Braddock looked intrigued. “What is it?”
“Well, this Fifi Spinelli character is so fashionable, I thought she’d be the type to wear contact lenses. And then I was thinking maybe she’d wear those tinted contact lenses. Is that the kind you have?”
Braddock frowned. “I really don’t like personal questions, Ms. Drew. Either we talk about my books, or you can leave right now.”
“I’m sorry,” Nancy said. “I guess I’ve got blue contact lenses on the brain ever since I found one in Sally Belmont’s bathroom.”
“You know Sally Belmont?” Braddock asked.
“Not really,” Nancy said. “That is, I never got a chance to know her. She’s been kidnapped. And Will Leonard’s been kidnapped too.”
Braddock stared at Nancy in disbelief. “Kidnapped?” she said. “But I just spoke to Sally yesterday morning!”
“It happened yesterday afternoon,” Nancy said. She paused for a moment. Then she said, “So you do know Sally Belmont. Do you know Will Leonard, too?”
“That’s none of your business!” Braddock said, rising to her feet.
“I didn’t mean to make you angry,” Nancy said.
“Well, you did,” the author snapped. “I don’t have to put up with this. Get out of my room!”
“Why?” George asked. “What have we done?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” Braddock screamed. She marched to the door and yanked it open. The kindly mystery writer had suddenly turned into a very angry woman. “Now leave! Both of you!”
Silently Nancy and George stepped out into the hall. With a loud crash the door slammed shut behind them.
5
Shooting Star
“Whew!” said George. “You don’t have to be a detective to see she was acting suspiciously. I wonder why she blew up like that when we mentioned Belmont and Leonard?”
“I don’t know,” said Nancy. “But we’re going to find out. Let’s go wake up Bess.”
The girls returned to their darkened room and turned on the light. The room had two double beds and a cot so they could all stay together. Bess lay facedown on one of the double beds, one arm dangling on the floor.
“What a lazy slug,” George said, shaking her head. She reached out a hand and shook her cousin’s shoulder gently. “Come on, Bess, wake up.”
“Unhhhhh,” Bess moaned. “What time is it?”
“It’s past eight-thirty,” George told her. “We’ve got work to do.”
Bess rolled over on her back but didn’t open her eyes. “Can’t we do it at a more civilized hour, like maybe late this afternoon?”
“Get up,” Nancy said seriously. “I have an assignment for you.”
At the tone in Nancy’s voice, Bess immediately opened her eyes. “You found something?”
Nancy nodded. “Eileen Braddock freaked out when we mentioned Sally Belmont and Will Leonard, and she threw us out of her room. I want you to go downstairs and talk to the person who’s running the ‘Nightside’ booth. See if you can pick up any gossip about the show—anything about Braddock and her connection with Belmont, and possibly Leonard.”
Bess sat up and saluted, then hopped out of bed. “And what are you guys going to do?”
“We haven’t ruled out Ellingsen and Thornton as possible suspects,” Nancy said. “George, you and I should tail them today, see what they’re up to. Why don’t we all meet back in the coffee shop downstairs at noon?”
“Oh, good,” Bess said. “At least I’ll get to eat something. All this mystery solving makes me hungry.”
“Everything makes you hungry,” said George.
Nancy picked up Bess’s travel alarm clock from the night table. “Eight forty-eight,” she said, reading the numbers. “The convention doesn’t start again until nine.” She turned to George.
“Let’s try the lobby. Maybe Ellingsen and Thornton will show up there first.”
• • •
Nancy and George set up their stakeout on a big leather couch in the center of the lobby. From there they had a clear view of all the elevators and the big brass front doors of the hotel.
At nine forty-five Peter Thornton got out of an elevator and headed for the exit.
“Follow him,” Nancy whispered. “I’ll wait here for Ellingsen.”
George jumped up and was out the door a few steps behind Peter Thornton.
At ten-fifteen Denise Ellingsen came out of another elevator. She was dressed in a red suit with gold buttons and was wearing a lot of gold necklaces. She didn’t look like a kidnapper, but Nancy had learned long ago not to trust appearances.
Keeping her distance, Nancy followed Ellingsen out the door. Ellingsen turned right and walked briskly down the busy Chicago street. She seemed to be in a hurry. Could she be going to see the hostages? Or perhaps she and Peter Thornton had left the hotel separately to avert suspicion and were meeting somewhere outside the hotel. Maybe they didn’t want to take the chance of being overheard if they met in one of their rooms.
Ellingsen paused to look in the window of a jewelry store. Then she picked up the pace again. As Nancy passed the jewelry store, she glanced into the window. The stuff in there looked expensive. Maybe Ellingsen was planning to leave a ransom note and was already figuring out how to spend the money. Maybe Ellingsen was the person who’d called Braddock asking about money. Maybe they were in this together!
