The Mystery of the Jade Tiger by Carolyn Keene

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

10

Unsettling Questions

Nancy’s eyes met Joanne’s. Please photograph the tiger and the brass latches beneath the workbench, she pleaded silently. But she had no way of knowing whether or not Joanne would understand. She didn’t even know if Joanne had used all the film in her camera.

Behind Nancy, Mr. Mai coughed impatiently. “Ms. Drew,” he began, “I’m sorry, but I really must ask you to leave now.”

Nancy pretended to be disappointed. “I don’t see my earring anywhere. What about you, Joanne?”

Joanne shook her head, looking similarly disappointed. Then she and Nancy thanked Mr. Mai for his time and left the gallery.

Nancy waited until they were safely in her car before she spoke. “Did you see them?” she asked. “In the back room, on the floor beneath the tiger statue—the latches from Nick Finney’s trunk.”

“Seen and photographed,” Joanne said. “Now all we have to do is develop the photos and bring them to the police. Then they’ll know Mr. Mai had the trunk.”

“Let’s hope so,” Nancy said. “Terry called the police station early this morning to see what information their lab had gotten on the pieces of the trunk I found behind the gallery. They said the only prints on it were Terry’s, Amy’s, and mine. They also told him that finding pieces of the trunk behind the gallery wasn’t enough to question Mr. Mai, who’s a very well-respected art dealer.”

Joanne patted her tiny camera. “Well, I took shots of everything I could.”

“Thank goodness Mr. Mai didn’t notice he had a photographer walking around his gallery,” Nancy said. “Of course, you made a very convincing student. Where did you learn all those facts you were rattling off?”

“Hang around Keith long enough and you just absorb them. I always thought it was neat stuff but never thought I’d actually use it.” Joanne grinned. “I guess I’m sort of an honorary Asian art student.”

Nancy smiled at her friend. “You know something? For an honorary Asian art student, you make a pretty good detective.”

Nancy dropped Joanne at her car, and the two girls split up. Nancy had arranged to go back to Terry’s house to pick up Bess and George. Then the three friends would drive to Joanne’s for the last of the wedding projects: baking the cake.

George was on one of the outside decks when Nancy reached Terry’s house. Wearing faded red sweats and a headband, she arched backward with her palms flat on the deck, fingertips nearly touching her feet.

“Why are you stretching out?” Nancy asked.

“This may be the only real exercise I get this week,” George replied, coming upright by doing a perfect walkover.

“Where’s Bess?” Nancy asked.

“Upstairs. Amy’s at school, and Terry’s in his studio.” George stretched to the side and gave Nancy a quizzical look. “Have you given any thought to what we’re about to do?”

Nancy chuckled. “You mean baking a cake for three hundred people?”

Bess opened the screen door to the deck and walked outside. She was wearing a short aqua skirt and a white blouse. “We’d better get going,” Bess said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.