Stage Fright by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER 10

JOE

ACT ONE : CONFESSION!

Everyone froze. Claire’s scream echoed in the room. She had one heck of a powerful voice for such a small person! I ran to her side so fast it was as if I teleported.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I was always ready to play fair prince to a damsel in distress, especially one as cute as Claire. Nancy and Frank were right behind me.

“Look at this!” she howled, thrusting her phone at me.

The screen showed a text message from an unknown number.

“DROP OUT—OR DROP DEAD!!!!!”

“It’s okay,” said Frank, trying to sound reassuring. “We’re going to catch this creep.”

“Okay?” yelled Claire, only a little less loudly than she’d screamed before. “This is the opposite of okay! What part of this seems okay to you?”

She stomped over to the corner where all her stuff appeared to be piled on the ground. All the while she stared at the screen.

“If they think they can scare me off like this, they have another thing coming,” she muttered to herself. “I’m calling my agent. No, I’m issuing a press release!”

She dialed her phone rapidly as she stuffed her things back into her purse. “Get me Stanley. No I won’t hold. This is Claire Cleveland. CLEVELAND.”

She put her hand over the mouthpiece. “Assistants,” she said. “He runs through them like tissues. I’m going to my dressing room.”

Nancy started to say something, but Claire interrupted her.

“Relax, I had my first stalker in kindergarten,” she said. “Don’t worry, I’ll lock the door.”

Yelling at her agent, she trooped out.

“She’s intense!” I said. I liked her spunk.

“You should try fighting with her,” Nancy said, rubbing her shoulder. “She’s got a good right hook, too.”

“Find anything out?” Frank asked.

“Not much,” Nancy shrugged. “But I think someone is stealing her stuff. She said a couple of things have gone missing from her purse recently, including her journal with all of her notes on the show. You guys got anything?”

“There was some sticky stuff on the plane,” Frank said. “And someone locked me down there and left this helpful note for me.”

He pulled out a piece of paper with the word “LEAVE” scrawled on it in black marker.

“Claire was definitely poisoned—Vijay confirmed her juice boxes were tampered with. Want to know the last person who definitely touched them?”

We all nodded.

“Damien.” I mimed dribbling a ball, then slam-dunked it in the air. “And the crowd goes wild! Joe Hardy with another fantastic play.”

“Great,” sighed Bess. “Have you set us up as babysitters for yet another crazy?”

“Don’t think of yourselves as babysitters,” said Nancy. “Think of yourselves as …”

“Prison guards?” prompted George.

“That doesn’t sound much better,” said Bess. “Do guards get tips?”

“Go,” said Nancy, laughing. “I’m going to stick around here. I’m sure when Claire gets off the phone, she and Linden will want to get back to rehearsal.”

We said our good-byes and headed out.

• • •

The next morning, we went out to visit Madonna bright and early.

“I love this city!” I said, as we passed three men dressed like superheroes. They were carrying briefcases, and aside from the spandex, looked as if they were headed to work.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.