The Eskimo's Secret by Carolyn Keene Page A

relax.”
    They settled themselves about the room, but no one was relaxed. Nancy pressed the button with a real feeling of fear—for her father and for her friends.
    “Nancy.” The voice was her father’s and she felt a quick swelling of relief just hearing it. “I’ve explained to these . . . gentlemen that they must allow you to make some business calls for me. The various cases I was handling in Seattle all included appointments I either missed today or will miss tomorrow.
    “These matters are crucial to the clients and if they cannot reach me by telephone for an ex-planation, several of them will be angry enough to call the police and institute a manhunt. My kidnappers have no desire for the spotlight at this time. I will give you a list of clients, phone numbers, and messages to be delivered.” “Clients?” Nancy whispered. “We were working on one case, and I’ve already talked to her.”
    “It is imperative, Nancy, that you spread oil on the waters with these people and convince them that I am working on their cases. Just be sure you don’t tell one about the others. Let each one think I’m working exclusively for him or her.”
    The tone and voice were smooth and businesslike, the instructions given as concisely as though her father were sitting at the desk before her. All that was wrong was that the instructions concentrated on clients and cases that didn’t exist.
    The list of names, numbers, and messages went on for several minutes, then her father sighed, “That’s it, Nancy, if you can handle the ACB s of my clients, we can progress with what has to be done to win my freedom.” The tape ended.
    “What’s wrong, Nancy?” Alana asked.
    Nancy shook her head and laughed, rewinding the tape. “Nothing is wrong,” she said. “In fact something is very right, if I can just make sense of this.”
    “What is there to mike sense of?” Ben asked. “It sounded pretty routine to me.”
    “Oh, it is,” Nancy agreed. “Except that most of these clients and cases exist only in my father’s mind or in our history. We were in Seattle working on the Haggler case, period.”
    Alana frowned, then her expression cleared and she laughed. “It’s a code, right?”
    “It’s a message,” Nancy said, “but not in any kind of code that’s easy to decipher. He obviously had no time to work out any precise system. I’m going to have to take all this down and try to reason out his message with each name, number, and message.”
    Ben whistled. “That sounds very difficult.” “It’s our best chance yet,” Nancy said. “If I can figure our what he means, I’ll bet it will tell us where he is, who is holding him, and how we can rescue him.” She got a small notebook and pen from her purse and started the tape again. “I have to take this down word for word.”
    The telephone stopped her. Nancy shut off the tape player and, after a nervous look at Ben and Alana, picked up the receiver. Her hello sounded a great deal more confident than she felt.
    “Nancy Drew?”
    “Speaking.”
    “It’s about time you got back.” It was the same voice as the first call.
    “You told me to find Alana,” Nancy replied coldly. “I can’t do that sitting around a hotel room.”
    “Did you find her?” The voice frightened her. “Not yet,” Nancy said. “I did manage to find out where she’s been hiding, but I arrived too late. She’d already made arrangements for a different car and some kind of disguise.” She had to bite her lip to keep from giggling at the expressions on Ben’s and Alana’s faces as they listened to her.
    “There was someone else in the car with you when you left,” the voice said, making it clear the men had managed to escape from the Firebird Lodge.
    “The man who helped her,” Nancy admitted. “He’s an old friend of Alana’s, and your men scared him pretty badly. I’m going to have to try to convince him to trust me, but it won’t be easy with your thugs following me