Technical Attack

By the time the girls reached the parking lot where Bess and George had left their car, they asked Nancy about her plans for the rest of the day.

“As a matter of fact, ” she said, “I haven’t any—”

“I don’t believe it, ” Bess said.

“Other than visiting Tommy, calling Angela Pruett, hunting for Phyllis, and—”

“St-o-p! ” George teased, putting her hands over her ears. “Don’t you ever take a break? ”

“Oh, sure.” Nancy laughed. “I was just going to ask if you’d like to see Oklahoma tonight? The Jansen Theater Troupe is putting it on.”

“I’d love to, ” Bess said happily, “and maybe Dave would.”

“How about the six of us going together? ” George put in.

Nancy nodded in agreement, asking the cousins to check with their friends Dave Evans and Burt Eddleton while she called Ned.

“Can you make reservations, too? ” she asked the girls.

“No problem, ” Bess said. “Talk to you later.”

“‘Bye, ” Nancy replied, heading her car for Rosemont Hospital and a quick visit with Tommy Johnson.

To her amazement and delight, she found him walking in a leg cast with the aid of crutches.

“You’ll be out of here in no time, ” she said to the little boy.

“I hope so, ” he declared, smiling. “There’s nobody to play with around here.”

He lay the crutches against his bed, allowing Nancy to help him up.

“Well, what about me? ” she asked, pretending to pout.

“You’re different, Nancy, ” he said. “Everybody else just wants to take my temperature.”

The girl laughed, opening a small shopping bag and peering inside with great relish.

“What’s in there? ” Tommy said eagerly.

Nancy strung out the surprise until she thought the boy would jump out of bed. “Here you are, ” the girl said, producing a toy racing car.

“Zowie! ” Tommy cried happily. He ran the tiny wheels up and down his cast, then over the mattress, onto the night table, and back again.

Nancy giggled. “I’m sure your doctor never dreamed that cast would turn into a racetrack! ”

When she left the boy’s room, he was still playing with the car, rumbling like an engine, and laughing in between.

“I’ll be back, ” the girl told him, though she wasn’t sure when her next visit would be.

She stopped by the nurses’ station to leave a message for Lisa Scotti, and was pleased to find her friend there in person.

“The strangest thing happened this morning, ” Lisa whispered to Nancy. “We got a phone call from someone who said his name was Cliff.”

“You’re kidding! ” Nancy replied.

“Of course, I was positive it was some crackpot, ” Lisa went on.

“Why do you say that? ”

“Because I knew Cliff was staying at your house.”

“Not anymore, ” Nancy said, revealing the full story.

Lisa was completely shocked, saying she wouldn’t have bothered to tell Nancy about the call except that she had stopped by the hospital.

“Oh, Lisa, you must tell me everything that happens if it’s pertinent to Cliffs case.”

“Now that I think about it, ” Lisa said, “the voice did sound like Cliffs, but I can’t be certain. There was a lot of static in the background.”

“What did he say? ” Nancy questioned.

“Not much, really, but it had something to do with singing.”

“Singing or the name Singh? ”

Lisa shrugged. “As I said, the voice wasn’t too clear.”

If only the young nurse had known about the disappearance, Nancy thought, she might have tried to trace the phone call.

Thinking of missed opportunities, Nancy decided to try contacting Angela Pruett again. The telephone seemed to be working, but the harpist was not home—all the more reason, Nancy mused, why she should attend the performance at the River Heights Theater that night.

Nancy spoke briefly to Ned, who had already heard from the other Emerson boys, and despite a minor problem that had to do with the availability of a car for the evening, everyone had decided to meet at the Drew home.

The sky had thickened with clouds and there was the promise of another rainstorm.

“Don’t forget your umbrella, dear, ” Hannah advised Nancy as the group left, but Ned waved his, a large, black one that could amply cover two people.

When they arrived at the theater, Nancy was struck by the small, scattered audience.

“Where is everybody? ” Burt asked.

“Maybe they were afraid to come out in a storm, ” George said.

“But it isn’t even raining yet, ” her cousin stated.

Nancy, however, surmised that a number of ticket holders had received the cancellation notice and for whatever reasons had not yet called the theater for a refund. If they had, they would have been told the announcement was a hoax!

She thought no more about it, though, as the orchestra filed into the pit. She looked for Angela, but someone else—another woman—was seated at the harp.

“Where is she? ” Ned whispered to Nancy.

“I don’t know.”

But as the overture swelled, the young detective temporarily pushed her concern to the back of her mind. The medley of tunes was a welcome respite from earlier events of the day, soaring to a climax and dissolving when the curtain opened.

The stage, however, remained pitch-black for several minutes as the first actors entered. Then harsh red lights came on.

“What’s going on? ” Bess said.

That was what everyone wanted to know. The actors moved mechanically through the scene, saying their lines and singing with as much ease as they could muster. But the red lights turned blue, then amber, and the din of the audience competed against the sound on stage, causing the lead singer to stop in the middle of his number.

“Ladies and gentlemen, ” he said, as the overhead lights went out abruptly. “House lights, please, ” he instructed someone offstage.

Nancy slid out of her seat and hurried to the back of the theater, without waiting to hear the announcement.

“I’m coming with you, ” Ned whispered.

“No, stay here, ” Nancy said. “I’ll be back in a second.”

She darted through the lobby doors, spying another one marked EMPLOYEES ONLY. Did it lead to the sound booth where the technician controlled the sound and lighting systems?

Nancy turned the knob, ready to climb the inside stairway, when a young man bolted out the door. He was no more than twenty and had shoulder-length brown hair that blew off his neck as he ran down the front steps.

“Stop! ” Nancy cried. She dashed after him, but her high dress heels slowed her down.

The boy had jumped in a car and roared away in the darkness before she could catch him. Instantly, she hurried back into the theater, racing to the employees’ door and up the steps.

“Oh! ” she gasped upon seeing a man slumped forward over a board of dials.

Next to him lay a wooden rod that had obviously been used to knock him out!

“What’s going on here? ” a voice barked behind her. It was the festival manager. Nancy turned sharply, giving him full view of the injured man. “Are you responsible for this, Miss Drew? ”

“Me? ” Nancy said, aghast. She felt her former irritation, but kept her temper in check and quickly explained what had happened. “He needs a doctor. Excuse me while I find one.”

The stream of people prevented Nancy from getting an usher’s attention, but as her friends appeared, she made her way toward them.

“Someone attacked the man in the sound and lighting booth, ” Nancy advised them. “We have to get a doctor for him.”

“Is he bleeding? ” George asked.

“No, but he’s out cold.”

Ned raced away from the group, negotiating through the slow-moving crowd to a man in a theater uniform at the far end of the lobby. Briefly, Ned reported the situation and the two of them hurried to a telephone in a rear office.

By the time they emerged again, Nancy had gone back to the booth, leaving the others to wait for Ned and the emergency squad.

The technician moaned quietly. His fingers curled over a switch, then spread out as he tried to lift his head.

“He’ll be all right, ” the festival manager said. He glared at Nancy. “Trouble seems to abound when you and your father are in our midst, ” he said sarcastically.

The young detective gulped, ignoring the comment. Instead, she leaned close to the technician.

“Please try not to move too much, ” she said gently. “You could have a concussion.”

The man blinked his eyes slowly, murmuring, “I’m okay. That kid only tapped me.”

But the eyes closed again, and the fingers stopped moving.

Ned, in the meantime, appeared in the doorway. “Rosemont is sending an ambulance right away, ” he said.

“That’s good, ” Nancy said, noting the lump that had swelled through the victim’s thinning hairline.

“There is no need for you to stick around, ” the manager told the couple. “I will take care of Vince from here on.”

Nancy, however, did not wish to leave the theater until the ambulance arrived, so she and Ned returned to the lobby. The two large, glass doors were open now, and an approaching siren soon stopped as the hospital vehicle pulled in front.

“What was the announcement I missed? ” Nancy asked her friends as two men in white uniforms wheeled in a stretcher.

“The star apologized for the interruption, ” Bess said, “but said they couldn’t go on under such circumstances.”

Burt revealed a handful of money. “Everybody got a refund on their tickets, ” he said.

“I wonder why they didn’t offer to honor them for another evening, ” Nancy said.

“Well, ” George replied, “I did overhear one woman say to another that she doubted that she would want to come to such a poorly run operation again.”

“What’s on tomorrow night? ” Dave inquired.

“Nancy has the schedule, ” Bess said.

“Whatever it is, ” Nancy put in, “I have a strong hunch that unless they strengthen security around here, the program could fall apart like this one did.”

Now the group watched the ambulance team carry Vince through the employees’ door. His head did not move as he lay on the stretcher.

How long would it be, Nancy wondered, before he could tell her about the incident? Had Vince expected the visitor, or was it a surprise attack?