“Excuse me for the interruption,” he said gruffly. “I’d like to see the members of the Omega Chi Epsilon team at the drinks counter right away.”
“He sounds serious,” Ned murmured.
“Maybe he found out something about the sabotage,” Nancy said. Shoving the faxed papers back under the cover of Randy’s notebook, she got to her feet. She and Ned made it to the counter at the same time as Grant, George, and C.J.
“What’s going on?” C.J. asked.
Mr. Lorenzo unzipped his jacket with a yank. “I have reason to believe that someone from your team has broken Clues Challenge rules,” he said.
“What!” Nancy, Ned, C.J., George, and Grant all cried at once.
“You know the rules. Searching for clues after sundown is forbidden,” Mr. Lorenzo went on. “Yet on my way here I saw one of you in the woods near the library.”
Nancy blinked at him. “That’s impossible. We were all right here,” she said.
“I know what I saw. Those yellow Omega hats are impossible to miss,” Mr. Lorenzo insisted. He turned his eyes on each of them in turn. “I’m sorry, but as of this minute your team is disqualified from the Clues Challenge.”
11
An Unfair Judgment
Nancy’s mouth dropped open. “I don’t know who you saw,” she said, “but it wasn’t any of us.”
“We’ve all been here for at least half an hour,” George added.
Mr. Lorenzo pulled off his parka and hat, and shook out his ponytail. “I’ll need more than just your assurance,” he told them. “You’ll have to prove it.”
Mr. Lorenzo scowled as Randy joined the group with his camera and notebook. Randy must have heard them talking because he said, “I saw them, Mr. Lorenzo. All five members of the Omega team have been here for some time now.”
Sparks of irritation shot from Mr. Lorenzo’s eyes. “You expect me to believe that?” he scoffed. “You reporters will say anything.”
“He’s not the only one who saw us,” Grant said.
He, C.J., and Ned began pulling over other students. Mr. Lorenzo spoke to them one by one. After talking to about ten people, he waved the rest away.
“See, Mr. Lorenzo?” said Ned. “With all those people to back us up, you have to believe us.”
Mr. Lorenzo nodded grudgingly. “All right. Omega Chi Epsilon is back in the Clues Challenge,” he said.
“Does he have to sound so disappointed?” George whispered in Nancy’s ear. “It’s almost like he wants to disqualify us.”
“Hmmm.” Nancy turned to George and Ned and said, “I want to check something.”
She led the way to the alcove where they had left their jackets. “We all wore our team hats tonight,” she said. “If Mr. Lorenzo saw someone wearing one of the hats …”
“Then someone else must have taken one of them!” Ned finished. “Here!” he said, plucking two bright yellow Omega hats from the jumble of things. “C.J.’s and Grant’s are still right here.”
George scanned the rows of jackets and coats that were piled on top of one another. “Here’s yours, Ned,” she said, pulling out a green sleeve. “The hat’s in your pocket.”
Nancy finally found her own jacket. She reached in the pocket searching for her hat, but came up empty-handed.
“It’s gone,” she said.
George leaned against the wall. “So someone wore your hat to set us up to be disqualified,” she said. “But … how could anyone know Mr. Lorenzo would see her?”
“Or him,” Nancy said. “We don’t know how yet. But maybe we can figure out who.”
She stepped out of the alcove and looked over the party. “Dennis was here,” she said as she caught sight of him near the band. “I saw him dancing a few minutes before Mr. Lorenzo got here.”
“So he probably wasn’t the person, because he couldn’t be in two places at once,” Ned said. “What about Joy?”
“She was here when we arrived. But not now. Do you guys see her anywhere?”
Ned and George shook their heads.
“We’d better make sure.” Nancy pressed her mouth into a determined line and moved toward the other end of the room, where the band played. She, Ned, and George made their way up one side of the room and down the other.
“She’s missing in action,” Ned said. “Wait—scratch that.” He nodded toward the entrance. “There she is.”
Nancy turned in time to see Joy step out of the alcove where the coats were. “Her cheeks are bright red,” Nancy murmured. “And look at the way she’s blowing on her hands—like she needs to warm them up after being outside.”
Nancy, George, and Ned practically bowled over the people on the dance floor in their rush to get to Joy.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Nancy said. “Where’ve you been?”
“Been?” Joy shot a cool glance at George and Ned, who had ducked into the alcove where the coats were. Ned reemerged a moment later, holding up a bright yellow Omega team hat.
“Look what I found in your jacket pocket, Nancy,” he said, holding it up. “Your hat made a miraculous reappearance.” He fixed Joy with a probing stare. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
