Lance shook his head. “Nope. Sorry. They were just two guys. You mean it was all staged?”
“It sounds that way,” Nancy replied. “They distracted you and drew you away from the table long enough for their accomplice to grab the money. It’s my guess that they came prepared with an envelope and simply switched it for yours. Anybody who had watched you collecting money at lunch would know you kept the big bills in a manila envelope.”
“Boy, what a sap I am,” Lance said bitterly.
There was a silence. Apparently no one felt like arguing the point.
After a few moments Penny said, “That’s just a theory, though, isn’t it? I mean, no one saw it happen that way.”
“No,” Nancy agreed. “But it does fit the facts pretty well. Another question, Lance. Can you tell if this is your envelope, or a substitute?”
Lance reached for the envelope.
“Hold on!” Ned exclaimed. “Don’t touch it!”
“What do you mean, touch it? I already carried it around and then opened it,” Lance protested.
“Ned’s right, Lance,” Nancy said. “We shouldn’t handle it any more than we have to. It’s crucial evidence. Sure, every crook alive knows about fingerprints, but they slip up all the same.”
Nancy glanced around the room. There was a plastic bag lining the trash basket near the door. She went over and checked it out. It was empty, so she took it out.
“We can keep the envelope in this to protect it,” she announced. “Lance, do you see anything different about it?”
Lance frowned. “It’s just a nine-by-twelve manila envelope,” he said. “They all look the same. I guess this isn’t as crumpled as I remember, but it’s nothing I could swear to.”
With Ned’s help, Nancy used a pencil to push the envelope and its contents into the plastic bag. Just as they finished, the door of the room was flung open. Dina ran into the small room. Her face was flushed and her eyes were wide.
“What is this I hear!” she shouted.
George and Joann came in behind her. “Sorry,” George said apologetically. She eased the door closed. “We ran into Dina. She knew something was up and asked me what it was. I thought she ought to know. I didn’t think she’d go off like a Roman candle.”
“It’s okay, George,” Nancy said. “We ought to get Vlad in here, too.”
It was as if the sound of his name was a summoning spell. The door banged open again, and in came Vlad and J. P.
“So!” Vlad hissed. “Secret conferences—a conspiracy! I see it now!”
“Oh, do come in and be quiet,” Cyril said. “Stop sounding like a spy in a silly cartoon.”
For a moment Vlad’s face seemed to swell like a balloon about to pop. He breathed loudly and heavily a few times, then moved to the sidelines.
“Now, here’s the situation,” Cyril began. He quickly summarized the theft of the envelope. “Nancy? Over to you.”
“Joann,” Nancy said. “When you stood in for Lance, was there a lot of money in the brown envelope?”
“So I thought,” Joann responded. “I do not know. It did not seem right to leave such valuables on a chair. I put it on the table and put the cash box on top of it.”
“You didn’t look inside?” Bess asked.
“Oh, no, there was no reason,” Joann told her. “When Lance returned and Dina came over, he put the envelope back on the chair. I do not think he looked inside, either.”
“Lance?” Nancy queried.
“Um, yes, that’s right,” Lance said. “I’d forgotten that. After Joann left, I was busy briefing Dina. She helped me for a while.”
“Helped you collect money, you mean?” George asked.
Dina spoke up. “I gave tickets and stamped hands,” she said. “Lance dealt with money.”
“That’s right,” Lance confirmed.
“I smell a plot!” Vlad announced in a ringing voice.
“You smell, period!” Dina retorted.
“Why were you behind the table, just before so much money disappeared?” Vlad demanded. He wagged an accusing finger in Dina’s face.
Dina looked seriously tempted to bite his finger. Instead, she said, “Only one with a mind as low as the one that wrote that e-mail would even ask such a question. You are convicted out of your own mouth!”
“Take it easy, you two,” J. P. called. They ignored him.
“I wrote no e-mail against you,” Vlad said in an icy tone. “But I begin to believe the accusations it made. It would be terrible if money collected by the International Friendship Club went instead to those who preach hatred and violence.”
“Your Rethal friends, you mean?” Dina replied, raising her voice.
Nancy saw major trouble brewing. She put a hand on Dina’s shoulder. Dina shook it off without looking. At the same time Ned stepped up next to Vlad, ready to intervene if he had to.
“As a loyal Rethal, I am proud to have many Rethal friends,” Vlad stated, staring past Ned’s shoulder. “They do not need stolen money to spread their views. All true Rethals agree with them already. It is only those who wish to poison minds who will do anything to reach their goals.”
