“We can look around inside,” Mike agreed, “but I don’t think we’re going to find him.”
Back inside the club, Nancy and the others looked for any sign of Dennis. Ned went off in one direction while Mike and Josh checked out the dancers and people sitting at tables in another direction.
When they all met back at their table, Beth asked Mike if he’d found anyone who’d seen Dennis.
“Nope. We struck out,” Mike said with a frown.
Peter Henley came by just then. Nancy asked him if he’d spotted Dennis around the club.
Peter shook his head. “If he was here, I didn’t see him,” he said. With that, he went off to dance with a girl with bleached blond hair and spiked black boots.
“We might as well get out of here,” Mike told Jessica and Beth. “We’re wasting our time.”
“It took you long enough to figure that out,” Jessica muttered. She and Beth both seemed relieved as they got to their feet.
“Coming?” Mike asked Nancy, Ned, and Josh.
“I think we’ll stick around for a while,” Josh said.
Mike shrugged. “Good luck,” he replied. He, Jessica, and Beth hurried out of the club after asking Peter if he wanted a ride home. He shook his head no and continued dancing.
“What do you think Dennis was doing here?” Ned asked when the three of them were alone.
“My guess is he came to talk to someone,” Nancy offered, her eyes scanning the crowd. “From the way he took off when he saw Mike, it didn’t seem like he was here to have a good time,”
“Should we start asking around to see if anyone here knows Dennis or Rachel?” Ned wanted to know when the three of them were alone at the table.
“Sounds good to me,” Josh answered. “Nancy, you’d better stick with one of us.”
Ned’s eyes sparkled as he watched Nancy react to Josh’s innocent remark.
“I’ll be fine on my own,” she said pointedly.
Josh looked at her in surprise, then a grin broke out across his face. “Sure. Sorry, Nancy.”
She smiled. “No problem. How about if you guys take opposite sides of the room while I cover the middle?”
Ned gave her a salute. “Yes, ma’am,” he said.
Nancy drew a deep breath and approached a table where eight people were sitting. She looked as friendly as possible. “Hi, I’m looking for Dennis Harper, and I was wondering if any of you know him.”
Eight pairs of eyes turned up to her face. Eight pairs of suspicious eyes. None of them seemed to recognize Dennis’s name.
“Why do you ask?” inquired one girl.
“I’ve got some questions to ask him.”
The girl’s gaze took in Nancy’s shorts and T-shirt with distaste. “You a cop?”
“Don’t be an idiot, Marcy,” put in one of the guys at the table. “She’s too young to be a cop.”
“Maybe,” said Marcy.
“I’m just a friend,” Nancy told them.
Marcy’s eyebrows rose. “Of Dennis’s?”
“Of Rachel Kline’s, actually.”
The band launched into a throbbing beat, and most of the kids got up to dance, but Marcy and another guy stayed behind. Marcy appeared very curious. “Is Dennis in any trouble?”
“Maybe,” Nancy said, sitting down in an empty chair and ignoring the stare from the guy with Marcy. “Did you know Rachel’s missing?”
Marcy wouldn’t meet Nancy’s eyes. “Rachel Kline.” She said the name with a touch of scorn. Nancy was sure that Marcy knew Rachel, whether she’d admit it or not. “Are her parents blaming Dennis?”
Nancy shrugged. “Nobody’s blaming anybody. Rachel’s family is really worried, of course. We’re just trying to find her—and him.”
“Dennis was in here earlier,” Marcy confessed reluctantly. “But he’s gone now.”
“Do you know what he was doing here?”
Marcy pulled back at the question. “No,” she said. She turned to start talking to the guy at the table.
“It could be important,” Nancy pressed gently.
At that moment the guy interrupted. “Let’s dance,” he said to Marcy, wrenching her out of her chair. It was clear he thought she’d said too much as it was.
During the next half hour every person Nancy talked to denied knowing Rachel and claimed not to have seen Dennis that night.
Ned joined her as she left the last table. “No luck,” he said, spreading his hands. “I even tried the guys in the band, and Josh talked to the kitchen crew and the waitresses. If anybody here has ever heard of Harper, he’s not admitting it.”
Nancy nodded. “I came up dry, too. What do you say we get out of here? I’m getting a headache.”
“Let’s find Josh,” he agreed, taking Nancy’s hand and pushing a path through the crowd.
As they were leaving Nancy noticed something scrawled on the wall beside the front door and stopped for a closer look. There, among the phone numbers, names, and other graffiti, was a drawing of a cat with white eyes.
It looked familiar, but Nancy didn’t know why until they were outside, where it was quieter, and the evening air was pleasantly cool. Beth Hanford came into her mind, and Nancy remembered the necklace she’d been wearing at the party earlier that evening—a gold cat with white opal eyes.
She caught Ned’s arm and pulled him back inside. “Look at this,” she said, pointing at the cat. “Doesn’t it look familiar to you?”
Ned thought for a moment, then nodded. “Beth was wearing a necklace like that,” he said.
Nancy frowned as they went back outside to catch up with Josh. “It probably doesn’t mean anything,” she mused. “Still, it’s an odd coincidence.”
Nobody said much on the way back to Beverly Hills—each was lost in his or her own thoughts. Where could Rachel be? Was she safe? If Dennis had kidnapped her, why hadn’t he sent a ransom note? And what had he been doing in the club that night? It seemed like a pretty big risk for him to be seen in public if he had anything to do with Rachel’s disappearance.
The house was all lit up when they arrived at the Klines’, and there was a police car in the driveway. Nancy’s heart started pounding. She hoped the police had brought good news. She hurried into the house behind Josh and Ned.
“Mom!” Josh yelled the moment they were through the front door. “Dad! Where is everybody?”
Karen Kline appeared at the top of the grand, curving stairway. “Up here, dear,” she said, her voice shaky.
“What’s going on?” Josh demanded, racing up the stairs. “Did they find Rachel?”
Slowly Mrs. Kline shook her head. “No,” she said. Then, without saying anything more, she walked down the hallway, moving as if she was in a daze.
Josh followed her at top speed, and Nancy and Ned came behind him at a slightly slower pace. It was obvious that something shattering had happened, and they didn’t want to intrude.
Ned took Nancy’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze. The light was on in Rachel’s room, and they could hear Mr. Kline speaking in an angry, agitated voice.
Mrs. Kline explained to Josh as Mr. Kline talked with a police officer. “When we got home, we checked to see if your sister was back. This is what we found.”
Pausing at Rachel’s doorway just then, Nancy gasped.
Rachel’s room had been ransacked!
Chapter
Seven
EVERY DRESSER DRAWER had been emptied onto the floor, and the contents of the closet and bookcase were scattered everywhere. Even the mattress and box spring had been torn from the bed.
Nancy noticed a video camera lying on the floor in the corner. There were tapes scattered all around it.
“Take a look at this,” she said, heading for the camera and bending down to get a closer look. In that moment Nancy ruled out burglary—the rest of the house was apparently untouched, and no thief would have left such an expensive camera behind.
Josh nodded. He was acting worried and distracted. “Rachel’s
interested in filmmaking, too,” he said absently.
“I don’t think it was a burglary, Mr. Kline,” the police officer said as Rachel’s father walked him out.
“Nothing’s missing?” Nancy wanted to know as she went to stand at Mrs. Kline’s side.
“Not as far as I can tell,” Karen Kline answered. “Not even my jewelry.” Nancy could see that she was on the verge of tears. “And I don’t think we surprised whoever it was, either,” the woman went on. “I mean, we didn’t see anyone leaving the house. It had to have happened while we were still at the party.”
“A burglar wouldn’t have left without that camera,” Ned said, voicing Nancy’s conclusion. “Not to mention the rest of the stuff in the house.”
“How could anyone get past the housekeeper? She should have heard a noise,” Nancy said.
“Mrs. Morgan is a very sound sleeper, and her rooms are at the far end of the house. She also forgot to set the burglar alarm before going to sleep, so the intruder had no problems getting in and back out,” Mrs. Kline answered with a slight shrug of her shoulders.
Nancy went back to the videotapes and studied them carefully. All had obviously been labeled by Rachel, with titles like “Day at the Beach,” “Girls at the Mall,” and “Boys Worth Watching.” Nancy smiled sadly and turned back to the others. “Are the police going to dust for fingerprints?” she asked.
“I don’t know how much good it will do,” Mrs. Kline replied. “Allen and I touched lots of things while we were looking to see if anything was missing. The officer also said it wouldn’t help unless whoever broke in had a prior record.”
“Still,” Nancy said, “fingerprints might offer an important clue. Suppose the culprit does have a record?”
Mrs. Kline nodded distractedly. “I’ll ask Allen to speak to the police,” she said, and she hurried out.
“Let’s go talk,” Josh said after a long sigh. Nancy nodded, and she and Ned followed him out of Rachel’s room.
After Mr. and Mrs. Kline went off to bed, Josh, Ned, and Nancy sat down in the den with glasses of lemonade and a bowl of chips.
“It’s been a long day,” Josh said, rubbing his eyes. “And a confusing one. I just don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Whoever broke in tonight was looking for something very specific,” Nancy offered. Ned nodded his silent agreement. “But what?”
“The only thing we know for certain is that it must be connected to Rachel,” Ned said. “And maybe also that it was something that could explain where she is now.”
“Maybe.” Nancy thought for a moment. “But we wouldn’t know what the connection was.”
“Here’s another question: Who pushed you over the deck tonight, and why?” Josh asked.
Nancy shrugged. “Someone in Rachel’s crowd who doesn’t want us to find her, that’s my guess.”
“Could it have been Dennis?” Ned wondered.
“I doubt it,” Nancy said firmly. “Judging from the way he ran out of the Snake Pit tonight, I don’t think he’d risk being seen at a party.”
Josh stood up. “I can’t think anymore tonight, that’s for sure. If you have time tomorrow, come by the studio and we can talk. My mom and dad are making me go to work every day. They think it’s best if we try to stick to our normal routine.”
Nancy smiled. “I agree with them.”
After Josh went up to bed, Ned reached out to give Nancy a kiss. “Alone at last,” he murmured into her hair.
“Don’t worry, Nickerson,” Nancy told him with a laugh. “You’ll have me all to yourself tomorrow.”
“Why? What happens tomorrow?” Ned asked curiously.
“Tomorrow we’re going to track down Dennis Harper. No matter what.”
• • •
As soon as Nancy got up the next morning she tried Dennis’s phone number for what seemed like the fiftieth time. Still no answer. After quickly dressing in white slacks and a roomy blue cotton shirt, she hurried downstairs.
Josh, Ned, and the Klines were already in the dining room. The doorbell rang almost as soon as Nancy sat down at the table.
“That must be Lieutenant Heller,” Mr. Kline said, getting up to answer the door himself. “The police promised to bring a fingerprint expert.”
Everyone left the table to follow the two people upstairs to Rachel’s room. The fingerprint woman sighed when she saw the mess the intruder had left. Fingerprints would be almost impossible to lift.
“I checked with your neighbors last night,” the lieutenant said. “None of them saw or heard anything out of the ordinary while you were out.”
“And nothing is missing,” Mrs. Kline added. “We double-checked everything.”
“Are there any leads on my daughter, Lieutenant?” Mr. Kline asked. “Have you been able to locate her boyfriend, Dennis?”
Lieutenant Heller raised his hands in a helpless gesture. “No leads, I’m afraid, Mr. Kline. But I do have an address for the Harper boy, and we’re checking up on him.”
Nancy’s heart started to race. So the police knew where Dennis Harper lived. “Could you give me his address, Lieutenant?” she asked.
At the lieutenant’s quizzical expression, Karen Kline explained that Nancy was an amateur detective and that she was helping them find their daughter.
“Hey, I’ve heard of you,” Heller said with a smile. “I read about you in the paper somewhere. What do you know—Drew’s your name, right?”
Nancy blushed, and Ned gave her a little poke in the ribs. “That’s right. Could you give me Dennis’s address? I’d like to check his place out.”
The detective pulled a notebook from his shirt pocket, flipped it open, and read off an address. Nancy made a note of it and thanked the lieutenant.
“You won’t be able to get in—unless he’s there,” he said, closing the notebook and tucking it away again. “And if he is there, he probably won’t let you in. I can tell you that we went over that apartment with a fine-tooth comb and came up blank.”
Nancy nodded. She still wanted to go out there herself. She’d ask Josh if they could borrow Rachel’s car to drive out to Dennis’s place.
Josh glanced at his watch. “I’m going to be late for work if I don’t leave right now,” he said, his tone apologetic. “If you guys want to use the car, you can drive me to work and take it,” he said, reading Nancy’s mind.
“Go ahead, Josh,” Mr. Kline urged. “Try to have a good day.”
Nancy lingered for just a moment after Josh and Ned went out, talking with Lieutenant Heller. “I understand there’ve been a lot of other break-ins in the community lately,” she said.
Heller answered her as if she were a colleague. “Yes,” he said with a nod. “There have been, and we’ve been getting nowhere with them.”
“Just as you’re getting nowhere finding our daughter,” Mrs. Kline put in, sounding a little peevish.
The lieutenant’s strong but ordinary face showed compassion as he met Karen’s gaze. “We’re trying, Mrs. Kline,” he said quietly. “But the unfortunate truth is, we’re swamped with reports of missing teenagers. It’s an epidemic.”
“Nancy!” Ned’s voice called to her good-naturedly, from a distance.
“I’d like to talk to you again soon,” Nancy said to the lieutenant.
He nodded and handed her his card. “Take care, Ms. Drew. We may be dealing with some very dangerous people. Please be careful.”
Just as Nancy reached the bottom of the stairway the telephone rang. Mrs. Morgan answered it and held out the receiver of the hallway extension. “It’s for you, Nancy,” she said.
Nancy was surprised. “Hello?”
“Nancy, this is Beth Hanford.” Beth sounded scared and anxious. “I need to talk to you. In person.”
“I was just going out,” Nancy answered, conscious that Ned and Josh were waiting. She didn’t want Josh to be late for his job because of her. “Could we meet later?”
“Twelve o’clock,” Beth said. “The pizza
place in the Golden Hills Mall?”
“I’ll be there,” Nancy promised after Beth gave her directions.
Nancy hung up and dashed out to catch up with Josh and Ned. The three of them got into the Camaro and headed for the movie studio.
“I hope they get a break in this case soon,” Josh said as he maneuvered the sporty car through the early-morning traffic. “I don’t think my folks—or I—can take much more.”
Nancy and Ned were silent. There was nothing either of them could say to help.
When they reached the studio gates Josh’s mood improved. It was obvious to Nancy that he loved his job after only one day. He gave a cheerful hello to the guard who checked his ID, and he asked for one-day passes for Nancy and Ned. Driving through the lot, they passed people dressed in costumes from every period.
“Visitors can come onto the lot on the other side if they buy a ticket,” Josh explained. “They’re not supposed to wander into this part, but it does happen sometimes.”
Josh passed a lot of expensive cars to park the Camaro among some older, battered models. “Why don’t you come over and look around for a couple of hours? A change from the case might do you some good,” Josh said.
Nancy and Ned nodded their agreement, and Nancy said, “Just for an hour. We’ve got lots to do.” She was interrupted just then by a screech of tires and a loud crash.
Josh chuckled. “Don’t worry, Nancy,” he said. “It’s just a scene being shot.”
They wandered over to the set where Josh was working. An outdoor scene was being blocked, and Nancy and Ned found places to stand and watch where they were out of the way. Josh was already at work helping the assistant director’s assistant.
“We’ll only stay for a little while because I want to check out the address Lieutenant Heller gave me for Dennis Harper,” Nancy explained. Then she filled him in on her appointment with Beth. “All right with you?” she asked.
“You bet.” They were silent for a few minutes. “It’ll be weird to sit in a theater and watch this,” Ned whispered after a couple of minutes. Nancy’s mind was mostly on the case she was trying to solve, but she did manage to smile and nod.