The first person she saw was Jonathan Morse, who was just walking out of the hotel. He looked surprised to see Nancy in such a hurry.
“My dear,” he said. “Did our team win?”
“Where’s Mr. Garrison?” she asked. The old man jumped.
“Ms. Drew! What’s the problem?”
Nancy knew it was time to shoot straight, though in a way she hated to do it.
“Mr. Morse, I know you made the fake jewels. I also know Mr. Garrison has the real ones. They were smuggled over the border in the goalie’s knee pads. You can make this easier if you tell me where Garrison has gone. Otherwise, the police will find out. Either way, it’s over.”
The old man put a trembling hand up to his face. “I didn’t want to do it. He made me. He said I’d lose my job if I didn’t—”
“I know that,” Nancy interrupted. “But, please, where is he now?”
“He left five minutes ago. He’s meeting a buyer at Niagara Falls.”
“Thanks. And don’t worry. We know the pressure he put on you.”
What a perfect place to fence stolen jewels, right in the middle of a crowd of tourists, Nancy said to herself as she raced back to the car.
Anne and Joan were waiting for her in the hotel driveway. Nancy peered into the window. “I hate to ask you this, but . . .”
“Hop in,” Anne said with a shrug.
“Would you rather have Nancy drive?” George said. “She’s an old pro at this.”
“Are you game?” Anne asked her friend.
“Why not?” Joan replied. “It can’t be any more dangerous than skiing.”
Joan jumped into the backseat with George. Anne slid into the passenger seat, and Nancy got behind the wheel.
“Where are we headed?” Anne asked.
“Niagara Falls, unless we can catch him before he gets there.”
“Somehow this doesn’t sound like a pleasure trip,” Joan remarked.
Nancy started weaving through the traffic. She was an expert driver, not a reckless one. She didn’t want to be stopped by the police now.
Once outside of town she was able to speed up. As she drove, she filled in the still-bewildered women on what was happening.
“I still can’t believe Jonathan Morse is involved in this,” George said.
“He was being blackmailed, with the only thing that means anything to him in the world,” Nancy said. “Teaching at Pineview. I think the police will go easy with him.”
“But not with Garrison,” George remarked.
“We’ve got to be careful with that guy,” Nancy said. “If he had pulled this off without a hitch, I’m sure he’d have returned to Pineview a much richer man, someone who probably wouldn’t have tried something like this again. Now he knows he can’t return. That could make him very dangerous.”
As Nancy neared the Falls, the traffic picked up again. The flow of tourists to the Falls was almost as heavy as the flow of the water. They headed for the main parking lot near Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. While Nancy fought through the traffic, George suddenly yelled, “There he is! In that red sedan up ahead!”
Nancy craned her neck and spotted Garrison in the red car. The car was about a hundred feet ahead of them, already entering the parking lot.
“Try to keep an eye on him when he gets out of the car,” she told the others. “At least see where he parks.”
“This is for real, isn’t it?” Anne said.
“Do you think he’s carrying a gun?” asked Joan.
That was something Nancy hadn’t even considered.
“I doubt it,” she said. “I don’t think he operates that way. And I don’t think he expected to be caught.”
“He’s parking,” George said. “There’s the car, in the right-hand corner of the lot.”
“Good girl,” said Nancy. Then she turned to Anne and Joan. “When we park, George and I will go after him. I don’t want to put either of you in any more danger. But if we don’t nab him and he comes back to his car, will you alert a police officer or security guard? There seem to be enough of them around.”
As Nancy maneuvered the car into the lot, she saw Garrison walking quickly toward one of the paths that led to the viewing area beside the Falls.
“George, let’s go now. Anne, you can pull the car over near his.”
Before Anne could answer, George and Nancy were out of the car and running after Russell Garrison. When they reached the top of the steps they saw the headmaster below. He was talking to another man, just in front of the admission gate to the viewing area.
Garrison was carrying a small shoulder bag. “Look. The jewels must be in there,” Nancy said to George. They saw the other man reach into the breast pocket of his jacket and pull a white envelope partway out. Then he slid it in again.
“That must be the money,” Nancy said. “We’ve got to stop Garrison before he gives that guy the bag.”
