“And,” Nancy added, taking a deep breath, “Ned and I just heard him tell Kendra that you weren’t going to finish this bike trip!”
George’s breath caught in her throat, and she looked at Nancy in surprise. “What?” she asked.
“He said you weren’t going to finish the ride,” Nancy repeated. “It sounded like a threat to me.”
George frowned. “What now?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“I want to check out his van,” Nancy said, “while he and Kendra are at the midway. I figure we’ve got time if we can find it in the lot.”
“CJ and I passed it on the way in. I know where it’s parked,” George said. “Let’s go out the back way, it’s closer.”
The two girls weaved through the jammed parking lot until they spotted the blue van.
“Keep an eye out for them,” Nancy said, digging in her purse. “I think I can pop open that back door.”
“You don’t have to,” George whispered. She had just tried the door on the passenger side. “Kendra didn’t lock her side.”
“All the better.”
Quickly Nancy got in, then opened the glove compartment and examined the contents, while George stood watch. No registration papers. Sunglasses. Flashlight. Maps. She lifted out the maps. “Look at this!” she said.
George turned and looked inside. Nancy was pointing to a revolver.
“Standard equipment for a salesman,” George quipped. But the quaver in her voice told Nancy she was frightened.
Nancy probed under the seat and pulled out a file folder. “This is weird,” she said. She thumbed through the newspaper clippings in the folder. “These are all about the recent burglaries in Emersonville. Including one about last night’s arrest.” She reached over for a briefcase on the backseat.
“Nan, move it! They’re coming!”
Instantly Nancy jumped out of the van, pushed the door closed, and followed George. Crouching behind a pickup truck two rows over, they watched as Michael and Kendra climbed into the van and drove off.
“Too bad you didn’t have time to get into the briefcase,” George said.
“I know,” Nancy said. “But I did notice something. The initials KS were stamped on the case. I’m wondering if Michael Kirby is really Michael Kirby.”
“Interesting,” said George. “And I took a quick look in the back. No salesman’s sample cases in sight. No catalogs. Who is this guy?”
Nancy shook her head. “I don’t know, but I intend to find out.”
Nancy and George wandered back through the midway until they spotted Ned and CJ at a ring-toss booth. Ned was carrying a panda bear, and CJ had a stuffed elephant under one arm.
“Looks as if you two did all right,” Nancy said as she stood on tiptoe and gave Ned a kiss on the cheek.
“And how did you do?” he whispered in her ear, handing her the panda.
“Fair,” she whispered back. “I want to find a phone.” She held the panda up in front of her and continued in a normal tone. “Thanks! He’s a great-looking guy. Does he have a name?”
Ned grinned. “Not yet. You can christen him later. Right now, if we don’t get CJ to some food, we’ll have to carry him back, and I’m not up for that.”
Nancy looked over at CJ and nodded. “It’d take all three of us to move that hunk,” she teased. “It’ll be easier to feed him.”
“And me!” said George. “I’m so hungry I could eat”—she hugged the stuffed toy that CJ had given her—“I could eat an elephant!”
“There’s a restaurant down the road,” Ned said. “Let’s try that.”
With arms linked, the two couples strolled out of the fairgrounds, heading toward one of the two lighted buildings on the main street.
The restaurant was noisy and jammed with people. Nancy looked around quickly. There was no sign of Michael and Kendra, but Erik was sitting with a group at a large table. She recognized two of the group as the guys who had been playing pool in the game room earlier.
“They must be with the cycling club from up north,” CJ said.
“Yes, the desk clerk told me that three groups are staying at Bannon House this weekend,” Ned replied. “Ours is the smallest.” He waved at a couple sitting at the back of the restaurant. “I played football against that guy last fall,” he explained.
Nancy scanned the room for a table. “Unfortunately, it looks as if that’s the only vacancy,” she said, pointing at an empty table beside Erik’s group.
“That’s all right,” said George. “We don’t have to socialize. All I want to do is E-A-T!”
Erik looked up as they approached, and a genial smile crossed his face. “Hey, park yourselves,” he said, waving at them. He nodded at the student sitting at the end of the table. “Pull that table over,” he ordered him, waving his hand. “The more the merrier. I’ll do the introductions.”
The student jumped up and pulled the empty table next to theirs as Erik called out names.
“What’s put him in such a good mood?” George muttered.
“Not me,” Nancy whispered back at her. “Last time I talked to him he could have cheerfully killed me.”
“Erik has been telling us about his rigorous training program for you guys,” one of the women at the table said. “You’re really lucky to have him leading your group.”
“Just can’t believe our good fortune,” George mumbled to Nancy, as she sat down.
CJ leaned over her shoulder. “Keep cool,” he said. “Ned and I will go place the orders. What’ll you have?”
“Cheeseburger, fries, and a ginger ale,” said George.
“Got it,” replied CJ, grinning. He and Ned walked to the counter to place their orders, and Nancy turned to the student beside her.
“My friend George here,” she said, nodding her head at the dark-haired girl, “will be in the thirty-kilometer race next month. Are any of you competing?”
“Are you kidding?” asked the young woman. “That’s for serious bikers like Erik. I’m surprised that your friend even signed up for it. From what Erik has been telling us, she—”
George glared across the table at Erik. “She what, Erik? What have you been telling them? Why don’t you tell me?”
Erik smirked. “Your knee is probably going to keep you out of this race,” he said. “From what I saw today, you’re about as agile as—” He looked across the table at the stuffed toy in her arms. George was already getting up. “As an elephant!” he shouted after her as she ran out of the restaurant.
Nancy caught up with George outside. “I’m sorry, George,” she said, putting her arms around her. “Don’t pay any attention to that jerk.”
“It’s not just Erik,” George said, sniffing. “It’s everything! My knee brace disappears, my bike is sabotaged. Then this weird nonsalesman who carries a gun shows up and keeps offering me rides, and Kendra and Jennifer are both giving me the deep freeze. And Erik insults me publicly. I should never have come on this bike trip.”
“But then I wouldn’t have met you,” CJ said, coming up to the two girls.
“True,” George replied, managing a weak grin. “Did we get any food?”
“Nope. I killed the order when I saw you leave. Do you want to go back in?”
“Not if I were dying,” George said. She motioned to a store across the street. “The general store is still open. They should have some munchies.”
“What happened in there?” CJ asked.
George started to explain to CJ as Ned arrived and Nancy took his hand. “We’ll meet you in front of the store,” she said to them. She quickly told Ned what they had found in Michael’s van, as she led him across the street to a phone booth. “This shouldn’t take long,” she said, and handed him the panda. Ned leaned up against the booth to wait.
When she came out, she looked glum. Ned handed her the panda, and she hugged it as she said, “The only Michael Kirby the police have a record on is fifty-three years old and serving time.”
The two of them h
eaded down the street to meet up with George and CJ. The store, the only other lighted building on Main Street, also served as a bus station, according to a sign outside. CJ and George were sitting on the rickety steps outside, munching on cheese and crackers. “Want some dinner?” George offered, extending the cracker box.
“Actually,” said Nancy, climbing the steps, “I have my heart set on an ice cream bar.”
“Dessert!” said George. “Sounds good.”
The four of them trooped inside and headed toward the freezer.
“Don’t you kids ever go home?” asked the man behind the counter. “I’m about ready to lock up. Where are you from, anyway?”
“We’re on a bike trip from Emerson College,” Ned answered. “We won’t be long. We just want some ice cream bars.”
“Emerson, huh? Well, I had one of your bunch in here tonight earlier, asking about a post office and a bus to Cleveland.”
Nancy frowned. “What did this person look like?” she asked.
“Didn’t notice,” the man replied grumpily.
“But can you remember anything about the person? Anything at all,” Nancy persisted.
He scowled. “She had kinda blond hair and was ’bout that tall.” He wagged a finger at George, then shook his head.
“For the life of me,” he said, “I can’t figure why she was so desperate to get out of town.”
Chapter
Eight
SOUNDS LIKE JENNIFER,” Ned whispered to Nancy.
She nodded slightly as the man continued. He seemed to be warming up to his subject now.
“She was wearin’ kind of a bright green sweatshirt. I remember the shirt because I said she must be Irish. Said she wasn’t. Didn’t talk much. She didn’t exactly ask for Cleveland. Said she wanted a bus that didn’t go to Emersonville. I told her that no more buses were coming through tonight, but a bus headed for Cleveland would be coming through on Monday. She seemed real disappointed. And then she left without buying anything but a newspaper.”
“Thanks for your help,” Nancy told him, letting Ned pay for the ice cream bars. When they were outside again, she turned to him. “Why would Jennifer want to catch a bus? A bus that did not go to Emerson?”
Ned shrugged. “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”
“Asking about a post office is odd, too,” George said. “What would she have to mail?”
CJ looked from one to the other and shook his head. “Boy, you guys are something else,” he said good-naturedly. “You can make a mystery out of almost anything. She didn’t go to the fair, so she stayed in her room and wrote a letter to her boyfriend or her mother or something!”
“Maybe you’re right,” George said. She was feeling guilty that they hadn’t told CJ about Michael’s threat or finding the gun in his van, and he didn’t know that Jennifer had lied about working on Friday night. Nancy had asked George to keep it quiet because until they had more information, talking about it would only cast more suspicion on people who might be innocent.
• • •
“You up for a game of Ping-Pong?” Ned asked Nancy as they approached Bannon House. Lights were still burning in the game room, although most of the rooms upstairs were dark.
“Not tonight,” Nancy said. “George and I have some stuff we have to take care of.” She ignored George’s surprised look and continued. “But I bet CJ will take you on. We’ll see you guys in the morning.” Her panda under one arm, she grabbed George’s arm with her free hand and hurried her off toward the stairs.
“Boy,” said George as they walked down the second-floor hallway toward their room. “You sure can wreck a girl’s love life pretty fast. You don’t even let me get walked to the door.” She tipped her head to one side as though deep in thought. “Let’s see,” she said slowly. “This ‘stuff’ we have to take care of. It wouldn’t have anything to do with Jennifer, would it?”
Nancy laughed. “As a matter of fact, yes.” She pointed to a sliver of light showing under the door of the room almost directly across from theirs. “Look, somebody’s up.”
“She’s rooming with the charming Ms. Matthews, right?”
Nancy nodded. She knocked gently on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again.
“Strange,” said George. “Maybe she’s gone somewhere.”
“Only one way to find out,” said Nancy. She put her hand on the knob and turned it slowly. The door was unlocked. Gently she pushed it open and stepped into the room, with George behind her. The small light on the dressing table between the two beds cast a dim light in the room. A cluster of pill bottles and cosmetics covered one side of the table, next to an empty bed. The other side held only an alarm clock. Jennifer was sleeping in the second bed, the blanket drawn up to her chin.
“We’ll talk to her in the morning,” Nancy whispered, motioning for George to back out.
Suddenly Jennifer sat up, startled, grabbed a book, and flung it at them. George held up the stuffed animal to deflect the book.
“Jennifer, it’s okay. It’s Nancy and George.” Nancy reached over and quickly flicked on the overhead light.
“Okay?” Jennifer’s voice wavered. “You scared the life out of me! What are you doing in here?”
“Look, we’re sorry we frightened you, but we saw the light on,” said George. She picked up the book from where it lay in front of her and handed it back to Jennifer.
Jennifer’s voice trembled. “Seeing a light on doesn’t mean you can barge into someone’s room.”
“I know. We’re sorry,” Nancy said quickly. “We shouldn’t have come in, but the door was unlocked.”
“The door was unlocked because Kendra came back from the fair to get something, and she left her key on the bed when she went out again.” Jennifer pulled her knees up and tucked the blanket around her legs. “What do you want her for?”
Nancy moved closer to the bed. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you. I was curious about why you asked at the store about a bus—”
“And why you were looking for a post office,” George chimed in.
“What?” Jennifer said. “Since when is it a crime to ask about a post office? Or a bus schedule?”
“I thought you might be planning to check out on us,” Nancy replied. “A lot of strange things have happened in the last twenty-four hours, including George’s ‘accident.’ ”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that!” Jennifer’s eyes darted from one to the other, and an undertone of fear crept into her voice. “You believe me, don’t you?” She looked away. “It’s none of your business, but the truth is I’m not having much fun on this trip. I was thinking of cutting it short.”
“But the store owner said you wanted a bus that wasn’t going back to Emersonville,” George said.
Jennifer shrugged. “Where else would I go? He must have misunderstood. And as for the post office, I have a monthly tuition plan, and the payment is overdue. Now are you satisfied? You can believe it or not.”
“I’d like to believe it,” Nancy said. “I really would.”
For a minute she considered asking Jennifer why she’d lied about working at the diner the night before, and whether she knew the night manager who’d been arrested for the burglary. But then she reconsidered. Jennifer didn’t seem ready to open up just yet.
George, who was standing silently by the bed, looked down at a newspaper thrown on the blanket. It was folded to the article about the burglary on the Emerson campus. Jennifer’s eyes followed George’s gaze and traveled back up to her face.
“Please leave,” she said in a low voice.
“Just one more thing,” said Nancy, turning as she reached the door. “Where’s Kendra?”
Jennifer shook her head. “I have no idea. Somewhere with Michael.”
“See you tomorrow,” Nancy said, and opened the door.
“Whew!” whispered George, once they were out in the hall and the door to Jennifer’s room was closed. “That’s one nervous lady. Do you believe the
story about the tuition payment?”
“No,” Nancy said. “I think she’s scared and lying. But why? That’s what I can’t figure out.”
“Did you notice what she’d been reading in the paper?” George went on.
Nancy nodded. “The article about the Emerson burglary. Everybody seems to be interested in that crime. First Michael, with his file of clippings. Now Jennifer. I noticed you looking at the nightstand. What was all that stuff?”
“Three prescription bottles with Kendra’s name on them. One was something for allergies. I couldn’t read the labels on the others. The rest of it was cosmetics.”
“Do you have your key?” Nancy asked, as they walked across the hall to the room they were sharing.
George nodded. “Here,” she said, thrusting the stuffed elephant at Nancy. “Hold Charley.”
“Charley?”
“Charles Jonathan, actually. I named him after CJ,” she explained, as she took the key out of her pocket. “You know, Nan, he’s really a special person.” She slipped the key into the lock. “I’ll be glad to crawl into bed tonight. I’m exhausted.” She pushed open the door and flicked on the light. “Nan!”
Quickly Nancy moved past her and entered. The room was in shambles. Things were strewn on the floor and on the beds. Everything in their panniers had been dumped. Nancy’s backpack had been emptied and discarded in a corner, and the pocket on George’s had been ripped out.
Nancy bent over and picked up a brown paper bag on the floor by the door. Scrawled on it in heavy black ink were the words: Get off my turf!
Chapter
Nine
THAT HAS TO BE intended for me,” George muttered as she looked over Nancy’s shoulder at the note. “And I’ll bet my bike on the identity of the writer.” She pushed her mutilated pack aside and sat down on the bed, hugging Charley around the middle.
Nancy turned to face her. “George,” she said slowly. “Maybe you need to call it quits. Drop out of the bike trip. Bess could come and pick you up.”