063 Mixed Signals (7 page)

An awkward silence fell as Nancy stared first at Bess and then at Ned. “Nancy didn’t want to say anything about it before—” Ned began to explain.

“I promised Randy that I’d keep things under wraps,” Nancy added quickly. “But now that I’m officially working on the case, we could use your help. Someone has been threatening Randy. He’s been told to throw Sunday’s game—or else.”

“You are kidding, right?” Jerry’s mouth dropped open in astonishment as Nancy told him about the phone calls, the note, and the suspicious incidents. “Do the other football players know about this?” he asked.

“Not to my knowledge. That’s why I need your help. I’ve been checking out possible suspects, but I haven’t gotten an inside line on any of the Wildcats. Have you noticed anything strange going on among your teammates?”

Jerry hesitated for a moment, and Nancy could tell it troubled him to think of his teammates as possible suspects. “Not really,” he answered at last. “I don’t know anyone who openly has a gripe against him. Simpson’s never going to make it to the pros, but he gives it his best shot. The guys admire him for that.”

“I can’t help thinking that I missed something in the locker room,” Nancy murmured, twisting a strand of her reddish blond hair around a finger. “I was with the coach and Dean Jarvis when they searched the lockers, but there must be some sort of equipment closet or something.”

“There sure is,” said Jerry.

Nancy stood up abruptly. “Well, I’d better check on it. Anyone care to come along?”

“Count me out,” Jerry said apologetically. “I have to get in some study time. But I’ll see you all at our party.”

“Party?” Bess sat up straighter in her chair. “Did I miss something?”

Grinning at Bess, Jerry said, “Not yet, but if you don’t come I’ll never forgive you. Our fraternity is throwing a bash tonight.”

“Great,” Bess told him, blushing. “We’ll be there.”

“In the meantime maybe I should go with you two to the locker room,” Ned volunteered. “I don’t want any of the guys on the team to freak out if they see you there.”

Ten minutes later they were back in the sports complex. With Ned and Bess keeping watch at the locker room door, Nancy combed through the closet where the team equipment was stored. One by one, she examined the water bottles stacked on a tray. Although they were a little smudged and worn with use, nothing seemed amiss.

Next, Nancy sifted through the contents of the first-aid case. It was filled with ointments and bandages, but she noted that the only drug it contained was aspirin. Otherwise, the closet held only extra equipment, towels, stopwatches, and the like. No typewriter and no sleeping pills.

When she was finished, Nancy leaned against a row of lockers. “Hey, you guys,” she called to Ned and Bess. “I need to talk through this case out loud.” Sometimes simply bouncing ideas off other people helped her to unearth important clues.

Ned and Bess came into the locker room and sat on a bench opposite Nancy. “If all these events are related—and that’s still an
if
,” she began, “then someone had to be close enough to drop drugs in Randy’s water bottle, pour kerosene on the wooden platform, and rig that barbell in the weight room.”

“So the culprit is probably someone who can move about freely on campus,” Bess surmised.

“Right,” said Nancy. “Someone like Danielle Graves. Or Tamara Carlson. Both girls had access to the platform and to the weight room.”

“But what about the drugs?” Bess pointed out. “Do you think any of those girls could talk her way into the guys’ locker room?”

“That would be tough,” Ned said.

“Maybe they didn’t have to,” Nancy suggested. “They were on the field this afternoon, at cheerleading practice. Susannah was there, too. If Tamara or Susannah is working with Zip, that gives them motive
and
opportunity.

“There are two team members we should keep in mind, too,” Nancy added. “Josh and his father.”

“Coach?” Ned’s expression was extremely skeptical. “I don’t know about that, Nan.”

“He and Josh have a reason to want Randy off the roster,” Nancy pointed out. She told Ned and Bess about the conversation she’d overheard between Coach Mitchell and Dean Jarvis. “If Randy’s out of the running, the coach has a shot at getting his son in as quarterback in Sunday’s game.”

“But he and Josh are one of the most sought-after athletic combos in college football,” Ned protested.

Bess turned to Ned and asked, “Where were they before they came to Emerson?”

“Last year they were at Baldwin State,” he answered. “Their team made it to the state finals. And Jerry says the Wildcats have a good chance of making it to the finals this year. At least, they did before Josh was put on probation.”

Bess had been counting on her fingers as Nancy spoke. Now holding up her hand, she said, “Nan, that makes six suspects!”

“And we have very little time to figure out who is guilty,” Nancy added soberly. “The homecoming game is the day after tomorrow.”

Just then Josh Mitchell jogged in and grabbed a towel from his locker. Covered in sweat and breathing hard, he had obviously been working out. He said hello to Ned, then froze as his gaze lit on Nancy and Bess.

“Girls!” Josh made a point of looking around. “Hey, did I walk into the wrong locker room?” he teased.

“We were, uh, just on our way out,” Nancy said cautiously. She didn’t want them to draw attention to her investigation.

“Nancy Drew and Bess, right?” Josh said, smiling. “Don’t leave because of me. I’m going right back to the weight room. I just came in to grab a towel.” Looking at Nancy, he added, “Dad told me about your investigation. He said—”

Josh was interrupted by a loud rumbling from the wall near the shower room. For a moment the entire room seemed to shake. Then, just as suddenly, the rumbling subsided.

“What was that?” Bess inquired.

“Believe it or not, that was the boiler kicking on,” Josh explained, wiping his forehead with his towel. “My father has been trying to get that thing fixed for months. They say it’s safe, but it sounds awful.”

Bess giggled nervously. “I thought we were having an earthquake.”

Josh slung the towel around his neck and faced Nancy. “As I was saying, Dad told me about Randy’s close call in the weight room. We’re all upset about him passing out this afternoon, too. I just wanted to let you know that I’ll help you in any way I can. If you need a hand, just yell.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Nancy told him. “At the moment there’s only one question I’d like you to answer. Did anyone ever threaten you before you went on academic probation?”

“Nope.” Josh shook his head. “Never.”

Hmm, thought Nancy. Apparently, the attacker was only interested in having Emerson lose the homecoming game. And whoever it was was willing to take drastic steps to make sure the Wildcats didn’t win.

Nancy checked her watch. “Oops! We’d better get back to our room and change, Bess. It’s already seven-thirty.”

“And our party starts at eight,” said Ned. “I’d better go, too.”

“I had no idea.” Bess grabbed Nancy’s arm and pulled her toward the locker-room door. “See you later!”

“Let’s sit out this song,” Nancy said to Ned, leaning close to him. They had been dancing since Nancy and Bess arrived at the Omega Chi Epsilon fraternity an hour earlier. “I need to take a breather.”

“Whatever you say, boss,” Ned joked.

They threaded a path through the jumble of students dancing and milling around the living room. Bess, pretty in a maroon miniskirt and black sweater and boots, was sitting with Jerry on the steps leading to the second floor.

Adjusting the black-beaded belt of her cobalt blue silk jumpsuit, Nancy headed toward them. “Hi, guys,” she said as Ned gave Jerry a high-five.

“I thought you were going to dance until you dropped,” Bess said. “Isn’t this party great?”

“How about some cider?” Ned suggested. Nancy and Bess both nodded, and Jerry went with Ned to get it.

“I’ve been wanting to talk with you,” a voice said behind Nancy.

Turning, Nancy found herself face-to-face with Danielle Graves.

“It’s—it’s about Randy,” Danielle added.

“Oh? What about him?” Nancy inquired, keeping her voice level.

Danielle’s face seemed unnaturally pale in the living room’s artificial light. “I was there when he—when he collapsed this afternoon, and I heard that you were trying to find out who’s after him. . . .” Her voice trailed off, and she swallowed hard.

“Listen, Nancy, I know I said positively wicked things about Randy,” Danielle continued. “And he deserved them—”

“Because he broke up with you?” Bess put in.

“Well, yes,” she admitted. “I was mad, and I wanted to get back at him. But not
that
way. I wanted to make him feel bad for breaking up with me, but I’d never really try to hurt a guy with fire or drugs or anything. You know?”

“I think I understand what you’re saying,” Nancy said slowly.

Danielle seemed genuinely upset about Randy and obviously regretted her outbursts, Nancy thought as the petite girl wandered off. But Nancy had no proof that this wasn’t just an act.

She forgot all about the case a moment later, however, as Ned reappeared beside her. She took the mug of hot cider he held out, and the two of them found a spot on the stairs behind Bess and Jerry.

“Nice party, Nickerson,” she murmured, leaning in close to him.

“And you’re the nicest thing about it.” Ned’s arm circled tightly around her, and his lips closed on hers in a kiss that took Nancy’s breath away.

The rest of the party passed pleasantly with dancing and talking. Nancy was surprised when it was midnight and time to return to their dorm. By the time they said their final good-nights to Ned and Jerry in the lobby of the dorm, however, Nancy realized how tired she was.

“I’m beat,” she said as they walked down the hall to their suite. “Oh, hi, Tamara,” she said as the pretty, dark-skinned girl came up behind them in the hallway, wearing a nightgown and bathrobe.

“Hi, Bess, Nancy.” Tamara smiled at them before disappearing into her room.

Taking her room key from her purse, Nancy unlocked the door and pushed it open, then reached inside to flick on the light. As she stepped into the room, the first thing she noticed was a piece of lined yellow paper on the carpet.

“Someone must have slipped this under the door,” she said, reaching down to pick it up.

Nancy unfolded the note and read it.

SCHOOL’S OUT FOR YOU, NANCY DREW. LEAVE EMERSON—BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

Chapter Ten

N
ANCY FELT
the blood drain from her face. Quickly rereading the note, she handed it to Bess. “Someone doesn’t want me on this case,” she said, frowning.

“It’s a threat,” Bess said worriedly. “I don’t like this, Nancy.”

“Well, it’s not going to work.” With a determined jab, Nancy reached into her bag for the note Randy had received. She sat down on the sofa and spread out the two notes on the table, then peered from one to the other. Although one was on white paper and the other on yellow, they were both typed using only capital letters.

Suddenly she leaned forward. “Hey, look at this. The capital
E
in each note is the same. The bottom of it is broken off.” She pointed to the
E
’s in both her note and Randy’s. “These were definitely typed on the same typewriter.”

“Which means that you’re really in danger,” Bess said with a quaver. “Oh, Nan, maybe we should leave in the morning. We don’t have to stay all weekend.”

“We can’t leave just because things are heating up,” Nancy protested. She leaned forward to study the notes once again. “If I could just find the machine that these were typed on . . .”

Bess rolled her eyes. “Oh, sure, it’ll only take a few hundred years to try out every typewriter on campus,” she teased.

Shooting her friend a challenging glance, Nancy said, “We don’t have to try every typewriter,” she said. “But some of our suspects do happen to live right in this dorm. We can’t check Tamara’s room, since we know she’s in there now. But she’s not our only suspect.”

“You mean Danielle? But what if she’s in her room?” Bess asked nervously.

Nancy grabbed Bess and pulled her toward the door. “There’s only one way to find out.”

A few minutes later, after checking the directory in the lobby, the girls were walking stealthily down the empty third-floor hallway.

“Here it is,” Bess whispered. “Three fourteen.”

Holding her breath, Nancy knocked on the door. There was no answer. “Perfect,” she said, kneeling and pulling her lockpick set from her purse. A moment later she had the lock clicking open.

“Okay, you wait in the lounge by the elevator,” she instructed. “And—”

“And if Danielle comes, I’ll stall her,” Bess finished. “We’ve already been over this, Nan. Don’t worry about me. Just hurry!”

As Bess went back down the hall, Nancy slipped into Danielle’s room and turned on the light. She glanced quickly around the small room, taking in the dresser, bed, desk, and closet.

Going methodically around the room, she searched them all, checking for a typewriter or for anything that could hold kerosene. She even opened the makeup jars on top of Danielle’s dresser, but she didn’t find anything unusual.

After ten minutes Nancy made herself stop and take a deep breath. There should at least be a typewriter, she thought. Where was it?

She froze as she heard footsteps in the hall outside, but a moment later they passed by. That was when Nancy’s gaze lit on the small computer on Danielle’s desk. Of course, she thought. Danielle wrote her papers on her computer.

She leaned against Danielle’s desk, thinking. There was no way she had time to turn the thing on and figure out how to print something. From what she knew of computer printouts, though, it would be unusual for any computer to type an imperfection such as the broken
E
in the threatening notes.

It was too soon to take Danielle off her list of suspects, Nancy knew, but the cheerleader was now taking a backseat to Zip, Susannah, and Tamara.