The Secret in the Stars by Carolyn Keene

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

10

Nabbed!

“Yo! Nancy! Did you bring your camera?” Richard yelled across the parking lot in the state park that evening. Nancy, Bess, and George had just arrived for the star party with a picnic basket.

Nancy pointed to her bag. “I’ve got it right here!” she yelled back as they headed to the picnic grounds.

Richard gave her a thumbs-up. “Talk to you after dinner!”

“Join us for dessert!” Nancy offered.

George chuckled, and added, “We’ve got some killer brownies!”

“I’ll do that!” Richard promised, then returned to adjusting the mount beneath his telescope. He had set up in the vicinity of the Star Van, which Nancy noticed was still parked in the same place. A forest of telescopes seemed to have sprouted around it. Anxious star buffs hovered over their instruments, fine-tuning them for that night’s viewing. Dr. Stars was there, drinking coffee from a paper cup and mixing with the crowd.

As Nancy and her friends arranged their picnic dinner on one of the wooden tables, the sun slipped below the horizon.

Nancy couldn’t quite read the mood of the crowd. On the one hand, the people milling around the lot, or sprawled on blankets in the meadow, seemed to be in a party mood. But on the other hand, some of the passersby were grumbling about Dr. Stars. Last night Nancy would have defended him; tonight she wasn’t so sure. Nancy directed her attention to a small group of astronomy buffs scarfing down nachos at the nearest picnic table.

“Hey, man, like I told you last night, some real academic must script the guy’s radio shows,” a redheaded man sitting with his back to Nancy declared.

One of his friends looked skeptical. “You’re writing him off too soon. There’s plenty of stuff he does know. Some kid was asking him about constellations, and Dr. Stars explained that though the stars look as though they’re near enough to be connected, in fact they’re light-years apart. Nothing bogus about that.”

The redheaded man shrugged. “So he knows the basics—he still makes too many mistakes.”

A young woman at the table suggested, “Maybe he’s an expert on comets. Steller’s comet is for real and he did discover it.”

“Not necessarily—”

“You’re not going to rehash that Derek Randall nonsense?” the woman scoffed. “That’s old news. Just jealousy on Randall’s part. Or maybe he really believes he found the comet first, but I remember the account in Star News just after the discovery. Randall’s report of sighting the comet came in a full twenty-four hours after Steller’s.”

The redheaded guy balled up his napkin and tossed it into a nearby trash basket. “Whatever. I don’t need some half-baked celebrity astronomer around to help me enjoy falling stars.”

As they left, Richard hurried up to Nancy’s table. “Sorry to rush your dinner,” he said. “But I was thinking you might want to take some pictures of the crowd before the viewing gets started.”

“I figured the light would be low at best, so I put in high-speed film,” Nancy told Richard. “That way I can override the flash.”

Bess introduced herself and handed him a brownie while Nancy fished the camera out of her bag.

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