The Strange Message in the Parchment (10 page)

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Authors: Carolyn G. Keene

BOOK: The Strange Message in the Parchment
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Sm Zikes! The young man they had been trying to find! His right hand was still bandaged.
Officer Browning said, “Sid is being charged with petty larceny and will be booked on that count.”
Sid Zikes spoke up. “I got a right to bail!”
He was told that this was a judge’s decision and he would have to remain behind bars until the amount was decided upon.
The prisoner’s eyes roamed from one person to another in the room. Finally they rested on Nancy. The girl detective felt uncomfortable. Was he blaming her for his arrest?
Officer Browning asked Nancy and Mr. Flockhart if they would like to question the prisoner. The sheep-farm owner said he would defer to Nancy. “She knows better than I do what to ask.”
Addressing Sid Zikes, the girl detective began. “Why did you steal the parchment picture from Mr. Flockhart’s home?”
Sid looked at the floor and replied, “I didn’t.”
Nancy told him that she knew he had purchased a new piece of glass exactly the right size to replace the one that had been smashed when he had thrown the picture. The young man made no comment, and looked out a window.
Nancy decided to change her line of questioning. She said, “Did you threaten the shepherd Eezy and knock him out?”
The prisoner shouted, “No!”
“When you went up the hillside to his cabin, who was the person with you? A buddy or a stranger?”
Sid Zikes said definitely, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t have to listen to this kind of questioning. Officer, take me away. But I warn every one of you, I won’t be in jail long! I’ll prove my innocence!”
As Mr. Flockhart and Nancy left State Police headquarters, he said to her, “Do you think Sid Zikes is guilty?”
Nancy replied that she was sure he was the burglar who had taken the parchment picture. “He was about the size and build of the person I caught a glimpse of in your house. But I think it may be true that he had nothing to do with the attack on Eezy.”
Mr. Flockhart was inclined to agree. “But I doubt that Sid Zikes wanted the picture for himself. I believe he was paid by somebody to sneak in and get it.”
Nancy asked the Triple Creek owner if he had any guesses about who that person might be. Mr. Flockhart shook his head. “Unfortunately I understand there is a gang in town that will do such jobs for people who would not think of committing the act themselves. So far the police haven’t been able to apprehend them.”
Nancy remarked, “The person who puts any one up to stealing to gain something for himself is even worse than the thief, don’t you think?”
“I agree,” Mr. Flockhart said.
He and Nancy went to his car and drove off. She asked him if he would mind going into town so she could purchase some fine colored pencils to make sketches on the parchment.
“I’ll be glad to,” he said, “but don’t ask my advice on the best colors. The truth is, I’m color-blind.”
“That’s too bad,” Nancy said.
The farmer laughed. “It doesn’t bother me. So far all my customers who plan to paint on parchment seem to know everything about colors.”
After the purchases had been made, Nancy and Mr. Flockhart rode home. He dropped her at the front door of the house, then drove off to his factory.
Junie and her mother were there and were amazed to hear the story of Sid Zikes’s capture and imprisonment.
“I’d say the police are very efficient,” Mrs. Flockhart remarked.
Junie spoke up. “But Nancy had some excellent information to give them.”
Nancy brushed aside the compliment and asked where she might work on the parchment. “I’m eager to get started,” she said.
Junie’s mother said she knew the perfect spot. “At the rear of the garden behind the farmhouse there’s a lovely summer house. It’s an attractive little place. I think you’ll like the nice, shady spot. It’s quiet and nobody will disturb you.”
Junie offered to get an easel from the attic and bring it downstairs. The two girls walked out to the summer house and set up the easel. Nancy got out her colored pencils. Next she stretched the parchment across a frame and pinned it tightly. Then she set it on the easel and said, “I guess I’m ready to start.”
Junie watched as her friend meticulously began her work.
The girl artist thought, “I’ll do the hardest thing first. That will be the sketch of the beautiful young woman.”
She closed her eyes for several seconds, so that she might recall the original picture exactly. Finally she opened them and began to paint.
Junie watched Nancy for several minutes, fascinated, then said she must do her own chores. “I’ll be back as soon as possible,” she told Nancy.
The young sleuth worked diligently for some time. Secretly she was pleased with the result of her work. “It really does look like the original,” she thought.
Nancy had told no one, but what she had in mind was making a parchment picture resembling the original so closely that Mr. Flockhart would indeed want to hang it over the fireplace in the living room.
She smiled to herself. “Maybe I have nerve even to try to do this, but I’ll attempt it anyway.”
By the time Junie returned, Nancy had almost completed the entire group of pictures. She was working on the sketch of the collision between the sailing ship and the steamer.
Junie was astounded. “Nancy, that’s simply marvelous!” she exclaimed.
The words were hardly out of her mouth when the girls became aware of something sailing through the air behind them. The next instant their heads and the parchment were covered with paint!
Nancy and Junie had turned quickly. They were just in time to see two shadowy figures throw down cans of paint and run away. All thought of trying to follow the two men vanished from the girls’ minds. The paint was running down from their hair, and they did not dare let it get into their eyes.
Both of them picked up pieces of cloth, which Nancy had handy to use for her work. They wiped off their spattered faces as best they could and then tried to remove the paint from their hair. In seconds they had used up all the available cloths and decided they had better hurry into the house to finish the job.
Nancy paused a moment, however, to look at the parchment. It was ruined! She was on the verge of tears as she picked up the parchment and colored pencils, and followed Junie to the house.
Mrs. Flockhart was near the door when the girls rushed in. She cried out, “What in the world happened to you?”
Junie explained and together they opened a kitchen drawer and took out a roll of cheesecloth. Mrs. Flockhart quickly cut it into sections and handed pieces to the girls. While they worked on their hair, she mopped the paint off their clothing.
“We’d better shampoo right away,” Junie advised.
“That won’t get off all the paint,” her mother said. “It has an oil base. What you should use is paint thinner. Wait here while I run out to the garage for some. I know there’s a large can of it there.”
She was gone only a couple of minutes. When she returned, Mrs. Flockhart told the two girls to lean their foreheads against the rim of the sink and let their hair fall inside. Then she poured out the paint thinner, and in a little while the combination of the red and blue splotches had vanished.
The girls’ heads were covered with paint!
“Now go upstairs and take hot showers and shampoos,” she said.
The girls went to the second floor and reappeared an hour later, looking as if nothing had happened to them. Meanwhile Mrs. Flockhart had tried to remove the paint from the parchment, but had found it impossible. The blue and red liquids had mingled with Nancy’s sketches to such an extent that there was no chance of separating them.
“I’m dreadfully sorry this happened,” the distressed woman said. “Did you girls see who threw the paint?”
Nancy replied that they had had a glimpse of two figures, but did not see the intruders clearly enough to identify them.
Suddenly she had an idea. “Junie, do you recall that those men threw down their cans of paint?”
“No, all I remember is wanting to get away from them as fast as possible.”
“Well, it seems to me they did leave those containers behind. Maybe we can find some clue to where they came from—a brand name or some other kind of identification. Let’s look!”
Overhearing Nancy’s comments, Mrs. Flockhart spoke before her daughter could. “Those men could still be on our property. They could be lurking behind the summer house.”
“Oh, Mother,” Junie said, laughing. “They ran off.”
“I know you said that. But if Nancy is right about the paint cans, perhaps they returned for them.” She paused a moment. “No, I would prefer that you remain here.”
The girl detective, however, was not willing to let such a valuable clue slip past her so easily. “Mrs. Flockhart, would you go with us? I’m sure that two men would not want to tackle three women.”
Reluctantly the woman agreed. “All right, but let’s be quick about it.”
Nancy and Junie hurried outdoors with Mrs. Flockhart behind them and headed for the summer house. Not far from it lay the two empty cans.
“These are the Acme brand,” Junie said. “Maybe that will be a clue.”
“I think it’s a good one,” Nancy replied.
She and Junie picked up the two cans and the three went back to the house. At Nancy’s suggestion, Junie telephoned each store in town where paint was sold. The first one did not carry this brand.
Nancy waited expectantly, but as someone in each shop said he did not sell the Acme brand, she became more and more discouraged. Her beautiful clue was coming to nothing!
When Junie finished telephoning, she turned to Nancy. “What’s the next move? I’m determined to find out who threw that paint at us and ruined your picture!”
“I’m just as determined,” Nancy told her. “As you know, Junie, I have never trusted Mr. Rocco from the beginning, and I trust him less now that I know he entered this country under an assumed name or sneaked in. I suggest that we go to his place and look around his barns while avoiding him. Maybe we can find some Acme paint cans.”
Junie looked at her friend in astonishment. “That’s the last thing in the world I thought you would say, but I agree it’s a good idea. I’ll get the car.”
In a short time Junie parked far from the entrance to Rocco’s farm and the two girls walked across the fields toward the barns, which were outside the fenced-in area. They entered one building, which was empty. There were many tools hanging up and shelves on which stood cans of various products, including paint. The girls tiptoed forward to examine them.
“Acme paint!” Nancy whispered. “And, Junie, look! Here is one of blue and one of red in exactly the same shades that were thrown at us.”
“So two of Mr. Rocco’s workers are guilty!” Junie said in a low tone. “Maybe we’d better hurry away and report the incident before we get caught.”
The girls were about to walk outside when they heard voices close by. Two men were speaking in Italian, and they seemed to be arguing.
This went on for a few minutes, then suddenly one of them spoke English. The girls did not recognize the voice that cried out in a snarl, “If they won’t join, they won’t! And don’t ask me to pull any rough stuff to make them do it!”
CHAPTER XIV
Important Information
 
 
 
ASTOUNDED at what they had just heard, Nancy and Junie stood stock-still, staring at each other. They had not recognized the voice of either man.
Instead of tiptoing away at once, the girls waited to hear more conversation by the two unseen men. There was none, however, and their footsteps faded away.
Nancy at once thought of Eezy and Mrs. Potter, the shopkeeper. Were they being coerced to join some association they wanted to have nothing to do with? Nancy signaled Junie, and the girls walked quickly out of the barn and returned to the car.
As they drove away, Nancy told Junie her suspicions and said, “Let’s stop at the general store and see what we can find out from Mrs. Potter.”
When they arrived, several people were going in and out of the store, so Nancy suggested that they wait. “I’d rather talk to Mrs. Potter when no one else is around,” she told Junie.
Ten minutes later there seemed to be fewer customers, so the two girls walked into the country store. Mrs. Potter greeted them cordially and asked, “What can I do for you?”
Nancy did not hesitate to tell her the whole story. She asked if her guess had been right about what the two men wanted her to do.
The woman suddenly blushed. “How did you ever figure that out? The whole matter was supposed to be kept secret, otherwise we’d be harmed.”
The girl detective smiled. “Junie and I heard it from one of Mr. Rocco’s men. Please tell us more.”
Mrs. Potter heaved a great sigh and then told the girls that their guess was half right. “There’s a lot more to it. Those men who I suspect are tools of Mr. Rocco, found out that I knew the scheme was phony, and threatened me if I told anyone.”

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