“The stairs!” Nancy cried, nodding across the modern lobby to a sleek wood-and-metal staircase on the far side. “You stay here and stop anyone wearing dark clothes.”
Nancy raced to the stairs, her muscles screaming as she climbed two flights. She didn’t pass anyone on the stairway. As Nancy hurried past the desks, book stacks, and study modules on the third floor, she finally spotted Josh. He was leaning against a table near the window, breathing hard. A handful of students and librarians were clustered around him.
“Josh, are you okay?” Nancy asked.
He glanced at her, obviously disoriented. “Yeah. Just kind of shook up.” Josh swallowed as he straightened the collar of his shirt. “Did you see that creep?” he asked the crowd, scanning the nearby aisles of books. “Where did he go?”
“I didn’t see anybody,” said a blond-haired girl, “but I was doing research on the other side of the floor.”
“Did any of you see Josh’s attacker?” Nancy asked each of them. They all shook their heads.
Nancy didn’t wait to hear any more. Josh’s attacker was getting away! She walked carefully down the wide center aisle, checking each narrower aisle of bookcases. She saw no one and decided that the attacker had already left the floor. Racing down to the second floor, then the first, Nancy searched each carefully. There were only a few students, and none of them was wearing dark clothing.
“Any luck, Ned?” Nancy asked as she rejoined her boyfriend by the first-floor elevator bank.
He shook his head. “No one came out. I guess with all the homecoming festivities, today isn’t a big study day on campus. A bunch of people from the fair took the elevator up to see what had happened, though. They included Dean Jarvis and a couple of security guards.”
Nancy let out a sigh of frustration. “It looks like our guy got away. All he had to do was take that ski mask off to fit in. We’ll never be able to pick him out now.” Running a hand through her hair, she added, “Come on, let’s go back up to Josh.”
“I’m afraid I can’t,” Ned said apologetically. “I hate to desert you, but I have to get over to the floats.”
“That’s okay,” Nancy told him. “Bess and I will meet you at the student center for lunch at noon.”
When Nancy returned to the third floor, Josh was surrounded by a larger crowd, which included his father, Dean Jarvis, and two campus security guards. Nancy also noticed Bess standing on the fringe of the group, talking with Zip and Tamara.
Josh seemed to be recounting the details of the attack. “I was sitting at this table, working on a paper, when a guy came up and grabbed me by the collar.”
“Did he say anything?” Coach Mitchell asked his son, shoving his hands in the pockets of his navy warm up suit.
Josh nodded. “He told me that Emerson had to lose Sunday’s game. After that he dragged me to the window and—you know the rest.”
That was the same threat Randy had received, Nancy thought. Didn’t the culprit realize that Josh was suspended from the team roster?
“This business is getting out of hand,” Dean Jarvis stated. “If I had my druthers, I’d cancel that game.”
“Not the homecoming game!” someone said.
“Dean Jarvis,” the coach began, “we have hundreds of alumni visiting campus this week. I don’t think it would be wise to disappoint them by calling off the game.”
“We can’t buckle under now,” Josh added. “I know that this guy is trying to scare the team. But we can’t give him that satisfaction.”
Just then two police officers strode up. Dean Jarvis quickly explained what had happened to Josh and filled the officers in on the earlier attacks against Randy. “I’m considering calling the president to cancel the game, officers. Any advice?”
One of the officers, a gray-haired man with a bristly mustache, shrugged, saying, “There’s no guarantee that this kook will stop being a menace, even if you do cancel the game.”
The second officer—the name on his badge was Pulaski, Nancy noted—was writing vigorously on a clipboard. “Did you recognize this person’s voice?” Officer Pulaski asked Josh.