| For Love Or Money | ✔︎

Chapters Twelve

A chorus of gasps broke out in the room, followed by an anguished cry from Nila, who sank down into her chair. Nancy quickly looked around at the members of Charles Pierce's family. Not surprisingly, everyone of them seemed relieved, except for Eleanor, Nancy noted. Charles Pierce's widowed sister-in-law was acting distinctly worried, and Nancy wondered why.

"What happens now, Mr. Bishop ?" Cecilia asked.

"Well," he said with a sigh, "if Mr. Pierce should die or become incapacitated, his most recent will would take precedence. That means, if the new will can't be found, the old will would still be in effect."

Nancy listened closely. Until this moment there had been two possibilities. Now, there was only one. In any investigation, Nancy knew, the detective needed to look at who benefited from the crime. In this case, the answer was : everyone but Nila. Therefore, it no longer made sense that Nila faked the attempts on her life, then tried to kill Pierce after he changed his will.

Nancy's thoughts ran backward over the various attempts on Nila's life. One piece still didn't fit ---- the lab report on Nila's glass of cranberry juice.

Nancy pictured the scene, hoping to jog her memory for a clue. She remembered Eleanor standing there in the hallway, over Nila's body, a glass in her hand . . .

"Of course !" She cried out loud.

"Excuse me ?" Karen said, turning toward her.

"No, excuse me," Nancy replied. "Bess and I have to be going now. We'll be back later. I hope you find the will, Mr. Bishop. "Bye, everyone."

Before any of them could react, Nancy had yanked Bess's arm, and the two of them were driving back toward the center of town.

"What was that all about ?" Bess asked, confused. "Why did we need to get out of there in such a hurry ?"

"We've got things to do," Nancy answered as she drove. "First of all, my car should be ready by now. I don't need to drag you around with me on all my little errands."

"But I want to come," Bess protested. "This is all so fascinating. I can't wait to tell George all about ----"

"Here we are," Nancy interrupted, pulling into the garage. It took her only a few minutes to pick up her car and pay the bill. "Bess, I've got to go now," she told her friend. Before Bess could protest, she added, "I'll call you later after I've cleared up a few things."

Bess opened her mouth to say something, but Nancy stopped her with a quick kiss on the cheek. "I'll explain everything later," she said hurriedly, making for her car. "Gotta run !"

Nancy took off for home, glad to be behind the wheel of her Mustang once more. It was her pride and joy, and it really steamed her that someone had tampered with it. She was determined to put that person behind bars ---- for her own sake, as well as Charles Pierce's and Nila's.

At home she raced upstairs to her room and started pulling clothes out of her laundry hamper. "Ah ! Here it is !" She said triumphantly, holding up the dress she'd worn to the engagement party. "Good thing I was in too much of a hurry to take care of his stain."

There it was, a blotch of dark red. Going over to her beside phone, she called her friend at the police lab again.

"Sorry to bother you, Ernie," she said. "But could you run another test for me ? Same one as last time ?"

"I don't know, Nan," Ernie said. "We're really busy around here. If my boss finds out, he'll kill me."

"I'll take full responsibility," Nancy assured him. "You can blame it all on me. Tell him you're helping me catch an attempted murderer."