimes even an innocent person can say the wrong thing to the police and get into a lot of trouble," Carson told him. "You already have one charge against you. It wouldn't take much for the police to suspect that you were involved in this, too."

Alex sighed wearily. "I just want this whole thing to be over with. All I wanted was to get my belongings, and now I'm in a huge mess."

He worried and complained most of the meal, and Nancy wasn't sure whether she felt more sorry for him or she thought him terribly self-absorbed. Several times, she and her father tried to change the subject, but every time, Alex just went back to complaining about his scrape.

"It's terribly sad that all this trouble is coming about because of your grandmother's estate," Nancy said finally, hoping that mention of Alex's grandmother might make the young man think of something other than himself.

"Oh…yes," Alex said, as if he hadn't thought of it that way. "Grandma would be terribly disappointed, although she could hardly help but expect it, the way Dad and my uncle have been going at it for years."

"It does seem a little strange that she would leave almost everything to one or the other of them, though," Nancy said. "It seems to me that that would only make things worse between them. It seems to me like it would have been better to either divide everything evenly or not leave anything at all to either, just to teach them a lesson."

Alex chuckled grimly. "Grandma wasn't much for teaching lessons. Maybe things would be better if she had been. But I agree that I don't understand why she didn't divide it evenly. In the first will, that is. I think she did make it even in the second will. My uncle must have gotten his hands on it somehow and substituted the forged one."

"You really think your uncle would forge a will?" Nancy asked.

"I certainly do. You haven't met my uncle." Alex made a face. "You're lucky that way. He's an awful person. It wouldn't surprise me if there are a dozen people who would send him threats. He's a land speculator, you see, and he's cheated dozens of people. He buys land cheap and then turns around and sells it without even doing anything to improve it for twice the cost. I don't know how he does it, other than that he's a very sharp trader. I suspect, though, that he manages it through some pretty shady tactics."

"But you have no proof," Carson reminded him. "As I've told you before, we can't use any of that in the case without proof. Even if you had proof, it wouldn't necessarily clear you. It certainly wouldn't do anything to help you on the burglary charge."

Alex lowered his voice. "I'll bet anything that Uncle Jackson's the one who stole things out of the house and has been reselling them. It gets him out of having to pay inheritance tax, not to mention that it eliminates the risk of it going to my dad."

Carson sighed and shook his head. "You don't have any proof of that, either, and if it is true, then there would have to be some other motive than pure and simple greed. Don't forget that a lot of the things taken don't have any significant resale value. Your uncle would have to be very foolish to take that sort of risk for such small returns."

Even Alex had to admit that that was true. They finished their meal soon after that, and Carson warned Alex to go home and not do anything rash about this. When the Drews were back in their car, Carson turned to Nancy.

"What do you think so far?" he asked her.

"I think I need more information before making up my mind," Nancy replied.

"Good," Carson said. "I was hoping that would be your answer. I'm going to call Paul Dustin and see if he'll possibly let us see the house tomorrow. After that, I'd like to call on each of the other family members and see what we can learn. For tonight, though, let's take a walk and see what there is to see of Fort David."

Nancy liked that idea, so they drove back to the hotel. Carson made his call to Dustin, who agreed to talk to them the next day, although he was careful not to say that he would let them in the house.

"Hopefully we can persuade him," Nancy said as they set out of the hotel once more. "Have you met him in person yet?"

"Yes, I've met everyone involved in the case, except for Jackson Marquette's two older daughters."

They headed down toward the shoreline first. The sun was setting and it would be dark before much longer. There was a park and a long beach just below the hotel, and they walked down it right to the edge of the water. Nancy slipped off her shoes and waded into the water.

"Isn't that cold?" Carson asked her.

"A little," Nancy admitted. "But it's nice. Why don't we get up here to Lake Ontario more often? It's so close to home."

"We should," Carson agreed. "It's a good place to spend the weekend."

Nancy spent a couple of minutes looking out over the darkening water. Down the beach farther was a long pier with a lighthouse at the end of it. The light was already on, making a circling motion that reflected off the water. Seagulls were starting to gather on the beach to go to sleep.

It was a beautiful, peaceful scene, and Nancy would have liked to stay as she was longer, but her feet were getting icy cold. Finally, she turned around and scrambled back up onto the cool sand. As she did, she spotted a figure up in the park. It was just barely light enough for her to make out the person's outline, and as soon as she had looked at them, they turned and hurried away.

"Do the people in Fort David have any kind of aversion to outsiders?" Nancy asked her dad.

Carson wrinkled his forehead. "That's a random question. As far as I know, no. I think in the summertime it's a pretty popular place."

"That's what I thought, too," Nancy agreed. "There was someone up there watching us. I thought maybe it might be someone judging us for being strangers, but if that's not the case, maybe they were watching because they know who we are."

"In other words, it could be someone connected to the case," Carson agreed. "It wouldn't hurt to see if we can catch up to them."

Nancy quickly snatched up her shoes, not taking time to put them back on. The grass in the park was smooth, and so it didn't bother her to cross it barefoot. When they reached the street, the only person they saw was a figure far ahead, just rounding a corner.

"That could be the same person," Nancy said.

They hurried after the figure, Nancy struggling a bit now with her bare feet on the sidewalk. They reached the corner where the figure had disappeared from view, but they couldn't see him now.

Carson frowned slightly. "I wish we could have talked to whoever that was. If someone is following us, I'd like to know who it is. And if they weren't following us, it would be nice to be able to put our minds at rest about it. I don't suppose you saw anything that could help us identify the person?"

Nancy shook her head. "I couldn't even tell whether it was a man or a woman. It was rather tall for a woman, though. It's not impossible, of course, but I'd be willing to bet it was a man."

"Then that eliminates half our suspects, anyway," Carson said. "Well, maybe not quite half. Rachel Marquette is quite tall for a woman."

"Maybe it's a little hasty of me, but I haven't really been thinking of any of the women as particularly likely suspects, anyway," Nancy said. "They're not the main players in the feud, from the sound of things, and I really can't imagine what motive they'd have to stealing from Eleanor's estate."

"That's the trouble," Carson said. "Nobody has a motive for stealing from it, except for Alex, and his motive only extends to two particular objects that weren't even stolen."

"I wonder why Eleanor wanted Alex to have those things in particular," Nancy said musingly. "The puzzle box and the seashell. It's a little random."

Carson shrugged. "Probably just for sentimental reasons."

Nancy nodded briefly, but she didn't say anything. The idea was starting to form in her mind that maybe there was some significance to the two items.

"Well, it's getting pretty dark," Carson said. "What say we head back to the hotel now?"

"Is it very far to Eleanor's house?" Nancy asked abruptly.

"Only a few blocks, but we won't be able to go in tonight."

"I know, but I'd like to see what the place looks like from the outside. Just out of curiosity more than anything, I guess."

"All right. It'll only take a few minutes to walk there."

True to his prediction, within a few minutes, they had reached the house. Twilight had settled in deeply now. If the streetlights hadn't been on, all they would have been able to see was a dark hulk of a building alongside the road. As it was, two pools of light showed most of the front of a large three-story house. The walls were white and there were shutters on the windows. Ivy crawled up and down the house in several places.

"It's lovely!" Nancy declared. "It's really too bad no one's living here."

"Hopefully, everything can get straightened out so it won't have to stand empty for too much longer," Carson said.

They lingered a moment longer to look at the house, and then they were about to turn away. At the same time, there was a flash of light in one of the upstairs windows. It wasn't as if a light had just flashed on and off, but rather looked more like a flashlight had been inadvertently shone toward the window for a second. Both father and daughter had noticed it, and they froze for a moment, staring at the window.

"I suppose it could be the guard who's supposed to be there," Nancy commented in a low voice.

"Possibly, but I don't see why he'd be sneaking around with a flashlight and acting as if he didn't want anyone to see it." Carson frowned and then took his phone from his pocket. "I'm going to let Paul Dustin know and see what he thinks."

While Carson made the call, Nancy watched the windows eagerly to see if the light would appear again. All was quiet. No one came out of the house, either. Maybe it really had been the guard.

"Dustin says that the guard should be in the house," Carson reported as he ended the call. His voice had a rueful tone to it. "He said that if we're really concerned, we can go to the door and knock. The guard is supposed to answer, and so we can tell him. He didn't sound very appreciative for our concern."

"Maybe the guard has a habit of sneaking around with a flashlight," Nancy conceded, "but let's find out."

They went up the short walkway, and Carson pressed the doorbell. There was no answer. After waiting a couple of minutes, he pressed it again, but there was still no answer.

"That's strange," Carson said. "We know someone is in there. Why won't they answer the door?"

"Maybe because they're not supposed to be in there," Nancy suggested. "The guard could be in trouble."

Carson chewed his lip as he considered this. Nancy could guess what he was thinking. If a burglar was in the house and they could catch him in the act, it could prove that Alex hadn't been the one burglarizing the place the entire time. At the same time, it didn't look like Paul Dustin had any intention of permitting them inside, and breaking in wouldn't help their case much.

He was still hesitating when there was a loud crash upstairs. There was a loud thump around the side of the house, and both Carson and Nancy ran to see what it was. The shutters of one of the upstairs windows had been thrown open, and a man was climbing down a rope ladder hanging outside.