Murder For Love

"Are you sure?"

Nancy 's heart leapt up. "I never beheld a death certificate with my own eyes. But I was told of her magnificent deathbed speech. Father wouldn't allow me to attend the funeral."

"Did you ever wonder about her?"

"Yes! Just this week. Do you bring news of my mother? Is she alive after all?" Nancy clapped her hands gleefully. The gesture was surprisingly out of character.

"No, I don't believe she is, I'm sorry to report. But there is something puzzling about her identity. You must apply your sleuthing abilities to several clues I have."

The mention of clues was as appetizing as the ci

"What would you say, Nancy, if I told you that your mother didn't die when you were three, but that she ran away to the Alaskan territory?"

"But that seems unlikely. Why should she run away? She had a small child-myself-to care for. We were a contented household. Ha

"Your mother was in love with another man, I am told."

"But how could that be? She was married to Carson Drew, my father." Nancy was truly puzzled.

"I have proof-from various hotel records-that she went to Alaska for a time. And there is a certain note, written on her own perfumed and monogrammed stationery."

Draco S. Wren produced a frayed letter. The note said, "Dear Carson, I am leaving you for another man. His name is Andy C. Wren. We are going to Alaska. Do not try to catch me. Good-bye forever. Bon-Bon."

Nancy recognized her mother's nickname. She was stu

" Nancy, I can see you have put your pretty thinking cap on. I knew you would enjoy this mystery."

Nancy 's mind was whirling as she pieced facts together rapidly. She could hardly finish her baked Alaska.

"Eat heartily, Nancy. There is more." Draco S. Wren took a baked Alaska and more tea. "Let me tell you about a woman named Candy Wren. You recognize the name, of course."

Nancy nodded. Who could fail to recognize that famous personality? Candy Wren's face had once been in the newspapers daily. She was photographed with wealthy playboys and noblemen. And Candy Wren was a popular author of children's books, as everyone knew. "Then you are related to the famous late Candy Wren? Or late famous?"

"She was my mother," said Draco S. Wren. "She rarely frequented our Alaskan frontier home. She was always away on personal appearance tours in her furs, and she left me with nursemaids. She sought the bright lights of the cities but sent me souvenir soaps from hotels. My father, too, neglected me. He was rarely there, for reasons you will soon guess. I grew up a virtual prisoner of the nursery, for it was too cold to go out and play. Alaska was a crystal tundra. I so longed for a true family that I resolved to set upon a quest for a long-lost sister I had heard of. When I was very young I was told about her-about how beautiful and brilliant she was. Her golden hair was described to me so often by my Inuit na

"What is your theory about the disappearance of the sister? Was she kidnapped from the cradle?" Nancy recalled such a case involving twins.

"No. It is more complicated. And I'm surprised you haven't guessed the solution."

"I recall that Candy Wren perished in an unusual accident a few years ago. Was your lost sister in the accident?" Nancy probed for clues and co

"No, her daughter was not with her. Candy Wren disappeared off the Mediterranean coast following a mysterious boat explosion. Alas, the bulk of her fortune-and mine-was with her. A small, carved chest of jewels."

Nancy recalled the many lost jewel boxes she had recovered. "Do you suspect that your mother is still alive and that the jewels have fallen into unscrupulous hands?" Nancy thought fleetingly of pirates and deserted islands.

"No, Nancy. I know that she is dead and that the jewels are lost in the briny deep. Fragments of the box found floating along the coast of Corfu proved that long ago."

"Of course, a diamond embedded in a wayward barracuda is not an unfathomable coincidence," Nancy ventured, thinking of a glorious yachting cruise.

"I'm not trying to solve the mystery of the boat explosion. And the jewels are lost. My search is for the long-lost sister. What do you make of these clues?"

Nancy tried to summon all her wits, but her mind was clouded over. A dangerous blackmailer had once had her cornered like this, but she had aroused herself in the nick of time. "Think of the name Wren, Nancy," said Draco S. Wren with a meaningful look. For a second, he seemed to leer.

"Candy Wren was your mother, and she must have been related to Andy C. Wren, whom you mentioned earlier in an unlikely attachment." Nancy spoke slowly, a crease on her brow. "That is partially correct. Think of that clue, Nancy. Your mother ran away to Alaska with Andy C. Wren. Andy C. Wren, I now reveal, was married to my mother, Candy Wren." Draco S. Wren paused, watching Nancy intently. When he saw no flicker of comprehension in her blue eyes, he added, "Wren was her married name. She didn't migrate to Alaska as a Wren." He paused again, seeming to study Nancy. He seemed a

"But surely you refer to mere coincidence?" Nancy gave an elaborate shrug. "Certainly Mother would not have-It must have been Bushy Trott!" she exclaimed suddenly, remembering a particularly nasty crook. "That criminal was a misfit his whole life. When he imprisoned me in the attic with that tarantula it must have been in revenge for what my father must have done to him for what he must have done to my mother. He could have abducted her and planted the note. The deathbed speech was a ruse and a clue! My mother knew I would solve the mystery of her tragic fate!"

Draco S. Wren threw up his hands. "But, Nancy, I have proof that she went to Alaska because she loved another man! I even have the minibar of Ivory stamped Ice Palace Hotel to prove it!"

Nancy could feel the wheels spi

Draco S. Wren seemed stu

The significance of the number thirteen did not escape Nancy. The lock of hair was unmistakably blond. "So?" she queried nonchalantly.

Draco S. Wren stared silently into Nancy 's eyes for several long moments. He drummed his fingers on the table. "Bon-Bon. Candy. Bon-Bon. Nancy, don't you understand that you are my long-lost sister? Candy Wren was your mother too."

The revelation was unthinkable, not to mention absurd. "But my mother was married to Carson Drew," Nancy said. "And Candy is a common name."

"They are one and the same!" Draco S. Wren declared triumphantly, bouncing a lemon bon bon on the table. "Candy ran away to Alaska with Andy C. Wren and had a second child- me. Hadn't you guessed the meaning of my name?"