Stop the Clock (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 12) (4 page)

Deirdre turned bright red.

“Well,” I said, “I guess we’d better start our meeting. What I think we should do first is—”

“Ned is really disappointed that you didn’t want him on the committee, Nancy,” Deirdre said, interrupting. “Actually, I am too, because I think he always has really good ideas.”

“What do you mean, Deirdre?” I said. “He
is
on the committee.” I didn’t add that I hadn’t told him yet.

Deirdre eyed me suspiciously.

“Anyway, when were you talking to Ned?” I asked.

Deirdre gave everyone her I’m-in-control-here smile and said, “This morning, at the student union, when I had an early breakfast with a friend of mine.
I told Ned I was really sorry that you didn’t want him on the committee.”

“Why did you tell him that, Deirdre?” I asked.

“Because it’s true!” Deirdre said. “Ned hadn’t heard anything about this committee, Nancy!” she added triumphantly. “You were just saying that.”

“It isn’t true, Deirdre,” I said, turning to everyone else. “Ned Nickerson is on this committee too, but he had an English lit test this morning, so he wasn’t able to attend this first meeting. I’ll see him tonight, so I’ll fill him in on everything we talked about.”

Of course, I wasn’t really lying. Every time Ned and I were together recently, he was studying for another exam. How could I have a chance to tell him?

Bess and George smirked.

“Perhaps he just
forgot,
Nancy,” Deirdre said sarcastically. She was still eyeing me suspiciously. “If you’d like me to, I can fill Ned in before then.”

The girl never gives up!

“I’ll probably see him this afternoon at the university library,” Deirdre continued. She looked at everyone else. “My friend works in circulation,” she added. “I’m at the library a lot. So is Ned.”

“Why, thank you, Deirdre! That’s a wonderful idea!” I said. “I’ll take you up on that.” I’d just explain it all to Ned later. He’d understand. He might even think he
really had just forgotten. He’s used to how I operate.

I could tell that Deirdre was a little surprised at how easily I accepted her offer, but she didn’t question it.

Now Bess and George were looking at me as though I had lost my mind. But see, there is no way to win with Deirdre. The only way she’ll ever stop flirting with Ned will be if somebody locks her in her room—without a telephone—for the rest of her life. Of course, Ned is immune to what she thinks are her charms. I’d go ahead and let Deirdre give Ned her version of the meeting, and then I’d give him the real version later.

Mrs. Corning’s office was beginning to feel claustrophobic. “The first thing I want us to do,” I said, slipping back into my role as chair of the committee, “is to take a tour of the library to see just where we should put all the displays.”

“That’s an excellent idea, Nancy,” Ellis said. He stood up and turned to Mrs. Corning. “I’ll be happy to take everyone around, if you have some other things you need to attend to.”

“Oh, Ellis, thank you, I do,” Mrs. Corning said. “With all the chaos this morning, I forgot that I have to make out the budget to give to Mrs. Mahoney. She likes to look at it before she gives it to her lawyer.”

Just as Ellis opened the door, I heard an unfamiliar buzzing noise. The source stopped us in our tracks. The library looked more like the mall on a Saturday afternoon than it did a library.

“Good grief!” Mrs. Corning said. “What is going on?”

“I think I know. The news about the library clock has gotten out,” I said. “It looks as though everyone in River Heights has come here to see the scene of the crime.”

“Well, we can’t have this,” Mrs. Corning said. “We simply can’t.”

“It’s a library, Mrs. Corning, open to the public,” Ellis reminded her. “I don’t think you can ask them to leave.”

Ellis was right. The noise was a little louder than you’d expect in a library reading room, but it certainly wasn’t as loud as it could have been, given the size of the crowd.

“I have an idea,” I said. “Let’s use this crowd to our advantage.”

“How?” Deirdre demanded. “They just look like a bunch of stupid people to me.”

“Oh, really, Deirdre?” George said. She turned to Bess. “Isn’t that the mayor of River Heights pointing to the hole in the wall?”

“Why, I do believe it is, George,” Bess said. “I also
see Mr. Nickerson, Harold Safer, and Evaline Waters.” She looked at Deirdre. “I don’t think they’d appreciate being referred to as stupid people.”

Deirdre looked as though she might explode, she was getting so angry.

“Oh, there’s your father, too, Deirdre,” I added.

“I think we should stick to a tour of the library,” Deirdre said. “We’re already behind schedule.”

“What was your idea, Nancy?” Mrs. Corning said.

“Well, these people obviously are very upset that the library clock has been stolen, or they wouldn’t have left their businesses to come here,” I said. “That means they probably have their own stories about the library clock.”

“Right,” Bess said. “Just like the stories we were telling one another on the way over here.”

I nodded. “You know, I think their stories of what the clock means to them would make a great display,” I continued. “While they’re here, let’s get each one of them to sit down at the tables and write down whatever they can remember.”

“How could a silly clock mean anything to anybody?” Deirdre asked. “Won’t stories about how you looked up to see what time it was be kind of boring?”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” I said. “Mrs. Corning, do you have some pads and pencils we could use?”

“Of course,” Mrs. Corning said. “I keep a supply for our children’s activities.”

“Nancy, you and Ellis go ahead and tell everyone what you want them to do,” Bess said. “The rest of us will get the pads and pencils.”

“Thanks, Bess,” I said.

Ellis and I headed toward the crowd of people all pointing at the huge hole in the wall of the library. “Let’s talk to Mr. Nickerson first,” I said. “Since he’s used to doing newspaper stories, I doubt if he’ll say no when we ask him to write down his favorite memories of the library clock.”

“Good thinking, Nancy,” Ellis said. “When the rest of the people see what he’s doing, they may be more willing to do the same thing.”

I hoped so. “Mr. Nickerson!” I called.

Mr. Nickerson looked up. “Oh, hi, Nancy,” he said. He nodded toward the hole in the library wall. “Isn’t this just awful? Such a tragedy.”

“It is,” I said, “but I’m sure it’ll return soon.”

“Let’s hope so,” Mr. Nickerson said.

“With Nancy Drew on the case, it’s a done deal,” Ellis said.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I said, remembering my manners. “Mr. Nickerson, this is Ellis Lamsley, the new librarian.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ellis,” Mr. Nickerson said.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Ellis said. “I’m a big fan of your newspaper.”

“Thanks,” Mr. Nickerson said.

“When I read your editorials about the president and Congress, I don’t feel as though I’m in a small town,” Ellis said. “They’re more like something you’d find in one of the Washington D.C. newspapers.”

Mr. Nickerson smiled. “Oh, really? Well, I’m glad I haven’t lost my touch.”

Ellis looked puzzled.

“The Nickersons used to live in Washington,” I said. “Mr. Nickerson was a very famous investigative reporter.”

Ellis looked impressed.

“Mr. Nickerson, as you know, the library’s seventy-fifth anniversary is coming up,” I said, “and I’m the chair of one of the celebration committees.”

Mr. Nickerson nodded his head toward the hole in the wall. “Well, there’s going to be something important missing from the celebration, isn’t there?” he said.

I nodded. “That’s why I thought I’d get as many people as possible to write down what the library clock means to them, and I wanted you to be the first,” I said. “Would you be willing to do that?”

“Of course,” Mr. Nickerson said. “I’m embarrassed to admit, though, that I’m here without my reporter’s notebook. Do you have anything—”

“Here we are,” Bess said, walking up to us. Deirdre and George were right behind her, their hands full of pencils and spiral notebooks.

I took a set, and handed it to Mr. Nickerson.

“Ned was fascinated with the library clock when he was a boy,” Mr. Nickerson said. “It was similar to the one in Washington that helped him first learn how to tell time.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said, smiling.

“Oh, yes,” Deirdre said. “It’s such a cute story.”

We all turned and looked at her.

“What?”
Deirdre said.

While Mr. Nickerson wrote down his clock story, the rest of us circulated through the crowd, asking other people to tell theirs. I kept myself as far away from Deirdre as possible.

As we had expected, some people declined our request—but many others weren’t so shy.

Suddenly I spotted Evaline Waters at the edge of the crowd. She was wiping her eyes with a dainty handkerchief. I hurried over to her. Ms. Waters is the first librarian I ever knew, and she’s still my favorite. I miss having her at the River Heights Public Library. She’s now retired, and lives in a little house just a few blocks from the Mahoney Library. She must have heard the noise, and come by to see what the hubbub was about.

“Ms. Waters!” I called, walking up to her.

Ms. Waters looked up. “Oh, Nancy, this is such a tragedy! I just don’t know what to—”

“Pardon me—I have an announcement to make!”

I turned around. An elderly man was standing at the edge of the crowd. “Who is that?” I asked.

“Oh, my goodness,” Ms. Waters said. “That’s Ralph Mullins!” She looked back at me. “He’s the son of Ben Mullins, the jeweler who made the clock and donated it to the Mahoney Library.”

Mrs. Corning and the rest of the librarians had stepped out of their offices.

Ralph Mullins turned toward them. “It’s
your
fault that this clock is missing, Frances!” he shouted. “Have you forgotten about the agreement that the library signed with my father?”

“Oh, no,” Ms. Waters whispered, turning pale.

What was going on here?

“Well, I’ll remind you,” Mr. Mullins shouted. “It says that if you don’t take good care of the clock, then it reverts to my family!” He smiled. “We’ve hired a private detective. When he finds the clock, it’ll be ours!”

Ned Has a Plan

Y
ou can imagine how
stunned everybody was. We all just stood there and watched Ralph Mullins stalk out of the library.

When I looked over at Mrs. Corning I saw she had an expression of terror on her face. I hurried over to her.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

Mrs. Corning blinked a couple of times. “Am I all right?
Am I all right?
Nancy! If the library loses that clock, then I’ll probably lose my job. How would Mrs. Mahoney understand? So, no, I’m not all right.” With that, she rushed away, sobbing hysterically.

Just then Ellis walked up. “I think she’s pretty close to a nervous breakdown, don’t you?”

I let out a deep sigh. It was really unlike Mrs.
Corning to blow up like this. Now, I knew I should probably go see if she was all right—but at the same time, I kind of wanted to stick around. This was getting intense.

A couple of the other librarians looked as though they were headed toward Mrs. Corning’s office, so I felt that I was off the hook. But I did suddenly wonder why Ellis hadn’t suggested that somebody look in on her.

“Is this enough, Nancy?”

When I turned around, Ms. Waters was holding out several sheets of paper with her fine handwriting. “I wrote down everything I could think of,” she said.

“Oh, thank you so much, Ms. Waters,” I said. “That will really help the display a lot.” I hesitated a minute. “Is it really true, what Mr. Mullins said?” I asked. “Does the clock revert to his family if the library doesn’t take care of it?”

Ms. Waters nodded. “I’m afraid it is,” she said, shrugging. “When Ben Mullins gave the clock to the library, and a contract was drafted, he had the clause included—and the library didn’t notice. If anyone had suggested at the time that the clock would ever be stolen, they would have been laughed at.” She shook her head sadly. “Well, I need to be going. This has already been quite a morning. I’m not used to this much excitement anymore.”

“Thank you again,” I said, but then I thought of something. “Wait a minute! As chair of the decoration committee, I’m connected to the library—so if I find the clock, then I can say that the library really is ‘taking care of it,’ can’t I?”

“That’s true, Nancy,” Ms. Waters said. “It’s a stretch, but I’m sure that your father could make the case in court that you’re right.” She took my hand and patted it. “I wouldn’t doubt that Nancy Drew would be able to solve the mystery of the library clock,” she said.

With that, she headed out of the library.

“Good thinking, Nancy,” Ellis said. “Shall we help Bess and George collect the rest of the essays?”

“Yes, let’s do that,” I said.

It turned out that Bess and George had already collected everything that everyone had written. Several people had decided they didn’t want to write down their recollections after all, so there weren’t as many as I had thought there would be. But what we had would still make an interesting display.

“Where’s Deirdre?” I asked.

“Oh, she said she needed to go to the university library,” Bess said nonchalantly. “She thought that Ned should hear right away about everything that’s happened.”

“Oh, of course,” I said. I rolled my eyes. “What was I thinking?”

“Right,” Bess said. “What were you thinking?”

“If you don’t need us for anything else, Nancy, we should run too,” George said. “I have some work I need to do on the computer for Mom.”

“We’re through here for today,” I said. “I’ll call you after Ned brings me home tonight.”

“Oh, I forgot about that,” Bess said. “I told you I’d help you pick out an outfit to wear.”

“That’s okay, Bess,” I said. “I’ll try this once to manage!”

“I’m sure you’ll
manage,
Nancy. You always
manage,
” Bess said. She grinned. “The question is, manage to do
what
?”