“Take it easy, will you?” George snapped. “Why can’t you stop worrying for once?”
“Fine. I will. The next time someone wants to wreck our room I’ll let them in and give them a hand, okay?”
“Don’t be melodramatic.”
“Well, what do you want me to do?”
“Relax!” George picked up her tray. “Come explore the campus with us! We might as well enjoy ourselves while we can, right?”
“I suppose.”
Bundled against the cold, the three girls began a self-guided tour. Emerson’s ivy-covered buildings looked lovely in the snow, but Nancy’s mind was on the case. What she needed now was a plan, she knew. The practical joker was on the alert. In order to catch him, she would have to outwit him—but how?
There was another problem on her mind, too—Ned. She still believed that Mike O’Shea was the number-one suspect, but she could see now that she had pushed too hard the night before. Not only had she attacked Ned’s teammate, she had attacked Ned’s judgment, too! Somehow she would have to convince him that she still respected him, she decided.
As they entered the student bookstore, Nancy stopped at the bank of pay phones just inside the door.
“Go ahead,” she told her friends. “I’ll join you after I call Ned.”
She dug a quarter from her purse, then held it near the coin slot as she thought about what to say. As she did, however, her attention was caught by a handsome, dark-haired boy hurrying to a nearby phone. What a hunk! she thought. Who was he calling? Some lucky girl, no doubt.
But he wasn’t calling a girl. At least, it didn’t sound that way.
“Hello, this is Captain Hook.”
Captain Hook? What was this all about? Nancy wondered.
The boy continued: “What’s the line for tomorrow? Yeah? Well, let me have a ten-timer. No . . . the other guys.”
Stranger and stranger! Nancy knew it wasn’t polite to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t help herself—especially not when the conversation was this interesting!
“What do you mean I can’t have it?” His face was turned away from her, but his tone was clearly annoyed. “C’mon, man!” A pause. “Look, Frank will cover for me, okay?”
That was it. With a hasty “Thanks,” he hung up and rushed off.
Nancy was more puzzled than ever. What did all that mumbo-jumbo mean? Well, she didn’t have time to figure it out. She had something more important to do: save her relationship with Ned!
Dropping the coin into the slot, she dialed his number. Their conversation was short. Ned was on his way to an economics class. They set up a date for that evening, however. They could see a movie in town, he suggested. Afterward, they could go to his favorite pizza joint.
“That sounds fine. Listen, Ned . . .” Nancy hesitated, toying with some loose change and a scrap of paper she’d found on the ledge under the phone. There was so much she wanted to say. Where should she begin?
Ned cut her off. “Save it, Nancy. I’ve got to run.”
“Sure, ’bye.”
Nancy’s heart sank as she hung up the receiver. He sounded so cool! Would he ever forgive her for the way she had acted?
Nancy absentmindedly scooped the change into her purse. The scrap of paper fell in with it, and Nancy noticed vaguely that a phone number was written on it. Captain Hook must have dropped it. She didn’t stop to think about it, though. Instead, she rushed worriedly from the booth.
That evening, Ned picked her up at eight. It was their worst date ever, Nancy decided later. The movie was terrible, and at the raucous pizza parlor they sat across from one another awkwardly, hardly talking, the only unhappy-looking couple in the entire place.
Nancy felt miserable. Ned hated her guts, she was sure of it. When he looked up from his third sausage-and-mushroom slice, she waited nervously for him to speak.
“So, where are Bess and George tonight?” he asked.
“George went to the sports complex to work out,” Nancy explained. “Bess is with her.”
A smile rugged at the corners of Ned’s mouth. “Bess went to the gym voluntarily?”