She followed the winding, wooded road along Mount Tamalpais, enjoying the turns that suddenly revealed views of the rugged coastline. Soon she saw a sign for the overlook she wanted. It was just ahead.
Nancy signaled that she wanted to turn off the road and checked her rearview mirror. Her first reaction to what she saw was a surge of irritation. Some crazy driver was tailgating her, riding so close he was nearly on her rear bumper. Then she looked again. Her blood ran cold as she realized who was following so closely. Directly behind her was the fair-haired man in the dark red car.
6
A Secret Revealed
Nancy studied the driver in her rearview mirror. He wore dark sunglasses, but she had no doubt that he was the same man who’d shot out the tire on Terry’s van and had probably ransacked the house.
She glanced ahead at the turnout. There was one other car parked there, but Nancy couldn’t count on the other car for help. She saw that there was no guardrail between the steep cliff and the trees below. She couldn’t risk having the fair-haired man send her over the edge. Somehow she’d just have to shake him.
Nancy accelerated, knowing that neither car could go as fast on the twisting mountain road without disastrous results. Behind her, the dark red car sped up. It was larger than Terry’s car and probably had a more powerful engine. Nancy had a sickening feeling that if the chase became a matter of speed, she wouldn’t have a chance.
All right, then, she thought, silently challenging the man in the dark red car, I’ll just have to outsmart you. What she needed was a way off the highway that didn’t involve a crash.
The two cars sped along the road and over the crest of Mount Tamalpais. Nancy began the descent, worried because the chase was becoming increasingly faster. Still, she knew there were a number of exits nearby. She’d have her chance to get off the highway soon. Then what will I do? she asked herself. And then she remembered an old trick her father had taught her.
Nancy took the first exit she saw. The man in the dark red car followed closely behind. Night was falling. They were on a road leading toward the ocean and what Nancy hoped would be a town. Ahead of her the road cut through miles of low, grassy hills.
The road had forked, and Nancy veered to the left. Her spirits sank as she saw that there were no houses in sight, only another long, deserted stretch of dark road. She stiffened as her body jerked forward against the seat belt. The blond-haired man had hit her rear bumper. She gasped as he hit her again, this time much harder. He’s trying to push me off the road, Nancy realized.
Nancy pressed all the way down on the gas pedal, pulling away from the dark red car. She drove farther into the darkness and finally saw what she’d been hoping for. Ahead were buildings with lights. She’d found a town. Now if only I can reach it before this maniac does serious damage, she thought.
She felt another hard jerk, and the front end of her car skittered to the right. Nancy fought to control the wheel. She veered onto the dirt shoulder but pulled the car back onto the road just as it curved into the main street of town.
At last Nancy saw what she wanted just ahead of her. Thanks for the idea, Dad, she thought as she drove into the one place she knew the fair-haired man wouldn’t follow—the parking lot of the local police station. As she pulled into a parking spot, she saw the red car go speeding by.
Inside the police station Nancy filed a report with a police officer who was much more helpful than Detective Brower had been. Officer Harlan took a report and alerted patrol cars to watch for the dark red car. Then he followed Nancy back to Cherry Creek just in case the fair-haired man was waiting.
By the time Nancy arrived at Terry’s, she was exhausted. Bess and George were in the living room watching TV when Nancy walked in the door. “Are you all right?” George asked at once.
“Not exactly,” Nancy admitted. “I just had one of the worst rides of my life. And the afternoon wasn’t too terrific, either.” She settled herself on the rug and gratefully accepted a mug of hot cider from Bess. Then she told her friends what had happened that day.
Bess looked confused. “Does that mean the man in the red car followed you to the library?”
“I’ve been wondering about that,” Nancy said. “But I think that if he was following me all day, he’d have done something in Sausalito when I was going after the pieces of the trunk.”
“Maybe the boy with the dog works for him,” George suggested. “Maybe the boy told him about you.”
“That’s possible,” Nancy said doubtfully, “but I think it’s more likely it was coincidence. I think he might have been near the library and recognized Terry’s car.”
“And he may have recognized you,” Bess added. “Remember, he might have been the one watching during your stakeout.”
Nancy felt her head spinning with possibilities. All she knew for certain was that the fair-haired man had tried to kill her. “So,” she said, changing the subject, “how did the decorating go?”
“Wait until you see the barn,” Bess said. “We put up all the decorations, and it’s gorgeous!”
“All of them?” Nancy asked in disbelief.
“All of them,” George assured her wearily. “But it really is beautiful. The property is right beside the ocean, and the barn sits on top of this high, grassy hill. You can see right down to the water.”
The door to Terry’s studio opened, and Amy stuck her head out. “Come inside, all of you,” she called. “You’ve got to see what my dad’s done.”
The three friends trooped into Terry’s studio. Nancy expected to see another glass creation. Instead, the object on Terry’s workbench was an odd wooden thing, tilting at a very unstable angle.
Nancy stared at it for a moment, puzzled, then her face lit with recognition. “You reconstructed the trunk from the pieces I brought you.”
“Part of it, anyway,” Terry said. “It’s just held together with glue. It’s pretty fragile.”
“That’s Nick Finney’s trunk?” Bess asked.
“Well, the brass fittings are missing.” Terry pointed to places where the brass had been stripped. “But as far as Amy and I can tell, that’s his trunk all right—almost half of it.”
“And more than we thought,” Amy added mysteriously.
Her father winked at her. “Show ’em, pumpkin.”
Amy gently lifted the trunk and set it on its side so that the girls could see its base. She slid out the panel of wood that had been the bottom of the trunk.
Nancy felt her eyes widen. “The trunk had a false bottom!”
“All along,” Terry said. “I had that thing for years, and I never noticed.”
Nancy examined the reconstructed trunk carefully. “Usually, the reason to use a false bottom is to transport something that you don’t want anyone else to know about.”
“You mean to smuggle something across a border?” Bess asked.
“Exactly,” Nancy said. “The secret compartment could be used for something stolen or something illegal or else something very valuable that the owner wanted to protect.”
