Baffling Trail

While Nancy’s discovery had stunned her momentarily, Bess and George were preparing themselves for their own investigation.

“It’s a good thing that the two impostors believe they’ve duped us totally! ” Bess told her cousin.

“And we have to make sure they don’t find out anything to the contrary, ” George said.

When the girls arrived at the apartment listed for Russell Kaiser in the news article, the doorman said he had strict instructions not to admit anyone while the police were still there.

“Have they been here a long time already? ” George inquired.

The doorman glanced at his watch. “About thirty minutes, ” he said, “but they could be around the whole day, for all I know.”

“Let’s go, ” George said, and pulled Bess out the door.

“Where are we going? ” her cousin inquired.

“Some place where we can stake out the building, ” George suggested.

The girls headed across the street toward a small coffee shop. Bess giggled. “If I have to stake out anything, there’s no place I’d rather do it from than a coffee shop! ”

“I bet, ” George answered. She carefully avoided patches of ice forming on the sidewalk and tried to scrape the icy granules that drizzled relentlessly out of the sky onto her coat sleeve. “This weather is terrible, ” she complained. “How can we investigate efficiently if we have to slip and slide everywhere we go? ”

“Don’t worry, we might have to sit here all day, ” Bess said, as they entered the restaurant.

George shook her head. “I wonder if Mr. Kaiser is even home. I think I’ll call the apartment to see what I can find out.”

She left Bess in a booth by the window and returned a few minutes later in a flurry of excitement. “The maid answered, ” George said. “Mr. Kaiser is leaving right now.”

The girls dropped coins on the counter and dashed outside. The sidewalk was treacherous, slowing them to a snail’s pace. Bess crept close to the shops, looking for iceless patches.

“Hurry! ” George called back as she cut across the street.

Bess tried to, but felt the soles of her leather shoes skid forward. “You go ahead! ” she cried.

The traffic light changed and she halted, watching George almost slide into the corner of Kaiser’s apartment house.

She managed not to fall, however, and walked to the entrance where a bald-headed man was stepping into a patrol car that was parked in front.

He’s the one who bought the medallion! she almost blurted.

Bess caught up to her as the car door closed, and George turned to her cousin excitedly. “That clinches it! ” she exclaimed. “The second Russell Kaiser who asked Nancy to help is definitely the impostor! And even though his hair is different from that of the man we saw in the police picture, I’m sure he’s Pete Grover! ”

“He was bidding on that medallion like crazy, ” Bess said. “He must’ve really wanted it.”

“But if he’s a crook, why did he introduce himself to us? ” George asked.

Bess had no answer, and no matter how much they talked about the odd twists in the growing mystery, nothing satisfied them.

Nancy, at the same time, had gone into the restaurant across the street from the Millington office. It was still too early to expect Bess and George, Nancy realized, but she waited, wondering if Jacqueline’s friend, whom she had spotted in the elevator, would come out again.

Traffic dragged on the ice-covered street, and a bus now blocked the girl’s view of the revolving doors.

What if I miss him? Nancy worried, as the bus inched away.

She pressed closer to the window to look down the sidewalk, but saw no one who resembled the phony Chris Chavez. Minutes went by slowly, it seemed, but suddenly the man appeared! He paused outside the building and turned his head in both directions, apparently looking for someone.

I wonder if it’s Jacqueline, Nancy thought. Just then, another bus pulled up right in front of her.

Oh, please move! she begged silently. I can’t lose him now!

The vehicle moved along shortly and, to Nancy’s relief, the man in the plaid scarf was still there talking to another man. Nancy gasped as she recognized him.

“That’s Grover, the guy who told me he was Russell Kaiser, ” she said under her breath. “Where are they going? ”

Figuring that Bess and George might be delayed by the bad weather, she decided to leave a message for them with the restaurant hostess and follow the two men.

“Please ask my friends to wait for me, ” Nancy told the young woman. Then she pulled up her coat collar and stepped cautiously onto the frozen sidewalk. She followed the men around the block, where they hurried into a fabric shop called Belini‘s, which boasted a variety of materials and sewing goods.

Through the window, the girl detective saw the men descend a flight of steps in the rear. She entered the store, taking quick note of the colorful polyester and cotton fabrics that were shelved in bolts.

A sign in the back indicated that the sewing supplies and offices were downstairs. Nancy followed the arrow, glancing down at the customers as she went below. The men were not in sight. Apparently, they had stepped into the office.

Nancy headed for a table with large pattern books on it. She leafed through one, glancing up periodically to look for the two impostors.

“Excuse me, please, ” a woman said suddenly. Nancy had not been aware of the customer standing next to her, eager to look at the pattern book she was holding. “Are you finished with that? ”

“Oh, yes, ” the girl replied as men’s voices suddenly drifted over the sound of file drawers opening and closing.

The office, Nancy soon discovered, was located around a bend in the wall. Next to it was a tall column of narrow metal cabinets that contained all kinds of buttons. Without seeming too obvious, the girl secreted herself behind them. Now she was within better hearing range of the conversation.

“Mr. Belini, ” Nancy overheard Jacqueline’s friend say, “I have only a few questions.”

The young detective leaned forward eagerly, but someone approached the cabinets and opened a drawer, digging noisily through the buttons. Nancy quickly busied herself with swatches of material that hung behind her. Then, when the metal drawer slammed shut, she took her place again.

This time the other man was talking, and it seemed to Nancy that she heard the name Rosalind. But his voice fell away in a drone of unintelligible words.

It’s so frustrating, Nancy said to herself. She was tempted to leave her hiding place and move closer to the doorway, but what if she were caught? I can’t take the chance, she decided.

She rested her hands on the stack of metal and dipped her head to one side. The pressure of her grip pitched the fragile cabinet forward and several drawers slid open, emitting hundreds of buttons!

They poured out in a steady stream despite the girl’s attempt to right the cabinet quickly. Then her fingers slipped, and the whole structure crashed to the floor!