(#60) The Greek Symbol Mystery (11 page)

Vatis shoved Nancy back against her friend and leaped past them.

“Stop!” Nancy cried, ready to tear after him.

To her surprise, something glittery fell out of the man’s pocket, tripping her off balance. It was the cuff bracelet he had tried to sell over the telephone. Quickly she snatched it up and looked inside. Stamped on the bracelet was the mysterious Greek symbol!

16

A Capture

Without wasting another moment, Nancy and George bolted over the craggy rocks to the beach on the far side.

“Vatis is getting away!” George exclaimed as Nancy sprinted ahead, clenching the cuff bracelet tightly in her fist.

“We’ll catch you—you won’t—” the young sleuth shouted haltingly as the man jumped into a small motorboat and sped away.

“What a shame!” George declared, emptying sand from one shoe.

“C’mon!” Nancy cried out and ran back toward the hotel.

By now, Bess was standing on the grassy overhang in full view of her friends. “The police are coming!” she called.

“Did you tell them to go to Vatis’s cottage?” Nancy yelled up to her.

“No. Should I have?”

“Yes, and quick!” George replied.

As Bess hurried back into the hotel, Nancy and George leaped up the flight of stone steps that connected the beach with the pool area. Breathing heavily by now, they darted through the dining room and caught up with Bess at the lobby telephone.

“Let’s go!” Nancy said, after Bess hung up. She took the girl’s hand to hurry her along.

“Where are we going?”

“To the Queens Palace.”

“But we don’t have a car,” Bess countered.

Parked outside, however, was their taxi driver. He greeted them pleasantly.

“All set to leave?” he asked, smiling.

“We can’t go to the airport yet,” George said. “We’re after someone.” She jumped into the back seat with her friends.

“Oh, no, not again!” The man groaned.

Nancy’s lips parted into a smile. “I’m afraid so. Can you take us back to the cottage at the Queens Palace Hotel?”

The driver nodded reluctantly. He pulled onto the road, gaining speed at a moderate rate. “After that race last night, this car will never last through the summer,” he sighed.

“We can’t help it if there’s a crook loose in Corfu,” Bess said.

“You should leave him to the police to catch,” the man replied.

After they passed the sign for the Queens Palace Hotel, a police car came into view. The taxi driver released his foot from the gas pedal, allowing the car to slow down.

“They’re here already,” Bess observed.

“Thank goodness,” the driver mumbled in relief.

The girls stepped out quickly. Nancy skirted the police car to talk with one of the officers.

“What’s happening?” she asked him.

“You keep back from the house,” he ordered. “The man has locked himself inside. He may become violent.”

Nancy produced the cuff bracelet and showed the strange marking inside. The young sleuth explained that she and her friends had overheard Vatis describe its value to someone apparently interested in buying it.

“And you say it was stolen from the archeological museum in Athens?” the policeman questioned.

“That’s what I suspect.”

A second officer, meanwhile, was shouting in Greek through the cottage door. He ordered Vatis to open it, but the man refused. Through the partially drawn blinds, the policeman watched Vatis frantically empty his pockets.

“It’s gone! It’s gone!” he grumbled to himself. “Those girls must have it!”

He lit a match, dropping it into a metal wastebasket filled with papers. Seeing smoke drift under the door, Nancy ran forward.

“He’ll suffocate,” she said as the police officer pulled her back. His colleague, meanwhile, smashed the window with a wooden club, tore down the blinds, and climbed inside.

Smoke billowed out and Vatis coughed as he gasped for air. While one policeman snapped handcuffs on him, the other one doused the fire. It had destroyed most of the papers. As the trio emerged from the cottage, Vatis glared at Nancy.

“Give me that bracelet,” he growled. “It’s mine. It was payment for legal services.”

“From whom? Constantine Nicholas?” Nancy replied with equal confidence. “You were blackmailing him, weren’t you?”

The man’s eyes did not shift from hers as she went on. “You knew Constantine was mixed up with art smugglers and when he couldn’t pay you for your work, you accepted this bracelet instead.”

“Except,” Bess added, “Constantine didn’t know that Vatis was stealing the inheritance from him and Helen.”

“Precisely,” Nancy said.

Despite the accusations, the man did not seem bothered. He gave a self-satisfied grin.

“I will get the smartest lawyers in Greece to defend me. They will prove my innocence,” he boasted.

The policemen, in the meantime, took custody of the stolen bracelet. “Someone else will be sent to investigate the cottage thoroughly,” one officer said as they went off with their prisoner.

“We ought to check this place right now,” Nancy said.

“But we won’t be able to remove anything,” George reminded her.

“No need to,” Nancy put in. She took a small camera from her shoulder bag. “I was planning to take pictures before we left the hotel.”

The young detectives went quickly to the wastebasket and examined the burnt papers. There were several readable fragments which Nancy photographed. Her camera automatically produced small color prints.

“We can have these enlarged later,” she said, sticking them in her purse. “Right now, let’s try to catch our flight to Athens.”

The girls rode back to their hotel, asking their driver to wait for them. “We’ll be out in a sec—” Bess said as they dashed inside.

The travelers reappeared with their luggage in less than fifteen minutes.

“Do you always rush everywhere you go?” the man asked, breaking into a laugh.

“Not always,” Nancy said with a smile. “This really has been a most unusual two days.”

In spite of the unexpected delays that morning, they reached the airport with time to spare.

“I don’t believe it,” Bess kept saying on the plane.

“What don’t you believe?” George asked.

“That we solved part of the mystery. ”

Her remark prompted Nancy to pull out the photographs she had taken earlier. She studied them closely but could decipher only certain initials and parts of addresses.

“As soon as we get into Athens,” she said, “I’m going to call Dad. He ought to be in his office now. ”

Even before she unpacked, Nancy placed the call from the hotel. To her delight, it went through with little trouble. She told her father about finding Vatis and the cuff bracelet stamped with the same intriguing symbol used by the art thieves.

“We’ll take the first flight we can get reservations on,” Mr. Drew said.

“We?” Nancy repeated.

“That’s right. I—”

Suddenly the connection was broken.

“Dad? Are you there?” Nancy said. She pressed down on the receiver hook several times but the line was dead. “I wonder who’s coming with him?” she thought, puzzled.

17

Nikos Deposits

“Maybe Hannah is coming with your father,” Bess suggested.

“I doubt it,” her cousin replied. “I think it’s someone from his office.”

“Don’t you have any idea, Nancy?” Bess asked.

The girl shook her head and excused herself to take a shower. Secretly, she hoped the mystery traveler would be Ned.

“I ought to call Helen and Mrs. Thompson,” Nancy said when she reappeared. “George, would you do me a big favor and take these photos to the camera shop on the corner?”

“At your service.”

“Ask them to make enlargements as quickly as possible. ”

George left, and when she returned, her face was beaming. “They’ll be ready tonight,” she announced.

“Wonderful,” Nancy said.

After dinner, the girls picked up the order and joined Helen and Mrs. Thompson in their room. Eagerly, they took turns telling about their visit with Mrs. Papadapoulos and her children.

“She has agreed to sew lots of beautiful things which we will sell in America!” Mrs. Thompson declared happily.

“That’s great!” Bess said while Nancy produced one of the enlarged photographs for Helen to look at.

“Incredible!” the woman exclaimed, staring at it. “This is my uncle’s will!”

“No wonder I couldn’t read it.” Nancy chuckled. “It’s all in Greek!”

Helen Nicholas scanned the picture closely. “Apparently, he owned various companies, not just the shipping line,” she said. “His interests were vast.” She leaned back in her chair, fanning herself with the photograph. “And to think so much of this will now be mine.”

“What do you suppose happened to the holdings other than those of the shipping company?” Bess asked.

“I have no idea. ”

“Perhaps Vatis acquired them somehow,” Nancy suggested, “and sold them.”

“But how?” Mrs. Thompson wanted to know.

“If the lawyer had access to Mr. Nicholas’s papers, he could have forged Constantine’s signature.” Nancy paused, adding, “Tomorrow we’ll try to find out where Lineos Nicholas kept his bank accounts. All right?”

Helen looked soberly at the girl. “All right,” she said at last.

The next day, Nancy and Helen made a list of all the banks in Athens. They went from one to the other asking if Lineos Nicholas had maintained an account there.

“I’m getting so tired,” Helen said as she pushed open the door of the fifth bank. “Can’t we continue this tomorrow?” she begged.

“Tomorrow may be too late,” Nancy replied.

“Too late for what?”

“For you. If Vatis was in cahoots with somebody here in Athens, they may know he’s been arrested and try to steal the rest of your inheritance.”

“Isn’t it more likely the two of them would keep a low profile?” Helen retorted.

“Not if they want the money!”

“Well, there’s no point debating about it,” Helen said. “Where is the next bank located?”

“Not far from here,” Nancy replied.

She indicated a brick building two blocks up the street. They walked to it quickly. Inside, a guard greeted them. Helen spoke to him in Greek, and to her delight, he said he remembered her uncle well. He had been sorry when he’d heard that Lineos Nicholas had died.

“Such a nice man,” the guard added.

“Did he have a safe-deposit box here?” Helen inquired.

“As a matter of fact, yes. I’ve been wondering why no one has come to claim the contents.”

“Have the bank charges been paid regularly?” Nancy asked, prompting Helen to translate the questions into Greek.

“Nai. Yes, at least, so far as I know.”

“When is the next billing due?” Nancy asked.

“Tomorrow. ”

“Wonderful,” Nancy said. She snapped her fingers as she and Helen left the building. “You and Mrs. Thompson must come here first thing in the morning. ”

“To pay for the use of the box?”

“No—to wait for the person who will.”

“But how do you know the payment won’t be mailed?”

“I don’t, but it’s worth being here to find out.”

As the girl detective recommended, Helen and Mrs. Thompson left for the bank early the following day. The others remained at the hotel hoping for another message from Mr. Drew.

“There’s a beautiful embroidered dress in one of the shops downstairs,” Bess said, trying to gain the interest of her friends.

“Is there?” George said casually. She helped Nancy swing two chairs out onto the balcony of their room.

“I can see you’re both absolutely thrilled about my discovery,” Bess murmured as her friends sat down.

“We are,” Nancy insisted. But she turned her face toward the shimmering rays of the sun and closed her eyes.

“Are you two going to sit up here all day?” Bess asked impatiently.

“Just until Dad calls,” Nancy replied.

“In that case,” Bess commented unhappily, “I might as well go shopping alone.”

She took the elevator to the first floor and discovered almost immediately that the embroidered outfit was no longer in the window. When she inquired about it, the proprietor said it had been sold the day before.

“Thank you, anyway,” Bess said in disappointment.

She took a few moments to look at a selection of pretty needlepoint pillows. Then, as she was about to leave, the dressing-room curtain parted open.

“Stella!” Bess exclaimed.

The other girl did not reply, however. She pretended not to recognize Bess and flew past her out the door of the shop.

“Don’t you remember me, Stella?”

Bess trailed after her, but a group of arriving tourists quickly separated the young women.

I wonder why she was shopping in this hotel, of all places, the girl said to herself. Come to think of it, she didn’t leave with any packages. Maybe she was in the store when I stepped in and she hid in the dressing room.

Then, suddenly, she saw Stella push open the revolving door of the hotel. The young woman dashed out into the square and hailed a taxi.

I’m just too suspicious for my own good, Bess chided herself. Even so, I’d love to talk to Stella again.

It seemed unlikely that Mr. Drew had telephoned Nancy yet, so Bess did not even bother to tell her friends where she was going.

“Monastiraki, here I come!” Bess decided.

She caught a cab and in a few minutes found herself at the jewelry shop. Strangely, the woman who had waited on her was not there. Instead, there was a completely new staff. Bess asked the man behind the counter for Stella.

“I do not know her, he said pleasantly.

“I’m also looking for Constantine Nicholas.”

Again the man shrugged. “Perhaps Mrs. Koukoulis knew both of those people. But—uh—she sold the business to me rather quickly and I am not yet familiar with her customers.”

“Or former employees?”

“They’re all gone.”

Very strange, Bess thought as she said good-bye.

By the time she reached the hotel and the girls’ room, Helen and Mrs. Thompson had also returned.