Free Carolyn Keene - Nancy Drew by The Twin Dilemma Page A

said.
    “Which one?” Bess giggled.
    “That’s for you to figure out. Maybe you ought to stop by the apartment mentioned in this article.”
    Aunt Eloise, who had slept later than usual, stood in the doorway. Her presence reminded Nancy of their conversation the night before, and she quickly telephoned her father. Mr. Drew agreed that she should go back to Millington, but warned her to be careful.
    “I will be,” she promised, then invited Bess and George to meet her for lunch near the Millington office. “That way we can keep check on each other,” Nancy said, raising a smile from her aunt.
    Half an hour later, she was at Millington’s reception desk. When she asked for Mr. Iannone, however, she was told he wasn’t in.
    “But he hired me yesterday,” Nancy said to the receptionist.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a brown-haired woman pass hurriedly through a door. Nancy turned her head, catching the face before she disappeared. The young detective was positive that it was Rosalind, the stylist whom Mr. Reese had hastily fired the night of the fashion show!
    The girl at the desk now pressed a buzzer, calling someone to come out for a moment.
    Soon, an officious woman in a green wool suit appeared. “This is Nancy Drew,” the receptionist introduced the visitor.
    Again Nancy asked for Mr. Iannone.
    “He doesn’t work here any longer,” the woman informed her. “He quit yesterday.”
    Nancy gulped. “Quit!”
    “Yes. Are you a personal friend of his, may I ask?”
    “No, but he offered me a job here.”
    “Well, he had no authority to do so. I’m in charge now.”
    The steely tone in the woman’s voice told the girl it would be tough to persuade her to go along with Mr. Iannone’s decision. So Nancy took a different tack. She related her unpleasant experience in the workroom and her suspicions that it was somehow connected to the recent thefts from the Reese collection.
    “My, you do have an active imagination,” the woman said. “I’m quite positive that your trouble yesterday was an accident. I’m sorry about it, but I’m not going to hire you because of it!”
    There was nothing left to say, so Nancy departed. Disappointed, she took the elevator to the lobby, not paying much attention to anyone until her eyes settled on the revolving doors ahead of her, and the man approaching them.
    He looked familiar, but his head was bent low in a long, plaid scarf wrapped thickly around his neck. Nancy ducked into a magazine booth as he came forward, then watched as he loosened his scarf while he waited for an elevator.
    Nancy had picked up a magazine, burying her face in it until she heard the door slide open. Then, as the stranger and several other people stepped inside, and turned to face the corridor, the girl lifted her eyes. The man was Jacqueline’s friend who claimed to be Chris Chavez!
    She dived back out of sight as the door hung open an extra second for a last-minute passenger. Then it closed and Nancy watched the bank of numbered lights as the elevator moved up slowly. It made two stops, one of which was Millington’s floor!
    If the man wasn’t the real fashion photographer, what was he doing there? Was he the thief who had stolen the designs?

13
    Baffling Trail
    While Nancy’s discovery had stunned her momentarily, Bess and George were preparing themselves for their own investigation.
    “It’s a good thing that the two impostors believe they’ve duped us totally!” Bess told her cousin.
    “And we have to make sure they don’t find out anything to the contrary,” George said.
    When the girls arrived at the apartment listed for Russell Kaiser in the news article, the doorman said he had strict instructions not to admit anyone while the police were still there.
    “Have they been here a long time already?” George inquired.
    The doorman glanced at his watch. “About thirty minutes,” he said, “but they could be around the whole day, for all I know.”
    “Let’s go,”