“Randy went to call the police,” Ned said. “They’ll be here any minute.” He took a step forward, then jumped back when Mr. Lorenzo swung the wrench in his direction.
“I’ll be gone by then,” Mr. Lorenzo said. “You kids should have kept your noses out of my business. You and that reporter.”
Nancy grabbed the brick wall as George dropped onto the fire escape next to her and Dennis. “You belong in jail, Mr. Lorenzo. Or maybe I should call you Mr. Papazian.”
The store owner’s eyes blazed red. “So you figured it out,” he said. “I thought so. It’s a good thing I decided to follow you after you left the Sports Complex.”
He jerked his head toward Ned. “Now you. Down with your friends,” he instructed.
Ned crouched down at the edge of the roof. Nancy saw his eyes flicker briefly toward the vents at the center of the roof.
“We actually believed you when you said you liked to support college athletes,” Ned said, shaking his head in disgust. “The only thing you care about is yourself.”
Ned looked carefully at Nancy, meeting her gaze. Then he let his eyes flicker behind Mr. Lorenzo again. He was trying to tell her something, she was sure of it.
“Mr. Lorenzo?” Joy’s voice came from somewhere on the roof. “What are you doing up here?”
Mr. Lorenzo turned, scowling, to look behind him. In that second, Nancy jumped into action.
“Get him!” she shouted.
Ned launched himself toward Mr. Lorenzo, catching him in a tackle that sent the big man flying face-first onto the snowy roof.
Using the rusted fire escape railing for footing, Nancy hoisted herself up onto the roof. She saw Mr. Lorenzo twist out of Ned’s grasp and reach for the heavy wrench, which had dropped into the snow beside him.
“No!” she cried, vaulting forward. She reached the wrench a split-second before he did. Nancy kicked it as hard as she could, sending it skittering across the snowy rooftop. The heavy wrench stopped just a few feet from where Joy stood watching, her eyes wide with shock.
By the time Nancy turned around again, Ned and Dennis had Mr. Lorenzo pinned to the ground with his arms behind his back.
“The police are here!” George announced.
“Wh-what’s going on?” Joy asked.
Looking down from the rooftop, Nancy saw a black-and-white squad car pull to a stop on the road. Randy’s Jeep was right behind it. Joy’s sorority sisters stood on the snowy ground, looking curiously from the police car to the rooftop of the old theater building.
“It’s a long story,” Nancy said. “And before we tell it, there’s something I have to do.”
She strode over to the wooden crate where Dennis had been when she found him. Opening the top, she reached inside and pulled out the blue-and-white Clues Challenge banner.
She held up the banner, letting it flutter in the cold winter wind. “There’s a new Clues Challenge winner,” she announced. “Omega Chi Epsilon!”
“I still can’t believe Grant and I were stuck scaling the wrong theater building while you guys saw all the action,” C.J. said that evening.
Nancy grinned down the long table at the Eatery where she, Ned, George, C.J., Grant, and Dede sat. The rest of Dede’s sorority sisters, as well as everyone from the Delta Tau and Sigma Pi teams, were also there.
The only ones missing were Dennis and Mr. Lorenzo.
“I still can’t believe Mr. Lorenzo was on the run from the police for three years,” Dede said. “And that Dennis was blackmailing him.”
“We’re still in shock about that,” said Philip, leaning over from the table where he sat with the other guys from Sigma Pi. “I mean, Dennis was our friend.”
Philip’s brother, Jake, shook his head slowly back and forth. “We should have known something was up when Dennis bought that new computer. I knew it cost a bundle, but I never figured he got the money from blackmailing someone.”
“Dennis and Mr. Lorenzo had a lot of people fooled,” Nancy said. She leaned back in her chair, looking out over the platters of pasta, chicken, and grilled fish on their table. “The important thing is that they’re both in jail now, where they won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”
Joy stood up at her table and clinked her glass with a spoon. “I’d like to make a toast,” she said. “Here’s to the new Clues Challenge champs.”
Nancy cheered along with everyone else.
“Of course, next year will be a different story,” Joy went on when the noise died down. She grinned at her teammates. “Right?”
“Absolutely,” Krista spoke up from her table. “Next year the Kappas are going to win!”
Taunts and challenges flew from table to table, but Nancy didn’t join in. Leaning close to Ned, she gazed into his warm brown eyes.
“We just solved a three-year-old mystery and got two criminals off the street,” she said. “I think that makes us all winners.”
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Aladdin Paperbacks edition July 2003
First Minstrel edition November 2001
Copyright © 2001 Simon & Schuster
ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
