Poison Pen (8 page)

F
OR A MOMENT
Nancy just stared at Brenda. She was furious with the reporter, but what made it even worse was that she herself had ended up buying Brenda's dumb stunt.

“Wait a minute,” Rick said, his green eyes' bewildered. “You mean you made the letter up? This woman whose husband wants to kill her—she doesn't exist?”

Brenda fiddled nervously with the white fringe on her bathing suit. Without looking up, she nodded.

“And the accident in the mall, with the beam. You said someone was trying to kill you,” Rick said. “Were you just making that up, too?”

Brenda nodded again, shamefaced.

“Why?” Rick asked. “What was the point?”

When Brenda didn't answer, Nancy spoke
up. “It was for publicity. Brenda wanted to make a splash with her new column, so she invented an exciting, dramatic scenario. Right, Brenda?”

Brenda lifted her head and tossed back her dark hair. “Well, it
could
have happened,” she said indignantly. “People need to know that things like that can happen. In a way, you could say I was just being a responsible journalist.”

“Come off it, Brenda,” Rick said angrily. He moved to the edge of the pool and sat down with his back to Brenda, his feet dangling in the water.

Brenda seemed to have lost some of her spirit as she turned to Rick. “I had to do it,” she said, pleading to his back. “My father threatened to cancel my column because I wasn't getting any interesting mail. I figured if I got just one exciting letter, others would follow. So I decided to write one myself. I'm sorry,” she added weakly. “I never meant for it to get out of hand like this.”

That reminded Nancy of something she had wondered about. “Brenda, how did you come up with that particular letter?”

“I got the idea after the crash in the parking lot. Mrs. Keating kept talking about how her brakes weren't working, and I thought, suppose they were deliberately sabotaged?” She shrugged and seemed to be faintly pleased
with herself. “The idea just took off from there.”

“I thought that might be it,” Nancy murmured, shaking her head. “I should've listened to my instincts.”

“I couldn't believe it when Rick told me about his aunt, and I realized I had made up a story that was actually happening!” Brenda went on. Nancy noticed that she made it sound as if she'd done something really great.

A moment later, however, Brenda's expression deflated as she glanced at Rick, who had been sitting silently by the edge of the pool. Beams of late-afternoon sunlight shimmered on the surface of the water and outlined his slumped figure with a golden glow.

Nancy saw Brenda bite her lip uncertainly. Then the reporter rose from the chaise longue and went to sit beside Rick. She made little swirls in the water with her feet and stared down at them, as if unable to face Rick directly.

“Rick, I really am sorry,” she said softly.

Nancy and Ned looked at each other in surprise. Brenda actually sounded humbled!

“I know I shouldn't have left you in the dark the way I did. I should have told you from the beginning that the letter was a fake.” Brenda laid her hand on Rick's arm.

“The thing was,” she went on, “when I first met you, I didn't want to tell you the truth
because I was worried you'd tell people and then my column would be ruined. Then, when you told me about your aunt, I thought I really could help.” Her eyes flashed defiantly as she snapped her head back at Nancy. “I
still
think I can help—if you want me to, that is.” Brenda's voice faltered as she added, “I guess the real reason I didn't tell you is because I knew you'd be upset. I was afraid you'd think I was a terrible person.”

“What does it matter to you what I think?” Rick asked her.

Brenda was obviously on the verge of tears. “It matters. I—I really think you're terrific, Rick. I know you probably don't feel the same about me after what I did, but I wanted to tell you that anyway.”

Nancy never thought she'd see Brenda acting in a sincere and sensitive manner. She must be in love!

Rick turned to Brenda with a shy smile. “Hey, it's okay. I wish you'd told me sooner, but I guess there's no harm done.”

From his deck chair Ned put in, “The question is, where do we go from here?”

Nancy leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees, her attention once more on the case. She quickly told the others about her visit to Mrs. Keating. “She seemed pretty scared, but what I don't get is, if she's afraid her husband's going to kill her, why doesn't she go to the police?” Turning to Rick, she
asked, “What do
you
think? You see them every day. How do they act toward each other? What's the atmosphere in the house?”

“Tense,” Rick replied without hesitating. “Aunt Maggie's been on edge in general. But I don't know if it's because she thinks Uncle Bill is trying to kill her or if something totally different is bothering her. Uncle Bill seems pretty jumpy, too. I asked Aunt Maggie about it, but she just said he was under a lot of pressure at work.”

“That doesn't mean much,” Ned commented. He cleared his throat. “Phew! I'm thirsty. Sitting out here in the sun has dried me out.”

“I have an idea,” Brenda said, shaking the water from her feet and standing up. “Let's go get a soda and finish this discussion in a nice, air-conditioned restaurant. I want to take my car for a spin, anyway. It's just back from the shop, and I want to make sure it's running okay.”

“Let's take my car,” Nancy said to Ned as Rick and Brenda went into the bathhouse to change. “I should probably go straight home from the restaurant if I want to be on time for dinner.” Flashing Ned a wide smile, she asked, “Want to come over? Hannah's making homemade strawberry ice cream for dessert.”

“I'll be there,” Ned said enthusiastically.

A few moments later Rick and Brenda reappeared, Brenda in a yellow minidress that
showed off her tan, and Rick in shorts and a T-shirt.

“I have to get my car out of the garage,” Brenda announced. Slipping her arm through Rick's, she suggested, “How about riding with me, Rick?”

“Those two are getting pretty cozy, aren't they?” Nancy remarked in a low voice as she and Ned followed Brenda and Rick around to the three-car garage at the top of the driveway.

“Mmm.” Ned chuckled. “I hope he knows what he's getting into.”

“Actually, I'm sort of glad for Brenda,” Nancy said. “She really seems to like Rick. And he's a nice guy. It could be good for her to be around someone like him. She might learn something. You know, Brenda isn't dumb, even if she acts it most of the time. And she's very pretty—”

“She sure is,” Ned put in.

“Ned!” Nancy exclaimed, but then she saw the teasing twinkle in his brown eyes. “You'd better watch out, Nickerson,” she said, giving him a playful jab in the arm. “I almost took you seriously. Then you would have been in trouble!”

Just then Brenda's red sports car rolled out of the garage. “Nancy, follow me,” Brenda called through the open window.

Nancy and Ned got in her Mustang, and Nancy pulled in behind Brenda.

“This driveway would be great for sledding
in the winter,” Ned remarked as they drove down the hill. “It's steep, and it barely has any curves.”

“How can you even think about winter when it's this hot out?” Nancy said, shaking her head in amazement. When he didn't answer, she glanced sideways and saw that Ned was peering through the windshield at Brenda's car, a slight frown creasing his brow.

“She's going too fast to make the turn at the bottom,” he mumbled.

“Brenda drives the way she talks,” Nancy replied. “Fast and—”

Nancy's voice broke off as Brenda's brake lights suddenly flashed on. With a screech of tires her red car fishtailed wildly across the driveway.

“Something's wrong!” Nancy cried, braking. “Brenda's car is out of control!”

Nancy watched helplessly as the red sports car barreled out of the drive and straight across the street. Then, with a terrible crunch, it slammed headlong into a huge tree!

O
H, NO
!” Nancy cried. She jammed on the Mustang's emergency brake, threw off her seat belt, and jumped out of the car. Ned's footsteps echoed right behind her on the pavement as she raced toward Brenda's car.

The red sports car had thrown up a huge cloud of dust when it plowed into the dry earth around the tree. At first it was hard to see through the dense cloud.

“Brenda! Rick!” Nancy yelled, coughing from all the dust as she and Ned reached the car.

Ned yanked open the driver's side door and pulled at Brenda's safety belt. A moment later she fell out into his arms. “I couldn't turn the wheel!” Brenda cried. “I lost control!”

“Rick?” Nancy called, alarmed. She bent down and peered into the interior.

Rick was in the passenger seat, still wearing his seat belt. He stared at Nancy with a dazed expression. “I'm okay,” he said. Then he managed a shaky grin. “It's a good thing I remembered to buckle up.”

“Boy, am I glad you did,” Nancy said fervently. She hurried around to his side and helped him out of the car. “Are you hurt at all?”

“I don't think so.” Rick rubbed his neck gingerly. “My head snapped back when we hit the tree, but it doesn't feel too bad.”

Rick's knees were wobbly, so Nancy supported him with an arm around his waist. They went around to the driver's side, where Brenda stood shivering, her arms crossed tightly across her chest and her dark eyes brimming with tears. “Three times in three days,” she said.

It took Nancy a moment to make sense of what the reporter was saying. But then she realized it was true—the crash in the parking lot, the beam falling inside the mall, and now this. Could they
all
be accidents?

“What happened?” Nancy asked gently.

“I don't know,” Brenda answered, turning to face Nancy. “I just couldn't move the steering wheel. It felt as if there were a heavy weight on it.” The tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. “And—and I was going too fast to stop—” She broke into a sob, and Rick put an arm around her shoulders.

“The whole thing happened like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “We didn't even have time to react.”

Brenda dried her eyes on the back of her hand, then looked at Ned and Nancy. “I thought the wheel felt stiff when I took the car out of the garage,” she explained. “I didn't pay any attention to it, though. Then all of a sudden we were flying down the hill, and I couldn't turn.” Her lip quivered again. “I hit the brakes, but we still crashed.”

Nancy didn't like the sound of that, but she kept quiet. No use scaring Brenda for no reason. “If you hadn't slammed on the brakes,” she said reassuringly, “the accident would have been a lot more serious. Come on, let's get over to my car. You two need to sit and calm down.”

Once Brenda and Rick were seated in Nancy's car, Nancy, keeping her voice light and casual, said, “Ned and I'll be right back. I just want to take a look under your hood, Brenda.”

“Okay.” Brenda was holding Rick's hand tightly. She still looked frightened, but Nancy thought she seemed to be recovering from her scare—and that she was definitely enjoying Rick's attention.

As they crossed the street again, Ned asked Nancy in a low voice, “What's going on? Do you think there's something wrong with Brenda's car?”

Nancy simply shrugged. She'd had a sudden, frightening idea, but it was such a long shot she didn't want to tell Ned about it until she checked it out.

The red car had hit the tree hard, but fortunately Brenda hadn't been going fast enough to do much damage. Ned managed to raise the hood without too much trouble, and they peered inside at the tangle of bolts, fans, and hoses.

“Uh-oh,” Nancy said after a moment, frowning. Reaching down, she tapped on a white plastic container that was bolted to the car's chassis. “Look at that, Ned.”

“Wow!” he exclaimed, grimacing. The container looked as if someone had attacked it with a buzz saw. The plastic was ripped to shreds. Thick yellowish fluid oozed sluggishly down the sides. “That's the steering fluid reserve,” he said.

“You mean it used to be,” Nancy amended. “No wonder Brenda couldn't turn the wheel,” she said grimly. “The hydraulic system that controls her power steering is completely wrecked.

“Ned, is there any way this damage could have happened when Brenda hit the tree?” Nancy asked.

“No way,” he told her. Ned gave a tight smile. “I'd say we're definitely looking at a case of sabotage.”

Nancy took a deep breath. “That's what I
was afraid of. Listen, I don't want to say anything to Brenda until I know for sure,” she added, biting her lip. “She's already practically hysterical about what just happened. First I want to check out the lock on her garage door and see if it's been tampered with. If not, I suppose there's still a chance that this happened by accident at the garage.”