Sisters in Crime (11 page)

“So Lori knew you were going on the walk?” Susan asked. “And she followed you, and threw a green- and red-striped dart into your shoulder?”

Nancy nodded. “It's a possibility,” she said.

“You think Kathy is innocent?” Susan asked.

“I do. She was so shocked by it all. And I just don't think she'd be able to act that well.” Nancy shrugged. “But I've been wrong before, so I'll just keep watching.”

Opening the desk drawer where Nancy had put the embezzlement information, she and Susan looked over the figures they had just computed. “Fifteen thousand dollars,” Nancy said again.

• • •

When Nancy and Susan went downstairs in the early evening, the sorority house had been transformed. The tables in the dining room had been removed to make a dance floor, red-and-white paper hearts were hanging from the ceiling, and a band was setting up its sound system.

Beneath the vases of red roses in the hall someone had placed a sign: H
ELP YOURSELF.
G
IVE ONE TO YOUR SWEETHEART
!

“I invited Ira to stop by later,” Susan told Nancy, looking at the roses.

Nancy smiled at her friend. “Good for you.”

Almost everyone in the sorority was downstairs,
clustered around the refreshment table, laughing.

“What's the joke?” Susan asked, peering over to the table.

“Harriet made heart-shaped pizzas, with heart-shaped pepperoni,” answered a girl as she walked by. “She got carried away!”

Only a few guys were in the room so far, and Nancy saw most of them hanging around out front on the large porch and on the lawn. It must be muscles that get you into Zeta Psi, Nancy observed, recognizing a few of them as members of SDU's swim team.

“There
you are,” Lori called out to Nancy, and waved to her. She told her to come meet the person standing with her in the hall. Lori was dressed in a softer style than usual. She was wearing a pastel flowered print dress with a lace collar. She looked quite beautiful.

“Peter Ryan—Nancy Drew,” Lori said proudly. “You two are going to click, I just know it,” she said with flushed cheeks. Just then Mike Jamison appeared with one red rose for Lori.

Peter was a handsome guy with shining dark brown eyes, dark curly hair, and a deep tan. Nancy said “hi,” and Peter said “click.” Nancy smiled at his joke.

“And this is Mike,” Lori added. Turning to her boyfriend, Lori explained, “Nancy is checking out the school to see about coming here.”

“I enjoyed watching you dive on Wednesday,” Nancy said to Mike.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, and immediately turned away from Nancy and pushed Lori toward the dining room.

“Ah, young love,” Peter quipped. “Today's the day for it.”

“Hello, Peter,” came a familiar voice behind Nancy. Without turning around, she identified it as Fran Kelly's. “I didn't see you in class last night.”

“Which class is that?” Peter asked.

Nancy could tell that Fran was hurt and embarrassed as she answered, “Astronomy. I'm in your lab section.” Fran had her hair tied back in a bright red ribbon. She glanced sideways at Nancy as she spoke to Peter. “Last night we used the large telescope at the observatory.”

“Oh, no! Was that last night?” Peter asked, putting a hand up to his forehead. “I totally forgot about it. I wonder if I can take a makeup for it.”

“Excuse me,” Nancy said, and left Fran and Peter.

“I like your hair like that,” Kathy said as she met Nancy at the punch bowl.

“Thanks,” Nancy said, pouring herself a cup of the bright red punch.

“But your hair looks great no matter what you do to it,” Kathy added, tossing her own frizzy
curls. “Are you sighing over any of these Zeta Psis?” she asked Nancy.

Nancy shook her head and sipped the punch.

“That one”—Kathy pointed to a tall guy in a fraternity sweatshirt—“is in my calculus class. If I wanted him to be eternally grateful to me, I could share a little secret with him,” she said coyly.

Nancy looked down into her punch cup. Although she disapproved of the cheating, she was not comfortable with having set up Kathy and the other girls to fail. She wondered if there was a way to undo her actions before she was caught on Monday.

“Would you feel right telling it out of the sorority house?” Nancy asked Kathy as she considered how to handle the problem.

“I never have before,” Kathy confessed. “But I never had such an appealing reason.” Turning to Nancy, she said, “Don't worry, nobody will ever know who my connection was.” And Kathy headed over to the guy as Nancy watched.

The dance floor was crowded as people paired off. It looked as though everyone had shown up.

After drinking a cup of juice, Nancy went down the back stairway and headed to the study hall. There, on a Friday evening, with the sound of a loud band and a hundred people dancing overhead, sat Alice Clark, a book open in front of her.

“Hello, Nancy,” she said as if she had been waiting for Nancy to appear.

“Hello,” Nancy answered, walking over to Alice and looking down at the book she was studying. “English grammar?” Nancy asked.

“Linguistics,” Alice said in her one-word style.

Rather than ask more questions, Nancy sat down across the table from Alice and waited to see if she was going to volunteer more.

“Interesting,” Alice said, still looking at her book, “how many different ways there are of communicating.”

Nancy nodded. It was her turn to be quiet and let Alice speak at her own pace.

“For example, one can start a seemingly irrelevant topic,” Alice said, fingering the pages of her book, “and still communicate a specific message different from what one is discussing.” Still silent, Nancy listened as Alice added, “The purpose of which is to keep the speaker safe.”

The pressure points in her physiology text, Nancy thought. It
was
a message to me. It was a piece of information Alice was giving me for a reason.

“And after the message is communicated?” Nancy asked Alice.

Alice said, “Then the speaker and the listener should make no further contact if they want to remain safe.”

Nancy stood up and walked out of the basement study hall.

• • •

As Nancy reentered the packed dining room, Susan walked up to her. “I was looking all over for you,” Susan said. “Please try to let me know if you're going to disappear. I'm jumpy tonight.”

“Okay,” Nancy agreed. Then she motioned for Susan to follow her into the empty kitchen. Leaning against a cupboard, she whispered, “Alice Clark knows I'm investigating this case.”

“She
told
you that?” Susan asked, clearly shocked.

“Not directly. But indirectly, and she gave me some information about how Rina was murdered. I'm convinced she did it on purpose to help me out.”

Susan shook her head. “How did she ever discover that you were here to investigate the murder?”

“I have no idea,” Nancy said. “And I don't know
when
she figured it out, either.”

“Alice Clark is one smart girl,” Susan said as the blaring music from the other room stopped. In a much quieter voice, Nancy said, “I'll tell you the details later. But now I think we've got the
how
and
why
of this case. We just need the
who.”

“Nancy—” Susan began, looking worried. But before she could finish, the door to the kitchen swung open, and Peter stood there with a smile.

“You did sneak in here!” he exclaimed to
Nancy. “Lori told me I could find you in the kitchen.” Fiddling with the red rose he held in his hands, Peter said, “The band took a break.”

“I heard,” Nancy said.

“Want to see the stars with me?” Peter asked. “I'm told there's a deck on the roof here.”

“There is a deck,” Nancy said. “But I thought you were supposed to look at stars
last
night.”

Peter laughed, stepping close to Nancy, and said in a hushed voice, “How could you leave me alone with her?”

“Fran?”

“She had some not so great things to say about you,” Peter said. “She's jealous.”

Nancy shook her head. “I don't understand Fran Kelly,” she said.

Peter put a hand on Nancy's elbow and, looking over at Susan, smiled and said, “Excuse us, please. I want to show your cousin the universe.”

As they headed to the rooftop deck, Nancy was relieved to see other people on their way up there. In the twilight she looked out over San Diego. “No stars yet,” she said to Peter.

“Fine with me,” Peter said, standing close to Nancy and looking at her rather than the sky. Across the deck, another couple were embracing.

For a moment Nancy looked at Peter and thought how good a hug would feel. But it wasn't Peter she wanted to hold her and she knew it.

“You're so lovely,” Peter said and gently laid his hand on hers. “Lori was right.”

Looking down at the hand that rested on her own, Nancy felt her heart stop. She would recognize it anywhere, even in the darkness. A large ring with a ruby red stone, and the Greek letters, Sigma Kappa.

H
ER PULSE RACING
, Nancy pulled her hand out from under Peter's. This guy is dangerous, she thought, glancing at the shaky white wooden railing. Strong and dangerous, and he tried to hurt me once before.

“How about I get us some punch, and we'll meet in my room?” Nancy asked, knowing she'd need help to take on Peter. Help from both Susan and Ira.

“I'd love it.” Peter smiled.

“It's on the second floor, right across from the shower room. It says ‘Susan Victor' on the door.”

“Great,” Peter said. “I'll be there, waiting.”

I'll bet, Nancy thought. She raced down the stairs to find Susan. After looking around for a moment, Nancy found Susan and Ira on the crowded dance floor. Acting as though she was there to party, Nancy approached her friends and began to dance with them.

“Meet me in five minutes,” Nancy mouthed quietly, trying to be understood but not overheard. “Upstairs in your room.” Above the sound of the music, Susan asked, “What's up?”

“I've got someone up there, and I might need protection,” Nancy explained. “Five minutes,” she repeated. “But don't come in right away. Just be there if I need you—please,” Nancy said as she headed for the punch bowl.

Lori greeted her there, with a smile. “You and Peter are hitting it off, I see,” she said happily.

“He is cute, I have to admit,” Nancy said as she poured two cups of the sweet punch. “How did you know we'd like each other?”

“I just
knew
it,” Lori said, and Nancy excused herself.

Upstairs, Peter stood with both hands in his pockets looking at the underwater photographs that had been taken by Rina. Swinging around as he heard Nancy approach, he accepted one of the glasses from her.

“How come the most interesting girl in the sorority is only here for a week?” he asked flirtatiously.

“Well, at least we met,” Nancy said warmly, and closed the door behind her, being careful not to lock it.

“And how come I'm so lucky,” Peter asked, taking the glass from her hand and placing it on the desk next to his, “to be able to have an evening with her?”

Hearing footsteps outside the door, Nancy knew that Susan and Ira were there already. She felt much safer.

Safe enough to say, “That's a lot of questions. Let me ask you one, too, okay?”

“Whatever you like, good-looking.”

“How come a Zeta Psi wears a Sigma Kappa ring?” Nancy asked curiously.

“Sentimental reasons,” Peter said, fingering the ruby-red stone. “My uncle Joe gave it to me. Anything else you want to know about me?” Peter asked, opening his arms toward Nancy.

“There
is
one more thing,” Nancy said sweetly. “Do you always beat up your potential dates before you get to know them?”

“What?” Peter asked, his eyebrows raised, a slight smile on his face as though Nancy had told him a joke. “Beat up
who?”

“Me, for one,” Nancy said, and now there was no sweetness in her voice, just harshness.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Peter said incredulously, his arms dropping to his sides. “I never saw you before an hour ago.”

“I have evidence, Peter, so you may as well forget the lies,” Nancy claimed, resting one hand on her hip. “And, I have a deal to offer you. I won't report you to the police if you tell me what that business on the beach was about.”

“You're a little crazy, lady,” Peter said with a forced smile, “if you think that
I
ever beat
you
up. What ‘evidence'?” he asked sarcastically.