Chapter
One
NANCY! YOU’RE HERE!” Susan Victors, reached out and hugged her old friend Nancy Drew, after Nancy walked through security at the San Diego airport.
“I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been able to come!” Susan exclaimed. “Thank you so much.”
“I’m happy to be here, Susan,” Nancy responded as she returned the warm hug and then stood back to look at her old friend.
“Tan, in February!” Nancy exclaimed, pointing to the deep golden coloring on Susan’s arms beneath her short-sleeved pink T-shirt. “You look wonderful! Now I know why you wanted to go to college in California!”
Susan, who had always been quiet and studious at River Heights High, looked very different to Nancy now that she was a student at San Diego University.
“And you cut your hair,” Nancy added, looking at her friend’s short, dark curly hair. All through high school, Susan had worn her hair in a long ponytail. “It looks great.”
Glancing down at her own clothes—an oversize gray cable-knit sweater with a bright blue cowl-neck sweater under it, and navy pants, Nancy said, “It’s still winter in River Heights.”
“And you still look wonderful,” Susan said, looking at her fair-skinned friend with the shoulder-length reddish blond hair. “No matter what the season.” Nancy had a slim build and was perhaps four inches taller than Susan’s five feet three.
As they headed toward the baggage claim area, Susan said, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your coming, Nancy. I really do need you.” Turning and looking at Susan’s eyes, Nancy saw the pain that she had heard in her friend’s voice during her urgent phone call the day before.
When they were seated in Susan’s little yellow car, Susan turned to Nancy. “You’re the only one who can help me,” she said softly. “The only one who can possibly uncover the truth about Rina’s death.”
Nancy nodded her head. “I’ll do my best,” she promised.
Susan pointed to the book, Scuba-diving Safety, that Nancy was holding on her lap. “I see you’ve started to do your research already.”
“I wanted to make sure I’d understand all the technicalities and jargon,” Nancy said. “The police still believe it was an accident?”
Susan nodded. “They say she was washed up with an empty air tank near the place she likes to dive—I mean, where she used to like to dive.” Susan shook her head as she corrected herself. Nancy could see it was hard for Susan to believe that her roommate, Rina, was really dead.
“They found her on the beach wearing her wet suit and weight belt,” Susan said sadly. “They say that she must have read the air gauge incorrectly. That’s all.”
“But that’s not all?” Nancy prodded.,
Nancy Drew, at eighteen, was already established as a top-notch private detective. For years everyone in her hometown had known of her excellent work, especially that done in cooperation with her father, Carson Drew, the famous criminal lawyer.
Now her reputation and skills were taking her farther from home. Southern California was a long way from River Heights, where she had recently solved a mystery at the exclusive River Heights Country Club.
“I have no hard evidence, Nancy. I wish I did.” Susan sighed. “But I know her death wasn’t that simple,” she said with determination. “I just know there’s more to it than a poorly read air gauge.”
“Tell me what you think,” Nancy said, encouraging her gently.
Although Susan had the car keys out and in her hand, she made no attempt to start driving. Slowly she began the story that had brought her friend halfway across the country.
“Rina Charles had been my roommate since last fall, when we lived in the dorm together. This semester we were both invited to join Delta Phi, so we were happy we could continue rooming together.” Susan took a deep breath. “I guess I told you this on the phone yesterday.”
“It’s okay. Just give me any information that you can.”
“Well, Delta Phi is considered to be ‘the’ sorority to be in, and when we lived in the dorm, Rina could only think about whether she was going to be asked to pledge. Her mother had been a sorority member twenty-five years ago, and I think it was important to Rina not to let her mother down. That was how she saw it, anyway.”
Nancy slipped off her oversize sweater and put it in the backseat so she would be more comfortable as she listened to Susan.
“When the sorority bids first went out, Rina didn’t get one, and she was crushed. Someone let it slip that she didn’t have ‘the right image.’ But soon, I think it was the very next day, the girls of Delta Phi changed their minds. It seems that if you’re a legacy—if your mom or some other relative has been in the sorority—they have to give you a bid. It’s some sort of rule, so Rina’s hurt was for no reason.”
Listening to Susan, Nancy couldn’t help but think of Bess and George, her two closest girlfriends. They had been friends for years. Nancy knew how heartbroken she would feel if anything happened to either of them and could appreciate the pain that Susan was in.
“How hard for Rina to know that she was being asked to join only because the rules made them ask her.” Nancy shook her auburn head sadly.
“Yeah, it was pretty rough,” Susan admitted. “And I had even suggested to Rina that we both forget the whole sorority thing and just live in the dorm. Wait until you see the campus, Nancy, it’s so beautiful. But,” Susan continued, “Rina wouldn’t hear of it. She wanted to be a Delta Phi more than anything in the world.”
“How was it after you moved into the sorority house?” Nancy inquired, leaning back against the locked car door.
“That’s the beginning of the strange part,” Susan said curiously. “Some of the members were a little rude to Rina, but most of them were nice. There’s this small group of six sorority sisters who, along with the president, Lori Westerly, pretty much run things. You know, they’re all officers, and assign rooms, and that type of thing. And they’re pretty snobby. I heard it was that group who didn’t want Rina in the sorority in the first place. Well, suddenly, right after we moved in, Rina started hanging around with that crowd.”
“That is strange,” Nancy agreed.
“I mean, one day she’s being told she isn’t good enough, and the next day she’s best friends with all the officers,” Susan said. “It was really weird. Anyway, for that short time Rina was very happy!”
“Do you think that being in this inner circle is somehow related to what happened to Rina?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know. And that’s what I mean by having so little evidence. But a week ago Wednesday Rina told me that there was something wrong going on in the sorority.” Susan looked at Nancy as she added, her voice shaking, “Something dangerously wrong.”
“Dangerously wrong?” Nancy said, encouraging her friend. She could see that it wasn’t easy for Susan to talk about this.
Susan nodded. “Those were her exact words. Rina said that she couldn’t tell me, or anyone else about it yet, but she would soon.” Susan took a deep breath before she continued. “She said she had to tell someone what she knew.” Looking down, Susan added, “She sounded very desperate, Nan.”
“Do you think she talked to anyone else?” Nancy asked.
Susan shook her head. “No. And you’re the first person I’ve told,” Susan said as she put her key in the ignition. “I just haven’t known who to trust.”
“And you never did find out what it was that was ‘dangerously wrong’?” Nancy inquired.
Shaking her head, Susan stared out the front window at the huge airport parking lot. “That was on Wednesday. By Friday, Rina was dead.”
“And you think—” Nancy prodded gently.
As Susan looked bac
k at Nancy, tears were visible in her eyes. “I think Rina knew something that she died never having told anyone.” Susan turned the key in the ignition. “I think”—she hesitated—“I think Rina knew something that got her killed.”
Chapter
Two
THE SORORITY PHOTOGRAPH Susan showed Nancy pictured forty-two members. Nancy studied it during the drive to the campus, memorizing names and reminding herself how deceptive looks can be.
“See Fran Kelly?” Susan asked.
“Yes—here with the bangs?” Nancy asked, pointing. “Is her hair tied back in a ribbon?”
“Always. She must have a thousand of them.”
“Is she a friend? She has a nice smile.”
Watching the road, Susan shook her head. “No, not a friend,” she said. “She’s the person I’m most afraid of.”
“Why is that?” Nancy asked, peering out the window at the Pacific Ocean, inviting white sand beaches, and palm trees that lined the highway.
“On the very day of Rina’s funeral, Fran came to my room and asked if she could move in with me. She said she was having trouble with her roommate and wanted to switch to a different room.”
“How did you handle it?” Nancy asked.
“I told her that it was a little soon for me to have a new roommate. That I needed some time. The truth is that I don’t like Fran much and don’t want to live with her.”
“How come?”
“A lot of reasons, but mostly because she never even spoke to me before that day. I was surprised she even remembered my name when she came to my room. She’s the most stuck-up person in Delta Phi, and only wants to be in Lori’s group.”
“I can understand how awful you must have felt,” Nancy said sympathetically.
“And she didn’t even seem sad that Rina had died. I mean she went to the memorial service and everything, but I’m sure it was just because that was where everyone else was going to be that day. Even the girls who didn’t like Rina didn’t want to see her dead. Everyone else, with the exception of Fran, was very upset.”
As they pulled onto the sprawling campus, Nancy could hardly believe that such a beautiful, peaceful-looking place might be hiding something as sinister as murder.
She looked back down at the photograph on her lap. Rina Charles had short, straight hair, one side cut slightly shorter than the other. She was looking straight at the camera as all the other girls were. Nothing in particular distinguished her from the forty-one other girls. Nancy also looked closely at those girls that Susan said made up Lori’s inner circle: Pam, Jan, Ellen, Kathy, and Johanna.
She felt anxious to meet all the people in this picture. Could one of these seemingly normal girls be involved in murder? The photograph would never tell her. Nancy would have to rely on the girls themselves to do that. She needed the guilty person to make a mistake, and she had to be there when it happened.
• • •
Nancy straightened the skirt of the denim dress she wore, took a deep breath, and stepped into the Delta Phi dining room. It was a large attractive room, with green-and-white-print wallpaper and six wooden tables that each seated eight.
Slipping into the seat that Susan had saved for her, Nancy looked around at the girls as dinner was being served. Susan pointed out Lori Westerly at the center table. Nancy would have recognized her anywhere. Lori was very tall, perhaps five feet ten inches tall, and had a strikingly strong athletic body that reminded Nancy of her friend George, who loved almost all sports. But Lori, unlike George, was someone who made the most of her beauty. Wearing deep purple linen shorts and a matching sleeveless top, she was made up to perfection to set off her blond beauty.
Five other girls sat with her, all noticeably attractive. Pam, sitting to the right of Lori, was talking enthusiastically, gesturing with a ketchup-tipped french fry in her hand. Nancy caught one sentence of what she said. “I told him, ‘You better apologize, right now, kid! You have no idea who you’re dealing with.’ ” The other girls were listening and nodding in agreement as they ate. “You could buy that bookstore if he treats you like that again,” Johanna said. “Let him know who you are.”
“You’re really welcome to stay here, Nancy,” Debbie said warmly, interrupting Nancy’s thoughts.
Nancy looked at the friendly redheaded girl seated across the table from her.
“I’m from the Midwest, too,” Debbie continued. “And when I first saw this campus, I knew I wanted to go here. Warm sunshine, beautiful ocean, cute guys—”
“I thought you came here to get a fine higher education,” Debbie’s roommate, Patty, commented.
“And a fine higher education,” Debbie tacked on.
Nancy laughed along with the others. “It does seem fabulous here,” Nancy answered. “The little I’ve seen of it so far. I’ve got a cute guy back home, though, so that part I’m not really interested in.”
“Ah, a loyal woman.” Patty teased more. “How honorable.”
Nancy chatted with the people at her table as she continued her meal. Patty and Debbie shared the room that was right next to Susan’s, and Nancy knew that Susan liked them.
The noisy dining-room chatter ended when Lori Westerly knocked on her water glass with a fork and stood up.
“Remember we have a Valentine’s Day party here this Friday afternoon with Zeta Psi fraternity, right after classes. We’ll need a decorating crew. Can I see hands of volunteers?”
Nancy looked around the room as half a dozen hands waved, and Jan, at Lori’s table, made a note of their names.
“How about we all dress in red and white?” a voice called out from behind Nancy.
Nancy noticed Lori glance at her table where, very subtly, two of the inner circle, Pam and Ellen, shook their heads no.
“Optional dress code,” Lori declared. “Any other announcements?”
Next to Nancy, Susan rose. “I’d like to introduce my cousin, Nancy Drew, who’s visiting campus this week to see if she’s interested in coming to SDU.”
Nancy rose to greet everyone, and as she did so, she scanned the room. While most of the sorority sisters nodded hello and smiled, there were a few people who didn’t even look at her. And some, Nancy sensed, just looked at her to size her up, just as she was doing, trying to gather information about them.
“Don’t we have a guest rule in effect here?” someone called out.
As Nancy sat down, she looked at the girl who had asked that question. Her black hair was tied back at the nape of her neck with a gray ribbon. Her eyes, the same color gray, steel gray, as the ribbon, had observed Nancy carefully when she was introduced. Smiling, she looked at Nancy. “Nothing personal,” she said warmly.
“Which guest rule is that?” Lori asked as Susan wrote the letters F.K. on the table next to Nancy’s plate with her finger. Yes, Nancy knew from the photo that she was Fran Kelly, and casually looked away from Susan, hoping nobody else had seen her too obvious message.
“The three-day rule. We talked about it at the last meeting.”
“That rule wasn’t for out-of-towners,” Patty said loudly so she could be heard by everyone in the room. “It was meant for people who live on campus, or in San Diego. We didn’t want friends crashing here whenever they wanted.”
Nancy saw the girls at the head table give questioning glances around the table. Ellen leaned over and whispered something to Lori.
“I think we need to be consistent with our rules,” someone behind Nancy called out. Nancy looked over her shoulder to see a girl whose last name she could remember as Miller speaking. She would have to study that photograph more, so she could identify everyone.
When more people began to call out their opinions, Lori tapped her glass again and said, “Susan, we’ll let you know how long your cousin can stay. Sorry, Nancy. In the meantime, you’re very welcome.”
“Thank you,” Nancy said politely. As she looked at the cups of chocolate ice cream that were being passed around the table for dessert, Nancy thought, Yes,
indeed, I am certainly being checked out.
Nancy had counted forty-one girls at dinner—forty-two including herself, which meant that nobody was absent. If Susan’s theory is right, Nancy considered, that Rina’s death was not an accident, but a murder, then there must have been a reason for it. And if the reason is related to whatever it was that Rina found out when she was admitted to the inner circle, then there are people in this room who know what that reason is. And it’s my job to find it out.
Nancy got a chill as she took the last bite of her ice cream and thought, It’s my job to figure out if there is a murderer sitting in this room!
Chapter
Three
SUSAN’S ROOM ON the second floor of the large sorority house was one of the smaller ones, and the two beds, two dressers, and two desks nearly filled it.
“So someone wants to get rid of me in three days,” Nancy mused as she locked the door after she and Susan entered the room.
“Don’t take it personally,” Susan said. “Nobody could possibly know why you’re here. Your idea to be my cousin is a perfect cover.”
Looking at the colorful photos of marine life that hung around the room, Nancy mumbled, “We’ll see.”
“Rina took all those photos with her underwater camera,” Susan said. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
“Very.” Nancy nodded, studying a school of shimmering orange-green fish.
Turning away from the photographs, Nancy sat on a desk chair and said, “Tell me more about Rina. Anything might be helpful.”
Sitting across from Nancy on her desk chair, Susan began, “Well, she was an oceanography student, and she was mainly taking classes related to that, like marine biology. She also loved to swim and deep-sea dive. She grew up out here in Southern California, and she dove probably two, three times a week.”
“Was she doing well in her classes?” Nancy asked.
“Fine, as far as I know,” Susan said.
“Did Rina have a boyfriend?” Nancy asked.