062 Easy Marks (12 page)

At that moment Phyllis Hathaway appeared in the doorway, her face livid with anger. Apparently she’d overheard part of the conversation. “What are you up to now, you—you worm?” she cried.

“Nice try, Phyllis, but it won’t work,” said Friedbinder, glowering at the assistant headmaster. “I think you can kiss your career as an educator goodbye.”

“Is that so?” Phyllis replied. “Well, for your information that’s exactly what I intend to do. I’ve just given Dana the last payment making me half owner of PointTech Computers. I’m giving you my notice.”

That certainly explains a lot, thought Nancy—the money changing hands, the phone calls, the meetings.

“Why would the records being destroyed spoil your plan?” Nancy asked, recalling what she’d heard Phyllis say when they came in.

“Because I couldn’t resign with Brewster in the middle of a total computer breakdown. That would be pretty irresponsible. It would look as if I’d done it to make work for PointTech—which is not true,” Phyllis said emphatically. “A major computer problem would delay my leaving by months.”

“That’s almost convincing,” Friedbinder sneered. “You and your partners don’t fool me. First Dana saddled Brewster with an overelaborate and faulty computer system. That was bad enough. But now this grade-changing plan . . . Is your greed limitless?”

Nancy observed Friedbinder carefully. He was as tense as a tiger ready to spring. His icy blue eyes were fixed menacingly on Phyllis. He was hardly the controlled headmaster one would expect.

Dana and Victor walked into the room. “We haven’t done anything wrong,” Dana insisted. “I sold Brewster a fine computer at a fair price. Anyone in the business will say the same. And if you are implying that we are involved in some grade-changing—which I just overheard—you’re insane!”

“Then what are you doing here now, after school hours?” Friedbinder asked.

Phyllis stepped forward. “There was a message on my answering machine, saying that someone was going to sabotage the computer system this evening. I thought it was probably a crank call, but I couldn’t take the chance that it wasn’t on the level. I collected Dana, and we came right over.”

“Just in time to see the hard disk erase itself,” said Nancy. “Mr. Friedbinder, I think
you
have some explaining to do.”

“What!” he cried. “I—I—you’re in on this, too!” he sputtered.

“You know that’s a lie,” said Nancy, facing Friedbinder squarely.

Just then, a breathless Harrison Lane rushed into the office. “What on earth is happening here?” he asked.

“Ms. Drew seems to have lost her mind completely,” said Friedbinder. “Either that, or these three have induced her to join their sordid scheme.”

Turning to Nancy, Lane asked, “What is he saying?”

“He’s upset because I’ve accused him of being the phantom grade-changer,” Nancy told him, her eyes still on the headmaster. “Which he is.”

“What!” cried Harrison Lane.

“You can’t prove anything,” Friedbinder said at the same time. “Those records are completely lost. Erased.”

“No, not really,” said Dana. “At the end of each workday, the contents of the computer’s hard disk are automatically copied into a high-capacity tape cartridge. That way, no matter what happens, you can’t lose more than one day’s work. I’m surprised at you, Walter. Obviously you didn’t finish reading the user’s manual I provided.”

“Would those include a record of when and from where the command to erase the hard disk was entered?” Nancy asked.

Dana smiled. “Yes, they would.”

“I bet I can access those files right now,” said Victor, leaving the room.

“I find this hard to believe,” Lane put in. “Why would a man in Walter’s position do such a thing?”

“Greed,” Nancy suggested.

“I’ll sue you!” Friedbinder shouted. “You’d better watch your step, Ms. Drew!”

Victor returned to the office. “I won’t be able to get those records tonight. It’ll take too long.”

“That’s because there’s nothing to get,” said Friedbinder. “You have nothing on me.”

“I wouldn’t call these nothing,” said Nancy, pulling the yellow sheet of paper, the newspaper clipping, and the pad of computer notes from her pocket. “ ‘Sally Lane, one thousand dollars . . .’ ”

All the color drained from Walter Friedbinder’s face as Nancy read the list of students and the amounts he’d gotten from each of them. “Where did you get that?” he sputtered, his face purple. Without waiting for an answer, he lunged toward Nancy.

Nancy was ready for him, but before he reached her, Victor butted his shoulder into the headmaster’s chest. Friedbinder went flying backward and landed on the floor.

Harrison Lane examined Nancy’s evidence. “I don’t think we’ll be needing computer records,” he said. “You’ll be hearing from the board’s lawyer in the morning.”

“This is an outrage!” cried Friedbinder, climbing to his feet.

“No. Fraud, arson, extortion—those are outrages,” replied Lane.

Friedbinder flashed a furious gaze at Nancy. “I was on easy street,” he said, puffing his chest out arrogantly. “I had those kids so scared I knew they’d never tell anyone what was going on. And who would they blab to, anyway? Me, that’s who.” He let out a short, disdainful laugh. “Everything was going great—until you came along.”

His face red, he sneered, “If I’d had my way, you would have died in that fire, Nancy Drew! I planned to set it before you showed up. When I heard you go in early, I figured I might as well get you, and the evidence, out of the way at once. It was easy to pour that gasoline around the door without your hearing—you were so involved.”

“You mean, you were trying to kill Nancy?” Victor gasped. Grabbing the headmaster’s right arm, he twisted it behind his back, as if to ensure he wouldn’t try to make a run for it.

“Don’t worry, Victor,” Nancy told him. “Friedbinder’s not going anywhere for a long, long time.”

Chapter Sixteen

A
T LUNCHTIME
the next day Nancy walked into Phyllis Hathaway’s office. Phyllis, Dana, and Victor had been working there all morning, trying to retrieve the school’s erased files.

“Here she is now, our heroine!” cried Phyllis. Nancy had dropped her tutorial look and was wearing jeans and a large, soft cowl-neck sweater of deep blue.

Nancy laughed. “I’m just here to wrap up a couple of loose ends—and to say goodbye.”

“You should be proud of us, Teach,” said Victor. “We managed to save all the computer files.”

“While we were at it, we did some investigating of our own. Guess what we’ve discovered,” Dana added. “Walter was transmitting messages from his terminal, routing them to a midpoint terminal, sometimes two midpoint terminals, and then sending them to their final destination.”

“So I was right. That’s why the messages seemed to be coming from the newspaper room,” said Nancy.

“Well, guess what
I
found out this morning,” Nancy told them, leaning against Phyllis’s desk. “I called all three colleges mentioned in his resume. Not one of them has ever heard of Walter Friedbinder! He’s a complete fraud; never even graduated from college. Then I called the last school where he was headmaster. I told the new headmaster what had been going on, and he began going through
their
files. Guess why he had such a great reputation for bringing up the school’s academic performance?”

“He electronically doctored students’ records?” Phyllis guessed.

“Yep,” Nancy replied. “Apparently, the one thing he didn’t make up was his ability with computers, though we may never know how he got to be such a whiz.”

“Harrison Lane told me that he’s organizing a class-action suit against Friedbinder to get all the students reimbursed,” said Phyllis. “The board of trustees is suing him for fraud. Plus, he’ll probably be indicted for arson and attempted murder. I’d say he’s in for a whole lot of trouble.”

Dana chuckled softly. “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.” She patted her computer, adding, “All the students’ grades are back to what they were, thanks to PointTech’s brilliant back-up system.”

“Speaking of PointTech,” Nancy said to Phyllis, “are you still joining the company? You know, Brewster will probably ask you to be their head now.”

“They’ll have to ask someone else,” Phyllis told her. “It was a big step for me, but now that I’ve made it, I can’t go back. I’m leaving Brewster at the end of the month.”

Nancy got up. “Well, good luck. I have to go now. I just wanted to say goodbye.”

Victor’s eyes locked with hers. “I’ll walk you to your car,” he said, getting to his feet and grabbing his jacket.

They walked out the front door of the school. It was a warm day. The thermometer had climbed into the low sixties, and a warm breeze rustled the vividly colored leaves on Brewster’s campus. “Did you tell Phyllis what you told me last night about changing your friend’s grade?” Nancy asked him as they walked.

“I did, this morning,” Victor replied, grimacing slightly. “She said it wasn’t fair to punish Phil for something he knew nothing about. Then she gave me a long lecture about ethics and technology, which I deserved, I guess. My punishment is to stay after school and work on getting those files back together until it’s done.”

Nancy gave him a sympathetic smile. “That’s tedious work, isn’t it?”

“Major tedious,” he agreed.

They walked on in silence for a little while longer, until they reached Nancy’s car. Opening the driver’s door, Nancy threw her bag onto the passenger seat and climbed in behind the wheel.

Victor leaned down, resting his elbows on the open car window. “I hope you didn’t come to say goodbye to me, too, Nancy,” he said seriously. “I really want to see you again.”

Nancy took in his handsome face, broad shoulders, and beautiful eyes. Then she sighed. “Victor, I told you about Ned. I like you, but—”

Victor stopped her words with a warm, tender kiss on the lips. “Victor, I can’t,” she said. “If it wasn’t for Ned—”

Suddenly Victor looked under her car, then checked the back seat. He walked to the front of the car and checked under the hood. “What are you doing?” Nancy asked with an exasperated laugh.

“Looking for Ned,” he answered, flashing her his disarming grin.

Nancy couldn’t help playing along. “Ned isn’t here,” she told him.

Victor’s grin grew even wider. “That’s right,” he said. “So I’m going to keep trying for you, Nancy Drew.”