Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew Read Online Free Page A

because he won’t see any such thing.”
    “Want to bet?” Bess winked.
    “It’s not so farfetched, Nancy,” her aunt said instantly. “You could become a top model like Jacqueline.”
    “But I don’t want to be,” Nancy declared. “I’m very happy doing what I do. Which reminds me—what do you know about Jacqueline Henri? I assume Bess and George told you about our encounter with her.”
    “Yes, they did,” Marjorie said. “I really don’t know very much about her. You should have asked Chris.”
    Chris! Nancy thought, irritated that she had literally let him slip through her fingers.
    “I’m going to call him in a little while,” she declared.
    “You are?” Bess repeated. “But it’s after midnight.”
    “He only left a few minutes ago, so I’ll try his house in half an hour,” Nancy decided.
     
    The ballroom had begun to empty as Nancy made her way down the quiet hallway to a phone booth not far from the dressing room. The overhead lights had been turned off, but the sconces on the wall were still lit.
    Nancy gasped as the silhouette of a man played across a distant, smoke-colored mirror. She ducked into the booth, waiting for the stranger to show himself.
    Where’s the security guard? Nancy wondered, suddenly aware that the precious designer clothes had been left unprotected. Although chains had been strung through the garments and locked, the girl detective knew that a professional thief wouldn’t be easily discouraged.
    Now the mysterious figure hurried across the room to the door, as if he suddenly realized he had left it open by accident. Nancy stuck her head out at the same moment, linking eyes with him!
    He had small, even features, and despite the streak of gray in his hair, he looked fairly young. He also wore a tuxedo, causing Nancy to assume that he had attended the fashion show.
    “Who are you and what are you doing in here?” she asked boldly.
    The intruder responded with a cold, angry stare. He strode past the girl, not saying a word. She decided to postpone her phone call to Chris, and dashed quickly into the dressing room. So far as she could tell, nothing had been disturbed, but before she returned to her table, she reported the incident to the hotel desk.
    “Perhaps the man was just an interested admirer,” Aunt Eloise told Nancy when she related the story. “It doesn’t pay to be too suspicious, dear.”
    The young detective would have been the first to agree under other circumstances, but she did not argue the point. As it was, she barely could keep her eyes open on the way back to the apartment.
    In spite of her exhaustion, however, Nancy tossed restlessly. Who was Jacqueline’s brother and why did the young model imagine he had been kidnapped? The same questions rose in her mind as she awoke the next morning.
    Before I do anything, though, I’m going to call Dad, Nancy decided.
    She dressed quickly and joined her aunt and the other girls at the breakfast table, where they planned the itinerary for the day, beginning with phone calls home and one to Chris Chavez, who invited them to come to his studio later that morning.
    Then, leaving Aunt Eloise, who was to meet Marjorie Tyson at the hotel office, the young detectives headed for Mr. Reese’s. Nancy was not entirely surprised to learn that he wasn’t there.
    “He is flying to Palm Beach today,” the receptionist said, “but he left this envelope for you, Miss Drew.”
    Nancy opened it immediately, discovering several sketches of the missing gowns, along with other pertinent information.
    “When will he be back?” Nancy inquired.
    “Tomorrow, perhaps.”
    “There are too many disappearing acts around here to suit me,” Bess whispered to George.
    “You can say that again,” her cousin replied. “I think—”
    “Let’s go,” Nancy interrupted, and turned to leave. “Our next stop is the studio of Chris Chavez!”
    On the way, she studied Mr. Reese’s sketches, almost memorizing them, and advised