“Someone like Mrs. Sedgewick,” Bess said quietly.
“Someone close to the situation,” Nancy said. She frowned, thinking hard.
“Okay, girls,” said Mr. Drew. “Let’s not get carried away. I think it’s time for me to call it a night.”
“I guess we’ll leave as soon as George gets back,” Nancy said.
Carson Drew nodded and gave his daughter a peck on the cheek. “I’ll see you at home,” he said.
Carson Drew had just left when Bess said, “Hasn’t George been gone for an awfully long time?”
Nancy nodded. “Let’s go find her.”
The girls left the banquet hall and walked across the campus to the gym. They pushed open the front door and went inside.
“George?” Nancy called. The gym was very dark inside, lit only by the red exit signs over the doors.
“I’ve never seen the equipment room,” Nancy said. She peered around in the darkness. “Maybe it’s down here.” She pointed to a narrow stairway leading into the basement.
“That’s the only place it could be,” Bess agreed. “Let’s go.”
It was even darker on the steep metal stairway than on the main floor of the gym. A shiver went up Nancy’s spine as she descended the stairs. She smiled at her reaction to the spooky place. “Thank goodness,” she said to Bess, who followed behind her. “There’s a light on down here.”
A single bare light bulb hung from the ceiling of a narrow corridor that ran beneath the gym floor. Heavy doors, painted dull gray, were evenly spaced along its length.
Nancy strode down the corridor quickly. Bess stayed close behind her.
When they reached the third door on the left, they saw that it was wide open.
“I guess George was right.” Bess sounded relieved. “She did forget to lock the room. I wonder where she is.”
“I don’t know.” Nancy entered the dark room. “There must be a light some—”
Nancy stopped short. She had stumbled on something near the entrance. Not something—someone. She found the light switch and turned it on.
Behind her, Bess gasped. “It’s George—and she’s unconscious!”
3
Rivalry on the Field
Nancy knelt and quickly felt for George’s pulse. As Bess looked on anxiously, George came to.
“Wha—what happened?” she stammered. She sat up straight and rubbed the back of her head.
“That’s what we want to know,” Nancy said.
“We came down here looking for you,” said Bess. “How’d you wind up on the floor? Did someone hit you?”
“I’m not sure,” George answered. She looked and sounded groggy.
“Maybe she tripped,” Bess said to Nancy. “Look, that bucket is tipped over.”
A custodian’s mop pail lay on its side by the door. The mop handle had fallen into the hall.
“Looks as if you fell over the mop,” said Nancy. “Is that what happened, George?”
“Nan, I can’t remember. Maybe I tripped. I think I heard a noise. It was just after I came down here. I saw that the door was locked and I—”
“But it’s not locked,” Bess said. “Not now.”
George looked around, confused. “But it was locked.” She rubbed her head. “At least, I think it was.”
Just then a loud voice shouted, “Hey, who’s in there?”
It was a woman’s voice, coming from the corridor.
“It’s me, Coach,” George called.
Kate Boggs appeared in the doorway. She saw George on the floor and rushed to her side. “What happened to you?” she demanded.
After George had told the coach all she remembered, Nancy asked, “Should anyone besides you and George be down here at this time of night?”
“Definitely not,” Kate said. “Once in a while George and I have to come down for something. But the equipment room is always locked—even during the day, except before and after practice.”
“Who has a key?” Nancy asked.
“I do, of course. And George, and the custodian, Mr. Quinn. The headmaster has a master key, but I doubt that Russell Garrison would ever come down here.”
