Mixed Signals

  Randy nodded. “It never did seem stable, but I just figured we were hitting lots of bumps.”

  Nancy tuned out the noise from a group of clowns that was parading by. Walking along the perimeter of the cracked football, she checked the holes that were drilled along its edge. “These were used to attach the football to the platform, right?”

  The tractor driver nodded. “There are six studs on the platform. The studs go through those holes, and a bolt is secured on top to keep it in place.”

  “That’s strange.” Nancy sifted through the wreckage of the float until she found a metal bolt. “Is this one of the bolts?” she asked, holding it up.

  “Yeah,” the driver replied, scratching his head. “But there should be five others.”

  Nancy stared at the bolt. “I wonder what happened to them?”

  While colorful floats curved around them, Nancy, Bess, and Randy carefully sifted through the wreckage of the float. They checked the road and the flatbed, but they didn’t find any of the other bolts.

  “Someone must have removed them,” Nancy told Randy, frowning.

  “That’s what I figured,” Randy mumbled, tugging angrily on the end of his football jersey. “But you know what? I’m not afraid anymore. I’ve had it with this creep! He made me look so bad with those pills.” His dark eyes were sincere as he added, “I don’t take drugs, Nancy! Honest. I’m not about to screw up my life that way.”

  “I believe you, Randy,” Nancy assured him. “But you’re still in danger—now more than ever. The person who wants Emerson to lose tomorrow is obviously not going to stop these attacks. And the game is less than twenty-four hours away! With time running out, I’m afraid our culprit might resort to even more desperate measures.”

  She put a hand on Randy’s shoulder, saying, “It’s time to get more help from the college administration.” Checking that no one could overhear, Nancy lowered her voice and told Randy about her investigation.

  She finished up, “I need to do a thorough check of all the players on Emerson’s team. If Dean Jarvis can help me cut through some red tape, I might have a chance to get this thing solved before tomorrow’s game.”

  “I hope it’s not one of the guys on the team,” Randy said, “but you’re the detective.” With a weary smile, Randy made a fist. “Go for it, Nancy!”

  Nancy turned to see Ned running up the street. Josh was jogging beside him.

  “I came as soon as I heard what happened,” he said breathlessly. “It’s a good thing that you didn’t get hurt, buddy,” he said, clapping Randy on the back. “What happened?”

  Nancy, Randy, and Bess all launched into an explanation at once. When Nancy told Ned about the missing bolts, his eyes glimmered with anger. “We’ve got to catch the guy who did this.”

  “I’ll second that,” Randy put in.

  Nancy nodded. “Ned, can you check with other people who worked on floats in the shed, and ask if they saw anything suspicious? Maybe someone got a look at the person who tampered with the Wildcats’ float.”

  Ned nodded. “I’ll check it out right away. Everyone has to meet back at the shed to dismantle the floats.” He nodded at Jerry and Josh. “We’ll be tied up there for the rest of the afternoon, but I’ll pick you up at seven for the dance.”

  “In the meantime,” Nancy said, “I’m going to see if Dean Jarvis can help us.”

  “And I’m going to take a long, hot shower to recuperate from this parade,” Randy added.

  While Bess went back to the room to rest up for the dance, Nancy went to the office of the dean of students. Although he wasn’t in, his secretary directed Nancy to the student center, where the dean was supervising the setup for that night’s dance.

  When Nancy arrived, she saw that lilac-colored tablecloths covered the cafeteria’s round tables and that a vase of fresh asters had been placed in the center of each one. The room was empty except for the staff of caterers who were scurrying about. Dean Jarvis was standing next to the serving counter, talking to someone wearing a chef’s cap. Nancy waited until they finished their conversation before approaching the dean.

  “The decorations are beautiful,” Nancy told him.

  “Hello, Nancy,” he said. “We try to put out a nice spread for our alumni.” Folding his arms over his chest, he added, “But I’m guessing that it’s not the dance preparations that bring you here.”

  “Good guess.” Nancy told him about the float that had crashed into the street. “I was wondering if you could look up the records of some of the suspects and fill me in on anything unusual.”

  “That information’s confidential—” Dean Jarvis began hesitantly.

  “I understand that,” Nancy cut in quickly. “I’m not asking to read anything. But it wouldn’t break any rules for you to check, would it?” Noting the dean’s frown, she tried another tack. “If you feel uncomfortable about releasing confidential information, you don’t have to tell me. But, please, check the files. And if you find anything unusual, at least report it to the police.”

  Dean Jarvis stared down at the floor for a moment. Finally he looked up again and said, “You’ve got a deal.” Pulling a small notepad from the breast pocket of his tweed jacket, he asked, “Now, who are the suspects?”

  Nancy asked him to check on Tamara Carlson and recheck her sister Susannah’s file. The dean jotted down their names. She also added all the members of the football team.

  “I was also wondering about Emerson’s first-string quarterback, Josh Mitchell,” Nancy went on. “Maybe he thinks you’ll let him play if Randy is injured.”

  “But Josh was nearly injured, too,” the dean pointed out.

  Nancy had been having second thoughts about Josh’s accident, and now she spelled them out for the dean. “It looks that way,” she said, “but I have my doubts. Josh definitely wasn’t doing any studying in the library when he was attacked today. He didn’t even have a pen with him, much less any books. It’s possible that he worked with an accomplice and engineered the ‘accident’ to divert suspicion away from him.”

  She took a deep breath as she added, “I’m also wondering about Josh’s father, Coach Mitchell. His motive could be the same as Josh’s.”

  Dean Jarvis stopped writing and lowered his pad. “You suspect a member of our own faculty?”

  His question made Nancy feel a little uncomfortable. “I know he doesn’t have an obvious motive, but I’d rather double-check and be safe.”

  Frowning, Dean Jarvis wrote down the name.

  With a sigh, the dean closed his notepad and tucked it away. “All right, Nancy. I’ll check the files on everyone—including the coach—if there’s any chance of finding our menace.”

  Nancy grinned at him. “Thanks, Dean Jarvis.”

  “I have a special message for you,” Bess said with a smile as soon as Nancy opened the door to their suite. Bess was sitting on the couch in the living room with a book in her lap and her feet tucked beneath her. She was in her pink terry-cloth bathrobe, and a towel was wrapped turban-style around her hair.

  “From a special guy?” Nancy inquired, raising her eyebrows.

  “It’s from your one and only,” Bess confirmed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “Ned has a surprise for you. Instead of picking you up, he wants to meet you at the entrance of College Woods in an hour.”

  “A surprise?” Nancy felt a delicious tingle. “I wonder what Nickerson is up to?”

  “It sounds incredibly romantic to me,” Bess gushed.

  Nancy flew into her little bedroom and began peeling off her leather jacket, jeans, and turtleneck. “In that case, I guess I’d better start getting dressed!”

  After a quick shower, Nancy pulled back her reddish blond hair in a French braid. She slipped on a green silk dress and matching belt, then applied just a touch of eye shadow and blush.

  “How do I look, Bess?” she asked, going to the open doorway to the bathroom.

  Still in her bathrobe, Bess was rubbing moisturizer on her fa
ce. Looking at Nancy’s reflection in the mirror over the sink, she smiled and said, “Terrific! I love that color. It really brings out the blue in your eyes.”

  “Thanks.” Nancy pulled a black blazer on over her dress. “Are you wearing the pink or the purple?” she asked, nodding to two dresses that hung on the inside of the bathroom door.

  “I haven’t decided,” Bess moaned. “What do you think?”

  “I think you’d better make a decision, or else you’ll still be wearing your bathrobe when Jerry arrives,” Nancy teased. “I’d better get going before Ned starts wondering what happened to me. See you at the dance!”

  The air was cold when Nancy stepped out of the dorm. The sun had almost set, and a breeze rustled through the leaves, causing some of them to flutter down from the branches. Slipping her hands into the pockets of her blazer, Nancy headed toward the woods that swept down the hill to the lake.

  As she walked along the path, Nancy passed a handful of students. Other than that, the path was fairly deserted. Most people must be on their way to the dance on the other side of the campus, Nancy realized.

  A stout brick wall marked the entrance of College Woods, and Nancy stopped by the gate. Now that she wasn’t moving, she shivered from the cold. It was seven o’clock exactly, she saw, checking her watch. Ned should be there any second.

  After five minutes of waiting, Nancy began to get impatient. She was hopping from foot to foot, trying to stay warm, when she noticed a figure approaching. At last!

  On second glance, she realized that it wasn’t Ned. It was Carrie, the girl who played the Emerson wildcat. She was dressed in her mascot costume.

  “Hi, Carrie,” Nancy called as the wildcat approached.

  But the girl didn’t respond. She rushed toward Nancy, lifting her hand high above her.

  Something glinted in the pale moonlight. Nancy gasped as she realized what the object was. It was a knife—a shiny and sharp knife. And it was arcing through the air right toward her throat!

  Chapter Fourteen

  “HEY!” NANCY STAGGERED backward as the mascot swung the deadly blade at her.

  Twisting to one side, she lifted her foot and aimed a kick at the mascot’s arm. Her shoe struck the elbow, throwing the mascot back. As she stumbled, Nancy saw that the mascot’s feet were large—too large to belong to a girl. And this person was wearing purple high-top sneakers. Whoever this was, it definitely wasn’t Carrie!

  To Nancy’s dismay, her assailant had managed to keep hold of the knife. Spinning, Nancy took off up the path, back toward the dorm. She ran as fast as she could, but her black pumps kept slipping on the slick asphalt. Stealing a glance back, Nancy realized she couldn’t outrun this creep—not in heels. He was only a few yards behind her!

  Spotting a huge trash container, she veered off the path. Slow him down! The thought screamed through her mind. She grabbed the edge of the steel barrel and pushed. A second later it was rolling down the path.

  The “wildcat” didn’t see the barrel until it was too late. It struck him with a loud clatter, knocking him down to the pavement.

  Without a moment to waste, Nancy raced ahead, grateful to have any sort of lead. Her heart was pounding, but she kept running. Her lungs were burning when another figure darted out from behind a nearby tree.

  “No!” she screamed as strong arms reached out and circled her waist.

  “Nan! It’s me,” a familiar voice said into her ear.

  “Ned!” Nancy went limp with relief. Turning in his arms, Nancy stared up at his familiar face. “Ned, someone is trying to kill me. We’ve got to get out of here—he’s got a knife.”

  “A knife? What are we waiting for?”

  As they tore to the end of the tree-lined path, Nancy kept glancing back over her shoulder until she was convinced he wasn’t following them any longer. Only then did she begin to breathe easily.

  “We’ll have to report this creep to campus security.” Ned stared deep into Nancy’s eyes. For the first time she noticed how handsome he was in his crisp white shirt and charcoal gray suit. “I knew something was wrong as soon as I arrived at your room. Bess said something about a note—and that you were waiting for me in College Woods.”

  “A note? Bess only said that you’d sent a message.” Nancy shook her head slowly. “I should have known that it was a setup, but when she mentioned something about a surprise, I didn’t question it.”

  “Some surprise,” Ned said darkly. Pulling Nancy against him, he held her close in a long hug. When he finally let her go, Nancy thought she saw a misty haze in his brown eyes.

  They walked in silence the rest of the way to the student center. Bess and Jerry were waiting by the door. Bess had decided on the pink dress, Nancy saw, and Jerry was wearing what was probably his only suit—navy.

  “Nancy! Thank goodness you’re okay.” Bess rushed over and threw her arms around Nancy. “When I found out that Ned hadn’t sent that note, I felt awful!”

  “Are you okay?” asked Jerry.

  “I’m fine,” Nancy assured them, smoothing her silk dress, “though I didn’t plan to go jogging in this outfit.”

  Bess gave her a curious look. “What?”

  Ned explained. “He was still chasing Nancy when I found her.”

  “Someone wants me off this case,” Nancy added, thinking aloud. “And it looks like he’s getting pretty desperate.” So am I, she added silently. How am I ever going to crack this before game time?

  A campus security guard was standing inside the entrance to the student center. While Bess and Jerry went in to the dance, Nancy and Ned reported the attack on Nancy.

  The security guard took down the details. “We have two cars patrolling the campus tonight. I’m going to radio them with this. They’ll be on the lookout for this joker.”

  “I wish that all this was a joke,” Nancy whispered to Ned as they went inside to the dance.

  “It’s not,” Ned said gravely. “It’s deadly serious. But for tonight, I want you to put the case completely out of your mind and have some fun.”

  “I’ll try,” Nancy said with a shaky smile.

  The dining hall looked even more elegant than it had late that afternoon. Candles now provided the only lighting. The flickering flames cast a warm glow over the entire room.

  As her eyes skimmed over the crowd, Nancy spotted Jerry and Bess twirling on the dance floor.

  “What do you think?” Ned asked. “Are you too tired to dance?”

  Reaching up, Nancy placed her hands on his broad shoulders. “I’ll never be too tired to dance with you, Nickerson.”

  Everything seems clearer in the light of day, Nancy thought as she took a sip of orange juice at breakfast the next morning. Ned was sitting beside her at a table in the student center, now bare of all the previous night’s homecoming decorations. Across the table, Bess and Jerry were splitting their second cranberry muffin.

  The dance had been a welcome distraction from the case. But now Nancy was eager to get back to work. She had to find Carrie to see if she had lent her costume to anyone, and she wanted to check with the dean to see if he had any information for her. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was nearly ten-thirty. The game was at two-thirty. Each second was precious now.

  “Hi, everyone.” Nancy heard Randy before she saw him come over to their table. He pulled a chair up next to Nancy and straddled it. His eyes were red from lack of sleep.

  “You look exhausted!” Bess exclaimed.

  “I am,” Randy admitted, nervously slipping a hand through his dark hair. “It’s ironic. I skipped the dance so that I’d get a good night’s rest. But as it turned out, I was home merely to receive a few more threatening phone calls. Finally I just took my phone off the hook.”

  “Sounds like our creep had a busy night,” Ned commented. “Nancy was chased by some guy wearing the team mascot’s costume.”

  “The wildcat?” Randy asked in disbelief.

  “A deadly cat,” Jerry added. “This one ca
rried a blade.”

  “What!” Randy exclaimed. Then he shook his head in disgust. “Unbelievable. I’m sorry that you got dragged into this whole thing.”

  Nancy shrugged. “It’s part of being a detective. Call it an occupational hazard.”

  “Well, I’m still not giving up,” Randy vowed. “That creep kept calling last night, but I just kept telling him no dice. I’m not going to throw this game. I’m going to do my absolute best to win today’s game for Emerson.”

  “And we’ll be right behind you,” Jerry added. “All the guys on the team want to win this one. You can count on us to give it our best shot.”

  “Thanks, buddy.” Randy stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’ll catch you guys later.” He gave them a thumbs-up sign. “Wildcats all the way!”

  “Good luck!” Nancy watched as he walked away. She was about to turn back to her breakfast when something struck her. Quickly glancing back at Randy, her eyes traveled from his jacket, to his jeans, and down to his sneakers.

  Purple high-top sneakers! Just like the shoes worn by the knife-wielding mascot!

  Chapter Fifteen

  “OH, NO!” Nancy gasped as a horrible idea occurred to her. Could Randy have been the one to attack her?

  “Nancy, what’s wrong?” asked Bess. “You look as if you’d just seen a ghost.”

  Nancy blinked and turned back to her friends. “Not a ghost, a pair of sneakers. Randy was wearing purple high-top sneakers.”

  “Oh, yeah. I’ve got them, too,” Jerry volunteered, slinging one foot out from under the table.

  Nancy stared in disbelief. “You, too?”

  “Everyone on the team has a pair of these babies. A local sportswear shop had them specially made for the football players. I know they’re kind of weird, but they gave us purple because of our school colors.”

  “The mascot who attacked me was wearing purple sneakers,” Nancy explained. “That’s how I knew it was a guy, because his feet were so big.”