“Well, Mattie spoke so highly of you, Mr. Casper,” Nancy began. Dwayne’s face grew pink with pleasure. “And I know you once represented Rick Arlen—”
At the mention of Rick’s name, the agent’s face clouded over. “Ah, yes, the irrepressible Mr. A.”
“He’s not with you anymore, is he?” Nancy was being bolder than she liked to be, but she had to lead Dwayne on.
“Rick? His real name is Richard Aburtuski, by the way. No, he’s no longer one of my clients. I don’t deal with failures, Ms. Elliot.”
Nancy looked genuinely surprised. Dwayne laughed derisively. “You think I’m being ridiculous—after all, he’s at the height of success! But I can tell you with certainty that leaving this agency is the biggest mistake Arlen ever made—except for his decision to be an actor, of course. The man can’t act his way out of a paper bag. He depends on his looks to get him by, but he’ll learn. They all learn eventually that the biggest factor in success is loyalty. And he has none.”
Dwayne’s face was red with anger. He wasn’t through on the subject of Rick Arlen, but just then the buzzer rang. “Whoever it is will go away,” he said. “I have no appointments scheduled today.”
The buzzer rang through the office once again, and then again and again. Finally Dwayne couldn’t stand it anymore. He bolted from his chair and unlocked the door. “I’m going to tell this idiot to go away. Do you have an appointment?” he yelled, hurrying through the reception area. “Because if you don’t, you’d better learn to read!”
“But, Mr. Casper! You must see me!” Bess’s voice was muffled through the door, but her sense of urgency came through loud and clear. “I’m a really great actress and I need an agent! Let me read for you, Mr. Casper, and you can judge for yourself!”
Laughing bitterly, Dwayne called through the door. “Young lady, I’m a very busy man, and I don’t handle street performers. Please leave me alone.”
“But I’m an actress! Just listen.” Bess began to recite a passage from Romeo and Juliet.
Good old Bess, Nancy thought with a smile. She really was quite an actress when she had to be. They had devised a plan: After Nancy was able to get inside Dwayne’s office, Bess would divert his attention so that Nancy could search it. As soon as Dwayne was out of sight in the reception area, Nancy began to rummage through the papers on his desk. The longer Bess was able to divert his attention from Nancy, the more Nancy would be able to find out. And from the sound of things, Nancy thought she just might have all day.
“And I sing, too! Just listen to this, Mr. Casper.” Bess launched into a well-known show tune in a loud, off-key voice.
“Please, young woman!” Dwayne begged. “Why don’t you go sing in the park or something? You’re giving me a headache!”
Aha! Nancy’s eyes opened wide as she looked at the papers in front of her. An eviction notice—and several large bills from creditors. Searching further, she found warnings from collection agencies, even threats. Dwayne Casper’s talent agency was obviously in desperate trouble.
“But, Mr. Casper, I’m the next Mattie Jensen! Everyone says I look just like her, except I’m prettier.”
“What?” Dwayne exploded. “Nobody, but nobody, ever was,” is, or will be prettier than Mattie Jensen! Mattie is one of a kind—absolutely unique!”
Nancy cocked her head to listen. It was clear to her that, where Mattie was concerned, Dwayne’s interest was more than just professional.
“Well, I’m unique, too, Mr. Casper—terribly unique and incredibly talented!”
“My dear young woman”—Dwayne was practically screaming now—“if you don’t leave at once, I’ll call the police. And may I say in parting that with your nerve, you’ll probably go far in this business!”
Quickly Nancy put everything back in the desk exactly where she’d found it. When Dwayne returned, he was trying hard to calm down.
“I’m sorry. Now, where were we before that ghastly woman interrupted us?”
Nancy shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Dwayne’s eyes had a wild look in them, and having found what she’d come for, all she wanted to do was get out as quickly as she could.
“You know, Mr. Casper, I feel like such a fool, but I just remembered—I’ve got an appointment with a photographer in fifteen minutes! He’s going to take head shots of me.”
“Oh, I see,” Dwayne replied, still smiling. “Well, is he any good? Maybe I know him. What’s his name?”
“His name? Uh—” Nancy panicked for a moment. What could she say? Finally she blurted out, “Ned Nickerson. He’s new in town—just got in from L.A. But Mattie says he’s good.”
“Hmmm.” Dwayne frowned. “Never heard of him. Well, Diane, come and see me when you’ve got your pictures. I’ll see what I can do for you.” He extended his hand for her to shake. His grip was firm, like iron, and his eyes searched hers intently.
“Come to think of it, have we met before? You look a bit familiar,” Dwayne said.
“Well, we’ve never actually met,” she replied, “but as I said before, I did do extra work on ‘Danner’s Dream’.”
“That must be it, then,” he said. “You’d better get going if you don’t want to be late for your shoot. Look forward to seeing you again, Ms. Elliot.”
“Thank you so much. You’ve been a great help!” Nancy said and left the office.
Down in the lobby, Bess was munching on a candy bar and smiling broadly. “How’d I do?” she mumbled, her mouth full of chocolate.
“Bravo!” Nancy applauded, laughing. “I especially loved your rendition of ‘Tonight.’ It was—different, very different.”
“You really think so?” asked Bess, fluffing her hair and winking.
“And wait till I tell you what I found!” Nancy said, grabbing her friend by the arm. “But we’d better get over to ‘Danner’s Dream’ right away. I want Mattie to hear this, too.”
The crisp spring air whirled around them as they walked briskly up Broadway toward Columbus Avenue.
“He’s really in bad shape, huh?” Bess asked incredulously after Nancy filled her in.
“Everybody in the world is after him. And when people are that desperate, it can make them pretty crazy. I want to keep a close eye on Dwayne Casper, Bess. I think he may be our man.”
Pushing through the glass doors of Worldwide Broadcasting, Nancy and Bess beamed at the security guard.
“Hi!” Nancy called out. “We’re back again.”
“Why, hello, girls. You heard the set was closed, didn’t you?” the man asked. “They’ve been having a little trouble in there and Pappas sent down the order. I can’t let anybody in, not even you two.”
“I know,” Nancy told him. “But could you call Mattie Jensen? We just need to talk to her for a few minutes.”
The security guard ran his finger down the list of telephone extensions on his desk. “Sure thing. Mattie, let’s see— Ah! Here it is.”
But before he had a chance to pick up the intercom, he was interrupted by the boom of a powerful explosion. The sound of shattering glass tore through the air, followed by a bloodcurdling scream.
“Nancy!” gasped Bess in terror. “That was Rick!”
Chapter Twelve
WITHOUT WAITING FOR permission, Nancy and Bess followed the security guard backstage. Losing themselves in a mob of people, the girls made their way toward Rick’s dressing room.
The lighting designer had been the first to reach the room itself. “Call an ambulance!” he bellowed frantically.
Nancy and Bess arrived a minute later and watched in shock as Kay Wills, the makeup artist, staggered down the hall toward them. Her skin was ashen, and she was trembling all over. Choking back tears, she turned around and sobbed, “It’s bad—really bad.”
Nancy stood on tiptoe and craned her neck to see inside Rick’s dressing room. The first thing that caught her eye was the wide mirror over the makeup table. It had been shattered into a thousand pieces!
An emergency medical t
eam had arrived, and they were on their way up the hall now, pushing aside the crowd of onlookers. “Make room!” Nancy called, flattening herself against the wall.
“Rick! Oh, where is he?” Bess cried frantically. She bit the back of her hand as she strained to get a good look. Just then, Rick appeared in the doorway. He had a stunned look on his face. His blond hair had been blown every which way, and the white towel around his shoulders was stained bright red. Looking down, Nancy gasped—Rick’s hands were bleeding!
As soon as the paramedics saw him, they broke into a run. Gathering around him, they picked him up and laid him on a stretcher. They began pulling slivers of glass out of his hands as Rick winced in pain.
“Back off, everybody!” one of the paramedics shouted as the crowd began to press in on them again. In what seemed like just a few seconds, they had finished their immediate task and lifted the stretcher. They carried the wounded star down the hall, out of the building, and into a waiting ambulance.
Once Rick was gone, the bystanders milled around, not knowing what to do. The police arrived and began inspecting the scene, interviewing people, and collecting evidence.
Nancy walked over to Kay, who was now sitting on the floor in a corner of the hall. She still looked pale as a ghost.
“What happened, Kay?” Nancy asked gently, crouching down beside her.
“He was w-wiping off h-his cold cream—” Kay stammered, staring off into space. “And the mirror just exploded! Thank God he had that towel over his face. He’d be blind—worse, maybe. And I was just on my way in there—it could have been me, too!”
A few minutes later, while police combed the area for clues, Pappas assembled the cast and crew.
“Listen up! I have a report from the hospital about Rick.” The excited buzzing died down as the producer’s voice boomed out into the vast studio.
“He’s going to be okay. They said it looked a lot worse than it really was, and that they’re going to release him tonight. His hands will be bandaged for a while, of course, but we can work around that. I’ve already contacted our writers to come up with some material that’ll explain his bandaged hands. If we can’t work this into the story line somehow, Luther will just stick to closeups. In any case, we’re not going to let this shut us down. As far as I’m concerned, you’re all still under contract, and that includes Rick. I want everybody back here tomorrow at seven sharp!”
Just then the police officer who had been examining Rick’s dressing room let out a long low whistle. “Hey, chief! Look what we found!”
The policeman held up a small metal object. “It’s a twenty-four-hour timer. Whoever set this up must have done it yesterday.”
Pappas, standing a few feet away, nearly choked. “That’s impossible! This set is closed down tight on Sunday. I even hired extra security. My own mother couldn’t have gotten in here!”
“Which means,” said the chief, “that it was probably an inside job.”
Now Nancy finally had a definite lead. She could rule out Dwayne Casper. He couldn’t have gotten onto the set to plant the bomb.
But that left her with only two other suspects—Pappas and Lillian. Their faces floated in front of her tightly shut eyes as she leaned against the wall, trying to concentrate amid the confusion.
Nancy shook her head and opened her eyes. She was back at square one with a dangerous killer still on the loose right under her nose! I’ve got to get put of here, she suddenly realized.
Quickly, Nancy sprang up and elbowed her way through a group of technicians hovering by the studio door. “Come on,” she shouted to Bess. “We’ve got to go!”
Pulling her friend by the arm, Nancy made straight for the front exit. But she stopped short when she saw Lillian standing directly in front of her, a smug smile on her face. “I’m way ahead of you, Miss Teen Detective,” she said, smirking. “Way ahead.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Bess wanted to know as they hailed a taxi on the corner. “She gives me the creeps.”
Nancy didn’t answer. She told the cab driver the name of the hospital as they piled in. “And hurry,” she added.
Stepping off the elevator on the fifth floor, Nancy and Bess had no trouble finding Rick’s room. It was the one with the two police officers in front of it.
Oh, well, thought Nancy, at least he’s safe in there. Still, she couldn’t help feeling as though she had failed miserably. The police were in on the case now, so there wasn’t much point in continuing her investigation. And besides, she hadn’t managed to come up with very much, had she?
“Sorry, miss. You can’t go in this room,” one of the officers told Bess when she tried to enter.
“I must see Rick,” Bess said frantically.
“A Miss Jensen’s in there with Mr. Arlen now.”
Bess froze. “Oh. I see—” she finally managed to say. “Has she been there very long?”
“Ever since we got here, miss. About half an hour.” He cracked open the door to look inside. “Seems like she might be awhile longer, too.”
Bess stepped back, staring anxiously at the half-open door. Through it, she could hear Rick’s voice. And it was not the voice of a confident TV star.
“Mattie! Oh, Mattie, I’m so scared. Someone really is trying to kill me!”
“Don’t worry, my darling,” she replied in a soft voice. “The police are here. They’ll protect you.”
“You know, Mattie, you were right all along. You were the only one who saw the truth. Mattie, if I come out of this mess alive, I swear I’m going to make everything up to you. I need you, Mattie, I need you so badly—no one else ever meant a thing to me. You’re the only one I’ve ever loved!”
“I’ve heard enough!” Bess turned and ran down the hall, covering her mouth with her hands.
“Bess! Bess, wait!” Nancy called after her.
“Leave me alone!” She was fighting back her tears but losing the battle. “I can’t believe it,” she sobbed. “I just can’t believe it!”
Nancy started to go after Bess but thought better of it. Right then Bess needed to work this out on her own. But Nancy wondered about the force of her friend’s reaction. What was it about this guy that caused women to fall instantly in love with him?
Mattie and Rick had stopped talking, and the police officer silently closed the door again. No sense waiting around, Nancy decided.
Out on the sidewalk, Nancy found Bess. Her eyes were brimming over with tears, and her mascara was smeared all over her face. She looked utterly forlorn.
“Come on, Bess. Let’s go home,” Nancy suggested, gently taking her friend’s hand. Bess nodded listlessly, allowing herself to be led.
The two friends were silent all the way back to Eloise’s apartment. Looking over at Bess, Nancy wished she could comfort her somehow. She knew that Bess really hurt. Bess’s brave hero had turned out to be not so brave after all. And worse than that, he was in love with someone else.
As they got out of the cab, Nancy caught sight of her aunt Eloise entering the building. “Hi, Aunt Eloise,” she called as she hurried up to greet her.
“Hi, Nancy—Bess,” she said as they entered the building. “Did you have a nice day?”
“You’re never going to believe what happened today,” Bess said in a soft voice. She had finally gotten control of herself.
“Well, as soon as we get upstairs, let’s kick off our shoes and relax, and you can tell me all about it,” Eloise replied, moving toward the mailboxes.
The three were in the mail alcove when Eloise looked down and spotted a small box wrapped in brown paper on the package table. She glanced at it and scooped it up. “Nancy, it’s addressed to you,” she said, noticing it had no stamps.
As she started to hand it to Nancy, she froze.
The box was ticking!
Chapter Thirteen
NANCY SPRANG INTO action. “Bess, get on the house phone and get someone to call the police.”
While Bess was contacting a neighbor, Nancy and
Eloise examined the package. “I think the ticking sounds different now,” Nancy’s aunt said in a frightened whisper. She was still holding the box, but now in trembling hands. “Let’s take it outside.”
Slowly and calmly, the two went out of the building and walked to the curb. As soon as they had stopped and put the box down, two police bomb-squad officers arrived. It didn’t take them long to discover that the box contained an ordinary, harmless alarm clock.
“I’ve never been so happy to see an alarm clock in my entire life.” Nancy’s aunt smiled with relief and clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking.
“Somebody went to a lot of trouble to scare your niece, ma’am. And from the sound of this note, that person is serious.”
“ ‘Last warning, Nancy Drew, leave town now,’ ” the officer read.
“Nancy, I think maybe we should get back to River Heights today.” Bess had rejoined them and stood listening as the note was read.
“Bess is right, Nancy. This is serious. Your father would never forgive me if anything happened to you while you were here. Worse, I would never forgive myself. In fact, after the officers leave, I’m calling the airport.”
Eloise, Nancy, and Bess thanked the men, and they turned and headed back into the building and up to Eloise’s apartment.
Nancy bit her lip. “Wait a minute, Aunt Eloise,” she said, trying to stop her aunt from calling the airport. She knew her aunt was only trying to protect her, but how could she leave New York while a dangerous killer was still after Rick? Even if he wasn’t the greatest guy in the world, he didn’t deserve to die. And obviously, the killer was getting closer and closer. Next time he might succeed.
“Our tickets are for the day after tomorrow,” she called out as her aunt was about to lift the phone. “Maybe I can solve the case before then.”
“Forget it, Nancy. I’m not going to let you risk your life—not even for a couple more days.” Eloise sounded definite. “And besides, the police are on the case now.”