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DARK SECRETS
A Nancy Drew fanfic
CHAPTER I
“Nancy, would you go get the mail?” Carson Drew asked his daughter.
“Sure, Dad,” Nancy replied, getting up from the couch and heading toward the front door. She stopped only long
enough to slip on her flip-flops, then headed out the door.
She looked through the mail as she headed back inside. One particular envelope caught her attention. It was addressed to her,
and postmarked from Tucson, Arizona. It had no return address, however. Forgetting about the rest of the mail, she hurried
inside, dropped the mail (except for her envelope) on the dining room table, and grabbed a letter opener from the junk drawer.
She passed her father on her way to the couch. He was coming into the room to get the mail from the table.
The letter appeared to have been written in a hurry. It was also incomplete, as if the writer didn't have time to finish it.
But what there was of it made her heart beat faster.
Nancy,
I'm so sorry I haven't been there for all these years. I haven't even
been able to write. But now I have a chance, if even for a little while,
and I want to say that I love you very much and
And that was where it left off. Nancy was mystified. Who was somebody she hadn't seen in a long time that would be writing
her? And in Tucson? She had no idea.
“Who's that from?” Carson asked, coming into the living room where she was. He sat down next to her.
“I don't know,” Nancy said. “It's not signed, and it has no return address.” Nancy handed the letter
to her father, who read it, then studied it. He seemed just as mystified.
At that moment, Hannah Gruen, who had been the Drews' housekeeper since Nancy's mother died when Nancy was three, came into
the room to announce that lunch was ready. She saw the puzzled looks on Nancy and Carson's faces, and asked,
“What's got you two so puzzled?” Carson handed her the note, and she read it. At first, she seemed just as perplexed
as Nancy and her father, but then a whole new look came over her face--a look of shock.
“What is it, Hannah?” Nancy asked. Hannah's mouth moved, but nothing came out. Slowly, she sat down on the couch.
Nancy took one side of Hannah; Carson the other.
“Hannah?” Carson gently persisted. “What is it?” Hannah finally found her voice, but just barely.
“Your mother,” Hannah said to Nancy.
“What about my mother?” Nancy asked.
“She's not dead.”
CHAPTER II
Nancy and Carson sat in silent shock for a few moments. Finally, Nancy said,
“What?” After a few moments of gaining her composure, Hannah explained,
“Your mother somehow got on the wrong side of some big-time drug dealers and smugglers. I don't know the full story,
but they kidnapped her. She just went missing, with no trace of where she went. But these crooks were smart. They knew there'd
be a big investigation, considering she was the wife of a well-known investigative lawyer. So they made it look like she'd
been murdered. The evidence seemed so concrete, everyone was fooled, including me.
“Until the day she contacted me. I got an anonymous phone call six months after her disappearance. She told me she'd
been kidnapped, but she couldn't tell me anything further, for my own safety, and for hers. She also told me not to tell anybody
I knew she was alive; it could get all of us killed. So I kept silent. But after years went by and she never contacted me
again, I was afraid they'd went ahead and killed her. But apparently not.” Nancy and Carson sat in stunned silence.
Finally Nancy said,
“I'm going to find her.”
“Nancy,” Hannah said. “I don't think that's a good idea. It could get you killed.”
“I want to find my mother,” Nancy said firmly. “I want to have her back. I want to get to know her.”
“I know you'd like to have your mother back,” said Carson. “I can't tell you how much I'd love to
have her back. But I don't want you putting yourself in danger to get her back.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Careful or not, something could still happen. And then I’ll have lost both my wife and my daughter. I don’t
want to lose you, Nancy.” Nancy could see moisture in her father’s eyes. “You’re all I have left,
Nancy.”
Nancy hung her head. As much as she wanted to find her mother, she couldn’t argue with the look on her father’s
face.
“Fine,” she resolved, almost whispering. Carson wrapped an arm around her and hugged her close.
“I’d love as much as you to find your mother,” he said. “More so, in fact. But we can’t risk
it. Who knows but what it could get your mom killed, too. And that would defeat the whole purpose.”
“Yeah,” Nancy said quietly, though she was confident she could be discreet enough that her mother’s captors
wouldn’t know she was onto them.
“Well,” Hannah said abruptly, “lunch is getting cold.”
Lunch. They’d forgotten all about it. Nancy and her father stood and headed toward the dining room table.
***
Nancy tried to forget about the note. She didn’t need thoughts of a mystery she couldn’t solve on her mind. She
needed to enjoy this time with George and Bess at the mall. She at least managed to push it all to the back of her mind.
Carson wasn’t home when Nancy returned from her shopping trip. He left a note on the table that he’d gone to the
library to follow up a lead on the case he was currently working on. He said he needed to use the microfilms.
After reading the note, Nancy glanced at the message machine to see if there were any new messages. A red numeral one flashed
on the display, indicating there was one new message. Nancy pressed the play button, and played the message back.
“Nancy,” came a female voice from the machine. It sounded urgent. “Carson. . .help me. I—”
the message ended with a loud click. Nancy stood stock-still in shock.
Carson walked in the door.
“Nancy?” he called, hanging his jacket on a rack. He got no reply. “Nancy? I’m home,” he
announced, walking into the dining room. He found Nancy standing there in front the bar where the answering machine sat. She
was still staring at the machine in shock. Carson approached her, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Nancy?” he
asked. “Nancy, are you all right?” Nancy finally came out of her stupor.
“Dad,” she said. “Listen to this.” She then proceeded to playback the message. It was Carson’s
turn to stare in shock. Finally, he came out of it.
“We’re tracking her down.”
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