On the way back to Aunt Elizabeth’s, they talked about Sarah.
“Much as I have sympathy for Sarah’s feelings,” Nancy said, “if she’s the one who’s done all these things, I think she’s gone too far.”
“Aunt Elizabeth is putting up a good front,” George replied. “But I think she’s frightened.”
“I would be too,” Nancy said. “Why can’t Sarah look at this more reasonably?”
“She’s scared, I guess,” Bess said. “And she’s hurting. That can make people do things they wouldn’t ordinarily do.”
They pulled up at Aunt Elizabeth’s. She was out front, potting a flat of petunias in a terra-cotta planter.
“Something’s bothering you, I can tell,” she said, straightening up to greet them when they got out of the car. “Your faces look troubled. Come inside and tell me what’s on your minds.”
In the parlor Nancy told her about what they had discovered at the toy shop.
“That would seem to implicate Sarah, wouldn’t it?” Aunt Elizabeth said with a sigh.
“Yes,” Nancy agreed. “But there’s more.” Briefly, she told her about the conversation she’d overheard between John Stryker and Ralph Bremer. “Mr. Stryker seemed very angry,” Nancy said.
“I wouldn’t describe Ralph Bremer as one of Fairport’s most upstanding citizens,” Aunt Elizabeth observed. “That store of his has been going downhill so rapidly. I think he has money problems. But what would he be talking to John Stryker about? They’ve never been friendly.”
Was this another piece of the puzzle? Nancy wondered. Or something unrelated?
Before she could say more, the phone rang. Aunt Elizabeth answered it, and then handed it over to Nancy. “It’s Jessie,” she said. “She wants to talk to you.”
Nancy took the phone from Aunt Elizabeth, and said hello to Jessie.
“I have to tell you about something odd I saw today,” Jessie said. “It may mean something, it may not.”
“Tell me,” Nancy said. “We were just sitting here trying to sort things out.”
“Well,” Jessie said, “I was on my way into town this morning, driving along Old Fairport Road. I was just about to go over that little bridge when I saw Sarah.”
“Was she on the bridge?” Nancy asked.
“No,” Jessie said. “She was walking away from it. And here’s the weird part. I think she recognized me in the car. And as soon as she saw me, she turned and ran away. She disappeared into the woods.”
“What could she have been doing out there?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know,” Jessie replied. “Maybe she’s looking for the cave.”
“But why would she want to find it?” Nancy asked. “After all, it’s the cave that will prove the trees can’t be taken down. It’s not in her interest to find the cave.”
“But it would be in her interest to hide it, wouldn’t it?” Jessie said. “We know the cave isn’t easily found. Professor Noble’s been looking for it for a while. The opening to it must be hard to see. If she found it, she could cover it up even more so we’d never find it.”
“Hmm,” Nancy said. “You have a point.” Briefly, Nancy told Jessie about what they had discovered at the toy shop. And then she mentioned running into John Stryker and Ralph Bremer at the coffee shop.
“Something’s going on here,” Jessie said. “And I hope we figure it out soon. Professor Noble and I are going out this afternoon to look for the cave. If we don’t find it today, we’re going to look again tomorrow,” Jessie said. “Would you like to come?”
“I’d love to,” Nancy said.
“I’ll call you tomorrow,” Jessie said, and hung up.
Nancy was just about to return to the parlor when the phone rang again.
“Porter residence,” Nancy said when she picked it up.
“Is Mrs. Porter there?” asked a high-pitched and muffled voice. Nancy suspected this was the caller who had threatened Aunt Elizabeth the other night. But was the caller a woman or a man? She couldn’t tell.
“No, she isn’t,” Nancy said. She hoped the caller would stay on the line. The longer she heard the voice, the more she’d have to work with in trying to figure out who it could be.
“Tell her she’d better watch her back because I’m watching her!” The caller hung up.
Ashen-faced, Nancy returned to her friends in the parlor.
“Another nasty call?” Aunt Elizabeth asked.
Nancy nodded. “And Jessie told me she saw Sarah near the bridge on Old Fairport Road today, looking suspicious. I think a visit to the Connor house is in order after dinner, don’t you?” Nancy asked her friends.
• • •
“Should I come along?” Aunt Elizabeth asked after dinner as Nancy, Bess, and George got ready to leave.
“I don’t know if it would do any good for you to confront Sarah,” Nancy told her. “She’d be even more reluctant to admit she’s doing it if you were there, don’t you think?”
Aunt Elizabeth nodded. “You’re right. If you could settle this by simply talking to her and explaining how unnecessary it is, perhaps that would be best.”
“And we’ll keep the police out of it for now?” Nancy asked.
