163 The Clues Challenge Read online

  happened in the last two days. There were still some

  blanks, but if she played her cards right, maybe she

  could get Dennis to fill them in for her.

  “You've been blackmailing Mr. Lorenzo since early

  October?” she asked, stepping carefully around the

  hole where her boot had broken through the metal.

  Seeing the surprised look he shot at her, she explained,

  “I saw the note you left him, telling him that your price

  was going up to fifteen hundred dollars. And his ledger

  showed unexplained payments made every fourteen

  days. It didn't take a genius to put the two together.”

  Dennis glowered. “I deserved that money, after

  what Pops did to my brother,” he said.

  “Ty Brubaker?” Nancy guessed, remembering the

  photograph she'd seen in his room.

  “Yeah,” he told her. “He's my half brother, actually.

  Ty worshiped Pops.”

  “You mean, Andrew Papazian?” Nancy said.

  “That's right. Pops promised to be Ty's manager

  when he went pro,” Dennis explained. “He got Ty an

  autographed picture of the Rocket and said he could

  make Ty an even bigger star.” He frowned, testing an

  icy spot on the fire escape before stepping past it. “Ty

  didn't feel right about the point-fixing, but Pops talked

  him into it, said he'd make sure no one ever found

  out.”

  Nancy tried to ignore the groaning metal as she

  followed Dennis up the stairs. “He must have felt really

  betrayed when Papazian skipped town.”

  “Leaving Ty and the other players to take the rap,”

  Dennis said, blowing out an angry breath. “I couldn't

  believe it when I walked into Sports Mania and saw

  him. Lorenzo looked different, but I'd seen Pops

  enough not to be fooled by the glasses and extra mus-

  cle. I told him right away I was going to tell the cops.”

  His angry fist came down on the railing, making it

  shudder and groan.

  Nancy forced herself to focus on the conversation.

  “What happened?” she asked. “He talked you out of

  it?”

  “He offered to pay me to keep quiet.” Dennis an-

  gled a defiant look down at her. “Do you blame me for

  saying yes? A thousand dollars, every two weeks. That's

  serious cash!”

  “Enough to make up for what Papazian did to Ty?”

  Nancy asked quietly. When he didn't answer, she de-

  cided to let it drop.

  “Mr. Lorenzo made his first fifteen-hundred-dollar

  payoff to you after the pre-challenge dinner, right?”

  she said.

  Dennis confirmed her guess with a nod.

  She thought back, trying to pull all the pieces of the

  puzzle together. “Is that when he handed over the

  answers to the Clues Challenge?” she asked. “You were

  the one who sent the computer threat about the clues,

  right?”

  “Bravo,” Dennis said in a sarcastic voice that rubbed

  Nancy the wrong way. “Ten points for the amateur

  detective.”

  Glancing up, Nancy saw George and Ned watching

  their progress closely from the roof. Just a little farther,

  and she and Dennis would be there.

  “There's still something I don't get,” Nancy said,

  turning back to Dennis. “If Mr. Lorenzo gave you the

  answers to the clues, why did you sabotage our team?”

  “Call it extra insurance,” he said, giving a shrug that

  seemed to say it was no big deal.

  Nancy couldn't believe how callous he seemed. “C.J.

  sprained his ankle because of you!” she said.

  “Pops is the one who rubbed the stair with soap,”

  Dennis corrected. “At my instructions, of course.

  Anyway, C.J. deserved it, after the way he stole Dede

  from me.”

  “No one deserves to be hurt like that,” Nancy shot

  back. “What about the rest of us? George's skis? The

  tree branch that broke while I was climbing the oak?”

  “Mel did a pretty good job setting up both of those

  accidents,” Dennis said. “I knew you suspected me, so

  I had him do it.”

  As he talked, a light blinked on inside Nancy's head.

  “And you set up Joy to take the blame!” she realized.

  “You must have planted her glove and that file on the

  roof of the administration building.” Thinking about it

  made her cheeks burn. “I knew someone else was in

  the building. It was you!”

  “Right again,” Dennis said. “I had a feeling you'd

  come running after I knocked the icicle off the roof.

  When I saw Joy using the phone, I knew I had the

  perfect way to throw suspicion off myself. She didn't

  even hear me take her glove. And I knew you already

  suspected her.”

  “You had it all figured out, huh?” Nancy said,

  shaking her head in disgust.

  Dennis grinned. “I made sure the Sigmas got a slow

  start, so we wouldn't be suspected,” he bragged. “I was

  all set to make a stunning, come-from-behind victory.”

  He frowned, pressing his mouth into a tight line. “Until

  you showed up.”

  Nancy was glad to see that they were finally at the

  top of the fire escape. Just above, Ned and George

  were dark silhouettes against the bright sun.

  “You guys made it,” Ned said. “We were afraid the

  whole thing might fall.”

  Nancy shuddered at the thought. “Give us a hand

  up, all right?” she said. “Dennis, you go fir . . .”

  Her voice trailed off as a third silhouette appeared

  on the roof, right behind Ned and George. Nancy

  couldn't see the face clearly, but she didn't need to.

  There was no mistaking that bulky frame.

  “Mr. Lorenzo!” she said.

  Ned and George whirled around—then froze when

  they saw the huge metal wrench in Mr. Lorenzo's

  hand.

  “Nobody moves!” Mr. Lorenzo said, waving the

  wrench in a threatening arc.

  “Boy, am I glad to see you!” Dennis said. He

  reached up his hands. “Help me up, Pops. We've got to

  get out of here before the police come.”

  Mr. Lorenzo shook his head. “You've become too

  expensive, Dennis,” he said in a frigid voice that made

  Nancy shiver. “You'll have to go with everyone else.”

  “G-go?” George echoed. “What do you mean?”

  “I'm not about to let a couple of kids send me to

  jail—or make me go broke,” he scoffed. “That's why

  you're all about to suffer a tragic fall from this dan-

  gerous old fire escape.”

  16. A Desperate Plan

  “You can't!” Nancy gulped, glancing down at the snow-

  covered ground five stories below.

  “Oh, yeah? Watch me,” Mr. Lorenzo said. He

  turned to Ned and George. “Get down there with your

  friends,” he ordered.

  George glanced helplessly at Nancy, then began to

  climb over the side. Mr. Lorenzo kept a close watch on

  her.

  “Randy went to call the police,” Ned said. “They'll

  be here any minute.” He took a step forward
, then

  jumped back when Mr. Lorenzo swung the wrench in

  his direction.

  “I'll be gone by then,” Mr. Lorenzo said. “You kids

  should have kept your noses out of my business. You

  and that reporter.”

  Nancy grabbed the brick wall as George dropped

  onto the fire escape next to her and Dennis. “You be-

  long in jail, Mr. Lorenzo. Or maybe I should call you

  Mr. Papazian.”

  The store owner's eyes blazed red. “So you figured it

  out,” he said. “I thought so. It's a good thing I decided

  to follow you after you left the Sports Complex.”

  He jerked his head toward Ned. “Now you. Down

  with your friends,” he instructed.

  Ned crouched down at the edge of the roof. Nancy

  saw his eyes flicker briefly toward the vents at the

  center of the roof.

  “We actually believed you when you said you liked

  to support college athletes,” Ned said, shaking his head

  in disgust. “The only thing you care about is yourself.”

  Ned looked carefully at Nancy, meeting her gaze.

  Then he let his eyes flicker behind Mr. Lorenzo again.

  He was trying to tell her something, she was sure of it.

  “Mr. Lorenzo?” Joy's voice came from somewhere

  on the roof. “What are you doing up here?”

  Mr. Lorenzo turned, scowling, to look behind him.

  In that second, Nancy jumped into action.

  “Get him!” she shouted.

  Ned launched himself toward Mr. Lorenzo, catching

  him in a tackle that sent the big man flying face-first

  onto the snowy roof.

  Using the rusted fire escape railing for footing,

  Nancy hoisted herself up onto the roof. She saw Mr.

  Lorenzo twist out of Ned's grasp and reach for the

  heavy wrench, which had dropped into the snow beside

  him.

  “No!” she cried, vaulting forward. She reached the

  wrench a split-second before he did. Nancy kicked it as

  hard as she could, sending it skittering across the

  snowy rooftop. The heavy wrench stopped just a few

  feet from where Joy stood watching, her eyes wide with

  shock.

  By the time Nancy turned around again, Ned and

  Dennis had Mr. Lorenzo pinned to the ground with his

  arms behind his back.

  “The police are here!” George announced.

  “Wh-what's going on?” Joy asked.

  Looking down from the rooftop, Nancy saw a black-

  and-white squad car pull to a stop on the road. Randy's

  Jeep was right behind it. Joy's sorority sisters stood on

  the snowy ground, looking curiously from the police

  car to the rooftop of the old theater building.

  “It's a long story,” Nancy said. “And before we tell it,

  there's something I have to do.”

  She strode over to the wooden crate where Dennis

  had been when she found him. Opening the top, she

  reached inside and pulled out the blue-and-white

  Clues Challenge banner.

  She held up the banner, letting it flutter in the cold

  winter wind. “There's a new Clues Challenge winner,”

  she announced. “Omega Chi Epsilon!”

  “I still can't believe Grant and I were stuck scaling

  the wrong theater building while you guys saw all the

  action,” C.J. said that evening.

  Nancy grinned down the long table at the Eatery

  where she, Ned, George, C.J., Grant, and Dede sat.

  The rest of Dede's sorority sisters, as well as everyone

  from the Delta Tau and Sigma Pi teams, were also

  there.

  The only ones missing were Dennis and Mr.

  Lorenzo.

  “I still can't believe Mr. Lorenzo was on the run

  from the police for three years,” Dede said. “And that

  Dennis was blackmailing him.”

  “We're still in shock about that,” said Philip, leaning

  over from the table where he sat with the other guys

  from Sigma Pi. “I mean, Dennis was our friend.”

  Philip's brother, Jake, shook his head slowly back

  and forth. “We should have known something was up

  when Dennis bought that new computer. I knew it cost

  a bundle, but I never figured he got the money from

  blackmailing someone.”

  “Dennis and Mr. Lorenzo had a lot of people

  fooled,” Nancy said. She leaned back in her chair,

  looking out over the platters of pasta, chicken, and

  grilled fish on their table. “The important thing is that

  they're both in jail now, where they won't be able to

  hurt anyone else.”

  Joy stood up at her table and clinked her glass with a

  spoon. “I'd like to make a toast,” she said. “Here's to

  the new Clues Challenge champs.”

  Nancy cheered along with everyone else.

  “Of course, next year will be a different story,” Joy

  went on when the noise died down. She grinned at her

  teammates. “Right?”

  “Absolutely,” Krista spoke up from her table. “Next

  year the Kappas are going to win!”

  Taunts and challenges flew from table to table, but

  Nancy didn't join in. Leaning close to Ned, she gazed

  into his warm brown eyes.

  “We just solved a three-year-old mystery and got

  two criminals off the street,” she said. “I think that

  makes us all winners.”