163 The Clues Challenge Read online

  been spiked.”

  When they got back to their table a few minutes

  later, George, Grant, C.J., and Dede were all drinking

  coffee.

  “You're back.” C.J. grinned up at them as he stirred

  sugar into his coffee. “We were starting to think you

  decided to make a whole new dessert yourselves. What

  happened?”

  His smile faded as Nancy and Ned told them about

  the tablets. “Whoa!” C.J. glanced around the room in

  disbelief. “You're sure someone spiked our dessert? I

  mean, you still don't know what those pills are, right?”

  “We can't be positive until someone identifies

  them,” Nancy admitted.

  “There's a twenty-four-hour pharmacy off Main

  Street,” Ned put in. “We can go there tonight.”

  “And in the meantime . . .” Nancy thrummed her

  fingers on the table. “We have to think about who had

  the opportunity to—”

  She broke off talking as her gaze landed on Dennis

  Garcia. Dennis, Philip, and Jake were sitting at the

  same table as Krista, Rosie, and some of the other girls

  from Kappa Rho.

  “Hmm,” Nancy murmured, half to herself. “Do you

  guys remember seeing Dennis standing in the hallway

  near the alcove?”

  George turned, following Nancy's gaze. “Definitely,”

  she said. “I saw him there while Mr. Lorenzo was

  talking. You think he spiked our food?”

  Nancy started to answer, then stopped when she saw

  Dennis get up to walk out.

  “I'm going to talk to him,” she said. She jumped to

  her feet and caught up to him as he was pulling his

  black parka from the coat rack.

  “Leaving so soon?” she asked.

  Dennis shrugged. “Might as well head back to the

  frat and turn in,” he said.

  “I saw you standing over here before,” Nancy

  commented. “I was wondering if you saw anything

  unusual when the dessert was being served.”

  “Such as?” Dennis asked.

  Nancy held up the plastic bag containing the

  crushed tablets. “Someone put these pills on our

  dessert,” she told him. “I think whoever did it was

  trying to make sure the Omega team won't be in peak

  shape.”

  Nancy watched Dennis's face closely. But if he was

  the one who had spiked their dessert, he showed no

  sign of it. He looked blankly at the pills.

  “Give me a break,” he said. “What is this, C.J.'s way

  of drumming up hot material for that Sports World

  article?”

  “C.J. isn't like that,” Nancy said. Turning the con-

  versation back to Dennis, she asked, “Are you taking

  any medication for your shoulder injury?”

  He angled a sharp look at her. “I don't need tricks to

  get the best of C. J. Thompson,” he insisted. “When

  the Clues Challenge is over, there's going to be only

  one champion—me.”

  Nancy was going to remind him that it was a team

  competition. Dennis didn't stick around to listen,

  though. Zipping up his parka, he headed for the exit.

  Hmm, thought Nancy. Dennis obviously thought of

  the Clues Challenge as a personal contest between

  himself and C.J. How far would he go to win?

  * * *

  “So Dennis thinks we set up the whole crushed-pills

  incident just to spice up Randy's article about C.J.?”

  Grant said, after Nancy returned to the table and told

  them what had happened.

  “That's ridiculous!” Dede said hotly. “But. . .” She

  turned to face C.J., her eyes flashing with uncertainty.

  “Shouldn't we tell Mr. Lorenzo what happened? If

  someone is trying to sabotage your team, he should

  know about it.”

  Glancing across the room, Nancy saw Mel Lorenzo.

  He was still at the table with Joy and some of the other

  Deltas. As Nancy watched, Joy, cool and confident as

  ever, leaned close and spoke into his ear. Mr.

  Lorenzo's expression changed. He shifted uneasily in

  his chair as Joy spoke to him, and kept checking his

  watch.

  He doesn't seem like a super-smooth salesman now,

  thought Nancy.

  “What could she be saying to him?” George said.

  “I don't know, but Mr. Lorenzo doesn't seem happy

  about it,” Nancy said.

  The change in him was so curious that Nancy tem-

  porarily forgot her own reason for wanting to talk to

  him. She watched, puzzled, as Mr. Lorenzo squirmed

  in his chair. After a few moments he said something to

  Joy, gave a curt nod, and got up and left.

  “Hmmm.” Nancy frowned as her eyes jumped back

  to Joy. “Now she's leaving—by herself.”

  Ned sipped some coffee, looking over his cup at Joy.

  “You think she's up to something?” he asked.

  “She sounds so confident that the Deltas are going

  to win the Clues Challenge,” Nancy said, thinking out

  loud. “Maybe that's because she's doing something to

  make sure they win.”

  In that instant she made up her mind. “I'm going to

  follow her.”

  “I'll go with you,” George said right away.

  “Okay,” Ned agreed. “Grant and I will take the pills

  to the pharmacy. We can all meet back at the frat.”

  “Do you see her?” George whispered to Nancy a few

  minutes later.

  Nancy paused at the beginning of the snow-covered

  path that led back toward Emerson College. She and

  George had left the Eatery in time to see Joy turn onto

  the path. Now that they were at the path themselves,

  though, Nancy couldn't see Joy.

  Globe street lamps stretched along the path, each

  surrounded by a pool of yellow light. “One of the lights

  is out,” Nancy whispered back, staring into the

  blackness. “Maybe . . . Yes!”

  A figure moved out of the shadows and back into the

  lighted part of the path. Nancy recognized Joy's blond

  hair and quick, purposeful stride at once. “That's her.

  Let's go!”

  She and George kept about fifty feet behind Joy. For

  several minutes all Nancy could hear was the crunching

  of their boots on the snow. She didn't see Mr. Lorenzo

  anywhere. Joy walked alone, carrying her backpack

  slung over one shoulder.

  “Shouldn't Joy turn left up there to get to her

  sorority?” George whispered.

  Up ahead, Nancy spotted the path that forked left to

  the West Campus. Nancy could see the lights of the

  sorority and fraternity houses. Joy had walked past the

  turnoff and continued toward the main campus.

  “Maybe she's going to the Student Center,” Nancy

  whispered, nodding toward an enormous, brightly lit

  building set at the edge of the lake. Plenty of other

  students were headed in that direction. Instead Joy

  veered right, down a side path that was lined on both

  sides with tall oaks.

  “She's going to the Academic Quad?” George asked,

  gazing ahead at the brick buildings that rose out of the

  s
now around a square courtyard. “At ten o'clock on the

  night before the Clues Challenge?” Even in the

  darkness George's doubt was clear.

  She and Nancy picked up their pace. As they drew

  closer, Nancy could make out the gothic arches and

  corner turrets of the buildings. At one corner of the

  quad a bell tower loomed four stories high. A lantern

  outside the entrance of the tower illuminated a stone

  archway and stairs that circled upward along the inside

  wall.

  “Hold it.” Nancy grabbed George's arm as Joy

  stopped outside the arched doorway of the tower.

  “Quick! Duck out of sight.”

  She and George climbed over a snowdrift and

  crouched behind one of the oak trees. When Nancy

  peered around the trunk, she saw that Joy was still at

  the foot of the bell tower. She was checking in every

  direction before dropping her backpack to the ground,

  unzipping it, and reaching inside.

  “What's she doing?” George wondered aloud.

  Joy stopped suddenly, her head whipped toward the

  oak tree where Nancy and George were hiding. Nancy

  froze, thankful for the darkness and the winter wind

  that whistled through the trees. A moment later Joy

  bent back over her pack, rummaging inside it.

  “The Clues Challenge starts right here in less than

  twelve hours,” Nancy whispered. “If Joy is here now—”

  She broke off as a faint noise from somewhere be-

  hind her and George caught her attention. She turned

  her head, listening carefully. After a moment she heard

  it again—the crunching of boots on snow.

  “Someone else is coming,” George hissed, whirling

  around. “Back there!”

  It sounded as if the person was nearby but they

  didn't see anyone. And the trees lining the path

  blocked much of their view.

  “Come on!” Nancy mouthed, picking her way over

  the snow as quietly as she could. “I want to see—”

  All of a sudden George let out a gasp, and Nancy

  turned in time to see George stumble forward. She fell

  against Nancy, sending both of them flying.

  “I tripped on a rock!” George whispered, struggling

  to find her balance in the snow.

  Nancy scrambled until she found her footing and

  pushed herself back to her feet. “Oh, no,” she said,

  cocking her head to one side to listen.

  The pounding sounds of boots on snow were faster

  now, and they were getting fainter and fainter. “The

  person's running away.”

  Nancy ran back down the path several yards,

  whipping her head left and right. “Where are you?” she

  said under her breath. But the footsteps had already

  faded. Between the darkness and the trees, Nancy

  didn't see anyone.

  “Whoever it was is gone,” she said, letting out a sigh.

  “I just hope Joy didn't hear. . . .”

  “Too late for that,” a voice spoke up right next to

  Nancy and George.

  Joy stood on the path right next to them. Her hands

  were poised on the hips of her red parka, and her

  backpack was slung over one shoulder. In her eyes was

  an ice-cold glare that swept over Nancy and George

  like an arctic blast.

  “Take some advice and quit following me,” Joy said

  coolly. “If you don't, you'll be sorry.”

  4. You’ll Be Sorry

  Nancy faced Joy squarely. “I'm sorry if we scared you,”

  Nancy said. “It's just that . . .” Now that she and

  George had been discovered, she decided to be direct.

  “We think someone may be trying to rig the Clues

  Challenge.”

  “You mean, cheat?” Joy's expression remained cool.

  “Someone put some crushed pills on our dessert

  tonight,” George said. “Plus, we're pretty sure someone

  sent Mr. Lorenzo a threatening message telling him to

  hand over the answers to the challenge.”

  Joy tightened her grip on her backpack strap and

  stared down her nose at Nancy and George. “What

  does that have to do with me?” she asked

  “We're just trying to make sure the Clues Challenge

  gets off to a fair start,” Nancy said. “We saw you talking

  to Mr. Lorenzo, and—”

  “So you decided to follow me? How fair is that?” Joy

  snapped.

  “You have to admit, this is a weird place to be, so

  late at night,” George said, picking her way over the

  snow to join Nancy and Joy on the path. “Were you

  meeting someone?”

  Joy pressed her mouth into a tight line. Her eyes

  flew over the snowy landscape, as if she were searching

  for answers in the night shadows. Finally she faced

  Nancy and George once more and said, “What I do is

  none of your business. Period.”

  Shooting one last glare at them, Joy turned and

  walked back down the path toward the West Campus.

  George brushed the snow from her parka and jeans,

  staring after Joy. “Well, she's not going to win any Miss

  Congeniality awards.”

  “We obviously got in the way of something, and she

  didn't like it,” Nancy said. “Too bad she heard us

  before we could figure out what it was.”

  As they headed back toward Ned's frat, they saw Joy

  ahead of them. Her silhouette moved farther and

  farther away, until it disappeared down the path to the

  West Campus. Just as Nancy and George were turning

  onto the path themselves, they spotted two familiar

  figures walking toward them from town.

  “Ned! Grant!” Nancy waved, stopping to wait where

  the path forked off.

  “We found out what the pills are,” Ned said, holding

  up the plastic bag of white tablets. “Comptamine.”

  George stared at him blankly. “Run that by me

  again, only in English this time?” she asked.

  “It's a muscle relaxant,” Grant explained. “The

  pharmacist told us it's used to control pain and muscle

  spasms resulting from injuries.”

  “Say, shoulder injuries?” Nancy inquired. She

  slipped her hand into the crook of Ned's arm as they

  continued toward the West Campus.

  Ned nodded. “Shoulder, neck, back . . . that kind of

  thing. The pharmacist says we're lucky no one ate the

  stuff. Comptamine has a tranquilizing effect, so it

  probably would have made us sluggish in the Clues

  Challenge.”

  “Wow,” said Nancy. “So whoever put that stuff in

  our tiramisu really was trying to slow us down.”

  While they walked, Nancy and George told Ned and

  Grant about their run-in with Joy. When they were

  done, Grant let out a whistle that echoed in the cold

  night air.

  “Joy must have been meeting the other person you

  heard—the one who ran away,” he said. “And I bet

  they were up to something underhanded. Why else

  would the other person run away like that?”

  “Do you think she was meeting Dennis?” Ned asked.

  “Maybe,” Nancy said. “But why would he and Joy

  meet on the sly? T
hey're not even on the same team,”

  she said. She blew out a cloud of breath, thinking.

  “Still, we should try to find out what medication

  Dennis took for his injury. And what he and Joy know

  about computers.”

  “Plus, we should tell Mr. Lorenzo about the pills,”

  George added. “Maybe he'll tell us what Joy said to

  him that made him so uncomfortable.”

  “Most of all,” Grant said, angling a warning glance at

  George, Nancy and Ned, “we'd better watch our steps.

  Whoever spiked that dessert means business.”

  Nancy shivered involuntarily. She was glad to see

  the green-and-white banner that hung over the front

  door of Omega Chi Epsilon a minute later.

  “I'll drive you and George back to Centennial,” Ned

  offered.

  He stomped over a pile of snow to the curb, where

  his sedan was parked. Nancy stayed where she was.

  She glanced down the row of fraternities, toward a guy

  who was headed up the front walk a few buildings

  down from Omega Chi Epsilon.

  “Isn't that Dennis?” she said.

  “Looks like him.” Ned glanced up, then unlocked

  and opened the passenger door. “I guess he just got

  back from the Eatery.”

  Nancy went to the car, slipped in the front seat, and

  moved over to make room for George. “But Dennis left

  the restaurant an hour ago,” she said. “He told me he

  was going straight back to the frat to sleep.”

  “Hmm,” George said. Her breath clouded up the

  windshield as she leaned forward to watch Dennis

  disappear inside Sigma Pi. “I guess he took a detour.”

  “Yeah. But where?” Nancy wondered. “And why did

  he lie about it?”

  “Remind me why I volunteered to get up before it's

  even light out on a freezing cold Saturday morning?”

  George yawned, stomping her boots on the packed

  snow as she and Nancy walked toward the bell tower.

  Nancy laughed. “What happened to being psyched

  about the ultimate physical challenge?” she asked.

  “It's hard to get psyched about anything until I've

  had breakfast,” George said. “Ned said he was going to

  bring us some, right?”

  “Yup. Tea and muffins.” Nancy eyed the ribbons of

  pale yellow light that began to brighten the horizon. “I

  hope he gets here soon. The Clues Challenge starts in

  less than twenty minutes.”

  Small groups tromped toward the bell tower. Some

  people were already there, stretching or jumping up