The Fake Bidder

The auctioneer held the mallet a moment longer, glancing at the men who had bid first on the medallion. Nancy’s heart pounded as she prayed that one of them would raise his hand.

She didn’t see the signal, but the auctioneer suddenly said, “Six hundred dollars. I have a bid of six hundred. Do I hear more? ”

“Whew! ” Bess exclaimed, echoing Nancy’s own relief. “What would you have done? ”

“I’d probably have to scrub Dad’s office for the rest of my life! ” Nancy said.

“Why did you bid on that thing, anyway? ” George inquired.

Nancy shrugged. “I did it on the spur of the moment, thinking perhaps I’d get some reaction from those men by starting to compete with them.”

Nancy paused a moment, then added, “And I was hoping that if I entered the bidding, I might pick up a clue as to why they both wanted the medallion.”

“Well, it didn’t happen, ” George said.

Nancy nodded. She wondered if the men would challenge each other further, but the medallion went to the one who had offered six hundred dollars.

Eagerly the girls watched the rest of the auction. A set of Meissen dinnerware was sold to a woman. Georgian candlesticks went to someone else and an unusual array of dinner bells to a third person. The men who had bid for the medallion remained silent throughout the balance of the sale.

When it was over, Nancy rose to her feet. “I’d like to congratulate the winner, ” she told her friends.

“We’re sticking with you, ” Bess said, following her cousin and Nancy through the crowd.

The man who had bought the medallion was short, with a bald head that shone like a billiard ball, and Nancy was able to keep him in sight easily. He went to a counter already filled with winning bidders who wished to claim their prizes. When one woman stepped away with a small carton, he quickly took her place.

Nancy and her friends moved behind him, noticing the name stamped on the check he signed. It was Russell Kaiser!

Was he related to Galen Kaiser? the girls wondered. If so, why would he have bid on something that belonged to the Kaiser family in the first place?

“Mr. Kaiser, ” Nancy said as a clerk handed him the medallion, “I wanted to—”

“Aren’t you the person who forced the bid to six hundred? ” he grumbled.

“Yes, I am, ” Nancy replied, somewhat embarrassed.

“Humph.”

“May I ask you a couple of questions? ” she went on boldly.

“What about? ”

“The medallion, of course.”

“I’m sorry, miss. I have a dinner party to go too and I’m late already. Excuse me.”

He brushed past her, muttering under his breath, and hurried toward an exit sign.

“He certainly wasn’t very friendly, ” George said. “I wonder why that medallion is so important.”

“I guess we’ll never know, ” Bess commented with disappointment.

Just then a voice behind them stopped the conversation. “Miss Nancy Drew? ” a man asked, causing the girls to face the other bidder on the medallion.

He was blond, about forty, and had thick, straight eyebrows that lay close together over a long and rather slim nose.

“I’m Nancy Drew, ” the young detective spoke up, surprised that he knew her name.

“I’m Russell Kaiser.”

“Huh? ” Bess replied, incredulous.

“No, that was—” Nancy started to say, quickly catching herself. She let the man continue.

“I recognized you from a newspaper article that covered a recent mystery you solved, ” he went on.

“Which one? ” Nancy replied.

“I’m sorry to say I really don’t remember, ” he said, blushing.

“Are you sure your name is Kaiser? ” George asked, unable to restrain herself any longer.

“Of course.”

“We don’t mean to sound presumptuous, ” Bess said, “but the gentleman who just bought that medallion claimed he was Russell Kaiser.”

“What? That’s impossible.”

“His name was on the check he signed.”

Immediately, their listener pulled out a checkbook, then other identification cards, glancing through them rapidly.

“Everything’s here, ” he said, slipping them back into his coat pocket. “But I’ve got to stop payment on that man’s check in case he’s trying to draw money out of my bank account! ”

He hurried to the desk clerk, spoke to him briefly, then returned to the girls.

“Mr. Kaiser—” Nancy began.

“Call me Russell.”

“Okay, Russell. If you don’t mind my asking, I’d like to know why two men would bid three times the estimated value of that medallion.”

Her listener hesitated a moment before speaking. “I just returned from a business trip and found a letter from an old friend of my uncle‘s, ” he began.

“Your uncle was Galen Kaiser? ” Nancy inquired.

“Yes. His friend indicated that he wished to have the medallion for sentimental reasons. Everything, though, had been shipped to the auction house already, and there was no way to get hold of the medallion before the bidding started. So the only thing I could do was bid on it myself.”

“What a shame, ” Bess commented, thinking the man had not only lost out on the piece for his uncle’s friend but an impostor had walked away with it!

“Are you sure your uncle’s friend only wanted the medallion for sentimental reasons? ” Nancy inquired.

Russell seemed puzzled by the question. “What do you mean? ”

“Well, ” Nancy went on, “isn’t it strange that someone else would have bid so much for the piece? ”

“Nancy’s right, ” Bess said. “There must be something about the medallion that none of us realizes.”

“I certainly don’t know what it is, ” he said. “I bid as much as I could possibly afford, but then—” His voice trailed off and he looked as if he were about to cry. “My uncle was a fine man—good to his friends, and they loved him. I happen to know that the man who wrote to me helped my uncle at a time when he needed it.”

Although the girls knew nothing about the Kaiser family, they were overwhelmed by the nephew’s obvious sensitivity. If only they could capture the stranger and rescue the medallion!

“Will you help me find the impostor? ” the man pleaded.

“Definitely, ” Bess replied.

“I’ll give a complete description of him to the police, ” Nancy volunteered and stood up to go to the nearest telephone.

“Wait! ” Russell said. “I’d rather postpone that for the time being. You see, my family is well-known, and I’d like to avoid any publicity about this. If you don’t track the man down on your own, we can call the police then.”

Nancy hesitated a moment, but then acceded to the man’s wishes. “We’ll see what we can come up with, ” she promised. “Where can we reach you? ”

“Here, ” he replied, handing her a printed card. “I work out of my home, ” he added.

The address, to Nancy’s surprise, was not in a chic East Side neighborhood. It was in the heart of midtown, west of Fifth Avenue.

“We’ll be in touch as soon as we have something to report, ” she said.

On the way back to Aunt Eloise’s apartment, the girls discussed the strange events of the evening.

“It’s really peculiar, ” George commented. “We go to an auction looking for Ted Henri and wind up hunting for Russell Kaiser’s impersonator.”

Nancy nodded thoughtfully. “I guess we’ve stumbled on a completely new mystery! ”