Cold as Ice (12 page)

N
ANCY CONTINUED TO WATCH
closely. After another brief exchange with Whorf, Greg strode off. Whorf watched him for a moment, a smug smile on his face, then strolled away. Nancy followed, careful to keep a screen of people between them to conceal her if he should look back.

After five minutes of following him around the gym, Nancy began to wonder if she was wasting her time. Whorf didn't seem to be going anywhere. He nodded to a few people, but he didn't stop to talk to any of them. He seemed more interested in the decorations than anything else.

“Hey, Nancy,” a voice called out. She caught
her breath, hoping Whorf hadn't heard and looked around. Bess was hurrying toward her with a look of concern on her face. “We were worried about you,” Bess continued, taking Nancy's arm. “Nobody knew where you'd gone.”

“I'm following someone,” Nancy said in an undertone. “Tell everybody I'll be back as soon as I can.”

“Oh—sure. Sorry.” Bess glanced around like a bad actress in a spy movie before backing away.

Nancy turned around again and spotted Whorf at a table on the sidelines, sitting on the edge of a chair and talking with an older couple. The man looked familiar. He was deeply tanned, and the lines around his eyes gave him the appearance of someone who was used to gazing across distances. Nancy suddenly recalled that she had seen him on the speakers' stand at the boat house the day before. He was the crew coach. But what—?

Nancy's eyes widened. Whorf was pulling an envelope from his pocket, exactly like the envelope he had given to Greg. He handed it to the coach, who glanced at the envelope and put it on the table. The two men stood up and shook hands, and then, after a word to the woman at the table, Whorf walked away.

Nancy took a few steps after him, then caught herself. What was more important at this point
was learning what those envelopes contained. She had been so sure that Greg had stolen the jewels for Whorf, but now she was forced to wonder if her theory was correct. Was it possible that the crew coach was involved in the theft from the museum, too?

The coach, still on his feet, leaned over and said something to the woman, who smiled and stood up. The two of them walked toward the dance floor, leaving Whorf's envelope sitting on the table.

The opportunity was too good to pass up. Nancy walked quickly past the table and, without even breaking her stride, whisked up the envelope. She didn't stop until she had gone past another group of tables, a dozen paces away.

Casually, she scanned the area. Once she'd confirmed that no one was watching her, she studied the envelope. Her heart sank. It was unsealed. If it was an illicit message, wouldn't Whorf seal the envelope? Lifting the flap, she slipped out the paper.

Nancy felt her cheeks flush. It was an invitation to a party Whorf was giving in honor of the Emerson College rowing crews. So
that
was the “payoff” she had seen Whorf pass to Greg! That was probably why he had come in the first place, to hand out the invitations.

She quickly put the invitation back in its
envelope and dropped the envelope on the coach's table without being spotted. Then Nancy walked back to her own table. Ned was waiting for her.

She sat down next to him and told him about Whorf, Greg, and the party invitation. He listened sympathetically, then said, “But you could still be right about Greg being Whorf's accomplice, couldn't you? That envelope—”

Nancy sat bolt upright and grabbed Ned's arm. “No!” she exclaimed. “I just remembered— Greg
couldn't
be the thief. He's on the junior varsity crew. At the time of the theft, he and the rest of the JV's were getting ready to demonstrate the new rowing tank, in front of about two hundred people!”

Ned nodded. “You're right,” he said. “I never thought of that.”

“And I hadn't met Greg yet, so I didn't even notice him.” Nancy pounded her fist on her thigh in frustration. “But if he couldn't have done it, and Whorf couldn't have, who did? Rob ducked out of the ceremony, so he
could
have been at the museum at the right time, but I refuse to think—”

“Hi,” George said, approaching the table, “did you find out anything helpful?”

“That depends,” Nancy replied. “I just
managed to eliminate my main suspect, if you call that helpful.”

Nancy saw the smile on Rob's face disappear. She was about to explain what had happened when the band launched into a slow, dreamy tune. Ned took her hand and said, “You need something to take your mind off this case, like trying to keep me from stepping on your feet. Let's dance.”

Susan and Greg were also on the dance floor. As Nancy and Ned passed them, Nancy looked over at Susan. At that instant, Whorf walked by in the background, and Nancy did a double-take. Whorf and Susan hadn't even seemed to notice each other, but something about seeing them together jarred Nancy's memory. What was it? Had she ever seen them together? She ran over in her mind the occasions when she had seen Whorf. There were the ceremonies at the museum and the boat house, the French restaurant, the ski area, and now the dance. But Susan had never been with him.

Still, Nancy's thoughts kept circling back to Whorf and Susan. She could almost see them facing each other, talking in low voices, turning to glance at her . . .

That was it!

Nancy stopped so suddenly that Ned was
thrown off balance and had to jump back to avoid landing on her feet.

“What—?” he began.

“In the restaurant last night,” Nancy said urgently. “The man having dinner with Whorf— did he remind you of anyone?”

“I didn't really notice,” Ned said.

Nancy's blue eyes flashed. “He looked a lot like Susan, and I'd seen him before in a photograph on her dresser. I'm willing to bet that he's Susan's father. Come on, let's get back to the table. I hate to interrupt everyone's good time, but I'm going to need some help from you guys.”

• • •

Ten minutes later Nancy used her key to let herself and George into Susan's room. Bess was downstairs, watching in case Susan came back early, while the three guys were still at the gym, keeping an eye on Susan, Greg, and Whorf.

Nancy switched on the light and threw the bolt on the door.

“What exactly are we looking for?” George asked in a whisper.

“We don't have to whisper,” Nancy replied in a normal tone. “We have a right to be here.” She took a deep breath and added, “First I want another look at the photo on the dresser.”

“It's not there anymore.” George pointed to the dresser top, which was clear except for a
bottle of perfume and some toiletries. “That's weird. I definitely remember seeing it the day we arrived,” she went on. “I wonder why she'd move it?”

“If my theory's right, it's because there's something in the photo Susan didn't want us to see—something that could give her a motive for the jewel theft!”

Nancy began to look through the drawers, feeling under the shirts and sweaters for anything that didn't belong. George went over to the bookcase and looked behind the books there.

In the middle dresser drawer, Nancy found a small jewelry box covered in imitation leather. She lifted the lid, then said, “George, come look.”

George glanced over her shoulder and gasped. “A bracelet of rubies and diamonds. Bingo!”

“Red and clear glass,” Nancy corrected. “But it looks awfully familiar. . . .” She turned over the bracelet and peered at the clasp. “‘Made in Hong Kong,'” she read.

“Maybe it's part of a set with the earring that the police found in Rob's parka,” George said.

“Susan could have planted it,” Nancy said slowly. “Remember when she tripped and fell against him at the student center? I'll bet that was all an act to give her a chance to slip the earring in his pocket!”

A feeling of excitement, of being near the end of the chase, was building in Nancy.

A few minutes later, George called out, “I found it!”

Nancy set down the suitcase she had been about to open and hurried over to the desk. “That's the photo, all right,” she said. “And that's the man who was at the restaurant with Whorf last night.

“Where did you find the picture?” Nancy asked.

“At the back of the file drawer, under these old term papers,” George replied, riffling through the stack of papers. “Hey, wait, here's another photo.”

She pulled it out, took one look, and stared at Nancy. “Susan's father and Whorf together.”

“That proves there's a connection,” Nancy said. “There's a newspaper clipping taped to the back. It says ‘Financier William Whorf congratulates Frank Samuels on his new store, which will be the flagship of a planned chain of sporting goods stores.'”

“Big deal,” George said. “That doesn't sound very incriminating to me.”

“It's not hard proof, you're right. But listen to this.” Nancy told George about the conversation she'd overheard between the two men at the restaurant. “It sounded like some kind of
take-over,” she finished, “and I didn't get the impression Mr. Samuels was happy about it.”

George still looked confused. “I still don't see what that has to do with the theft and where Susan fits in.”

“Remember the day we got here, how proud Susan was when you said what a great store Samuels for Sports was?” Nancy said. “She made a big deal out of the fact that her father had built it all up himself—”

“You're right!” George exclaimed. “She said he was the biggest
independent
sports store in the area.”

“Well, maybe that's what's behind the theft. Listen to this. Whorf seems to have some kind of financial hold over Susan's father. What if Susan stole the jewels, planning to give them to Whorf so he'd leave her father alone?”

“That would be a strong motive, no question,” George said. “And Rob's breakup with her gave her a motive to pin the theft on him.”

“Right,” Nancy said, slapping her fist into her palm. “Now, what else have we got? Means? Susan works at the museum. She knows how to set off a false alarm.
And
she would have known what the jewelry looked like far enough in advance to buy the fake stuff.

“As for opportunity, first, she could go in and out of the museum without attracting attention.
People were probably so used to seeing her there that they didn't really notice her before the theft, if they saw her at all. And afterward, when the exhibit area was empty, she probably made her getaway through the fire exit. Second, she could easily have taken Greg's boat house key, in order to set the fire.” Nancy was ticking off each point on her fingers as she spoke. “And third, she knew about my skating date this morning. When I woke up, she was already gone. Where was she? Down at the lake, removing the barricades!”

“It all fits,” George exclaimed. “Congratulations, Nancy. You've done it—you've cleared Rob and found the real thief!”

Nancy let out a long breath. Her mood of excitement left her as quickly as it had come. “Maybe,” she said. “But we don't have a single shred of evidence. Unless we can recover the stolen jewels in Susan's possession.”

“They're not in this room,” George said. “I'm pretty sure of that. We've looked everywhere.”

“I wouldn't expect them to be,” Nancy replied. “Too unsafe. Besides—listen, George, she must have been on a split-second timetable. She had to set up the boat house fire, get back to the museum, set off the false alarm, steal the jewels the moment the fire engines arrived, and get off the premises before the theft was discovered. She couldn't have had time to go far with the jewels.
That means she must have hidden them somewhere near the museum until the commotion died down and it became safe to retrieve them.”

Nancy snapped her fingers. “Right after the fire, we saw her working on her snow sculpture. Of course. It's the perfect place!”

George stared at her. “You think she hid the jewels in her sculpture?” she said. “Then all we have to do is go get them back!”

“No,” Nancy said, shaking her head. “Then we'd have no evidence to link Susan to the theft. No, here's what I think we should do. . . .”

Nancy quickly explained her plan, and George's brown eyes gleamed with excitement.

“We've got her now,” George said. “There's no way she'll be able to get out of this one!”

N
ANCY SMOOTHED
the cheek of her snowman with the back of her glove, then stepped away and looked around. Sunlight glinted off dozens of snow sculptures that edged the side of the lake. Nancy's was one of more than ten snowpeople. Other entries in the contest included an eight-foot smiling whale, a hungry-looking bear, and enough castles and forts to supply a medieval kingdom.