Carolyn Keene - Easy Marks

“Hi,” he said a little nervously. “I hope you don’t mind, but I looked up your address in the phone book.”

An alarm went off in Nancy’s brain. In order to look up her address, Victor had to know her last name—her real last name. “Is that so?” she asked. “How did you know where to look?”

“Kim told me who you really are.” Victor’s tone was flat. The sparkle in his amber eyes and his easy grin were gone. He was pale and seemed anxious. “I’d like to talk to you,” he said. “Want to take a drive? It’s kind of important.”

“Okay,” Nancy agreed, grabbing her denim jacket from the hall closet. She called to Hannah to let her know where she was going. “Come on,” she said, pulling the door closed behind them.

They climbed into Victor’s beat-up car and began to drive. The night had grown foggy, and the streetlights gave only a hazy, dim glow. Occasionally Victor flipped on his wipers to brush the mist from the windshield. For five full minutes neither of them said a word. Then, pulling to a stop at the curb of a residential street, Victor turned to her.

“So you’re the famous Nancy Drew,” he said. “I guess I’m the guy you’re after, huh?”

Nancy shot Victor a quick look. What was he saying? Was this an admission that he was the grade-changer? “I don’t know,” she hedged. “Are you?”

“Don’t play games with me,” Victor said, a rough edge in his voice. “I know changing Phil’s grade wasn’t right, but I’d do it again.”

“Why don’t you just tell me how it all started,” she said carefully. Nancy didn’t want to reveal that she didn’t know about Phil or even who he was. I’ll just hear Victor out, she decided.

“That’s simple,” Victor replied. “About a year ago, a guy who’s been a close friend of mine since we were kids told me he was in big trouble. He’s an ace basketball player, and a couple of good universities had their eye on him, but he had flubbed one of his courses during fall semester. He was afraid that they were about to put him on academic probation, right before basketball season started. He’d be bumped from the varsity and lose his chance at a scholarship.”

“So he asked you to change his grade?” Nancy suggested.

Victor shook his head. “Not a chance! He never even knew. It was all my idea. I did a good job, too. I didn’t dare change that D he’d gotten. It would have been too easy to spot. So instead, I eased his other grades up, just enough to bring his average above the danger line.”

“I see,” Nancy said. “And once you found out how easy it was, you decided to keep doing it, only for money.”

Victor stared at her blankly for a moment before asking, “Is that what’s going on?” His amber eyes grew wide with surprise. “I figured you were trying to find out who changed my pal’s grades. I thought Friedbinder had noticed it and put you on the case. Boy, do I feel dumb! What you’re investigating is much bigger, isn’t it? Well, I can tell you for sure that it’s not me. I don’t care if you believe me or not, it’s the truth. I fiddled with my friend’s record—one time. Afterward I swore I’d never do anything like that again. And I haven’t.”

Nancy didn’t know what to think. Victor’s manner was very convincing, but all good liars could be convincing. She measured Victor against what she knew about the true criminal. Victor could be made to fit the profile, but only by making a number of unlikely assumptions.

She didn’t see why he’d tell her about his friend Phil if he really was changing grades for money. Then there was the fact that Nancy’s threatening messages had come from Phyllis Hathaway’s computer. It would probably be pretty hard, if not impossible, for Victor to gain access to her office. And why would he bother when he had easy access to so many other terminals?

Besides, Nancy had better candidates already, ones who fit the pattern of facts almost perfectly.

“I guess I blurted out my little secret when I didn’t really need to,” Victor noted. “Are you going to tell Friedbinder?”

Nancy was silent for a long moment. Then she said, “Why don’t you confess to him yourself, Victor? That would probably help things go more in your favor. I don’t think it would be fair to penalize someone too harshly for one mistake. And I suspect the people in charge at Brewster will end up feeling the same way—once they understand the circumstances.”

“I hope you’re right,” Victor said in a gloomy voice. He turned around and started the engine, then added, “It’s weird, but I feel better now that you know. Thanks for listening. I’d better get you home.”

“One more thing,” said Nancy. “Don’t confess right away. Wait a day or so.”

“Why?” he asked.

“You may be confessing to a whole new set of people,” she told him. “That’s all I can tell you right now.”

Victor whistled softly. “Sounds like big-time stuff.”

On the drive back, Nancy settled into her seat and closed her eyes, starting to plan her next move. When she opened them, she saw that they were just passing Brewster Academy.

“I just saw lights in the school office,” she said urgently, grabbing Victor’s arm. “It’s nearly nine. Who’d be there at this time?”

Victor pulled over to the curb. “Cleaning people?” he suggested, following her gaze. “Maybe they brought somebody in to work on the fire damage.”

“Maybe,” Nancy replied. “But I’d like to check it out. Do you mind?”

His answer was to drive into the school parking lot. They got out of the car and walked quietly up to the front door. To Nancy’s surprise, it was open.

“I don’t like this,” Nancy muttered. “Come on.”

Down the hallway, a fan of light spilled out from the open door to the administration offices. Nancy led the way, creeping on tiptoe, and peeked inside. Dana MacCauley and Phyllis Hathaway were standing in the far corner of Phyllis’s office, staring down at the screen of the computer terminal. Dana was shaking her head, a puzzled expression on her face.

Suddenly Phyllis let out a cry of alarm. “Dana, do something, quick!” she shouted. “It’s starting to reformat the hard disk. If we can’t save the file, our entire plan will be ruined!”

Chapter Fifteen

Nancy’s heart was pounding. She was tempted to rush in and catch the two women off guard, but there was one thing she had to check first.

Victor tapped Nancy’s arm, then whispered, “I could probably help them out.”

That gave Nancy an idea. “Yeah, go ahead,” she said quietly. “Do what you can, and keep them in there for as long as possible.”

Victor nodded, giving her the thumbs-up sign. Nancy stepped back as Victor sauntered into Phyllis’s office. “Hey, ladies, what’s the problem?” she heard him say in his most upbeat voice. “I saw lights and came to investigate. Don’t want anyone burglarizing my school.”

“Boy, am I glad you’re here!” Dana exclaimed. “Sit down and see what you can do with this.”

From the hallway, Nancy watched as Victor sat in front of the computer and began to work. She waited until they were all staring at the computer screen and then stole silently through the anteroom and into Friedbinder’s office. She didn’t dare turn on the light. Outside the security lights glistened through the foggy mist. It would have to be enough light.

Nancy tugged at the middle drawer of Friedbinder’s desk. It was locked. Taking a letter opener off his desk, she used it to work at the lock. Open, she silently urged it.

With a satisfying click the lock finally gave, and Nancy pulled open the drawer.

“Jackpot!” she murmured softly. In the dim light she saw all she needed. Eagerly she sorted through papers. There was a bit of ripped newspaper—the obituary of Ignatz Wynn. The name and address were highlighted in yellow. There was also an opened letter addressed to the deceased Mr. Wynn. Inside was a Social Security check with Wynn’s Social Security number written on it. Nancy recalled the old woman telling her that a man had come by the house. It must have been Friedbinder. He’d been snooping around for the Social Security number, and he’d found it.