(#16) The Clue of the Tapping Heels (5 page)

She knocked and in a few seconds the actress’s sleepy voice called, “Come in.”

She was still in bed. At once Nancy apologized for having awakened her. “We heard tapping sounds in the house. Were you knocking on the wall?”

“No, my dear.”

“Did you hear the tapping sounds?” George asked the actress.

Miss Carter gave the girl a most engaging smile. “When I take a nap, I’m practically unconscious,” she replied.

Bess said feelingly, “Please go back to sleep. When you wake up, I’ll bring you tea and cookies.”

“That’s very sweet of you,” Miss Carter said.

The girls retreated and closed the door. In the hall Nancy reminded her friends that the tapper might have been up on the third floor but had come down and escaped from the house before they had left Miss Carter’s room. They went up to the attic and walked around.

“Nothing here,” said George.

“Maybe not,” Nancy replied, “but somebody has been in this attic.”

“How do you know?” Bess spoke up.

“That chest has been moved,” Nancy answered. “I’m positive it was over here before.”

The girls shifted several other objects, hoping to find a clue to the mystery. But they saw no trace of a trap door or loose boards.

“Well, I guess it’s back to the basement,” George said. “Okay, Nancy?”

“Okay.”

When they reached the basement, Nancy stood in the center of the floor and slowly turned in circles. Bess and George watched their friend in fascination. They knew enough not to ask what was going through her mind.

Presently Nancy stopped turning and walked over to the rear wall of the basement. She tapped on the panels.

“Girls,” she said, “do you realize that this basement is not so large as the first floor of the house?”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Bess replied. “But what you say isn’t unusual, is it? Lots of people have a small cellar compared to the size of their house.”

Suddenly Nancy said, “Wait here.”

She dashed up the stairs and outdoors. The young sleuth walked round and round the house examining the foundation. Finally she went back to the basement, and beamed her flashlight inch by inch along the rear wall.

“What do you suspect?” George finally asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“An opening in this wall,” Nancy answered. “Suppose you girls start at the other end and hunt for a clue.”

Just before they all reached the center of the wall, Bess exclaimed, “Here’s a place that looks as if a rat had gnawed it!”

Nancy studied the edge of the beveled board. She tried pulling it forward with her fingernails. Though t moved a fraction of an inch, she could not budge it any farther.

George was already looking around for a tool and found one made of steel with a hooked end. It was lying on a shelf above the panel. She inserted the hook in the gouged-out spot.

“Be careful!” Bess warned. “We don’t know what may be behind that wood. Some hidden object could shoot out and harm us!”

George had dug the hook deep into the wood and with Nancy’s help the panel began to move. When it turned at right angles to the wall, Nancy shone her flashlight beyond. The three girls gasped. Before them was a fully furnished bedroom.

“The bed has been slept in recently!” Bess exclaimed.

“It’s a secret room!” Nancy cried out. “Oh, girls, this is a wonderful clue!”

There was a switch just inside the movable panel which illuminated three lamps. An open door to one side revealed a fully furnished bathroom. Nancy hurried inside and felt a towel and washcloth.

“They’re damp!” she called. “Someone has been here very recently. I’m sure this is the hide-out of the tapper.”

“And here’s his razor,” said George, rushing in.

Bess admitted that she was frightened. “The intruder certainly has a key to this house,” she declared. “I think all the locks should be changed at once.”

Nancy agreed. Bess offered to go tell Miss Carter even if she had to awaken her again.

“And I’ll attend to getting a locksmith to come here this very afternoon,” she added.

After Bess had left, Nancy and George searched the small bedroom for clues to the identity of the occupant. There was a cot and along one wall stood a highboy. On another was a series of cupboards that reached from the floor to the ceiling. One had a grill metal front but the others were of solid wood. All the doors were locked. The girls opened the highboy drawers but found nothing inside.

George stared at the cupboards. “I sure wish we could get a look inside.”

“I wonder,” said Nancy, “if by any chance that pudgy man lives in this room and the key he dropped might open these cupboards. I’ll get it.”

She went upstairs and took the key from her purse. Nancy was back in a few minutes and inserted the key in the lock.

“It fits!” she exclaimed.

One by one the cupboards were opened. There were several books in one; the others held boxes of letters and other papers.

“These are all addressed to William Woonton at this address,“ Nancy said, after examining several.

“It’s a secret room!” Nancy cried out

“And here’s a diary,” George spoke up, lifting a book from underneath a pile of papers. “It says
Diary of Gus Woonton.”

The girls began to turn the leaves of the diary. The notations were startling. They told of Gus Woonton being kept prisoner in the windowless room with only a small duct in the ceiling for fresh air.

One item read: “This is the work of my crazy guardians who are taking care of me while my parents are traveling for a year. My guardians declare I’m crazy and have to be locked up, but it is the other way around. But I’ll get square with them. Every time they let me out of here, I’ll take—”

The sentence was not finished, and though the girls scanned the book thoroughly, they could find no clue as to how Gus was getting square with his guardians or what he planned to take.

“Do you suppose,” said George, “that the pudgy man could be Gus Woonton? And he’s the tapper?”

“Anything is possible,” Nancy replied. “I wonder where he goes when he isn’t in this room.”

Without waiting for a response from George, she went on, “I guess we’d better lock this cupboard and close that panel into the other part of the basement.” She chuckled. “Poor Gus! When he comes here for another night’s sleep, he won’t be able to get in.”

“Why not?” George asked. “He can use this same hook he always does.”

Nancy smiled. “We’ll take the key and the tool upstairs and hide them. I suppose this room is where the tapper hides. Now maybe we or the police will be able to nab him.”

George and Nancy went to Miss Carter’s room. Mrs. Bealing had returned. Both women were astounded at the discovery the girl detectives had made. But Miss Carter could throw no light on Gus Woonton or his parents or guardians.

“I’ll call my lawyer, Carl Amberson, at once and ask him who owned the house before the Smiths did,” she said.

The girls were near the phone and could hear Mr. Amberson’s voice very clearly. Not only was he surprised at the strange happenings, but said that the William Woontons had indeed owned the house at one time.

“I did not know they had a son Gus and I have no idea where they might be. I’ll try to find out, though, and let you know.”

After Miss Carter finished speaking with Mr. Amberson, Nancy asked permission to turn this part of the mystery over to her father.

“He has traced many lost persons,” she said.

The actress agreed and Nancy telephoned Mr. Drew. He, too, was amazed at the turn of events and promised to do what he could.

A few minutes later Bess arrived with a locksmith. The man worked for over an hour to change all the locks, including those on the garage, then went off.

“Now I feel safer,” Bess said with a sigh as she turned over the keys to Miss Carter.

They were about to start preparations for dinner when the telephone rang. Mr. Drew was calling Nancy.

“I have some very important information for you,” he said. “I think you’d better come home as soon as possible. And be sure to bring the diary and the cupboard key with you.”

CHAPTER VII

The Runaway

“CAN’T you tell me now what you found out?” Nancy asked her father.

He laughed. “I think the matter should be kept secret for the present. Anyway, I’d rather not discuss it on the telephone. Here’s more news. The Faynes and Marvins want Bess and George to come home. There’s a special family party being held out of town tonight that they’re to attend.”

Nancy was a bit alarmed about leaving Miss Carter and Mrs. Bealing alone. Apparently Mr. Drew guessed her thought.

“I know you don’t want to desert the Amity Place mystery,” he said, “so I have persuaded Hannah to stay with Miss Carter while you girls have to be away. She’ll take a taxi out there.”

“Oh, Dad, you think of everything!” Nancy said.

Mr. Drew told her a client was waiting so he would have to say good-by. “I’ll see you later.”

Nancy gave his message to Bess and George. Mrs. Bealing was delighted to hear that her friend Hannah Gruen was coming to spend a little time at Miss Carter’s. “She’s such a capable person to have around.”

“She certainly is,” Nancy agreed.

Bess and George had exchanged guilty glances. Both admitted they had completely forgotten the family party!

George said, “Nancy, you always pick up such fascinating mysteries, you make us forget our duties to aunts and uncles and cousins!”

Nancy chuckled. “Sorry, girls. Maybe you can pick up a clue at the party. Ask your relatives if they ever knew or heard of people named Woonton who used to live in Berryville.”

“Will do,” George promised.

The three girls went back to the basement and opened the panel to the secret room. Nancy unlocked the wall cabinet and took out the diary. Then she relocked the cupboard, and the panel was closed again.

Since Bess and George did not know when they would be able to return, they decided to pack all their clothes and take them home. “I’d enjoy a change of slacks and blouses, anyway,” said Bess.

The cousins had just finished packing when Bess called out, “I heard a car door slam. Perhaps it’s Mrs. Gruen arriving.”

The bell rang and Nancy hurried to the front door. Hannah Gruen stood there, a broad smile on her face.

“Nancy,” she said, “this is the first time I’ve ever tried to substitute for you in solving a mystery.”

As Nancy gave the housekeeper a hug, she said, “Who knows? Maybe you’ll solve it while I’m gone.”

“Not much likelihood of that,” Hannah replied, shaking her head.

Nancy took Mrs. Gruen’s bag and led the way up the stairs to the second floor. Mrs. Bealing greeted her old friend affectionately. Then Hannah was taken to meet Miss Carter.

“I’m sorry you’ve been having so much trouble,” the Drews’ housekeeper said to her.

The actress smiled. “It’s said that bad luck comes in threes. I’ve had mine—first a broken leg, then a mysterious tapper, and finally stolen cats.”

Mrs. Gruen remarked that with all the locks on the house changed, she did not see how anyone could get inside.

“And I believe the person who came to steal your Persians the second time got a good scare. I doubt that he’ll be back.”

Hannah’s assurances made Miss Carter feel better at once. Soon the three women were engaged in a lively conversation. Nancy, Bess, and George left quietly.

“When are you going to get your own car back?” George asked Nancy as they rode off in Ned’s convertible.

“I don’t know. Ned’s coming to take me to the rehearsal.”

When the girls reached Bess’s home, Nancy asked the cousins to call her when they were ready to return to Miss Carter’s. She dropped George at the Fayne house, and a few minutes later pulled into her own driveway.

As she unlocked the kitchen door, the place seemed very different. For an instant Nancy wondered why, then realized she missed the fragrant scent of cooking food. There was always a lingering aroma of some special concoction of Hannah’s in the air.

“It’s just not the same without her here,” Nancy thought wistfully.

Within a few minutes Mr. Drew drove in. While Nancy was preparing dinner from a menu Hannah had left, the lawyer related what he had found out about the Woontons.

“Through a stroke of luck I got the information from a lawyer friend of mine who is the attorney for the Beverly, a private hospital. It takes boys and young men who are having mental problems of one sort or another.

“One of their patients was named Gus Woonton. At the time his parents put him there, they were living in Berryville. I haven’t found out anything yet as to where Mr. and Mrs. William Woonton went after they sold their house.”

Nancy was excited. “Is this Gus Woonton well enough to be interviewed?” she asked.

Mr. Drew’s answer was a surprise. “Gus Woonton ran away from the Beverly several weeks ago and there hasn’t been any trace of him since that time.”

“Oh!” Nancy exclaimed.

She told her father of her suspicion that the man using the secret bedroom and bath in the basement of Miss Carter’s house might be Gus Woonton.