Free The Eskimo's Secret by Carolyn Keene Page A

too.”
    “Anyway, think about it, you two. I can go in first and pick up Dad’s key, then I’ll go to the fire door and let you in so no one will see you.” Nancy grinned at them. “Don’t you think the hotel will be the last place that anyone would look for you, Alana?”
    Ben and Alana exchanged glances, then shrugged. “I guess we really don’t have much choice,” Alana said. “I just don’t want to put you in any more danger, Nancy. What’s happened to you and your father is all my fault.”
    “I called you, Alana,” Nancy reminded her.
    “But I asked you to help me,” Alana said.
    “And warned me to leave before I got too involved. Besides, I have a feeling that we still don’t have the whole story.”
    “But what else could there be?” Ben asked.
    “My father was kidnapped before I came to Victoria,” Nancy said. “I mean he must have been, because he left the hotel in Seattle hours before I did and he never reached the Haggler estate.”
    “The Haggler estate?” Alana said. “You mean the Haggler that has all those terrific import shops?”
    “You’ve heard of them?” Nancy was a little surprised.
    “You can’t be interested in art and not know about Haggler International Imports,” Alana declared. “Miss Haggler has imported some really fabulous things and she does occasionally handle Northern Indian or Eskimo art, too, you know. Everything in her shops doesn’t come from Japan or China or Europe or South America.”
    “Sounds like you’ve checked them out pretty carefully,” Ben teased.
    “When your uncle runs a gallery and eats, sleeps, and breathes art, you get to see a lot of import shops,” Alana replied with a small giggle. “Was your father working for Miss Haggler?”
    Nancy nodded. ‘That’s why we were in Seattle.”
    “I just wish you hadn’t been,” Alana said, her good spirits fading as quickly as they’d come. “I wanted to see you, but not like this.”
    “This will be cleared up soon,” Nancy told her as she turned in to the hotel parking lot. “And after it is, we’ll have a real visit.”
    “I’ll even take you and your father out fishing, if you like,” Ben said.
    Nancy gave him a grateful smile, aware that he, too, was trying to remain optimistic. “Now,” she said. “You two say in the car for a while, then just casually make your way around to the far side there. The fire door opens just past that flowerbed. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
    “We’ll be there,” Ben promised. “You be careful.”
    Nancy nodded. “After all that’s happened, I will be,” she said.
    The hotel lobby was nearly empty when she entered, reminding her for the first time of the lateness of the hour. Though she still had her own room key, she headed directly for the desk. There was a different clerk on duty, so she simply asked about a reservation for Carson Drew, signing her father’s name to the register.
    “Oh, Miss Drew, you have some messages,” the clerk said when he handed her the key.
    “Messages?” Nancy swallowed hard.
    “There have been a number of calls.” The clerk handed her the list.
    “Thank you,” Nancy said. There was only one name on the list, but the messages had become increasingly urgent. Helen Haggler was desperately trying to reach Carson Drew and she wanted him to call—no matter what time it was. If she did not hear from him by morning, she would contact the police!

13. Stalling for Time

    Nancy started toward the elevators, then hesitated, suddenly remembering what had happened to Tod after her telephone conversation with him. The men had been in her hotel room; the missing notebook was proof of that. She had no way of knowing if they’d bugged the telephone while she was away.
    Nancy headed for the public telephones, closing herself in a booth and placing a call to Miss Haggler.
    “Carson?” Helen Haggler began as soon as she’d accepted the collect call.
    “No, Miss Haggler, it’s Nancy,” the girl