Nancy Drew- The Missing Gown.

Chapter 2- INVESTIGATION

This chapter is dedicated to Charlottesavage for being my official 1st reader!!!

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chapter 2 (investigation)



Nancy looked at Bess with a horrified expression. She asked her Mrs Cupcake's description. Nancy had never seen her but had heard a lot from Bess and Christie. Mrs Cupcake was the owner of needle and thread. By listening to Bess, Nancy learnt that Mrs Cupcake was known as Stella. She was a short tempered woman and often used to get angry with Christie. She was married to a man called Mr Arnold Cupcake. He was quite a jolly fellow. It seemed that Stella used to shout at her husband too.

After knowing about her,Nancy questioned Bess about the antiques. Bess told her that the antiques were given by Stella's father, Mr Roosevelt as a gift to her. He had got it from a shop of antiques. It was a quite expensive dress but he didn't mind as he was a rich man. The dress belonged to a British princess. It was a long flowing purple gown embedded with semi -precious stones. It was specially made for the young princess'Christmas celebration. Stella had taken good care of that dress. She had put it in a glass case outside the shop to draw people's attention.

Soon Nancy got up and went towards the attic, where Christie and George were there. She whispered in George's ear "I am investigating this case." George and Bess booth agreed that they would help her in this case too. Nancy went up to Christie and told her "Christie you know well I am a detective. I would like to investigate this case to help you find the criminal." Christie looked up to Nancy and told "Thank you Nancy. You'll be of great help." Nancy quickly removed her notebook and started asking questions.

She asked Christie "Christie tell me everything that happened." Christie nodded her head and began her tale. She spoke in a slow voice.

"Nancy I was stacking up the clothes out there." She pointed towards a rack of clothes kept. Some were stacked and some were still lying on the ground. "Maybe,someone came behind and put a cloth on my nose and covered it till I did not faint. I do not remember anything but when I regained consciousness I saw that the gown was missing and I screamed. I didn't know I had screamed so loudly." Nancy had listened to Christie's story carefully.

She asked "Christie had you seen it was a man or woman? And maybe you were chloroformed. But I can't smell the sweet smell of chloroform." Christie looked up and told in a sad voice "I couldn't see. The attacker was dressed in black. And the chloroform thing maybe they didn't apply it too much. That's why you can't smell any chloroform."

Nancy saw that Christie should be getting a little rest and asked George to drop Christie home. She even told Christie that she could take a leave for a day or two as Bess would handle it. After George and Christie left, Nancy asked Bess to call Mrs. Cupcake while she would call inspector Jenks. Mrs Cupcake came in about 15 minutes. Nancy immediately understood that why Bess was describing her as a short tempered lady. When she came in she started scolding Bess without giving her a chance to speak. She screamed on top of her lungs "How could you let my precious gown get stolen? You are the most careless person on earth!!"

She spoke so much that she got exhausted and sat on a stool and to Nancys surprise, she started crying. Nancy went up to her to comfort her. Nancy was about to speak when Stella snapped at Nancy and asked her "Who are you?" Nancy told her that she was a friend and continued what she was going to say she spoke in a comforting voice "Stella I know you are upset about the theft but you know Bess wasn't there in the shop. She was..." Nancy's sentence was cut off by Stella's sharp voice. She turned to Bess and began again "Bess Marvin you were not in the shop while it was your duty? That's it. That's the reason the gown was stolen from the glass case."

Bess who was by now irritated spoke in a stern voice, "For your kind information, Stella, I wasn't there in the shop because it wasn't my duty. It was Christie's duty and she..." Bess' sentence was cut by Stella. She spoke in a shrill voice "Oh my goodness! That girl again. I can't believe she is so careless. She..." Bess spoke in between "Mrs. Stella Arnold Cupcake. Please do not interrupt. So, yes Christie was in the shop she was stacking up the clothes. Then somebody chloroformed her and robbed the shop. That's it. Now you can speak."

Stella was sitting on the couch and was going to speak when Nancy took charge of the situation. She was tired of the 'interuppting game' between Stella and Bess. Nancy went up to Stella and told her "Hello! I am Nancy drew. I am a teen detective and I would like to investigate this case. Please Stella could you co-operate with us and answer some questions?" Stella narrowed her eyes and then bursted like a volcano. "What do you think of yourself Nancy drew? You think you are too great. But let me tell you one thing you are not at all great. And as far as answering your questions is concerned, I will not. I know what to do. I will call the police and tell them the culprit because I know exactly who did it."

Nancy was quite taken back by this kind of reply. She asked Stella again in a calm voice "Will you let me know who the culprit is?"

Stella narrowed her eyes even more and spoke in a firm voice "No!" and walkd stormed off into the storage room. Nancy and Bess who were quite shocked by the behaviour of Stella went into the attic to discuss matters and wait till inspector Jenks came in. Nancy knew well that if he arrived he would himself make Nancy in charge. Nancy smirked at the thought of Stellas shocked expression when she would realise that the police will let her be involved.

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Picture of Bess Marvin to the right ---->>

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