The E-Mail Mystery (Nancy Drew Book 144) Read online

  Nancy’s eyes opened wide. “She gave us a start last night because I thought the offices were empty. We’d already turned out the lights in the law library when Blaine opened the door. Believe me, we jumped! But how could she know Bess and I had been on the Internet? We just told her we were . . . wait a minute.” Nancy thought furiously.

  “What?” her father asked.

  “As we were leaving, Blaine turned on the computer Bess and I had been using,” Nancy said. “Do you think she could track what we had done? We had changed our screen name so no one would know we were calling from here. How could she have known it was us?”

  “I don’t know,” Mr. Drew said. “She told me Byron Thomas is always going on-line as well, so I guess she has some way of tracking our Internet use.” Byron! thought Nancy. I wonder if he tracked me and Bess on-line—or if Blaine’s really the guilty one, and she’s trying to shift the suspicion onto Byron.

  “Doesn’t Byron have to go on-line to do all the research she asks him to do?” Nancy asked aloud.

  “I think Blaine’s just trying to keep track of what goes on,” Mr. Drew continued. “I explained that it doesn’t cost extra to have people on-line after office hours, and that I was sure you and Bess were careful not to compromise our computer security.”

  “What computer security?” Nancy asked. “Dad, everyone knows everyone else’s password here. Your files are available to everyone in the office.”

  “We have to operate that way,” Mr. Drew explained. “Sometimes I need Blaine to follow up on some work, or Ms. Hanson to print out a file, or Byron or Henry to do further research. They all have to be able to access my files.”

  He looked at Nancy. “You don’t still think some hacker is breaking into our system and E-mailing out sensitive information, do you?”

  “Something’s going on, Dad,” Nancy said. “I’m sure of it. I didn’t tell you last night, but yesterday I called those clients who had settled early. Three of them cut me off, but Bob Jamison said someone had made him settle. And he implied that the threat was connected to information from your office, maybe from his old case file.”

  “This is serious, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said. “You should have told me right away. I’d better call Bob, and—”

  “Maybe you should wait a day or two,” Nancy said. “He was pretty angry. I know this could really affect you and your business, Dad, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Bess and I are meeting with a computer expert to see if he can help us track the E-mail that was sent on the first day you received those cases.”

  Nancy’s father put his head in his hands. “Please don’t say anything yet,” Nancy went on. “I’ll tell Bess she can come help me tomorrow. I know you’ve got your hands full with this Harris case, and I should get back to work now.” Carson Drew smiled at his daughter as she left his office.

  At about noon Nancy decided to go out for a sandwich. She walked to a nearby deli and ordered tuna salad on a roll.

  While she was waiting at the counter for her order, she noticed Blaine Warner, seated in a booth with a young man.

  Nancy edged toward the far end of the take-out counter, and pretended to examine the tray of Danish pastries. She kept her back to the restaurant area so Blaine couldn’t recognize her.

  Nancy listened intently over the din of the busy restaurant. She thought she heard her father’s name mentioned, and then she overheard the words, “When we were at Walker . . .”

  Oh, Nancy said to herself, it’s probably an old law school classmate of hers. Then she stopped herself. I’ve seen him before, though. In the elevator at Williams & Brown. It’s John Brown Junior, I’m sure of it. So, they do know each other.

  Just then Nancy’s order came up. Nancy was frustrated that she couldn’t overhear more of their conversation, but she was unwilling to let Blaine know she had seen her. Nancy took her sandwich and a can of iced tea, and went back to the office.

  Nancy returned to the library and sat down by her computer to eat her sandwich. No sooner had she opened the bag, when the door opened and Henry Yi appeared.

  “Take you out to lunch?” he asked, flashing her a friendly grin.

  “Thanks, I picked up a sandwich,” Nancy replied, pointing to the brown bag on the table. “But let me ask you something, Henry. We never got to finish our conversation the other day.”

  “Which one?” he asked, leaning toward her.

  “The one about those recent cases that were settled early,” Nancy went on. “Remember? We were in the copy room and Blaine walked in on us. I really want to know why you had that list of client names. The one I found in the copy machine in your handwriting.” She looked at Henry, waiting for his reply.

  Henry’s expression became serious, and in a low, conspiratorial whisper, he confided in Nancy, “I think someone may be stealing information and using it to settle these cases early. But I can’t tell you who I think it is, until I have more evidence.”

  Nancy was surprised that Henry was thinking along the same lines she was. But she didn’t want to let him know that she, too, was investigating a possible crime. She certainly wasn’t going to tell him about the E-mail log file, her research into the old criminal cases, her phone calls to the frightened clients, or her seeing Blaine and John Brown Jr. at the coffee shop . . . or her suspicions of Henry himself.

  “Really? How horrible,” Nancy said. “Have you told my father about your suspicions?”

  “Not yet,” Henry answered, still speaking softly. He peered over his shoulder to make sure they were alone. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble until I’m sure who’s behind it.”

  “Please let me know as soon as your suspicions are proved,” Nancy said, “and I’ll go with you to see my father about it.”

  “That would be great,” Henry said with a smile.

  This is a little too easy, Nancy thought. What was Henry’s real motivation, she wondered. To get ahead with her father, to get closer to her, or to throw suspicion off himself!

  11

  Hide and SEEK

  At the end of the day, Nancy called Bess and told her that her father had agreed that both of them could help with the computer work.

  “That’s great, Nancy!” Bess exclaimed.

  The two girls talked excitedly, anticipating the high-tech “spy” conversation they were going to have with the computer expert called SEEK, and what sophisticated methods he would use to track E-mail through Carson Drew’s computer system.

  “Let’s meet at Art-Dot-Café, since we know where that is,” Bess suggested. “Then we can walk over to the Cyber Space together. I can’t wait to meet this SEEK guy. He sounds so romantic, telling us to bring a rose.” Nancy could hear the excitement in her friend’s voice.

  “He’s probably just some computer nerd,” Nancy teased. “You’ve been reading too many romance novels,” she added, laughing.

  “Fine, Miss Detective,” Bess retorted, “just for that, you bring the rose.”

  “Okay, I will. See you later,” Nancy said with a smile. Just as she hung up, Blaine Warner walked in.

  “I’ll be working late tonight, Nancy,” she said. “I won’t be going anywhere,” she added unnecessarily. “Are you and your friend planning to play around on the computers again?”

  Nancy pursed her lips at Blaine’s condescending tone. “No,” she said, “I’m meeting Bess for coffee, and she and I will be here tomorrow morning. My father said she could come in and help clean out those old files.”

  “This Harris case is turning into a monster,” Blaine went on. “Next week, we’ll be bringing in extra legal help, and we’ll need all the computer terminals. I hope you’ll be done by then, so we’ll have room for everyone.”

  “Well, with Bess’s help, I should be able to finish up in another day or two,” Nancy said. “Then I’ll be out of your way.”

  She wondered about Blaine’s motives for trying to get her out of the office. Nancy left the library while Blaine settled in at one of the computer t
erminals.

  On her way downtown Nancy stopped and bought a single red rose.

  Bess was waiting for Nancy in the doorway to the Art.Café. “Nancy,” she whispered excitedly, “isn’t that your poet guy—Byron what’s-his-name?” She pointed inside the café, where Byron was at a computer terminal.

  “He looks like he’s getting ready to leave,” Nancy said. “Let’s go into the ladies’ room so he doesn’t see us.”

  The two girls slipped into the coffeehouse and made their way to the ladies’ room. They peered out from behind the door while Byron paid his bill. When he went into the men’s room, they emerged from the ladies’ room and went into the main part of the café.

  “Can you figure out what he was doing on the computer?” Nancy asked.

  “I don’t know,” Bess said. “Let’s take a look.” The two girls sat down at the machine Byron had just used. “Look,” Bess said. “He was just on-line with someone at the Cyber Space, see? That’s their IP address right there.”

  “Here he comes,” Nancy said. “Duck down behind the computer screen so he can’t see you.”

  The two girls peered around the edge of the monitor to see Byron leave the men’s room and head out into the street.

  “Let’s tail him,” Nancy said. “I want to find out where he’s going.”

  “What about our date with SEEK at the Cyber Space?” Bess asked.

  “We’ve got plenty of time,” Nancy replied. “Let’s go.”

  The two girls trailed Bryon about two blocks to a small café in a rundown building on the waterfront. The sign over the doorway read The Cyber Space Café. Nancy and Bess exchanged a look, then entered behind Byron.

  The interior of the building was sleek and modern, much to their surprise. The walls were exposed brick. Pipes and other building materials had been left in plain sight and painted a dazzling silver. Under the low light, brilliant halogen spots illuminated the small round marble-top tables. People, sitting alone and in pairs, hunched over small laptop computers placed at each seating area. On the stage in back, someone was reciting poetry.

  Nancy and Bess saw Byron take a disk from his bag, put it in one of the laptops, and begin to type.

  “Do you think he could be SEEK?” Bess asked.

  “He fits the description,” Nancy said. “Let’s find out.” After she and Bess walked over to his table, Nancy dropped the rose across his keyboard.

  “Hello, SEEK,” she said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  Byron jumped up. “Nancy! W-what are you doing here!”

  “I thought this was where you suggested we meet,” she replied. “Didn’t we speak on-line last night?”

  “I—I didn’t talk to you on-line last night,” he replied. “I just came here a few minutes ago. I mean, I just sent in a poem from the computers over at the Art-Dot-Café, and they said I could come over and read it onstage. Out loud and in person, you know? It’s open-mike night, see?” he said, gesturing to the person reading poetry in the back of the performance space.

  “You mean you aren’t SEEK?” Bess said.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Byron said to Bess. “Is this some sort of joke?”

  “Henry told me you were a poet,” Nancy interrupted. “but I didn’t know you were so serious about it.”

  “I am serious,” Byron admitted. “I’m only going to law school to satisfy my parents, so I can support myself in the future—after I pay off all my loans, that is. What I really want to do is write poetry.”

  “So when you go on-line, it’s not to do legal research?” Nancy asked.

  “Not always,” Byron confessed. “Sometimes I use the office Internet access to work on my Web page. I’m finally beginning to get some serious attention in underground publishing circles. Tonight’s just open-mike night,” he went on excitedly. “But if they like my stuff, I can have my own reading on Friday. Maybe you and your friend would like to come and hear me?”

  “That sounds great,” Bess said.

  “Let me know if you get it,” Nancy said. “You can E-mail me the invitation,” she added with a grin.

  “Meanwhile, if you’re not SEEK, we’re supposed to be meeting someone else,” Bess said. She picked up the rose Nancy had dropped on Byron’s keyboard. “I hope we haven’t scared SEEK off. Come on, Nancy, let’s get our own table and see what happens.”

  “See you later, Nancy. Nice to see you again, Bess,” Byron said.

  The two girls made their way to an empty table and sat down. They ordered cappuccinos and left the rose conspicuously on the front edge of the table. They eyed every patron who entered the café, but no one walked over to them.

  “I hope we didn’t miss our date with SEEK,” Nancy said, looking at her watch.

  “It’s only a little after eight,” Bess said. “Maybe he had to work late or something.”

  Nancy sipped her cappuccino. “I told my dad about my conversations with his clients yesterday, and he was upset. I hope this SEEK guy can help us find out what’s going on.”

  Bess checked her watch again. “I guess we might as well go on-line while we’re waiting.” Bess tapped on the keyboard in front of them. She typed: “hi, everybody. BigB here.”

  Someone typed back: “hi BigB.”

  “This stuff is so neat!” Nancy exclaimed. “Look at all these sentences scrolling by. How can you understand what they’re saying?”

  “Take a look at my on-line chat guide,” Bess said, pulling the papers out of her purse and handing them to her friend.

  Nancy looked down at the papers Bess handed her, and read:

  :)

  = smile

  : D

  = big grin

  :X

  = my lips are sealed

  :P

  = sticking out tongue

  :(

  = frown

  LOL

  = laughing out loud

  BTW

  = by the way

  brb

  = be right back

  wtg

  = way to go!

  ttfn

  = ta-ta for now!

  cul8r

  = see you later

  “These are great!” Nancy said, grinning. “It’s like being able to talk on the page.”

  “Exactly,” Bess said. “You can do almost anything on-line that you can do in person—except meet this SEEK guy on time. I have to get home for my on-line group. I guess this meeting is a washout.”

  “Maybe it was just some kid pretending to know about computers so he could play a trick on us. I’ll pay for our cappuccinos,” Nancy said. “You go ahead. I don’t want you to be late.”

  “Thanks, Nan,” Bess said. She hurried toward the exit. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she called over her shoulder.

  Nancy waved goodbye to her friend, then began to gather together the papers and disks she had brought from the office to show to SEEK. Why hadn’t he shown up? she wondered. Was he scared off when he saw us talking to Byron?

  Nancy looked through her papers and realized Bess had been in such a hurry, she’d left her online chat guide behind. I hope she doesn’t need it for her on-line meeting tonight, Nancy thought.

  Nancy paid the bill and looked for Byron on her way out. She wanted to say good night to him before she left and wish him luck with his poetry reading, but he was nowhere to be seen. Oh, well, she thought, I’ll see him tomorrow.

  Nancy left the café, carrying her papers and the rose she had brought for SEEK. She had gotten only about half a block along the deserted waterfront street, when she began to get the feeling that someone was following her. She glanced back, then hurried along the dark street.

  Without warning, someone charged her from behind. Nancy screamed as loud as she could. Before she could scream again, her attacker hit her on the head, and Nancy sank to the ground!

  12

  A Shocking Discovery

  “Nancy!” Bess ran up the darkened street toward her fallen friend. Her arrival probably sca
red off Nancy’s attacker, who took off and disappeared before either girl could get a good look at whoever it was.

  “Bess, thank goodness you were here.” Nancy held her head. “Why’d you come back?”

  “I realized I’d forgotten my on-line chat guide,” Bess went on, “and I needed it for the meeting tonight. I was walking back when I saw someone jump you from behind and hit you on the head! Are you okay?”

  “I think so,” Nancy said. Bess helped her friend to her feet. “I’m not really hurt, just shaken up,” she admitted.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I ran as fast as I could when I saw you get hit,” Bess said. “Did you see who it was?”

  “No,” Nancy said shakily. “You were coming up the street, Bess. Could you see who it was?”

  “No,” Bess said. “It’s too dark. He looked slim, and taller than you, but I couldn’t see his face. Did anyone else come out of the café with you? Maybe someone else saw what happened,” Bess persisted.

  “No, I was alone,” Nancy replied. “I looked for Byron on my way out to say good night, but I couldn’t find him. Besides, I was already halfway up the block when I was attacked.”

  “You don’t think Byron’s the one who jumped you, do you?” Bess asked, shocked.

  “I don’t know,” Nancy said, “but I doubt it. Byron doesn’t seem like the violent type.”

  “Maybe it was SEEK,” Bess said. “Or maybe this SEEK guy set us up. He had to know it was you because you were carrying the rose. This is getting really scary, Nancy. You could’ve been hurt.”

  “I’m fine,” Nancy insisted. “I bet you’re right that my attacker was the same person who called himself SEEK on the computer. Whoever it was knew we were looking for help on the Internet to track E-mail, and set up this meeting to scare us off.”

  “Well, it’s working!” Bess said. “I’m about as scared as I’ve ever been. If it wasn’t Byron, who do you think it was?”