The Stolen Show by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Oncoming Storm

“ALL BEST IN GROUP WINNERS, please report to the ring!”

The announcer’s voice cut through my thoughts, reminding me that I still had to keep up appearances. If someone working with the smuggler was still hanging around and saw me missing from the winner’s circle, it might tip them off to our plans. And anyway, if we were going to rescue Bess, we needed to know where to go.

“Okay,” I said to George. “Charles won his group title, so he’ll be out there with me. I’ll find an opportunity to ask him if he’s gotten any news from Interpol about the paper factories. They have to have some information by now.”

George nodded. “All right,” she said. “And in the meantime—hand over your phone.”

I pulled it out of my pocket and gave it to her. “Why do you need it?”

“I want to try and use that text message to see if I can narrow down the location of the phone that sent it. If I use a hack I know, I might be able to triangulate its distance from the nearest cell phone towers—and figure out if someone sent from somewhere in the arena.”

“Brilliant,” I said, as always amazed by George’s technological savvy. “I’ll meet you back here as soon as the presentation is over.”

I left George and hurried to pick up Marge from Louise so we could join the other winners in the ring. Alice and Pia, Charles and Coco, Joe and Shirley, and Valencia and Hollywood were already there with their ribbons. Helen and Daisy walked out at the same time I did.

“Congratulations!” Helen exclaimed. “Way to go!”

“You too!” I replied.

I found my place in line and turned around to see the final group winner step out into the ring: Angie and Marshmallow Fluff! Angie was beaming when she reached my side, and I leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I guess it will take more than a cruel prank to keep you out of the winner’s circle, huh?”

Angie nodded, but a dark look crossed her face. “It’s not over, though, Nancy—not by a long shot. There’s still the battle for Best in Show tomorrow. Who’s to say the saboteur isn’t one of the other five people standing out here with us?”

I turned to look at the other winners. Unless Charles was a double agent, which I highly doubted, he was off the suspect list. So that left Alice, Joe, Valencia, and Helen. Given that the jewel smuggler would have to keep winning shows in order to keep up the cover, it was a good guess that they were one of the people in the winner’s circle. But was the person who’d drugged Marshmallow also the jewel smuggler? It was possible, but unlikely—why bring unwanted attention to the show? After all, the sabotage was the only reason I’d started investigating at all—if it hadn’t happened, the smuggler would have been able to do their business without any trouble. If anything, the incident with Marshmallow put a big crimp in their plans.

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