“I’m looking for evidence,” Randy said. “Evidence that could lead to the capture of a criminal who’s been on the loose for the past three years.”
He pulled his notebook from his parka pocket. Nancy recognized the faxed sheets he slipped out from under the cover and held out to her.
“Three years ago there was a point-fixing scam at Western Tech,” Randy explained. “I wrote about it for Sports World.”
Nancy said nothing to let on that she had already read the beginning of the article. Holding it out so George could see it, too, she skipped over the part she had already seen.
“Whoa,” she said, reading farther. “The man who masterminded the scam got away?”
Randy nodded. “Andrew Papazian, a local businessman. He skipped bail and was never seen or heard from again.”
“So those three college kids were ruined,” George said, pointing at the names in the article. “Ty Brubaker, Kent Atwood, and Jamal Warner. But Pa-pazian got away.”
“Actually …” Randy shot another glance at the closed office door. Lowering his voice even more, he said, “I think I may have found him.”
Nancy’s mouth fell open as she made the connection. “Mr. Lorenzo? You think he’s Andrew Papaz-ian?”
“There’s a photograph in the article.” George flipped to the second page and pointed at the grainy image.
“Hmm.” Nancy looked closely, then frowned. “See how fat Papazian is?” She pointed to the huge paunch on the man in the photograph. He held a corner of his suit jacket over his face. A fat cigar stuck out from between the fingers of his right hand, which he used to hold a corner of his suit jacket over his face. “Mr. Lorenzo is in much better shape than that. And I’ve never seen him smoke.”
“I know, I know. Papazian didn’t wear a ponytail or tinted glasses, either,” Randy said. “But he could have changed the way he looked so no one would recognize him. Try to see past the superficial details.”
Nancy stared at the photo again. “Papazian is big, like Mr. Lorenzo,” she said slowly. “If this guy lost weight, got in shape, gave up cigars, grew his hair, and started wearing glasses, he could look like Mr. Lorenzo.”
“That’s a lot of ifs,” George said. She fixed Randy with questioning eyes as she put the faxed article down on the desk.
“I didn’t make the connection at first, either,” Randy told them. “But there was something Lorenzo kept saying, ‘Man, oh, man.’” Randy tapped the article against the desk. “It rang a bell. Then I remembered where I’d heard it.”
“Andrew Papazian?” Nancy guessed.
“Bingo,” said Randy. “He used that expression all the time. During the trial, press conferences … I wasn’t the only person who noticed. After he skipped town, I remember reading a newspaper headline that said, ‘Papazian Is Gone, Oh, Gone!’”
“I still couldn’t say for sure that Mr. Lorenzo is the same person in that photograph,” Nancy said. “But if he is, that could explain why he’s being blackmailed. Someone else could have realized he was Andrew Papazian.”
“And that person threatened to spill the beans—unless Mr. Lorenzo paid big money,” George finished. “The big question is, who is the person?”
Nancy rested her hands on the desk and leaned over them, thinking. “I don’t know. And I’m still not sure what all this has to do with the sabotage that’s been going on at the Clues Challenge,” she said. “Maybe nothing.”
Randy’s article lay on the desk in front of her. Nancy found herself staring at a photograph near the end of the article, of the three Western Tech basketball players who had been expelled.
The caption read, “Ty Brubaker, Kent Atwood, and Jamal Warner expressed remorse for their part in the point-fixing scandal. Ty Brubaker, former high scorer for Western Tech, said, ‘It was wrong. I’m sorry I ever let Pops talk me into it.’”
“Pops?” Nancy said, fingering the print.
“Papazian’s nickname,” Randy told her.
“I’ve see it before … somewhere,” Nancy murmured.
She couldn’t take her eyes off the photograph. There was something familiar about it. She kept going back to Ty Brubaker, and the dark brows that stretched over his eyes in a thick line …
“That’s it!” she said, snapping her fingers.
“Shhh!” George shot a warning glance at the door.
All three of them froze. Nancy only relaxed when she heard Jimmy and his customer still talking out in the store.
“There’s a photograph of Dennis and Ty Brubaker in Dennis’s room!” she whispered. “He has an autographed photograph of Ziggy Laroquette, too. Someone named Pops wrote on it.”
“Papazian?” George guessed.
Nancy shrugged. “Maybe. But we know one thing for sure. If Dennis knew Ty Brubaker, he definitely knows about the point-fixing.”
“Which means he could have known Papazian before he skipped bail and turned himself into Mr. Lorenzo.” Randy jumped to his feet and headed for the window. “Dennis is the link we need to put Papazian behind bars where he belongs. I’ve got to talk to him.”
“Hold it!” Nancy said. “We still don’t know for sure that Mr. Lorenzo and Andrew Papazian are the same person.”
“Besides which,” George added, “Dennis might not want to cooperate. If he’s the person who’s been blackmailing Mr. Lorenzo, he’s made a lot of money by keeping Papazian’s identity a secret.”
Randy shoved the faxed article under the cover of his notebook and dropped it into his jacket pocket. “We can’t sit by and do nothing. If Lorenzo is Papazian, he belongs in jail.”
“We need to find out the truth,” Nancy said. “Let’s talk to Dennis.”
“How? We don’t know where he is,” George said.
Nancy headed for the window and began to climb back out to the alley. “I think I know how we can find out.”
Ten minutes later Nancy turned her Mustang into the parking lot of the Sports Complex. She waved to Randy and George, who continued down Campus Road toward the Student Center in Randy’s Jeep.
