Nancy Drew: 2 . The Hidden Staircase

Another Attempt

The four girls had to stay at the museum until the police finished their investigation. That took a greater part of the day. They did find out that Mrs. Ladd had kept them from meeting up with the tour group as the guy had asked her to let him know when Nancy Drew would arrive. Mrs. Ladd had simply told him that she could do no such thing, there was no way to contact the tour. The guy mumbled in understanding, but for some reason he had rubbed her off the wrong way, hence why she stalled the four girls. Helen was immensely grateful for the delay, who knew what the guy would have done had he known when the girls arrived. Nancy, however, wasn't as pleased. Here was the perfect chance to catch one of the guys, and it slipped through her fingers! But she did forgive Mrs. Ladd, she was acting out of the goodness of her heart, after all. That didn't stop her from complaining about it on the way back to Twin Elms, though.

"Of all the rotten luck!" She hit the side of the wheel in her frustration. "We could have called in the police and caught the guy! Ugh!"

"Mrs. Ladd didn't know about that," said Helen, "otherwise she would have called the police."

Izzy leaned forward in her seat and patted Nancy's shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll catch those crooks yet. Wouldn't it be even better if we caught both of them?"

Nancy sighed. "Yeah, it would."

"Besides, think of it this way, if we were in a book or a movie, it would have been too early to catch them," quipped Ida. "You have only just started on this mystery."

Nancy burst out laughing, followed by the others. "What chapter are we in now? Four?"

Ida thought for a moment. "Yeah, yeah, that sounds about right." They laughed some more.

"Thanks, I needed that," said Nancy.

"Good, glad it helped. We don't need you so focused on what could have been a great breakthrough that you miss the next, maybe even bigger breakthrough," said Ida knowingly.

Helen scoffed. "You're saying that after you've only known Nancy for a week?"

"Yes, and she's quite impressed us with her detective skills, duh," said Izzy. "Stuff like that sticks with you." She glanced at her twin. "Besides, Ida's pretty good at picking up little cues and reading people like that."

"Oh," said Nancy, surprised but quite pleased with this new information. "That's good to know."

Ida chuckled. "My abilities are at your service, Miss Holmes."

Nancy laughed. "Just like your traps?"

"You can definitely count on us for that, especially with catching any criminals you need to catch if the police aren't there to catch them," said Izzy. "But we will need to know where the trap is going to be set up, certain traps need a certain amount of space."

"Good to know," said Nancy with a slight nod. "And since this opportunity slipped through our fingers, be ready with those traps, because I don't want to lose the next one."

Helen nodded. "Totally agree on that."

Ida let out a huff. "But how can we get that if they have the book?"

Nancy let out a huff too. "I guess we're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, check everything and keep an eye out for any clues our 'ghost' leaves behind. But that means we're going to have to be on high alert and have our eyes peeled. Anything we find will be considered a clue until proven otherwise. I don't want to take any chances and miss something important."

The twins nodded. "Right."

Helen glanced at her quizzically. "But what happens if a clue sends us on a wild goose chase? Wouldn't that just waste our time?"