Mixed Signals Part 6

"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 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?" 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 pet.i.te 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 pa.s.sed 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.

NANCY 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 E in each note is the same. The bottom of it is broken off." She pointed to the in each note is the same. The bottom of it is broken off." She pointed to the E 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 pa.s.sed 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 E in the threatening notes. 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.

Nancy gasped as she checked her watch. She'd been in the room more than fifteen minutes! Putting her ear to the door, Nancy waited until she was sure there was no one around, then she slipped back into the empty hallway.

The next morning Bess was trying to get Nancy to move faster. Bess grabbed her denim jacket off the back of her chair in the student center, where she and Nancy had just finished a quick, late breakfast of m.u.f.fins and hot cocoa. "Come on, Nan. I don't want to miss the fair. It's ten-thirty already."

"Just a minute," Nancy told her. "I have to call Dean Jarvis. There's something I'd like to find out about Susannah Carlson."

The girls found a campus phone in the student center's entrance. Checking the campus directory that hung from the booth by a cord, Nancy called Dean Jarvis's extension. It was Sat.u.r.day, but to Nancy's relief, the dean was in.

"This is a delicate matter," Dean Jarvis said after she told him what she wanted to know. "But if it'll help your case, I guess I can tell you. Let me access the file." He put her on hold, and Nancy drummed her fingers against the phone until he came back on the line. "Ms. Carlson was dismissed from Emerson because of a failing grade-point average," the dean told her.

"She flunked out?" Nancy took a moment to digest the information. "Is there anything else unusual in her record?"

She heard the dean put the phone back down as he keyed in something more. "That's all the information I have."

Nancy thanked him, then hung up. "So that's why Susannah holds such a grudge against Emerson," she said to Bess after relating what she'd just found out. "But this doesn't in any way indicate that she would go after Randy to get back at Emerson. I can't believe she'd do it, but I am going to have to search Tamara's room today anyway."

"After the fair," Bess insisted, grabbing Nancy's arm. "Like it or not, Drew, you're going to have some fun today!"

From the student center the girls headed straight for the oval. They overtook Tamara and Zip, who were walking on the path just ahead of them. In their dark jeans, high-top sneakers, and short leather jackets, they looked great, Nancy thought.

"Zip looks different without his Russell letter jacket," she whispered to Bess.

As they rounded the corner of Ivy Hall, Nancy glimpsed a colorful array of tables and booths. Everything from sweaters to pottery to pillows to leather bags and belts were on sale, and thick crowds of students jammed each booth.

"Nancy!"

Hearing Ned's familiar voice, Nancy spun around to see her handsome boyfriend, wearing faded blue jeans and an Emerson basketball jacket, jog toward her.

Swinging Nancy around in a hug, he said, "Sorry I missed you at breakfast. I had to go over the order of the floats for the parade this afternoon."

"That's okay." While Bess wandered among the booths, Nancy told Ned about the note she'd received.

"Bess is right-you are in danger," Ned said gravely when she was done. "Promise you'll be careful, okay?"

"I always am," Nancy said, giving him a hug. "What's the latest on Randy?" she asked, eager to change the subject.

"He says he's feeling fine. He's even going to ride on the team float-"

"This fair is great," said Bess, moving back to them. She held up a sweater with colorful geometric designs on it in one hand, and a belt in the other. "Look what I bought."

"Uh-oh. Everyone better move fast, before you buy out the whole fair," Nancy teased.

Bess grinned. "You know I can't resist a bargain."

Bess broke off as she heard a cry.

"Help! Help me!"

Spinning around, Nancy glimpsed a flurry of motion behind the s.h.i.+ny gla.s.s facade of the modern library building that stood on the opposite side of the oval. Someone had opened one of the windows on the third story. In the open s.p.a.ce, she could see two figures struggling.

Nancy squinted, trying to follow the action. Her breath caught in her throat as one of the figures was pushed out the library window an instant later. Beside her, Bess let out a bloodcurdling scream.

A young man wearing an Emerson football team jacket was now dangling from the window ledge! His attacker shoved him, apparently trying to push him from the building.

There was nothing for the player to cling to on the building's sleek facade except the window ledge.

And there was nothing but cold, hard pavement three stones below the window.

Chapter Eleven.

"HEY-SOMEONE'S TRYING to kill Randy!" Bess shouted.

Her heart pounding, Nancy took off at a flat-out run for the library. She was halfway to it when she glanced up again and noticed that the player had s.h.i.+ny blond hair.

It wasn't Randy but Josh Mitch.e.l.l dangling there. The figure struggling with Josh was dressed in dark colors, and it looked as if his head was covered with a black ski mask.

As Nancy raced on, the figure inside continued to try to dislodge Josh. Then, suddenly, the attacker disappeared from view. Josh dangled for only a moment longer, then pulled himself inside. An audible sigh of relief rippled through the crowd on the oval.

By the time Nancy reached the door of the library, Ned was beside her. Together they raced inside and stopped short in front of the two elevators, checking the indicator lights above the doors. One car was ascending. The other seemed to be stopped in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

"The stairs!" Nancy cried, nodding across the modern lobby to a sleek wood-and-metal staircase on the far side. "You stay here and stop anyone wearing dark clothes."

Nancy raced to the stairs, her muscles screaming as she climbed two flights. She didn't pa.s.s anyone on the stairway. As Nancy hurried past the desks, book stacks, and study modules on the third floor, she finally spotted Josh. He was leaning against a table near the window, breathing hard. A handful of students and librarians were cl.u.s.tered around him.

"Josh, are you okay?" Nancy asked.

He glanced at her, obviously disoriented. "Yeah. Just kind of shook up." Josh swallowed as he straightened the collar of his s.h.i.+rt. "Did you see that creep?" he asked the crowd, scanning the nearby aisles of books. "Where did he go?"

"I didn't see anybody," said a blond-haired girl, "but I was doing research on the other side of the floor."

"Did any any of you see Josh's attacker?" Nancy asked each of them. They all shook their heads. of you see Josh's attacker?" Nancy asked each of them. They all shook their heads.