Free The Secret in the Old Attic by Carolyn Keene Page A

the next morning, Mrs. French dropped in to say good-by. “And how is my dear little Susan?” she asked. “I miss taking care of her.”
    Mr. March smiled at his old friend, who had looked after his granddaughter so lovingly. “Susan and I are going to miss you,” he said.
    “I’ll miss you,” she said. “Maybe you can visit us in our new home.”
    She went upstairs to say good-by to Susan. Mr. March followed.
    Nancy decided to go home and work on the Dight mystery. After telling Effie she would be back that afternoon, the young detective left the old mansion.
    At home she found Bess and George waiting for her. “You really move in on a mystery!” Bess teased. “We never know whether to look for you here or at the Marches’”
    “But I’m still no closer to finding the missing music,” Nancy admitted.
    “That house keeps its secrets well.”
    “How about having lunch downtown with Bess and me?” George suggested.
    “Fine idea!” Nancy agreed. “I’ll tell Hannah I won’t be here.”
    “By the way, how are you making out with Diane?” George asked.
    “She gave me several pretty dresses for Susan,” Nancy replied. Because of the confidential nature of her father’s case, she thought it best not to reveal anything she had learned at the Dight factory.
    After telling the housekeeper her plans, Nancy stopped at the hall table to look through the mail which had just come. At once she seized a letter from the Jenner Music Publishing Company in Oxford.
    As Nancy tore open the envelope, she explained to the girls that she had written to the firm several days before to ask for information about the composer Ben Banks. I’ll read it aloud.
    “‘Dear Miss Drew,
    We regret that we are unable to provide any of the information you requested concerning Ben Banks, whose songs we publish.
    Sincerely yours,
Milton Jenner’”
    “Well, that’s a cool answer,” George remarked. “What’s so secret about the information?”
    “I wish I knew,” Nancy replied slowly. “I’m going to phone for an appointment.”
    She looked up the number and dialed it. Nancy was informed that Mr. Jenner never granted appointments by phone. She would have to write for an appointment.
    Disappointed, she told this to Bess and George. “Do you mind waiting while I write a note?” Nancy asked.
    “Not at all,” Bess replied. “We’ll go talk with Hannah.”
    “And Bess will help herself to some cookies,” George teased her cousin.
    In the note Nancy stated that there was a matter of vital importance she would like to discuss with Mr. Jenner. She would appreciate talking to him as soon as possible. When Nancy finished the note, she called Bess and George.
    “Come with me while I mail this,” she suggested. “Then we’ll eat. How about you girls going out to Pleasant Hedges with me for the night? Effie ought to have some time off.”
    “That place is anything but pleasant,” Bess remarked. “It gives me the creeps.”
    “Oh, a ghost or two won’t hurt you,” George kidded her. “Let’s go!”
    After a pleasant luncheon, Nancy drove the girls home. “I’ll pick you up at four o’clock,” she said.
    Before going home Nancy did several errands. They included buying supplies for the March household. On impulse Nancy stopped in the leading music store and asked for copies of all the songs composed by Ben Banks.
    “There are only three,” the clerk told her. “I have both the records and sheet music of ‘Song of the Wind’ and these other two. They’re newer.”
    “When were they published?”
    “Very recently. They came out one right after the other. Ben Banks must be a cool guy to compose three great songs in such a short period of time.”
    Nancy thought so too. It sounded very suspicious. She listened to the records but did not buy them because Mr. March had no player. She did buy the sheet music, however, and sat down at the store’s piano to play the two selections she had not heard before.
    “You do