Poison Pen (3 page)

“I am working,” Ned replied, stepping inside. “I had to come into River Heights to pick up some papers, but they won't be ready for another half hour. So I thought I'd come visit my favorite detective. Hey, don't I get a kiss?”

In answer Nancy put the paper down on the hall table and threw her arms around Ned's neck. “You asked for it,” she warned, then gave him a warm, lingering kiss.

“Mmm. How about seconds?” he murmured when their lips finally parted.

Nancy ruffled his brown hair and chided, “Don't be greedy!” Then she picked up the newspaper and led the way into the living room.

“What's going on? You don't usually read that rag, do you?” Ned asked, catching sight of the
Today's Times
logo.

“Not usually,” Nancy agreed. “But Brenda Carlton has a new column, and I wanted to check it out. Here, take a look.” She handed Ned the paper, still opened to Brenda's column, and pulled him down beside her on the couch.

He glanced at it briefly. “What is this, some kind of advice column?”

“Uh-huh,” Nancy told him, nodding. “The previous column I read was pretty silly stuff, but this one seems to be spiced up with some ‘creative' writing.”

Nancy told him about running into Brenda and how Bess had teased her about the column being a little dull. “She got mad and hinted that things were going to get more exciting soon. Lo and behold, the first letter in her column today is from a girl who thinks her mother is going insane. And listen to the second one!”

She took the paper back from Ned and read, “ ‘Dear Brenda, I turn to you in fear and desperation. Please help me. I think my husband is trying to kill me!' ”

“What?” Ned exclaimed, alarm in his brown eyes.

Nancy read on.

• • •

“It started several weeks ago, when I opened a kitchen cabinet and a heavy silver platter fell from the top shelf and just missed
my head. I don't usually keep the silver in that cabinet! What if he put it there hoping it would fall and kill me?

“A week later I was climbing a ladder to prune our apple tree, and my foot slipped on one of the metal rungs. I nearly fell. When I checked the rung, I found it was covered with grease!

“Two days ago I went out to the garage and found my husband under my car with a pair of pliers in his hand. He says he was adjusting the steering, but I'm not sure I believe him. I haven't driven my car since, and I know he wonders why.

“Brenda, I don't know why he's doing this, but I'm sure my suspicions of him are right. I have no one else to turn to. Tell me what to do!

“Desperate.”

• • •

“I see what you mean,” Ned said slowly. “She definitely could have made up something like this. So what's her advice?”

“It's not very good, in my opinion. She tells Desperate to sit tight and do nothing.” Nancy pursed her lips. “My advice in this situation would be to tell the woman to go to the police.”

Ned gave her a probing look. “But I thought you said you didn't think this letter was real?”

Nancy pressed her lips together. “It would be pretty sleazy—even for Brenda—to lie
about something as serious as murder,” she said after a moment. “But I guess I wouldn't put it past her. In fact, I think I know where Brenda got the idea for the last part of the letter—the bit about the car, I mean.” Nancy told him about the accident in the mall parking lot.

“Brenda was in a fender bender, huh?” Ned remarked.

Nancy nodded. “And Mrs. Keating—the woman in the other car—claimed her brakes weren't working properly,” she explained. “I'll bet you anything that's what gave Brenda the idea about the husband sabotaging the car.”

“I don't want to bet,” Ned said, grinning at her. “I'm sure you're right. Now, stop thinking like a detective for a second and tell me about tonight.”

“Okay.” Nancy told Ned about the barbecue she'd planned for before the concert.

“So you and I are playing matchmaker, eh?” Ned said. “Sounds like fun!” Glancing at his watch, he added, “Hey, I've got to go. My half hour is almost up.” He got to his feet. “Listen, I'll see you tonight.”

“I'll be counting the hours, dahling,” Nancy said, waggling her eyebrows at him. Then she jumped up and planted a quick kiss on his lips.

“You're a lunatic,” Ned said affectionately.

After he left, Nancy spent a couple of hours making potato salad and marinating chicken for the barbecue. Then, at noon, she headed
over to the mall to meet George and Bess for some last-minute accessory shopping before the concert.

“What are you going to wear tonight, Nan?” George asked as they walked down the mall concourse.

“I think my aqua dress—you know, the one with the palm trees and flamingoes on it,” Nancy replied. “I'd like to find some really fun earrings to go with it, too.”

“Let's go to Zigzag,” Bess suggested. “They have the best jewelry.”

As they approached the little store, Nancy was surprised to see a familiar dark-haired figure moving toward them. “Brenda Carlton —two days in a row,” she murmured. “Just our luck.”

“Hello, you three,” Brenda called. She stepped around the scaffolding in the middle of the concourse and gave it a disapproving glare. “Seen the newspapers this morning?” she chirped.

“If you mean, did we read your column, I did,” Nancy replied.

“So did I,” Bess spoke up. A troubled expression crossed her face. “Are you sure you gave that woman the right advice, Brenda? I mean, if her husband really is trying to kill her, wouldn't it be wiser for her to go to the police?”

Brenda couldn't keep the satisfied smile off her face. “That shows what you know,” she
said smugly. “Going to the police wouldn't help anything. I'm handling it.”

“Oh,” Bess said in an uncertain voice.

“Bess is right,” Nancy declared. “If someone came to me with a problem like that, I'd definitely tell her to go to the police.” She studied Brenda silently. “On the other hand,
I
don't have a newspaper column to spice up.”

Brenda's nostrils flared with anger. “Just what are you trying to say?”

“You tell me,” Nancy said evenly.

Suddenly Brenda tossed her head. “You're just jealous because my client didn't come to you, Nancy.” She drew herself up haughtily. “If you must know, in tomorrow's column I'm going to tell this woman to get in touch with me.
I'll
get to the bottom of this case. After all, it's the least I can do—the woman asked for my help.”

Then Brenda whirled around and marched away.

Staring after her, Nancy said, “I shouldn't have baited her. Now she's going to use her column to prove how great she is at solving a problem, which she probably made up in the first place. This whole dumb thing could go on forever.”

“Nancy,” Bess began, obviously troubled. “What if Brenda didn't make up that letter? It sounded real to me, and—well, she could really do something to make things worse for that woman.”

“That's a pretty scary thought,” Nancy agreed. “But think about it. It just seems like too much of a coincidence that you were teasing Brenda about how dull her column was only yesterday, and today—”

She never got to finish her sentence because at that moment, she heard a man cry, “Look out!”

Nancy spun, instantly alert. About fifty yards away Brenda was standing by the metal scaffolding in the middle of the main concourse. She was staring up, her face pale as death. She seemed to be frozen with fear.

A massive wooden beam had apparently slid off the workmen's platform, four stories above —and was hurtling straight at Brenda!

B
RENDA
!” N
ANCY SHOUTED
. She sprinted forward, but as she moved, she knew she didn't have a chance of getting to Brenda before the beam struck.

Nancy's voice must have awakened Brenda from her trance, though. Suddenly the young reporter gave a shrill scream and threw herself backward. A split second later the beam crashed down with a deafening clatter and bounced on the marble floor—right where she had been standing.

Nancy raced to Brenda's side. “Are you all right?” she asked breathlessly.

Brenda was unable to speak. She only nodded, her teeth chattering and her dark eyes round as two buttons. Nancy followed Brenda's horrified gaze to the beam, and her
breath caught in her throat. The four-inch-thick plank was cracked along its entire length from the fall. There was no way Brenda would have survived being struck by it!

“I saw it,” Nancy heard someone say. She raised her eyes to see a woman in a baker's cap and apron. “I was standing right over there behind the counter, and I saw the whole thing.” The woman shook a finger at Brenda. “You're lucky to be alive!”

Bess and George had rushed over right behind Nancy, and a few other people were coming over to see what was wrong. Bess put an arm around Brenda, who looked as if she might faint.

“Whew,” George said softly to Nancy, glancing at the fallen beam. “If that thing had hit Brenda . . .”

Nancy nodded gravely. “It was close,” she said. Her gaze traveled up the sides of the scaffold to the platform at the top. It appeared to be deserted. Nancy checked her watch. One o'clock—the workers were probably at lunch.

“If there's no one up there, how did the beam fall?” she wondered aloud.

Nancy heard Brenda draw in her breath sharply. Looking over, she saw two spots of color flaming in Brenda's pale cheeks.

“You don't look well,” George told her.

“Maybe I should call an ambulance,” the woman from the bakery offered.

“An ambulance?” Brenda's voice was shaky,
but she managed a scornful laugh. “I think you'd better call the police.”

Bess frowned. “Police?” she said. “Surely for an accident like this—”

“Accident!” Brenda shrieked, twisting away from Bess. “You
would
think it was an accident. Well, it wasn't, let me tell you. Someone just tried to kill me!”

“What?”
Nancy's jaw dropped. “Brenda, what are you saying?”

The reporter's dark eyes glittered. “Isn't it obvious?” she retorted. “I'm talking about my column. Someone clearly doesn't want me to be in touch with that woman. The person must know I'm about to uncover the truth!”

“How do you figure that? Did you see someone up there?” Nancy asked dubiously.

“No,” Brenda said with an impatient flick of her fingers. “I was just minding my own business and—wham!”

“How could anyone have dropped that beam on you?” Nancy asked. “There was no one up there to drop it.”

“Exactly,” said Brenda triumphantly. “The perfect alibi—or so the murderer thinks.” She pointed dramatically at the platform. “That board should be dusted for fingerprints. I want to talk to the mall manager, and then I want to talk to the police. This was a deliberate attempt on my life, and I want them to do something about it.”

Nancy suppressed a groan. Leaning close to
Bess and George, she whispered, “I think what we're seeing here is an attempt to get some free publicity for Brenda's column.”

“You mean she's making up all that stuff about someone wanting to kill her?” Bess demanded, sounding outraged.

Nodding, Nancy said, “I think so. I'm going to ask around, but I doubt anyone saw anything—there probably wasn't anything suspicious to see.”

Sure enough, none of the people the girls questioned had noticed anything unusual. Nancy even tracked down some of the construction workers and talked to the manager. By the time the police arrived and Brenda began her story again, Nancy was completely fed up.

“Come on, let's get out of here,” she said to Bess and George.

The three girls were turning to leave when Nancy's eye was caught by an amazingly good-looking young man in the crowd around Brenda. The guy was well over six feet tall, with a mane of unruly blond hair and piercing green eyes. He was staring at Brenda as if he were seeing a ghost.

Nancy stopped short. What's the matter with that guy? she wondered with a prickle of unease.

Almost as if he sensed her gaze, the guy turned and stared directly at Nancy. A deep
flush spread over his tanned face. He quickly averted his eyes and hurried away, pushing through the crowd.

“Boy, this is my week for spotting faces in the crowd,” Nancy mumbled. She gestured with her head at the young man, who was just turning for a last look at Brenda. “Now,
he
looks like a guy with a guilty conscience.”

“He just looks gorgeous to me,” Bess said appreciatively. “If you want to follow him, Nan, I'm game.”

Nancy and George broke into a laugh. “Thanks. I'm sure you're offering only out of the goodness of your heart,” Nancy teased.