Sisters in Crime (5 page)

“Of course not—she had terrible vision. Why all the questions?” Susan asked, confused.

“One more, and I'll answer you. How did both pairs of glasses get here?” Nancy asked, holding up both of them. “Was one pair in her car when you picked it up?”

“No, they were right there on the—oh, no!”

Nancy nodded her head as she saw that Susan understood.

“So Rina didn't drive to the ocean that day!” Susan exclaimed.

“Exactly,” agreed Nancy. “Ira said she wouldn't dive alone, and now we know for sure that someone else was with her when she went to
the beach that day. Either that person drove Rina's car, or her car was taken to the beach at another time,” Nancy explained.

“You mean she was dead before she even got there?” Susan asked, startled.

Nancy shook her, head. “No, the coroner's report had to have said it was a drowning, or else the police wouldn't have closed the case.” Nancy contemplated what she had just said. “But something strange was going on before Rina ever got to the water.”

As she spoke, Nancy's eye caught sight of an envelope pushed halfway under the closed door.

Silently moving to the door, Nancy flung it open. The hallway was empty. She bent over and picked up the envelope as Susan asked, “What's that?”

“Wait a sec,” Nancy said, stepping out into the hall to double-check. Before opening the envelope, she knocked on the door to Debbie and Patty's room.

Patty was buttoning her shirt as she answered it.

“Hi,” Nancy said quickly. “Did you see or hear anybody in the hall just now?”

Patty shook her head and grabbed a pair of running shoes from her closet. “Late for class, again,” she mumbled.

“Sorry to bother you,” Nancy said.

“No problem,” Patty said while tying her shoes. “I doubt if anyone's around—everyone's
probably in class already. Susan's the only smart one, not taking classes before eleven o'clock in the morning.”

Nancy left Patty to finish her frantic dressing.

“Nobody in the shower room,” Susan reported as she came back into the room at the same time Nancy did. “Open it, Nan,” Susan said.

Nancy closed their door and opened the sealed envelope.

The note, printed on computer paper, said:

Just in case you were wondering,

that attack
was
meant for you.

Get out of here, Nancy Drew.

W
HO IN THIS
house owns a computer?” Nancy asked Susan.

Susan was staring at the note in Nancy's hand. “Oh, Nancy! This is starting to get too dangerous.”

Nancy repeated her question about the computer, and Susan tried to get her thoughts clear enough to respond. “A couple of the seniors do, but I don't really know them very well. How can you be so cool and businesslike?” Susan asked.

“I've been threatened before,” Nancy said, trying to calm her friend. “But I've never been scared off. Threats just make me more determined.”

“Nancy, I'd blame myself forever if anything happened to you because of me. Do you think maybe we ought to drop this investigation?”

“Absolutely not! Now there's even more reason for following this case to the end,” Nancy said. “But I'll need your help.”

“You have it.”

“Okay. Computers,” Nancy said, reminding Susan.

“Yes. Well, there's a couple of seniors on this floor who have them, and down in the basement study hall there's one that's available to all of us.”

Racing downstairs to the basement, Nancy quickly typed the message she had received on the sorority's word processor. The typeface on the printout she made was identical to that of the letter in her hand.

Dead end, Nancy thought. Anyone could have written this. Every person in the sorority has access to this machine.

• • •

At eleven-thirty Nancy, dressed in a pale pink cotton knit dress, rang the doorbell of the huge Sigma Kappa fraternity house.

“Well, hello!” a good-looking guy said, greeting her. “I sure hope I can help you.”

“I hope so, too,” Nancy said with a smile.

“Let me guess,” he said. “You're looking for a date Saturday night. I'd love to, thank you!”

“No, not exactly.” Nancy laughed and looked at his madras plaid shorts and white T-shirt.

“Well, my name is Mark. Welcome to Sigma Kappa,” he said. “Come on in.”

“Thanks. I'm Nancy Drew.”

“I am free Saturday night,” Mark said. “No kidding.”

“Sorry, but I'll probably be back home by then. I'm just visiting my cousin for a few days.”

“Where's home?” Mark asked.,

“A town in the Midwest called River Heights.”

“Well, that's a fine place for a date. I've never seen River Heights. Shall I meet you there Saturday night? About eight o'clock?”

“I've actually come to buy a fraternity ring for my boyfriend,” Nancy said, thinking that would discourage Mark. “He's a Sigma Kappa at Emerson College, and I wanted to give it to him as a gift.”

“Is there a chapter at Emerson?” Mark asked. “I didn't know that. Anyway, dump him,” he said with a grin. “He's not good enough for you.”

As Mark and Nancy joked in the hallway, several of Mark's fraternity brothers passed them. Nancy kept an eye out fot a large guy with dark curly hair, the one with the Sigma Kappa ring. She was less clear about what the other guy looked like, but they would both recognize her, she knew, so she was watchful for any unusual reaction.

“Could I see a brochure of your fraternity jewelry?” Nancy asked Mark.

“Sure. I can get it for you, but I was just going in to lunch. Want to join us? Your boyfriend can't object to that.”

“I'm happy to join you,” Nancy said.

“Now, that's what I like to hear!” Mark said.

Sigma Kappa fraternity house was not nearly so nice as the Delta Phi's. The dining room was loud and pretty messy. Nancy accepted a plate of macaroni and cheese that one of the fraternity brothers served her.

Everyone, it seemed, was looking at Nancy appreciatively. “You must be Mark's sister,” someone said as he put his plate down on the table next to Nancy's. “I'm Jay.”

“I'm Nancy,” she said, shaking Jay's outstretched hand. “But not Mark's sister.”

“Well, you're much too pretty to be his date,” Jay said, sitting next to her. “You must be related somehow.”

“Hey, hands off Ms. Drew,” Mark said as other guys took seats at their table.

Nancy gave Mark a quick smile and turned back to the conversation. “I'm only visiting the school for a couple of days. I'm staying with my cousin at the Delta Phi house.”

“Delta Phi,” Jay said. “Beautiful, smart, and snobby.”

“Especially smart,” chimed in a man with the same dark, curly hair that Nancy identified with
her attacker. But his build was much too small. The other guy had been very large.

After finishing eating, Mark said, “Come on, let me get the jewelry information for you.”

Leafing through the catalog, Nancy searched for the ring she had seen. “The one I was looking for has a red stone, like a ruby, in it, with Greek letters in gold. But I don't see it here.”

“Nah. That hasn't been around for years. Too expensive. I think this one is the best.” Mark pointed to a plain silver ring with Sigma Kappa embossed on it.

“But I saw someone wearing that ring just yesterday,” Nancy complained.

“It must have been his old man's or something. He didn't get it here.”

“Does anyone in this house have that ring?”

“Nobody,” Mark said positively.

Nancy closed the catalog, disappointed to have another lead come to a dead end. “Well, thanks for your help, Mark, and for lunch, too.”

“So I'll see you Saturday night?”

Nancy smiled. “Afraid not, but thanks anyway.”

• • •

Nancy looked at the span of ocean she could see from the rooftop sun deck at the sorority house and thought about what direction to take with this frustrating case. There was one death already. And something is going on and certain people in this sorority know about it. But what is
it, and who are they? Nancy had not begun to piece any of it together. Lori? Fran? Some of the girls in the inner circle? All of them? And outside the sorority who's involved? The men on the beach—who were they working with? Even Ira, Nancy had to suspect. Standing behind the white wooden railing high above the ground, lost in thought, Nancy barely heard the footsteps coming toward her.

All of a sudden Fran Kelly was next to Nancy. She took out a bright blue ribbon from her pocket and tied back her long straight hair.

Interesting, Nancy thought as she said hello. Is Fran following me, or is this a chance meeting?

“Hello,” Fran answered, but said nothing more.

“Finished with your classes for the day?” Nancy asked, looking at her watch. It was three o'clock.

Fran nodded. “My Tuesday schedule is light. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I suffer.”

Nancy smiled. It seemed as though Fran was actually being a little friendly.

“I'm a math major,” Fran said. “And I have a calculus test on Monday. But I've got too much on my mind to study.”

Nancy waited patiently to see if Fran was going to say any more about herself. There were a couple of minutes of silence before Fran said, “As a matter of fact,
you're
one of the main things on my mind.”

Fran's voice had changed completely. A hard, cold tone made her voice sound brittle. Her pretense of friendliness had vanished.

“Me?” Nancy asked, turning away from the ocean view to face Fran.

“Yes, you, Nancy Drew. You come here out of nowhere, and in one day you're driving off to the beach to go swimming with Lori Westerly,” Fran said. There was no hiding the jealousy in her voice.

Nancy leaned back against the railing as she studied Fran Kelly.

“Just like your cousin's last roommate,” Fran continued. “You remind me of her, you know that? Doing anything to get in with the right crowd.”

Knowing that whatever she said would provoke Fran, Nancy remained silent—and on guard.

Now it was Fran who turned to face the ocean. She said, “But things are going to change around here for me—you just watch. Very soon I'm going to be an officer of this sorority.”

Scanning the deck, Nancy saw that the only exit was the small stairway she had come up.

“My mother's best friend is the accountant for Delta Phi,” Fran said, speaking slowly. “And she's just agreed to suggest me as the next treasurer.”

So perhaps Fran will be next to know the dangerous secret that Rina knew. Looking at the
angry girl in front of her, Nancy wondered if Fran would then be in danger.

“Yes, Lori should be getting a letter of recommendation from Linda Peterson very soon,” Fran hissed.

Peterson? Nancy's breath caught.
Peterson
was the name written in the margin of Rina's notebook.

There was a frightening look in Fran's eyes as she began a tirade. “You're trying to do just what Rina did to me, Nancy Drew!”

As Fran's hands flew up from her sides, Nancy parried the attack she knew was coming. “So you'd better stop trying to push me out!” Fran shouted, shoving Nancy hard.

Nancy heard a loud crack as she felt the white wooden railing start to give!

A
S THE RAILING
gave, Nancy flung herself forward and fell into Fran. Immediately Nancy stood up and assumed the solid karate stance of a professional. Although she still knew nothing of Fran's motive, Nancy was ready to fight, if a fight was called for.

But Fran steadied herself, and took the violence no further. For an instant she looked shocked and frightened as she glanced over the edge of the roof to the hard concrete below. Without a backward glance, Fran turned and walked down the stairs.