The Secret of Red Gate Farm by Carolyn Keene (1931, 1961, 1989)

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Nancy, Bess and George have gone shopping for the day in a town outside of River Heights. The last place they go is a small oriental shop in which Bess wants to purchase some jade perfume. Leaving after making her purchase, Bess remarks how reluctant the lady was to sell her the perfume. They make there way back on the train just in time as it leaves for River Heights. On the train Bess tries on the perfume. In offering it to Nancy it ends up spilling and reeks the entire car up and people have to open the windows on the train to get the smell out. Moments later the young woman sitting across from Nancy passes out. After getting her revived, Nancy goes to get her some water. A man waits to get water but abruptly approaches Nancy asking "Any word from the Chief?". Nancy does not respond as she is very confused. Then he apologizes and blames it on the perfume and leaves to go to another car.

Nancy brings the water back for the young lady. Her name is Joanne Byrd, she comes from the country in hopes of getting a job that she saw to help pay the back mortgage on her grandma's farm, The Red Gate Farm. The train arrives at River Heights and Joanne tells them that is her stop. When they get off they see she is still not well enough to go anywhere. They take her back with them to the Drew residence for a snack. After a small conversation they learn it was a mix up on the town she was to go to. She needed to go to Riverside Heights not River Heights. It was just the next town over so Nancy agreed to take her there for the job. When they arrive the building is in a very rough part of town. Nancy decides to go in with Joanne. They find the number of the establishment 305 inside. Entering a very blank office they meet a gruff man named Al. He seems more interested in hiring Nancy as he claimed that a "good looking girl like her," was what they were wanting to hire. She declined and encouraged Joanne to talk with him. He leads her into a small office. The phone rings there and he answers while watching Nancy the entire time.

After he gets off the phone Nancy inquires what they do and he walks around the question by landing on manufacturing or stock marketing. He shuts the door and talks with Joanne about the job. Nancy sees that he wrote some numbers down in very strange order while he took the call. She tried to gain some of them before they came back out but did not get very much. Nancy quickly places the paper in her purse as Joanne comes out of the small office. They leave and she encourages Joanne to not give up on a job just yet and feels that its for the best that she didn't get the job there.

After dropping her off at a boarding house in town, Nancy heads home and talks with her father Carson. Shows the numbers to him and hopes that he could help. He had a very big case that he was working on so he was unable to devote time to helping Nancy. But he did have a decoding book that he gave her to help. By morning Nancy had cracked the code. The code read Calling meeting. The next day Nancy picks up Bess and George and go call on Joanne to see if she had any luck on job leads. She had not unfortunately. On their way back home, Nancy stops for gas. A woman walks by, they recognize her. She was the woman who sold Bess the perfume. She did not see them and made her way to the very building that Nancy went to for the job search with Joanne. After the car was fueled up, Nancy followed her into the building and talked with the janitor. He knew who she was, Yvonne Wong and she worked for the company in 305. But that's all he knew. Upon returning home Nancy gets a call from Joanne, she is in need of returning home soon, her grandma has a low ball offer on the farm and she is inclined the give into the offer.

Nancy talks with her father and he agrees to her going to the farm as a paying guest to help Joanne and her grandmother. Bess and George both agree to come along. They pick up Joanne on their way and they learn that there is a cave on the farm. Bess questions it, "What kind is it? A home for bears or a pirate's den?". Nancy decides to fuel the car up before they make the last past of their trip. When they pull into the gas station, the rest of the girls' head inside for something cold to drink.

While Nancy stays with the car, another car pulls up across from her. She smells that jade perfume reeking from the cab of their car which is a foreign model. She sees the same oriental woman before in the back seat. The three other men seemed very touch looking. From what she gathered the driver was the man from room 305. After he comes back out he pays the attendant by flashing a big wad of money. The passenger in the front flashed an even bigger roll of money and they laugh quite greedily. After leaving, Nancy goes to call Chief McGinnis in River Heights to run the license plate and the owner of the vehicle to get more information about them.

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It has been more than ten years since I have read this book. There are some details I remember here and there as I have re read it. Now that I am older, I certainly view things more differently than I did when I was younger. First, the perfume. Even today jade perfume is rather expensive. So for this woman to be wearing it seems quite odd. If she's selling something like that, she probably does not make enough to be able to afford it. Second, with the man mistaking Nancy for a woman wearing that makes me question the possibility that whom he thought of was maybe part a group that he is in and they wear that perfume. The last thing that seems alarming is the foreign car and the money these men have. For one, they obviously are not from around there, which makes me leery as to how they have that much money. Two theories seems possible to me, they are either counterfeiters or a group that steals foreign cars, and re sells them to gain profit. Both are scenarios in two different episodes in the Nancy Drew television series that aired in the seventies. (The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle / The Secret of the Whispering Walls) I have attached links to them if you have interest in watching them. Hopefully Nancy and the girls' will be able to figure out more when the visit the Red Gate Farm to help solve this mystery.

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