Ned? Help from her boyfriend was definitely out of the question, she knew. The new evidence from Mike’s locker would not convince him of his co-captain’s guilt. She was beginning to think that nothing would convince him of that!
Was that because he was guilty of taking illegal payments himself?
For the hundredth time, Nancy’s thoughts returned to the awful possibility that the boy she loved was not the boy she thought he was. Would he even tell her the truth when she finally asked him? She didn’t know. In a way, she felt like she didn’t know anything anymore. Since this case had started, her world had turned upside down. Would she ever get it straightened out?
Nancy needed to sit down and think. Looking around, she spotted the library off to her right. She walked briskly toward it.
Inside, the building smelled of books and floor wax. Nancy walked to an area crammed with study cubicles, slipped into an empty one, and sat down. Mentally, she tried to sort through the pieces of the puzzle.
Suddenly a student working nearby caught her attention. Ray Ungar! What was he doing here? The library was the last place she ever expected to see him, especially on a Saturday!
Ray looked up and saw her watching him. Instantly, he scooped up his books and started to leave. Nancy blocked his exit.
“Ray, wait! You don’t have to go.”
“Why should I stay? So you can pry into my life some more?”
“I’m not prying into your life. I’m not doing anything to you at all.”
“Sure,” he snapped. “Tell me another one. You’re just like everyone else. You think I’m funny . . . stupid Ray, Mr. Flunk-out!”
Nancy stared. What was he talking about? Why did he sound so bitter? “Ray, would you mind explaining this to me? I’m not trying to make fun of you. I’m trying to understand!”
He hesitated. At first Nancy thought he would go, but then he dropped his books on top of his desk with a clatter.
“All my life I’ve had trouble in school,” Ray said. “Math, English, history . . . other kids learn that stuff easy, but not me. I have to work, and work hard, just to get C’s!”
“That’s not so unusual. Lots of kids have trouble in school.”
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t make it any easier for me. The only time I feel like somebody important is when I play basketball.”
“I see. Is that why you hate Coach Burnett so much? Because he cut you from the team and took away your self-respect?”
Ray looked surprised. “I don’t hate Coach! He had to cut me from the team. My grades were too low . . . that’s the rules!”
“Wait a minute! Hold on . . .” Nancy touched her temples with her fingertips. “Am I hearing this right? You don’t think Coach Burnett did anything wrong when he cut you?”
“No way.”
“Then why do you claim to hate the team? Why did you swear you’d never go to another Wildcat game as long as you live?”
“Oh, that! I was just ticked off. I didn’t mean what I said.”
“So at the Haviland game, you really were cheering for Emerson?”
“How did you know I was there?”
“I saw you on a videotape,” she explained. “Look, Ray, there’s still something I don’t understand . . . why pretend? Why let your teammates think that you don’t support them?”
Ray’s eyes dropped. “It’s the way they look at me. They all feel sorry for me, and I can’t stand that!” he said.
“So you act angry at them to put them off? To keep them from pitying you?”
“That’s right. That way I can work on my grades without them always asking how it’s going. Man, school is hard enough without people getting on your case all the time.”
“And that’s why you’re at the library today?” she asked. “You’re studying in order to push your grades up and get back on the team?”
He nodded. “Coach says that if I get my grade-point average up, he’ll put me in the starting lineup next season.”
Now Nancy understood. Ray wasn’t handling his problems in the best possible way, in her opinion, but that wasn’t her business. All that mattered to her was that he had no reason to hurt the Wildcats with practical jokes.