Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #69: Clue in the Ancient Disguise (1982)

Carson asks Nancy to help his client Pierre. Pierre is, as you probably guessed, French, and recently closed down his family home in France. He found a letter from someone named Louise Duval in a pocket. She told his grandfather that she had some big news and would tell him soon, but she never came for a visit. Carson found that the woman passed away not long after sending the letter and has some descendants named the Thorpes. Pierre claims that Mr. Thorpe was rude to him and that the man's daughter, Lisa, said she never heard of the woman before.

The two head out to lunch and to do some more talking. Pierre reveals that he and Lisa had something special and that Norton, her father, freaked out about it. Just as they sit down, Carson calls the restaurant because Pierre's assistant called to say his workshop was on fire. They rush over, and Pierre actually races inside and saves Nyra, the assistant. She seems less than happy to see Nancy until she realizes she has no interest in him.

Nyra, as it turns out, was the best friend of Lisa. Nancy remembers that Lisa works with Bess at the local thrift shop and heads over to get an introduction. They then go out for ice cream together. Lisa says that she and Louise had a shared ancestor by the name of Yvette. Yvette had a mysterious past and refused to talk about her life before moving to American from France. Lisa invites them back to her house to see a portrait of the woman, but they run into her father instead. He basically threatens Nancy and tells her to get out of his house immediately.

Nancy learns that Louise had a former maid and tracks her down. The woman only remembers that she had a “foreign friend” coming to stay with her who she was super excited about. She also tells her the name of the woman's lawyer. Carson finds out that the lawyer passed away and that his replacement isn't very nice. Nancy goes to see him anyway, but the man refuses to tell her anything. She then sees some random dude following her around and recalls seeing him outside of her dad's office and at the restaurant. The man confronts her and basically tells her to stop snooping around.

She also gets a phone call from the local museum to ask if she could help them solve the case of some recent break ins because one mystery per book just isn't enough. While on her way, she makes a stop and comes out to find Bess and George waiting for her. They saw someone going through her car but the woman took off. Nancy can't see anything missing and asks them to go to the museum with her. They get there just in time to hear the alarms going off.

The curator tells them that someone keeps breaking in but doesn't steal anything. They know it's not a prank because the person attacked a security guard and did some damage. Nancy asks about Louise, and he tells her that the woman donated one of the museum's first paintings. The original curator thought it had no value and put it in a storage room, which caused her to flip out. She kept saying it was priceless.

Before leaving, the girls run into Lee, a new artist. Just as he's bragging about his latest show, the arts reporter for the local paper comes over and makes a rude comment. Lee almost punches him before storming away. The reporter explains that one of the man's paintings looked quite similar to one he saw on display at the museum in the past. Bess thinks he's crazy for accusing the guy of stealing because Lee is way too cute to be a thief.

Nancy calls Emily, the former maid, and asks about the painting. She recalls Louise hiring someone from New York to authenticate the painting but can't remember much else. Emily does suggest that she call Ms. February, not a playmate but a former bridge partner of Louise's who is still alive and still super rich. Nancy also goes to see Pierre and notices Nyra giving her this nasty look. As she and Pierre head out to lunch, he suddenly stops her and angrily tells her to let him out of the car.

Pierre points out a label in her car from Data-Linc, which is apparently some company that's the main competitor to a new idea he had. He thinks Nancy is working for them and wants her off his own case. She realizes that Nyra was the one the girls caught snooping around in her car and that she point the label there, which also explains why the woman looked so smug. Pierre apologizes for accusing her and takes her out for lunch.

She then goes back to the museum and learns that someone broke in once again. This time, the person stole the Duval painting that Louise donated. The same person also messed up the entire storage area. Ms. February gives her the name of a professor who was helping Louise. She goes to see him and finds out he died, but his replacement tells her that the man specialized in French history and tells her to contact the man's daughter.

Bess and George give her a description of the woman they saw by her car, which is an exact match to Nyra. Hannah then suggests that Nancy check with the historical society to see if they have any information on Yvette and her family line. The girls make plans to do a stakeout that night too and keep an eye on the museum.

It takes about five minutes before the alarms go off. The girls see a suit of armor moving across the room, which then enters a separate room and locks the door. They find a paperclip in Bess's mess of a purse and get the door unlocked. Whoever was in the armor is now gone, but the night watchman is passed out on the floor. Nancy seems with the curator and helps him do inventory to see what's missing. She sees a painting of an Egyptian cat and heads to the police station, where she learns that Lee, the artist they met earlier, did an exact replica of that painting but on a larger scale. It's one of the ones missing from the museum.

She also meets with the professor's daughter and learns that she knows nothing about her dad's work. The woman was a little girl at the time and gave away all his papers to the university after he died. Nancy goes to see Pierre and give him an update but notices something weird about his computer. Just as she starts to warn him, he tries to use it as it explodes.

Pierre tells her that he's working on a computer memory device that will revolutionize the world. She manages to save his life, and he then introduces her to Mr. Varney, the investor behind his work. He doesn't seem that enthused about Nancy but warms up to her when Pierre says she wants to help.

Lisa remembers that her mother left a bunch of stuff in the attic before she died and invites Nancy over to check things out. She then gets a call from the historical society and someone who claims they found an interview with Yvette that revealed she was from England and that her husband was a banker.

When she gets to Lisa's house, she finds Lee there. He boasts about his work and how he's an amazing artist until Nancy asks where he gets his inspiration. That causes him to flip out about how he'll sure the reporter for slander before storming off. Lisa reveals that because he's rich, her dad thinks they're the perfect match. No matter how much she dislikes him, her dad keeps pushing her to date the guy. Nice.

They then hear what sounds like footsteps coming from the attic. Lisa calls Booker, her father's butler, for help before calling the cops. They sneak upstairs but find no one there. The cops show up and claim that they probably just heard the storm outside and point out that there aren't any wet footprints on the floor. Nancy thinks someone wore heavy socks to sneak into the attic. Norton then shows up and snaps at Nancy and then tells his daughter that she should stay away from that scoundrel of a Frenchman.

Norton wants to brag about how Pierre almost blew himself up with his new invention, which causes Nancy to point out that the explosion was actually a bad thing. She asks why he hates the guy so much, which he refuses to answer. Once he leaves, they start working through the attic and come across a bunch of fancy dresses that belonged to Yvette. One dress is handmade and really worn down though, and there's a wedding ring in the pocket engraved to Yvette and Phillipe, even though her husband's name was actually Paul.

While on the way home from Lisa's house, Nancy sees a car following her. It keeps getting super close to her despite the road being wet. Just as she thinks about trying to lose the guy, he bumps into her and sends her own car skidding out of control. She gets the car back on the road and calls for help before heading home and falling asleep.

When she gets up the next morning, Nancy hears on the radio that someone found proof that Lee stole an idea for his painting. The report names her as helping with the case, but the main reporter swears he didn't tell anyone her name. She then gets a call from the repair shop that someone cut the line to her power steering and Lee calls too. He tells her that he'll sue her for libel, to which she tells him to have his lawyer call Carson.

Emily calls back to tell her that she has a Duval family keepsake that might relate to the case and asks her to stop by and take a look at it. The museum curator also calls with some big news: they found the missing Duval painting. She goes to take a look at it and sees that it shows a man in a blue velvet suit with a white powdered wig. The curator says that it was painted by a semi-famous French artist in 1790 and that he'll have an expert look at it.

Nancy thinks the man in the painting looks familiar and tells Pierre that it almost looks like him. He laughs it off though because his family was always super poor. Mr. Varney shows up just to act all concerned about how Pierre may want to leave River Heights. The news reported on the explosion and he's worried it might make other investors back out.

After lunch with Carson to discuss the whole libel Lee thing, she goes to see Emily. She notices someone following her and calls the police chief with the license plate number. Nancy then helps the woman find a photo album that Louise gave her. Out falls a piece of paper with the name Yvette on it. Since Nancy luckily reads French, she translates it as a letter from this woman named Charlotte to her sister Yvette. It says that she had no luck finding the “treasure” that Yvette left behind when she had to suddenly move. Emily loans her the album for a few days.

She and Carson meet with Lee and his lawyer. The lawyer, apparently not knowing Carson, immediately starts talking about settling for a huge amount. Nancy tells Lee that if he goes forward that the museum might wonder if he was behind the breaks ins because he wanted to get rid of evidence that he stole the idea for his painting. Lee gets all worried and tells them that he'll drop the case, though his lawyer tells him to just shut up.

The chief calls to tell her that the car following her was one rented by a French tourist and that he'll run a background check on the guy. She then gets a call from the curator that the painting is of a French nobleman, so she heads to the local university with the girls to do some more research. The professor from before agrees to do some research on the nobleman for her. She then goes to the other professor's daughter's house with a picture of the man and Louise. The woman tells her it was taken at a gristmill her dad owned and that he may have left some of his papers and research there in an old desk.

Nancy calls Lisa to fill her in on things and gets an invite to come back over. As they go over the dresses that Yvette owned, Nancy finds something else hidden in a pocket. It's a small cameo with the image of a little boy on it. Nancy runs downstairs to compare it to the portrait or Yvette and her husband, which makes them all realize that the boy looks just like the husband. They both look just like Pierre too!

Lisa takes all this to her father, but Norton doesn't want to hear it because Pierre is such a loser. Nancy presses him on why he feels that way, and he shows her a card given to him by a French lawyer. The man came to see him and tell him how Pierre was a con artist. It turns out that the same man went to Carson, but Carson did his own research and learned that no lawyer by that name actually exists. Norton reluctantly points out that this does change things.

Nancy goes to Pierre and takes him to the gristmill. They find the report that the professor was working on, which shows proof that Pierre is actually a major count. Before they can celebrate though, Mr. Varney shows up with the dude. He tells the man to put the two in her car and leave the engine running in a closed room. Police will find them dead the next day.

Since this is Nancy, she manages to put everything together. Yvette was married twice, and Varney was one of her descendants from her first marriage. He used that connection to try and become count. There's a big fight that ends when the guy who followed Nancy around in the beginning shows up and helps. He reveals himself as a private investigator. She then tells everyone what happened.

Yvette and Phillipe were French royalty and made plans to escape into England together. She wore the poor lady's dress with the portrait of their son sewn into the hem. Phillipe was caught and recognized as a nobleman, so they executed him. Yvette suffered from PTSD or something and basically forgot who she was. Her sister found her and took care of her in America. She eventually regained her memory and got married again, but she went to great lengths to hide her old life. Charlotte, the sister, managed to get the family portrait smuggled out of France, but by the time Louise donated it, the family no longer knew their connection to him.

Their servants took care of her son and raised him as their own. When the museum hid the painting away, Louise called in an expert and discovered that she might be royalty. Varney was the descendant of the family who actually took over the royal line after Yvette's family “died.” When he found out he might lose his status, he went overboard to stop that from happening. And now I assume that Lisa and Pierre can live happily ever after despite barely speaking to each other.

*There are a whole lot of volunteers in this one! Bess volunteers at the thrift shop with Lisa, and Hannah volunteers one day a week at the hospital.

*Togo, Nancy's dog from the earlier books, is in this one. Since I don't remember her having a dog at all, I had no idea he was in the more modern ones.

*Nancy is so tired after getting run off the road that she sleeps later than usual but is still up, dressed, and alert by nine am. That is so early to me!

*You have to love Carson. When he gets the news that Lee is suing Nancy for libel, he tells her not to worry and just takes her out for lunch.

*Lisa freaks out when she realizes that she and Pierre are related. Nancy tells her not to worry because they're so far removed from each other that they can marry without any problems. They've seriously only been around each other once.

*In the end, Norton is totes fine with Pierre dating his daughter because he's now rich and a count. They even joke about them getting married. Once again, they've literally seen each other once. When they get together at the end, it's the second time they've been in the same room together.