| For Love Or Money | ✔︎

Chapter Four

Nancy reached out with her right hand and swept it up and down the wall, hoping to find the light switch and flip it on. It took her two tries to locate it, and by the time the room was lit up, the man was already standing at the open French doors, ready to leave. She made a run at him, but he pushed the desk chair in her path, and by the time she made it to the doors, he had disappeared into the darkness of the garden.

Nancy briefly thought of going after him. But in her dress and heels, she knew she'd never catch him. And running barefoot in the darkness was not a good idea, she knew. One injury could put her out of action for weeks.

Instead, she turned and looked at the contents of the single desk drawer that had been yanked open. Pierce's check ledger was inside, as was a schedule book, paper-clipped open to the page for the current week. In the box for that day's date was a notation in Pierce's spindly handwriting: "N. DREW, INVESTIGATOR."

Had the intruder seen the notation ? Nancy wondered. He must have had a flashlight, she reasoned, and turned it off when he heard her approaching. Whatever he was searching for, he would have needed light to find it.

Nancy decided not to worry about the notation in Pierce's datebook. After all, Pierce had already blown her cover by mentioning her occupation in front of his sister-in-law, Eleanor and his niece, Cecilia. Nancy would have to proceed as if everyone concerned knew about her.

She continued looking at the contents of the drawer. There was a confidential report from a supervisor at Pierce's software company, regarding Jack's performance on his current job. Apparently, Pierce had given his son-in-law a job at the firm when Jack's restaurant went under. But Jack was obviously not working as an employee. The report described him as lazy and incompetent, unable or unwilling to perform any of the various jobs to which he'd been assigned. Nancy filed the information away in her mental databank for future reference and went on with her search.

The checkbook ledger contained nothing revealing. But when Nancy picked it up, she found a large wad of hundred dollar bills underneath. Had the intruder seen the cash ? Probably not. Even if money wasn't what he'd come for, such a large amount would not have been easy to resist.

What alarmed Nancy was not what was in the desk drawer, but what she realized was missing ---- the draft of Pierce's new will. There was no sign of it.

Bingo, Nancy thought, taking the threatening note she'd left on the desktop and retreating from the room after giving it a final once-over. Someone had wanted to get hold of that will, and that someone had succeeded. As she walked down the hallway to the front of the mansion, Nancy wondered about the intruder ---- who he was and what connection he had to the Pierce family. She knew he hadn't been either Jack or Philip. Nor had she spotted him among the guests that evening. She hadn't gotten a good look at his face, but she did notice he had long, dark hair and a compact, muscular build, and had been wearing jeans, sneakers, and a dark leather jacket.

Above all, she wondered why he, or whoever had sent him, wanted to see the draft of Pierce's new will and what would be done with the information.

"Got what you needed ?" Carson asked her when she emerged from the house.

"That, and more," Nancy replied as they headed for his car.

* * * * *

The mobile ring tone woke Nancy at eight the next morning. "Tell me everything," Bess's voice bubbled over the line. "Don't spare a single juicy detail."

"Bess, I'm still half asleep," Nancy said, yawning and stretching. "Why don't you come over ? I've got an errand to run, but I should be back by ten or so."

"I'll be there," Bess said, and hung up.

Nancy got dressed, wolfed down a bowl of cereal, and grabbed her bag, which still contained the cranberry juice glass she'd picked up from the floor of the Pierce mansion. She ran it over to police headquarters and gave it to Ernie Watkins, who promised to check out the contents and call her with the results.

She got home at a quarter to ten. Bess, impatient as always, was already in Nancy's kitchen waiting for her, a cheese sandwich in her hand. "Mmmph," she greeted Nancy with a full mouth. "I've got to quit stuffing my face, but I can't seem to help myself. Curiosity makes me hungry."

Nancy laughed, shaking her head. Bess had been trying to lose those pesky five or ten pounds for years. Not that she was really overweight. With her pretty, blond, blue-eyed looks, Bess's extra pounds were more of a mental problem than a physical one.

Nancy plopped down on the chair next to her friend. "You would have loved it, Bess," she began, and then proceeded to tell her all the events of the night before.

"Wow," Bess said after Nancy related her conversation with Pierce. "So you're going to investigate ? Fantastic ! I could help you, Nan. We could check out every room of the place, and you could introduce me to Philip ---- he sounds so cute. Hey, maybe he's got a rich, handsome friend ?"

"Whoa, hold on, Bess." Nancy held up a hand to stop her, laughing. "Sure, you can help me, but take it easy, okay ? This is serious business. It may even be life and death."

"So you really think someone tried to kill Nila ?" Bess asked.

"I'm not sure," Nancy told her. "Things don't really add up. Most of the contents of the glass were spilled on the carpet ---- there was a huge puddle of the stuff ---- which means she didn't drink very much of it. Then there's the letter. And most of all, the fact that somebody broke into Pierce's desk later that night and stole the draft copy of his new will. If Nila was faking the whole thing, how does that fit it ?"

"It doesn't," Bess agreed. "Unless it was a total coincidence, and one thing has nothing to do with the other."

"Could be," Nancy said skeptically. "But until I hear from Ernie Watkins at the police lab, I have to assume someone doctored that cranberry juice. Anyway, we should know before too long."

At that very moment, the telephone rang. Bess, who considered herself family, not company, leaped up and answered. "Drew residence," she said. "No, this is her friend Bess. Who's this ?" Her eyes widened slowly as she covered the mouthpiece. "It's the police lab," she whispered to Nancy. "For you."

"That was fast," Nancy commented, getting up and taking the phone from Bess. "Hi, Ernie," she said. "Finished already ?"

"Yup," he told her. "And I'm sure you'll be glad to hear what I found in the glass."

"Yes ?"

"Cranberry juice."

"And . . . ?"

"That's it. Cranberry juice, and nothing else."

"Ernie, are you sure ?" Nancy asked, putting a hand to her forehead.

"Positive," he said. "No poison, no nothing. Your 'victim' must have faked the whole thing !"

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𝑯𝒆𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 ! 𝑰 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚'𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 :) 𝑺𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕; 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒐𝒐𝒏 ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

𝑲𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒗𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 ! 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒂'𝒍𝒍 :)

Yours sincerely,
Ariel.