Nancy Screw and the Coming of Age (18+) Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Pieces of the Puzzle

The three sat inside Beth’s car, which she hid inside her garage. It was a smart move on her part, that was for sure.

“What do you think it wanted?” Nancy broke the ice.

“I don’t know,” Beth replied and turned to look back at Janet, who shook her head.

“Maybe it was the same person who is responsible for Mr. Turner’s disappearance?”

“I don’t know, Beth,” Nancy replied.

“Should we call the police, Nanc?”

Nancy thought for a moment and then replied to Beth.

“I think that we should just keep this to ourselves. The police already know about suspicious activities like that at the park. They might think it strange that we were there after dark snooping around an old tree. And I can’t lie to the police.”

The three girls sat thinking for a moment in Beth’s car. Their hearts had now slowed to their intended rates.

“Well,” Janet finally added, “what about the locket. Right now it’s lost. What if someone had reported it stolen?”

“Hmm. That is a good observation,” Beth agreed.. “I think we should turn it in to the police. Let them know that we found it at the park. There might be a reward.”

“True,” Nancy replied. “But if this is somehow linked to the letter, we might have made something bad worse. After all, isn’t it strange that there was a strange mark in the grass where a letter said there would be?”

“Nancy’s right,” Janet replied. “People just don’t leave things in boxes lying around in parks or like places for no good reason. It is kind of shady to me. Why couldn’t they have just met up and given each other what they needed to?”

The three thought for a moment more.

“Well,” Nancy added, breaking the silence. “I think we should hold onto it until we can find out who it is it belongs to. Then, we could give it to her in person or deliver it somehow. You know, once we determine what exactly is going on.”

“I think we should be careful,” Beth cautioned. “We don’t want to get hurt.”

“Well, we don’t really know anything yet. We could get in trouble going to the police. They can’t help us all the time,” Nancy informed. “Remember the close call in the park?”

The three agreed to the close call and found that that was something that would have to be considered with any actions in the future.

“Should we all stay here, tonight,” Beth inquired.

“I think that may be best,” Nancy agreed. “I would just need to call my parents and let them know. Plus, it would make up for last night.” Nancy laughed. Inside she could feel herself feeling better. She also had a terrible feeling remaining that she would inevitably have to confront Billy about him and Allie. She knew it was only a matter of time and that he may even come by Beth’s again in person when he found out that she wasn’t home. Nancy was prepared. And, this time, she wouldn’t be alone.

After she called her parents informing her of the night’s plans, she joined Beth and Janet in their living room. To her surprise, Billy hadn’t tried again that evening. Maybe he wanted to let her rest, too. The thought of his consideration just then almost brought Nancy to forgive him. But the pain was far too great for him to be giving that leniency. And it was just an assumption on her part; a measure of good will. The three looked up at Nancy as she entered, awaiting her answer. She smiled.

“So, you two up for a bit of a late night? I’m still excited and nervous from earlier.”

The other two nodded.

“Well, it is Saturday and we do have the whole day tomorrow to rest,” Beth added.

“Why not.”

“Okay,” Nancy continued. “Here is what we know. We have the news report of a man missing, a letter about a payment for a job and now we have an carving of the initials C.T. on a tree with a locket found on one of its branches. And all this is very close to the story in the book I’m reading.”

Nancy went on.

“Now, the way I see it is that we could compare every detail in this book as we read it, or we could go on a whim with the clues that we’ve found so far.”

“You forgot to mention the strange figure that was chasing us in the park,” Beth interrupted. “What about that?”

“I’m not sure, Beth,” Nancy replied. “But I have a feeling they may have been after the locket. I can’t think of any other reason why they would want to come after us like that.”

“But, what if they didn’t know we had the locket, what if it was just someone creepy who was out to hurt us?”

“Well, Beth,” Nancy responded. “There are a lot of questions concerning that. I’m unsure of all of this, really.”

Nancy pulled the locket out of her jeans pocket and placed it on the coffee table in front of the three. She opened it and pointed to the name.

“Margaret. There’s the next item on the list.”

“We could even link the name up to the initials. Maybe they are connected somehow,” Janet elated, confidently adding her input.

“Genius,” Nancy lauded. Beth got up from her spot on the couch and walked into the kitchen where the phone was placed. From the living room, the other two could hear her rummaging through several drawers. Shortly thereafter they heard one of them slide shut and Beth coming back to join them. She held a big book in her hand and placed it down before them on the coffee table.

“Great thinking, Beth,” the two announced as Beth opened up the Benson County phone book, flipping to the T section in the personal listings.

“If we’re lucky we will find the person we’re looking for listed here.” Beth’s fingers scurried through the T pages, anxiously looking for what they thought this Margaret’s last name might be. Their money was on Turner. It was a wild assumption with just a hint of conspiracy added to spice the whole thing up, but it was as good as could be considered, given the evidence before them.

Beth soon found the page and began to read out loud:

“Tanner, Terry, Thurston…. Todd, Tourst, TURNER.”

…

“Turner, C.

Turner, Derry & Louise

Turner, Harold

Turner, Luis.”

…

“Turner, M

Turner, Marge

Turner, Mary.”

Beth stopped reading and went back through the list. Janet broke the silence.

“What about Turner, M? That could be Margaret.”

“You’re right.” Nancy went on. “That could be. Also, we have a Turner, C. C could mean Charles.”

“We’d better consider both addresses then.” Janet pointed to their listings.

“So, what are we saying,” Beth asked, sounding concerned.

“Well, we are saying that we should check out both places.”

Beth furled her brow.

“You don’t mean, snoop around their property, do you?” Beth was getting better acquainted with Nancy’s means of exploring this mystery and was not at all comfortable with her courses of action. She didn’t like to get herself in any danger. She didn’t really even like to take risks. It was her strength, she felt, though others saw it as a weakness.

“We can just do what the police call a stakeout. We’ll just park someplace out of danger and see who comes up to the house.”

Nancy picked up the open locket from its place on the coffee table.

“This woman shouldn’t be too hard to spot.” Nancy passed the piece of jewelry around so the others could get a better look.

“Then we’ll know exactly where to leave it.”

“So,” Beth reassured herself. “We’d be doing a good thing? Returning someone’s valuable and sentimental locket?”

“Exactly,” Nancy assured. “Feel better about it now, Beth?”

“Yea, I think so.” Beth smiled and stood up.

“Does anyone want some tea? I’m thirsty.”

“I do,” Janet replied.

“Me too,” Nancy chimed in.

Beth momentarily left them to enter the kitchen. In her absence, Janet and Nancy were going over the pieces of evidence they had found earlier just to plan out their next moves as flawlessly as possible. They wanted to avoid any further confrontations that they didn’t have to expose themselves to. Being in a public place was one thing, but going to a stranger’s house was quite the other. There was a wide array of things that could happen and the two wanted to minimize the possibilities of these as much as possible. Shortly after Beth had left, she returned to inform the other two that the kettle was heating and their tea would be ready soon.