| For Love Or Money | ✔︎

Chapter Nine

"Hello there," Nancy said casually. She offered Eleanor a helping hand, and the woman emerged from the closet. "Doing a little spring cleaning ?"

"I'm ---- I'm afraid you've caught me snooping," Eleanor confessed, her face flushing. "I'm sorry. You see, I happened to be on my way to speak to my brother about a very urgent matter, and, well, I heard you two talking in there, and Charles was being so loud, I couldn't help overhearing . . ."

"And what he was saying had a lot to do with why you wanted to speak with him, am I right ?" Nancy guessed, guiding Eleanor out into the hallway.

"Why, yes !" Eleanor gasped. "How did you know ?"

"I've been doing a little snooping around myself," Nancy admitted. "Something about Nila's past, wasn't it ?"

"Yes," Eleanor said, nodding conspiratorially. "You see, a couple of days ago someone showed me a newspaper article from the Stockton Gazette. It was all about how Nila had stolen money from her previous employer."

"Who was it who showed you the article ?" Nancy asked pointedly.

Eleanor seemed to shrink back into herself. "Oh ---- I'm not sure I should say. No, I don't think that would be right. I wouldn't want to get anyone else into trouble. Charles is angry enough as it is."

"You've got that right," Nancy agreed.

"But you see, I wanted very much to tell Charles about it," Eleanor explained. "Because it might affect his future, too, you see."

"And yours as well," Nancy pointed out.

"Yes, I suppose so. At any rate, Nila must have faked her letter of recommendation form her previous employer's children, because they would never have written one for a person who had stolen from them. So, of course, Nila came here under false pretenses ! And I felt it was my duty to inform Charles about her."

"Why not just show him the article ?" Nancy asked.

"Well, I don't have it," Eleanor admitted. "And I'm not sure where it is just now. But it will be easy enough for Charles to check into it himself. Or to ask Nila about, although I'm sure she'll deny everything. But you see, the article had her picture in it and everything. So denying it won't do her any good."

"Hmmm . . . I'd like to see that article myself," Nancy said. "Do you think you could find it and show it to me later today ?"

"I could try," Eleanor said with a weak smile. "As for Charles," she added, her face pale, "perhaps now is not the best time to talk with him about it. He seems so agitated. I don't want to risk his health in any way. Perhaps later, if I can find the article, you could show it to him ?"

"We'll see," Nancy said. "Why don't you go find it first ? Then we'll discuss who shows it to him."

Eleanor went off quickly, obviously grateful to escape. Nancy went back downstairs, with the new development weighing heavily on her mind. In spite of all their faults, could Pierce's family be right about Nila ?

Nancy left the house and headed out to Bess's car. As she was getting behind the wheel, she heard someone call her name. Nancy rolled down the window and saw Karen trotting over to her, a tennis racket in her hand.

"Hi !" She greeted Nancy cheerfully. "How are things going ?"

Nancy gave her a long look. "How do you mean that, exactly ?" She asked.

"Oh. I forgot," Karen said. "You don't know that I know ---- I mean, about your being a detective. Eleanor couldn't stop blabbing about it to everyone after you left the party the other night."