The Mardi Gras Mystery by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

10

The Missing Link

Nancy’s mouth dropped open, but she couldn’t speak. She stared at the reddish brown scars. How the woman must have suffered when she got them, she thought. As Nancy stood there, dumbfounded, the woman turned and bolted into the crowd. Within seconds, she had disappeared again. Nancy wanted to run after her, to apologize if nothing else, but she couldn’t move. She didn’t even know how long she stood there before she heard Ned’s voice.

“Nancy! Nancy! What happened?” he asked. “Who were you chasing?”

Bess, George, and Brian ran up behind Ned.

“Nancy! Thank goodness we found you!” exclaimed Bess. “What happened?”

“I saw her,” Nancy said with a gasp. “The woman! The same one I saw the other night.”

“Did you catch up to her?” asked George.

“Yes.”

“Well, what happened?”

Nancy took a deep breath and began to feel calm. She didn’t want to upset Brian with what she’d seen. If the woman was his mother, Nancy wanted to choose a better time and place to tell him what she had looked like.

“Oh, it was nothing, really,” Nancy said, with a slight smile. “I’ll tell you about it later. Let’s go have some fun!”

Brian steered them in the direction of a well-known jazz club. They listened to music for a while, then they went on to a little café for coffee and pastries. But they decided to skip the party Brian’s friends were giving.

“Who needs to go to a party?” George said, as they headed down the crowded, brightly decorated streets toward the car. “Mardi Gras is one big party all by itself!”

The others agreed with George.

It was late when they reached Bat Hollow. Nancy and her friends stepped wearily inside the Seaton house and sprawled out in the living room. Brian brought everyone sodas.

Fortunately, nobody pressed Nancy to talk about her run-in with the mysterious woman. Instead, the conversation centered around the next day’s parade.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to go to the parade with you,” Nancy said. “I’m sorry. I have to ruin another outing.”

“Come on, Nancy,” Bess said. “First of all, we’re used to your getting involved with a case, so you won’t have ruined anything.” She flashed a grin at Nancy. “Besides, we had some fun together tonight. What more could we ask for?”

“Bess is right,” George said. “Anyway, we’re going to the parade tomorrow, no matter what. If you can’t make it because of the case, well, we’ll take pictures for you.”

“That would be great,” Nancy said with a laugh. Then she excused herself and went up to bed. She decided to wait until morning to tell them what she’d seen. The case was getting to her and she needed sleep.

• • •

Nancy slept until almost ten-thirty the next morning. When she came downstairs, she found that Bartholomew Seaton had left the house early, and Ned had taken off with Brian for a while. So the girls were alone. Nancy finally told Bess and George what had happened the night before. As Nancy related the story over breakfast, the horror of the woman’s face came back to her.

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