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

  “It could be any of our suspects,” Nancy said, gently rubbing her head where she had been hit. “It could be Byron, because he knew we were here. My father told me that Blaine knew we were online last night, so maybe she tracked our conversation with SEEK. Maybe she is SEEK! And Henry told me he had a list of those cases because he thought someone was stealing information from my dad’s office and using it to settle these cases early. But he didn’t want to say any more until he had proof, so I don’t know if he’s for real or just covering his tracks.”

  “Did he mention the Williams and Brown connection?” Bess asked.

  “No,” Nancy replied. “And I didn’t tell him about my investigation, either. Henry, Byron, and Blaine are all under suspicion as far as I’m concerned, and they all seem to be trying to throw blame on one another. As soon as we get some real evidence, I’ll tell my dad.”

  Nancy leaned over to brush off her skirt, and noticed a computer disk lying in the street near where she had been attacked. She thumbed through her portfolio carefully, then picked up the disk and showed it to Bess.

  “Look, Bess,” Nancy whispered. “It’s got a Drew law firm label on it.”

  “It looks like one of the disks you brought from your dad’s office to show this SEEK guy,” Bess said. “You probably dropped it when you were knocked down.”

  “Nope,” Nancy said. “All the disks I brought with me are right here in my portfolio. This disk must have been dropped by my attacker.”

  “Awesome!” Bess exclaimed. “Then this is a real clue. We’ll take the disk in tomorrow and check it out.”

  “This could prove it was an inside job,” Nancy said. “And who’s behind it.”

  Bess insisted on walking Nancy to the bus, even though Nancy assured Bess that she was okay. “I can still catch the last half-hour of my on-line meeting,” Bess said. “I want to make sure no one jumps you again.”

  “Remind me I have to give you back your chat guide when we get to my place,” Nancy said as they boarded a bus for home. “But I sure am glad you forgot it, or you might not have showed up in time to save my neck.”

  “Let’s not even think about that,” Bess said with a shudder. The two girls rode in silence for a few minutes. Finally Bess said, “Forget about my online meeting, at least for tonight. After that attack, we’d better get serious about this E-mail mystery. I can always catch up tomorrow night.”

  “Thanks, Bess,” Nancy said, grateful for her friend’s help. She thought for a few minutes. “I’m afraid we have to admit that you and I don’t have enough expertise to figure out who sent those files or who’s been logging on behind us and tracking our on-line activities.”

  “Well,” Bess said, “we could go to the computer department at the college and see if someone there could help us.”

  “We don’t have the time. The fact is, I’m not sure how much longer we’ll be in my dad’s office,” Nancy said. “Blaine said they’re getting in some temporary employees to help with his new case, and we have to finish up the file-copying work in the next day or two. Without a computer expert we can trust, we have to turn our attention to the suspects at hand.”

  “Good idea, Nan,” Bess said. “I’ll help you snoop around when I come in to your dad’s office tomorrow.”

  “Besides,” Nancy continued, “it’s clear now that even if you could access my father’s computer system from outside, the information from those old criminal cases wouldn’t be in the system.”

  “Why not?” Bess asked.

  “Because those are dead files. They’ve all been cleared off the main computer, backed up on floppies, and stored in these red legal files in the law library. And someone’s looked at them recently. Someone from my dad’s office has to be involved,” Nancy concluded.

  The girls arrived at Nancy’s house and were welcomed by Hannah Gruen. “Bess, how nice to see you. I didn’t know you planned on coming home with Nancy tonight.”

  “Hi, Hannah,” Bess said warmly. “We didn’t plan on it, actually. Here we are.”

  Nancy put a hand to her head. “Nancy, dear, what’s the matter?” Hannah asked with concern. “Did you get hurt?”

  “Oh, no, Hannah,” Nancy said, dropping her hand and shooting Bess a warning look. “I just have a killer headache. A couple of aspirins, and I’ll be fine.”

  “I’ll get them for you right now,” Hannah replied as she hurried to the bathroom.

  “Are you sure we shouldn’t tell Hannah and your dad about what happened tonight?” Bess whispered to Nancy, once Hannah was out of earshot.

  “Absolutely not,” Nancy whispered back. “Hannah would worry herself to death. And if I tell Dad, he might pull us off the case before we find out who’s behind it. I’m afraid he might accuse the wrong person . . . or worse, keep trusting the wrong person.”

  Hannah returned with the aspirins and a glass of water. “Here you are, dear. You should get some rest, too,” she added, looking at Bess.

  “I won’t be staying long, Hannah,” Bess assured her warmly. “Nancy and I just have to go over a few things so I’ll be prepared to help out tomorrow,” she added honestly.

  Bess and Nancy went up to Nancy’s room.

  “I’m going to do something I haven’t done since third grade,” Nancy said. She took out an old blue notebook and turned to a clean page. She spoke out loud as she jotted some notes. Bess read over her shoulder.

  Clues:

  Log file showed MHans transmitted E-mail to Williams & Brown the first day cases received. File was erased from hard drive, but Nancy had printout and backup copy.

  Nancy overheard conversations between an insurance rep and Williams about settling cases, which saved Williams & Brown money. Brown complimented his son on how he handled insurance cases.

  Someone eavesdropped on Nancy’s conference room phone call to Bess, when Nancy talked about her suspicions on the settled cases.

  “You didn’t tell me about that,” Bess said as Nancy scribbled away.

  Someone named SEEK answered Bess’s posting on local computer users’ group. Meeting set up at the Cyber Space, but SEEK didn’t show up. Nancy carried rose, and she was attacked.

  Computer disk from Carson Drew’s office was discovered where Nancy was attacked. Who left it—Henry, Byron, or Blaine?

  Suspects:

  Henry Yi: Computer whiz who made handwritten list of clients in the settled cases. Claims someone is stealing information. Is attentive to Nancy—hangs around when she’s working. May have overheard Nancy’s conversation with her father about the settled cases in the restaurant, when he was in next booth with Blaine Warner.

  Blaine Warner: Seems to resent Nancy’s presence. Walked into the lobby of Williams & Brown’s building when Nancy was there, and went to lunch in the same restaurant with Brown and son. Was at Sacred Cow restaurant when Nancy and Bess made plans to go on-line and in the office the following night when they did.

  “Maybe she is SEEK,” Bess muttered. “Who says it has to be a guy?”

  “Good point, Bess,” Nancy said as she continued writing.

  Blaine and Henry were at Steak & Ale restaurant when Nancy and father discussed the settled cases.

  Byron Thomas: Clearly comfortable navigating the Internet. Always hiding papers and computer disks. Bess and Nancy trailed him to the Cyber Space. But he confessed only to writing poetry. Is someone at Williams & Brown paying him money he needs for law school to E-mail sensitive information from the old case files?

  “Well, there it is,” Nancy said. “The clues, the suspects . . . and tomorrow we’ll find out what’s on this computer disk.”

  “Let’s sleep on it,” Bess said. “I’m ready to sign off.”

  • • •

  The next day Bess and Nancy met in the lobby of Carson Drew’s office building early in the morning. “How are you feeling, Nan?” Bess asked quietly, concerned for her friend’s recovery after the attack the night before.

  “I’m fine, Bess, thanks,” Nancy
replied. “I even went for my run this morning.”

  “Better you than me,” Bess said with a grin. “I’d rather let my fingers do the running.”

  Then Ms. Hanson appeared, and the three of them rode the elevator upstairs together. Nancy explained Bess’s presence in the office. “Nice to see you again, Bess,” Ms. Hanson said warmly, shaking her hand. “I’m sure Nancy will be glad to have your help. That file-management work can be really tedious.”

  “Oh, I’m sure Nancy and I will find some way to make it interesting,” Bess said, her blue eyes twinkling.

  “Oh, I’m sure you and Nancy are interesting all by yourselves.” A friendly male voice came from behind them. Henry Yi joined them with a flashing grin. “Good morning,” he continued, sticking out his hand. “My name’s Henry. What’s yours?”

  “Ah, the primo paralegal,” Bess said, smiling.

  “My reputation precedes me,” Henry said. “I’m thrilled.”

  “My name’s Bess Marvin,” she went on. “I’m Nancy’s friend, and I’ll be working with her for the next few days.”

  “If your file management skills equal your poise and beauty, I’m afraid your work will be done all too soon,” Henry said.

  Bess rolled her eyes. “We’d better get started, Nan,” she said, turning to her friend, “or I’ll get fired before I even get hired.”

  “Your father and Blaine are in court this morning, Nancy,” Ms. Hanson said. “And Byron’s doing some research down there, so you two should have the library to yourselves.”

  “Great,” Nancy said. “We’ll get a lot done.” The two girls moved off to the law library and set up at two adjacent computer stations. Nancy gave Bess a list of the cases, and they started copying files off the computer system and onto floppy disks for storage.

  Once the computers were up and running, Nancy reached into her portfolio and produced the disk she had found in the street the night before. Bess popped it in her disk drive.

  The two girls looked carefully at the screen as Bess called up the directory. “Oh, my goodness,” Nancy said, shocked. “These are all Blaine Warner’s files.”

  “She must be the one who attacked you!” Bess cried.

  13

  Late-Night Stakeout

  Nancy stared at the screen. “It’s certainly a possibility that Blaine was the attacker,” Nancy said. “I’m sure she’d be strong enough, and she’s a bit taller than I am, too. But what’s worse is these files are all about that new Harris case that Blaine and my dad are working on. Why was she carrying around a disk like that?”

  “Maybe she was taking it home to work on. Do you think we should we give it back to her?” Bess asked, suddenly concerned. “What if Henry or Byron stole the disk from Blaine, and it fell out when one of them attacked you? Maybe Byron borrowed it and dropped it on his way to the Cyber Space. What if Blaine needs this disk to work on your father’s case?”

  “I’m sure she has the information stored on her hard drive as well,” Nancy said. “Let’s not tell anyone and see what happens.”

  “Okay, Nan,” Bess said, exiting the directory and removing the disk, which Nancy slipped into her portfolio.

  “Listen,” Nancy continued softly, “I have an idea. Why don’t you go ask Ms. Hanson if there’s anything else you can do to help out around the office?”

  “Sure,” Bess said. “That way I can pop in and out of a few offices and snoop around a little.” Bess stood up and walked out to the reception area, leaving the door to the library open. Nancy could hear Bess and Ms. Hanson’s conversation.

  “Hi, Ms. Hanson,” Bess said. “Nancy suggested I ask if I can help out with anything else around the office—run errands, make phone calls, whatever you need.”

  Ms. Hanson smiled at her. “Why not?” she replied. “Here are some memos you can distribute to all the offices. And then maybe you can do a coffee run. I’d like a cheese Danish and a coffee with two sugars.”

  Nancy kept working in the library until Bess reappeared a few minutes later with a copy of the memo.

  “Nancy, you’ll never believe what happened,” Bess said. “I walked into Blaine’s office to give her a copy of the memo, and she was whispering into the phone, something about erasing a file. I’ll bet she tried to wipe out that E-mail log. And when she realized I was in there, she yelled at me to get out.”

  Before Nancy could ask her any questions, the girls heard a phone slam down across the hall, and Blaine burst in through the door to the law library. Ignoring Nancy and Bess, she started searching through the papers and disks on the table and shelves. She bent over to peer in the disk drives at each computer station.

  “I just got back from court, and I discovered I’m missing a very important disk,” Blaine stormed. She looked closely at Nancy and then at Bess. “Are you sure you didn’t get it mixed up with those disks you’ve been copying?”

  “No, Blaine,” Nancy said carefully. “I’m sure I didn’t get it mixed up with any of my disks.”

  “I was working late in the library last night, and I’m sure I left it in here. Unless Byron or Henry picked it up. Henry’s always sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. And Byron’s always snatching up disks and papers and stuffing them in his law books or his pockets. I’ll bet one of them has it!” she huffed.

  “Neither of them has been in here this morning. Didn’t you say you were working late last night?” Nancy asked Blaine. “When would Byron or Henry have picked up your disk, if you were the last one in here?”

  Blaine shot Nancy a hostile glance, then said, “Maybe they took it during the day, and I didn’t notice. They might even have taken it out of my office. No one ever knocks around here,” she concluded, glaring at Bess as she stamped out of the library.

  “Whew!” Bess exhaled. “And I thought she was upset before when I barged into her office.”

  “Well,” Nancy said, her mind racing, “we know Byron couldn’t have taken the disk last night, because he was at Art-Dot-Café—and the Cyber Space—at the same times we were.”

  “But it could have been Henry,” Bess said. “Or maybe it was Byron, and he’d already passed the disk on to his partner in crime at Williams and Brown—and the accomplice is the one who attacked you and dropped the disk Byron had given him.”

  “I guess that’s a possibility, too,” Nancy replied. “But what’s most likely is that Blaine was taking the disk home, and that she lied about working late last night. She probably realized that she must have dropped the disk when she attacked me. . . .”

  “And now she’s trying to cover it up, by trying to blame Byron or Henry,” Bess concluded excitedly.

  The girls quickly dropped their discussion as the library door opened, and Nancy’s father walked in. “Hi, Bess; hi, Nancy,” he said. “Sorry I missed you this morning. You two doing okay with that file copying?”

  “Fine,” Nancy said. “Bess has been helping Ms. Hanson distribute memos.” Suddenly Nancy’s computer made a ping sound, and she glanced at the screen. “Who’s sending me E-mail?” she wondered aloud, and pressed a button to retrieve her mail.

  There was a new message: “I’m in. Come hear me read—live and in person—tomorrow night at the Cyber Space. Please invite Bess.—Byron Thomas”

  “Wow, I guess they liked his stuff,” Bess said, reading over Nancy’s shoulder.

  “What’s that?” Mr. Drew asked.

  “Oh, we ran into Byron last night at a computer coffee bar in the warehouse district,” Nancy explained to her father. “He wanted to arrange a poetry reading there, and I told him to E-mail me an invitation if he got the gig.”

  “I wonder where he’s E-mailing you from,” Bess said.

  “He’s probably on-line on the computers at the courthouse,” Nancy’s father answered her. “Blaine has him working down there today.”

  “So, what’s up, Dad?” Nancy asked. “The last few days you’ve been too busy to stop in and say hello.”

  “I’ve got some more papers
that have to go over to Williams and Brown,” he replied. “I hate to pull you off your computer work again, but I figure with Bess helping out . . .”

  “I’ll go, Mr. Drew,” Bess offered. “I was going on a coffee run anyway. I’ll go to Williams and Brown first, and then pick up the food on my way back.”

  “Thanks, Bess,” he said as he left the library. “And by the way, I take my coffee black, and I’d love a croissant.”

  Once he was gone, Nancy turned to her friend. “Listen, Bess, let’s hide out in the office tonight and see if we can catch Blaine—or one of the others—stealing computer disks or sending out E-mail.”

  Bess grimaced. “Hey, I missed my on-line group last night, Nance. You want me to miss it again?”

  “I really need you here,” Nancy said. “The solution is right around the corner.”

  “No,” Henry said, appearing in the doorway to the library. “I’m right around the corner. What are you two up to?” he asked.

  “Nothing, Henry,” Bess replied. “I was just going to deliver some papers for Mr. Drew and go on a coffee run for the office. Can I bring you something?”

  “Hot tea and a scone, if you please, madame,” he replied with his broad grin.

  When Bess returned from Williams & Brown, she walked back into the library and gave Nancy her cup of tea and bagel. “I didn’t turn up any new clues,” Bess said. “How about you?” Nancy shook her head, and the two girls spent the rest of the day working quietly in the library.

  A little after six o’clock, they gathered up their things, shut off the computers, and walked out to the reception area.

  “Good night, Ms. Hanson,” Bess said.

  “Good night, Bess, Nancy,” Ms. Hanson said. “I’ll be leaving in a few minutes. You girls aren’t working late tonight?”

  “No, we had enough for one day,” Nancy said, laughing.

  “Me, too,” Ms. Hanson said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Instead of getting on the elevator, the two girls went to the ladies’ room at the end of the public hall. They saw Ms. Hanson turn out the lights in the reception area, set the automatic locks by the double glass doors, and get into the elevator. Once the doors had slid shut behind Ms. Hanson, Nancy entered the door-lock code, and the two girls sneaked quietly back into the office.