A Voice in the Dark

Nancy stifled the little cry of surprise and fear that rose in her throat. Her first impulse was to swing her shoulder bag upward to brush the frightful creature away from her, but then it might land on her or even Bess!

“Don’t move or make a sound, ” Nancy advised her companion in a low, controlled voice.

“Hmm... what’s the matt – ” Bess replied, breaking off in a shriek as she turned her head from the side window and saw the horrid spider.

“Just stay calm, and reach in the glove compartment, will you? ” Nancy said, sounding less nervous than she felt. “There’s a paper bag in there, I think, with flashlight batteries in it.”

Bess extracted the bag. “Is this what you mean? ”

“Yes. Empty out the batteries, please and hand me the empty bag.” By now, Nancy had stopped the car and was opening her door. “I also suggest that you get out of the car for a second.”

“Oh, Nancy, do be careful, ” Bess pleaded as she followed Nancy’s instructions obediently. “Maybe we ought to call someone to help u – ”

But her friend had already opened the paper bag, positioned it under the spider, and brought it swiftly upward so as to capture the creature inside it. Then she twisted the top and, after fishing in her purse, found a rubber band with which to hold the bag tightly closed.

Bess let out a long weakened gasp. “I could never have done that! ”

Nancy burst into a merry peal of laughter. “Don’t tell anyone, but I was scared, too! ”

“Where on earth did it come from, Nancy? ”

“Good question. It certainly didn’t look like any plain old American variety. Maybe that spider expert, Paul Taggart, can tell us.”

Because the famous girl detective had been the one who found Jack Vernon, she was readily permitted to see him. When Nancy phoned his room, he not only sounded eager to talk but told her she could bring Bess up as well, if she liked.

“I’m through hiding in the past, ” the young politician declared when the two girls were seated at his bedside. “What happened last night has convinced me I should have made a clean breast to the police right from the first, instead of dumping the whole problem on Kim’s shoulders.”

“She’s told me the whole story, ” Nancy said.

Jack Vernon nodded. “I know. And now I’m prepared to tell my story, even if it costs me the election... and my chance to marry Celia Hawthorn, ” he ended unhappily but firmly.

“I’m sure your fiancé e will stand by you. But if you don’t mind my offering a word of advice, ” Nancy counseled sympathetically, “I suggest you hold off a while longer before making any statement to the news media. I’m hoping my investigation of this case will clear your name completely.”

“If you can do that, I’ll be eternally grateful, ” the young candidate muttered in a husky voice.

Vernon related that after his recent political rally had been broken up by hecklers, he received a highly unpleasant phone call. “Whoever it was wanted to know what had happened to the real jeweled spider. He said the heckling was just a sample. If I didn’t come clean, as he put it, he’d wreck my election campaign! ”

“In other words, ” Nancy queried, “he knew all about your part in the theft of the brooch from Madame Arachne’s dressing room? ”

“Right. So I told him I hadn’t seen the brooch since I turned it over to that fake publicity agent, Sweeney Flint.”

“Can you remember what Flint looked like? ”

“How can I ever forget! ” Jack said grimly, clenching his fist at the recollection. “His nose was sort of twisted, as if it had been broken and hadn’t been set properly, and one eyelid drooped. He looked so sinister, I remember thinking he must have a tough time attracting publicity clients! ”

This seemed to remove any doubt, Nancy reflected, that the mysterious Sweeney Flint was also the midnight intruder on Eugene Harvath’s island estate.

“How did your phone caller react to what you told him? ” she said aloud.

Jack Vernon shrugged. “I guess he believed me. Anyhow, he muttered a couple more threats about wrecking my campaign if I was lying, and hung up.”

“Do you think he was responsible for last night’s attack in the park? ”

Jack frown thoughtfully. “I doubt it.”

“Why? ”

“For one thing, the attacker asked me the same question the phone caller did.” Vernon explained that while he was waiting for Nancy just inside the park entrance, he suddenly felt a knife at his back. “Then a voice behind me asked what had happened to the real jeweled spider. When I told him I hadn’t seen it since the night of the theft, he told me he was going to teach me not to talk to snoops like you. Next thing I knew, something hit me hard on the back of the head! That’s the last I remember till I came to in the hospital.”

“You said ‘for one thing, ” Nancy pursued. ‘Is there some other reason why you think he and your phone caller were different persons? ”

“Yes – my assailant’s voice, ” Jack said grimly. “It sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place it. Now I’ve got a strong hunch who he was.”

“Who do you think? ” asked Nancy.

“Sweeney Flint! ”

Bess Marvin had listened to Jack Vernon’s story with breathless interest. Later, as she and her girlfriend were driving from the hospital to Paul Taggart’s wooded estate, she murmured anxiously, “Do you think the same person who hurt Mr. Vernon could have put that spider in your car? ”

“It certainly possible, Bess. If the spider turns out to be a foreign specimen, that’ll convince me it didn’t creep in all by itself! ”

Nancy’s suspicion turned out to be well founded.

“This is a wolf spider, ” Taggart announced after shaking it out of the paper bag. “And I can tell you just where it came from, Nancy.”

“Where? ”

“My collection. Someone broke in and took it last night. This spider happens to be quite harmless. Unfortunately, the other live specimen that was taken isn’t quite so harmless.”

“You mean two spiders were stolen? ” the pretty young sleuth exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes.” Taggart shot her a thoughtful glance. “The other one’s that’s missing is a poisonous black widow!