Nancy Drew: 1. The Old Clock at Lilac Inn

Turn of Events

"Oh, where are my manners? We haven't been introduced!" exclaimed Edna. Introductions were quickly made as Mary walked over to a shelf and took the clock down. Emily pulled the book out of her purse as Nancy took the clock from Mary. Emily quickly dried her tears and flipped the book open to the first poem. Nancy got situated with the clock before nodding at Emily. Emily nodded back and read off the numbers in the poem. Nancy rotated the hands into place for each number, but nothing happened.

She shook her head. "Next one." Emily read out the numbers and Nancy rotated the hands into position for each. This time, there was a distinct click, followed by a gasp from Judy. Nancy pulled on the little drawer and took out the paper. She handed it to Mary. "Do you want to read it?"

Mary, though obviously surprised, merely shrugged. "Why not." She took the paper from Nancy, opened it, and cleared her throat. But then she stared in shock at the paper. "Well, this is definitely something Josiah would write," she finally said.

"Well, what did he write?" blurted Helen, probably a little too impatiently.

"Yes Mary, what does it say?"

Mary cleared her throat again. "Three minus one is two; And two plus two is four; Ring the bell at three o'clock; You've done this all before."

Edna sighed. "Yup, that totally sounds like something Josiah would write."

"But what does it mean?" asked Helen before looking pointedly at Nancy. Nancy wasn't paying attention, she was thinking about the poems. So far, each poem had four lines each, with the second and fourth lines rhyming. The third line each had something to do with the time, in this case, three o'clock, and the first two always had numbers. She also thought about the times, twelve, six and three. Could the last one be something at nine o'clock? And what did they all mean? Was there another clock they had to find to put those numbers into? "Hello? Earth to Nancy?"

Nancy blinked and realized that everyone was looking at her. She grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts."

"Obviously," muttered Helen.

"Did you come up with anything?" asked Emily hopefully.

Nancy shook her head. "Not really, I mean, unless thinking that the next poem we're going to find is going to have nine o'clock in the third line is something."

"Why would you think that?" asked Mary.

Nancy quickly told them about the first two poems and why she came to that conclusion. Marry nodded, clearly impressed.

"Why, I wouldn't have thought of that," said Edna.

"That's why we leave the thinking to Nancy," said Helen, smiling proudly at her friend.

"But we can't let her do all the thinking for us," Emily blurted. "Though, she is better at this than I am."

Nancy chuckled. "It's fine. I'm sure everything will be clearer when we get the fourth poem."

"We've been saying that for the last two poems," said Helen. "Nothing still makes sense."

"Well, maybe if there's something in the deposit box at the bank and the safe at Riverview Manor that could help clear this all up."

"Well, we know the last one has to be the combination needed for the one at the bank," said Helen. "And by the sounds of it, the poem we'll find at Riverview Manor will be for the safe. But the one we found at Lilac Inn and this one? Still not making any sense."

"Well, maybe we should think a little more about it," said Nancy. "Besides, we still haven't been to Riverview Manor, and won't be able to until the Tophams return." She glanced between Mary and Edna. "Right now, I'd like to solve a smaller mystery, the mystery of why the Turners didn't like the Crandalls."