“Um . . .” Bess looked down at the floor.
“Well, George and I sort of signed up for a seminar on famous women detectives. And it started five minutes ago.”
“But we really don’t have to go,” George said. “We’d much rather help you.”
Nancy looked from one friend to the other. “It’s okay,” she said, smiling. “You’ve been missing all the fun at this convention. Go to the seminar, I’ll check out Will’s room, and I’ll meet you in a couple of hours.”
“You sure?” Bess asked.
“Positive,” Nancy replied, heading for the elevators. “We don’t need three people to search one room anyway. I’ll see you later.”
Once again Nancy found herself padding silently down the carpeted hallway of the twelfth floor. When she got to Will Leonard’s room, she saw that the red painted words had been cleaned off the door, but she could still picture the ominous message in her mind: “You’re next!”
Nancy shuddered. Then she noticed the door was open. That was lucky! Now she wouldn’t have to figure out how to get inside.
Then Nancy paused. Why was the door open? Was somebody else inside?
Very slowly Nancy pushed open the door and looked in. The curtains were drawn and the lights were out. All Nancy could make out were the dim shapes of the bed and furniture still overturned on the floor.
Nancy shut the door quietly behind her and took a few steps into the room.
Suddenly a figure stepped out of the shadows and turned to face her. Even in the half-darkness, Nancy recognized the woman’s shape: tall, heavyset, wearing baggy clothes.
It was Eileen Braddock!
7
Eileen Braddock Explains
“Looking for contact lenses, Ms. Drew?” said the mystery author.
Nancy took a deep breath. “Not exactly,” she replied calmly. “But I didn’t expect to find you in Will Leonard’s room.”
Eileen Braddock laughed nervously. “I guess you’re wondering what I’m doing here,” she said.
“There are a lot of things I’d like to know about you,” replied Nancy.
“I’ll be happy to tell you,” said Braddock. “But do you mind if I turn on the light first?”
Eileen Braddock felt her way along the bed toward a light switch by the door. Nancy, fearful Braddock would make a run for it, also moved toward the door.
“Don’t worry,” said Braddock. “I won’t try to escape.” She fumbled for a switch, and one of the overturned lamps on the floor lit up. Its lampshade had fallen off, so the bare bulb cast a pool of light on the rug and formed eerie shadows on the ceiling.
Braddock turned back to Nancy. She was wearing her red Fifi sweatshirt and baggy red sweatpants. “I know it looks suspicious for me to be standing in Will Leonard’s room in the dark,” Braddock said. “But I could say the same thing of you.”
“I’m not the one who blew up yesterday at the mention of the two stars of ‘Nightside,’ ” Nancy responded. “What’s your connection to the show? And how well do you know Will and Sally?”
Braddock sat on the edge of the bed. She ran one hand through her hair over and over again. “No matter how strange my behavior may seem, I don’t know anything about the kidnappings.”
“But you do know Sally Belmont,” Nancy said. “You wrote an inscription to her in one of your books. ‘Thanks for trying. Too bad it didn’t work out.’ What does that mean?”
Eileen Braddock looked surprised. “How do you know what I wrote to Sally?”
“I’ll answer your questions later,” Nancy said. “Right now, it’s my turn.”
Braddock sighed. “I’ve always been a fan of ‘Nightside.’ So I was very flattered last year when Sally Belmont herself called to tell me she was a fan of my novels. She wanted me to write an episode of ‘Nightside.’ She asked me to send the script to her and she would show it to the producers.”
“Did you write it?” Nancy asked.
“Of course. That’s a chance no writer would pass up. You can make a lot of money writing for television.”
“So what happened?”
“Everybody loved my script. Except for one person. Will Leonard.”
“Why didn’t he like it?” Nancy asked.
“He thought I’d written too many lines for Sally and not enough for him. He refused to appear in that episode. So they never bought my script. I offered to revise it, but Leonard wouldn’t even let me do that.”
“Didn’t Sally stand up for you?”
“No. That’s what made me so mad. She’s the one who asked me to write it in the first place, but she backed down right away. I felt as if she’d wasted my time. And I felt that Will was just being difficult to prove he was a star. I was very angry with both of them for a long time.”
“How angry?” Nancy asked meaningfully.
Eileen Braddock continued running her hand nervously through her hair until it stood up on end. Now Nancy understood why Braddock’s hair always looked uncombed.
“Not angry enough to kidnap them, if that’s what you mean,” Braddock said. “Especially not Sally. After a while, I realized I couldn’t blame her for Will’s behavior. I even sent her an autographed copy of one of my books. And when we got to the convention, Sally called to invite me to dinner. I accepted the invitation because I’d gotten over my anger.”
