“Here she is now, our heroine!” cried Phyllis. Nancy had dropped her tutorial look and was wearing jeans and a large, soft cowl-neck sweater of deep blue.
Nancy laughed. “I’m just here to wrap up a couple of loose ends—and to say goodbye.”
“You should be proud of us, Teach,” said Victor. “We managed to save all the computer files.”
“While we were at it, we did some investigating of our own. Guess what we’ve discovered,” Dana added. “Walter was transmitting messages from his terminal, routing them to a midpoint terminal, sometimes two midpoint terminals, and then sending them to their final destination.”
“So I was right. That’s why the messages seemed to be coming from the newspaper room,” said Nancy.
“Well, guess what I found out this morning,” Nancy told them, leaning against Phyllis’s desk. “I called all three colleges mentioned in his resume. Not one of them has ever heard of Walter Friedbinder! He’s a complete fraud; never even graduated from college. Then I called the last school where he was headmaster. I told the new headmaster what had been going on, and he began going through their files. Guess why he had such a great reputation for bringing up the school’s academic performance?”
“He electronically doctored students’ records?” Phyllis guessed.
“Yep,” Nancy replied. “Apparently, the one thing he didn’t make up was his ability with computers, though we may never know how he got to be such a whiz.”
“Harrison Lane told me that he’s organizing a class-action suit against Friedbinder to get all the students reimbursed,” said Phyllis. “The board of trustees is suing him for fraud. Plus, he’ll probably be indicted for arson and attempted murder. I’d say he’s in for a whole lot of trouble.”
Dana chuckled softly. “Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.” She patted her computer, adding, “All the students’ grades are back to what they were, thanks to PointTech’s brilliant back-up system.”
“Speaking of PointTech,” Nancy said to Phyllis, “are you still joining the company? You know, Brewster will probably ask you to be their head now.”
“They’ll have to ask someone else,” Phyllis told her. “It was a big step for me, but now that I’ve made it, I can’t go back. I’m leaving Brewster at the end of the month.”
Nancy got up. “Well, good luck. I have to go now. I just wanted to say goodbye.”
Victor’s eyes locked with hers. “I’ll walk you to your car,” he said, getting to his feet and grabbing his jacket.
They walked out the front door of the school. It was a warm day. The thermometer had climbed into the low sixties, and a warm breeze rustled the vividly colored leaves on Brewster’s campus. “Did you tell Phyllis what you told me last night about changing your friend’s grade?” Nancy asked him as they walked.
“I did, this morning,” Victor replied, grimacing slightly. “She said it wasn’t fair to punish Phil for something he knew nothing about. Then she gave me a long lecture about ethics and technology, which I deserved, I guess. My punishment is to stay after school and work on getting those files back together until it’s done.”
Nancy gave him a sympathetic smile. “That’s tedious work, isn’t it?”
“Major tedious,” he agreed.
They walked on in silence for a little while longer, until they reached Nancy’s car. Opening the driver’s door, Nancy threw her bag onto the passenger seat and climbed in behind the wheel.
Victor leaned down, resting his elbows on the open car window. “I hope you didn’t come to say goodbye to me, too, Nancy,” he said seriously. “I really want to see you again.”
Nancy took in his handsome face, broad shoulders, and beautiful eyes. Then she sighed. “Victor, I told you about Ned. I like you, but—”
Victor stopped her words with a warm, tender kiss on the lips. “Victor, I can’t,” she said. “If it wasn’t for Ned—”
Suddenly Victor looked under her car, then checked the back seat. He walked to the front of the car and checked under the hood. “What are you doing?” Nancy asked with an exasperated laugh.
“Looking for Ned,” he answered, flashing her his disarming grin.