The Cheating Heart (6 page)

Nancy leaned out of her window. “I'm okay, Mrs. Maliszewski,” she said. “How about you?”

“That truck came so close!” the woman gasped.

“Yes, we're both very lucky,” Nancy said. “But why didn't you slow down when that light was still red?”

Mrs. Maliszewski looked ashamed. “I thought you were following me. I was scared.”

“Well, I was following you,” Nancy admitted. “But I only wanted to ask you some questions.”

“You asked me questions the other day,” Mrs. Maliszewski said, shifting her feet nervously. “What more do you want to know?”

“Well, for one thing,” Nancy said, getting out of her car, “I want to know what your connection is to Tom Mallin.”

The cleaning woman twisted her hands anxiously. “Tom? Is he in trouble? Please, he's a good boy. He don't do anything wrong.”

“He got a very high score on that literature test,” Nancy said, leaning against her car.

“But that is not wrong!” the woman protested. Her lack of fluency in English clearly frustrated her. “It's good to win on tests. Me, I not very good reading and writing, but I see him study hard for that test. I so upset the other day to learn Tom must take test over again. So upset. I see him study for it so hard. I see him lose many nights of sleep. He could get sick. Why you causing trouble for my son?”

“Your son?” Nancy asked. “Tom Mallin is your son?”

Mrs. Maliszewski sighed. “Tom and I left Poland after his father died. Tom, he go to school in America. The other kids have trouble spelling this Polish name, so Tom makes up a name, Mallin. He even go to court to make it his real name. For me, it's no matter. But Tom, he's an American boy. He wants an American name.”

“I see,” Nancy said thoughtfully. “But Dean Jarvis didn't tell me—”

“Dean Jarvis is very good to Tom,” Mrs. Maliszewski said. “He help Tom get a scholarship to Emerson College, since I work at college. He knows Tom don't want everybody to know who his mother is—the woman with the mops and buckets.” She turned away sadly.

Nancy's heart went out to the woman. She felt pretty sure that Sophie wasn't the thief, but that didn't clear her son.

“One more question,” Nancy said. “You have a key to Professor Tavakolian's office on your key ring. Do you take it home with you at night?”

Mrs. Maliszewski nodded. So, Nancy thought, Tom might have gotten into the office that way.

Nancy thanked her for her time and apologized again for following her. Mrs. Maliszewski got back in her car and drove off. Nancy headed back to the campus.

Approaching the main lawn, she saw that the crafts fair was in full swing. She found a parking space at the far end of the oval and got out of her car.

Fifty or sixty booths had been set up along the circular paved path. A jazz ensemble played on a small makeshift stage in the center of the lawn. A comic juggler was doing his act on the steps of Ivy Hall, and a pair of mimes in black leotards and white makeup were performing.

As Nancy stood watching the juggler, she caught sight of Annie Mercer on the far side of the crowd gathered around him. Now would be a good time to search her room, Nancy thought. She left the crowd unobtrusively and quickly made her way to Annie's dorm.

Nancy expected Annie's roommate to be out, too, but just in case, she decided to knock before entering. “Come in!” a voice called out to Nancy's rapping.

She pushed open the door to see a girl with dark, curly hair sitting in the corner, where the twin beds were placed in a cozy L. “I'm looking for Annie,” Nancy said.

“She's at the crafts fair,” the girl said. “I'm meeting her there in a few minutes—I'm just waiting for a phone call. I'm Claire, her roommate.” The girl smiled.

“I'm Nancy,” Nancy said, introducing herself. “I can come back some other time. I just wanted to borrow a book.”

“One of her textbooks?” Claire asked. “I know she went to the bookstore yesterday afternoon and bought a whole bunch.” She gestured toward
a stack of books on the desk by the brightly curtained window.

As Nancy hesitated in the doorway, the phone rang. Claire, who was sitting right next to it, snatched up the receiver eagerly. “Hello, Kevin?” she answered brightly.

Seeing that Claire was distracted, Nancy stepped over to the desk very casually. She studied the books in the stack, quickly thumbing through each one in search of loose papers.

A yellow spiral notebook also lay on top of the desk. The cover was written all over with various doodles, names, and phone numbers. Nancy riffled through it but saw only handwritten pages—nothing like a printed answer sheet.

With her back to Claire, Nancy eased open the top desk drawer an inch or so. Inside were nothing but bottles and jars of cosmetics. Odd, thought Nancy—no pencils or pens.

Looking up, she glanced at the wall above the desk, where a bulletin board hung between two posters of hunky TV stars. It was covered with a calendar, photos, old ticket stubs, and other souvenirs. As Nancy stared at it, she heard Claire hang up the phone.

“Is that Annie's boyfriend?” Nancy asked Claire, fishing for information. She pointed to a picture of a girl and boy posing beside a beat-up white van.

“No, that's Annie's sister and
her
boyfriend,”
Claire answered, coming over to stand beside Nancy. “Rona looks just like Annie, doesn't she? They're twins. No, to tell the truth, I haven't met Annie's boyfriend yet, even though he is here at Emerson. He's from her hometown. I wish my boyfriend were at Emerson—I really miss him.”

“What's Annie's boyfriend's name?” Nancy asked.

Claire giggled. “I forget. She always talks about him, but I tune it out. Anyway, I have to go meet her now. Can I give her a message?”

“Oh, no—she may not remember who I am. We only met this morning,” Nancy said.

“That's typical Annie. She's kind of spacy, isn't she?” Claire smiled.

“She seems that way,” Nancy agreed. After thanking Claire, Nancy left Annie's room and took the stairs down one flight to Carrie Yu's room.

She knocked several times on the door but there was no response. Glancing up and down the hall to make sure that no one was watching, Nancy took out her lock pick. A few deft thrusts tripped the tumblers inside the knob, and the door opened.

Carrie's room had the same square layout as Annie's, but the effect was totally different. Carrie and her roommate kept their beds on opposite sides of the room. A tall bookcase stood between their two desks, creating separate study areas.

Carrie and her roommate had chosen a muted color scheme—navy blue bedspreads, a charcoal gray carpet, and a bank of carefully tended houseplants that filled the window. On the walls, they had placed large study charts—the periodic table of elements and a cross section of the human anatomy.

Nancy could tell right away that searching this room should be a snap. These girls seemed to be the sort who never left anything out of place.

Nancy did a quick but efficient sweep of the room. The books in the bookcase were all science texts. Their notebooks were all new and blank. The desk drawers were neatly organized, with fresh pens, markers, pencils, erasers, and paper clips stored in little plastic trays.

Nancy then moved to the two built-in dressers next to the pair of closets just inside the doorway. The clothes in the drawers held no surprises—clean blue jeans, plain light-colored T-shirts and sweatshirts.

She searched the closets next. By checking the address tags on the suitcases on the upper shelves, Nancy could tell which closet was Carrie's. Otherwise, there was virtually no difference. Neither girl had many clothes hanging up. A few pairs of shoes were lined up on the closet floor. Thinking of her friend Bess Marvin complaining about her crowded closet, Nancy had to smile.

Then, just as she was about to close the door of
Carrie's closet, something caught Nancy's eye. She bent down to look closer.

A tiny yellow scrap poked out from under one of Carrie's white sneakers. Nancy picked up the shoe. A small square of yellow memo paper was stuck to the rubber sole by its adhesive edge.

On it, in close, tiny handwriting, was a series of capital letters: B, D, C, A, A, C, B, D, C, D, A, D, B, A, C.

It looked like the answers to a multiple-choice test!

N
ANCY WISHED
she had a copy of the answer key with her. How could she quickly find out whether these letters corresponded
to
the test answers without contacting the professor?

Then she remembered that earlier that day Dean Jarvis had handed back to Ned the sheet of answers found in his textbook. She'd meant to ask him for it after they'd left the dean's office. I'll go get it right now, she decided, pocketing the yellow slip. She left Carrie's room, flicking the door lock back on as she went out.

Glancing at her watch, Nancy realized that it was almost three-thirty. The Omega Chi Epsilon party started at four! Feeling guilty, she hurried downstairs and jogged back to the Theta Pi house. The bathrooms were full of Theta Pi sisters getting dressed for their open house, but
Nancy managed to find an empty shower. She changed in record time, and left a note for Brook, arranging to meet her at six-thirty.

Wearing a simple off-white dress with her hair skimmed back into a ponytail, Nancy walked briskly over to the Omega Chi Epsilon house. The afternoon sunlight made dappled patterns as it played through the trees lining Greek Row. The weather was no longer so oppressively hot and Nancy was excited that Ned and his friends would have a perfectly gorgeous evening for their party. Arriving breathlessly at the Omega Chi Epsilon house at five minutes to four, she saw Ned detach himself from the cluster of frat brothers standing around.

“Nancy, I was worried you wouldn't make it,” he said anxiously. Nancy admired how his olive green jacket and yellow shirt set off his dark good looks. Glancing at his square clean-cut chin and warm brown eyes, she thought she was the luckiest girl at the party.

Nancy smiled. “I wouldn't let you down like that, Nickerson,” she said, slipping her arm through his. Looking around to make sure no one was listening, she murmured, “And I've got good news—I may have found our thief!”

Ned's eyes lit up with relief. “Really? Oh, Nan, that's fantastic!”

“But I can't be sure,” she cautioned him. “I need to look at that answer key we found.”

Ned nodded and ran upstairs to his room. A minute later he came back down with the sheet of paper. Carrying it over to a corner, Nancy compared it to the yellow slip of paper from Carrie Yu's room. She found the same sequence of letters, a third of the way down the answer key.

“She must have copied the answers onto two or three small pieces of paper to take into the auditorium with her,” Nancy thought aloud.

“Who?” Ned asked.

“Carrie Yu,” Nancy answered. “I found this in her room. It isn't conclusive proof, but maybe I can use it to force a confession out of her.”

“Aren't you going to call the dean?” Ned asked. “It might get Tavakolian off my back.”

Nancy was reluctant. “Accusing someone of a crime is a serious thing,” she pointed out. “You know how you felt when you were accused. This slip of paper is such slim evidence. First let me confront Carrie in person. I'll call and arrange to meet her.”

Ned stood behind Nancy as she called Carrie from the phone on the front hall desk. A group of freshmen were milling about on the porch as she dialed. She ducked her head to hear the phone's ringing over the noise of hearty male voices. Carrie's line rang and rang, but no one picked up.

Hanging up, Nancy turned to Ned and shrugged. “She's not in.” Ned groaned, and Nancy patted his arm sympathetically. “Don't
worry, I'll try again later. Let's just concentrate on the party. Show me where I'm supposed to work, okay?”

Ned led her to a nearby table just inside the front door. As the freshmen came in, he explained, she was supposed to ask their names and write out name tags for them.

For the next two hours a steady stream of freshmen poured through the door. Some stayed for only ten or fifteen minutes, then drifted on to other frat houses. Others stayed for an hour or more, trying hard to impress the Omega Chi brothers. Though the faces began to blur together, Nancy made an effort to smile at everyone graciously. She knew how important this party was to Ned. Though the formal fraternity rush wouldn't take place until February, many guys were already deciding which house they wanted to join or pledge.

A couple of times Nancy caught Ned's eye across the crowded room, and they traded smiles. Then someone would steer Ned away.

Around five o'clock, Paul dropped by Nancy's table with a glass of punch. “How are you holding up?” he asked.

“I'm getting writer's cramp from all these name tags,” Nancy admitted, grinning. “But it's great that you guys attracted such a crowd.”