My Deadly Valentine Read online

  Bess transferred some of the round chocolates to the platter, taking care not to dislodge them from their creased brown wrappers. She leaned close to the platter and sniffed. “They look like chocolate-covered cherries, but they smell like peanuts.”

  “Maybe they’re assorted flavors,” said Denise.

  “We’ll soon find out.” Bess lifted the silver platter and ducked out of the kitchen.

  Nancy tucked packets of raspberry tea into a basket, then paused. Something was nagging at her mind. The chocolates had an unusual odor! . . . a few were missing . . . and Mindy was sick.

  A handful of tea bags went flying as Nancy raced out of the kitchen. She pushed past Kristin and Etta, then skidded to a halt in the dining room. Beside the buffet, Bess stood, poised and charming, as she extended the platter to two guests.

  “Change of plans,” Nancy said, plucking a chocolate from one girl’s hand. “We’re going to save the best till last.” Ignoring the girls’ confused looks, she wheeled Bess around.

  “Nancy?” Bess frowned. “What’s going on?”

  “You can’t serve those chocolates,” Nancy whispered, tugging Bess back toward the kitchen. “I think that candy’s been poisoned!”

  Chapter

  Ten

  ARE YOU KIDDING?” Bess gasped as Nancy took the tray from her hands and strode into the kitchen.

  “Did you serve the chocolates to anyone?” Nancy asked her.

  “You caught me before I had a chance.”

  In the kitchen, Nancy dumped the chocolates back into the box and turned to Denise. “I think these chocolates were doctored. There’s a rat poison called Rodenticide that smells like peanuts. Spread the word among the sisters and find out if anyone else has tried them.”

  “How awful!” Denise exclaimed. “I’ll go tell Kristin and the others.”

  “What about Mindy?” Bess asked.

  “If she ate this candy, I’m taking her straight to the hospital,” Nancy answered, tucking the box under her arm. “Let’s go upstairs and check.”

  Nancy and Bess found Mindy curled up in bed, still feeling nauseated. “Did you eat any of the candy from the ‘secret admirer’?” Nancy asked her.

  Mindy nodded, “Just a few pieces. Not enough to give me a stomachache.”

  “I’ll bet you anything I’m right,” Nancy said, pulling their coats out of the closet. “Someone tampered with those chocolates! We’d better get you to a doctor fast.”

  While Kristin gave her speech to all the guests in the dining room, Nancy and Bess quietly helped Mindy down the stairs and outside.

  Denise followed them to the porch, her breath forming a puff as she spoke. “None of the other sisters tried the candy.”

  “Thank goodness!” Bess said.

  “We’ll call you from the hospital,” Nancy told Denise. They climbed into the Mustang, and Nancy drove straight to the Emersonville hospital. Fortunately the roads had been cleared, and Nancy was able to drive quickly.

  Mindy was checked into the emergency room, and a nurse wheeled her inside for an examination.

  “We think it was this candy that made her sick,” Nancy said to the attending physician, placing the heart-shaped box of chocolates on the counter at the nurses’ station. She opened the box and examined a few of the candies. There was no sign that any of them had been glazed or broken. But she knew that a poison could have been injected with a needle, leaving only the tiniest of holes.

  As Nancy went on to explain about the problems that had been occurring at the Theta Pi house, the attending physician lowered his clipboard and listened closely. He was a young, soft-spoken man with brown, curly hair and a neatly trimmed mustache.

  “We’ll need to get a sample of this candy to the lab immediately,” he told a nurse.

  “Right away, Dr. Feldman,” the nurse said.

  “And you should notify Sergeant Weinberg at the police station,” Nancy added. “If this candy was poisoned, he’ll want to investigate.”

  After Dr. Feldman went inside to attend to Mindy, Nancy and Bess settled into chairs in the waiting room. For what seemed like an eternity, they waited, their eyes glued to the examining room door.

  “I just wish we knew she was okay,” Bess said, as she got up and paced back and forth.

  Bess went to a pay phone to call the sorority house. Nancy noticed that Sergeant Weinberg had arrived and was speaking to a nurse at the reception desk. Nancy joined them, filling in the officer on her suspicions.

  “When I realized that the candy smelled like peanuts, I remembered reading about a rat poison with that distinctive odor. It’s called Rodenticide,” she explained. “Since Mindy was the only one who ate the chocolates, and she wasn’t feeling well, it seemed likely that the candy had been tampered with.”

  The nurse said she would give the name of the rat poison to the attending physician and the lab.

  “Your suspicions were correct,” the doctor said a few minutes later as he entered the reception area. “We’ve treated Mindy for poisoning. She’s going to be fine, but we’re admitting her for observation. The nurses are trying to work it out so that she can share a room with her friend, Rosie Lopez.”

  “Thank goodness she’s all right,” Nancy said, taking a deep breath.

  “Have you determined the source of the poison yet?” the sergeant asked.

  “We believe it’s the candy, although the lab hasn’t had time to identify the toxic substance yet,” Dr. Feldman explained. “We’ll test it for traces of Rodenticide, as well as other substances.”

  “And I’ll need a few samples to take to the police lab,” Sergeant Weinberg added.

  Dr. Feldman’s brown eyes were serious as he turned to Nancy. “It’s a good thing you got that candy out of circulation. We could have had a lot of very sick students in here.”

  “Nice work, Ms. Drew,” the officer agreed. “But this case—a sorority stalker . . .” He shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. I have to call Dean Jarvis, and I’m about to recommend that he suspend all student activities on campus until we catch this psycho.”

  “Cancel the Sweetheart Ball?” Bess asked, as she approached the group. “That would include the valentine auction, too. People would be so disappointed.”

  “At least they’d be safer,” he said.

  “I don’t think this guy is going to back off if a few events are canceled,” Nancy said as she thought out the situation. “But I wish I had a better lead on who the stalker is.”

  “Don’t we all,” Sergeant Weinberg agreed.

  • • •

  “The tea was disastrous!” Kristin told Nancy, Ned, and Bess as they sat in the corner booth of a Mexican restaurant in Emersonville.

  Ned and Kristin had joined the girls at the hospital around five o’clock. They had stopped in to see Rosie but had had to leave after just a few minutes. Visiting hours resumed at seven that night.

  “We tried to get Mindy out quietly,” Nancy said, dipping a tortilla chip into a bowl of salsa.

  “No one noticed,” Kristin said. “But somehow the talk turned to the attack on Rosie and the graffiti. Even though Fitz painted over it, some of the rushees had seen it earlier in the day. They started asking a lot of awkward questions.”

  “News travels fast on campus,” Ned said. He stretched his long legs out in the aisle so that Nancy could see his purple and orange team sneakers. He had basketball practice later that evening.

  Kristin raked her fingers through her sandy blond hair and sighed. “It didn’t help that Marina Dombrowski showed up and started blabbing about how my brake lines had been cut. I can’t imagine how she found out about that—but as Ned says, bad news travels fast.”

  “Marina Dombrowski came to the rush?” Bess said incredulously. “Does she think she’ll get a bid after she threatened the sisters last year?”

  Kristin frowned. “I think she just came to cause trouble. Since it was an open rush, we couldn’t turn her away.”

  “I’ll bet s
he put a damper on the party,” Nancy said.

  “That’s an understatement,” said Kristin. “She started joking that we were a cursed sorority. By the end of the rush, people were calling Theta Pi the house of horrors.”

  “What a shame,” Bess said. “The rush seemed to be going so well.”

  “It’s a good thing you snagged that candy before we served it,” Kristin told Nancy. She looked puzzled. “I was sure the box was sealed when it arrived, though.”

  Nancy nodded. “It looked factory-sealed, but thinking back, I realized that anyone could have unwrapped one end, slipped the box in and out, then sealed it again with glue.”

  “Talk about premeditated,” Ned said.

  “Yes,” Nancy agreed. “And I think the poison must have been injected into the candy,” Nancy said. “The stalker must have a scientific mind. He or she can rig an electrical switch, locate a syringe and poison, cut brake lines . . .” Her voice trailed off as she thought of Max and Casey. “Ned, do you know what Casey’s major is?”

  He gulped, then answered hesitantly, “Chemistry. He wants to be a science teacher.”

  Nancy’s blue eyes flashed with interest. “We’d better pay him a visit tomorrow. I’d like to check out his room in the dorm.”

  “Breaking and entering, Nan?” Ned asked.

  “I’d rather not,” she said. “Can you talk your way in?”

  Ned shifted uncomfortably. “I feel like a traitor. He’s my teammate. But if he’s the stalker, he has to be stopped. We can go by his dorm in the morning.”

  “Okay,” Nancy said. “And I want to check the handwriting on the secret admirer’s card when we get back to the house. I need to know if that poisoned candy came from Cupid.”

  “I saw that card,” Kristin said. “Are you talking about matching the handwriting?” When Nancy nodded, Kristin shook her head. “It won’t work. The secret admirer used a typewriter. I remember it because it struck me as strange at first. Then I just figured he didn’t want to give himself away by his handwriting.”

  “Hmm,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “If the candy was from Cupid, he or she was clever enough to think ahead. We never would have touched the poisoned candy if we knew it came from him.”

  “Rat poison!” Bess shivered. “That’s disgusting.”

  “Can we change the subject?” Ned asked as their waiter approached and began serving sizzling fajitas and steaming rice and beans. “I’d hate to lose my appetite.”

  “Good idea,” Nancy said as she dug into her chicken fajita.

  After they finished eating, Ned headed to Emerson for basketball practice, and the three girls walked back to the hospital.

  “I wonder if Mindy’s been checked into Rosie’s room yet,” Bess said as they stepped off the elevator on the second floor.

  Glancing down the hall, Nancy noticed someone dressed in a green surgical gown and mask. “That’s weird,” she said aloud. What would a surgeon be doing on this floor? The operating rooms were upstairs. Perhaps the surgeon was just checking on a patient, she thought.

  But when Nancy saw the man pause at the door to Rosie’s room, she was even more curious. He stared at the ground, as if nervous, then pushed the door open and stepped over the threshold.

  That was when Nancy noticed the purple and orange hightop sneakers under his green gown.

  That was no surgeon! It was Casey Thompson—and he was sneaking into Rosie’s room!

  Chapter

  Eleven

  CASEY!” NANCY SHOUTED after him, but he’d already ducked inside.

  “Where?” Bess asked, blinking.

  Nancy was already running down the corridor when she shouted, “In Rosie’s room!” Her shoes squeaked against the linoleum floor as she went.

  Nancy pushed open the door to the room. Bess and Kristin were right behind her. Casey was standing at Rosie’s bedside. Both he and Rosie seemed shocked by the girls’ intrusion.

  “What are you doing here, Casey?” Nancy asked.

  He pulled off the green surgical mask and shrugged. “I know this must look pretty silly, but I wanted to see Rosie, and I was afraid someone would recognize me. So I snatched this disguise from the closet down the hall.”

  “The police told you to stay away from Rosie,” Kristin reminded him, “completely.”

  “That’s true,” Rosie said, wagging a finger at him. “You’re breaking the law—although I’m glad you came to see me.”

  “I wanted to apologize,” Casey said, squeezing Rosie’s hand. “I was a jerk to argue with you the other night. I’m so sorry you got hurt. If only I’d been there . . .”

  Nancy rolled her eyes. Romance was wonderful, but there was a stalker on the loose!

  The girls hung back while Rosie and Casey talked, though Nancy picked up bits and pieces of the conversation. “I’ve been too possessive,” Casey admitted. “Can you forgive me?”

  “If you want to be my boyfriend, some things have to change,” Rosie said firmly.

  Casey mumbled something and then sat down on the bed beside Rosie, still holding her hand.

  By the time Casey left, Nancy sensed that the couple had begun to patch up their relationship. Nancy was torn between rooting for Casey and feeling that she was right to be protecting Rosie from him.

  “You know,” Nancy told Rosie, “the police still think Casey might be the person who attacked you. And he might be the Theta Pi stalker.” The girls told her what had been happening in and around the sorority house.

  “That’s horrible!” Rosie said. “But it’s not Casey. He has a bad temper, but he’s not vicious.”

  “Please,” Nancy told Rosie, “don’t let down your guard until this investigation is over.”

  Nancy and Rosie were still talking when Mindy was wheeled into the room and helped into the bed beside Rosie’s. The girls stayed until Mindy was settled in, then drove back to Emerson College.

  The Theta Pi house was quiet as the three girls traipsed in. The flickering light in the den indicated that the TV was on. There they found a few of the sisters curled up on the sofa and floor, sharing a big bowl of popcorn.

  Bess looked down at her red outfit, then nodded toward the stairs. “I’m going to change into my sweatsuit and hang out down here.”

  Nancy nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.” On the way up the stairs, Nancy turned to Kristin and asked, “Can we go over the records of girls who wanted to pledge Theta Pi in the last few years? Maybe a rejected rushee has something to do with the attacks.”

  “Sure,” Kristin agreed. “I’ll ask Denise to join us, since she was rush chairperson last year. She has all the old files in her room.”

  Ten minutes later Nancy and Kristin were sitting in their room, going through index cards with Denise Slavin.

  “The Panhellenic Council asks us to give them a list of all the girls who attend our rushes, all the girls who receive bids—stuff like that,” Denise explained.

  “I’m interested in Marina Dombrowski—or any other girl who didn’t get a bid,” Nancy said. “It’s possible that the sorority is being stalked by someone who wanted to pledge but was rejected.”

  “That definitely describes Marina,” Kristin said. “She was a gung-ho rushee, but when it came time to extend bids, a few sisters voted against her. There was bad blood between Marina and last year’s Theta Pi president, a senior named Wendy Allen.”

  “Why?” Nancy asked.

  Kristin frowned. “Wendy didn’t want to let a local girl—a ‘townie’—in the sorority.”

  “That’s cruel,” Nancy said.

  “I know,” Kristin agreed, “but every sister has a vote, and Wendy campaigned hard against Marina.”

  “Hmm.” Nancy understood why Marina had become so bitter. “And it’s probably a sensitive point for her. She may be embarrassed about her father’s job as a maintenance worker on campus.” She glanced at Denise, who was flipping through the file. “How many other girls were turned away last year?”

  Denise pull
ed out a stack of cards. “There were several dozen girls who wanted to pledge but didn’t get bids from us, but most of them ended up pledging other sororities.” At last Denise narrowed the stack down to three cards. “That leaves Marina Dombrowski, Jessica Watson, and Dinah Ryan. We were their first choice, and none of them ended up pledging any other sorority.”

  Nancy wrote their names down on a notepad. “We know about Marina. Do either of you remember the other two girls?”

  The two sorority sisters shook their heads.

  “Not really,” Kristin said.

  “I’ll talk with Dean Jarvis in the morning,” Nancy said. “We may find some clues in their student records.”

  • • •

  Friday morning was clear and sunny. After breakfast, Nancy placed a call to Dean Jarvis. In her hand, she held the secret admirer’s valentine card, which appeared to have been typed on an electric typewriter.

  “Good morning, Nancy,” Jarvis said. “Sergeant Weinberg tells me you intercepted a deadly valentine last night. And your instinct was right—the police lab confirmed that the candy was tainted with Rodenticide. It turns out that’s exactly the brand of mouse and rat poison our maintenance department uses.”

  Nancy paused as she digested the new information.

  “I have the card that came with the candy,” she said, “but it’s typed—unlike Cupid’s notes.”

  “The police will need that for evidence,” the dean said, adding that he’d make sure an officer came to the Theta Pi house to pick it up.

  Then Nancy gave him the names of the three girls who had not received bids from Theta Pi nor pledged any other sorority.

  “Marina Dombrowski,” Dean Jarvis said, the surprise evident in his voice. “No wonder Max was so hostile when I called him in yesterday. He kept insisting that he was being set up. But now that we know his daughter was rejected by the Theta Pis, Max has a reason to dislike the girls.”

  The clues were adding up! Nancy felt a familiar surge of adrenaline that always came when she knew a case was just about to catch fire.

  “But, Nancy,” the dean began, “a motive is one thing. Besides the fact that Rosie was dragged through the boiler room, we have no hard evidence pointing to Max.”