Chapter
One
Br-r-r-ing!
The soft purr of Nancy Drew’s bedside phone made her groan in her sleep. She opened one eye, saw that it was after midnight, and promptly covered her head with her pillow.
Br-r-r-ing. Br-r-r-ing.
Groping with one hand, Nancy grabbed the receiver. “Hello?” she said from under the pillow.
“Nancy! Is that you?” The voice on the other end was filled with terror. “You’ve got to help. Right away! A friend of mine is dead, and I think—I think somebody killed him!”
Nancy blinked in the darkness. “Jennifer? Is that you?” she asked, barely recognizing the voice of her longtime friend, Jennifer Bishop.
“Oh, Nancy, you’ve got to come! I don’t know what to do. Rod was working with me at Victory and then—and then—” She was fighting back sobs. “And then they killed him! I know they did!”
Wide awake by then, Nancy reached over to switch on the bedside lamp. “Wait a minute, Jennifer. Back up. You mean this Rod worked at Victory Airlines with you?”
“Yes, yes. Nancy, you’ve got to come to Seattle right away and get this straightened out. I’m afraid of who’ll be next!”
Jennifer Bishop had once lived near Nancy in River Heights, and she and Nancy had been close friends. After high school graduation, Jennifer had gotten a job as a flight attendant for Victory Airlines, a company based in Seattle, Washington.
Jen didn’t usually exaggerate, so Nancy took her at her word. “What makes you so certain Rod was murdered, Jen?”
“I just know! He was killed in an automobile accident. His car went wide on a turn and plunged over a cliff. But I know there’s more to it than that.”
“How do you know?” Nancy pushed strands of reddish blond hair out of her eyes. Murder? Could it really be true?
“He once said that there were people at the airline who knew how to make money. Then he showed me a wad of bills that would have made your eyes pop out! When I asked him how he’d gotten so much cash, he shut up. I kept asking him, and he finally said, kind of jokingly, ‘Maybe I’m into smuggling—’ ” Jennifer inhaled shakily. “But now Rod Fullerton’s dead. And I think he was telling the truth!”
Nancy felt a chill go down her spine. “When did he have his car accident?”
“Yesterday.”
“And how long ago did he show you the extra cash?”
“He showed me and Miranda the money just last week.” Jennifer sounded as if she were gaining control of herself again.
“Who’s Miranda?”
“My new roommate. Oh, Nancy, you’ve just got to come!”
Nancy’s mind was spinning ahead. There was nothing keeping her in River Heights. And her close friend, Bess Marvin, had complained of being bored too.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Nancy said decisively. “And I’ll try to bring Bess. You remember Bess Marvin, don’t you?”
“Oh, Nan, I knew I could count on you. Just hurry, please.”
Nancy could barely sleep the rest of the night. By the time her father joined her for breakfast, she had already checked into flights to Seattle and packed her bags.
“What’s up?” Carson Drew asked as he sat down in the chair across from Nancy’s.
“I’ve got a chance to go to Seattle and visit my friend Jennifer Bishop,” Nancy said, glancing at the clock on the kitchen wall.
“Planning to go right this minute?” Carson asked, smiling.
“I wish I could,” Nancy said and filled him in on Jennifer’s call.
Her father’s expression grew grave as she mentioned Jennifer’s suspicions about Rod Fullerton.
“I have only one piece of advice,” he said. “The same advice I give you every time you get involved in a mystery: be careful.”
Nancy kissed his cheek. “I promise, Dad. I’ve got to go now—I have to talk to Bess.”
• • •
Bess peered out cautiously before throwing the door open for her friend. “What are you doing up so early?” she asked in surprise. “Wait—don’t answer that. Another case, right?”
Bess was still in her robe, and she motioned for Nancy to follow her to her bedroom. “So what’s this all about?” she asked.
“I don’t know for sure yet. Maybe smuggling. And murder.”
Nancy found a relatively clean place to sit on the end of Bess’s bed. Clothes were strewn all over—which was typical for her friend.
“I couldn’t decide what to wear,” Bess explained defensively as she noticed Nancy looking at the mess in her room. She snatched up a pair of black jeans from the floor and pulled them on. “Now, tell all.”
Nancy nodded soberly. “You remember Jennifer Bishop, don’t you?”
“Didn’t she go to work for an airline?”
“Victory Airlines,” Nancy said and quickly filled Bess in on Jennifer’s phone call. Nancy concluded by saying, “I want you to come with me.”
Bess almost dropped her comb. “Really? I’d love to! I love the West Coast!”
“So you’re with me?”
“All the way!”
• • •
It didn’t take long to finalize the details of their trip. Nancy made their airline reservations. Then they said goodbye to Bess’s cousin, George Fayne, who was sorry to see them leave but too busy to join them. Finally, Nancy called Jennifer and left a message on her answering machine telling her when they’d be arriving.
“Brrr.” Bess shivered as they boarded their Victory plane in Chicago. “I hope it’s warmer in Seattle.”
“The paper said it would be clear and cool,” Nancy said, glancing around as they boarded flight 304. The flight attendant—her scarlet blouse a dramatic contrast to her black and gold Victory uniform—showed them their seats. After Jennifer’s phone call, Nancy half expected to see some thing unusual on the plane, but the flight was uneventful. In a few hours they were circling above Puget Sound Airport.
“I’ve always envied Jennifer her job,” Nancy said as she looked out over Seattle. Puget Sound glimmered in the afternoon sun. In the distance Nancy could see a ferry chugging from Seattle’s waterfront to an island in the sound.
“Me, too.” Bess sighed. “Think of all the fantastic places she gets to see.”
“Like the Far East,” Nancy said. “Victory mainly serves the West Coast and the Orient. They have only a few flights to Chicago, New York, and Dallas.”
“The Orient.” Bess closed her eyes, smiling wistfully. “Hong Kong, Tokyo, the Philippines . . .”
“You’ll have to settle for Seattle today,” Nancy said, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, it’s gorgeous. Look, there’s Mount Rainier.”
• • •
After the girls had deplaned and collected their bags from the baggage carousel, they looked around for Jennifer.
“Do you think she got the message about our flight?” Bess asked, shifting her shoulder bag.
“I hope so,” Nancy answered. “Hey, how much stuff did you bring? It looks as if you packed for a year!”
Bess was surrounded by all kinds of canvas luggage. “I wanted to be prepared,” she said defensively. “You never know what you might need.”
Nancy laughed. Unlike Bess, she always packed light. In fact, every once in a while she wished she had remembered to bring one more outfit. “Well, these’ll have to do me,” she said, glancing down at her black-and-white plaid pants and bulky magenta cardigan. “If I need to dress up I’m going to have a big problem. Let’s go get our rental car. Maybe Jennifer will show up by the time we’re done.”
After she had collected the car keys and really begun to worry that Jennifer hadn’t gotten the message, a petite, pretty girl came toward them. Arms waving, her curly dark hair a wild cloud around her
head, Jennifer weaved among the milling passengers.
“Nancy! Bess!” she shouted. “Sorry I’m late. I was talking to Preston Talbot and I forgot the time.”
Nancy grinned at her friend. “Forgotten for a boy. I should have known it!”
Jennifer laughed. “Preston Talbot is no boy. He’s the president of Victory Airlines, and he wants to see you immediately! When I realized how big this thing might be, I went straight to the top. He was really anxious to hear what I had to say.”
With a sinking feeling Nancy realized her trip to Seattle was no longer a secret. But how much had Jennifer told?
“Here, let me take that,” Jennifer said, grabbing one of Bess’s bags and walking quickly toward the escalators. “We’ve got to hurry. I told Mr. Talbot I’d find you and come straight back to his office.”
Nancy and Bess had no choice but to follow after her, lugging all of Bess’s bags. They continued to talk as they walked toward the Victory flight counter.
“I’m glad I told Mr. Talbot. I just can’t get Rod’s death off my mind.”
Nancy was going to reserve judgment on Mr. Talbot until after she had met him. “Did Rod have a lot of friends at Victory?” she asked.
“Some. Miranda, my roommate, would know. She knew him better than I did.”
“Does Victory have this entire section?” Bess asked, staring at the busy flight counter as they passed.
“Uh-huh. We started out small, but we’ve just expanded,” Jennifer said proudly. “Now we fly daily to Tokyo and Taipei, and we have service to other major cities two and three times a week.”
“Have you ever worked on a flight to the Far East?” Bess asked.
“Sure. But right now I’m doing the flight to Los Angeles and back.” She took them to a door to the right of Victory’s counter and added, “This leads to all of Victory’s inner offices. We rent space from the airport.”
“How long had Rod worked here?” Nancy asked, getting back to the main topic.
“About a year, I guess. Maybe two. It just seems so unbelievable that he’s gone.” Jennifer’s face darkened. “Rod was a skycap. He was part of Victory’s management trainee program.”
“Management trainee program?” Nancy repeated.
“We have a work-study program done in cooperation with one of the colleges here,” Jennifer explained. “The students involved start out doing everything: baggage handling, being skycaps and gate agents. They even take a crash course in being flight attendants.”
“Are these students girls or guys?” Bess asked, her eyes brightening with interest.
“Both. My boyfriend, Sean, is in the program. Right now there’re more guys than girls.”
Bess smiled. “This is sounding better and better,” she murmured.
For the first time Jennifer grinned. “Sean can introduce you to some of the guys he knows. He’s been working as a baggage handler, but in a couple of weeks, he’s going to be a gate agent.”
Down a gray-carpeted hallway the girls caught one of three private elevators that led up to Victory’s seven floors of offices. Jennifer punched the button for the sixth floor, and the elevator whizzed silently upward. At the sixth floor a bell dinged softly as the doors whispered open.
“Mr. Talbot is a really busy man,” Jennifer said as she led them to an impressive set of oak double doors. “But after I told him about the smuggling ring he said I could stop by anytime until we get this thing cleared up.”
“We don’t know that there is any smuggling for sure,” Nancy reminded her quickly.
“Well, I thought Rod’s remark made that pretty clear,” Jennifer answered. “And Mr. Talbot was really concerned when I told him. I also let him know that I’d be with you, helping all the way.”
Nancy was beginning to realize that Jennifer wanted to be very involved in the investigation. She had begged Nancy to come help, yet she seemed determined to take the investigation out of Nancy’s hands before Nancy had had a chance to do anything!
Raising her hand to knock, Jennifer said, “I’ll just tell Mr. Talbot that you’re here—”
Jennifer never completed her thought. From inside the room came a loud, shattering crash and the sound of breaking glass. It sounded as if someone, or something, had smashed through a window!
Chapter
Two
JENNIFER, NANCY, AND Bess raced into Mr. Talbot’s office. Preston Talbot was staring at a hole in his window, shards of glass still falling to the floor.
“What happened?” Nancy demanded. Then she heard footsteps pounding against metal outside. She ran to the broken window. A heavy metal catwalk surrounded the building on the sixth floor. She thought she saw a hooded figure round the far corner. “Where does this walkway go?” she asked.
Mr. Talbot waved vaguely in the same direction the figure had gone. “The north side.”
Nancy turned away from the window. She knew there was no way she’d be able to reach her quarry in time.
Jennifer interrupted her thoughts, saying, “These are the friends I was telling you about— Bess Marvin and Nancy Drew.”
Still looking slightly dazed, Preston Talbot came from behind his desk to shake Nancy’s and Bess’s hands. “Jennifer told me you were coming.”
Nancy would have picked Preston Talbot as the kind of man to run an airline. He had thinning gray hair, an immaculate suit, and a face that seemed lined in perpetual worry. “What was thrown through the window?” she asked him.
“I don’t know. I was just sitting here. All of a sudden . . .” He trailed off, frowning. “It was a rock, I think. It rolled under that chair.”
“You’re lucky it didn’t hit you,” Bess remarked as Nancy bent to pick up the rock.
“It’s got a note wrapped around it!” Jennifer exclaimed as Nancy brought it out. She looked over Nancy’s shoulder eagerly as Nancy undid the rubber bands holding the note to the rock.
A message had been pasted together from letters cut out of a magazine: “Nancy Drew, if you value your life, leave Seattle now!”
Jennifer gasped and Bess made a choking sound. Nancy looked at her two friends. “Someone else knows I’m here,” she said uneasily.
“Let me see that.” Preston Talbot practically snatched the note from her hands. “I’m beginning to think you’re right about something going on at Victory, Jennifer,” he said.
Glancing at Nancy, he added, “Frankly, Ms. Drew, before this happened, I thought calling you in was a mistake. Victory has an excellent reputation, and I didn’t want any amateur detective coming around to stir up trouble.”
“Oh, Nancy’s no amateur,” Bess put in loyally. “She’s solved all kinds of mysteries. Some really dangerous ones.”
“Even so, I didn’t want anyone poking around. Now I’m not so sure—”
“Since I’m already here, maybe I can help,” Nancy said briskly. She bent to examine the note. “Whoever wrote this means business. Someone obviously knew I was coming to your office. Did you see the person who threw the rock?”
“No. I was just reaching for the phone when this thing smashed through the window. I ran to look but the figure I saw just flashed by.”
“A hooded figure?”
Talbot looked at Nancy in surprise. “Why, yes! I think he had on one of the black slickers the baggage handlers wear in bad weather.”
“But it’s sunny today,” Nancy said, glancing out of the window.
Beyond the catwalk several of Victory’s docking gates could be seen. A Victory plane, the gold V on its tail winking in the sun, stood ready for loading. Talbot’s office had an excellent view of Victory’s entire operation.
“Do you think we should go to the police?” Bess asked nervously. “That note’s a threat, Nancy!”
“I’d rather we didn’t call the police yet,” Mr. Talbot interjected quickly. “I’ve got an airline to think of. I don’t want its image tainted by smuggling unless it’s true.”
“Rod only hinted that smuggling was involved,” Na
ncy pointed out. She was feeling more and more annoyed with Jennifer for having jumped the gun. “We don’t know for sure. I can do some investigating to find out what’s really going on if you’d like, Mr. Talbot.”
“Great idea.” Mr. Talbot sounded immensely relieved. “Go ahead and ask all the questions you want. I’ll get you a pass that’ll allow you to go anywhere on the premises. It’ll certainly be better than having the police involved,” he muttered. He seemed to be talking to himself as much as to the girls.
Nancy was anxious to get started then before Mr. Talbot changed his mind. “I’d like to talk to the baggage handlers. If smuggling is involved, they’d be the ones who would load the cargo.”
“And that slicker was like the ones the handlers wear,” Jennifer reminded her.
“That’s right.”
“What do you want me to do?” Bess asked.
Mr. Talbot looked at her and smiled for the first time. “How would you like to be a temporary flight attendant?” he suggested. “There’s a two-day crash FAA course starting tomorrow. Jennifer can fill you in on the rest of the basics, and you could be in the air by Friday!”
“Oh, wow,” Bess said excitedly.
“But I’ll be up in the air,” Jennifer protested. “I can handle that end of it.”
“Sometimes it’s nice to have a friend with you when it gets dangerous,” Nancy said, trying to tread softly. She didn’t want to alienate her friend, but she was worried that Jennifer thought she could handle it all. “Besides, Bess has always dreamed of flying.”
“Then it’s settled,” Mr. Talbot said, shaking Nancy’s hand again. “Good luck. And I hope you can put these smuggling rumors to rest.”
“I’m glad you get to fly,” Jennifer said to Bess as they left the office. “But I could have handled that part on my own.”
“Don’t worry,” Nancy put in quickly. “We’re all in this together.”
Jennifer’s green eyes flashed. “Great! I’ve always wanted to do what you do. Detective work is so exciting!”
Nancy gave a short laugh. “I guess it’s a case of the grass being greener on the other side. I sort of wish I could be a flight attendant,” she said over her shoulder as she ran to the end of the hall for a minute.