Tall, Dark and Deadly by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Chapter

Ten

BETSY WAS HUDDLED on her bed with Maura Parker, who had one arm around the frightened girl. Nancy went over to ask what had happened.

“Oh, Nancy!” Betsy said, wiping her eyes. “I just got back, and this is what I found.”

“The campus police are coming,” Maura said quickly. “I talked to the girl on duty downstairs at the desk, and she doesn’t remember any suspicious-looking strangers coming in. I’m not sure what to do.”

“Maybe you should ask the girls in the hall to go back to their rooms,” Bess suggested. “The quieter we can keep this, the better.” Maura got up and went into the hall.

Betsy looked at Bess for a moment. “Who are you?”

“This is Bess Marvin,” Nancy explained in a low voice. “She came with me.”

“I thought you were alone,” Betsy said.

“Bess and I split up so people wouldn’t connect us. That way we can cover more ground,” Nancy said. “Bess, you’d better go to your job. Doesn’t it start soon?”

“Oh, gosh, yes!” Bess checked her watch. “I’m going to meet this guy in the cafeteria afterward. Don’t worry,” she said, seeing that Nancy was about to protest. “If you don’t see me by five, call out the National Guard.”

Bess left just as two campus police officers arrived. One checked the door while the other questioned Betsy.

Nancy sat patiently through the questions, only half listening to the answers. No, Betsy said, she didn’t know who broke into the room. No, she didn’t have any enemies. As far as she could tell, nothing was missing.

Nancy watched as one of the officers checked around the room.

“Excuse me,” she said to him. “I noticed you were checking the door. Is the lock broken?”

The officer shook his head. “Looks fine to me. I assumed the door was open.”

“No, I locked it,” Betsy said.

Nancy’s ears perked up at that. The door had been locked, but of course someone could have picked the lock. The other possibility was that whoever had broken in had a key—which meant the intruder probably had Ava!

“Well, we can have someone change the lock, if you’d like,” the officer said.

“Thank you,” Betsy agreed. “I’d feel safer.”

After the men left, Nancy picked up Ava’s things and put them away according to Betsy’s directions. The two girls went through the mess on Ava’s desk together, but Betsy could find nothing missing.

“Did Ava have any hiding places?” Nancy asked in frustration. “The burglar must have come looking for something.”

“I’m thinking,” Betsy murmured. “Her address book is here; she didn’t keep a diary; there wasn’t anything hidden in any of her books. . . . Wait a second,” she said thoughtfully. “Ava’s textbooks aren’t here.”

“Why would she take textbooks on a date?” Nancy asked.

“She wouldn’t. She keeps them in a backpack.”

“It wasn’t in the car,” Nancy said.

“She’s got a locker in the gym,” Betsy said. “She’s not a real athlete, but she plays tennis in the spring and summer. We could try there.”

“Great,” Nancy said. “Do you know which locker is hers?”

“Number forty-five,” Betsy said.

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