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NANCY DREW NANCY DREW NANCY DREW NANCY DREW
.....from the Stratomiker Syndicate!!
a new Julie Kane
mystery
IN THE SHADOW OF THE
TOWERS
Julie Kane, young reporter for LifeStyles magazine, is on assignment in New York City to cover a convention of Nancy Drew book collectors. A collector herself, Julie stops in a used book store on her way to Manhattan and discovers a pristine copy of the hardest-to-find Nancy Drew book of them all, a 1945 maroon The Clue in the Crumbling Wall in a dust jacket. Within the book is a clue to a mysterious case concerning a girl from Julie's hometown who disappeared in New York City during the 9/11 tragedies.
As Julie covers the convention and gets to know the various collectors, many of whom she'd been in contact with via the Internet email group NancyDrewFans, she also begins to follow a trail of danger and deceit in the winding streets of lower Manhattan as she seeks the truth about the missing girl, whose life was strangely intertwined with the writers, producers, and publishers of the original Nancy Drew books.
Julie Kane #6
IN THE SHADOW OF THE TOWERS
PART ONE
Chapter One: CRUMBLING WALLS AND FIRE DRAGONS
Chapter Two: THE GIRL IN THE TOWER
Chapter One: CRUMBLING WALLS AND FIRE DRAGONS
Julie Kane's green eyes popped wide open the very moment the alarm clock started buzzing on the bedside table. She reached over from amongst her pillows to turn it off when the phone next to it started to ring. Opting for the phone, she picked up the receiver and pulled it over to her ear as she snuggled cozily under the fluffy blankets.
"Good morning. Julie speaking."
"Yo, it's me. Hey, it's gonna be ninety-four degrees today! Late summer heat wave. Pretty cool, no?"
Julie laughed. "No is right." The voice belonged to Trudy Phillips, her best friend who had a habit of saying things in the oddest way. "Ninety-four isn't cool at all. I'd say it's darn hot."
Trudy snorted. "Oh, you know what I mean. Pretty soon it'll be fall, then winter, and we'll all be freezing. It'll be fun to have one more heat wave before cold weather sets in. It's supposed to last all weekend."
"Great, just what I need," Julie groaned in mock dismay. "I'm going to New York City today for the Nancy Drew convention, and a heat wave in New York is not something to look forward to!"
"Lucky you," Trudy whined. "Darn, I wish I could go with you. A Nancy Drew book collectors convention sounds like a lot of fun. Hey, what's that buzzing noise anyway?"
"My alarm clock. Hold on a minute."
Julie set the phone down on one of the pillows and reached over to shut off the alarm. The clock told her it was only seven-thirty. She picked up the phone again and asked, "Why are you calling so early?"
"Right. I almost forgot. We started chatting about something else, like we always do. I saw a really good old Nancy Drew book at the used bookstore in Celoron yesterday. In fact, there was a bunch of them, all vintage printings in dust jackets. But the one in particular looked pretty special. "
Julie's eyes had widened at this news, and she now propped herself up on an elbow. Both she and Trudy had collected girls series books since they were kids, but Julie had gotten into it in a big way in the last few years because her mother owned an antique store and often got pristine copies of the old books in estates she bought.
"So what's so special about it?" she asked eagerly.
"Well," Trudy gushed, in a tone that told Julie she had something exciting to relate. "It's a printing of The Clue in the Crumbling Wall from the nineteen-forties. You know, with the silhouette endpapers showing Nancy and her chums."
Julie's eyes were dancing. "The endpapers, are they blue and white or orange and white?"
Trudy's giggle sounded like a ringing bell. "You won't believe it. Maroon and white!"
Julie was like, "Maroon!! Oh my god! You're kidding!"
"No! It's a maroon Crumbling Wall! The binding is maroon, not blue, and the endpapers are maroon and white. It's in almost perfect condition, the dust jacket too. The only flaw is that a previous owner's name is written in ink on the front free endpaper."
"That's not a problem with me," Julie returned excitedly. "I like when previous owners' names are in the books. Gives them character. Are you sure you're not making this up? You didn't just dream about this before awakening? No one has ever really seen a maroon Crumbling Wall, you know?"
"Well, I have. And you will too, as soon as you get down to The Book Rack in Celoron. Jeannie, the owner, put it on the shelf behind the register for you. I told her you'd be in first thing today to buy it."
"Trudy! What if someone else sees it and wants it? Why didn't you just buy it?"
"And deprive you of the thrill?" Trudy chuckled. "No way. Don't worry, your name is on it with instructions not to sell it to anyone else. Plus, you'll probably want to buy the other books it was with. They are all very nice, mostly Nancy Drews and Dana Girls and a couple Judy Boltons. You can take them with you to the convention to sell or trade."
"If I take that maroon Crumbling Wall to the convention, I'm sure to be mobbed." Julie's brows knit thoughtfully. "You know what? I think I will take it."
It was only hearsay in the world of Nancy Drew book collecting that there existed a very rare 1945 printing of The Clue in the Crumbling Wall with maroon binding and endpapers, instead of the blue binding and orange-white endpapers which was the usual for that time. No one seemed to actually own a copy of the book, and it wasn't listed in any of the guides to the formats and printings of the Nancy Drew books, which were based mostly on speculation and opinion, not records. But the rumor had been around for decades now, and such a printing would coincide with the 1945 maroon printing of the Hardy Boys book The Short Wave Mystery by the same publisher which, although rare, was documented and copies of it were present in several collections.
The Hardy Boys books in 1945 had chocolate brown bindings and orange-white endpapers. The only reason suspected for Short Wave having gotten a maroon printing is the possibility it was accidentally sent to the printer along with that season's Lone Ranger book, which was printed in maroon. Collectors who believed in the existence of the maroon Crumbling Wall surmised that the same thing had happened with the Drew.
And now Julie would be the first to own one, at least in the collectors' circle she was part of. She was up off the bed and on her feet in a flash. "You'd better not be pulling my leg," she warned Trudy.
"I swear I'm not, Julie. I wouldn't pull a trick like this on you. You are a lot more serious about your book collecting than I am about mine."
"All right, I believe you," Julie said, pulling up a window shade to let the early morning sun flood in. "Are you sure you don't want to come to New York with me? We'll have a totally fab time."
Trudy sighed, then grunted, and then she was all, "Julie! You know I want to come. I just can't! I have two parties at the country club this weekend, darn it!"
The girl was a social director at the Chautauqua Country Club located on the shores of nearby Chautauqua Lake in western New York state, nearby the city of Jamestown in which the girls lived.
Julie said in disappointment, "I really wish you could make it."
"And so do I. Knowing you, you'll uncover a mystery far beyond anything Nancy Drew ever solved, as you almost always do. It was fun when you had your adventures here at home and I could be part of them. But now you go all over the world finding such excitement and I have to stay home and work!"
Julie harrumphed, "Hey, I'm working, too."
Trudy blew out an exasperated breath of air. "You call that work? You ought to pay LifeStyles for letting you go all over the world having glamorous and exciting adventures."
Julie laughed. "Shhh! Don't let Harrington Bamberger hear you. He might get ideas."
Harrington Bamberger was the editor of LifeStyles Magazine, headquartered in Jamestown and where Julie worked as a staff reporter. A long time friend of her father Gordon Kane, Jamestown's law director, Mr. Bamberger had taken a chance on hiring the nineteen year-old Julie, who had decided to end her college career and join the ranks of the working world. An experienced journalist in high school and college, Julie immediately excelled at LifeStyles. Her very first lead story, The Mystery of the Girl in Blue, caught nationwide attention and resulted in a sold-out issue.
After that, Mr. Bamberger had no qualms about sending Julie all over the globe in chase of a good story. She was a crack reporter and a good writer, and he knew she'd dig deep and bring home the news the readers wanted. What he didn't know, because Julie would never tell him, was the great danger and peril she often faced unearthing the stories that received such worldwide attention.
She'd uncovered a plot in The Secret of Baldwin Manor to imprison the aging film star Ann Baldwin in her lovely French chateau on the sweeping hillsides overlooking Chautauqua Lake. It was during this adventure that Julie had found Shirelle, a beautiful biracial child who had later become her little sister through adoption.
Other important stories followed. In The Crucifer of the Knights, Julie's trip to the Greek island of Rhodes turned into a quest for no less than the most sought-after item in the history of mankind. Later, while covering an international peace conference in the beautiful Canadian Rockies, Julie learned that The Mark of the Peace Symbol meant danger and possible death for a beloved world leader. She had then chased a story in Borneo while being chased herself by headhunters in The Trail of the Diamond Queen. Most recently, in Canada's northwoods, she had uncovered a plot of international implications while facing the perils of the Legends of the Red Death.
Now, her heart thumping with excitement over the Nancy Drew book awaiting her in Celoron, Julie said a quick goodbye to Trudy and promised to call her from New York City. She put the receiver back in the cradle and looked outside at the budding late summer day. It was cool in the house because of the air-conditioning, but Julie knew it was probably already hot out there, and muggy. Well, she'd be on the road most of the day driving to New York and her car had air-conditioning, so the heat really wasn't going to be much of a problem to her today.
Her bedroom was on the second floor of the round tower in the front of her parents' Queen Anne style Victorian house. The pink wood-frame house with green trim and roof shingles was located on Washington Street which hovered high above the city's downtown section to the east and the hills that rolled down to the Chadakoin River and Chautauqua Lake to the west. The bedroom walls were almost all windows, except where the door led into the second floor hall, and Julie danced around now pulling up all the shades to let the sun flood in.
At the rear of the bedroom was a narrow spiral staircase that led up to the third floor tower room above, accessible only from Julie's bedroom. This room was Julie's library and she flew up the circles of the staircase to the sun-filled room. The windows here were all dressed with pretty lace curtains and had no shades. Between the many windows stood book cases, filled with Julie's collections of vintage series books, mysteries, and biographies of celebrities, politicians, and historical figures. The Victorian furniture and patterned papered walls were like a step back in time, the only discordant notes being Julie's desktop computer sitting on an old roll-top desk, and a floor model telescope set facing a front window. It had been a surprise gift from her brother Bob when she was investigating the Baldwin Manor story and they had used it to spy on the castle on the other side of the lake.
Julie switched on her computer. The book store in Celoron didn't open until nine, so she had time to take care of some writing and other business. As she waited for the machine to boot up, she stooped over and peered through the telescope. There it was, as always, Baldwin Manor, a beautiful twin-towered castle overlooking Chautauqua Lake. She kept the telescope focused at all times on the chateau as a reminder of the spooky adventure that had resulted in saving the film star's life. Then, grinning happily, she stood back up straight, stretched her arms, and spun around looking out all the windows. One could see all of Jamestown from up here, the river, the lake, and the hills of western New York beyond.
Sweeney the cat was curled up in a ball on one of the overstuffed chairs, all snuggled up on a tossled throw. The cat was white and short-haired, mostly Siamese but lacking the dark markings, and noble and haughty as only the female of that breed can be.
Julie gave the cat an incredulous look. "Sweeney! I locked you out in the hall last night. Ooh! One of these days I'm gonna find out how you get in here."
It had been a long-standing mystery in the Kane household how Sweeney was able to get into the tower when locked out of it. Julie and her brother had made plenty of searches but had never had any luck in finding the cat's secret passageway. Sweeney, as always, gave Julie a haughty look and commenced to clean a paw with her tongue. Julie, rolling her eyes heavenward, went over to the desk and sat down in front of the computer.
She logged on to AOL and checked the weather, which said it was going up to 95 degrees in Jamestown today. Julie cringed. Normally, a hot day wouldn't put her off, but no way in New York City! She switched the cities to New York and saw that it was going to be even hotter there - 98!
"Yikes, that'll feel like 110 degrees in Manhattan," she groaned aloud. "Hmmm, this calls for shorts and a skimpy top, and a baseball cap to keep the sun out of my eyes."
She had packed the night before and made a mental note to add lighter garments to her suitcase as she clicked on her email icon. The window opened and about a dozen items appeared, mostly spam. There were two promoting septic tank systems.
Julie laughed. Who in the world was going to buy a septic tank over the Internet? Then she noticed one hailing Barnyard Fun and another stating Size Does Matter.
Julie was like, totally, "Well, we're not even going to think about those!"
Hastily, she deleted the junk mail and then checked the legitimate messages. One was from her boyfriend Dave, who was now living as an exchange student in Paris. JULIE! JULIE! JULIE! I WISH YOU WERE COMING TO PARIS INSTEAD OF GOING TO NEW YORK. BUT HAVE A GREAT BALL, HOTTIE, AND GIVE MY REGARDS TO GROUND ZERO. I WISH I COULD BE THERE WITH YOU.
She had sent him an email the day before informing him about the convention in New York and that she'd be visiting Ground Zero with some of the other collectors. Dave had been home in Jamestown a year ago when the twin towers had fallen, and he had come over to light candles and pray for the victims with Julie, her brother Bob, her mom and dad, and little Shirelle. Three area natives had been in the towers at the time of the terrorist attacks, and all of them had perished.
She wished Dave could be with her in New York, too. It'd be wonderful to see him! After all, he was supposed to be her boyfriend. But she'd been globe-hopping lately and, as a result, he had turned into a 'professional exchange student' and was currently living in a Left Bank flat in Paris. She'd had liked it better, of course, when he was safe and sound and 'handy' at Cattaraugus State along with her brother Bob in the next county. But she did have to admit there was something totally fabulous about having a boyfriend who was living in France, even if she didn't get to see him. She'd really have to work on Mr. Bamberger to give her an assignment in Paris!
She typed a reply to Dave, then clicked it away into cyberspace and checked her other email. One was a message from Sylvia, a Nancy Drew collector, reminding Julie that they were planning to meet in the hotel lobby later in the day at six o'clock. Julie had never met Sylvia, a native New Yorker, in person, but she chatted with her often on the NancyDrewFans email group on the Internet. In fact, she'd be meeting quite a number of the group users at the convention. They'd had pinback buttons made stating NancyDrewFans, and they all planned wearing them in order to recognize each other.
Julie typed an email to her boss, thanking him for sending her to New York for the convention. He knew she was a collector and a fan of Nancy Drew, and in his eyes there was no one better qualified to cover the event. He knew Julie would write a fascinating article about Nancy Drew and her fans and collectors, and how the books had been bestsellers for over seventy years now and beloved by several generations of women, and men, the world over.
Minutes later, Julie logged off AOL and shut down the computer. Her laptop and camera case were on a book shelf between two of the windows, and she now grabbed them and looked around the room to see if there was anything else she needed to take to New York City. There wasn't, but she hesitated, as always when she was about to leave on a trip. She hated to leave her tower! She had grown up like a princess in the tower that hovered over the city, the lake, and the endless hills surrounding it all. She knew that wherever she went, there just would never be anywhere else quite like home. With a whimsical smile, Julie took one last look out the window at her domain and then hastened down the spiral staircase to her bedroom.
After showering in the big second floor bathroom, she blow-dried her shoulder length red hair and dressed her shapely figure in a pink top and baggy white cargo shorts. As she pulled on a pair of Nikes over pink socks, she laughed aloud. She really ought to be wearing matching pumps to a Drew convention. The vintage Nancy Drew would, but then she'd also be wearing a pretty daytime frock. But there was no way Julie was going to wear a dress and pumps in this hot weather!
Julie was like, Ah, how things have changed since the 1930s....
She whisked her hair into a ponytail and pulled on a Yankees baseball cap over it. Then she pinned the NancyDrewFans button on her blouse. After packing the additional items, she made her bed, tidied up the room, then armed with the light suitcase, camera, laptop, and her cell phone she hurried down the back stairs to the kitchen. Shirelle was sitting at the table eating Cheerios.
"Hi, honey doll," Julie said to the eight year-old, who was dressed in a trendy denim jumpsuit. "All ready for school today?"
Shirelle nodded, her soft tightly curled hair bobbing. Her oval-shaped eyes widened as she saw the suitcase and other items Julie placed on a chair by the hall door.
"Are you going away again?" the child asked in dismay.
"Yes, I am, sweetie pie. But I'm just going for the weekend. I'll be back home on Monday. Today is Friday, so I'll only be gone three days."
She bent over to kiss the little girl on her cheek, then ruffled her hair. Julie had never had a sister until her parents had adopted Shirelle after the events that had led to her discovery in Baldwin Manor, and she loved the little girl as if she were her own flesh and blood. She was a beautiful child with slanted eyes and creamy cafe au lait skin, the awesome result of her Asian and African heritages. And she had a personality to match - as cute as a pixie, but outgoing and bold with a good sense of humor. She was a good student, and a popular one, at her school two blocks down on Washington Street where she was in the second grade.
"You're always going away somewhere," Shirelle said pointedly, pouting as she put down her spoon.
"I know, honey," Julie responded, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a carton of orange juice. "But it's my job to go to far away places and write stories about them. And if I didn't have this job, I would've never found you at Baldwin Manor. We wouldn't even know each other."
Shirelle's mouth formed a little O. "That'd be awful. I'd still be hiding in the tower!"
Julie nodded as she poured a glass of the juice. "Right. It's my job that brought us together. So, if it tears us apart now and then, we'll just have to let that be okay, huh?"
Shirelle shrugged her shoulders, picking up her spoon again. "I guess so. But you're not going back to that island where the natives chop off people's heads, are you?"
Julie sat down at the table and fixed herself a bowl of Cheerios. "No way, baby doll. That was Borneo. For sure I'm not going back there. I'm going to New York City and it's right here in New York state, but at the opposite end from where we are. No headhunters there. But I'll be at a convention of book hunters. People who collect Nancy Drew books."
"Oh, I like Nancy Drew," Shirelle declared, chomping a mouthful of the cereal. "The one you read to me the other night was really good - about the two old houses with that spooky secret tunnel between them."
"That was The Hidden Staircase, and it's one of my favorites," Julie said. "You know, there's a Nancy Drew doll, but it's really hard-to-find. Maybe there'll be one at the convention and I could buy it for you."
Shirelle beamed at that idea. "Then I could play with her and solve mysteries, just like in the books."
"And take after your big sister," a sudden voice declared. "Just what we need, another sleuth in the family!"
Julie looked up with a grin at the woman entering the room. Her mother, Lydia Kane, was a stylish fortysomething blue-eyed blonde. This morning she was wearing her hair in an upswept French twist hairdo and was dressed in a beige linen power suit and matching high heels. She was a natural blonde too, and Julie's dad had dark hair and brown eyes, as did her brother Bob. So it was another family mystery where Julie's green eyes and red hair had come from. There was no one they knew who was anything like her!
"Good morning, mither dear," Julie nodded, using her favorite term of affection. "I think Shirelle may enjoy some sleuthing as a child, but she's very mature, you know, and I believe she'll grow up to be a shrewd businesswoman like you."
Shirelle looked from her older sister to her mother. "Julie's right. When I get big I want to have a store like yours, Mommy. But I want to sell new stuff, not a bunch of old things!"
Julie and her mom chuckled as the woman poured a cup of coffee from the electric pot. Mrs. Kane owned an antique shop in Lakewood, an upscale town on the south shore of Chautauqua Lake a few miles west of Jamestown. It was in the heart of the area's vacation and tourism country and not far from the world-renowned Chautauqua Institution, to which people flocked from all over the world year round. Julie considered her mother's prices to be wickedly expensive, but the woman sold only quality antiques and knew how to make money with them. She had also packed their big Victorian house with antiques and it sometimes seemed like they were overflowing out to the street.
Mrs. Kane sat down at the table and sipped her coffee. "Shirelle, darling, I wouldn't know a thing about how to make money with new stuff. Just wait till you get older and start working in the store. Then you'll learn to appreciate antiques. Julie did."
"She's right," Julie agreed. "As soon as I started selling antiques, I started to like them and to collect my own, especially old and rare books.
"Since we are speaking of antiques," Mrs. Kane went on, "don't forget to stop at Ho Wah's in Chinatown tomorrow and pick up the jade jewelry. It's from a Fifth Avenue estate, a very wealthy family who lived in one of those one hundred-fifty year old brownstone gothics. All of them have passed on now, poor things, and Donald Trump will probably tear down the house and build a skyscraper. Ho Wah got all their Oriental collections and saved the jade for me. A few of the Europeans who regularly visit the Chautauqua Institution are jade buyers. I should sell it all quickly."
Julie's brows furrowed. "That sounds like very valuable jewelry."
"It certainly is. You would die if you knew its value."
"Mom!" Julie looked at her mother with a frown. "Why don't you have it delivered by courier? Do you really think I should be carrying around such valuable merchandise?"
Mrs. Kane sipped her coffee, then chuckled. "Would Carson Drew entrust his daughter Nancy with a collection of jade jewelry in New York City?"
Julie placed down her spoon. "Of course he would. But this is a little different. This is real life."
"No buts, real life or not," Mrs. Kane declared. "You've pulled off some cases that make Nancy Drew look like the Bobbsey Twins. There are only twenty pieces, all in a nice small traveling case. It'll fit right in your suitcase. One of the pieces is the famous Hong Kong Fire Dragon necklace. Well, it's not really famous except amongst jade collectors."
Julie nodded. "Like only Nancy Drew collectors would know that The Mystery of the Fire Dragon was the last book in the series to be published with a dust jacket, and thus the hardest to find in that format."
"Exactly," her mother agreed. "Inside information only the serious collector knows."
Julie grinned. "I guess I'll be okay. There will be no jade collectors at the convention, only book collectors. I can keep the jewel case in the hotel safe overnight."
She told her mom about the maroon Crumbling Wall awaiting her at the book store in Celoron. She laughed as the woman's 'cash-register eyes', as Julie called them, widened.
"Goodness! That book could be worth a fortune if it's the only known copy. Some of the early Nancy Drew first editions with dust jackets have sold for thousands on eBay."
"I know," Julie agreed. "A Hardy Boys first recently sold for over seven thousand, if you can imagine that. I'll take the book to the convention with me so I can get some feedback on its value. But I won't put it for auction on eBay. I want to keep it. Has Dad left for work already?"
"He was out of here at seven. He has a busy day ahead of him with three meetings, and he had to go over some notes. It's all about the renewal and redevelopment going on in town. It's great for the city and us residents, but it's a lot of work and very political."
Julie shrugged her shoulders. "Dad can twist all those politicians around his little finger. He's an ace at it. He could probably get George Bush and Hillary Clinton to eat with the same spoon. Gosh, I wish I could find a man like Dad."
Lydia Kane chuckled. "Julie, you have Dave. He's a fine young man. And you'll never meet a guy like your father. God threw away the mold after He made him."
A wry smile dimpled Julie's cheeks. "Tell me about it. You sure were in the right place at the right time when you met him."
"You bet. I was in the second grade at Washington Street school, exactly where Shirelle is now."
Shirelle looked up from her cereal. "You met Daddy at my school?"
"I sure did, sweetie. We were both eight years old, just like you. Maybe you'll meet a nice boy in school, too."
Shirelle gave them a beaming grin. "I already did. Jimmy Cho. He sits next to me in art class. And he looks Chinese, like me. But his skin is whiter."
Mrs. Kane arched an elegantly plucked eyebrow. "Just keep your sights on him and you'll do fine, honey." Then she turned to Julie. "The Cho family moved here from Hong Kong before the colony reverted back to China from the British. They bought the old Drussford mansion on Franklin Street and I've heard they have an apartment in Trump Towers in New York City. Obviously, they must be rolling in dough."
Julie gave Shirelle a pointed look. "I guess our little princess here has high hopes."
Shirelle grinned, then asked, " Can I sleep in your tower while you're in New York, Julie?"
"Of course you can, " Julie assured the girl. "Just keep the bedroom door open so Mommy and Daddy can hear you if you call."
Shirelle squealed in delight. "Sweet! I love your tower. It's so cool. Not like that spooky one in Aunty Baldwin's castle."
Julie and her mother shared a deep look, both of them visibly shuddering at the memory of the conditions under which Shirelle had been discovered. Then Julie got to her feet and gave the little girl a quick smooch on her forehead.
"Be a good girl while I'm gone, doll baby," she said. "And look after Mommy and Daddy."
"I'm always a good girl," Shirelle returned with a proud smile. "And when you go away, Mommy and Daddy do everything I tell them."
"Yah, right," Julie muttered, as she air-kissed her mother's cheek. "Gordon and Lydia Kane, the obedient ones!"
"Look who's talking, Miss Globe-Trotter Sleuth." Her mother squeezed Julie's hand affectionately. "Would you give up your fabulous so-cooler-than-anyone-else's career and stay home in Jamestown if your dad and I told you to?"
Julie placed her empty cereal dish in the sink and rinsed it out. She smiled warmly at her mom. "No way. And you and Dad would never tell me to. I'm just like the both of you, and Bob too. We're all very independent, and yet so wonderfully dependent on each other. We're lucky that way."
Lucky indeed, Julie was thinking moments later as she walked out into the humid early morning heat. There was a strong bond between the members of her family, and even when they were apart it was like they were together. There had been several times in her world-wide wanderings that a phone call home had helped save the day when she had found herself in dire straits.
Her low-slung black Mustang was parked next to the carriage house, now used as a garage, that matched the big Victorian house in style and decor. She tossed her traveling bags into the back seat, then slipped in behind the wheel and clipped her cell phone onto the visor. She fired up the engine and pulled out to the street and was soon driving down the steep hills toward the river.
Julie purposely drove down Franklin Street to see the Drussford mansion in which the Cho family from Hong Kong now lived. The house was a big brick Victorian with two towers and a port-cochere, surrounded by an intricate wrought iron fence. Like many of the city's old Vickies, the house had undergone a recent renovation and looked beautiful.
She drove by slowly, admiring the architecture and the new boxwood hedge and topiary garden landscaping in front. There was a long black foreign-made sedan parked in the drive, and its sleek lines and smoky glass windows caught Julie's attention. She was trying to figure out what make it was when she noticed the back licence plate and almost gasped aloud.
FYRDRAGN
Her eyes sparkling, Julie was like, "Fire Dragon! Oh my god! Can you believe it?"
She was on her way to pick up a Crumbling Wall, and here was a car with a Fire Dragon licence plate! Not to mention, she was headed to New York City to a Nancy Drew convention and also to pick up a valuable Chinese jade jewelry collection that contained a Fire Dragon necklace!
Julie shook her head in wonder and smiled happily.
She was all like, Yo! Sure is a good omen to start the weekend!
The spirit of Nancy Drew just seemed to be everywhere!
Chapter Two: THE GIRL IN THE TOWER ........coming soon