She handed me the black-smudged sky blue paper:
LAST WARNING: GET ON THAT FLOAT TOMORROW, AND YOU’LL BE SORRY.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Mr. Steele’s voice boomed gruffly over the loudspeaker. “Please take your seats. The fireworks display is about to begin.”
“Jeez,” George said. “He sounds about as excited as a fourth-place Olympic finalist.”
“I’ve been looking for Aly Stanfield everywhere,” I told the girls. “Has anyone seen her?”
“Not me,” said George.
Bess shook her head.
I rubbed at my temples with my fingers. I was not about to let Lexi’s saboteur slip through my fingers before tomorrow afternoon’s parade. After all the things that had gone wrong at the carnival today, who knew what this person was capable of doing next?
“So it wasn’t Sunshine,” Bess said. It wasn’t a question.
“No,” I said miserably. “It wasn’t.”
Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped me up from behind. All I could think of was the figure in the black hooded sweater. I gasped.
“Nancy!” Ned said, as I turned to face him. “Calm down, it’s just me! I’m guessing things have gone from bad to worse since we last spoke?”
“You guessed correctly,” I said. “Have you seen Aly Stanfield?” I crossed my fingers for an affirmative response.
“Actually, I just saw her. She and Lexi were setting up a blanket on the front lawn to watch the fireworks. Which is what I hoped we could do…” He held up a soft gray blanket, grinning from ear to ear.
I felt awful. “Ned, I’m so sorry — but if I don’t find Aly soon, I’m afraid she might do something drastic. She’s hiding something big, and I have to find out what it is before it’s too late.”
Ned rubbed his hand comfortingly over my right shoulder. “You do what you need to do — I’ll be right here waiting.”
I grinned. Sometimes I wondered how I’d gotten so lucky with a guy like Ned.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Bess asked.
“No,” I said, automatically. But then I thought back to how I’d felt inside the school. All alone, with no one to hear me if I yelled. And that had been just this afternoon. But I didn’t want to worry anyone, so I said, “Actually, Bess, you can stay with Ned and watch the fireworks. But George, would you mind tagging along? Since my phone is dead, I won’t be able to call you with any tech-related questions that might come up.”
George smiled. “Of course!” she said.
We said our good-byes to Ned and Bess and headed back toward the fro-yo stand. Last time I’d gone by it, it had been shut down for the evening. But I guessed it was worth one last look. After that, the plan was to canvass the computer lab and look for clues there.
“Watch it!”
I looked down to find Heather Harris sitting on a blanket with what must have been her mother, father, and little brother.
“Sorry!” I said. I’d been trying to tiptoe through the maze of people who’d collected on the campus football field to watch the fireworks, but as it got more crowded, and my kitten heels dug deeper into the ground, I was having a more difficult time than I’d anticipated.
“Clumsy much?” Heather asked me, narrowing her pretty eyes. She tucked a strand of strawberry blond hair behind a delicate ear, rolling her eyes at my lack of coordination.
“Heather,” her mother scolded. “Don’t be rude. I’m sure it was an accident.” She looked up at me. “You’ll have to excuse my daughter. She’s relearning her manners this week.”
Heather’s little brother began to giggle.
“Shut up, Kyle!” Heather snapped.
The smile disappeared from Kyle’s mischievous-looking face.
“Heather,” her mother repeated in a warning tone. “I’ve asked you not to use language like that. You have no right to address your brother that way. One more word from you, and you’ll be spending another two weeks without Internet and cable. You hear me?”
Heather’s face drained of color, and George gripped my hand.
“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Harris told us. “I hope you girls enjoy the fireworks.”
“We —,” I started, but my mind was whirling.
“We will!” George squeaked, and rushed me brusquely through the crowds.
When we were finally off the football field and back on the fairgrounds, George and I locked eyes.
“We need to think about this. Not… jump to any hasty conclusions. I mean, why would Heather Harris do this to her own best friend?” I asked. “At least Aly had a motive — her own mother passed her over for the DRH. What’s Heather’s excuse?”
“Harris?” George asked, her eyes growing in diameter.
“Heather Harris,” I said. “That’s Heather’s last name. Why do you have that look on your face?”
“Every year,” George spat out, “I go to this gaming convention in Chicago.”
“Okay,” I said.
“I won every single year for, like, four years straight. Then this kid comes along. This freckle-faced boy who couldn’t have been older than twelve.”
“Kyle Harris,” I said, the realization dawning on me.
George nodded her head. “He won every year after that. Well, except last year, when I kicked his little butt back into second place where it belongs.” She smirked.
“George,” I said, “focus. I think I know the answer to this, but would Kyle Harris have the ability to help his big sister block the IP of a certain blog so that people wouldn’t be able to trace it?”
“Absolutely,” George said with certainty.
“I need your phone,” I told her hurriedly. The first gentle pop of a firework was going off in the distance, and it would only get louder as the display went forward.
“What for?” she asked.
“George! Your phone!”
“Okay, okay,” she said, reluctantly pulling it out of her pocket. “No need to go all Heather Harris on me.”
I gave her a warning look and then began dialing a number. I was trying to dial so fast, I messed it up three times before actually being able to press send.
“Hello? Who is this and why do you have my number?” Lexi squawked.
“Lexi, it’s me. Nancy,” I said. “Don’t tell anyone you’re talking to me, okay?” I added hastily.
“Uhhhhh, okay,” she said. “Why did you call?”
“I just need to ask you one thing,” I said.
“Shoot,” said Lexi.
“That day you introduced yourself to me in Club Coffee… was there anyone there with you?”
“No,” Lexi said. “Not that I remember.”
My heart sank, and I kicked at the loose gravel beneath my obnoxious shoes.
“Oh wait!” Lexi chimed in. “That’s not true — I was meeting Heather. She was there doing computer research for some school assignment. Her mom had just revoked her Internet privileges at home.”
There was a pause while everything sunk in.
“Nan — I mean, hello?” Lexi asked. “Why does it matter who I was with?”
“Lexi,” I said slowly. “The question I’m about to ask you is very important. You have to be honest with me if we’re going to catch the person who’s been harassing you.”
“Anything,” she said, her voice wobbling.
“Have you ever done anything to Heather that might make her feel angry with you?”
There was a pause, and another firework went off in the distance, louder this time — the brilliant sprays of light whistling as they cascaded down.
“Who told you that?” Lexi demanded, her voice strong and defiant.
“Told me what?” I asked. “I only asked if you’d ever —”
“I know what you asked,” Lexi cut me off. She sounded murderous, and I could hear movement in the background.
“Lexi, please, just tell me what —”
“Aly Stanfield is dead,” she said.
“Lexi, you have to stay calm and tell me what’s going on,” I soothed, trying to keep the panic out of my own voice.
But Lexi wasn’t talking to me anymore. She was talking to herself, and I just happened to be on the other end of the line.
“She told Heather about Brad,” Lexi seethed.
And then the line went dead.
BRAD33
We’d better find Aly,” I said to George. “What happened?” George asked, incredulous.
“My guess?” I said. “In those texts, it was clear that Aly was hiding something from one of her friends, and she didn’t like it.”
“So what does that have to do with Lexi?” asked George.
“I think that whatever the secret was had to do with Lexi and Brad. And if Aly were to spill, it would hurt her. When I asked if Heather had anything against her, Lexi freaked and said she wanted to kill Aly. So what if Aly did spill, and the person she spilled to was Heather?”
“We need to go back to Heather, stat,” said George.
“Agreed.”
Getting back was even more difficult than getting out of the crowd. More people had gathered to see the fireworks display. It had also grown darker out, so the only chance I had to see anyone clearly was when the next burst of fireworks went off. I had nearly tripped over half a dozen people before we came upon Heather’s scowling face.
“Mrs. Harris?” I asked.
She looked up at me, smiling.
“Would you mind if I stole your daughter for a moment? I have a school question I want to…” But she was already smiling and nodding her head. Her gaze was back on the fireworks display.
Now, I mouthed to Heather’s obstinate expression.
She rolled her eyes and stood up, dusting nonexistent dirt from her pants. We led her behind the bleachers, which provided some small refuge from the noise of the fireworks.
“We need to talk,” I told her.
She smirked, shaking her head slowly. “So Nancy Drew finally solves the big case.” She giggled. “What did she promise you in return, best friends for life? Italian cashmere? Whatever it is, it’s not worth it.”
“But why?” I asked. “I thought you were Lexi’s closest friend.”
Heather crossed her arms over her chest and gazed up at the brilliant rainbows of lights in the sky. They lit up her delicate features, and when she looked back down at me, her eyes shimmered with tears.
“I thought so too,” she said. “But apparently not. Aly found out a secret about Lexi. She tried to play it cool, but I’ve known Aly since third grade. She’s a terrible liar.”
“What was the secret?” asked George.
Heather looked back and forth between us. “She started seeing my boyfriend behind my back.”
“Brad,” I said. “Brad33.”
Heather tossed a confused look toward me, then shrugged. “I was devastated. Brad and I had been dating for years. We were going to get married after college.” She bit her lip. “I didn’t say anything to Lexi — I promised Aly I wouldn’t. But I couldn’t just act as though nothing had happened.”
“So you started the blog,” I said.
“Yeah, I did. At first I wanted it to look like I was making fun of all of us. I thought it would be too obvious otherwise. But the more I hung out with Lexi, and the more she lied straight to my face, the more I wanted people to know about her. The fact that she was chosen as the DRH — and over Aly — that was the last straw.”
“Is that why you started writing the notes?” I asked.
“What notes?”
George and I exchanged a look. “The notes on the blue paper?” I said.
“Ring any bells?” George asked.
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” said Heather.
“Heather,” I soothed. “I understand why you felt the need to do the blog. But the notes… those took things to a whole other level. The threats are really scaring Lexi. You’ve gotten your revenge on her, okay? It’s time to come clean to her about the fact that you wrote those notes.”
“Look,” Heather said. “The blog was all me. I’ll say that to her face. But I would never threaten her. I don’t care if you believe me or not — those notes had nothing to do with me!” She tucked her hair behind her ears, regained her composure, and stood up straighter. “I’ve got to go find Aly.”
And then she walked away.
Bess, George, and I were curled up on my bed, eating some of my housekeeper Hannah Gruen’s famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
“Is it down?” I asked George.
She turned her netbook to face me, stuffing another cookie in her mouth. Where hatethesegirls.com had once been, now a page came up that said DOMAIN NAME NOT FOUND.
“Thanks, George,” I said. “I get why she did it, but I still didn’t feel right about keeping it up there.”
Bess nodded. “You did the right thing, Nancy. No one deserves that.”
“Even Lexi,” George grumbled.
“So Heather didn’t write those notes?” Bess asked with her mouth full.
“So she claims,” said George skeptically.
“The truth is, none of us know the answer. I hate to say this, girls,” I said, picking up my fifth cookie of the evening. “But…”
“We have another mystery on our hands,” George and Bess chorused.
I giggled, nearly choking on my cookie crumbs. My friends knew me so well, and I wouldn’t trade them for anyone else in the world.
It had been a long, exhausting day, and we all needed to get a good night’s sleep and relax in front of the TV with one another — and Hannah’s cookies, of course. It felt good to not be in heels. And it felt good to be surrounded by friends.
But I couldn’t help it, my mind was already working on the next mystery. I loved my friends, and I wished I could just enjoy this moment — another mystery, solved. But I couldn’t enjoy it, not really. Because the truth was, something was telling me that those notes, the figure, and the brick thrown through Aly Stanfield’s window — even the sabotage of the carnival itself — might all be connected.
Whatever happened, we knew that it was all going to come to a climax at tomorrow’s River Heights Celebration parade. I remembered the countdown to the parade on Heather’s blog and wondered if there wasn’t more to the story. Lexi and Heather had it out in the middle of the fireworks display. Though they were both equally to blame, I was certain that they’d never be able to patch things up.
Aly was left in the middle, with Lexi angry at her for telling Heather about her and Brad, and Heather angry at her for siding with Lexi. Secretly, I thought Aly’s life would be a little bit better if she dumped them both and went back to being friends with Sunshine. But I knew that wasn’t how high school worked. And there was no telling what would come of that.
There was still another mystery to solve. And it had to be done before tomorrow afternoon’s parade.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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