Nancy Drew: A Night at Dunstan Estate (10,009 words)
A NIGHT AT DUNSTAN ESTATE – PART I / ARRIVAL & DEPARTURE
“Nancy, wake up! We’re almost there!” Dave Evans reached over to the passenger seat and patted Nancy Drew on the knee, waking her up from her long nap. The tired detective opened her eyes and looked out the window of the rental car. She got her first look of the beautiful woods of Maryland with the sunset peeking through the trees.
“How long was I asleep?” Nancy asked the driver.
Dave looked at the clock on the dashboard. “A couple hours. Sounds like you needed it.”
Nancy nodded and let out a laugh. “Yeah. Next time when you invite me somewhere, give me time to prepare and pack.”
Yesterday morning, Nancy got a call from her boyfriend’s friend Dave. He and his other friend Burt had arranged to fly to Maryland to join Dave’s cousin and his friends on a mystery sleepover at an old abandoned house. Burt had to drop out, so Dave naturally decided to invite the one person he knew who loved mysteries more than anything. Nancy gleefully agreed to go.
After a restless flight to Maryland, the two of them were driving to the abandoned Dunstan Estate. From what Dave told Nancy, she knew that Dave’s Uncle Michael was into real estate and had bought a bunch of old properties in the area, which included the Dunstan Estate. His cousin Toby was the one who arranged the trip, but he hadn’t told Dave what the mystery they were going to investigate entailed.
Nancy stretched her arms and yawned. “How far away are we?”
“Just a couple miles. Technically we’re on the property right now. It’s a big piece of land.” Dave looked over at Nancy and saw she had pulled out her cellphone. “Don’t bother. I tried calling Toby to let him know where we’re at. Our location plus the horrible winds has basically cut us off from the outside world.”
“That’s… comforting.”
“I know right?”
The last few minutes of the drive were silent. When they arrived they got their first look at the old building. The plants were overgrown and some of the wood was rotten, but none of the windows were broken and the roof wasn’t damaged. Overall the house appeared to be in pretty good condition. Another car was already parked in front of the property, so Dave pulled up beside it.
They hopped out of the car into the chilly wind and walked over to the three young adults sitting on the front porch. Dave rushed over to the muscled rosy-faced man and gave him a hug. “Nancy, this is my cousin Toby. Toby, meet the famous Nancy Drew!”
Toby reached out to shake her hand. “Pleased to finally meet you. Dave and his friends love to talk our ears off about your cases.”
Nancy smiled. “Pleased to meet you too. I’m looking forward to tonight.”
Toby showed Nancy and Dave over to the two others. There was a boy and a girl; they looked incredibly similar. They both had dark brown skin and short black hair, though they were definitely not twins. The girl appeared to be shorter and younger than the boy.
“Dave, Nancy, this is Elijah and Mia Taylor.” Toby let everyone say hello before saying more. “Elijah’s my roommate and Mia’s his little sister. They helped me plan this trip and brought all the supplies.”
Elijah chuckled. “Poor Mia was squished under all the sleeping bags for the entire drive.”
Mia wasn’t amused. “We could’ve strapped them to the top of the car.”
Her brother merely shrugged. “No time. Besides, you said you were comfy.”
Dave stepped in and talked to cousin. “Okay Toby. Now that we’re here, why don’t you tell me and Nancy what this mystery is about?”
“All right.” Toby reached into his car and pulled out piece of newspaper. “Have you guys heard of Shea Dunstan?”
Nancy recognized the name. She had read it dozens of times on the front of books in her father’s study. “She was a mystery writer in the 1940s. She used the penname S.R. Dunstan, right?”
“That’s right! This was her home. She lived alone here until she died mysteriously in 1958. Supposedly she died of natural causes, but there’s a rumor that she was actually killed by burglars and the detective assigned to the case was paid off.”
“Ugh.” Mia shuddered. “Sounds like something straight out of one of her books.”
“And you still think there’s evidence in the house?” Dave asked his cousin.
“Definitely. No one’s lived there since her death.” Toby looked out towards the road. “As soon as Natalie and Val get here we can go inside. She has the skeleton key.”
While the group waited for the other two girls to arrive, they all got to know one another. Nancy learned that Toby and his friends all went to the same college and were all part of Elijah’s book club. S.R. Dunstan was a favorite writer of theirs’, so all of them were eager to visit the Dunstan Estate.
Dave’s head perked up and his eyes opened wide when he heard one of the girls coming was an Engineering student, like himself. “Hey, when are they going to get here?”
Elijah looked across the yard and saw a black car. “That’s them now!”
The black car parked beside the other two in the front lawn. A tall woman with light skin, blonde hair, and heels stepped out of the passenger side door and waved to her friends. The driver, a shorter woman with a paler complexion and wild black hair, followed behind her carrying their suitcases.
Toby and Elijah ushered the girls over to the others and helped them carry their things. Toby made the introductions. “Natalie, Val, this is my cousin Dave and his friend Nancy Drew. Nancy, Dave,” He gestured towards the blonde one first. “This is Natalie York, and Valerie Latting.”
Natalie shook both of their hands. “It’s so nice to finally meet you two!”
Val shook hands next, and Dave gave her a friendly smile. “Hey Toby tells me you’re majoring in Engineering?”
She nodded and looked up at the taller man. “I sure am. Are you?”
“Yep! I’m on my second year.”
“Third for me. I’ll warn you now, it doesn’t get any easier.”
Now that everyone had met and were ready to get exploring, Toby approached Natalie. “You have the key?”
Natalie reached into her purse and pulled out what looked to be like a brand new key. “Here it is. Good as new. The teacher was cool and let me use the equipment and stuff after class. It should work just fine. I hope…”
“Thanks!” He looked over at Nancy and Dave. “The guy my dad bought this place from still had the original key, but it was in bad condition. Nat knew how to fix it.” Toby walked over to the front door and slid the key in. He then turned around to look at his friends with a mischievous grin on his face. “Did I forget to tell you guys that this place is supposedly haunted by Shea Dunstan’s ghost?”
Elijah rolled his eyes and moaned. “Just open the door already! The wind is freezing!”
Toby was a tad bit disappointed he didn’t get more of a reaction. He faced back towards the door and turned the key. The lock clicked and the door opened. The seven young adults were quivering with anticipation. Nancy turned towards Dave and saw they were both sharing the same eager grin. Toby stepped inside first, followed by Nancy, Dave, Valerie, Mia, Elijah, and lastly Natalie.
The foyer was rather large and had doorways that led to every other room on the first floor. There was dust everywhere and a few cobwebs were hanging from the chandelier and ceiling. A small staircase led up to the second floor, but it was in obvious disrepair and needed to be supported before anyone dared to walk up it.
Nancy and Dave stuck together as they explored the first floor while everyone went off by themselves. They checked out the den first. The large room was full of old furniture and heavy fabric curtains. Hardly any light entered the room. Just off the den was a library, but Nancy suggested they wait to explore that room as a group.
The next doorway they entered had the kitchen and dining room. Nancy was amused. Lately it seemed like every time she visited an old home the kitchen was inaccessible or nonexistent. This one was quite open and had ornate countertops and cabinetry. There was even a big old pot-bellied stove in the corner covered in rust. The dining room was smaller, had a wide table in the middle with eight chairs surrounding it, and a cupboard on the far wall between two windows.
In the back of the house there was a mudroom and washroom which were in poor condition. Nancy and Dave returned to the foyer to find Natalie shaking the knob of a locked door by the staircase furiously. “Ugh! This stupid door won’t open!”
Nancy tried to open it herself. “You’re right. It’s locked.” She studied the door closer. “From the look of it, it’s locked from the inside. This might lead to the basement.”
“What kind of idiot locks themselves in the basement?” Natalie asked.
Elijah popped up behind her. “I don’t know, maybe a mystery writer?”
She wasn’t frightened by Elijah’s scare attempt. “Touché.”
Val and Toby came back into the foyer and examined the stairs. The engineering student came up with a plan. “Natalie and I brought the tools you wanted Toby. We could probably fix these stairs so we can get up to the second floor. I mean if you want…”
“Yeah totally.” Toby agreed and followed Valerie back out to her car.
Elijah’s eyes skimmed across the room. “I’m gonna go look for Mia. Be right back.”
“Okay.” Natalie walked over to the two newcomers in the group. “Nancy, right? And Dave? Come on. You’re going to help me bring all our stuff in. Valerie’s car’s was filled up with tools and supplies we need for tonight. I hurt my leg last week so I can’t carry much.”
“Sure.” Nancy said.
“Yeah, sure.” Dave echoed.
While Dave got his and Nancy’s bags out of their rental, Nancy and Natalie got all the bags the first three had left out sitting beside their car. “So,” Natalie spoke. “You’re that detective girl right?”
Nancy answered. “Yes I am. How much do you know?”
“Well from what I know, Toby gets the stories from Dave, who gets the stories from your boyfriend, who gets the stories from you. And they’re some good ones. It’s like they’re right of the books we read!”
Nancy had to agree with that. “It does feel like that sometimes. So I guess you know a lot about me? What about you?”
“I usually say there’s not much to tell, but that’s a lie. I’m a busy bee. Though right now I guess I’ll say there’s not much I can tell. School’s crazy, personal life’s crazier, and this past year has been the craziest!” Natalie gasped suddenly. “Oh wait, here’s something I can talk about. I don’t even think I told anyone yet… I sold an art piece to a show the other day!”
“Toby mentioned one of your majors was in Art. What was the piece?”
Natalie’s eyebrows rose with surprise. “Most people ask how much first. But anyway, it’s this big metal and glass sculpture that looks like a human figure on one side but on the opposite side it look like a question mark. I sold it for eight-thousand dollars!”
“That sounds cool. Do you have a picture?”
“Not on my phone. You can look it on my YR Page when we get a signal back.”
“I’ll do that.”
“What are you ladies talking about?” Dave came up from behind them holding more than he could carry safely. “And could someone tell me where the front steps are?”
In less than an hour most of the group had reconvened in the den where the sleeping bags were laid out. Elijah had found Mia and had her help Natalie put batteries in the flashlights. Dave had walked away to help Toby and Val with the staircase. So Nancy sat beside Elijah on the couch and struck up another conversation with him and the two girls.
Elijah had just finished telling the girls a hilarious story about one of his professors; Valerie entered the room with some good news. “The stairs are fixed. Who wants to climb up ‘em first?”
Nancy eagerly volunteered and was led back to the foyer. Toby and Dave were covered in dirt and dust. “Hey Nancy.” Dave said while wiping his brow. “Ready to do some mystery-solving?”
“I’ve been ready.” Nancy took a look at the repaired staircase. It was much sturdier and stronger than it was before, though they were incredibly steep. Support beams were place underneath and the old steps had boards nailed over them. “Why did the stairs break in the first place?”
Toby had an answer. “I think an animal did it. When Elijah, Mia, and I first got here we saw a bunch of rabbits near the house. One probably got in the house and thought exploring was a good idea.”
Dave made a goofy face at his cousin. “Is it not?”
“For tiny fluffy bunny rabbits… no.” Toby responded. “But we’ll be fine. Speaking of which… Nancy, want to test the stairs out?”
“Gladly.” Nancy set her foot gently onto the first step and rose up, using her whole body weight. She grabbed onto the reinforced railing and took the next step. And the next. They were very creaky, but stable. As she approached the top she heard a celebrating cheer from Val and Toby.
Nancy disappeared from the others’ view and Dave called out. “Nancy? You okay?”
The girl detective was fine, but the first thing she saw when reaching the top confused her. It was a painting hanging on the wall, covered with dust. There was what looked like a handprint in the center. She backed away from it and looked back down the stairs. “Someone’s been up here!”
After hearing Nancy call out her discovery, the other three students came into the foyer and all six of them came up the stairs to look. Natalie laughed nervously and Val gasped, but everyone else just had shocked faces.
Toby was the one who broke the silence. “Maybe it’s the ghost?”
Elijah shook his head. “That’s ridiculous.”
Nancy withdrew what she said earlier. “I may be wrong. I mean, I don’t think any of us could for sure call that a handprint.” Even though she said that, Nancy still suspected that something was going on. She did find the idea that no one had been in the house since Shea Dunstan’s death a bit absurd. Surely some crook or some kid broke in at some point over the past 60 years. The real question was how recent was the last visitor.
Everyone had calmed down and was now focused on exploring the second floor. Just like the rest of the house, the rooms were in remarkably well condition. Nancy walked into what appeared to be the master bedroom and admired all the marvelously-crafted furniture and fireplace. She picked up a framed picture of two women from the nightstand and wiped off the dust. She recognized one of the women as Shea Dunstan.
Skipping over the closet and master bath, Nancy headed to the next room. It was the guest bedroom. The furniture and fireplace here were significantly less ornate but still nice to look at none-the-less. She did find the room kind of bare. There was a lot of wasted space.
In the next room she found dozens of taxidermies and trophies placed upon shelves and podiums. Nancy recalled reading that Shea loved hunting and was better than all of her brothers. Her mother didn’t approve, but her father was proud of her. He helped her enter competitions and even taught her how to preserve her own animals. It was the inspiration for one of Shea’s best-selling mysteries.
The only other room on the floor was an office. Nancy saw Valerie sitting at the desk, staring at an old typewriter and inkwell. She saw Nancy had walked in and snapped out of her trance. “Sorry, I just… This is where Shea Dunstan wrote “Sharper than a Rose’s Thorn” and… and “The Bronze Man!” I’m a little stunned right now.”
“I know how you feel.” Nancy walked over to the desk to get a look at it herself. “I couldn’t get enough of Shea’s stories when I was a kid. My mom was the one who introduced them to me.”
“Me too! My mom was born in China and fell in love with American Literature. She owns every single one of Shea’s books.” Val chuckled, as if she was remembering a pleasant memory. “She used to tease my father that books were her first love.”
Nancy recalled a similar moment from her childhood. “My mom said almost the exact same thing. But my dad responded by asking her when was the last time she actually started and finished a book. I won’t forget the look she gave him; I laughed so hard.”
“Maybe our moms should meet.”
There was a sharp pain in Nancy’s chest. Val didn’t know, she didn’t mean anything hurtful. Yet Nancy felt anger towards her. She took a deep breath and was about to respond with a sentence she had rehearsed and used so many times before. But before she got the chance, Val had looked out the large window and took note of the time.
“Ugh, it’s already dark out. We need to grab our flashlights.”
Nancy took a look outside and saw that the sun had now fully set. “Right. Our supplies are down in the den.”
Everyone walked back into the upstairs hall about the same time and headed back to the den as a group. A simultaneous yawn from Nancy, Dave, and Elijah pretty much decided what the next plan of action was going to be.
Toby clapped his hands to get the attention of the group. “And with that, I think we should all eat something and then get some shuteye. In the morning we can work on looking for signs of a break-in and get that basement door open.”
Mia cut in. “Ooh! Maybe we’ll see the ghost!”
Her brother lightly punched her in the arm. “Can you not?”
Mia just shrugged and unrolled her sleeping bag. Before long, everyone had done and the same and went outside to brush their teeth at the water pump. By that point the sun had vanished and it was completely dark out. The only light came from the blue glow of the electric lanterns placed on the end tables and fireplace mantle in the den.
There was a chirp from someone’s cellphone. “Ugh, stupid phone.” Natalie huffed from underneath her blanket. “I’ve set an alarm for eight. Does anyone here snore?”
“Mia says I do.” Elijah grumbled, already half-asleep.
Natalie pulled the blanket off of her and grabbed a plastic bag out of her suitcase. “Earplugs if anyone wants them.”
Nancy, Valerie, and the Evans cousins accepted the offering and put them in. Mia refused, saying “After hearing that doofus snore my whole life, I’ve become a sound sleeper.”
“Well okay then. I’ll leave the bag on the coffee table if you want them.” Natalie did just that and then put her own earplugs in. “Night everyone!”
A few responded with a mumbled “G’night”. After that, it was nearly complete silence before everyone drifted off to sleep. Nancy, usually a light sleeper, was quite comfortable in her sleeping bag and fell asleep quickly. There was a bizarre dream, but that wasn’t anything new. She always had wilder dreams when she wasn’t in her own bed.
In her dream she felt like she was in the middle of an earthquake. Her whole body shook. And there was shouting, but she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Then a figure slowly formed in front of her. Nancy pointed at it and made soft whispering noises. The figure came closer and Nancy got a good look at it. It was Shea Dunstan!
One hard shake pulled Nancy out of the dream and woke her up. There was now a lot more noise and even more shouting. Dave was the one waking Nancy up. “Nancy! Wake up!”
“Mia, calm down. You’re not making any sense!”
“Start from the beginning.”
“What’s going on?”
Nancy sat up and saw Mia surrounded by all the other students, except for one. Mia was on the verge of tears. Nancy looked at Dave quizzically, eyebrow raised. “Where’s Natalie?”
Dave just shrugged. “We don’t know. Mia says she’s missing!”
A NIGHT AT DUNSTAN ESTATE – PART II / MISSING & HAUNTING
The other three students were trying to get some answers out of Mia, and in their tired state, they were inadvertently being aggressive. Nancy pulled them back and kneeled down in front of Mia, who was sitting on the floor hiding in her large coat. Her face looked drained and her eyes were red.
“Mia, do you know where Natalie is?” Nancy asked.
The girl shook her head no. “I woke up and saw that Natalie was gone. I thought she had just gone outside and would be right back so I tried to go back to sleep. But – but that was like almost an hour ago. And she still hasn’t come back! She’s missing!”
Elijah stayed to calm his sister down, while the other four grabbed flashlights and went to go find Natalie. The boys looked around outside, while Nancy and Val did a quick search of the estate. When they regrouped in the entryway, none of them had a clue where Natalie was.
Before they went to bed, everyone had agreed not to go beyond the fence surrounding the estate and to always take a lantern with them. But all of the lanterns and flashlights were still accounted for. And all three cars were still parked in front of the building.
A sniffling Mia came in the room, followed by her brother. “Did you find her?” She whispered hopefully. No one answered, which was the opposite of what she wanted. “Oh no…”
Elijah put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Mia. We’ll find her.” His voice was soft, but his face was filled with just as much worry as his sister’s. He led Mia closer to the rest of the group. “We looked through Nat’s bag. Nothing but clothes and art supplies. We couldn’t find her phone.”
“Quick, someone call it!” Valerie hollered.
Nancy was surprised no one had thought of that sooner. Toby pulled out his cell and gave his friend’s phone a call. A couple seconds later everyone heard a faint ringing. Nancy let her feet carry her to where the sound was coming from. She only took a few steps when she was face to face with the basement door.
“That’s strange. It’s coming from the basement.” Nancy put her ear against the door and leaned forward. When she put her hands on the door to support herself it flew open, causing her to lose her balance. Valerie and Dave grabbed her waist and pulled her back, causing all three of them to topple onto the floor.
Dave leapt back up and helped the girls get back to their feet. “Nancy, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She brushed the dust off of her jacket and looked back at the door. “That was still locked when we went to sleep.” Nancy walked back up to the doorway and carefully stepped onto the stairs. She looked back at the group. “Toby, call Natalie’s cell again. Someone grab a few lanterns. Then everyone, follow me… carefully!”
Once Nancy had turned on her flashlight, she continued down the steep steps. These stairs made very little creaks. At the bottom there was a large room connected to multiple hallways. Old empty wooden shelving units were standing up against the cold stone walls, but otherwise there was almost nothing else in the basement to see.
Some of the students went down the halls to look for Natalie. “Toby, look out!” Mia shouted from the bottom of the stairs.
Toby didn’t hear the warning and ran head first into a broken water pipe hanging from the ceiling. There was a loud clang and a louder groan from Toby. “Ow, that hurt!” He moved his hand from his forehead and revealed a nasty bump that was already bruising.
Elijah cringed. “Oh man, let’s go get an icepack on that.”
Dave watched as Elijah and Mia help Toby back upstairs. “I guess we’ll keep looking.”
Valerie came back down one of the hallways looking confused. “The amount of dead ends down here is incredible. What was that shout about?”
“Toby hit his head on a pipe and it left a nasty bump.” Nancy answered. When she finished, she noticed the quiet. The ringing had stopped. “Val, go get Toby’s phone and call Natalie’s again.”
“Sure thing, detective.”
Once Valerie left, Dave headed down another hall while Nancy decided to wait for the ringing to start again. It took a while, but Nancy finally heard the familiar chimes. They were really close. She traced the sound to a shelf in the corner of the big room. She found Natalie’s phone! But when she turned on the screen to answer the call, she was met with a message that the phone was nearly dead. It then promptly shut down on her.
“That’s just great.” Something about this disappearance didn’t add up. Nancy was hoping for some clues from the phone. Nancy mumbled to herself, “There has to be a way I can charge this.”
Her thoughts were interrupted by another scream. It was loud and came from down one of the halls. Nancy recognized the scream. It was from Dave! He was calling her name. She put the phone in her pocket and ran down the hall Dave had entered. She found him backed up against the wall and shaking with fright.
“Dave! What happened?”
He had to take a moment to catch his breath. “I – I was just looking around and… my flashlight started flickering. And I saw something.” Dave rubbed his back and sighed. “Well I saw what looked like the ghost of Shea Dunstan.”
“A ghost? Really?”
“I’m not sure. It was someone in an old white dress. And I thought I saw her face. It looked exactly like Shea.”
Nancy had busted her fair share of “ghosts”, and usually fake hauntings are used to distract someone. Was Natalie pretending to be a ghost to scare her friends? Or was there more to this than Nancy originally thought?
Dave pointed into the darkness. “I think the ghost ran down that way.” The two friends went further down the basement hall and were met with a dead end. “Now that doesn’t make any sense. I know I saw something.”
“Did the ghost you see look like Natalie?”
“No. Definitely not. Natalie’s tall, even without her heels. The… person I saw was short.”
That didn’t help Nancy much. Both Mia and Valerie were short. She couldn’t tell which one was pretending to be this ghost, assuming the ghost was actually a person in a costume and not some other trick.
Nancy headed back the way they came. “Come on, let’s go see if everyone’s upstairs. And let’s not tell them about the ghost… yet.”
Dave followed his friend back up the basement steps and into the den. To both of their surprise, all four of the students were there. Toby was lying on the couch with Mia preparing an icepack from his head. Elijah and Valerie were standing by the fireplace talking. And Natalie was still nowhere to be found.
“I found Natalie’s phone.” Nancy announced. “But it died shortly afterwards.”
Toby slowly sat up. “Aw man. That stinks. Do we have any other clues?”
“At the moment, no we don’t.”
Valerie sighed and shrugged. “Well then I guess we better go look for more.” Without waiting to discuss any plan, Val headed off to search the property again. Elijah left to search without talking too.
Mia helped Toby stand up. “You sure you’re okay?”
Toby nodded and then grimaced. “Ahh, yes I am. As long as I don’t shake my head like that. Come on, let’s go find Natalie.”
Nancy and Dave watched Toby and Mia walk away. Dave let out a laugh. “This has to be the most disorganized search party ever. Do you want to check the second floor again?”
“That sounds like a good idea.”
They marched back up the creaky staircase and were met with another surprise. The disturbed painting with the ghostly handprint was now gone altogether. Nancy couldn’t recall if it was still there the first time they searched the estate for Natalie or not.
The two of them split up and went into different rooms. Nancy looked over the master bedroom again, this time taking it slow and examining everything. She found nothing out of place or tampered with. Just to be thorough she checked under the king-sized bed, but no one was hiding there.
In the guest bedroom however, Nancy found something she hadn’t noticed during the first search. There were faints drag marks on the ground, the width of the missing painting. But they stopped in the middle of the room near the bed. Nancy knelt down to check under it and found not the painting, but a rolled-up piece of paper.
She stood back up and laid the paper on the bed. From the light of her flashlight she could tell that what she had found were blueprints of the property. It was hand drawn on very fresh paper and showed the layout of the first floor, second floor, and the basement. Nancy also found Natalie’s signature on the back with some notes.
Excited with her find, Nancy went looking for Dave and found him in the trophy room. She showed him the blueprints and had him hold both flashlights overhead so she could read all that was written down. The notes read “…so much wasted space. Unless that space isn’t wasted…”, “No sign of a break-in. That’s interesting I guess…”, and “Found one at N! Another at Y and K!”
“Those don’t make any sense.” Dave commented.
Nancy was a little disappointed the blueprints didn’t yield more clues. “One thing’s for certain, Natalie’s done a lot of research on this place and has probably been out here at least once before. There’s something she didn’t tell us.”
“Could this whole disappearance thing be an act?”
“Maybe, but if she’s really missing or hurt, we can’t assume that.”
“Good point.” Dave let out a yawn when he tried to speak. “I – aaaauuuhh – I haven’t found anything else. Where do we go from here?”
Frustrated, Nancy pulled out Natalie’s cellphone and sighed. “I found this in the basement and the blueprints upstairs. Natalie was all over the place before she disappeared.”
Dave grabbed the phone from Nancy’s hands. “Hey wait! I have the same phone. And my battery’s still at half-charge! We can swap the batteries!”
“Dave, that’s genius!” Nancy watched eagerly as the batteries were swapped and Natalie’s phone returned to life. “Let’s see what’s on here.”
Ignoring all the random games and various YR Page apps, Nancy went straight to the text history. Her most recent texts were to the four other students, Elijah Taylor, Valerie Latting, Toby Evans, and Mia Taylor.
Elijah’s texts were very affectionate. They both kept using pet names for each other like “El” and “Nattie”. And their most recent texts were from just before they went to sleep, saying “Kisses” to each other. “They’re a couple?” Dave assumed.
“Looks that way.” Nancy went over to Valerie’s texts next. The two hardly talked and messages were few and far between. When they did speak it was about confirming plans made by others weeks ago. The only thing of interest was when Natalie offered to pick Val up from a doctor’s visit. “Nothing here.”
Natalie seemed to text Toby a lot. They talked about everything from books to boys to school to music. There was nothing helpful for the investigation in their conversations. Dave chuckled. “That’s Toby all right. He’s a texting maniac. Loves blowing up my phone.”
Lastly Nancy pulled up Natalie’s conversations with Mia. These were all very cryptic. They talked about “the thing they discussed earlier”, “those plans”, “equipment pick-up”, and “call me”. This rang alarm bells in Nancy’s head.
Nancy put the phone back in her pocket and stuffed the blueprints into the knapsack. “I think I’ve figured out part of this mystery. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions, and we still don’t know where Natalie is.”
“Hey wait, Nancy. Do you think any of the others had something to do with Natalie’s disappearance? Like, they kidnapped her or something?”
“Well it’s like I said before. If she really is in danger, we can’t afford to make assumptions.” Nancy was preparing to head back out when both of their flashlights flickered at the same time and then died. “That’s not good.”
“Now how did that happen?” Dave wondered.
Nancy didn’t have an answer. “Let’s go get fresh batteries and keep searching.”
Dave followed Nancy into the dark upstairs hall. The only light came from the soft glow of the lanterns downstairs, until a bright flash sparked from behind them. The two friends turned around in shock and gasped when they saw a ghostly figure walk through a cloud of dust. The figure was wearing an old white dress covered in blood smears and a gray mask.
“It’s that ghost I saw!” Dave cried out. “The one that looks like Shea Dunstan!”
Nancy took a step towards the ghost. “I know who you are, ghost. Now where is Natalie?”
A NIGHT AT DUNSTAN ESTATE – PART III / MYSTERY & DISCOVERY
When the ghost didn’t move, Nancy walked closer to it and reached towards the mask. “The charade is over Mia. I know you’re pretending the ghost. I also know you had Natalie’s help.” The ghost tried to run away but Nancy grabbed the dress and made her trip and fall onto the floor.
The mask fell off the face and revealed the culprit. Nancy was right; it was Mia!
“Mia!” Dave gasped. “What the hell…? What are doing?”
Mia grunted as she got back up to her feet. She tried to look behind the other two and sighed when she saw no one there. “Wow. I can’t believe it.”
“Believe what?” Nancy asked. “What’s going on, Mia?”
“You can stop freaking out Nancy. There’s no ghost, there’s no disappearance.” Mia shoved past her two apprehenders and called out into empty space. “Nice going Nat! You missed your mark. Now everything’s ruined. Come on out!” There was no answer. “Nat? Natalie!”
Nancy put her hand on Mia’s shoulder and turned her around. “Natalie’s not here. Why don’t you tell us everything? You and Natalie were planning something…?”
Genuine fear crept up Mia’s face as she suddenly realized her friend might not be safe after all. “Well – Nat came to me after Toby arranged the trip and had this crazy prank idea. Toby had given her the old key to get fixed and she did; it was ready a lot sooner than she had said.”
“Anyway, she and I came out here last week with paper and tools and stuff. We walked around and Nat made blueprints of the place. She was certain there were secret passages somewhere and we actually found some. That’s how we orchestrated the whole ghost thing.” Mia looked at her costume and shrugged, feeling a lot less clever than she had felt before.
“How did you guys get upstairs?” Dave asked from behind Nancy.
“The stairs weren’t broken when we got here. Just before we left, Natalie put too much weight on one step and the whole thing collapsed. That’s how she hurt her leg.”
Nancy had another question. “What was Natalie supposed to do for the prank?”
“I don’t know. She told me where I needed to be and what I needed to do. Right now she was supposed to be on the other side of the hall dressed up as the ghost to give me time to “disappear”.” Mia took the nightgown draping over her clothes off and bundled it into a ball. “I haven’t seen her since we went to sleep. What if she’s really missing?”
“Tell me where the passages are.” Nancy insisted.
“I only know about two. There’s one from the library to the basement. Nat found the key to the basement door down there. That’s also what I used to scare you earlier Dave.” Mia grimaced at Dave’s upset face. “There’s also one near the mudroom that leads up here, in the hallway. I don’t know about any others, but I know Natalie found some.”
Nancy turned to Dave. “If there are more passages in this house, then there are places we haven’t looked for Natalie. Our next step is to find them. And these blueprints should help!”
“Then let’s get everyone updated and start another search!”
Mia apologized and offered to help. Nancy accepted the apology and had her and Dave go outside to look for the others. Back downstairs, Nancy found Elijah in the dining room looking out the window, his face filled with worry.
“Any sign of her, Elijah?” She asked.
He slowly shook his head. “Natalie likes to joke around, but she wouldn’t just vanish like this. Not to me.”
“Because you’re her boyfriend?”
Elijah’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “What? How did you know that?”
“I’m a detective, I figure things out.” Nancy said, feeling a bit guilty for reading Natalie’s texts. “And I take it you don’t want anyone else to know?”
“Well no, not yet. We were waiting for the right time to tell everyone.”
“Did you know about the prank she and your sister were pulling?”
He made another surprised face. “Mia? It’s a prank?”
“Mia was dressing up as a ghost. She said that she and Natalie had set the prank up together. But Mia doesn’t know where Natalie is. There’s a chance something went wrong. We need to get everyone together and look for hidden rooms in the house.”
Elijah frowned. “Excuse me; I need to go talk to my sister.”
He walked past Nancy and right out the front door, almost knocking down Dave in the process. He ignored him and went to report to Nancy.
“Mia and I found Toby and sent him back here. Mia’s still out looking for Val. Hey…” Dave scanned the room. “Where is Toby?”
Nancy and Dave stepped into the den and saw the light of flashlight coming from the adjacent library. Inside they found Toby looking over all the books and putting them in stacks in a corner. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw them. “Gaaah! Knock first next time, please! You almost gave me a heart attack!”
Dave looked at his cousin with confusion. “Toby? What are you doing?”
“Well since I’m wide awake and have nothing to do but wait, I thought I’d look through Shea Dunstan’s book collection. I found a bunch of cool history books with reference notes! This could be where Shea researched for her stories!”
Nancy was also very confused. “But Toby, we’re supposed to be looking for Natalie.”
Toby laughed. “Natalie and I have been friends for years. I should’ve known it was all some big prank! Now that we know I can get back to doing what we came here to do.” He picked up another book and began flipping through the pages. “Hey, now that I’ve got you guys alone, do you want to know something cool?”
“I guess.” Dave huffed.
“We’re not actually here to solve Shea Dunstan’s murder. She was killed by a thief and no detective was paid off. There’s no mystery there.”
Nancy crossed her arms. She didn’t like being lied too. “Then why are we all here?”
“This isn’t common knowledge, but Shea Dunstan was working on another book before she was killed. I’m almost certain that the unfinished book is somewhere in this house. Could you imagine the look on everyone’s faces when I find it? We’ll be the first people to ever read that book! And I’ll be rich!”
“That is interesting, Toby.” Nancy said softly. “But none of us are convinced Natalie’s safe. We’re going to look for more passageways. We could use your help.”
Toby sighed and put the book down. “Alright, I’ll help. But Natalie’s okay, I’m sure of it.”
“Hopefully you’re right.” Dave muttered under his breath as the three of them returned to the entryway.
When they got there they saw Valerie standing between a very angry brother and sister. She was in the middle of a serious scolding. “It’s obvious both of you are upset, but bickering won’t help us find Natalie. I don’t care how either of you feel or think about Natalie right now. We can sort this all out once we know she’s safe and sound.”
“Since when are you so defensive of Natalie?” Mia scoffed.
Valerie took a deep breath in order to keep her calm. “She’s been driving me to the hospital to visit my mom when I was in no condition to drive. Natalie’s a good person, even if she a little mischievous at times.”
Everyone was agitated and annoyed, and so Nancy decided to take charge before anyone else started arguing. “There’s a good chance Natalie’s either hiding or trapped in a secret passageway or room somewhere in the house. We need to split up and take another look at the walls, floors, and fireplaces.”
Dave followed Nancy’s lead. “Those who still have working flashlights can start with the basement.”
There was an awkward chuckle from Mia. “Um… the flashlights were me and Nat’s doing. We put in drained batteries.” She tried to dodge the angry stares from her friends. “But it’s okay! There’s a package of fresh batteries in my bag.”
The flashlights were reequipped and Nancy organized the search. Mia and Valerie were to recheck the first and second floor. Elijah and Toby’s job was to check the outside of the house, while Nancy and Dave teamed up again to search the basement.
Now that Nancy had found Natalie’s blueprints, navigating the basement became much easier. As she and Dave ran their hands across the walls and shelves looking for a hidden door, Dave brought up a good question. “What’s the point of this maze of a basement anyway?”
“I’m not sure.” Nancy gave it some thought. “Maybe it had something to do with her love of mysteries? Or maybe it was some kind of home security system?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“If someone came after her, she could run into the basement and use the maze and passageways to outsmart her attacker.” Nancy shrugged. “I don’t know… it’s just an idea.”
“Would Shea Dunstan really be that afraid for her life?”
“Well she was a very rich woman who wrote murder mysteries and she did end up dying in her own estate. I don’t think any precautions she made were unwarranted, even if they didn’t help her in the end.” The detective took another look at the blueprints and saw a little mark by the dead end they were approaching. “We’re near the passage that leads from here to the library.”
“Yeah, the one Mia used to scare me senseless.”
Nancy reexamined the walls and found a different colored stone. She gave it a push and heard something unlock. Now she could slide the entire wall to the side. It revealed a tall spiral staircase that lead to a smooth wooden wall. She carefully climbed up each step and pressed against the wall. It slid aside and showed her the library.
Dave looked at the walls around the bottom of the staircase. “What are doing?” Nancy asked from above.
Her friend shrugged. “Looking for a passageway in a passageway. Stupid idea, I know…”
Nancy gave him a reassuring smile. “No, that’s actually good thinking. It might be a good idea to check the one that leads to the second floor.” As she cautiously walked back down, Nancy had another idea. “We also know that Natalie found a passage that led her to the opposite side of the upstairs hall. We should try to find it.”
She and Dave returned to the first floor and went to the rotten mudroom. After studying it closely, Nancy found a crack in the wall by the mudroom door. She couldn’t find the trigger to open it, but was able to pull it open with the help of Dave. There were even more tall stairs.
“Who designed the stairs in this house?” Dave wondered aloud. “Shea must’ve been very tall or very athletic.”
“Probably athletic.” Nancy answered. “In that picture of her in the bedroom, she was fairly short. That’s likely the reason Natalie had Mia dress up as the ghost.”
When they reached the second floor, they saw that this passage lead them right to the far end of the hall. The entrance was hidden by a cabinet. Dave slid the cabinet back into place while Nancy walked ahead.
“Hello?” She called out, finding it unusual that she didn’t see Mia or Valerie looking around inside like they were told. “Anyone there?”
There was no answer.
Dave caught up with her and saw Nancy shaking her head. “Are you okay Nancy?”
She shrugged. “I have a bad feeling.”
Her eyes wandered around the hall and stopped at the office door. It was firmly shut, while all of the other doors were left open during the search. She reached out to open it and stepped into the room.
The office was completely trashed! Books were dumped off the shelf, papers were scattered across the floor, paintings were on the ground, and drawers and cabinets were wide open. Disturbed dust filled the air making it difficult to breathe. Nancy had to shield her face with her sleeve before she could step further.
Dave looked over Nancy’s shoulder and gasped. “Who did this?”
Nancy couldn’t give an answer. She immediately started searching the room for clues. Nothing seemed to be missing, though the room was in such disarray it was hard to tell. Despite the mess, Nancy recognized patterns. Someone was looking through this room in a rush, but thoroughly.
“Was it just someone looking for Natalie?” Dave guessed. “Or is there something we’re missing…?”
All of the desk drawers were open and empty. Nancy wondered if they were ever filled. She looked up at all of the drawers under the bookshelves. Only one of them was still closed. In fact, it was the only drawer in the room that wasn’t open. Nancy pulled the handle and slid the drawer out. It too was empty.
Dave was getting impatient. “Let’s go look for Val or Mia. One of them probably…”
“Wait! I think I found something!” Nancy reached in the drawer and stuck her hand up into space about it. She got a grip of something metal. She pulled down on it and heard a sharp click, like the one she had heard in the basement. Part of the bookshelf slid out to reveal a secret room!
“Whoa!” Dave shouted. “Nice going Nancy!”
The entrance to the room was small and the room itself was no bigger than a refrigerator. Nancy had to take of her bulky jacket just to slip inside and got dust all over her shirt. In the room was just a chair and roll top desk with an inkwell and oil lamp on top of it. In the middle of the desk there was more disturbed dust, an outline of a small rectangle the size of a book.
“Dave, I think…” Nancy began to speak. Her voice was drowned out by a loud blaring noise from outside. It was a roaring siren, like a car alarm. Nancy and Dave raced back downstairs and outside as quickly as they could. They were the last to arrive; everyone else was already standing around the cars.
Valerie was in the driver’s seat of her car and turned off the alarm. She stormed out angrily. “Who touched my car?” No one said anything, which only made Valerie even more upset. “It’s pointless anyway! We’re no closer to finding Natalie and our phones still can’t reach the nearest town. I’m going to go get help!”
Elijah’s jaw dropped. “You’re leaving? Natalie needs our help!”
“And that’s why I’m going to get some more.” Valerie walked back to her car door, but Elijah stepped in front of her. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Mia stood beside her brother. “Both of you can just calm down. Natalie’s probably hiding behind some wall laughing at us. She’s fine and we’re all just worrying about nothing!”
Elijah refused to back down. “You don’t know that, Mia. None of you do!”
Now Toby decided to step in. “I agree with Mia. I’ve known Nat longer than you have Elijah, and I know she loves causing trouble. We should all just take a deep breath and get back inside.”
Valerie took advantage of Toby’s distraction and pushed Elijah out the way and got back behind the wheel of her car. Elijah and Mia got behind the car so Valerie couldn’t back away. She honked at them furiously. Toby went over to the passenger side and tried to plead with Valerie to wait. It was a chaotic mess and Nancy had no choice but to settle it.
She had Dave try to quiet his cousin while she went around the side to go and get Valerie to stop for a moment and talk things through. Valerie let off the horn but refused to get out of the car. “I can get help and everything will be okay!”
“And you can. But first, I need everyone to come together and talk. I found something that might help us figure this whole thing out.” Nancy’s persuasion didn’t seem to change Valerie’s mind. She was about to let Valerie go until she noticed something on her gloves. “Is that dust?”
Valerie looked at her hands. “Yeah, I guess. The walls are covered in it. I’ll be washing it out of my hair for days.”
The gears in Nancy’s mind were turning. “Valerie, step out of the car. I need to ask everyone a couple questions that might help me find Natalie. And then, I promise you can go get help.”
It took a few moments, but Valerie did what Nancy asked and got back together with the group. Valerie, Mia, Elijah, and Toby were all standing together in a line, bundled up in their jackets and shivering from the cold. Dave stood beside Nancy, ready to watch her do some interrogating.
“Can everyone please take off their jackets?”
The whole group looked shock. “Are you kidding?” Elijah huffed. “It’s freezing out here!”
Dave backed Nancy up. “You heard the detective. Take off the jackets!”
Hesitantly, everyone unzipped or unbuttoned their jacket and slid it off. Nancy walked up to Toby first and took a look at his shirt. “Your shirt doesn’t have any dust on it, Toby.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He pointed at the jacket in his hand. “Though my jacket and jeans are covered in it from all those books in the library.”
Next Nancy took a look at Elijah’s shirt. “Yours doesn’t have any dust either.”
“No. It’s cold; I’ve been trying to keep warm all night.” Elijah raised an eyebrow. “What kind of detective work is this?”
Nancy didn’t answer his question, but instead walked up to Mia. “You have a little dust on your shirt, Mia.”
“Yeah I do. I had to take my jacket off a bunch to get in and out of my costume.”
Lastly, Nancy went to Valerie. She appeared to be very nervous, as her shirt was completely covered with dust. “Valerie, your shirt is a mess!”
“So?” She defensively asked.
“So do you mind if I check your car?”
“My car?” Valerie gasped. “Y-yes I do mind. What does any of this have to do with Natalie?”
Nancy went around to the passenger side of Valerie’s car and opened the door. Her eyes went straight to the glove box. She could hear Valerie protest and try to stop Nancy from the other side, but the other students kept Valerie where she was, trusting in the girl detective.
When the glove box opened, a stack of papers fell out. It was a pile of bills, notes, and receipts. Nancy reached into the back of the box and pulled out a book. It was old and covered with dust. It had the name “S. R. Dunstan” written on the front cover. Nancy took it out of the car and raised it up for everyone to see.
“Put that back!” Valerie shouted. “That’s not yours!”
“I don’t think it’s yours either. Actually, it belongs to Toby, since his dad’s the one who bought this place.” She handed the book to Toby and let him figure out what is was. “Valerie found this in a secret room in the office upstairs.”
Toby let out a victory cheer. “Is this…? It is! It’s Shea Dunstan’s last mystery!” He looked at his friend with confusion. “When were you going to tell us you found it, Val?”
Val didn’t answer, so Nancy had to explain. “I don’t think she planned too.”
Toby couldn’t believe it. “Val, our friend is missing and you go and steal from me?”
This time she spoke up. And she was angry. “That book is more important to me than it is to any of you. It was all I was thinking about when we got here. And as soon as Natalie disappeared, my focus was on finding her! But when we learned it was all a prank, I went back to searching for it.”
Mia didn’t understand. “Why is it so important to you?”
“I’m the only one here who takes Dunstan’s work seriously. This whole trip has been nothing but a fake murder mystery and lousy pranks. If Toby has it, he’ll just sell it. I’d appreciate it!” Val crossed her arms and sat on the bumper of her car.
Elijah didn’t really care about the book. “I’m still not convinced Natalie isn’t hurt. Did you do anything to her?”
“No!” Valerie shouted. “I didn’t do anything to anyone.”
The moon had set and the stars were disappearing from the sky. The wind kept blowing making the old wood of the estate creak. Nancy was concerned. They still hadn’t found Natalie and it was almost dawn. Either Natalie was alright and was about to reveal herself, or she was hurt and now in desperate need of help.
What were the clues she had found? She knew Natalie had found passages all over the estate. The only passage they knew existed but hadn’t found led upstairs. Natalie must have been marching up and down a lot of steep steps… in high heels and with an injured leg!
She couldn’t call for help because she left the phone in the basement. And… her blueprints in the guest bedroom? While everyone was asleep, Natalie had gotten up and started preparing everything for the prank. That included leaving the basement door open and moving the painting with the handprint.
The painting! Nancy had found tracks in the guest bedroom from where it was dragged, but it stop in the middle of the room. Natalie must have moved it and picked it up when she reached… another passageway perhaps? It must have been difficult for Natalie to walk on the stairs in the first place. If she tried going down them while carrying a heavy painting…
“Everyone!” Nancy called. “I figured it out! I know where Natalie is! She needs our help!” The entire group, Valerie included, followed Nancy up to the second floor guest bedroom. “Look for a passageway. Look through all the furniture and the walls…”
It was Dave who found the trigger, a switch hidden under some moulding. It sounded a click from the floor below. Nancy and Dave lifted a panel in the floor with revealed a hidden staircase. Down at the bottom, Nancy was able to see a person. It was Natalie!
Dave and Elijah climbed down and brought her unconscious body up carefully. Natalie had some bumps and bruises, but nothing appeared to be critically wrong. They laid her down on the bed. Nancy was the one who was able to revive her. She jolted up and took a deep breath.
“Natalie!” Elijah cried out happily. “Are you okay?”
She held her head and grimaced. “Err, not really. My head is killing me! Oh I’m so stupid…”
All of Natalie’s other friends looked both relieved and guilty. They all felt bad for thinking she was okay and were willing to call off the search. Nancy was just glad that she hadn’t given up and instead focused on doing what was right.
In an hour the winds had died down enough that Mia was finally able to get a call in to the nearby town and had an ambulance and police car sent this way. Toby teased Natalie about the bump on her head and so she pointed out that he had one too. He remembered the collision with the pipe and decided that he should get his head looked at as well.
Valerie was allowed to leave, but without the book. Toby promised her she would get a chance to read it, and that he wouldn’t sell it to some collector, but to a museum. She thanked him and tried to apologize, but she had upset everyone and it would take time before she would be invited to spend time with them again.
Elijah had forgiven Natalie for pulling the prank, since she had already gotten punished for it. Mia asked her brother is he’d forgive her. He smiled affectionately and joked that he’d get back at her on her upcoming birthday. That wasn’t what Mia wanted to hear, but she reluctantly accepted her fate.
Toby and Natalie couldn’t thank Nancy enough for all of her help. Nancy appreciated the thanks and made sure that she didn’t take all of the credit. “Dave was a big help too. He’s becoming quite the detective.”
Dave laughed. “Thanks, but I’ll stick to studying and a fast food job.”
Natalie looked at the book Toby had been holding. “So that’s what you were looking for? There wasn’t actually some big murder cover-up?”
“Yep.” Toby flagged everyone down. “Who wants to take a look at the book while we wait?”
Everyone huddled around excitedly before Toby opened the book. On the first page, a message was quickly written. It read “My sweet Claire, I am hopeful you made it through the passages with ease and weren’t caught. If I am caught, please continue living a full life. It’s all I ask of you. I hear the detective outside this hidden room. He’s not going to stop until he find’s me… I’m scared. Shea R. Dunstan”
The message took everyone by surprise, Nancy especially. “The detective wasn’t paid to cover up the murder caused by a thief. He was the murderer himself!”
Dave shook his head with wonder as the sun completely rose and the sound of ambulance sirens approached. “What an incredible way to end a very bizarre night at Dunstan Estate!”
— Story by Andrew (differencedetective)
— Beta by Cami (iwantakokokringle)
— Art by Jean (sucrosecookie/alec-fell)
Author’s Note: It was a blast to write this story and I have to thank everyone involved. Jean’s artwork surpassed my expectations and definitely brought the characters to life. Cami’s help and guidance was incredible and I could never thank her enough. And I must thank Kai for setting this whole thing up and keeping me motivated. I hope you all enjoyed this story and are eager for more!
