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Silver Surprise






 

Bess, who was watching, cried out in dismay at the accident. But Nancy reacted quickly. She jumped to her feet and shook the liquid off the dress. " Give me some tissues, Bess! " she exclaimed.

By hasty wiping, the damage was soon repaired. " This fabrics so heavy, I don't think there was time for the punch to soak in, " Nancy reported. " Anyhow, the skirts too dark for any stain to show."

Ned tried to control his temper, but the strain of the urgent shooting schedule and the thought of the expensive, spoiled film made it hard not to show some irritation. " That was a dumb trick, Lenny! " he chided.

" Why blame me? " Lenny Arthur mumbled sullenly. " The light came loose, that's all. I tried to fix it, but it just happened to shine in her eyes for a second."

" If you'd clamped the light properly in the first place, it wouldn't have come loose! " Jack Billings flared back.

" Maybe the whole thing wasn't a dumb trick at all, " Sara White said, staring coldly at Gwen Jethro. " I was watching you, Gwen. I think you tipped those glasses over on Nancy deliberately to ruin her gown! "

" Oh, don't be absurd! " Gwen tossed her head scornfully. " If Nancy hadn't made such a fuss over the light, all this wouldn't have happened. Everyone started talking at once and distracted me, so I didn't see where I was going. I just stumbled and spilled the glasses accidentally."

" Accidentally on purpose, you mean, " Sara retorted in a dry voice laden with sarcasm.

Nancy couldn't help but notice that Gwen's eyes betrayed a gleam of mean satisfaction as if she were secretly enjoying the way Nancy's first scene had been spoiled. Nevertheless, the girl was anxious to smooth over any trouble that might disrupt the making of Ned's film.

" It really doesn't matter, " Nancy interposed gently. " My dress wasn't ruined, so let's start all over."

Unfortunately, Gwen and Lenny were already much too disliked for the incident to be easily forgotten.

" This time, let's make sure all the lights are clamped good and tight before we start, " said Jack with an exasperated glance at Lenny.

Mike Jordan had sponged off the carpet and was refilling the two glasses with fruit punch.

" Now, please watch where you're going, Gwen, so it won't happen again, " Ned begged.

" You said it, " Jane Logan cut in curtly. " We're not shooting this on a Hollywood budget, Gwen dear. In case no one's told you, film costs money and we don't have all that much! "

Her remark provoked an immediate retort from Gwen. Lenny Arthur, who was smarting from Jack Billings's caustic comments, joined in the exchange. Angry words were soon flying back and forth again as tempers rose. Both Ned and Nancy did their best to calm things down, but the quarrel had grown too bitter to be resolved.

In the end, Gwen and Lenny marched off together in a huff, slamming the front door of the mansion behind them.

There was a moment's silence before Ned sighed and shrugged his shoulders with a wan smile. " Well, do we quit right here or go on with our cinematic masterpiece? " he queried and looked around at the other club members.

" Of course we’ll go on! " Sara White declared. " Who needs those two, anyway? "

There was a chorus of agreement.

" In that case, " Ned suggested, " what about Bess Marvin taking Gwen’s role as the maid? "

" Perfect! " Jack Billings exclaimed. Nancy had already noticed that he seemed to find her blond friend more than slightly attractive.

" How about it, Bess? " Jane Logan asked with a twinkle.

Pink-cheeked and thrilled at the unexpected invitation to act before a movie camera, Bess nervously accepted. Sara White, an expert seamstress, hastily let out Gwen's costume at the waist for Bess to try on. After a quick run-through, the scene was soon underway again, and to everyone's jubilation, the take was completed without a slip-up!

By noon, two more short scenes had been successfully filmed, after which everyone lunched happily on hamburgers and milkshakes that Mike Jordan brought from the nearest drive-in.

Ned and the other young men in the film club began to rearrange the furniture in the drawing room for the next scene. As Ned was pushing back a heavy armchair, a bright metal object caught his eye. It turned out to be a slender, silver bud vase.

" Where'd that come from? " Jane asked in surprise.

" Under the chair. It must have rolled there and been forgotten some time or other, I guess."

" It feels heavy enough to be real silver, wouldn't you say, Nancy? "

" Definitely. Here's the hallmark." Holding the vase upside down, Nancy pointed to the maker's imprint stamped on the bottom.

" It looks like the Grimsbys' silver collection must be short one piece, then, " Ned observed.

But the young detective shook her head. " I doubt it. All their valuables were cleared out years ago, and this vase certainly hasn't been here that long. The silver's still untarnished."

As she turned the vase over in her hand, Nancy's keen eyes noticed a slender monogram etched on one side. " Look! It's initialed with the letter W so it couldn't have belonged to the Grimsby family."

" Leave it to the super sleuth to spot all the clues! " Ned announced and grinned proudly. " If it didn't belong to the Grimsbys, how did it get under that chair, Nancy? "

" Good question, " she replied thoughtfully. " I was wondering that myself."

The vase was put aside while the next scene was being filmed. Afterwards, since their parts were over for that day's shooting schedule, Nancy and Bess said good-bye to the others and left. On a sudden impulse, Nancy took the silver vase with her, promising to turn it in to the police.

 

" Do you think it was stolen? " Bess asked as they drove off down the forest lane.

" There's one way to find out."

At police headquarters in River Heights, Nancy and her friend were admitted immediately to the office of Chief McGinnis.

" I’ll have this checked out against our records of stolen articles, " he said, setting the vase on his desk. " Thanks for bringing it in, Nancy."

" While I'm here, " she said, " could you please tell us what your fingerprint expert found out about that coffee thermos? "

" Let's get his report right now. I'm curious, myself." Picking up the phone, the police chief spoke to someone in the detective bureau, and a few moments later a tall, dark-haired officer in plain clothes came into the office.

" This is Detective Hart, who's in charge of the racehorse case, " McGinnis introduced him. " What did you get from that thermos, Phil? "

" Several smudged prints, Chief, none of them very good, but we'll check them out with the FBI.

One things certain, though. None of Alf Sanchez's prints are on the thermos. We know that for sure because we took his prints when he was first brought in for questioning."

Nancy was delighted at the news. " Then that can't possibly be his thermos! " she declared.

Detective Hart nodded. " I agree. If Sanchez had been drinking out of it that evening, his prints would have been all over it."

" So the thieves must have substituted a different thermos, " she pointed out, " which means Mr. Sanchez's story that he was drugged may be true! "

Both Chief McGinnis and the detective agreed with the point. " Id say it's almost certain he was drugged, " Chief McGinnis added. " Otherwise, why would the thieves have bothered to substitute a different thermos? They were probably hoping we'd pin the crime on him, or at least concentrate our efforts on proving Sanchez was involved."

Detective Hart frowned and fingered his jaw thoughtfully. " There's another stablehand who's still under suspicion, though he claims to have an alibi."

" Who is that? " Nancy asked.

" Lou Yelvey. He used to work at Rainbow Ranch but was fired several months ago. If he's the type who holds a grudge, he might have given the thieves useful information about the stables, or he might even have helped them with the theft."

" That makes sense, " Chief McGinnis remarked. " And if Shooting Star recognized Yelvey, that would have helped the crooks make their getaway without the horse kicking up too much of a disturbance."

Nancy considered this theory for a moment, then said, " Where is Yelvey working now? "

" He's out of work, " replied the detective. " After Mr. Harlow fired him, he went to work as a stablehand for one of Harlow's neighbors, Hugh Morston. But he didn't last long there, either."

" You mentioned that he had an alibi, " Nancy reminded him.

" Yes, he says he was out with a friend on the night of the theft. But we're checking every move they made to see if all their time is accounted for."

Detective Hart paused and gestured toward his superior. " The chief mentioned the thieves' getaway just now. Well, there's one odd thing about that. The theft happened on the Fourth of July, and there was lots of traffic on the road that evening due to people watching the fireworks. Yet we can't find a single witness who remembers seeing a horse trailer or a van that might have been used to carry off an animal of that size."

Pointing to a wall map of the area, Hart continued, " So our theory is that Shooting Star may have been ridden all the way through Brookvale Forest. If so, the thief or thieves would have come out about here on North Road. That highway runs along the other side of the woods about two or three miles from Rainbow Ranch."

" You mean the crooks might have had some vehicle parked there to take the horse away in? "

" Right. As a matter of fact, we’ve already followed up on that possibility, and we’ve found several witnesses who say they saw a big black van parked there that evening just across from Tortoise Pond."

" Good work on that, Phil, " Chief McGinnis commended the detective. Glancing at Nancy, he added, " The description of the van, by the way, matches one that was stolen over in Keanesville earlier on that same day. In the case of a big-time robbery like this, crooks often prefer to use a stolen vehicle, so if anyone spots it, there's no way it can be traced back to them."

Nancy thanked the officers for their information and left police headquarters with her girlfriend. Both were happy that Alf Sanchez appeared to be innocent.

" That was really smart of you, Nancy, " Bess beamed as they got into the car, " to think of having the thermos checked for fingerprints."

The girl detective started the engine and steered smoothly into the stream of traffic. " Mr. Sanchez's innocence isn't the only thing this tells us, " she confided.

" What else? " her blond companion asked in surprise.

" That the theft of Shooting Star was an inside job! "

 






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