“You’re sure you’ll be okay?” Grant asked.
“Go!” George insisted.
Nancy snapped her boots into her bindings and pushed off after Ned and Grant. “We’ll meet you back at HQ as soon as we can,” she said.
She didn’t like leaving George, but she couldn’t help getting caught up in the excitement as she spotted more of the landmarks in the clue. The “broken-down” barrier turned out to be a crumbling stone wall that had been part of the Sanderford farm. By following the wall, they came to an old family cemetery deep in the woods.
“That has to be the ‘bony clutches’ in the clue,” Ned said as they skied past.
The Kappas were just ahead of them, but Nancy saw the Deltas beyond them, but skiing back toward them.
“The Deltas,” Grant said.
Joy was in the lead, the wind ruffling her long, blond hair. Beneath her blue cap, her face was triumphant. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.
“Looking for the snowflake with these inside?” she asked, waving the clue in the air. Without waiting for an answer, she shoved the paper back in her pocket and stepped off the path to angle around Ned, Grant, and Nancy. “We’ll be on our way to the next snowflake before you get back to Clues Challenge HQ.”
Joy skied on without looking back. The four girls with her grinned from ear to ear as they followed.
“You know …” Ned said once the Deltas were out of earshot. “One of them could have sawed the end off that screw.”
“Maybe. Or someone from Dennis’s team could have done it,” Nancy said. “But if they think this kind of stunt is going to stop us, they are so wrong.”
Moments later they came to some snow-covered mounds that seemed to be the foundations of two buildings. The Kappas had stopped amid the stones and were walking around in their boots. There were footprints around both foundations.
“There’s an old well,” Grant said, pointing to a circular stone wall midway between the two foundations. “That must be the ring of rocks. But which is the foundation of victory?”
The stones of one foundation seemed to outline a larger space than the other. “I think the barn would have been bigger than the house,” Nancy said.
Walking toward the larger foundation, she began to look over the stones. Then she spotted an iron weather vane—in the shape of a rising sun.
Nancy leaped forward and lifted one end of the weathervane. There, just below it in the snow, was a plastic snowflake identical to the one Mel Lorenzo had shown them at the pre-challenge dinner the night before.
Nancy opened the snowflake. Three identical slips of paper lay inside. Taking off her gloves, Nancy grabbed one clue and held it up. “Success,” she whispered so the Kappas wouldn’t know they had found their clue.
“Great,” Ned whispered back. “Now let’s rebury the clues and head back to Clues Challenge headquarters. We can find out if Mr. Lorenzo saw anyone messing with George’s ski.”
“Okay, let’s take a look at this thing.” Mel Lorenzo bent over George’s ski, which lay in front of him on the table in the atrium. He could pull the screw out to check it closely through his tinted glasses.
“Well?” George prompted as she, Nancy, Grant, and Ned clustered around.
Finally Mr. Lorenzo put the screw down and sat back with a sigh. “The tip might have been sawed off,” he said slowly. “But I can’t be sure. The tip could have snapped off when the binding pulled loose.”
Nancy gaped at him. Could he really be suggesting the ski hadn’t been sabotaged? “Can you check the other screw?” she asked. “If the tip is missing from that one, too, we’ll know someone sawed it off.”
“Good idea,” Grant said. “The end couldn’t just break off inside the ski.”
“Probably not,” Mr. Lorenzo said. “But I don’t think we should jump to conclusions before all the evidence is in.”
Nancy exchanged surprised glances with George. Why was Mr. Lorenzo so reluctant to recognize the sabotage?
“Can you take out the other screw and check?” Nancy asked again.
Mr. Lorenzo shrugged and reached into a canvas bag that sat next to the table on the AstroTurf floor. “I threw some extra tools and supplies in here. Tape for the ski poles, extra hooks and pulleys, screwdriver, and file,” he said as he sifted through the things. “I’m sure there was a screwdriver, but …”
“Did you say ‘file’?” George said.
Mr. Lorenzo nodded. “I don’t see it now, though. Or the screwdriver,” he said. Letting the bag drop to the floor, he lifted the newspaper he’d been reading. “Where are they?” he murmured, scanning the table beneath.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Ned spoke up. “Someone used your tools to sabotage George’s skis.”
Resting his elbows on the table, Mel Lorenzo pressed his fingers together in a steeple. “Show me the file and screwdriver in someone’s pocket or backpack, and I’ll be happy to disqualify that person from the Clues Challenge,” he said. “But right now all we have is suspicion and …”
He frowned as Randy entered the atrium through a massive stone doorway that had once been the outside entrance to the old gym. C.J. was with him, using his cane to help take his weight off his bandaged foot.
“Not him,” Mr. Lorenzo muttered.
“You’re back!” C.J. swung over, an expectant smile on his face. “You got the second clue?” His eyes lit up when he saw the slip of paper Nancy held up.
“As a bonus, I got a couple of mouthfuls of snow and an ice-cold foot bath,” George said dryly. “Thanks to whoever sabotaged my skis.”
“More sabotage?” Randy asked.
Nancy wasn’t surprised to see him take the lens cap off his camera. “Did anyone check your skis, C.J.?” Randy asked.
Nancy felt a twinge of annoyance as he took a picture of George’s ski, with C.J. bent over it. Everything was a story to Randy even if it affected the welfare of their Clues Challenge team.
“Don’t blow this out of proportion,” Mr. Lorenzo warned, scowling at Randy. “Reporters get sued for printing lies, you know.”
