Authors: Carolyn Keene

The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book (10 page)

BOOK: The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book

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While they did this she wrote in the margin:

4. Eyes

a. Color

b. Shape: oval, round, almond

c. Size

d. Bloodshot

e. Excessive blinking

The next facial feature to be studied was the forehead. Nancy wrote the following descriptions on the blackboard:

5. Forehead

a. Bulging

b. Prominent

c. Wrinkled

The girls jotted this down, then Sue asked, “How about the shape of the face?”

“That’s next,” Nancy said, and wrote:

6. Shape of face

a. Round

b. Oval

c. Broad

d. Long

“That’s easy,” Karen remarked. “You can’t change the shape of a person’s face, because of the skull structure.”

Nancy said, “But look carefully for scars, cuts, rashes, and of course beards and mustaches. Does the beard nearly cover the face, or only partially? Is it well trimmed? Is the mustache long or short? Does it match the beard and hair?”

Peg groaned as she took notes. “This lesson is a big order. I don’t see how I can remember all these things.”

Nancy chuckled. “We haven’t finished yet. Peg, how many kinds of eyebrows are there?”

“Heavy, skimpy.” She thought a moment. “Long, short—I give up.”

Martie raised her hand. “Straight and arched.”

“I know a couple,” Sue called out. “Slanted, plucked.”

“What about color?” Nancy asked. “Is it different from the hair, beard, or mustache?”

Sue giggled. “My eyebrows are darker than my hair.”

“Now we come to the nose and mouth,” Nancy went on. “Noses certainly come in many varieties: short, medium, long, straight, tilted, hooked, thick, or thin. Look for injuries—a scar, or a nose that’s deformed from an accident, like in football, baseball, hockey, soccer, or boxing.”

Karen spoke up. “Or just by getting into an ordinary fight with another person. My brother got his nose broken and had to have cosmetic surgery to fix it.”

Nancy nodded, then mentioned the mouth. She suggested that the girls describe as many shapes as they could think of.

Honey’s eyes lit up. “The biggest one belongs to a clown. Wouldn’t that be a great disguise for someone? Nobody could identify the person behind the makeup.”

“I can think of the opposite,” said Peg. “A rosebud-sized mouth. And how about thin lips and thick lips.”

“And notice the teeth,” Nancy added. “Are they real or artificial, white or discolored, and are there spaces between any of them?”

Sue added, “You wouldn’t see that if the suspect was running away from you.”

“True,” Nancy replied, “but sometimes you might be spying and have a good chance to make note of these points.”

She stood up. “Now let’s go and describe some real people.”

“Where?” Karen asked.

“The River Heights Airport. It’s a busy place with thousands of incoming and outgoing travelers.”

“Sounds great!” Sue exclaimed. “Maybe we can catch a villain!”

Excitedly, the Detective Club members set off in Nancy’s car. Twenty minutes later they reached the airport, which was alive with activity. After they parked, the girls went into the main building. A man banged his heavy suitcase against Sue as he dashed past her, but did not apologize.

“You have a nerve!” she muttered.

He turned for a second, and she glimpsed an angular face with a square-set jaw and piercing black eyes.

Just then a very stout woman wearing a shawl over her head and shoulders hurried past the group.

“What did you notice about her?” Nancy asked.

The girls looked at one another.

“She was heavy,” Karen said. “But what else?”

Their teacher smiled. “The woman had short curly hair and sunken cheeks, as if she had no teeth. She had small hands and feet, and wore bedroom slippers.”

“Nancy,” said Peg, “you’re positively too much for me. But here comes an elderly man. Let’s see if we can describe him better.”

As the gentleman passed the bench where the club members had seated themselves, he smiled. After he was gone, the girls compared notes.

“He had gray hair,” Sue said, “and blue eyes. A long thin neck, and long legs. He wore a gray suit and black shoes. His hair was short, straight, and thick.”

“That’s much better,” Nancy commented. “Keep your eyes open.”

A flight had arrived at gate 1, and a group of people walked down a corridor toward the girls’ bench. They all kept a normal pace except for one young woman who elbowed her way through the crowd at a fast clip. She held a beaded clutch purse in one hand and a large shopping bag in the other.

At once Nancy thought,
That’s an expensive purse, probably imported, and my guess is there’s a lot of money in it.

The young woman’s plain dark blue suit and tailored blouse were not the appropriate attire to accompany such a purse. It was definitely meant to be carried with evening clothes.

“Watch that woman,” Nancy directed her companions.

“How can I?” Sue complained. “She’s running fast.”

“She’s probably trying to make a connecting plane,” Karen observed. “She’s turning toward gate three.”

“She’s having trouble running while wearing her high heels, too,” Honey added.

“What about her hair, eyes, nose, and mouth?” Nancy asked.

“She has big lips and plenty of lipstick,” Martie replied.

None of the club members could tell the color of the stranger’s eyes, but they agreed that her hair was dark brown. They were still discussing her when, suddenly, a woman’s shrill cry rang through the terminal.

“I’ve been robbed! Quick, somebody catch the thief!”

My guess is there ’s a lot of money in that purse, Nancy thought.

Nancy and her friends hurried toward the distressed passenger.

“What does the thief look like?” Karen asked the elderly woman.

“I don’t know! Suddenly, I missed my beaded black purse. It must have happened while we were coming off the plane.”

Instantly, Nancy thought of the young woman in the blue outfit. Before she could say anything, a guard joined the group and asked if he could be of help. After hearing the story, he asked, “Did anyone see a person snatch Mrs. Allen’s purse?”

“No!” a passerby replied.

“Are you a police officer?” Nancy asked. “Do you have the authority to make arrests?”

“Yes. Why?”

“I think we have a lead. Will you and Mrs. Allen please follow us? We saw a woman with a purse just like Mrs. Allen described.”

The guard looked surprised. “You did?”

“Yes. If we hurry, I’m sure we’ll catch her in time.”

The Detective Club members started off, with the guard close at their heels. Mrs. Allen could not keep up the pace and fell behind. The guard turned back, but she begged him to go ahead with the girls.

Soon the group rushed up to the metal detector at gate 3. The guard asked the attendant if she had noticed a young woman in a blue suit carrying a beaded purse and a large shopping bag.

“I noticed a woman who fits your description, but she had no purse.”

“She probably hid it in the shopping bag,” Honey spoke up.

“No doubt,” the guard said, and quickly explained the situation. The attendant waved the group through the gate, and they hurried on.

The last passengers were just boarding. The guard asked the stewardess to delay takeoff while his group hunted for the suspect. She telephoned the pilot, and within seconds he appeared. When he heard the story, the pilot said to Nancy, “Point her out. We’ll get to the bottom of this!”

Nancy led the way down the aisle. The other girls followed behind the pilot and the guard.

The passengers looked up in surprise and craned their necks as the group went by. Toward the rear of the plane, Nancy suddenly stopped. She had found the young woman sitting next to the cruel-looking man who had banged his bag into Sue in the terminal!

“There she is,” Nancy whispered to the men, and her friends nodded in agreement.

The guard leaned over and asked the suspect if she had a black beaded purse.

“Of course not!” the young woman snapped.

“May I see the bag you are carrying?”

“No. It’s none of your business!”

The guard showed his police badge. “I want to see it.”

At this point her companion spoke up. “Listen, this lady’s got rights!”

“I have a whole group of witnesses who saw her with a black beaded purse that may be stolen,” the guard replied evenly.

There was a disturbance in the background as Mrs. Allen pushed her way forward. “I own the stolen purse and everything in it! Give it to me at once!”

She and the suspect glared at each other. Then to everyone’s amazement, the woman began to cry. “Yes, I have it. I don’t want to go to jail. He—he”—she looked at her companion—“he made me do it!”

“What are you talking about?” the man bellowed. “I don’t even know you!”

The guard looked at him intently. “Ah, but I recognize you! You’re called Sneaky-Eyed Pete and were in prison for smuggling diamonds, and you escaped. The two of you had better come along with me.”

The couple did not budge, but Mrs. Allen did. Pushing the guard aside, she reached down and swooped up the woman’s shopping bag. She rummaged inside and drew out a beautiful beaded black purse.

“This is mine!” she cried out triumphantly, and un-snapped it. “My money’s still in it, and so are the diamonds. My husband is a jeweler, and I bought them for him.”

“I don’t want to go to jail. He made me do it!” the woman cried out.

“Where?” the guard inquired.

“A dealer in New York.”

After glancing at the stones, the guard said, “I’m inclined to believe that those diamonds are part of a shipment stolen in Holland and smuggled into this country.”

“What!” Mrs. Allen was shocked. “You mean I bought stolen merchandise?”

“Perhaps not,” the guard calmed her. “Don’t worry about it. But give me the name of the dealer, and the police will investigate it and let you know.”

The pilot now conferred briefly with the guard, then said, “It’s past takeoff time. Will all of you please disembark?”

The two men forced the thief and the smuggler to unstrap their seat belts and go with the guard.

“I’ll call for another officer to help you,” the *pilot offered as the group walked toward the front of the plane.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Mrs. Allen said gratefully to the girls. “You certainly have sharp eyes.”

The club members smiled, and Nancy said she hoped Mrs. Allen would have no trouble recovering her money from the New York dealer if the diamonds had been smuggled. She said good-bye to the woman, who followed the prisoners and the guards into the security office. Then the girls left the terminal and walked to the parking lot.

“Wow!” Sue exclaimed as they climbed into the car. “And I was only kidding when I said we might catch a villain!”

Nancy chuckled. “We didn’t only catch one, we caught two!”

ACTIVITY

Nancy suggests that you play detective-for-the-day and go to your local mall or movie theater and observe people’s traits. Write down your notes and observations of passersby. Always remember to be subtle and try not to stare ... too hard.

CHAPTER VII

THE QUEEN’S CAMEO

Lost and Found