Legal Evidence

Nancy felt shaken as she and Bess drove away from the arachnologist’s sprawling stone house.

“Do you suppose whoever put that wolf spider in your car knew it was harmless? ” asked Bess.

“Just what I was wondering, ” Nancy confessed. “Let’s be thankful it wasn’t the black widow! ”

“How do we know he didn’t put that in your car, too? ” Bess blurted in a quavering voice.

As the two girls exchanged startled looks, Nancy jammed her foot on the brake pedal. Then she hastily pulled over to the side of the road. “We’d better make sure right now! ”

After a careful search, Nancy felt satisfied that the poisonous creature was not lurking in her beloved blue sports car. She and Bess breathed sighs of relief. Nevertheless, the scary experience somewhat spoiled their planned evening of fun.

When Nancy returned home, she found her father reading in his usual chair. She asked if he had ever heard of Oscar Larue.

“Yes, he was well known in the business world up until a few years ago, ” said Carson Drew. “Then he retired and spent his time collecting antique cars. I believed he was rumored to have lost a lot of money in the stock market before he died. Why? ”

Nancy related what Simon Shand had told Brett Hulme about how Larue had bought Madame Arachne’s jeweled spider and later sold it to Shand. “Is there any way to check out his story, Dad? ”

“Hmm.” Mr. Drew frowned thoughtfully. “If I can learn the name of the attorney who handled Larue’s estate and explain to him that you’re working on a mystery case, he might be willing to answer a few questions. Let me see what I can find out.”

“Thanks, Dad. If you can, it’ll be a big help! ”

Nancy was still turning the day’s events over in her mind as she drifted off to sleep. Both Jack Vernon and Brett Hulme had been threatened and attacked by two separate, unknown enemies.

In Jack’s case, that second enemy might have been the mysterious Sweeney Flint. Was he also responsible for the bomb planted in Brett’s car?

If so, maybe the first mystery caller had also been the same in both cases. Nancy was beginning to suspect who that person might be.

Next morning, as soon as she finished breakfast, she dialed Simon Shand’s number, intending to ask for an appointment. His servant answered, however, and told her his employer had gone to Oceanview for the last few days of the festival.

I may just have to chase down there after him, Nancy decided crossly. Then she brightened. Why don’t I ask Bess and George to come with me and see the opera Saturday night?

The teenage sleuth was just pouring herself another glass of juice when the phone rang. Carson Drew was calling from his office.

“The executor of Oscar Larue’s estate is an attorney named Howard Emmett, ” Mr. Drew reported. “He practices in New York and most of his court cases are heard there, but he also has a suburban law office in Mapleton, since a good many of his clients reside in this state. I’ve already spoken to him, Nancy, and he’s agreed to see you at his Mapleton office at ten forty-five. Can you make it? ”

“You bet, Dad – and thanks ever so much! ”

Howard Emmett proved to be a stout, balding man with shrewd gray eyes and pinch-nose glasses. He greeted Nancy with a friendly smile, invited her to have chair, and asked how he could be of help.

“Dad’s probably told you about the mystery case I’m working on, counselor. According to an informant, Oscar Larue bought a valuable ruby brooch in the shape of a spider from opera singer, Madame Arachne Onides. Can you confirm the story? ”

“Yes.” Emmett nodded. “Among his effects was a bill of sale for such a brooch from Madame Onides for a price of three hundred thousand dollars.”

“I see.” Nancy hesitated. “Are you aware that that brooch was later reported to have been stolen from her while she was performing at the Oceanview Festival? ”

Emmett’s face took on a troubled frown. “Yes, indeed I am. It would be inappropriate, however, for me to comment on exactly what may or may not have been taken at that time.”

Nancy realized that his discretion as a lawyer would prevent him from charging Madame Arachne with a hoax or outright fraud, even if she had lied in claiming that the stolen object had been her original jeweled spider. “I’m also informed, ” she went on, “that your late client, Mr. Larue, sold the brooch just before he died to Simon Shand.”

“Yes, that too is correct, ” said Attorney Emmett. “In fact, the cashier’s check from Mr. Shand was still in my client’s possession and had not yet been deposited in the bank when he suffered his fatal heart attack.”

“Then how do you account for the fact that the brooch which Mr. Shand now has is only a cheap glass counterfeit? ”

“What! ” Attorney Emmett was clearly shocked by Nancy’s question. “Are you sure of that? ”

The young detective nodded. “The person who told me so had it from Mr. Shand himself.”

Howard Emmett frowned again and drummed his fingers on the desk. “All I can say is that I’m quite sure the brooch my client sold to Mr. Shand was the same one he bought from Madame Onides.”

“Is there any chance that might have been a fake? ”

“Highly unlikely! Whenever Mr. Larue was about to purchase any jewelry, he was always careful to have it examined first by an expert appraiser. He was too shrewd to be tricked or cheated.”

“In other words, if a switch was made, it must have been after Mr. Shand bought the brooch? ”

“Correct! ”

Nancy was silent a moment. Then, on a sudden impulse, she said, “Was there anything among Mr. Larue’s papers indicating he might have known someone named Sweeney Flint? ”

“Hmm.” Emmett reflected. “That name is not known to me. One way to find out, of course, might be to check the names and phone numbers in my client’s desk book.”

“Could I look through it? ” Nancy asked eagerly.

Emmett said the desk book and all of Larue’s private papers were now being stored in a New York bank vault while his estate was being probated. But he promised to arrange with the bank for her to see the book on Monday.

Nancy thanked the lawyer and left his office. That afternoon she called her two girlfriends and invited them to go with her to Oceanview on Saturday. Bess had to beg off since an uncle was arriving to visit her family over the weekend. But George jumped at the idea.

Luckily the two girls were able to make overnight reservations at the same motel where they had stayed before. A call to Renzo Scaglia also helped them obtain tickets to the opera.

They set out from River Heights late on Saturday morning and arrived in Oceanview in time to enjoy lunch in a restaurant overlooking the harbor. Then Nancy prepared to look up Simon Shand.

“Do you know where to find him? ” George asked.

“His servant said he was staying at the Beachfront Plaza Hotel.” Much to Nancy’s annoyance, however, there was no answer when she called his room on the house phone, and the desk clerk reported seeing him go out just before lunch.

Nancy kept calling throughout the afternoon, but with no luck. “Maybe we can spot him at the opera tonight, ” her chum suggested.

The girls were enthralled by the opening scenes of Carmen. In the crowded lobby during the intermission, Nancy suddenly touched George’s arm and whispered, “there he is! ”

Simon Shand was at the counter, buying refreshments for himself and his showgirl fiancé e.

“Well. Well, well! If it isn’t little Miss Sherlock! ” he said on seeing Nancy.

“Could we talk for a moment? ” she asked.

Nancy felt being subtle with the trucking tycoon would be a waste of time. Instead, she hoped to startle the truth out of him. So she bluntly asked if he was responsible for the rock thrown at Brett Hulme, or the heckling that had broken up Jack Vernon’s campaign rally.

Shand chuckled cynically. “I knew you were smart, girlie! I’d deny it in court, mind you, but just between the two of us, sure, I hired strong-arm men to pull both jobs.”

Since Nancy knew about his purchase of the jeweled spider, Shand no longer seemed to feel any need to be secretive about the brooch. He admitted trying to frighten the young jewelry designer and politician in order to find out if either had had anything to do with stealing the real brooch from him and substituting the fake. But he denied having anything to do with Jack Vernon’s beating or the bomb planted in Brett’s car.

“At first I figured Kim Vernon might have hired Sweeney Flint to get back the brooch, so she could clear her brother. I thought he might have been going to slip it in her golf bag when you spotted him at the country club, ” Shand told Nancy. “But now I doubt if she knows any more than her brother or Brett Hulme does.”

“Are you saying you recognized Sweeney Flint that day at the country club? ” Nancy asked keenly.

“I’ve never met him in person, but I’ve heard what he looks like, ” Shand replied. “He’s one of the slickest crooks in this part of the country. If you can nail him and get back my jeweled spider, I’ll pay you a ten grand reward! ”

In her motel room that night, Nancy mulled over the mystery. Shand still seemed to think Sweeney Flint had succeeded in getting his hands on the real ruby brooch. Yet if her own theory was right that Flint was behind the second attacks on Jack Vernon and Brett Hulme, this meant he too was hunting for the real jeweled spider.

Nancy soon fell asleep. She awakened with a start, feeling something on her arm. She was about to brush it away when a frightening thought struck her. Nancy switched on the bedside lamp – then gasped with fear.

An eight-legged creature was crawling up her arm. It was a poisonous black widow spider! ”