004 Smile and Say Murder (12 page)

“Then you think MediaCorp would actually go as far as murder to get something they want?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s possible. I told Yvonne that MediaCorp would never give her the price she was asking for
Flash.
Even if I agreed to sell.”

“But, Mick,” Nancy said, “Yvonne told me she’s not planning to sell at
any
price.”

“That’s what she
says.
Believe me, Nancy, she has her price. Why would I lie to you?”

“Why would
Yvonne
lie?” she said.

“I can’t answer that,” Mick said.

“Neither can I. Anyway, I’m hoping you’ll be able to give me a few leads on what happened at the Maggies. Did you see anything odd? Anyone suspicious in the audience?”

Mick thought for a moment. “I can’t remember anything unusual. But to tell you the truth, I was too excited to notice very much that night. It was like a fantasy come true—and who looks for flaws in the middle of a living fantasy?” Mick sighed, remembering the evening. “And to think I never got to accept my award. Now that is a real tragedy!”

Nancy laughed. “Well, you certainly made the biggest splash in the history of the Maggie ceremonies! I’m just glad you’re all right.” Nancy decided to let the questioning go. Clearly, Mick wasn’t going to be able to help her much.

“How are you keeping yourself occupied?” she asked.

“Doing a lot of reading,” Mick told her. “Yvonne was really sweet. She brought over a whole bunch of mystery novels for me.” He pointed to a stack of paperbacks piled on his night table.

“That was thoughtful of her,” Nancy mused.

“Yeah. This accident has actually made her want to be civil—even nice—to me.”

“Are any of the books any good? Yvonne
didn’t seem very interested in mysteries when I first met her. I wouldn’t suppose she’d know the best writers.”

“Are you kidding?” Mick said incredulously. “Yvonne’s the biggest mystery fanatic south of Alaska! She probably knows more about them than you or I do! She even
wrote
a few after she got out of college. I’ve read them. Real thrillers.”

Nancy gasped. “And I bet I can guess her pen name. She’s not, by any chance, Ivan Green, is she?”

“Brilliant deduction, Detective Drew,” Mick said with a laugh. “Ivan, which sounds like Yvonne, and Green, which is English for the Italian word
verdi,
her last name.”

Nancy suddenly glanced at her watch. “Oh, look, it’s almost five o’clock!” she exclaimed with fake surprise. “I promised my father I’d meet him for dinner at quarter after, so I’d better be running.” Nancy leaned down to kiss Mick’s cheek.

“Well, thanks for coming, Nancy. You’ve definitely broken the monotony of hospital life. And I love the dune buggy. It’s kind of like a pet puppy.”

“I’m glad. I’ll come visit you again soon.” Nancy grinned at Mick, but her smile disappeared the moment she stepped out of his room. She was thinking hard. She had a lot of work ahead of her, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it all alone. But who could she ask for help? Usually she called Bess or George, but
they were in River Heights. Too far away. Ned? After everything that had happened between them, could she still call him?

Nancy gave an exasperated sigh. I’ll have to, she decided, no matter how much pride is at stake.

Nancy hurried to the hospital cafeteria and found a telephone. Not stopping for a moment, she pushed seven numbers.

The phone rang once before Scott’s voice said, “Hello,
Flash
magazine.”

“Yes, I’d like to speak to Ned Nickerson,” Nancy said, trying not to sound like herself.

“Hold one moment,” Scott said. He hadn’t recognized her voice.

The next voice Nancy heard was Ned’s. “Hello?” he said.

“Hi, Ned, this is Nancy. Are you alone?”

“Oh, wow, I’m so glad you finally called!” Ned exclaimed happily. “I’ve missed you so much. When can we get together and talk this thing out?”

“Hold on. I’m not calling to make up, and I don’t want to hear the sordid details of your relationship with Sondra.”

“What sordid details?” Ned cried. “All we did was—”

“I don’t care.” Nancy cut Ned off. “I need to talk to you about something much more important.”

“More important than us, Nancy? I don’t think that exists.”

“Great. Butter me up, Ned Nickerson. Give
me the whole dairy farm! It still doesn’t excuse what you’ve done to me—to us!”

Ned sighed. “Please, let’s not fight again.”

“Right. I don’t have time for it. We’ve got to meet. Stay at
Flash.
I’ll be over there as fast as it takes me to catch a taxi downtown.”

“What’s up?” Ned asked.

“I’ve solved the mystery!” Nancy announced. Suddenly she was full of energy and excitement again.

“And you need my help to catch the person who’s responsible, right?”

“Not person—people,” Nancy told Ned.

“You mean there’s more than one?” Ned said, incredulous.

“Yup, there are two! And you’ll never guess who!”

T
WO
, N
ANCY?
W
HO
?” asked Ned.

“Well, one of them’s David Bower.”

“That’s no big surprise,” Ned said. “What about the second?”

Nancy took a deep breath. “You’re not going to believe this, but—Yvonne Verdi!”

“Yvonne?
Nancy, that’s impossible. Yvonne’s the one they’re trying to kill!”

“Nope, Yvonne’s the one they’re trying to make it
seem
as though they’re trying to kill. But really, Mick’s been the target of this scheme all along. I’ll explain the whole thing later. Just be at
Flash
when I get there.”

“Okay, Nancy. I love—” But she had already hung up the telephone.

Nancy dashed out of the hospital. She found a taxi right away and within seconds was shooting
downtown, the driver dodging bikers and pedestrians. I hope Yvonne and David haven’t gone home yet. I hope I haven’t missed them! she thought.

The ride to
Flash
took only fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours to Nancy. Wrapping up a mystery and catching the criminals was always hard, but this time an extra complication was going to make it even tougher.

Oh, Ned, Nancy cried to herself, why did you have to leave me? Then her anger flared. How dare you leave me! And how am I ever going to keep my mind on my plan when I feel like this? Nancy nibbled nervously on the nail of her index finger.

Nancy forced herself to think of the plan she was about to carry out—a plan which, if it worked, was going to nab her two attempted murderers. She’d have to play it cool and time things perfectly with Ned. Otherwise there was a good chance
she
would be the next victim!

Suddenly Nancy called to the taxi driver, “Hey, stop here, in front of this Woolworth’s. Keep the meter running. I’ll be back in two minutes, okay?”

“Fine with me,” the driver said, pulling up in front of the store.

Nancy jumped out of the car and hurried into the store. She spent less than five minutes inside. When she ran back out she was clutching a small brown paper bag. “I think I just broke the shopper’s speed record,” she commented to the driver as she jumped into the taxi. As he
peeled away from the curb, she stuffed the package into her shoulder bag.

It didn’t take long to reach the
Flash
building. Nancy paid the driver and tumbled out of the car. Once again she rode the elevator upstairs. She glanced at her watch. It was just after five-thirty. Good, she thought. She was sure that at least one of the crooks was still there and the rest of the staff was probably gone, so they wouldn’t mess anything up.

The elevator doors opened on the sixteenth floor, and Nancy stepped out. There was Ned— but he wasn’t alone! A yellow-haired figure stood next to him.

Nancy marched angrily over to Ned. She was seething but she hid her feelings as best she could. “Hello,” she said evenly.

“Sondra insisted on coming,” Ned told Nancy.

“I want to help,” Sondra explained. “It’s the least I can do for the girl who saved my brother.” She gave Nancy a smile full of warmth and hope.

Nancy was silent.

“Nancy,” Ned said, moving closer to her, “I told you, it’s not the way you think it is. You’re supposed to be a detective. Please don’t jump to conclusions before you have all the facts!”

Suddenly Sondra cut in. “Hold it, you two. You both sound ridiculous. Why don’t you try to communicate for real? First thing, Ned, is that you have to be more understanding of Nancy. She probably has good reason to feel a
little jealous. But, Nancy, you haven’t let Ned explain a word! How’s he supposed to get through to you? I’m going to have to take charge here, or we’ll never catch the crooks we came for!”

Sondra looked from Nancy to Ned and back.

“Good. Now that you’ve both shut up long enough to listen, I’m going to set you two straight. Nancy, I didn’t steal your boyfriend, no matter what you think. I’ll admit at first I was really attracted to Ned. But that was before I found out you two’d been going out for so long. Ned’s really helped me recently, at a time when everything seemed to be going wrong. I appreciate it,” Sondra said simply. “He’s been a good friend to me, a close friend—and that’s all!

“But, Ned,” Sondra continued, “I think you used me to get back at Nancy a little. You were mad at her for not spending enough time with you, and the fact that she got so jealous did wonders for your ego. Come on, you know it’s true!”

“I refuse to admit a thing,” Ned said, but a tiny smile played at the corners of his lips.

“It’s clear to me that you two love each other. But to tell you the truth, I don’t care about any of this,” Sondra said, “at least not right now. Because we’ve got some serious detective work to do. The three of us are just going to have to make up. Got it?”

Nancy glanced at Sondra out of the corner of her eye. She had to admit Sondra knew how to
get things done. If it had been up to me and Ned, the crooks would have gotten halfway to Acapulco before we even stopped fighting, Nancy said to herself. Nancy couldn’t help but admire Sondra. She’d really be okay—if only she’d stay away from Ned!

“All right,” Nancy said at last. “Are Yvonne and David still here?”

“Yvonne is,” Ned answered. “David went home an hour ago.”

“That’s fine. Once we’ve gotten a confession out of Yvonne, David will be easy to nab.”

“So where do we start?” Sondra wanted to know.

“In the darkroom, across from Yvonne’s office. You two stay there. I’ll be with Yvonne. Give me fifteen minutes, then come out and make sure I’m okay.” Nancy reached into her shoulder bag. “Here, Ned, I have something to give you.” Then she pulled out a small pistol. She was holding it by the barrel.

“Nancy!” Ned exclaimed. “What are you doing with that thing? You’ve never even touched one before, and neither have I! And what’s more, I don’t intend to start now. Throw it away!”

Nancy giggled. “Good, I’m glad it’s so convincing. Ned, it’s a water pistol, and one of the most realistic I’ve ever seen. I bought it at Woolworth’s on the way over here. If I really do get in trouble with Yvonne, running into her office and yelling ‘Boo’ isn’t going to help. But a gun—or what she thinks is a gun—will!”

Sondra laughed. “Catching a crook with a toy gun! My brother would really appreciate this!”

Ned frowned, but pocketed the water pistol. “Nancy,” he said, “I think you have a few disconnected wires.”

“It’s called improvising,” Nancy said with a smile. “You guys ready?”

“Sure, I’ve got my plastic gun, haven’t I?” Ned joked. Then his expression changed to one of concern. “Nancy, be careful.”

“I will. Don’t worry. Now come on.”

Nancy, Ned, and Sondra sneaked quietly down the corridor to the darkroom off of Mick’s office. “How are we going to get in? It’s locked,” Sondra whispered.

Nancy pulled out her credit card and gave Sondra a grin. In half a minute the door was open. “Okay, you two. Remember, fifteen minutes, just long enough for me to get the confession on tape. You’re my life insurance!”

Ned and Sondra stepped into the darkroom and Nancy closed the door gently. Then she reached into her shoulder bag and pushed the record button on her tiny portable tapedeck. Walking across the hallway, she knocked softly on Yvonne’s office door. There was no answer, even after she knocked a second time.

Finally Nancy pushed open the door. The publisher wasn’t there. Well, I’ll just have to wait for her, Nancy decided. She knew Yvonne hadn’t left for the day because her door was unlocked.

Nancy closed the door and leaned thoughtfully
against the leather couch. So Yvonne had turned out to be just as selfish and egotistical as she’d seemed to Nancy that first day. However, she also had an evil streak that Nancy hadn’t counted on. She hadn’t really cared about the magazine at all, just her own success and her wallet. She’d even been willing to kill off Mick, an old friend, when he’d gotten in the way.

Nancy started pacing the room. Where was Yvonne, anyway? Nancy had told Ned and Sondra to appear in fifteen minutes. If Yvonne didn’t show up soon, the timing of the plan was going to be thrown off!