Nancy couldn’t help but laugh. “I do hope you explained what really happened.”
“Oh, I explained,” he told Nancy. “I don’t think she heard a word I said, though. She just kept saying she was going to get even with us for everything.”
Nancy was puzzled. Kim had seen her and Victor together only twice, for a total of about twenty minutes. Why was she so upset? “Everything? Like what?” Nancy asked.
“Beats me,” Victor said with a shrug. “All I can say is, Kim is getting to be a very big drag. I wouldn’t be surprised if she—”
The bell down the hall started to ring and drowned out the rest of his sentence. When it stopped, he said, “I’d better run. I am enrolled in school here, and I don’t want to get kicked out. I’ll look for you after school. Maybe we can go back to the Roost for a hot fudge sundae.”
He walked away quickly, leaving Nancy staring thoughtfully after him. Was Victor getting a little too fond of her? Keeping an eye on him because he was one of her chief suspects was one thing, but playing with his emotions was something else. She had told him about Ned, but he didn’t seem to care.
She would just have to watch her step with Victor. For a start, she was not going to be around after school for him to find. And the next time they met, she was going to be sure to find a way to work Ned’s name into the conversation.
Nancy unlocked the learning lab, turned on the lights, and checked her watch. She still had three or four minutes before her next student. The computer terminal caught her eye, and she walked over to it, switched it on, and typed in her password. She had a message in her mailbox.
She called it to the screen, expecting an announcement of an upcoming Glee Club concert or a raffle to raise money for the volleyball team.
Instead, these words appeared: Snoops and spies get hurt, Nancy Drew. Go home before you get erased—for good.
Chapter Seven
Her heart pounding, Nancy stared at the monitor screen. She wasn’t imagining the message. It was still there. She leaned closer to study the transmission information at the top of the E-mail message. She knew that password—IW443!
And the time of transmission was— Startled, Nancy rechecked her watch. The message had been entered only minutes before. Recalling what Dana MacCauley had shown her, she saved the message, then refused it. Returning message to terminal 29, came the message on the screen.
In a flash Nancy took her printout from her bag. “Twenty-nine, twenty-nine,” she muttered, running her finger down the list. “There it is!” The message had been sent from the terminal in the newspaper office. If she hurried, she might catch its sender.
At the door, she bumped into the girl who was arriving for her tutoring session. “Sorry,” Nancy gasped. “Have a seat, I’ll be right back!”
As she dashed down the corridor, everyone turned to stare at her. When she reached the Academician office, she found it locked and the frosted glass in the upper half of the door dark. Nancy shook the knob a few times.
“Are you looking for someone?” a voice asked.
Startled, Nancy whirled around to find Randi, the girl she had met the day before.
“Oh, yes,” Nancy replied, thinking fast. “A student I’m supposed to tutor asked me to meet her in this room, and she hasn’t shown up. Has anyone been here that you know of?”
“She wanted to meet you at the Academician office?” Randi repeated in a dubious tone. She unlocked the office door, flipped on the lights, and motioned Nancy in.
Nancy quickly took in the whole office. Crowded as it was with furniture, there wouldn’t be anyplace for anyone to hide, she saw at once.
“I was in the office myself until ten minutes ago, and there wasn’t anyone else here,” Randi told her. “Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”
Before Nancy could answer, Randi continued, “I know I’ve seen you before. You look so familiar. I know! I’ve seen your picture in the newspaper! Who are you? What are you doing here?”