Nancy was going to remind him that it was a team competition. Dennis didn’t stick around to listen, though. Zipping up his parka, he headed for the exit.
Hmm, thought Nancy. Dennis obviously thought of the Clues Challenge as a personal contest between himself and C.J. How far would he go to win?
“So Dennis thinks we set up the whole crushed-pills incident just to spice up Randy’s article about C.J.?” Grant said, after Nancy returned to the table and told them what had happened.
“That’s ridiculous!” Dede said hotly. “But …” She turned to face C.J., her eyes flashing with uncertainty. “Shouldn’t we tell Mr. Lorenzo what happened? If someone is trying to sabotage your team, he should know about it.”
Glancing across the room, Nancy saw Mel Lorenzo. He was still at the table with Joy and some of the other Deltas. As Nancy watched, Joy, cool and confident as ever, leaned close and spoke into his ear. Mr. Lorenzo’s expression changed. He shifted uneasily in his chair as Joy spoke to him, and kept checking his watch.
He doesn’t seem like a super-smooth salesman now, thought Nancy.
“What could she be saying to him?” George said.
“I don’t know, but Mr. Lorenzo doesn’t seem happy about it,” Nancy said.
The change in him was so curious that Nancy temporarily forgot her own reason for wanting to talk to him. She watched, puzzled, as Mr. Lorenzo squirmed in his chair. After a few moments he said something to Joy, gave a curt nod, and got up and left.
“Hmmm.” Nancy frowned as her eyes jumped back to Joy. “Now she’s leaving—by herself.”
Ned sipped some coffee, looking over his cup at Joy. “You think she’s up to something?” he asked.
“She sounds so confident that the Deltas are going to win the Clues Challenge,” Nancy said, thinking out loud. “Maybe that’s because she’s doing something to make sure they win.”
In that instant she made up her mind. “I’m going to follow her.”
“I’ll go with you,” George said right away.
“Okay,” Ned agreed. “Grant and I will take the pills to the pharmacy. We can all meet back at the frat.”
“Do you see her?” George whispered to Nancy a few minutes later.
Nancy paused at the beginning of the snow-covered path that led back toward Emerson College. She and George had left the Eatery in time to see Joy turn onto the path. Now that they were at the path themselves, though, Nancy couldn’t see Joy.
Globe street lamps stretched along the path, each surrounded by a pool of yellow light. “One of the lights is out,” Nancy whispered back, staring into the blackness. “Maybe … Yes!”
A figure moved out of the shadows and back into the lighted part of the path. Nancy recognized Joy’s blond hair and quick, purposeful stride at once. “That’s her. Let’s go!”
She and George kept about fifty feet behind Joy. For several minutes all Nancy could hear was the crunching of their boots on the snow. She didn’t see Mr. Lorenzo anywhere. Joy walked alone, carrying her backpack slung over one shoulder.
“Shouldn’t Joy turn left up there to get to her sorority?” George whispered.
Up ahead, Nancy spotted the path that forked left to the West Campus. Nancy could see the lights of the sorority and fraternity houses. Joy had walked past the turnoff and continued toward the main campus.
“Maybe she’s going to the Student Center,” Nancy whispered, nodding toward an enormous, brightly lit building set at the edge of the lake. Plenty of other students were headed in that direction. Instead Joy veered right, down a side path that was lined on both sides with tall oaks.
“She’s going to the Academic Quad?” George asked, gazing ahead at the brick buildings that rose out of the snow around a square courtyard. “At ten o’clock on the night before the Clues Challenge?” Even in the darkness George’s doubt was clear.
She and Nancy picked up their pace. As they drew closer, Nancy could make out the gothic arches and corner turrets of the buildings. At one corner of the quad a bell tower loomed four stories high. A lantern outside the entrance of the tower illuminated a stone archway and stairs that circled upward along the inside wall.
“Hold it.” Nancy grabbed George’s arm as Joy stopped outside the arched doorway of the tower. “Quick! Duck out of sight.”
She and George climbed over a snowdrift and crouched behind one of the oak trees. When Nancy peered around the trunk, she saw that Joy was still at the foot of the bell tower. She was checking in every direction before dropping her backpack to the ground, unzipping it, and reaching inside.
“What’s she doing?” George wondered aloud.
Joy stopped suddenly, her head whipped toward the oak tree where Nancy and George were hiding. Nancy froze, thankful for the darkness and the winter wind that whistled through the trees. A moment later Joy bent back over her pack, rummaging inside it.
“The Clues Challenge starts right here in less than twelve hours,” Nancy whispered. “If Joy is here now—”
She broke off as a faint noise from somewhere behind her and George caught her attention. She turned her head, listening carefully. After a moment she heard it again—the crunching of boots on snow.
“Someone else is coming,” George hissed, whirling around. “Back there!”
It sounded as if the person was nearby, but they didn’t see anyone. And the trees lining the path blocked much of their view.
“Come on!” Nancy mouthed, picking her way over the snow as quietly as she could. “I want to see—”
All of a sudden George let out a gasp, and Nancy turned in time to see George stumble forward. She fell against Nancy, sending both of them flying.
“I tripped on a rock!” George whispered, struggling to find her balance in the snow.
Nancy scrambled until she found her footing and pushed herself back to her feet. “Oh, no,” she said, cocking her head to one side to listen.
The pounding sounds of boots on snow were faster now, and they were getting fainter and fainter. “The person’s running away.”
Nancy ran back down the path several yards, whipping her head left and right. “Where are you?” she said under her breath. But the footsteps had already faded. Between the darkness and the trees, Nancy didn’t see anyone.
