Everyone looked stunned at Nancy’s announcement.
Nancy pointed excitedly to the picture of Zach Caulder’s office, touching the image of a carved box on his desk. The box looked about ten inches deep and a foot and a half long.
“I knew there was something familiar about this photograph. See that carved box on his desk? We saw it yesterday. …”
Bess gasped as she looked at the picture. “It was in Esther Grey’s house!” she exclaimed. “The box of letters in her study!”
“Charlie said he took a bunch of Esther Grey’s letters back to her house after the murder,” George remembered. “He must have taken the chest they were in, too.”
As Nancy put the picture down on the table, Julie leaned over to look at it. “If need be, the secret of my money chest will die with me,’” Julie murmured dreamily. “Isn’t that what Zach wrote? Whoever would have thought the box would be so small?”
“I know what you mean,” Bess said. “It never even occurred to me that his money chest would be small enough to fit on a desk.”
Julie seemed to shake herself out of her daydream and stood up. She looked quickly around the table. “Well, there are some last-minute items that still need to be delivered to the White Falls Inn for the auction,” she said. “I guess I’ll start loading them up.”
“I can’t believe that there might be a half a million dollars sitting in Esther Grey’s house right now,” Vera said. She shook her head. “I’m afraid the Esther Grey House is closed today, though. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to examine the chest.”
“It’s been sitting there for over fifty years,” George said with a shrug. “I guess another day can’t hurt.”
As Julie disappeared out the kitchen door with an armful of things, Vera looked after her distractedly. “I think I’d better help load up the van,” Vera said. She pushed her chair back and stood up. “If I don’t start moving, I’ll just sit here in shock all day long.” Nancy, Bess, and George cleared the table. “It’s too bad we still don’t know who’s after the money,” Nancy said, filling the sink with hot, soapy water.
“I wish there was some way we could get a look at that box before tomorrow,” Bess said. She picked up a towel and began wiping the dishes after they had been washed and rinsed. “I don’t think I can stand waiting a whole day to find out if you’re right, Nancy.”
“Why don’t we call Mrs. Norris?” George suggested.
She went over to the edge of the counter, where a phone sat on top of a yellow directory. “Norris, Norris,” George murmured, flipping through the pages. “Here it is.” She looked expectantly at Nancy and Bess. “Should I call her?”
“Don’t even ask, George,” Bess said. “Just dial.”
George gave Nancy and Bess a thumbs-up sign a few moments later as she said hello into the receiver and told Mrs. Norris who she was.
“That’s right,” George said. “My friends and I are the ones with the diary… No, I’m sorry, we haven’t been able to locate it yet, but we did find out something else that could be very important.” In all the excitement of figuring out where the money chest was, Nancy had completely forgotten about the diary. Bess had still been searching for the old leather volume the night before when Nancy went to sleep.
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“You didn’t find it yet?” she asked Bess now, speaking in a low tone so as not to distract George.
Bess shook her head. “I’ve looked everywhere. ”
“Well, we’d rather talk to you about it in person, George was saying to Mrs. Norris. ”Do you think we could meet you at Esther Grey’s home today? … Yes, we’re going to be at the auction, too. How about after it’s over?”
For a long time George didn’t say anything, and Nancy was afraid Mrs. Norris was telling her no. Then George smiled broadly. “Thank you very much, Mrs. Norris,” she said into the receiver. “We’ll see you at the auction. ’Bye.”
“She said yes!” George cried, hanging up. “We’re supposed to meet her after the auction. Then we’ll all go over to Esther Grey’s house together.” She giggled. “Mrs. Norris told me she said yes because she can’t resist a mystery. Boy, will she be surprised when she finds out what a big mystery this really is.”
Just then, Vera and Julie came back into the kitchen. “The van is filled to bursting,” Vera said, plopping down at the kitchen table. Her gaze lingered on the photo of Zach Caulder in his office.
“There are only a few more items,” Julie added. “I can take those in my car.”
“Oh, my!” Vera exclaimed suddenly, looking at the picture. “That box. I don’t know why I didn’t notice before….”
“What is it?” Bess asked.
“It’s the same box Rosemary Norris donated to be auctioned off today.”
Nancy’s mouth fell open. “You mean it’s sitting out at the White Falls Inn, with all the other things for the auction?” she asked.
“I’m afraid so,” Vera said. “Just about everything for the auction is already there. But let me make sure.”
She got up and disappeared into the workroom. When she returned, she was carrying a small pamphlet. “Here’s the catalog for the auction,” she said. “I’ve been making notations on it to keep track of what’s where.” Vera quickly consulted the catalog. “Here it is. Yep. Mrs. Norris had that box of poems delivered yesterday afternoon.”
Nancy jumped up from the table. “You and I had better get over there right away, Vera,” she said. “You guys can pack up the last things and meet us there, okay?”
Before anyone could answer, Nancy was pulling Vera out the door.
The rear door of the van was still open, and Nancy could see the black lacquered trunk and wooden captain’s chest. “I never did thank you for getting those two trunks back for me,” Vera said as she pulled the door shut. “I don’t know what I would have done without you girls.”
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“Don’t thank us yet,” Nancy said. “We still haven’t figured out who’s after the money. And to make things worse, we might have lost Zach Caulder’s diary.”
Vera waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It looks as if we’re going to get to the money chest first. I’m sure the diary will turn up.” Then her eyes lit up. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Julie’s familiar with the inventory for the museum. When all this is over, I’ll have her look for it.”
Something about Vera’s words struck Nancy. Julie had said she didn’t believe the theory about Zach Caulder’s money being hidden. But when she’d looked at the picture of Zach in his office, she’d quoted his diary word for word, as if she were totally convinced there really was a secret money chest.
As Nancy and Vera set off in the van, Nancy’s mind kept flashing on different images. The way Julie had been so strongly opposed to Bess’s reading the diary, and how she hadn’t wanted Bess to go up into Zach’s office … It was almost as if Julie were hiding something. And then she’d been so set on convincing Vera that Roz was trying to sabotage her, even after it became clear that the thief was after Zach’s money.
No one event had seemed that suspicious, but together, it all added up. The only thing that didn’t make sense was Julie being knocked out. Even this morning, the way Julie had quoted Zach’s diary, it was as if she had just read it very recently. But that could only be possible if …
The truth hit Nancy with a sickening wave. “Oh, no,” she said in a horrified whisper. “Vera, stop the van! We have to go back to your house right away!”
A Deadly Race
Shooting Nancy a puzzled glance, Vera said, “Are you sure it can’t wait, Nancy? I thought we were in a hurry to get to the White Falls Inn.”
“Julie’s the one who’s after Zach Caulder’s money,” Nancy said urgently.
“Nancy, stop talking nonsenses—” Vera’s voice broke off suddenly, and Nancy saw a look of fear come into her eyes. Vera was pumping the brake furiously, but the van kept moving. It rounded the first curve in the road at an alarming speed.
“Nancy, the brakes don’t work!” Vera cried. Her knuckles were white from holding the steering wheel so tightly.
Vera’s face lost all its color as the van picked up speed, careening down the road. They whipped around a curve, and the van tilted dangerously to the side, its wheels screeching loudly. Nancy had to grip her seat to keep from falling into Vera’s lap.
Nancy’s mind raced. There was no possible course for them except to continue down the sharply curving road. She had to find a way to stop the van before they tipped over or crashed into something.
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Her eyes flew up ahead. “There’s a snowbank up by the next curve,” she said to Vera, trying to keep her voice calm. She pointed to a high wall of snow that looked as if it had been left by a snowplow. “Steer into it.”
Without taking her eyes off the road, Vera nodded. A moment later, Nancy braced herself against the dashboard as the van slid in- to the snow. It came to a jerking stop.
“Phew!” Vera smiled weakly and turned to Nancy. “I don’t know what could have gone wrong. I’ve never had a problem with the brakes before.”
Nancy frowned. “I don’t like the looks of this, Vera. I want to check something.”
Nancy got out of the van. Scooping away some of the snow, she bent to look underneath the van. Immediately she saw what the problem was. The brake line leading to the front right tire had been cleanly cut.
She brushed the snow from her jeans and got back into the van. “Julie cut the brake cable,” she said grimly.
Vera’s expression darkened. “You’re wrong, Nancy,” she said. “Julie would never do this to me.”
Taking a deep breath, Nancy said, “Think about it, Vera. Julie was the first one to go outside this morning. She left the kitchen very suddenly”—Nancy gave Vera a meaningful glance—“right after we figured out that the carved box from Esther Grey’s house could be Zach Caulder’s money chest.”
“But why?” Vera asked. She still didn’t look convinced, but Nancy detected a note of uncertainty in her voice.
“She’s after Zach Caulder’s money, and she wanted to make sure we couldn’t do anything to stop her,” Nancy replied. She quickly explained all the ways Julie had tried to mislead them earlier.
Vera shook her head. “But, Nancy, Julie was knocked unconscious. How do you explain that?”
“I can’t—yet,” Nancy said, frowning. “But everything else fits. Charlie and Mike couldn’t have moved those trunks over to Roz’s office without a car. But Julie has a car. All she had to do was use the dolly to get the trunk out of the workroom. She was in your house alone right before both trunks were taken. And she’s the only other person besides us who comes and goes from the house a lot. She could easily have taken the diary from Bess.”
Nancy sighed in frustration. “The worst thing is, I just told her exactly where to find Zach Caulder’s money.
Then Nancy gasped as an even worse thought occurred to her. “Bess and George are alone with Julie!” She threw open the van’s door and jumped out again. “We’ve got to make sure they’re okay.”
“Nancy, wait,” Vera said urgently. “Julie’s probably already on her way to the White Falls Inn. If we don’t get there fast, she’ll take the chest and escape before we can get there.”
“We’d better split up,” Nancy said. “Julie could be dangerous, so I’d better be the one to go after her. Still, I can’t just leave Bess and George …”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back at my house in less than a minute,” Vera said, starting up the hill. Nancy opened her mouth to object, but Vera held up her hand. “I’ll check the windows first. If Bess and George are in any kind of trouble with Julie, I’ll call the police from the neighbors’.”
Nancy smiled gratefully. “Okay,” she said. “Tell the police to send a car to the White Falls Inn, too. And be careful!”
As Vera ran up the hill, Nancy raced down the curving road to Main Street. She waved to the first person who drove by, a farmer in a pickup truck.
Within minutes, he had dropped Nancy off at the White Falls Inn. Nancy quickly scanned the parking lot, but she didn’t see Julie’s yellow car. Good, she thought—that meant she had beat Julie there.
“A big red banner over the entrance announced the auction, which would take place in the inn’s grand ballroom at two o’clock. Hurrying inside, Nancy asked a portly woman at the front desk to direct her to the ballroom.
“Just follow the signs,” the woman said. She indicated a red arrow leading to a hallway off the lobby. “I’m afraid it’s closed to the public until twelve-thirty, though. The auction is still being set up—”
Nancy didn’t give the woman time to finish. She raced down the hallway to a set of huge double doors. A sign posted nearby confirmed that the ballroom was closed to the public until twelve-thirty.
Nancy tensed. Then, taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door and stepped inside.
To her surprise, the ballroom was empty. Rows of folding chairs had been set up in the front of the room. She hurried past them to the tables where the items were displayed, on the far side of the enormous ballroom. Her shoes echoed eerily on the ball-room’s wooden floor.
“Where’s that box?” she muttered. She searched frantically among the furniture, wooden toys, quilts, ironwork, and other things to be auctioned off. Just when she was beginning to think the box wasn’t there, Nancy caught sight of the familiar ornately carved wood.
“Aha!” She swooped forward and picked up the heavy box. It was definitely the same one she had seen in Esther Grey’s study the day before.
Her heart pounding in her chest, Nancy leaned against an open doorway at the rear of the ballroom.
She had just lifted the box’s lid when she felt a prickling on the back of her neck. A fraction of a second later, a floorboard creaked in the doorway just behind her.
Before Nancy could turn around, a chilling voice said, “Thank you, Nancy.”
Nancy whirled around and found herself face-to-face with Julie.
“You’ve just saved me the trouble of searching through all these dusty old things,” Julie went on. “If you don’t mind, I’ll take that box now.”
The young blond woman was staring at Nancy with an almost demonic smile. Nancy gulped when she saw what Julie was holding in her hand. It was a large butcher knife, and its sharp, pointy end was aimed right at Nancy!
Terror at the Factory
Nancy took a step back from Julie. Keeping her eyes on the knife, she said carefully, “Vera’s already called the police, Julie. They’ll be here any minute. Put the knife down.”
Julie’s short blond hair brushed her face as she shook her head. “I guess that means I’ll just have to leave before I find out exactly how rich I am.”
Shooting a warning look at Nancy, Julie added, “You’ll be joining me, of course. You don’t think I’d be dumb enough to leave you here, do you?” She gestured toward the ballroom’s rear doorway with her knife. “Fortunately, this old inn has plenty of unused hallways, so no one will see us on our way out. Come on. We’re getting out of here.”
Not yet! Nancy wanted to scream. The police would be arriving soon. She had to find a way to delay Julie a little longer. If she could only keep Julie talking …
“Where are Bess and George?” Nancy demanded. “What have you done with them?”
Julie gave a harsh little laugh. “There’s no need to worry about your friends,” she said. “They’re safely locked in Vera’s workroom.”
Nancy hoped Julie was telling the truth.
“That was very clever, the way you tried to set up Roz Chaplin,” Nancy went on, stalling for more time. Where were the police?
The corners of Julie’s mouth barely lifted in an icy smile. “It was, wasn’t it?” She waved the knife at Nancy again and said in a deadly tone, “Let’s go— now. ”
With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Nancy stepped ahead of Julie into the hall. She couldn’t help being acutely aware of the razorsharp knife she knew was pointed at her back.
As Julie had predicted, there was no one else in the hall. Following the blond woman’s instructions, Nancy walked to the end of the hall and out a back door.
Stay calm, Nan, she told herself. She strained her ears for the sound of sirens, but heard nothing.
Julie directed Nancy through a small stand of trees to her yellow car, which was parked on the street behind the inn. Opening up the hatchback, Julie took out a length of rope and quickly tied Nancy’s wrists together behind her back. Then she opened the passenger door and pushed Nancy roughly inside.
“Where are we going?” Nancy asked.
“My original plan was to grab Zach’s money and be far from White Falls before anyone even knew it was gone,” Julie said, ignoring Nancy’s question. “You’ve botched up that plan. Now I’m going to make sure you don’t ever cause me trouble again.”
She placed the carved chest in the backseat and slid in behind the wheel, resting the butcher knife in her lap.
“Whatever you’re planning, you won’t get away with it, Julie,” Nancy said as the car took off down the winding street.
“Why not?” Julie asked smugly. You thought you were so smart. But you led me right to Zach Caulder’s money and you didn’t even know it.”
Julie was heading down the hills, toward the river. Glancing behind her, Nancy noticed a woven bag on the seat next to the carved box. A familiar worn leather cover peeked out from the bag’s edge.
“So you did take the diary back from Bess,” she murmured.
Julie nodded. “I thought maybe there was some clue in it that I missed. There was no way I was going to let you three beat me to that money.”
“You read about the money in Zach Caulder’s diary before we got here, didn’t you?” Nancy said.
“That’s why you were so upset when Bess wanted to read it. You didn’t want anyone to find out about the money until you found it.”
A wistful look came into Julie’s eyes. “I’d just found out about the money the day you arrived,” she said. “Too bad the money wasn’t in one of those other trunks. I would have been far away from White Falls before you ever figured out what was going on.”
“But why did you bother moving the trunks?” Nancy asked. “Couldn’t you have just examined them at Vera’s?”
Julie frowned. “Vera’s the one who usually goes through the donated things. All I do is input the lists she makes into the computer. I was afraid she might have gotten suspicious if she saw me inspecting the things.”
“So you took the trunks,” Nancy went on. “And when you didn’t find Zach Caulder’s money, you decided to make it look like Roz had stolen them. Meanwhile, you kept looking for the real money chest.”
Julie let out an amused laugh. “Actually, Vera gave me the idea herself when she was telling you about Roz’s opposition to the museum. Everyone knows how much Roz detests Vera. Once I heard that you were going to be keeping an eye on Roz, I decided to make sure she appeared as guilty as Vera already thought she was.”
“Vera trusted you,” Nancy said angrily. “How could you turn against her like this?”
Nancy thought she detected an uneasy glint in Julie’s green eyes. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her,” the blond woman said after a short silence. “But I deserve this money. I’m the one who found out that it was still around, not Vera. I should be the one to keep it.”
“That money was Zach Caulder’s, not yours,” Nancy argued. “You don’t have any right to it.”
Julie’s face reddened. “Keep quiet!” she cried, hitting the steering wheel with her palm. “You’ve already almost ruined everything. I’m not going to let you get in my way now.”
Nancy fell silent, looking ahead through the windshield as Julie drove over the Deerfield River bridge. Nancy now had a good idea where they were going. Her suspicion was confirmed when the yellow hatchback pulled to a stop in front of Caulder Cutlery a few minutes later.
“There’s still one thing I don’t understand,” Nancy said as Julie reached into the backseat and grabbed the carved chest.
The chest in one hand and the knife in the other, Julie got out of the car and went around to the other side. “What’s that?” she asked as she opened the passenger door and gestured with the knife for Nancy to get out. Her anger seemed to have faded to a chilly calmness again.
“When we found you in Vera’s workroom the day we arrived, you were really unconscious,” Nancy said, looking curiously at Julie.
Julie stared at Nancy for a long moment. “I guess it can’t hurt to tell you,” she said finally. “I didn’t plan on getting knocked out. It was an accident. I was so excited when I read about the money chest in Zach’s diary that I tore the workroom apart looking for the chests.”
She smiled to herself. “That’s when I took the black lacquered trunk home—I was pretty sure it had been donated along with the diary. It was only later that I checked the records and realized that the other chest—that wooden one—had also been Zach’s.”
“That still doesn’t explain how you got knocked out,” Nancy pointed out.
“Well, by the time I got back to the workroom after taking that first trunk, I knew Vera would be back any second,” Julie explained. “I had to really rush to get everything back in place. I guess I must have knocked something from one of the shelves by accident, and it hit me on the head.”
Nancy nodded, remembering the cast-iron weather vane she’d found on the floor near Julie.
“And when I woke up, you were all leaning over me,” Julie went on. “I was sure you knew what I’d done. Then I realized you thought someone else had knocked me out, so I just went along with it.”
The blond woman laughed mockingly at Nancy. “Boy, did I have you fooled!” In the next instant, Julie’s face became an icy mask as she added, “And I’m about to fool everyone again!”
She shoved Nancy toward the entrance to the factory. Then, using her key, she opened the double doors and gestured for Nancy to go inside.
“Down to the cellar,” Julie instructed. She smiled at Nancy. “It’s time to pay another visit to Charlie Shayne. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to commit another murder.”
Nancy shot a quick look over her shoulder. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Waving the knife with a little flourish, Julie said, “Why, your murder, of course. It’s a shame that such a talented detective has to die at the hand of a deranged killer. Everyone will think that Charlie Shayne couldn’t resist returning to the scene of the crime to kill again.”
“You know Charlie wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Nancy protested. “Why don’t you leave him out of this? If anything happens to me, my friends will know that you did it, not Charlie.”
Julie’s only answer was to shove Nancy across the main floor toward the staircase. With her hands tied, Nancy barely managed to keep her balance on the narrow stairs. She made as much noise as she could, trying to alert Charlie. Maybe he could blockade himself into the little room.
But Julie didn’t lose a moment. As soon as they reached the basement, she hurried to the far wall, pushing and pulling the shelves until she found the one that concealed the doorway to the smaller second room.
“Charlie, look out. She has a knife!” Nancy shouted as Julie pushed her into the other room.
In a glance, Nancy saw that Charlie’s makeshift bed was empty, as was the rickety wooden chair where he’d been sitting when Nancy saw him the night before. The old man wasn’t there.
Relief flooded through her. At least now Julie couldn’t get Charlie mixed up in her devious plan. Turning to Julie, she said, “It looks like your plan won’t work after all.”
Julie frowned as she surveyed the room. “This is just a minor inconvenience,” she said. “Whether Charlie’s here or not, the evidence will point his way if the knife and your body are discovered with his things.”
Nancy shivered at the word body.
In the next instant, Julie put the chest down and turned to face Nancy, holding up the butcher’s knife. “Say goodbye, Nancy Drew.”
A Secret Unveiled
Nancy’s gaze flew from the knife to the carved box on the floor.
“Julie, are you sure it’s worth killing me?” Nancy asked in the calmest voice she could manage. “You haven’t even checked to make sure the money’s really in that chest.”
Julie hesitated, looking uncertainly at the box.
“Get over in that corner,” she ordered Nancy, waving toward the farthest place from the doorway. “I don’t want you trying anything sneaky while I’m opening this.”
Once Nancy had obeyed, Julie kneeled on the floor next to the box, facing her. First Julie dumped all the papers from the carved chest. Nancy saw that, although the box was about a foot deep on the outside, its inside cavity was only half that.
Julie pushed at the end panels of the box, until one of them finally moved to the side. Nancy couldn’t see clearly, but the angry look on Julie’s face told her something was wrong.
“A lock!” Julie muttered angrily. “That Caulder guy really didn’t trust anyone, did he?”
“Imagine that,” Nancy said sarcastically. Taking a step to the side, she was able to see the small, rusty lock hanging from a hinge just behind the false panel.
Julie looked furtively around the room. “Aha!” she said, darting over to the windowsill. She picked up the cast-iron candle holder. “This will do.” She went to work on the lock with such energy that Nancy thought she might hurt herself.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Nancy caught a slight movement in the doorway. She did a double take as she saw Charlie Shayne’s grizzled, gray-haired head. Nancy opened her eyes wide and shook her head in the tiniest nod, warning him not to enter.
From the cautious way Charlie was eyeing Julie, Nancy guessed that he had already sized up the situation. As his eyes met hers, Charlie winked and put a finger to his lips. Julie, intent on breaking the lock, didn’t seem to have noticed a thing.
Nancy started to edge slowly around the room toward the doorway. Alone, with her hands tied behind her back, there hadn’t been much hope of her getting away. But now that Charlie was here—
“ Yes! ” Julie crowed triumphantly, breaking into Nancy’s thoughts. Julie tossed the broken lock to the floor and feverishly threw open the latch, pulling at the inside panel. A piece of yellowed paper was wedged into the opening behind the panel. Julie quickly threw the paper aside.
As the blond woman let out a gurgle of pleasure, Nancy looked back at the box. She could hardly believe her eyes. The secret compartment was completely filled with money. Julie had pulled out a fat wad of hundred-dollar bills and was staring at them as if she were in a trance.
Nancy knew it was now or never. Sprinting the last few feet to the doorway, she quickly squeezed through. Then she used her weight to spin the shelf-door closed, locking Julie inside the room.
“Help me block the door!” she shouted to Charlie, but he was already next to her, his burly arms braced firmly against the shelving.
A moment later, they felt Julie banging against the door and heard her muffled shouting. “Let me out! I won’t hurt you, I swear!”
Charlie looked at Nancy and grinned. “What do you say, Miss Nancy Drew? Do you believe her?”
“No way,” Nancy replied emphatically. The sounds of approaching sirens told her that the police had finally found them. Within minutes officers were racing down to the cellar. Nancy recognized one of them as Margaret Conroy. They were followed quickly by Vera, Bess, and George.
“Nancy, you’re all right!” Bess cried as the cousins hugged her.
“I’ve never been happier to see you guys in my life,” Nancy said as George untied her wrists. “Julie didn’t try to hurt you, did she?”
Bess shook her head. “We were only locked in the workroom for a few minutes before Vera found us.”
“Speaking of locked in,” Nancy turned to Officer Conroy and nodded toward the shelf-door. “I believe the person you’re looking for is right in there, Officer.”
“Everything is set,” Vera said two hours later as she and Mrs. Norris joined Nancy, George, and Bess at the back of the big old-fashioned ballroom of the White Falls Inn. “When Esther Grey’s poems go on the block in a few minutes, I’m going to tell the whole story of the money box and the old murder.”
The auction was already under way. The rows of folding chairs Nancy had seen earlier were now filled with people bidding on items at the front of the room. The auctioneer, a thin, spindly man, was rattling off the bids while two helpers held up a patchwork quilt.
Mrs. Norris shook her head sadly. “I never would have thought Esther could actually kill someone.” Vera had taken Mrs. Norris aside and explained everything when she and the girls had arrived at the auction. “But the letter that was found with the money proves it. The public has a right to know what really happened.”
After the police had taken away Julie, Nancy, Vera, Bess, and George had gone back into the factory’s hidden room. That was when Nancy had picked up the yellowed paper Julie had tossed from the opening of the secret compartment. She and her friends had been completely surprised by what they read on the paper.
Nancy nodded to where Mike and Grace Shayne were sitting at the end of a row of chairs. “I’m glad the Shaynes are here to see Charlie vindicated,” she said.
“Oh, yes,” Vera agreed. “I’ve already told them. Grace was so relieved to hear that her relative is not a murderer. She actually smiled.”
“I bet she and Mike were pretty happy to hear that you plan on making Charlie the caretaker of the museum when it opens,” George said.
“It’s the least I can do to thank him,” said Vera. “He may have saved Nancy’s life.”
Bess pointed to the front of the ballroom, where Roz Chaplin was sitting. The real estate developer wore a look of complete indifference as she watched the quilt being auctioned off. “Roz couldn’t have been very happy to find out that her famous relative was Zach Caulder’s killer, though.”
Vera let out a low whistle. “That’s for sure. I felt badly that I had to tell her such terrible news, especially after the way she helped me out today.”
Nancy looked questioningly at Vera.
“Roz was the one who arranged to have the things in Vera’s van brought over here,” Bess explained. “Vera didn’t know who else to call. As soon as Roz heard what the problem was, she sent over two guys and a big truck. She said she wanted people to know once and for all that she wasn’t the person who was sabotaging Vera.”
Nancy grinned at her old neighbor. “Maybe there’s hope that you and Roz can become friends after all.”
“Well, we won’t be enemies, anyway,” Vera said. “Oh—it’s time,” she added, getting to her feet.
Looking back at the platform, Nancy saw that the quilt had been sold. Zach Caulder’s carved wooden chest rested on a pedestal, its lid open to reveal Esther Grey’s poems. For now, the secret compartment was closed.
Vera walked up to the platform and took the microphone from the auctioneer. “As you all know, a collection of Esther Grey’s love poems is next to be auctioned off. We had originally intended to sell the poems with the box Miss Grey always kept them in. Due to an amazing discovery, however, only the letters are for sale at this time.”
Disappointed murmurs rose from the crowd. “What’s going on?” a man in the middle of the room wanted to know.
“Just a few hours ago, key evidence to a fifty-year-old murder was discovered in this box,” Vera told the audience. She went on to explain that Zach Caulder was the mystery man Esther Grey had been in love with, and that he had hidden his fortune in the carved wooden box. Then she announced that evidence had been found in the box to prove that Esther Grey was the one who killed Zach Caulder.
The ballroom erupted in exclamations of surprise. Vera held up her hand for silence.
“We can’t show you the actual money,” she said once everyone had quieted down. “It’s in police custody for the moment.” Nancy leaned over to Bess and George. “Vera’s petitioning to have the money used to turn Zach Caulder’s factory into the historical museum,” she whispered.
“Good,” Bess whispered back. “Oh, look! Vera’s opening the compartment.”
Vera’s dark eyes gleamed as she revealed the secret compartment and took the yellowed sheet of paper from it. “But I can read the letter that was found with the money,” she said. “It’s dated just two weeks after Zach Caulder’s death.
“’To Whoever May Find This,’” Vera read. “’I must unburden my soul of this terrible nightmare. Each night in my dreams, I relive the horror: my hand raised against Zachary, the evil glimmer of the knife, the look of terror in his eyes. And then it is done. I have put out the light of Zachary’s life forever. I keep hoping this vision is but a dream, but I know my love is really gone.’”
There were shocked exclamations from the crowd. Then Vera continued reading:
“’Why must Zachary mock me like this, even in death? Today I happened upon this secret compartment with its cache of money. How worthless his fortune is to me! It cannot bring my dearest Zachary back, nor erase the emptiness of my soul. I love him still, and remain in utter despair without him. Sweet Zachary, how could I have done this to you?’”
Vera looked up at the audience. “The letter is signed by Esther Grey,” she finished. “It and the carved box will be on display in the White Falls Historical Museum when it opens next year.”
The crowd sat in stunned silence as Vera left the platform and returned to the rear of the ballroom. Within moments, the room jumped to life as bids for Esther Grey’s love poems were shouted out. Everyone wanted to buy the poems.
“Well, it looks as though your auction is a success, Vera,” Nancy said as Vera joined them.
“I’m sure the money brought in today will give your museum a good start,” Mrs. Norris added. “I bought a lovely old rocking chair for myself—I couldn’t resist.”
Vera was glowing. “Everything is perfect,” she said. “The White Falls Historical Museum is back on track, Charlie Shayne is a new man, and Roz Chaplin and I are actually on speaking terms.” George nodded toward the podium, where the bidding for Esther Grey’s poems was still going strong. “After today, I think you’ll have to rewrite a few pages of White Falls history.”
Vera looked warmly at Nancy. “We certainly will,” she said. “Finally the truth can be told, and it’s all thanks to Nancy Drew.”
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