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?"
Nancy smiled. "That's what having a group of people helping me is all about. We could split up in teams and have each team handle a clue. With all of us working on it, we'll narrow things down and surround the culprits."
"Oh yeah, I like the sound of that," said Izzy with a huge grin.
Ida squealed and clapped her hands. "This is going to be so much more fun than catching the guy back at the museum!"
Helen turned in her seat slowly and glanced at the twins in shock before turning to Nancy. "Well, you've found the perfect pair of sidekicks."
Nancy chuckled. "I have the best group of friends in the whole world!" She paused for a moment. "Well, except for the Hardys. They have a great group of friends too."
Izzy laughed. "Then we had better meet up one of these days and become the best group in the entire world for sure!"
Helen let out a low whistle. "That's going to be a lot of people. There's, what, ten, fifteen people that they know?"
Nancy shrugged. "And they might be meeting more." She smiled at the twins in the rearview mirror. "Like I am."
Helen scoffed. "We might need a stadium by the time you three are done meeting people."
Nancy laughed. "That might be true. But we'll worry about that when the time comes. Right now, we have to plan our next move, and I think we'd better start planning in the car, who knows if our ghost is present for some of these meetings."
Helen shivered. "No kidding. And now I'm agreeing with you Nancy, we really should have had that opportunity to capture him. It would have made things so much easier for Grandma and Aunt Flora!"
Nancy nodded. "Right, but it's long gone now, and as Izzy pointed out, it's no use getting upset over what could have been. We just have to keep looking for clues and hopefully end this all quickly."
The others nodded. "Right!"
Nancy grinned at each one. "Great! Now all we have to do is call in Jenny and the guys, and we'll be set!"
Ida squealed and clapped her hands. "Ooh, yes, this really will be fun!"
Izzy laughed. "I think it will be too! But for obviously different reasons." Her brown eyes sparkled.
Nancy chuckled. "Obviously."
Helen sighed. "Well I'm glad some of you are going to enjoy this. I'll just be glad when this is all over and grandma and Aunt Flora can get back to their normal way of life."
"Oh believe you me, I want that for them too, but first . . ." Here Nancy paused. She was pulling into the driveway at Twin Elms and there was an unknown truck parked in the driveway. Had Nathan Gomber come by, hoping to swindle the sisters while Nancy was out? Then she saw the logo on the side of the truck and heaved a sigh of relief.
"Why, that's a truck from the Matthews' farm! Why are they here?" said Helen.
"Oooh, maybe that handsome farm hand is here too!"
Helen sighed. "Richard Matthews is the eldest son of William and Nadia Matthews, not just a farm hand." Then she smirked. "But he is definitely handsome." She winked at Nancy. "Wouldn't you say so too? Even though dark-haired guys are more your type."
The twins snickered while Nancy blushed. "Helen, really, now's not the time!" she hissed. She had parked and was unbuckling. "Let's find out what's going on."
Helen nodded, becoming serious, though a playful twinkle lingered in her eyes "Yes, let's." The four got out of the car and walked towards the front door, right as the two Matthews brothers and Richard came out of the house, followed by Rosemary and Emily. Everyone was smiling.
"What's this?" asked Ida as they stopped at the door. "Did someone pop out the rainbows and forget to invite me?"
Emily laughed. "No Ida, you're just in time, in fact!" She quickly introduced the Matthews family to the Tophams. She continued on to explain their presence. "I talked it over with Jane, and she agreed, we're going to start using products from the Matthews farm!"
"Oh, that's great news!" exclaimed Helen and hugged her. She backed up from the hug and glanced between Emily and the Matthews's. "But what brought about this decision?"
"Well, first of all, I have the money to do so now. With Mom's medical bills . . ." Emily bit her lip and let out a shaky breath. "Well, we couldn't do it before. It might not seem like it was that much, but with as much as we went through, it added up quickly. Not that buying groceries in general doesn't, but Mom found out that buying from the grocery store instead of local was cheaper."
William sighed and nodded. "This is unfortunately true."
"But your products are of higher quality, so you should expect a little bit more for your products than the stuff we find at the store," pointed out Rosemary.
Fred nodded. "She has a point, Will."
William rolled his eyes. "Fred, be quiet." Fred smirked, but he kept quiet.
Emily huffed. "Anyways, Grandma and Aunt Rosemary were talking about how to keep getting their regular supplies since Aunt Rosemary didn't want to leave Grandma, and we're trying to solve the mystery." She winced as she turned to Nancy. "I did have to tell them some of it, just to let them know."
Nancy sighed. "I understand." She glanced at the three men. "But why are they here?"
Fred seemed to puff out his chest. "Well, we talked about it, and we figured that since these lovely women have been our most steadfast and loyal customers for the past forty years, they've earned a few free trips."
William smiled. "So we packed up their order and came out here." He turned to Rosemary and Emily. "And we gave them quite the startle, I'm afraid. I'm real sorry about that."
Rosemary waved her hand. "You've said sorry plenty enough! You didn't know the extent of our, ah, situation, and we had no idea you were coming. Startling someone is only the natural outcome of that."
"So we invited them in and I began to talk to them about delivering to Lilac Inn as well," said Emily. "As a matter of fact, we were thinking of heading over there to talk to Jane about it." She chuckled. "I called her to let her know we're coming."
Fred patted her shoulder. "A much wiser move than the one we made."
Richard chuckled. "Mom did warn you about that."
William nodded and huffed. "I know, I know, but we wanted to surprise them."
"And what a wonderful surprise it was!" said Rosemary. "Flora and I can't thank you enough!"
William chuckled. "No need." He glanced at Emily. "Well, we should get to Lilac Inn, we're going to need to go over all the details as quickly as possible, the three of us have to be back at the farm before nightfall."
Emily nodded. "Yes, let's get going!"
"Oh, can I come with you?" asked Ida sweetly as she fluttered her eyelashes at Richard.
Izzy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Come on Emily, we'll take you to Lilac Inn."
"I'd come with you. . ." began Helen. Nancy rolled her eyes. "But someone's gotta stay here and help Nancy look after the house." She gave a little shudder. "And the ghost."
"Look for the ghost, you mean. We're not exactly running another Lilac Inn," said Nancy. Helen grinned sheepishly. Nancy chuckled. "But the help will be appreciated. Oh, speaking of," she turned to the Matthews's, "will you be willing to help us catch the ghost?"
William nodded. "We'll do our best."
Fred slammed his fist into his palm. "I'd like to have a few rounds with the guy. No one should pester these wonderful women!"
Richard gave her a bow. "Just give me a call and I am at your command, mi'lady."
"Oooh," chorused the twins.
Nancy scoffed as she waved away the taunt. "Oh get over it." She turned to Richard. "Thank you, he's already given us the slip today and . . ." She paused as she gasped and her eyes widened. "Oh! I know! While you three are at Lilac Inn, please look for clues! Don't overlook anything! Even if you think it could be nothing."
The twins saluted her. "Aye aye captain!"
Richard also gave the salute. "I shall do my very best."
Nancy smiled. "Wonderful, thank you!" She turned to Helen. "Meanwhile, we'll come up with a few plans and take a look around the yard again. Maybe something will stick out at us."
Helen let out a huff. "I hope so."
"Well then, we're off to hunt at Lilac Inn!" said Izzy with a wave of her hand. The group said goodbye before going their separate ways. Nancy and Helen followed Rosemary into the house and checked up on Flora before heading up to the attic. Rosemary insisted on coming with them to help look for clues, and the teens obliged. Though they were unsure of leaving Flora all by herself, the two were actually kind of happy for the extra pair of eyes. Rosemary made sure Flora was comfortable and got her a book to read before joining the girls in the search. After a thorough search of the attic, they went back down the stairs to check on Flora before heading out to the yard. Nancy surveyed the land first, her mind thinking hard and fast. Where would a trap door be hidden? How could it be accessed? Could it in fact be opened only by one side?
"What are you thinking about?" asked Rosemary, interrupting her thoughts.
"I'm trying to visualize where a trap door could be . . . if there even is one out here. There might be one somewhere else . . ." She paused, looking around. "Aunt Rosemary?"
"Yes?"
"This is a pre-Civil War house . . ."
Rosemary and Helen glanced at each other before Rosemary answered, "Yes."
"Shouldn't there be other buildings on the property?"
Rosemary blinked. "You mean like the servants' quarters, the outhouse, and whatnot?"
Nancy nodded. "Yes, yes! Where are they? Or, should I say, where they used to be?"
"Well, the outhouse was taken out first, obviously, when plumbing was put into the house." Rosemary paused, thinking hard. "I . . . know the servants quarters were taken down not long afterwards. My father was a rather particular man and didn't want something there was no more use for, like the outhouse. Once we got the indoor plumbing, that was taken down immediately. I think it was only a couple of years later that the servants' quarters were also taken down." She smiled. "Our renowned historical society wasn't around at that time, they would have fought tooth and nail to keep those." She chuckled. "And my father would have fought them for sure, he saw no more use for them and wanted them off his property." She winced. "As for where they used to be . . . well, my father got rid of them when I was rather young, so I can't be quite sure of their original locations." She thought for a moment. "But, I can try to show you the approximate area where they might have been."
"What about Aunt Flora?" asked Nancy. "Would she have a better idea of where they used to be located?"
"No, not really," said Rosemary with a shake of her head, "this all happened when she was six and I was five. Neither one of us remembers much about that time, I can assure you."
Nancy puffed up her cheeks before letting out a breath. "Alright, show me what you can."
Rosemary nodded. "I'll do my best, darling, but no guarantees."
Nancy nodded. "It's fine, I'll take what I can get."
Rosemary huffed. "Alright, well, let's see if my memory will serve me well enough." She took them to a few places, there had only been a few other buildings besides the main house. Nancy went over the ground thoroughly at each spot with help from Helen and Rosemary, but didn't find anything. Nancy's spirit began to sink, but she became even more determined in spite of it. The entrance might not even be on the property. Where then would it be?
"Oh man, it's getting late," said Helen with a tired huff as she wiped her brow.
"We should get inside, we've left Flora for longer than I would have liked," said Rosemary. "Besides, it's time to start on dinner."
Nancy nodded. "I think we've looked at all that we could. We'll try again tomorrow." The three made their way back into the house. Flora was still reading her book. She only glanced up when she heard them coming in and smiled at them before returning to reading. Nancy and Helen helped Rosemary get started on dinner when the others returned. Just like them, the group turned up empty-handed in their search. They were all feeling a little down because of the failure, but Rosemary and Flora got them laughing with tales from their youth. They went to bed on a high note, hoping and praying they would get a break in the morning.
Nancy woke up with a start around midnight. Was it her imagination, or did she hear something? She listened for a second, and when she heard nothing else, turned over to go back to sleep. But she definitely heard the screaming that came from the next room. She was up and out the door by the time Helen woke up and realized something was wrong. She was joined by Ida, Izzy, and Rosemary in the hall. Everyone rushed into the room where Emily and Flora were sharing.
"Emily? Flora? What's wrong?" asked Rosemary, concerned. Emily was out of her bed and standing by Flora's bed, quivering like a leaf.
"Look!" Emily pointed at the top of the fireplace. Everyone turned their heads. A pair of reddish eyes were staring back at them!