▌Chapter 2 ─ Cold Case File ▌
▌Part 1 ─ Season 1 ─ Episode 2 ─ The Secret of the Old Morgue ▌

      ━━━━━ THE FLOORBOARDS STARTED to creak, Nancy and Alora turned their heads looking behind them as the lights flickered back on. They turned back around glancing back down at the dress that they both held onto. Each had a hand on the blood stained dress as the same question ran through both their minds.

"What's the dress of a girl who was murdered 20 years ago doing in our attic?"

A car door shut and locked, the two looked behind them knowing very well that it was in fact their father returning home from work. They quickly put the dress back in the chest and closed it then they moved out of the attic closing the door all before their dad had come in. After that, the twins sat at the table looking at their father.

"Are you... doing okay?" He asked them.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Nancy answered, Carson then looked at Alora who simply nodded her head in response instead of answering. She couldn't bring herself to answer her father's question because she knew deep down she wasn't okay. She hadn't been okay since their mother died. Ace was the only one that knew she was feeling this way. She hadn't even told Nancy. Carson leaned down on the counter, looking at them.

"Nancy, Alora, I am so sorry for keeping things to myself. I need you both to know nothing ever happened between Karen and me while your mom was still alive. But then she was here..."

"Nancy and I thought we knew our dad, but if he could lie about Karen, he could lie about anything. Including what really happened to Lucy Sable. That was something we needed to figure out."

"...and that's when things started to change between us. We wanted to tell you both. We just didn't know how. Is there anything either of you want to ask me?"

"Yeah. Are you the reason she's known as 'Dead Lucy'?"

"Nope." Nancy said.

Carson then looked to Alora. "If I think of anything I'll ask." Alora replied, staring at her father. Though she had an absent look on her face.

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The following day the twins walked into the police department together. Alora came to a stop first, eyes on the board. Nancy stopped next to her. They took a closer look to see their pictures on it, Nick, George, and Bess also had their pictures on the board. The five of them had been placed under the prime suspects category.

Ace and Ryan were on the board too, but they were put into the witness category. Alora sighed, stepping away from the spot she'd been standing in and she moved towards the door Nancy following her. Nancy moved ahead of her, reaching for the door; however Chief McGinnis stopped the twins from entering.

"Nancy and Alora Drew. Twice in two days. Tell me you're here to confess." McGinnis said, keeping his eyes on Nancy. It was like he suspected Nancy more than he suspected Alora. She felt a sting of jealousy but it was quickly washed away.

"May we please see the cold case file on Lucy Sable?" Nancy asked him.

"Oh, returning to your favorite pastime of interfering in my work. Why the sudden interest in Lucy 20 years after the fact?"

"Just concerned citizens." Alora answered, with a nod of her head.

"Chief, that was Judge Fontaine. He signed the injunction. Our coroner can't touch the body. Court's allowing Ryan Hudson to move Tiffany to the district morgue in New Hampshire. He says he wants the autopsy handled by a more qualified expert. They're picking the body up at 8:00 p.m." Karen told him.

"They're railroading your investigation, aren't they?" Nancy asked.

"This is why suspects don't get to hang around in a police station." McGinnis walked out pushing the two backwards.

"Looks like Lucy will have to wait, which means the only thing we have to worry about is the other murder that needs solving, the one where we're a suspect. The only way to clear our name is to find the killer, who could be closer than Nancy or I would like to think. Ace puts up the slacker front, but he's smarter than he seems..."

Alora was at work, she turned around watching Ace walk away from the sink and towards Bess. She shook her head and walked away from him.

"...even if he's got a thing for unattainable women. Bess says she lives in a mansion with her rich aunt, but if that's true, why is she working here?" George then walked out, taking Bess' mirror. "George plays the tough girl, but she's a pro at keeping secrets." She then threw it in the trash. "Big secrets. Like the identity of the older man she was caught hooking up with junior year. But none of them have a motive. The only one who does is the one Nancy desperately wishes she didn't: the guy Tiffany put in jail three years ago with her eyewitness testimony."

Alora stood in the kitchen watching her sister talk to Nick. She then looked away when they kissed.

"I hope for her sake he's innocent."

Alora was still in the kitchen sitting on the table with Ace across from her on a chair and Nancy standing across from her on the other side. Bess was in the room, where George walked up to her.

"Well, Tiffany Hudson's not the only dead thing around here." George said, as Nancy threw a cloth at Ace who was drumming on his legs.

"I... Too soon." Bess said, turning to look at her.

"Is it?"

"Mm."

"Don't just stand there, guys. Post something on Yelp."

"What do you want us to post? 'We promise our wait staff didn't murder anyone'?" Nancy asked.

"We all know who murdered Tiffany. Dead Lucy. We have it all on video. What did the cops say when you showed them?"

"I didn't show them."

"But..."

"All they would do is take Nancy's phone away and log it as evidence." Alora told them.

"Anyway, kids have been making fake Lucy videos for years. McGinnis wouldn't believe her." Ace said, looking at Nancy and then over at Alora but holding his gaze on her as she looked at Bess.

"Well, won't we know more soon? Aren't they gonna do an autopsy?"

"Alora and I overheard that the Hudson family got a judge to block it. They're moving the body tonight, which is exactly what you would do if you were trying to cover up a murder."

"You're looking in the wrong place, Drew. Ryan Hudson wouldn't kill his wife." George said, causing Nancy and Alora to briefly look at her.

"George is defending him, that's odd."

"Why is his family trying to hide behind a special autopsy?" Ace went on to ask.

"So you can doctor the results. Hide the truth. I mean, I'm willing to bet if they've got a judge in their pocket, they've got that coroner in New Hampshire, too." Alora said.

"Although..." She turned towards her sister. "...if we had someone... say a forensic chemist who owed you for solving a perfume-related mystery for him in the ninth grade, he could perform the same kind of toxicology test for you."

"That's a very specific hypothetical." Ace said, looking at Nancy.

"Yeah. It may not be a full autopsy, but it could be enough to figure out how Tiffany died."

"All we'd need is some of her blood." Alora said, shortly after.

"And how are we gonna get some of her blood?" Bess asked the twins. "Also, ew."

"Stay here. We got it." Nancy said, turning and walking towards her locker.

"Guess that's my cue." Alora said, the three watched her jump off the table and eventually walk out of the kitchen leaving them behind.

"Though this is the last place I wanted to go with Nancy, but, she's my sister and I can't let her do this alone."

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The two stood outside the building, looking at it. "Standard public building break-in. We've been doing them since we were 14." They watched the corner come out, and eventually start talking on his phone. Once he was in the car the two took off towards the building. "Pick a lock, steal some blood. Done by the time he's back." They moved down the steps. "Except there's no lock to pick. Guess they use key cards now. Gonna have to come up with a new plan."

The two walked back up the steps and went to walk forward however they both stopped. Then they turned to look into the window to see Lucy Sable standing behind them. Alora and Nancy turned back around to look at the trees but saw no sign of Lucy. But they two decided to walk towards the trees as a crow squawked.

"Hello?" Nancy asked, as they continued through the grass. They came underneath a tree and a hand fell down grabbing Nancy and Alora's shoulder. The twins turned around to look up but saw nothing.

"Get it together, Drew. You don't believe in ghosts. Right?"

───── ☾☾☾ ─────

They made it back to the Claw, everyone had been gathered. "So, it turns out the security system in the morgue is a little insane, so we're gonna have to try again tonight." Nancy said, as she and Alora walked around.

"You can't go there at night; the morgue's haunted." Ace told them, causing the twins to turn around and look at him as Bess did.

"Oh, here we go." George said, walking away from her spot.

"Wait, what... it's haunted?" Bess asked.

"Yeah. By our old friend, Dead Lucy." Bess proceeded to sigh looking at Nancy and Alora. Ace proceeded to stand up. "They say she wanders it after dark, searching for a long-lost body. About ten years back, some kids snuck in, trying to see if those stories were true. One died..." Bess gasped. "...one disappeared, the other lost his mind."

"Oh, my God." Alora watched as Ace touched Bess' arm trying to comfort her. She had to look away before she'd say something she might regret. Ace had caught the way she had reacted when he had touched Bess' arm.

"I know. I bet that's why the security system's so souped-up now. Right?"

"Okay, we're not gonna let a ghost story stop us from our one chance of gathering this evidence." Nancy said, walking over to the two.

"So we're gonna work together to break into the morgue tonight." Alora added.

"Wait, who said we were gonna do anything?" George asked them.

"Well, as fellow suspects, you should be highly incentivized to help us. We may not be able to dismantle the security system, but we can get the coroner's key card. He'll be at the ceremony tonight, so we'll break into the morgue while he's there, and the blood will be packed up and shipped off by 9:00 p.m."

"Oh, but what about the van?" Bess asked. "You said it was supposed to arrive by 8:00 p.m."

"Unless we get it canceled. Ryan arranged the transport himself, so he could call it off, or we could cancel it for him if..."

"If we got the name of that medical examiner, we could call and impersonate a Hudson flunky." Ace said, cutting Alora off.

"All we need is Ryan's phone."

"He jogs up near Hunter's Creek every afternoon. Leaves his stuff there. You can get it then." Nancy and Alora proceeded to look at her. "What? I cut through there on my lunch break, okay?"

"Can you cut through there again today?" Nancy asked her.

"Oh, and steal his phone."

"You steal his phone, I can break into it."

"Hmm. Noted." Nancy said.

"Why can't you do it?"

"Because I'm gonna be getting the tool to break into the car. And you're the one who knows where to find him."

"Fine." George stood up while Bess chuckled. She proceeded to walk past them and exit out of the locker room.

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Alora sat on a stool at the bar, she turned around when the front door opened. George then walked by. She had opted not to go with her sister, instead she stayed at work while Nancy went to spy on George to see what she would do.

"No dice. He took his phone while jogging." She said.

"I saw you take it out of his car and then hand it back to him." Nancy said, while Alora looked up. Alora wasn't surprised that George had been hiding something from them. Everyone had something to hide. What Alora didn't expect though, was for George to have an affair with Ryan Hudson.

"You were spying on me?" George asked, turning to look back at her.

"You were helping him." Alora said, causing George to look at her.

"Best case scenario, you were covering for a killer; worst case scenario, you are the killer."

"Whoa, what? Why would I kill Tiffany?"

"You handled her food that night."

"So did you." George then turned around and proceeded to walk away from them.

"But... I'm not sleeping with her husband." George stopped in her tracks and scoffed. "Come on, George. It's obvious. He asked you to 'reschedule' for tonight."

"So now you have super hearing?"

"Nancy can read lips, I can too... we learned how to online."

"Yeah, and everyone thought I was the weirdo in high school."

"Actually, they did think I was the weirdo in high school." Alora told her. George briefly looked at Alora, like she understood what it was like to be in Nancy's shadow like that. George quickly looked back at Nancy.

"Nothing's changed. You're still judging me and jumping to conclusions."

"I'm not jumping... that is real evidence..."

"You know what's real? Being called a slut by your friends. When I sat down at a lunch table, your friends would wipe the seat off."

"My friends were idiots."

"Yeah, but they were your friends. Were they not? Although where are they now? From what I remember, they lost interest in you the second you and your sister became the girls with the dying mom." Alora looked towards Bess and Ace when they walked through the kitchen door. "All that's left is for you to tell my secret and laugh at me. Just like old times, right, Drew?"

Alora looked down at her hands, she started picking at the skin on her thumb as George walked past Ace and Bess. Ace stepped out of her way and looked back at the Drew sisters.

"Why are you guys so mad?" Bess asked them.

"The plans off." Nancy said.

"What happened to Ryan's cell phone?" Ace asked.

"He took it with him." Alora said, looking up from her hands.

"The medical examiner's van is on its way here as we speak."

"Coroner's meeting up with it at 8:00, right? What if we found a way to delay the van?"

"Enough to get what we need from the morgue?"

"Yeah, there's only the one road that leads into the morgue. Right? You have a working car?"

"On it."

"Take Bess." Alora said.

"On it."

"I'll get the key card. We'll be done by 8:30, and you'll be home by 9:00."

"Cool."

"Bye."

"And we'll use the seawater bucket ceremony as our cover."