Carolyn Keene - Two Points to Murder

Suddenly, the door behind her creaked. Nancy whirled and stifled a scream. A tall, threatening figure was silhouetted in the doorway!

Chapter Four

“What are you doing in here?” Ned demanded. He flicked the tight switch next to the door.

Nancy blinked. “Oh, it’s you! Thank goodness . . . you startled me.”

“Nancy? I said, what are you doing poking around in Mike’s room?”

There was a coolness in his tone that puzzled her. Why was he being so hostile? It wasn’t as if she’d been doing anything wrong!

“I came upstairs for the bathroom but walked in here by mistake,” she explained. “But I’m glad I did. Look what I found!”

She nudged the carton toward him with her toe. Ned glanced at its contents and shrugged.

“So?”

“Don’t you see? It’s the same stuff that was used to make the dummy in the gym!” Quickly she filled him in on her examination of the effigy. “It means that Mike is behind all the practical jokes!”

“Not necessarily.”

Nancy stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Come on, Ned, be serious . . . what else could it mean?”

“Well, maybe it’s just a coincidence. Or maybe somebody dropped that box in here in order to frame him.”

Nancy thought about that. At first she was embarrassed—she had jumped to a conclusion! But then she realized that she had been right after all.

“No, it couldn’t be a frame-up,” she reasoned. “A frame-up would be more obvious. Think about it . . . why dump the evidence in a place where only Mike is likely to find it?”

“Okay, I’ll admit it sounds farfetched,” Ned said. “But so what? It’s not as farfetched as your theory!”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I know Mike. He’d never do anything to hurt the team.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Of course I am! The Wildcats mean everything to him. He’d no more play practical jokes on us than . . . well, than he would shoot the ball into the other team’s basket!”

A short silence followed. Ned had a point, Nancy knew. There was no good reason for Emerson’s co-captain to undermine the team’s morale, none that she could think of, anyway. On the contrary, he had every reason to work for the team’s success! Was her theory a washout after all?

No, she decided, the evidence was right in front of them. Maybe she didn’t know the motive yet, but she couldn’t ignore the facts. Somehow she had to convince Ned that she might be right.

“Ned, maybe someone’s paying Mike to play the practical jokes,” she suggested.

Ned shook his head. “Give me a break. Even if Mike could be bribed, which I doubt, who would do something like that?”

“A rival team?”

“No way! Those pranks have been played before and during all our games.”

“Okay, then maybe Mike’s got his own reason . . . a secret one. Maybe it’s even a subconscious desire to lose, or something.”

“You’re way off base,” Ned declared. “Mike and I are friends. If he were loony-tunes, believe me, I’d know!”

Nancy was getting ticked off. “Ned, why are you being so stubborn? You’ve got solid evidence of Mike’s guilt right at your feet!”

Ned crossed his arms. “You know as well as I do that evidence can be misleading. To phi the blame on someone you need more than a box of packing chips—you need a motive, too!”

“Okay, okay!”

Nancy began to pace back and forth. Usually she was calm and collected when working on a case, but now she was beginning to feel frustration. She didn’t like it.

“All right, I guess we’ll have to investigate some more,” she said finally. “Here’s where we’ll start—”

“We?” Ned interrupted.

“Of course.” She stopped pacing and glanced at him. “Ned, you’re going to help me, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Help you what? Dig up dirt on my friend? No, I’m not.”

Nancy was stunned. “You’ve got to be kidding me! Come on, Ned, you’re in a perfect position to help. You’re inside the team! Anyway, you’ve never refused to help before.”

“You’ve never suspected one of my friends before, either.”

Her temples began to throb. Rubbing them, she muttered, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Are you telling me that you don’t want to put a stop to the practical joker?”

“Of course I do!” he growled angrily.

“Then help me!”

“Show me a suspect with a good motive and I will!”

“This box—”

“Forget the box! That’s not a motive. That’s just a clue!”

He was working himself into a rage. His dark eyes were blazing. His jaw was tight. Nancy had never seen him look at her that way before—not once!

“What’s with you, anyway?” he said furiously. “Sometimes I think you care more about solving mysteries than you do about people.”

“That’s not fair!” she cried. “It’s people that I’m trying to help . . . people like Coach Burnett and the members of your team.”

“Yeah, well, it won’t do any good to come down on a guy with no motive.”

“Then what should I do? Trust him?”

“Sure.”

“Forget it. He’ll just pull more practical jokes.”

Ned was disgusted. “C’mon. You’re not even sure he’s responsible.”

“And you’re not sure that he isn’t!”

It was a stalemate. She couldn’t see it Ned’s way, and Ned wouldn’t see it hers. What was she going to do?

First of all she would remain calm, she decided. Next she would try hard to see it from Ned’s point of view. For a full minute she studied the toes of her boots, trying to understand what Ned saw that she did not. She failed. Every way she looked at it, her conclusion was still the same—the evidence pointed to Mike!

“I don’t know. I can’t believe we’re arguing like this,” she said finally.

Ned’s voice was hollow. “Me either. How come you’re so determined to nail Mike?”

“I’m not trying to nail him. All I’m saying is that we should investigate some more!”

“No.” Ned shook his head sadly. “Mike’s my buddy, and I’m going to stick by him. This time you’re on your own.”

“Ned, please ! I need you on this case!”

“Like I said, you’ve got me . . . but not to throw dirt on my friend,” he insisted.

Nancy’s anger returned full force. She kicked the cardboard carton. “Ned, you’re letting me down! Why can’t you open your eyes? Why can’t you use your head!”

“Logic isn’t the only way to get at the truth,” Ned said softly. “Sometimes you have to listen to your heart.”

It was a long time before Nancy was able to think of a reply. When she did, it was too late. Ned was gone.

A short while later, Nancy, Bess, and George walked back to their dorm. It was bitterly cold and very quiet. Their feet crunched on the hard-packed snow. Their breath made frosty white clouds in the air.

Nancy tried to conceal her feelings, but her friends sensed that something was wrong. Soon she had told them the entire story, from her earlier fears about her and Ned to their argument in Mike’s room.

For once the cousins had little to say.

“I sure hope you can patch things up,” Bess said in a small voice.

“Thanks. Me, too,” Nancy replied. “I just don’t understand why he’s being so stubborn. The evidence was right under his nose!”

George sighed. “I guess he’s doing what he feels is right.”

“I guess.”

All the windows in the dorm were dark. When they reached the side entrance, Bess whipped out her key and dashed inside. George held the door open for Nancy.

“Aren’t you coming in?”