Contents
1 Kidnapped
2 An Important Clue
3 The Plot Thickens
4 Breakfast with a Suspect
5 Shooting Star
6 Room 1203, Revisited
7 Eileen Braddock Explains
8 Speeding Terror
9 Death Threat
10 A Major Setback
11 Too Many Questions, Too Few Answers
12 The Trail Gets Hot
13 The Sands of Time
14 It All Comes Together
15 The Sands Run Out
16 In the Spotlight
1
Kidnapped
The detective flung open the heavy brass doors and strode into the lobby of Chicago’s Buckingham Hotel. Nancy Drew, standing in the check-in line with Bess Marvin and George Fayne, could tell he was a detective. He was making it so obvious. He wore a trench coat and a felt hat, just like a detective in an old-fashioned movie mystery. He also had an enormous magnifying glass dangling from a chain around his neck.
The doors slammed shut behind the detective. Overhead, the chandelier quivered ominously. A hush settled over the crowded room.
“There has been a murder,” the detective said quietly. His voice drifted through the elegant wood-paneled hall. “And every one of you is a suspect.”
“The butler did it!” shouted a teenage boy. Everybody laughed.
The detective laughed too. He was a tall young man who looked to be in his early twenties. He unbuttoned his trench coat. Underneath, he wore faded jeans and a T-shirt that said, “Everybody Loves a Mystery Lover.” Then he stood at the end of the check-in line behind Nancy, Bess, and George.
“That was pretty funny,” said blond, blue-eyed Bess, turning to the young man.
“Just trying to liven things up,” he said. “All this waiting is really boring. Last year’s convention was much better organized. This your first time at a Mystery Lovers Convention?”
The girls nodded.
“I guess you’re not too familiar with mysteries, then.”
Nancy and her friends shared a private look. The young man obviously didn’t know that Nancy Drew was a famous detective from River Heights. At the age of eighteen she had already solved mysteries all over the world. Nancy never liked to brag, though. All she said was, “I’ll bet you’ve been to a lot of these conventions.”
“Five,” he said.
Nancy tucked her reddish blond hair behind her ear and fixed her keen blue eyes on the young man. “And I’ll bet you’re about to tell us everything we need to know.”
“Excellent deduction.” He laughed. “They’ve got all kinds of exhibits. Mystery books, TV shows, movies, you name it. And did you hear who the special guest stars are? Will Leonard and Sally Belmont, the stars of ‘Nightside.’ ”
“Nightside,” the number-one show on TV, was a mystery series about a happy-go-lucky newly-wed couple who ran a private detective agency. It was actually more of a romantic comedy than a mystery. The couple was always joking around, even when their lives were in danger.
“ ‘Nightside’ is my favorite show,” said George, a tall, slim girl with short curly brown hair and brown eyes. George was Bess’s first cousin, and the two of them were Nancy Drew’s best friends.
“And Will Leonard is my favorite star.” Bess sighed. “He’s so cute. I just love his shaggy hair and blue eyes, and the way his clothes always look slept in.”
“I read somewhere that he’s only five-foot-seven,” George said. “That’s too short. I like my TV stars tall.”
“Well, Sally’s more my speed,” said the young man. “She’s got class. I’m going to try to meet her later. They’re signing autographs at two o’clock.”
“Then that’s where I’ll be at two o’clock,” Bess said. “Just think of the possibilities. I’ll lend Will my pen . . . he’ll sign his name . . . then, as he’s handing the pen back to me, our eyes will meet, the sparks will fly, and—”
“Next,” called the hotel clerk.
