The Clue of the Tapping Heels Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  CHAPTER I - Tap Code

  CHAPTER II - Animal Uproar

  CHAPTER III - Actor’s Surprise

  CHAPTER IV - Car Thief

  CHAPTER V - Mysterious Key

  CHAPTER VI - The Secret Room

  CHAPTER VII - The Runaway

  CHAPTER VIII - Missing Diary

  CHAPTER IX - Suspicious Salesman

  CHAPTER X - Precarious Climb

  CHAPTER XI - Bess Plays Cupid

  CHAPTER XII - “Try to Catch Me!”

  CHAPTER XIII - Empty!

  CHAPTER XIV - Disastrous Rehearsal

  CHAPTER XV - The New Lead

  CHAPTER XVI - Telltale Handprints

  CHAPTER XVII - Rooftop Escape

  CHAPTER XVIII - Spikes of a Human Fly

  CHAPTER XIX - An Unexpected Solution

  CHAPTER XX - Amusing Confession

  THE CLUE OF THE TAPPING HEELS

  CHALLENGING questions confront Nancy Drew when she attempts to solve the mystery of the strange tapping sounds in the house of a retired actress. Who is the tapper? How does he gain access to Miss Carter’s house, despite securely locked doors and windows? Why do the tapping sounds come in Morse code? Is there a sinister motive behind the prowler’s actions?

  While trying to learn the answers to these and other puzzling questions, Nancy finds her investigations complicated by the dishonest administrator of a will and by a thief who steals the actress’s prize Persian cats.

  How Nancy communicates with the ghostlike intruder by tap dancing in code, how she outwits three criminals wanted by the police, and how she brings happiness to Miss Carter in a romantic reunion with the actress’s former leading man will thrill the lively young detective’s host of fans.

  Hopefully Nancy banged on the trap door

  Acknowledgement is made to Mildred Wirt Benson, who under the pen name

  Carolyn Keene, wrote the original NANCYDREW books

  Copyright © 1997, 1969, 1967, 1989 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-07717-7

  Published by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., a member of The Putnam & Grosset Group,

  New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. S.A.

  NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES® is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster,

  Inc. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Grosset & Dunlap, Inc.

  0448-09516-5

  2008 Printing

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  CHAPTER I

  Tap Code

  TAP! TAP! TAP!

  “Nancy,” said blond, pretty Bess Marvin, “that doesn’t sound like a regular tap dance.”

  “It certainly doesn‘t,” added George Fayne, a dark-haired, athletic girl, who was Bess’s cousin. “I could almost imagine it’s a code.”

  “And you’d be right,” Nancy Drew replied with a broad grin.

  The slender, titian-haired tap dancer stood in the center of the Drews’ basement recreation room. Her audience, besides Bess and George, was Mrs. Hannah Gruen, the kindly housekeeper. She had helped to rear Nancy since the death of Mrs. Drew when Nancy was three years old.

  Mrs. Gruen said, “Nancy, why don’t you tell the girls about your new mystery? After all they’ve been invited to help solve it.”

  “Another mystery?” Bess spoke up. “What’s this one?”

  “It involves a strange tapper,” Nancy replied as she dropped into a chair. “Hannah has a friend named Mrs. Bealing. She’s a practical nurse. Recently she was called on a case over in Berryville to take care of a Miss Carter who broke her leg.”

  “What does this have to do with tapping?” George interjected.

  Hannah Gruen answered. “Mrs. Bealing is fed up with what’s going on at Miss Carter’s house. The woman lives alone and breeds Persian cats to sell. My friend didn’t bargain on feeding and taking care of a lot of cats. Now, to add to that, she has heard mysterious tapping sounds in the walls at night.”

  “Ghosts?” George remarked.

  “That’s what we’re supposed to find out,” Nancy replied. “Mrs. Bealing says the sounds are like tap dancing. The poor woman hasn’t had any time off and very little sleep. Miss Carter wants you and Bess and me to come out to relieve her and solve the mystery.”

  “It sounds spooky,” said Bess, “and I don’t know a thing about taking care of Persian cats.”

  “Cats are cats,” Mrs. Gruen stated.

  “Well,” said Nancy, “would you girls like to go? Miss Carter wants us to visit her until we solve the mystery. You know, I’m to be in the Rivers Club play that’s being given for charity. We’re having rehearsals pretty often. I wouldn’t be able to stay in Berryville every night, but I could commute.”

  Bess and George were eager to track down the tapper and said they would ask their parents’ permission.

  While Bess was telephoning upstairs, George said to Nancy, “You still haven’t explained about the code tapping you were doing.”

  Nancy laughed. “Recently I decided to study Morse code. I thought it would be fun to tap out messages with my heels.”

  In a few moments Bess was back, smiling. “It’s all right for me to go. When do we start?”

  “As soon as we can pack a few clothes,” Nancy answered.

  After George had phoned her mother and was given a green light to work on the mystery, Nancy said she would pick the girls up at their homes in an hour. She telephoned her father at his law office to tell him of the plans.

  “So you couldn’t resist the challenge of another mystery?” He laughed. “Best of luck, dear, and let me know if you need any help.”

  Nancy and her father had always been very close and at times he asked her advice on some of his cases. On other occasions, like this one, a mystery had come to her directly.

  Berryville, a small suburban community not far from River Heights where Nancy lived, was filled with cars and shoppers.

  “Miss Carter’s home is about half a mile from Main Street,” Nancy said. “Girls, watch for Amity Place.”

  A minute later they saw the sign and turned down the tree-shaded street. Flowers bloomed in every yard.

  “Look for number thirty-two,” Nancy requested.

  They had almost reached it when without warning she slammed on the brakes. Bess and George swung forward on the front seat of the convertible.

  “What—?” Bess began.

  Then she saw why Nancy had stopped so abruptly. An exquisite Persian kitten was wobbling slowly across the road!

  “Oh!” Bess cried out. “I’m glad you didn’t hit the poor thing. Isn’t it darling?”

  “I wonder if it belongs to Miss Carter,” Nancy replied. “In any case I think we’d better pick up the kitten and take it to her.”

  She parked the car at the curb and jumped out. As Nancy cuddled the tiny animal, it seemed content and fell asleep at once.

  “It’s precious!” Bess exclaimed, stroking the titian ball of fluff.

  The three girls went up the front walk and rang the bell of the colonial brick house. A plump, white-haired woman opened the door.

  “Hello, Mrs. Bealing,” said Nancy and introduced her friends.

  “I’m so glad you came,” the nurse said. “Things are so spooky around this place. Why, where did you get that kitten, Nancy?”

  When she heard that it had been found in the roadway, Mrs. Bealing declared the little creature must be one of Miss Carter’s valuable cats. “We’ll carry it upstairs and ask her.”

  The house had a center hallway with wide doorways to adjoining rooms. The furnishings were a pleasant conglomerate of an
tique and modem pieces. Draperies and fiberglass curtains hung at each window.

  Miss Carter sat in a cheerful, sunny bedroom. She was slight in build with gray hair and bright, laughing brown eyes. She welcomed the girls cordially with both hands from a couch. Her right leg was in a cast. A wheel chair stood nearby.

  “You were so good to come,” she said, and added with a trilly little laugh, “Oh, have you brought me a kitten?”

  Nancy shook her head and explained where she had found the animal. “I thought perhaps it belongs to you.”

  Miss Carter took the kitten on her lap. “Why, I believe this is one of mine,” she said quickly. “But how in the world did it get out of the locked garage and caged area where I keep my pets?”

  Though she had not been downstairs in weeks, Miss Carter insisted upon going out to her back yard to investigate. Nancy and George carried the frail woman to the first floor, and Bess brought the wheel chair downstairs.

  The first floor was on ground level so there was no difficulty in wheeling Miss Carter across the rear lawn toward the garage. On the way she explained that after purchasing the house she had had no money left to build a cattery for the Persians.

  “But my pets seem to be content to sleep on hay on the floor of the garage or up on shelves around the walls. A friend gave me several Persians and thought I might breed them. They do sell for good prices.”

  By this time they had reached the garage. The big double front doors were locked as well as the entrance door on the right side.

  Attached to the left wall of the building was a large cage stretching parallel to the lawn. Several beautiful reddish-haired Persians were strolling about inside.

  “They’re gorgeous!” Bess burst out.

  Miss Carter smiled. “My pets like to sun themselves. They come out of the garage through a doorway that leads into the cage.”

  Mrs. Bealing handed Nancy the key to the side door. “Open it carefully,” she warned, “so none of the cats can get out.”

  They all went inside. At once several red Persians leaped outside to the wire enclosure.

  “They’re really not unfriendly,” Miss Carter explained, “just wary of strangers.” She began to count her pets.

  There was silence for a couple of minutes, then she announced, “Five of them have been stolen!”

  “How dreadful!” Nancy exclaimed. “Miss Carter, does that count include the kitten we found on the road?”

  “No, that makes one more. Let me see the kitten again.”

  Mrs. Bealing handed it over. The little Persian was still sound asleep and to everyone’s horror did not respond to its mistress’s cajoling to wake up.

  “This kitten acts as if it has been drugged,” Miss Carter said. “Nancy, what do you think?”

  Although Nancy had demonstrated her powers as an amateur detective upon many occasions, she had never been asked so soon after accepting a case for an explanation to yet another mystery. Nevertheless, she hazarded a guess.

  “Perhaps the thief who took the five larger cats tried to take the kitten also and drugged them all. The man must have dropped this little fellow.”

  “Then that means the thief wasn’t here very long ago,” Miss Carter remarked. “Otherwise the kitten would have gone farther away.” The others agreed.

  Nancy offered to telephone the police and within ten minutes Detective Keely arrived. He and the girls looked for clues to the thief but found none.

  “That kitten does act as if it has been drugged,” the officer said. “Suppose I take it along and have a veterinarian examine the little fellow.”

  After Keely had gone, Miss Carter was taken into the house and Mrs. Bealing started preparations for supper. While waiting, Miss Carter told the girls a little about Persian cats.

  “In this country most of the so-called Persians are a crossbreed of Persian and Angora. However, the cats resemble their Persian ancestors more than they do the Angora. You probably noticed that my cats have short, compact bodies and a ruff around their necks.”

  Bess nodded and giggled. “And I love their little round heads, stubby noses, small ears and bushy tails.”

  During supper Miss Carter said she was worried that the thief might return for more of her cats.

  “Suppose I sleep in the garage,” George offered. “I don’t mind a bit, and nothing would please me more than to catch that thief!”

  Bess spoke up. “I’m not going to let you stay out there alone. If you sleep in the garage, I will too.“

  “Five cats have been stolen!” Miss Carter announced

  “You won’t mind if I don’t join you?” Nancy asked. “I’d better stay in the house and try to catch the tapper.”

  “Good idea,” said George. Later she and Bess carried cots and bedding to the garage and the two girls took up their vigil. Miss Carter had already been put to bed. Mrs. Bealing had said good night to the others and gone to her room.

  Nancy remained on the first floor. She was too excited to sleep and wondered if the tapper would make a visit to the house that night.

  “I think I’ll stay right here in the living room and listen for a while,” she decided.

  One by one Nancy put out the lights, turned off the TV, and curled up in a big chair to wait. Half an hour went by. Nancy finally became drowsy. She was about ready to give up her watch when she suddenly was aroused by tapping sounds. They seemed to be coming from directly beneath her feet!

  Nancy’s pulse started to race. Was the mysterious tapper in the basement?

  CHAPTER II

  Animal Uproar

  NANCY sat tense, her mind in a quandary. Should she investigate the basement at once?

  “I’d better not go alone,” Nancy thought. She was tempted to awaken Mrs. Bealing to accompany her but decided against disturbing her.

  Nancy had noticed that the tapping sounds were uneven. It occurred to her that possibly they were a code. She could not translate any of the tapping sounds into words, but on a hunch she stood up, crossed to a bare spot on the floor, and in Morse code tapped out:

  “Who are you?”

  There was no answer. Nancy waited two minutes before moving. There was not a sound from the basement. Had the tapper left?

  Nancy dashed from window to window and looked to see if anyone were hurrying from Miss Carter’s. Nobody was in sight.

  “That tapper must be in the house still,” she concluded.

  Although certain that the door from the kitchen to the basement was locked, Nancy went to make doubly sure. The bolt was in place.

  She returned to her listening post and sat in the chair for another hour. There was no recurrence of the tapping, so finally Nancy decided to go to bed.

  “Tomorrow morning Bess and George and I can investigate the basement thoroughly.”

  She was just dozing off when a shriek from outdoors awakened her. Nancy rushed to the window of her room, which was in the back of the house. All the lights in the garage were on and she could hear excited voices.

  Wondering what had happened, Nancy grabbed her robe and slippers and hurried into the hall. By this time the disturbance had started a couple of dogs in the neighborhood barking.

  The din had awakened both Miss Carter and Mrs. Bealing. The nurse rushed into the hall, demanding to know what was going on.

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said as she dashed past the woman and down the back stairs. Mrs. Bealing followed her.

  When Nancy opened the outside kitchen door, she saw a man running across the back yard of the house next door. It was too dark to distinguish his features, but he seemed to be rather short and stocky.

  Nancy raced after him. By the time she reached the neighbor’s driveway onto which he had turned, he was out of sight. The young sleuth went all the way to the street but saw no one. Not a car was parked nor was one leaving the area. Nancy turned back.

  “I wonder if he could have been the mysterious tapper at Miss Carter‘s,” she thought. “I wish I’d had a better look at him
.”

  When Nancy reached the garage, Bess and George were telling Mrs. Bealing what had happened.

  “I didn’t dream it,” Bess was saying excitedly. “That side door to the garage was locked but I heard it squeak. When I looked that way, it was being pushed open.”

  George took up the story. “I was asleep, but when Bess shrieked, I woke up and turned on the light. I saw the door opening. But slowly it closed and the lock snapped shut.”

  How had the intruder managed to open it? Had he jimmied the lock? Nancy wondered. A quick glance revealed it had not been tampered with. She concluded that the stranger must have used a skeleton key!

  “Did you see anyone?” Nancy asked.

  Bess and George shook their heads, and George said, “There was such a commotion among the cats, we didn’t have a chance to hunt for whoever tried to get in here.”

  “I think maybe I saw him,” Nancy told her and explained. “Since I lost track of him so soon, he must have scooted around some other houses and disappeared.”

  The animal uproar continued. Two dogs came bounding into the Carter yard and yelped at the cats in the wire enclosure. The Persians in turn arched their backs and hissed at the tormentors.

  “Get out of here!” George shouted at the dogs.

  One of them slunk away but the other became defiant. He clawed at the wire cage, and when George rushed outside and tried to yank him away by his collar, he turned and would have sunk his teeth into her arm if she had not pulled it away in time.

  Meanwhile, Nancy had found the garden hose. She turned it on and aimed the stream of water at the angry dog. For a few seconds he caught the water in his mouth as if playing with it, then gave up the fight and ran off.

  The excited cats refused to settle down. Some had scooted up the sides of the enclosure and were clinging to it. Others had dashed into the garage and hidden under any available object.

  Mrs. Bealing was wringing her hands. “I don’t think we’ll ever get these animals quieted down,” she said. “Perhaps I should bring Miss Carter out here.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Bess agreed. “I’ll help you.”