Dina sniffed. “You Americans!” she said, with a mixture of affection and contempt. “In so many ways you are such amazing people. But where politics is concerned, you are like little children. A series of strange events takes place. With that as an excuse, an official cancels an election. He tries to bully into silence those who would succeed him. What is the result? He stays in power. Now ask yourself. To whose benefit were those strange events?”
Penny stared at her. “Dina, do you really think Cyril—”
“I accuse no one,” Dina said, breaking in. “But a Gorvonian is never intimidated by unfair tactics. I am still a candidate for president of the IFC. I intend to win. And I warn you, if the election does not take place as announced, I will go to the college officials. I will demand that the IFC be dissolved!”
Everyone in the room started talking at once. Dina swept the table with a cold glance. Then, like Vlad, she stalked out. Unlike Vlad, she did not slam the door.
Cyril rapped his knuckles on the table. “May we please have some order?”
“Shhh!” Penny said. “Come on, people!”
Slowly quiet returned.
“I have a statement to make,” Cyril announced. “We in the IFC have taken on an important mission here at Emerson. We want to promote international friendship and understanding. And I believe we do a pretty fair job of carrying out that mission.”
“Hear, hear!” J. P. murmured.
Cyril gave him a grateful glance, then continued. “I’ve liked serving as president. I was looking forward to passing the job on. However, I will not let all we’ve worked so hard to build be destroyed by factionalism. Unless I see some radical improvement in the climate inside the club, I intend to stand for reelection. If that happens, my platform will be to build unity and to combat any effort to bring external quarrels into the IFC.”
“Hear, hear!” J. P. said again. Some of the others clapped.
Nancy was not happy about the direction her thoughts were taking. Only moments before, Dina had accused Cyril of plotting to hold onto the presidency of the IFC. Now he was announcing a plan to run for reelection. That gave Dina’s accusations more weight.
Nancy realized that she didn’t know Cyril at all. He seemed nice enough on first acquaintance. Bess had certainly taken to him, and not just because of his cute accent. The fact that he and Ned were friends was another big point in his favor. But was he the kind of sneak who would sabotage an important event for the sake of political advantage? She did not want to think so, but she had to admit she didn’t know.
She would have to ask Ned . . . but very, very carefully. She and Ned had a great relationship. They could tell each other anything. Still, she wasn’t sure how he would react if he found out she suspected his friend. At the very least, it might put a cloud over what she wanted to be a super weekend.
“Cyril, what can we do?” Joann asked. She sounded very distressed. “The festival means so much. We can’t let anyone ruin it.”
“I’m with you on that,” Cyril replied. “But we have a secret weapon. You may not know it, but our guests, Nancy, Bess, and George, are super detectives. When it comes to solving mysteries and foiling evil plots, there’s no one to touch them.”
Everyone turned to look at them. Nancy felt her cheeks grow warm. Ned patted her shoulder.
“That’s wonderful!” Penny exclaimed. “I move we appoint Nancy Drew and her friends official IFC investigators.”
“I second the motion,” J. P. said. He caught George’s eye and smiled.
“All in favor?” Cyril looked around the room. “The motion passes. But we didn’t ask if they’re willing to serve.”
“We’ll be glad to help if we can,” Nancy said.
“Good for you, mate,” Cyril said. “You let us know what we can do.”
When the meeting broke up, Nancy, Ned, George, and Bess held a strategy meeting outside across from the gym.
“We’ve got two jobs to do,” Nancy said. “We have to find out who’s in back of these tricks. We also have to keep the festival from being spoiled.”
“Make that three,” Ned said. “If we don’t solve this, the IFC may go down in flames.”
“It may anyway,” George said. “I haven’t been seeing a lot of international friendship lately.”
“That’s not fair,” Bess asserted. “Most of the kids in the club are really nice. They’d get along fine if it weren’t for all this tension.”
The discussion was drifting away from the point. Nancy pulled it back. “What are we looking at?” she said, jotting some notes on an index card. “Dina got hit with that e-mail yesterday, and the drawing on her door. Then a threatening call last night. This morning someone switched Vlad’s videotape.”
“Putting stuff in the food at lunch,” George added.
“And that tent falling on us,” Bess said with a shudder.
“I don’t get it,” Ned said, rubbing his chin. “Who’s the target here? Dina? Vlad? And neither of them was inside the tent when it fell down.”
“How about this?” George suggested. “Vlad sent the e-mail and made the drawing and the crank call. Dina figured he was the one, so to get back at him she switched the videotape.”
“And who monkeyed with the food?” Bess asked. “Both of their dishes were ruined.”
“I don’t know,” George said. She sounded frustrated. “Whoever did it must have doctored both dishes to throw off suspicion.”
“Well, it sure worked on me,” Bess retorted. “I thought both of them looked really mad.”
Nancy studied her notes. “Vlad has an alibi for the time when the salt and sweetener were bought,” she pointed out. “And Dina couldn’t have made the crank call. I was right there in the room with her when it came through.”
“A tape recorder and an auto dialer,” Ned said.
Nancy wrinkled her nose at him. “I thought of that, smarty,” she said. “But when Dina asked who it was, he answered. Okay, maybe you could rig some gadget to do that, but let’s be real. Would a college student have access to such complicated gear? I don’t think so. Besides, why bother?”
“That’s the big question,” George said. “Why would anybody go to so much trouble to win an election in a campus club? I can’t help feeling there’s more to this than we’ve seen so far.”
“I know what you mean,” Nancy said somberly. “We’d better keep a very sharp eye out.”
