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Authors: Carolyn Keene

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BOOK: Nobody's Business
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Turning the T-shirt over, Nancy saw just two letters printed on the back: G.L.

“I don't get it,” Bess said. “What does it mean?”

Shrugging, Nancy said, “We don't even know
if the T-shirt belonged to the person who slept down here. But if it did, the letters on the back could be his initials.”

“It looks as if G.L., whoever he is, graduated from Bentley High School in 1977,” Bess said.

“That's a good guess,” Nancy agreed. “Bentley's not too far from here. We could go over to the high school and try looking him up in one of the yearbooks.”

“Sounds good to me,” Bess said, standing up and brushing the dirt off her pink overalls.

“I think we've learned everything we can from this,” Nancy said, holding her nose as she dropped the T-shirt onto a pile of garbage. “It stinks! Meanwhile, I'm hungry. Have you eaten lunch yet?”

Bess gave her an apologetic look. “We all had sandwiches while you were gone. Let me see if I can scout one out for you, though.”

“Thanks,” Nancy told her. “I'll check with Ned to see if he wants one, too.

While Bess went off to find sandwiches, Nancy returned to the ballroom. Up in the balcony Andrew and Ned were about to fit the new guardrail into place. Blaster's music filled the room, though Nancy didn't see the deejay anywhere. It was midafternoon, but the day was still so gloomy and overcast that almost no light came in through the windows. The room was lit only by a few work lights scattered around the ballroom.

“Hey, Ned, this is just like Romeo and Juliet,” Nancy called, coming directly beneath the balcony.

Ned blew her a kiss as he lifted up the new metal rail, with Andrew directing him.

“ ‘What light through yonder window breaks . . .' ” Nancy said, quoting from the play.

“I think you've got it backward,” Ned said, grinning down at her. “That's Romeo's line.”

“Well, you're the one who's up on the balcony,” Nancy said with a laugh.

Ned started to say something, but his voice was suddenly cut off as all the lights went out at once. The ballroom was plunged into dark shadows.

Nancy jumped as a heavy metal object clattered to the floor just inches away from her. A second later she heard a much more frightening sound.

It was the bone-cracking thud of a body landing right beside her, followed by an anguished groan.

Chapter

Six

A
FEELING OF DREAD
washed over Nancy. “Turn on the lights, somebody!” she yelled.

A moment later the work lights in the ballroom flickered back on, and Nancy saw Ned lying on the floor at her feet, clutching his right arm.

“Ned!” she cried, dropping to her knees beside him. His face had gone white and was contorted in pain. “Did you break your arm?”

Grimacing, Ned nodded. “I think so. You might say my arm broke my fall.” He tried to laugh, but then he winced.

“Does anything else hurt?” Nancy asked.

“Not really,” Ned answered. He gingerly raised himself to a sitting position and looked
around at the group of teens that had crowded around him.

Andrew's head appeared over the edge of the balcony. Blaster was right behind him. “I'll call an ambulance!” Andrew shouted.

“No,” Nancy said, pulling her car keys from her purse. “We'll make better time if I drive him to the hospital myself.”

• • •

“For a guy who fell fifteen feet, you were pretty lucky,” Bess said to Ned as Nancy pulled out of the Melborne Community Hospital parking lot a few hours later. “A simple fracture's not too bad.”

Ned groaned, sinking against the passenger seat. “Tell that to my coach,” he said. His right arm was encased in a plaster cast and held in a sling under his leather jacket. “I won't be able to play basketball for five whole weeks—at the peak of the season.”

“I'm just glad you'll be able to play at all,” Nancy said.

It was after five o'clock, and the sky was pitch black, starless, and gloomy. Just the way I'm feeling, Nancy thought. It was bad enough that someone was sabotaging the inn, but where did that person come off hurting innocent people? Nancy was more resolved than ever to track the culprit down and bring him to justice.

“What happened up there, Ned? Did someone push you?” she asked, glancing at her boyfriend.

Ned stared out the window as they passed a strip of used-car lots. “It all went by so fast. All I know is, I was standing close to the edge when the lights went out. I don't think I felt anyone touch me, but I'm not completely sure. I definitely lost my balance.”

“So the real question is, who turned out the lights?” Nancy said. “We know Blaster was working up there on the master light switch.”

“Yeah, but Eddie was with him,” Ned said. “He couldn't have turned out the lights and come forward to push me with Eddie watching.”

“Uh, excuse me,” said Bess, “but Eddie
wasn't
with Blaster.”

Glancing at Bess in the rearview mirror, Nancy asked, “How do you know?”

“Because when I went to the kitchen to look for a sandwich, Eddie was there,” Bess said. “He was at the circuit breaker, talking to Blaster over a walkie-talkie. He was telling Blaster to flip certain switches, and then he'd see if the lights were working.”

“So what does that mean?” Ned asked. “That Blaster turned off the lights by accident?”

“Maybe,” Nancy said, “or maybe he did it on purpose, since no one was watching him.”

Nancy turned the Mustang onto the thruway, heading for Mapleton so she could drive Ned home. It was too late to go back to the inn. They'd already called Andrew from the hospital to let him know what was going on.

“It's possible Julie paid the inn another visit,” Nancy added. “Though I'm not sure how she could have turned off the lights with Blaster in the alcove by the switches.”

“Anyway, why would she do that?” Ned asked. “She was mad at Andrew, not me.”

“That
might have been the real accident,” Bess put in. “Maybe Julie intended to push Andrew off the balcony but couldn't see in the dark and pushed you instead.”

Shaking his head doubtfully, Ned said, “I don't know, Julie's not like that. She's sweet.”

“Andrew said the same thing, but she didn't sound so sweet when I talked to her at the crafts store today,” Nancy said. She quickly recounted Julie's bitter remarks about the inn.

Ned still didn't look convinced. “There has to be some other explanation for what happened,” he said. “Maybe it was the person hiding in the basement. He could still be around somewhere, too.”

“Nothing points to him being behind any of these accidents,” Nancy told him, “but I do want to get over to Bentley High School and see if I can find out anything about the Boneheads and G.L.”

• • •

“What are you doing here?” Andrew exclaimed Wednesday morning as Nancy, Ned, and Bess entered the inn's lobby. Andrew was on his way out the door, a ledger under his arm and car
keys jangling in his hand. “You should be home taking care of that arm, Ned.”

Grinning, Ned said, “I figured even if I can't work, you could use some moral support after everything that's happened.”

“That's for sure,” Andrew said glumly. “We had another incident last night.”

“Oh, no!” Bess said with a gasp. “Was anyone else hurt?”

Andrew shook his head. “Fortunately not. I'm on my way to meet my father at his office, but I guess I can take a minute to show you.” He crossed the lobby and went inside his office, reappearing a moment later with a note in his hand. The words
Come back to me
were printed on it, and bloodred paint drippings covered the page.

Taking the other message out of her purse, Nancy compared it to the one Andrew held. The handwriting in both notes looked the same, and so did the red enamel paint.

“ ‘Come back to me?' ” Bess repeated. “I don't get it. Who's ‘me'? And who is ‘me' talking to?”

Nancy frowned and turned to Andrew. “You're not going to want to hear this,” she told him, “but that message could be from Julie. Maybe it's her way of saying she wants to get back together.”

For the first time since Nancy had mentioned Julie as a suspect, Andrew didn't object. “It's possible,” he admitted quietly. “But I have no
idea how she could have gotten inside the inn. All the doors are locked at night, and there's no way she could get a key.”

“The message could also be from the ghost that's still haunting the inn, looking for her lover,” Bess piped up.

Andrew looked at his watch and groaned. “I don't have time for this now. My father wants me to give him a full accounting of all the work we've done. I'd better leave now or I'll be late.”

After Andrew left with his ledger, Nancy, Ned, and Bess headed for the ballroom, where they found Dan Nichols and about ten of the Teen Workers nailing thick gray slabs of plasterboard to the wooden framework against the walls. The clattering and banging of their hammers was nearly drowned out by loud, fifties-style rock and roll blaring from the stereo on the balcony.

“Ned, would you come up to the balcony with me?” Nancy asked. “I want to try to figure out what happened yesterday.”

“Might as well,” Ned agreed, with a nod at his cast. “I'm not going to be much use here.”

They climbed the back stairs to the balcony, and Nancy shone her penlight into the dimly lit alcove right outside the entrance to the balcony. The master light switch was there, now fully wired with eight black dials.

“This must have been where Blaster was working yesterday,” Nancy said. “It's only a few feet
from the alcove to the front of the balcony, where you were working. He definitely could have turned off the lights and pushed you.”

“I'm still not sure I was pushed,” Ned said.

“But we
are
sure someone turned out the lights,” Nancy reminded him. She stepped through the open doorway and onto the balcony. There was a second light switch just inside the door.

“This controls the lights downstairs, too,” Nancy said after quickly flipping the switch off and on.

She thought for a moment, then said excitedly, “That means Julie
could
have turned off the lights. It's possible that she sneaked up the stairs past the alcove where Blaster was working. She wouldn't have needed to use the master switch. She could have turned the lights out from here.”

“Maybe,” Ned said. Nancy was glad that he kept a careful distance from the balcony's edge, even though the new railing had been installed.

“Now that I think about it,” Nancy went on, “Julie was sent on an errand by her boss yesterday, not long before your accident. It would have been a perfect opportunity for her to come here without her boss wondering where she was.”

As Nancy peered at the balcony switch, she noticed a reddish brown muddy substance on the lever. “Hey, Ned,” she called. “Look at this.”

He came over and picked at the dried, cakey substance with his good hand. “Looks like clay.”

“And it matches the color of the clay Julie was working with yesterday,” Nancy said excitedly. After searching in her purse for a slip of paper, she chipped off a sample of the reddish brown substance and carefully folded it inside.

“Now I'd really better pay Julie another visit at the store,” Nancy said, “so I can check this sample against the clay she uses. I'm almost positive it'll be a match.”

Nodding, Ned said, “I think I remember Andrew saying she doesn't work there every day, though. Maybe you can get her home address from Andrew. He has a file of address cards in his office.”

“Good idea,” Nancy said. “While I'm at it, I'd like to get Blaster's address, too. Do you think Andrew would mind if I looked them up now? I wouldn't disturb anything.”

“That should be okay,” Ned told her. “It's not top secret information or anything.”

Nancy and Ned went back down the balcony stairs, through the ballroom, and down the hallway to Andrew's office, off the lobby. After knocking softly, Nancy pushed open the door. Hearing a jangling sound, she checked behind the door and found two keys hanging from hooks. One was labeled Front Door and the other said Back Door.

“So that's how the intruder got in at night,” Nancy murmured, half to herself.

Giving Nancy a perplexed look, Ned asked, “What are you talking about, Nan?”

She showed Ned the keys. “There are plenty of times when Andrew's not in the office,” she said. “Anyone could have come in here and borrowed the keys, then made copies and returned the originals before Andrew noticed they were gone.”

“That's definitely possible,” Ned agreed.

Moving over to the desk, Nancy found a circular file of address cards precariously balanced next to the phone on top a pile of papers. She pulled a notebook from her purse and jotted down Blaster's and Julie's addresses.

BOOK: Nobody's Business
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