Without a Trace by Carolyn Keene

to the pair and hung up.
    Just as the handset hit the cradle, the phone rang again. This time George was on the other end of the line.
    “So are they springing you today or what?” she demanded immediately.
    I grinned. “I sure hope so!” I said. “I’m ready to get out of here. Did you find out anything more since yesterday?”
    “As a matter of fact, I did,” George said. “Hold on a sec. Bess is here with me, and she’s poking me in the arm and making faces. I think she wants to talk to you too.”
    A second later I heard another extension pick up. “Nancy?” Bess said breathlessly. “Are you there? How are you feeling?”
    I assured her that I was still in one piece. “Anyway,” I said, “George, what were you saying? You found out more about the case?”
    “Sort of,” George said. “I did a little snooping online last night. Namely, I found out that there’s no car registered in Jacques’s name. Not in France, and not here. Zippo. Nada. Which means that if he really does have some fancy sports car, he didn’t get it legally.”
    “Well, we don’t know for sure that it even exists,” I pointed out, smiling at the nurse who had just entered to retrieve my breakfast tray. I waited a second until she had bustled out of the room, then added,“He could just be making up the whole story for some reason.”
    “Or maybe he just hasn’t registered it yet,” Bess said. “He did say he just bought it, right?”
    “True,” I said as the nurse returned, along with my father. “Oops,” I told my friends. “I have to go. I think they’re finally releasing me. I’ll call you when I get home.”
     
    An hour later my dad pulled his car to the curb in front of our house. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?” he asked me. “I can cancel my meetings and stay home with you if you like.”
    I rolled my eyes and smiled. He’d asked me the same question at least a dozen times already on the fifteen-minute drive from the hospital. “I’m fine, Dad,” I told him patiently. “Even the doctor said I’m good as new, remember? I appreciate the ride home, but you can definitely go on to the office now.”
    “Well, okay,” he said with a slightly sheepish smile. “But I want you to get some rest this afternoon, okay? Just let Hannah take care of you.”
    At that moment Hannah herself appeared in the doorway and hurried out to meet us. I let her help me out of the car and up the front walk into the house, even though I really did feel fine.
    Soon I was tucked into bed with Hannah bustlingaround, waiting on me hand and foot. She brought me magazines to read, then made me lunch. After she’d taken my tray away and had loaded the dishwasher, she stuck her head into my room.
    “Nancy, I’m just going to step out to run some errands,” she told me. “Will you be all right here by yourself until I get back?”
    “Of course,” I assured her. “Don’t worry about me. Take your time.”
    As soon as I heard her car start up and pull away, I hopped out of bed. I’d done enough resting for one day. I was itching to get back on the case.
    I was pulling on some clothes when the phone rang. I grabbed it, guessing that it was my father calling to check on me.
    “Hello?” a soft, accented voice said. “Is Mademoiselle Nancy at home, please?”
    “This is Nancy,” I said, immediately recognizing the voice. “Is this Jacques?”
    “Yes, it is I,” Jacques replied, sounding a little shy. “I—I just wanted to call and inquire how you are feeling. Pierre told me you were coming out of the hospital today.”
    “That’s right,” I said, leaning against my dresser and propping the phone on my shoulder so I could run a comb through my hair. “And I’m feeling fine, thanks.”
    “Oh, that is good news.” Jacques sounded relieved. “I still keep thinking that if only I had been a little closer, I might have been able to catch you. I am sorry to say that I did not even see that you were falling until