Designs in Crime by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Chapter

Nine

LOOK OUT!” Nancy shouted, at the same time throwing her arms around Bess and sweeping them both back toward the front door.

They landed on the cold cement threshold just as Nancy heard the thud of the body hitting the pavement nearby.

“Ouch!” Bess said, sitting up and rubbing her elbow. “What happened?”

Nancy steeled herself to check on the body. For a moment she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, then she sighed with relief. On the sidewalk, in the spot where she and Bess had been standing, lay a dress form clothed in a muslin gown, its metal stand bent from the fall.

“That’s a relief,” Nancy said, brushing herself off as she nodded at the dressmaker’s dummy. “I thought that was a person falling out of the window.”

Bess grimaced. “I’m glad you were wrong,” she said, “but that thing still came within a foot of clobbering us.”

Nancy looked up at the building just in time to see the huge window three stories up being slammed shut. “It came from the fourth floor,” she said, running through the floor plan in her mind. “From the workroom of Beau’s studio.”

“Could it have fallen accidentally?” Bess asked, picking the dummy up.

“That’s doubtful,” Nancy said, frowning. “Let’s take this upstairs and find out what happened.”

Beau was surprised to see Nancy and Bess at the door with one of his slightly battered dress forms. He summoned Angel and Mrs. Chong, who listened intently as Nancy described the incident.

“But who could have done it?” Angel asked, his dark eyes concerned. “The three of us are the only ones left in the studio. I was putting gowns back into the vault, and Mrs. Chong was in the sewing room.”

“I was on the phone in my office,” Beau said, frowning. “I’m glad you girls didn’t get hurt.”

Mrs. Chong said to Nancy, “I think you are bad luck. You arrive, and a gown disappears. Dummies jump out of windows. Very bad luck.”

“Mrs. Chong,” Beau said patiently, “Nancy is trying to help us.”

“Mmm.” She shook her head. “No help so far.”

Nancy studied the faces of Beau’s right-hand employees. Angel seemed genuinely concerned. Mrs. Chong looked as if she wouldn’t have minded if Nancy and Bess had been flattened by the dummy. She couldn’t tell who had tossed it out the window.

The only thing she could be sure of was that one of them wanted her off the case.

• • •

On Wednesday morning Nancy and Bess took a cab from Eloise Drew’s apartment to the showroom of Budget Fashions. The driver pulled up in front of a dingy building with half a dozen loading docks stretching out from the structure. Workers milled around, loading and unloading trucks.

“I hope I look like a buyer-in-training,” Bess said, tying a printed scarf over her teal blue jacket.

“You look great,” Nancy said as she paid the cab driver. After she stepped out, she straightened the skirt of her plaid wool suit.

They found the showroom, a large area that reminded Nancy of a boutique. From

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