Gone: A Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys Mystery

10. Frank

When I enter the room, George and Joe are huddled together talking and Bess in slumped again the wall massaging her ankle. I should retract my sentence, this is in no way a room. It maybe can be considered a storage closet. Let's just hope that Morgan isn't on janitor duty at midnight.

I quickly relayed Nancy's tale to the rest of the detectives. The story surprised Joe and Bess more than George. Joe and Bess found nothing of value other than Doright's phone upstairs. They said that everyone had cleared out of the big room about half an hour ago. Esti had been returned to her purple room, the one I had stumbled across. Morgan and Stella were probably in their rooms for the night and Doright had noisily tromped upstairs.

"So how are we going to get out of here?" George asks in the softest voice she could.

"We could bring them up through the house and bring them back to the truck. Then we can block off the exits until the police arrive," Joe suggests.

"My thoughts exactly, little brother," I wink.

"So we can take Stella then Nancy out, up that staircase and out to through the house. when everyone is up we close off the exit, call the police and let them deal with the bad guys," George concludes.

"No, not done. For the second time, I am going to have to take Nancy to the hospital," I groan.

"Thanks for volunteering to stay with her through the wee hours of the morning and deal with grumpy, stressed out nurses and loads of paperwork," Joe smiles.

We all break down the individual parts of our operation. Bess is going to get Stella to safety first. They are going to walk to the car and call the police on the way. George is going out next to close up the trap door that we entered through and then she is going to come back after everyone is out to close up the study door and the house doors. Joe elected himself to be the one to carry Nancy out, because, after all, he works out the most. After that, I was in charge of making sure that everything ran smoothly and that no important evidence was left behind. I was also a decoy in case someone ran into a Doright or two.

It sounded like the plan would work. Bess crept out of the hiding place first and cautiously left to get Stella. Not that Stella had any clue who Bess Marvin was. Bess would have to do a lot of explaining if Stella Drew was anything like her daughter. After about twenty minutes of no sounds, George sneaked out to close up the trap door. I'm not exactly sure how she planned to do this but she volunteered to close a trap with no materials so that is her problem and all I can do is trust her with this. Joe sneaked down the hall to find Nancy and I traveled right and into the one and only room Nancy could have referred to as the "big room". It really was overly large. It was the size of at least half the Doright's house. It had a couple carts of medical equipment in it and the electric chair Nancy mentioned. Nothing else was really in the room which made absolutely no sense. Why built a huge room with nothing in it?

I was quiet as I crept through the large space. No telling where Doright or Morgan was. I just hope that he is not in the study when Stella and Nancy escape. If he was deep into his house or in one of the side room down here it would be best. I continue to explore the room, but literally, nothing seems to be in here. I follow the look, no touch rule with the medical equipment as I search it. Nothing was out of the ordinary. I push my toe under the table. I don't feel anything underneath it. When I pull my foot out the laces of my boot catch on a few pieces of paper. I kneel down to look. Taped under the cart are pieces of yellow, lined paper. Just from glancing at the top piece I could tell that they were important. After scanning the words, I knew that this was a cure for Esti. I swipe through the papers and read the last one. It was a journal entry from twelve years ago stating that Stella revived Esti and that she got her off the tube feeder and speaking for a week while Doright was away on a medical trip. Stella had been returning Esti to a coma and reviving her in a couple weeks for years now. Stella had a documentation for every time. She had to cure to the disease solved years ago, but she lacked the equipment and expertise to perform the surgery.

I can't decide if this information is good or bad. I guess it is good because Esti is not dead or completely comatose. But how could a mother stay away from her child that long? Why would Stella Drew choose to live down here under Doright's control over a decade past when she needed to? She knew that she could be free and save Doright's daughter. But she didn't. Stella Drew is an interesting person indeed.