Mr. Bremer shook his head. “I’m done with that man,” he said.
Nancy turned to George. “Let’s go then. This is our best chance.”
Nancy thanked Mr. Bremer and opened the door to leave.
Mr. Bremer called after her, “If I were you, I’d get the police to come along. You don’t know what that man is capable of.”
Nancy, Bess, and George huddled together in the car. “Should we get the police?” Nancy asked. “Officer Spinetti wasn’t too helpful before.”
“But now that Aunt E.’s been kidnapped, she will be!” George exclaimed. “Let’s go.”
Of course, when Officer Spinetti heard that Aunt Elizabeth had been kidnapped, she immediately agreed to help Nancy and her friends.
“Do you still think Mr. Stryker is behind all this?” she asked Nancy.
Nancy nodded. “I’m convinced.”
Officer Spinetti sighed. “All right, then. We’ll do this right.” Before she left the station, she put out an all-points bulletin for Mr. Stryker’s car.
It was dark as Officer Spinetti drove carefully along Old Fairport Road, following the directions Mr. Bremer had given Nancy. At a fork in the road, she turned off and soon came to another fork. A dirt road led into the woods. Soon a cabin appeared in the headlights.
Nancy hopped out. Officer Spinetti got out and motioned for her to stay near the car. “Police,” she said, and knocked on the door of the cabin. When she got no answer, she pushed on the door. Nancy crept behind her. The door swung open easily. In the moonlight streaming through the windows Nancy could see that it was empty.
Dejected, she returned to the police car with Officer Spinetti.
“You won’t believe this,” George said when they got in. “But according to the radio, Stryker’s car’s just been spotted.”
“Where?” Nancy asked.
“On Old Fairport Road,” Bess said with excitement. “Right on that curve near Hank Tolchinsky’s place. Let’s go!”
15
Rescue in the Dark
Officer Spinetti’s car tore down the road with Nancy, Bess, and George in the backseat.
“Why would he be there?” George asked.
“I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with the stream,” Nancy said. Then a thought burst into her head. “Oh no,” she whispered.
“What?” George asked.
“I may be crazy, but I think he’s taken Aunt Elizabeth to the cave!”
“Aunt E. in the cave!” George cried. “This is just awful.”
“What I don’t understand is what he thinks he’s going to gain by doing it,” Nancy went on.
“He’s desperate,” George replied in a low, tight voice. “Remember what Mr. Bremer said?”
Officer Spinetti’s car squealed to a stop. She hopped out, followed by Nancy and George. Bess stayed inside the police car.
A car was parked by the side of the road. It had to be Mr. Stryker’s. But it was empty.
“The cave,” Nancy said.
Officer Spinetti sucked in her breath. “Oh boy,” was all she said.
“I think we could find our way there in the dark,” Nancy said. “Do you have a flashlight?”
Officer Spinetti took a high-intensity flashlight off her belt. “Lead on,” she said to Nancy. “If that man has hurt so much as a hair on Mrs. Porter’s head, I’ll personally throw him in a jail cell and lock it with pleasure!”
As quickly as they could, the girls and the police officer walked through the inky blackness. It was hard to get her bearings, Nancy discovered, with only what the flashlight could pick out in the woods. But soon enough they reached the clearing. Then it was easy, using the stream as a guide, to find their way to the site of the cave.
When they got there, they could see that the opening of the cave, which had once been so carefully covered, was now in disarray, as if someone had been pawing through the camouflage.
George ran to the opening. “Aunt E.! Aunt E.!” she called down the hole.
“George?” a weak voice answered from within.
“She’s in there! You were right!” George cried, hugging Nancy.
“Are you okay?” Officer Spinetti called into the hole.
“I’m fine, but it’s dark down here!” Aunt Elizabeth called back. “And it doesn’t smell too good, either.”
“I’m going to reach down with my hand,” Officer Spinetti said, falling to her knees in front of the hole. “I’ll shine the flashlight down. Can you see my hand?”
