Nancy's eyes widened, as did Gomber's. They both narrowed their eyes.
"Miss Drew," he said icily.
"Mr. Gomber," she said equally as icily. "May I ask as to why you are here?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing," returned Gomber.
"I asked first," said Nancy. She crossed her arms. "You can answer first."
He shot her a cruel grin. "I came here to see if Mrs. Turnbull and Mrs. Hayes have considered my offer and are willing to sell."
"Funny thing, that," said Nancy. "Neither one are here, so they can't talk to you."
"What? Where could they have gone? What have you done to them?"
"Maybe you should talk to your partner about that. Ask him why he pushed Mrs. Hayes down the stairs and got her sent to the hospital."
Gomber's eyes widened for a brief second before he growled. "Are you accusing me of trying to scare those two into selling to me?"
"You tell me," was Nancy's reply. "Are you?"
"Your father sent you here to try and find something against me, huh? He's going to regret that." Gomber put a finger in her face. "And you'd better listen to me, if you don't quit your little investigation, you and your father are going to regret it. You understand?"
Nancy's eyes flashed. "I heard your threat, Mr. Gomber, now it's my turn. My father and I won't stand by while you hustle these two dear women into selling their house to you dirt cheap. I don't know the real reason why you want this house, but I will find out, and I will make sure you stay away from these women." She let out a soft growl. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly," growled Gomber. "But you better ask yourself if it's going to be worth it. I will get this house!"
"And I will see that you make it to jail," countered Nancy. Gomber let out a growl before turning and walking briskly away. Nancy didn't take her eyes off of him until he had left the road.
"Who was that?" asked Helen as Nancy closed the door.
"It was Nathan Gomber," replied Nancy between clenched teeth. "He told me I'd regret helping your grandmother and Aunt Flora!"
Helen's eyes widened. "What?"
Nancy pulled out her phone. "And I'd better warn Dad. I'm going to call Hannah too and let her know."
Helen nodded. "Good idea. I'll let Grandma know that Gomber was here." She pulled out her own phone and dialed her grandmother's number.
Nancy quickly typed out her text and sent it. She dialed her home phone. As she hoped, Hannah picked up. "Drew residence."
"Hey Hannah, it's Nancy."
"Nancy, darling! How's everything been at Twin Elms?" Nancy brought her up to date, ending with the just recently show off with Gomber. "Oh Nancy! That man sounds horrible! I think you should come home until your father gets back."
"Oh, but Hannah, I couldn't! They need me still! Besides, I couldn't leave Helen, Ida, and Izzy in the house by themselves. Plus, I think I'm getting very close to finding something. I can just feel it!"
"Oh, I do think you should come home," said Hannah. She let out a sigh. "But, maybe it would be better if you stayed there. I do expect you to come home when your father gets back."
"Oh don't worry, I will," said Nancy cheerily. "He came to Twin Elms to bid me goodbye, the least I can do is be home when he comes home. Unless he decides to come to Twin Elms on his way home."
Hannah chuckled. "He's more likely to do that and pick you up while he's at it." She paused. "You haven't heard from him yet, have you?"
Nancy shook her head. "No, I haven't. I have sent him a couple of texts to warn him about Natah Gomber, but he hasn't replied. I guess this meeting is taking longer than he thought. There must have been a few setbacks." She bit her lip. "Or he found out something about Nathan Gomber and is looking more into it. I certainly hope so."
"That is a possibility. He told me he wasn't going to be gone for long, but now that you mention it, he did mention wanting to look more into Nathan Gomber. So he might be doing that." Hannah chuckled nervously. "And here I was starting to get worried! THanks for mentioning that, Nancy, I can rest a little easier."
Nancy's mouth began to frown a little. "You seriously thought he wasn't going to be gone for more than a day?"
"You would think I would have thought of that since I did pack four days worth of clothes for him." Hannah sighed. "And it's going to be a big mess when he gets back."
Nancy chuckled. "Oh well, that's what you get for worrying unnecessarily. He'll send us both texts when he's on his way back."
"Yes, yes, I know. Well, I'd better go. Your dog needs to go outside."
Nancy laughed. "Oh alright. Go take care of Togo. And give him my love!"
"Hey, how about you tell him yourself? Give me a second." Nancy waited until she could barely hear Hannah's voice. "Togo, it's Nancy. Say hi!"
Nancy chuckled when she heard Togo barking. "Hi Togo!! I hope you've been acting like a good boy for Hannah!" There was a bit of barking. Togo realized he could hear his mistress's voice and was looking for her. "Alright Togo, I need to go. Be good for Hannah!"
"Well, I really need to let him out now," said Hannah. "So, talk to you later!"
"Thanks Hannah! Love you! Bye!"
Hannah kissed into the phone. "Love you too! Bye!"
Nancy hung up her cell and turned to Helen. She had just hung up as well. She let out a breath. "She's glad you didn't let him in, but she's worried about what this could mean for you and your father for helping us."
Nancy placed a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder. "It didn't stop from me helping Emily, it's not going to stop us now. Gomber's got to slip up soon. We just have to keep at it." She huffed. "Though, now we can't take a look into his room again, unless he leaves for another trip, or something." She paused and blinked. "Unless, unless the ghost only pushed Aunt Flora to get us to stop looking!"
Helen gasped. "You really think so?"
"It's a possibility." She lowered her voice. "Which could very well mean it really is easier for him to hear us than for us to hear him."
Helen's eyes widened. "Do you think that he was there when you three were at Lilac Inn, then came here and pushed her down the stairs to get you away from finding the secret door at Lilac Inn?"
Nancy pursed her lips. "Now that you've said it out loud, it does sound ridiculous, but from what we've had to deal with, I wouldn't put it past them to do something so low and rotten to keep us from finding out their scheme."
Helen shook her head. "It doesn't sound ridiculous at all, it sounds like it's just up their alley." Her eyes flashed. "Just another reason for us to take them down."
Nancy nodded. "And we will." She huffed before lowering her voice yet again. "We just can't get back into Lilac Inn just yet, or Gomber's really going to try something desperate to get us off this case." She glanced around the house. "There's got to be another way to do this." She glanced at Helen. "And I think we'd better talk more in the car. Where are Ida and Izzy?"
Helen pointed towards the kitchen. "They were getting some breakfast together. It should be done by now."
Nancy nodded. "Good, we'll eat and talk at the same time." The two walked to the kitchen and told the twins of their plan. The four quickly served their plates and headed out to Nancy's car.
"It's about time we did this," quipped Izzy before taking a bite.
"The past few days have been rather trying," said Ida. "Besides, better late than never."
"So, now what?" asked Izzy.
"Well, we have got to figure out how they're getting in and out of the house," said Nancy. "Well, more like where they're getting in and out, but we have got to find that secret passage."
"The last places to look are that guy Gomber's room at Lilac Inn and the sitting room over there." Ida glanced at Helen and Izzy. "Which we couldn't do because of the accident."
Helen nodded. "Nancy's wondering if the ghost caused the accident to keep you from finding it."
Ida glanced at Nancy. "Then we were pretty close. Guess that means it was in Gomber's room."
Nancy nodded and sighed. "And now we can't go back. He probably won't let us in."
Ida rubbed her shin. "Then maybe we need a distraction." She grinned at the others, especially her twin. "I think it's time for a few of our contraptions."
Ida grinned back. "Right, the ghost can hear us, but he can't see us, unless he comes out into the open."
Nancy tapped her finger on her chin. "What are you two thinking?"
Izzy leaned forward. "Well, I was thinking that we get something set up in Aunt Flora's room to catch the ghost. Then we put in a call to Gomber's room and tell him something's gone wrong at the house. Pretending to be the ghost, of course."
Nancy winced. "Well, I mean that's a great idea, but what if Gomber knows the voice doesn't belong to the ghost?"
Izzy sat back. "Yeah, that's a problem."
"Ooh!" said Ida. "Maybe we can have one of the guys try to impersonate the ghost!"
Helen nodded slowly. "That could work."
"But we still would need to get the ghost to talk so we can hear him," said Nancy. "That way we can imitate it better."
Izzy waved her dismissively. "Oh, that won't be a problem. He'll be shouting 'Let me out of this thing!' so much, it will be hard not to hear." She grinned and rubbed her hands together. "This is going to be so much fun!"
"Um, one question," said Helen.
"Yeah?"
"Are you sure your trap is even going to work?"
Izzy shrugged. "I'm pretty sure it will, but there is that off chance it won't. Maybe we should have a back-up, just in case."
Nancy nodded. "Good idea, and maybe a back-up to that back-up."
Ida let out a breath. "Ooh, we're really going to have to look through our stash to make sure we even have everything."
Izzy winced. "Yeah, that could take us all day if we left right now. Maybe even two days."
"Hmm," said Nancy, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel. "Then I think you had better get going now so you can get back faster and we can end this once and for all."
"We should," said Izzy, "but I really hate leaving you two alone with the ghost."
"We really don't have much of a choice," said Nancy with a shake of her head. "I'd rather we get this going immediately before they try something else, something even worse than pushing Aunt Flora down stairs."
Helen bobbed her head. "I do agree with that."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive," chorused Nancy and Helen.
Izzy huffed. "Alright. We'll change and get out of here." She held up the plate. "Unless you want us to help with the dishes."
Helen shook her head. "You took care of cooking breakfast, it's only right that we clean up."
"Nice try though," said Nancy with a knowing smirk.
Izzy grinned. "Thanks, I'll try harder next time." Her smile turned into a frown. "But I still really don't like the idea of you two being in the house with the ghost."
Nancy sighed. "Would it make you feel better if we went somewhere else? Say, back to the Historical Museum?"
Helen blinked as she glanced at her friend. "Why should we go back there?"
Nancy shrugged. "Just to get out of the house for a little while. Heck, maybe we can even see if they have a copy of Jim's poems."
Helen shook her head. "No, they wouldn't. There are only two books in existence, one at each house." Her eyes widened. "Oh, we didn't even check the book of poems here!"
Nancy snapped her fingers. "You're right! I had completely forgotten all about it! We should take it with us, maybe the Historical Museum can lock it up so the ghost can't get to that either."
"Good idea," said Helen. "And we can look through the poems on the way over."
"Right," said Nancy. "And we can check in on Aunt Flora on our way back."
"Well, looks like we've got our day all set up," said Izzy. "Good luck you two."
"Good luck yourselves," said Nancy with a smile before getting out of the car. The four traipsed back into the kitchen before the twins took off to get changed while Helen and Nancy took care of cleaning the kitchen. Once Ida and Izzy had changed, they left the house. Nancy and Helen got changed and left not long after them. Helen had grabbed the book of poems off the shelf where her grandmother kept it and read it on their way to the Historical Museum.
She let out a huff as she closed the book. Nancy was pulling into the driveway of the museum. "I think Jim's poems are harder to figure out than Josiah's," she mumbled.
Nancy scoffed. "That's because he wanted his inheritors to find his will. Jim didn't want anyone else to find those tunnels."
"True that." She handed the book to Nancy as she turned off the engine. "Maybe you should take a crack at it."
Nancy took the book and leafed through it. "Mmm, you do realize that the hints to the secret passages might not even be in this book of poems?"
Helen sighed. "Yeah, I know. But it's worth a try."
Nancy nodded. "Yeah, I know. But this try doesn't seem to be working out." She paused as she read another poem. "That, or I'm just not seeing the hints."
Helen unbuckled her seat. "Well, we could stay here a little while before you ask Mrs. Ladd to pick it up for safekeeping."
Nancy nodded. "I think that's the best thing to do right now." The two got out of the car and walked into the museum, giving Mrs. Ladd a quick hello before wandering into the sitting room. The two sat on the sofa and went over the poems several times, but nothing was sticking out.
Helen let out a breath as Nancy closed the book and stood up. "Just our luck, the book of poems we need was at Lilac Inn, and they've got it!"
Nancy shrugged. "Well, guess we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way."
"That hasn't been very fruitful," quipped Helen.
"I know, but right now, I'm pretty sure the easiest way into the tunnels is in Nathan Gomber's room at Lilac Inn."
"Well, guess we'll have to hurry it up with that distraction. I don't know what they'll resort to if Grandma and Aunt Flora keep telling them no."
Nancy nodded solemnly. "I agree." They reached the front desk and the girls asked Mrs. Ladd to lock up the book for safekeeping. The woman was more than willing to help and did as they asked.
The two walked back out to the car. Nancy glanced at her phone for the time and noticed several missed calls. "Why,Hannah's been trying to call me! I'd better call her back real quick." Nancy dialed the number and put the phone to her ear.
Hannah picked up. "Oh Nancy! I'm so glad you called!"
"Hannah! What's wrong? Is Togo sick or something?"
"Oh no, this isn't about Togo, it's about your father!!"
Nancy's eyes widened. "Hannah, what do you mean?"
"Oh Nancy, his clients for the railroad just called. He was supposed to have come in and called them with some information. But he hasn't come back at all!"