The Clues Challenge by Carolyn Keene

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

9

After-Hours Sleuthing

The first stars were already twinkling in the evening sky above the lake when Nancy left the Sports Complex. All across the snow-covered campus, lights blinked on. Nancy stopped outside the glassed-in atrium just to look at the post card-perfect scene.

“Isn’t that Randy?” she asked as a red Jeep pulled into the parking lot. Even in the darkening sky, his white-blond hair shone.

“Yup.” C.J. waited until the Jeep stopped in front of them and Randy got out, then he walked over and said, “Hi. Where’ve you been?”

“Something came up,” Randy said. He scooped up some papers from the passenger seat, folded them, and shoved them under the cover of his notebook.

He seemed distracted, Nancy noticed. His eyes kept flitting toward the glassed-in atrium, where Mel Lorenzo sat.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Um, fine,” he said. “Just fine. Let’s just—”

“Hey, C.J.!” a voice interrupted.

Looking over her shoulder, Nancy saw Dennis walking toward them. He stopped in front of C.J., his face red from the cold and his eyes filled with challenge.

“How about a race, C.J.?” Dennis said, shifting from boot to boot. “You and me. Right here. Right now.”

“He can’t race,” George spoke up. “He’s hurt.”

“Oh, right. The big injury.” Dennis’s voice was heavy with sarcasm.

Nancy didn’t miss the way his eyes flickered toward Randy. A satisfied smile slipped across Dennis’s face as Randy reached for his camera and started snapping photos.

Is he doing this just to get attention, or to distract us from what’s really going on? Nancy wondered.

“Hey, Garcia!” a voice called out.

Four silhouettes moved toward them across the snowy parking lot. As they came closer, Nancy recognized the rest of the Sigma Pi team.

“What happened to you?” Malik asked, stopping next to Dennis. “We waited two hours at the Student Center for you to come back. What’s up?”

“I—” Dennis began.

“Save the excuses,” Philip told him. “Let’s check in with Mr. Lorenzo so we can brainstorm the clue before tonight’s party.

Dennis started to walk away, then stopped to jab a finger in C.J.’s direction. “Just remember, hotshot, I can show you up anytime, anywhere,” he bragged.

C.J. just rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he said.

“Hmm,” Nancy said as the guys from Sigma Pi went through the atrium door. “If Dennis wasn’t with his teammates this afternoon …”

“Where was he?” Ned finished.

“The party doesn’t start for another two hours,” Nancy said. “There’s something I want us to do first.”

Ned turned to Randy, C.J., and Grant and said, “You guys go ahead. We’ll meet you at the party.”

George grinned at Nancy and said, “I know that look. What kind of plan are you cooking up, Nan?”

“It bothers me that Mr. Lorenzo keeps saying no one threatened him,” Nancy said. “As long as he’s still busy here …”

“You want to check out SportsMania?” Ned guessed.

Nancy nodded. “If we hurry, we can be in and out before Mr. Lorenzo leaves here.”

Fifteen minutes later Ned, Nancy, and George paused just outside the patch of yellow the store lights shed on the sidewalk outside SportsMania.

“It looks like the place is empty, except for Jimmy,” Ned said.

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.