The Mystery at Lilac Inn - Carolyn Keene [4]
Emily showed her friends the parlors and writing room, and the modern wing containing the pine-paneled recreation room.
“Very attractive,” Nancy remarked. She spotted a record player in one corner. “Is that the one the intruder used, Emily?”
“Yes. And here’s the window which I found forced open last night,” Emily pointed out.
Next, Nancy and Helen were escorted upstairs to see Emily’s attractive, old-fashioned two-room suite. “When the inn is ready, there’ll be accommodations for fifty guests—”
At this instant a piercing shriek came from the garden. The three girls dashed down the stairs and rushed outside.
“The cry came from near the river,” said Nancy, running in that direction.
John McBride and two gardeners joined them. They made a thorough search, but found no one.
Emily turned to Nancy with questioning eyes, “Are you thinking what I am—that the person screamed just to frighten us? And make this place almost seem haunted?”
“Yes. But why? Is someone trying to balk your expansion program here?” Nancy suggested.
“Possibly. But I can’t figure out the reason,” Emily replied. “Well, I’ll show you the rest of the house.”
She took the visitors to the far wing, where the kitchen was located. Its gleaming wall ovens and natural-stone colonial fireplace, complete with spit, fascinated Nancy.
“Emily, you’ll have no trouble filling every room in this inn,” she said enthusiastically. “It’s absolutely charming!”
“I hope you’re right,” Emily replied fervently. “If only the mystery haunting this place could be solved! You’ll help, Nancy?”
“I’ll certainly try, Emily.”
The three girls went to the parking lot where John awaited them at the wheel of the jeep. “Hold onto your hats!” he called.
His three hatless passengers grinned as they hopped into the rear seat. The vehicle shot forward and turned into a dirt lane.
Soon they were driving among groves of apple and peach trees. At Emily’s request, John stopped the jeep near an apple tree. She got out to examine the leafy branches. “We’ll have an abundant crop this season,” she commented. “There are lots of tiny apples forming.”
John had climbed out also. Suddenly he stooped and examined the ground.
“What are you looking at?” Nancy called to him.
“A big fat beetle.” John laughed.
Nancy chuckled, but she had the feeling that John had been evasive in his reply. As the jeep started off, she looked back. There was a trail of marks leading toward the river.
“They look like flipper tracks,” she thought. “I wonder if John made them or if he suspects someone else did.”
Later, when the young people returned to the inn, they found Maud Potter on the patio. Nancy was amazed at the change in the woman’s manner. Now she was smiling broadly as she waved a folded newspaper.
“Nancy!” she cried effusively. “You’re a skin-diving celebrity!”
“What do you mean?” Nancy asked, puzzled, as Mrs. Willoughby joined the group.
Maud opened the paper and pointed to page one of the River Heights Evening News.
“Why, Nancy Drew!” Helen exclaimed. “Your picture—and a write-up! You never breathed a word!”
Everyone clustered around to see the picture of Nancy in a bathing suit, diver’s mask, and flippers and the accompanying article. The caption read:
Daughter of Local Lawyer, Carson Drew, Learns Her A-B Seas in Skin Diving.
The article went on to tell that Nancy had just completed a course in advanced skin diving in the Muskoka River, and that she had finished first in total points in the twenty-student group.
“ ‘When asked by our reporter where she hoped to practice the sport,’ ” John read aloud, “ ‘Miss Drew replied she would like to skin-dive in both salt and fresh water. This writer strongly suspects that there will be times when she will use her newly acquired knowledge in solving mysteries at which Miss Drew, we understand, is proficient.’ ”
With an admiring glance, John said, “Meet a fellow frogman. I practically grew up in flippers.”
“Really? Oh, I have a wonderful ideal”
Nancy said she would still like to find out, if possible, what had upset her canoe so suddenly. “Maybe there is