“Maybe he has rich parents,” Nancy said.
“Maybe.”
When they pulled into the driveway, Nancy saw that George had returned the Mustang. “I think I’ll go to the library,” she said.
“Didn’t you just go yesterday?” her father asked.
“Yesterday was for pleasure reading. Today is for information,” Nancy said.
“And you’ll be a counterfeiting expert by morning,” Mr. Drew said.
Nancy grinned. “I hope so.”
George had left Nancy’s car keys with the Drews’ housekeeper, Hannah Gruen. Nancy retrieved them and drove to the central library.
Nancy searched the computer catalogue and found one book on crime that contained a chapter on counterfeiting. She sighed. This was not a promising start. She had to read some back issues of the River Heights Morning Record to learn more about this counterfeiting case.
In the reference section, Nancy picked through her change purse for quarters and dropped them into a microfiche reader. The newspaper index listed seven recent articles on counterfeiting. There were also four articles dating from twenty-five years earlier.
After reading the first seven pieces, Nancy searched for the four older articles. Unfortunately, the library had only the last two in the group. Nancy pulled up the older one first. She read the headline with interest: “Westmoor University Center of Police Investigation in Counterfeiting Case.”
The article described a number of counterfeiting incidents in River Heights and surrounding cities. Many of the counterfeit bills had turned up at Westmoor University. Because of the high quality of the forgery, the police were looking for an expert draftsman. The article also said that a Westmoor student had been held for questioning but was released due to lack of evidence. Because he was a minor, the newspaper did not print his name.
“Arrests Made in Counterfeiting Case” read the headline of the second article. Two months after the Westmoor student was questioned, a state trooper had pulled over a milk truck with a faulty taillight. The trooper found $100,000 worth of counterfeit twenty-dollar bills in the back of the truck. The driver, Frank Goetz, and an accomplice, Don Blevins, were arrested.
The two men confessed that they were transporting the phony money to Chicago, as they had done several times before. However, both men claimed no responsibility for printing the counterfeit money. Goetz worked as a cook and Blevins as a gardener, and the police believed neither had the skills to accomplish such expert forgery. But the suspects refused to name their boss, the forger and mastermind of the counterfeiting ring. Police had agreed to reduce the charges against them in exchange for information, but so far Blevins and Goetz weren’t talking.
Nancy turned off the microfiche reader. If this was the last article, she thought, Blevins and Goetz had probably never revealed the name of their boss. Twenty-five years had passed. What had happened? Did the counterfeiter stop printing the phony money? And more important, could there be a connection between the old case and the recent one?
Nancy pondered this question while she checked out her library book and drove home. The details of the two counterfeiting cases seemed similar. But what about the Westmoor University connection? Obviously, if the counterfeiter of twenty-five years ago had been a student, he or she would no longer be a student today. Why was so much of the present-day phony money circulating around Westmoor? Could a staff member be the guilty party? Or maybe there was no connection between the two counterfeiting cases at all.
At home, Nancy found her father working in his study. She told him what she had learned at the library.
“So the mastermind of the old counterfeiting ring was never caught,” Mr. Drew said.
“I don’t think so. I’d like to check with the police,” Nancy said.
“Maybe we should check something else with the police.” Mr. Drew stood and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He took out a wrinkled twenty-dollar bill. “ ‘Series 1993,’ ” he read. “Does that mean it was printed in 1993?”
Nancy skimmed through the chapter in the library book about counterfeiting. “Not necessarily. It means that 1993 was the year the design for that bill was approved. So it was printed sometime between then and now. It says here that the series date usually changes every few years.”
“Hmm . . .” Mr. Drew said. “I wonder . . .”
Nancy finished his thought. “I wonder what date is printed on the bills Eric had when he was arrested?”
Mr. Drew reached for the phone. “I’ll call Detective Lee, the officer in charge of the investigation.”
Two minutes later he had an answer. “Nancy, your theory is right on the money. Both of Eric’s counterfeit bills are dated twenty-five years ago.”
3
Money, Money Everywhere
“Eric wasn’t even born twenty-five years ago. That should let him off the hook, right?” Nancy said.
“Absolutely.” Mr. Drew put back the file folder he had been flipping through. “And that means there most likely is a connection between the two counterfeiting cases.”
“What did the police say about the first counterfeiting case?”
“They didn’t know anything about it. Their computer files don’t go back that far, and none of the vice officers has been on the squad for twenty-five years. Detective Lee said they’re going to try to dig up the old files in storage.”
“Did he say how long it would take?”
“Why do you ask that?” Mr. Drew turned and looked Nancy in the eye. “Wait a minute. You’ve just cleared Eric’s name. That was your job. Aren’t you off the case now?”
Nancy sighed. “I can’t leave a mystery half-solved. Besides, there will always be questions about Eric’s innocence until the real counterfeiter’s caught.”
“Not in the eyes of the law,” Mr. Drew said.
“No, but he did pass those phony bills, after all. I wonder whether they came from the batch of money printed twenty-five years ago. After all, someone could have made new bills with the old engraved plates.”
“I’ll ask Detective Lee tomorrow if forensics can determine how old the bills are. In the meantime, I’m going to call Eric and give him the good news.”
“And then I’ll call Marisa,” Nancy said.
Marisa sounded breathless when she answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Marisa, this is Nancy Drew. I hope this isn’t a bad time.”
