The Message in the Haunted Mansion by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene [Keene, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2001-08-29T22:00:00+00:00

9

Time Is Running Out

Nancy grabbed Bess’s arm, pulling her out of the way.

“Aaah!” Bess’s cry rang out as the broken chandelier fell with a crash on the entry hall floor.

Nancy heard a gasp and saw the mirrored door to the parlor open. Abby stood in the doorway, looking at the chandelier remnants in astonishment. “I—I saw what happened,” she said shakily, “through the two-way mirror.”

“George, are you all right?” Nancy said.

George nodded, checking her pant legs. “I don’t think any pieces hit me. I can still go running with Mary later.”

Rose and Hannah rushed in from the back hall, followed by Charlie, a screwdriver in his hand. They all stopped and stared wide-eyed at the fallen chandelier.

Rose opened her mouth to speak, but Abby cut her off. “How can we open the hotel?” she burst out, almost hysterically. “Rose, don’t you see? We just hung that chandelier, and now it crashes down. The accidents don’t stop! This house is cursed!”

Nancy stepped gingerly into the pile of crystal shards, bending over to survey the debris. Amidst the shattered glass, she spied a broken link from the chandelier’s brass chain. She quickly pocketed it.

As Nancy looked up, Rose was gazing at the broken glass, tears brimming in her eyes. But as Rose turned to Abby, her voice was firm. “I won’t give up, Abby,” she said. “Now, let’s get this mess cleaned up.”

Within a few minutes they had swept the floor and scooped all the jagged pieces into a box. Charlie carted it off to the garbage.

Upstairs, in the Blue Room, Nancy showed her friends the broken chain link. “Someone filed through the brass plating on the link, all the way down to the steel core,” Nancy said. “When you slammed the front door, George, the vibrations probably started the chandelier swinging. The chain snapped.”

“If the chain link was filed, then the chandelier breaking wasn’t an accident,” George said, fingering the piece of brass.

Nancy nodded. “Someone knew that that front door has to be slammed shut,” she said. “The chandelier must have been rigged to fall at the slightest vibration.”

“But who would do that?” Bess asked.

“Charlie?” George suggested.

“He’s the most likely person to have a metal file,” Nancy noted. “You’d need a tool like that to file through the metal chain.”

“Abby was right on the scene,” Bess pointed out.

George nodded. “She seemed very upset by the crash,” she remarked, “but maybe that was just an act. She sure does sound ready to give up on the hotel. That could be why she’d be creating accidents to persuade Rose to sell.”

Nancy sighed, looking at the metal link. “I don’t know who’s responsible,” she said. “But I just know this is connected to the fire and all the other accidents. We have to keep on investigating, before someone gets hurt. I’m going to ask Rose right now if any of her letters are missing.”

Nancy went to the bureau, opened the top drawer, and took out the charred piece of paper she had found after the fire.

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