Nancy Drew: 1. The Old Clock at Lilac Inn

Getting Some Help

 Almost as soon as they got to Nancy's house than Nancy rushed up the stairs to her room and began writing down all of the poems.

"What are you doing that for?" asked Emily, sitting down to watch her write.

"I'm wondering if, by writing these down, I'll notice something," explained Nancy. Jenny, Helen, and Emily waited in silence for Nancy to finish writing. She picked up the paper and looked at it, thinking hard.

"Anything?" said Helen after a moment's silence.

Nancy sighed and shook her head. "No, nothing. Nothing new, that is. I still see that the third line of each poem refers to a time. Maybe there's another clock we have to open?"

"But what other clock?" asked Jenny. "Didn't Mr. Crowley only give out four clocks?"

"Oh! The clock at Moonlight Gests!" blurted Emily.

"But that clock was a prop," said Jenny.

"Oh, right," said Emily, crestfallen.

Nancy patted her shoulder. "Very good try though, I would have thought the same thing." Emily smiled. Nancy handed her the slip of paper. "Here, why don't you have a crack at it."

"OK!" said Emily cheerily. She took the paper and read it a few times before passing it on to Helen. Helen went over the paper several times herself before handing it on to Jenny. Meanwhile, Nancy paced the room, letting her mind wander, and pondering over everything. Four poems, four quarters, four clocks, a hole in one, minigolf, cats and dogs, math problems, and Shakespeare. Josiah Crowley was a man who had many interests. So, the first poem led them to a key hidden at Moonlight Gests. What did this key unlock? Where was that hidden? Was the answer in one of the other poems?

"I'm not getting anything," said Jenny with a sigh.

"Same," said Emily.

"I have nothing too," said Helen, though she said so a little more cheerily as she looked at Nancy with a glint in her eyes.

Nancy saw the glint, and chose to ignore it. "The next clue has got to be hidden somewhere in one of the poems. The key and the book has nothing particularly special about them that points to another clue. Well, I mean, obviously the key has to open something, we have to find it. But we have to figure out where it is hidden." She glanced determinedly at each of them. "I think we need some help, someone who hasn't been working on this as long as we have. Like Hannah, they could notice something we've overlooked."

Emily shrugged. "You're the detective, you do what you think is best."

Nancy smiled. "Thanks." She pulled out her cell phone and texted Bess and George. "I'm going to try Bess and George, see if we can't get them on the phone too. But I hope the Hardys are available."

"But why them in particular?" asked Jenny.

"Because if there's one person I know who knows almost as much about Shakespeare as Josiah did, it would be Frank Hardy."

"Ah, gotcha." Jenny nodded.

Nancy's phone dinged. She checked it. "Ah, dang it. Bess and George are busy right now." She let out a breath as she picked up the Pen Pal Phone and dialed. "Please be available!" She put the phone on speakers while it rang. It rang for a couple of minutes.

"Do they even . . ." Jenny began.

"Hello?"

Nancy blinked, she did not recognize that voice. "Um, hello? This is Nancy Drew . . ."

"Oh, hi Nancy! This is Tony Prito, one of Frank's and Joe's friends. I'll go get them. Hang on!"

Nancy let out a soft breath of relief. It was summer now, they were probably planning some shenanigans while they were waiting for their next mystery.