“I MEAN, RIPPING UP HIS notebook with all his jokes would definitely be good revenge for Brady stealing his jokes,” Ned said.
“Yeah, and if you think about it, Joe is the one who determines whether I solve the case to his satisfaction,” I said. “I could bring him a suspect and he could say I don’t have enough evidence, so he would still add security or even cancel the show if he thought it was too big a risk.”
“It’s a really long time to wait to get that revenge,” Bess pointed out. “Do you think he still cares?”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “It does seem a little odd for someone Joe’s age to care this much about a college fight.”
“We don’t know how much Joe really wanted to be a stand-up comedian,” George said. “Maybe, even though he’s been successful, he’s felt like a failure because he didn’t accomplish his real dream.”
“Yeah, but Nancy, we saw Joe eating with Brady in the hotel restaurant,” Ned said. “How could he have trashed Brady’s room?”
I felt like my head was swimming. I sighed and checked my watch. I had been investigating the case for two hours and had only two and a half hours left before the cutoff Joe had given me. I didn’t know the best way forward. Tami and Erica seemed like viable suspects, but so did Joe.
“We need more information,” I announced. “We rushed into thinking that this was about Brady’s mugging jokes. We didn’t think about the possibility that there was another motive. We need to take a step back and assess what we know about Brady.” I turned to Ned. “And we need to get a full timeline from Brady. We have no idea when he left his room or when it was trashed. We’ve just been assuming that it was while he and Joe were having lunch, but we don’t know.”
I sighed again. I had launched so directly into this case that I hadn’t stopped to consider all the angles. I had been working off assumptions rather than facts. These were rookie mistakes, and I should know better.
As if reading my mind, Ned put his hand on my shoulder. “I know you’re beating yourself up, Nancy, but you shouldn’t. You pursued the most logical lead first.”
“Yeah,” George agreed. “And Tami could still be the culprit. We haven’t ruled her out.”
“I know,” I said. “This case is just so important. The town has put so much money into this Arts Complex, and so many businesses are counting on it being a success,” I said. “I just want to make sure I get it right.”
“You’ll solve it,” said Bess, giving me her most supportive smile. “You have three solid leads and more than two hours.”
“Yeah,” George said. “That’s plenty of time.”
I took a deep breath and set my jaw. My friends were right. I was going to solve this case, but I wasn’t going to do it by sitting around feeling sorry for myself.
I stood up quickly, pushing my chair out so forcefully I almost knocked it over, much to Hannah’s disapproval. “We need to talk to Brady and get the whole story,” I said.
We thanked Hannah for lunch and headed back out.
Fifteen minutes later Bess, George, Ned, and I strode through the lobby of the Towering Heights Resort, heading straight to Brady’s room. I caught our reflections in the elevator; we looked like a team of undercover superheroes off to save the day. Without a word, we rode the elevator and marched down the hall to Brady’s room, where I knocked authoritatively on the door.
“It’s not locked,” Brady said meekly from inside.
I opened the door to find Brady curled up in a ball on his bed. He looked terrible. He was ashen, and I was pretty sure he had been crying. He looked like a pale imitation of the high-energy, fast-talking man we had met earlier in the day.
Ned rushed to his side. “Brady? Are you okay? Nancy needs to ask you some questions.”
“What’s the point?” Brady asked, not even bothering to lift his head from the pillow. “It’s going to be a disaster. This whole tour is going to be a disaster.”
“That’s not true,” Ned said. “Nancy’s on the case. We’re going to solve this.”
“All the work I’ve done for the past year is destroyed and my career is in the hands of a teenage detective. That’s how far I’ve fallen!” He pulled the pillow over his head.
Bess stepped forward and yanked the pillow off Brady’s head.
“Mr. Owens, we haven’t met, but my name is Bess Marvin. I am helping Nancy with your case, but she can’t solve it without your help. We have a little over two hours to figure out who targeted you. We’re not giving up and neither should you, as you have a lot more to lose than we do. So sit up, clean yourself up, and answer Nancy’s questions.”
Brady opened one eye and saw Bess glowering down at him sternly. When Bess means business, you don’t want to mess with her. Brady obviously agreed, because after a moment he grudgingly sat up.
“Give me a minute,” he grumbled as he trudged to the bathroom. We heard water running.
“Thank you,” I said quietly to Bess.
She shrugged. “Sometimes people just need a little tough love.”
“And you always know when!” I said.
Brady emerged from the bathroom, his face freshly scrubbed and his hair combed back. He looked calmer and more clear-eyed.
“Okay, Nancy, go ahead and shoot,” he said, sitting down in a chair across from me. I propped myself on the edge of the bed.
“Okay, first for the easy part. Can you walk us through your timeline of the day? When did you leave your room?”
“I left my room around eleven a.m. and went for a walk into town. I was feeling a little jet-lagged and wanted to get some fresh air before lunch.”
“And what time did you meet Joe?”
“I met Joe a little past noon.”
“Did you go back to your room in between?”
Brady shook his head. “I had planned to, but Joe was waiting for me in the lobby when I got back, so I didn’t have time.”
I nodded. “We got to the room . . .”
“Exactly at one o’clock,” Ned finished.
“So, that’s a two-hour window for our culprit to have entered the room.” I looked over at George, who was dutifully typing notes into her phone.
I turned back to Brady and cleared my throat, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. There was no easy way to bring up what I was going to ask next.
“We heard that you and Joe got into a fight in college . . . ,” I started.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Brady shouted before catching himself and taking a deep breath. “That was a misunderstanding. I did not steal his jokes. Besides,” he continued, “we mended those fences a long time ago.”
“Really?” I asked. “That’s not what I heard.”
“It’s not like we sent out an announcement saying we were talking again, but a few years ago, I had a show in San Francisco and Joe came. We caught up and we put it all behind us.”
I nodded. “Is there anyone else who has accused you of stealing jokes?” I asked.
“No! I don’t steal jokes!” Brady bellowed. “If I stole jokes, why would I be so upset that my notebook was destroyed? I would just go out and steal some more! And if this is the path you’re going down in this ‘investigation,’ ” he sneered, “then I might as well call Joe up and cancel my show right now, because you ain’t never going to solve this thing.”
“As a detective, I have to follow all leads,” I said coolly. It wasn’t the first time I had been yelled at by a client. Sometimes the digging around you did in a person’s life led you to discover some things they would rather you didn’t, but as a detective my focus was on the truth, no matter how uncomfortable. Besides, even if it wasn’t pleasant to have Brady shout at me, I was happy that he was getting back to his old self. It had been disconcerting to see him so down and broken.
“Well, I’m telling you this is the wrong lead,” Brady insisted. “Stick to that two-hour window.”
I turned toward George. “I need to see the hotel’s security footage of the lobby.” She nodded.
My friends immediately jumped into action.
“Are you thinking a distract and delay?” Ned asked me.
I nodded.
“We know what to do,” Bess said.
“I don’t know what to do,” Brady protested. “What are we doing?”
“We’ll fill you in,” said Ned. “You can go, Nancy. We got this.”
George and I headed back down to the lobby.
I spotted a door marked STAFF ONLY in the back right corner. I pointed it out to George. “They’ll probably come out through there.”
George nodded. She grabbed a cup of water from the cooler in the center of the room and sauntered over to the staff-only door. She leaned up against the wall, looking nonchalant as she sipped water and scrolled on her phone.
She met my eyes, indicating that she was set.
I stepped outside the lobby and pulled out my phone and dialed the number of the hotel.
“Towering Heights Resort. This is Pete speaking. How may I direct your call?”
“Pete, it’s Nancy Drew.”
“Hey, Nancy. Did you find Brady Owens?” he asked.
“I did. Remember how you said you owed me a favor because I got Jake back for you?”
“Sure,” Pete answered.
“I need to cash that in. First, how many security guards are on duty right now?”
“Well, actually,” Pete said, “they’re still in the processing of hiring people post-renovation and are a little short-staffed. There are only two on during the day.”
“Great. Also, can you patch my call through to security and tell them I’m a guest in room 823?”
“What’s going on, Nancy?”
“The less you know, the better,” I said. “Can you please just do this for me?”
There was a long pause, and I was suddenly worried that Pete would say no. I hadn’t considered that Pete wouldn’t help. I had been sure I could count on him.
Suddenly the phone was ringing.
“Hotel security,” a gruff voice answered. Pete had come through after all!
“Security! Come quick. I just got back to my room and saw two men go running out and when I stepped inside, the room had been completely destroyed and my grandmother’s diamond engagement ring is missing.”
“We’ll send someone right away,” the voice said, bored. “You’re in room 823?”
“Yes, but someone?!” I shrieked, really emphasizing the “one” to make my point. “Did you not hear what I just said?! There are two men on the run in your hotel, one of whom has my grandmother’s diamond engagement ring. You need to send two officers. At least.”
“All right, ma’am, we’re on our way.” I heard rustling sounds, as if he was standing up, right before the phone hung up.
I dashed back into the hotel, making a beeline for the staff-only door. George was gone.
I knocked softly on the door and heard it unlatch. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I slipped in.
George was waiting for me on the other side.
“How many officers did you see leave?” I asked her.
“Two,” she answered.
“Phew. I can’t believe that worked. Sometimes you really do get lucky. Hopefully Ned, Bess, and Brady can keep them occupied for a bit.”
“The security office is down this way,” George said.
“Head up, shoulders back,” I told George.
“I know, I know,” she answered impatiently, as we proceeded confidently down the hall. Long ago I had learned that if you looked like you belonged somewhere, people rarely questioned you. George’s tone suggested I had imparted this lesson to my friends once or twice.
We got to the office marked SECURITY. I peered in.
“It’s all clear,” I told George.
We slipped inside and George went straight to the computer. Within a few minutes she had the security camera footage up on the monitor.
“I don’t understand how you always know just what to do,” I said, marveling.
“The machines . . . they talk to me,” George joked. “Hang on. I’ve almost got it set back to eleven o’clock.” She entered a few more strokes. “Okay, here’s Brady leaving the building. Let’s start watching from here.”
On the monitor were six smaller squares, each with a different angle on the lobby.
“You take the top row, I’ll take the bottom?” I asked.
“Sure,” replied George. “I’m going to set it to eight times speed so we can get through as much of it as possible before the security guys come back. So, um, don’t blink.”
George hit play, and the footage started moving absurdly fast. Between the speed and the fact that it was in black and white, I felt like I was watching an old silent film. I kept my eyes regularly scanning between my three assigned cameras. At this speed, it was more about looking for anything that jumped out than really following what was going on. For the most part it was just footage of people walking to or from the reception desk or the elevators.
“There’s Joe!” I said, pointing at the upper right corner. “Slow it down.”
George reduced the speed to its normal rate, which now felt like we were watching the footage in extreme slow motion.
“He’s heading toward the elevators,” George said.
“That’s weird. Brady said he met Joe in the lobby.” On the screen, Joe stepped into the elevator. “Can you zoom in, so we can see what floor it goes up to?”
George clicked on the screen and it zoomed into the top of the elevator where it displayed what floor the elevator was on. We watched it go up the floors: two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
“That’s pretty damning evidence,” George said.
“Let’s see how long he stays up there. It took time to destroy that room. If he comes down in a minute or two, we can rule him out.”
George nodded and sped up the footage again. I kept my eyes on the elevator.
“Wait, there’s Tami!” George yelped.
I looked down at her row, and sure enough there was Tami.
“So she definitely came to the hotel,” I said.
“Yeah,” George said. “And she’s heading toward the elevators too!”
“Who’s that?” I asked George, pointing to a man who had entered behind Tami. He was wearing a suit with a plain black baseball cap, and I thought I could make out the edge of sunglasses underneath the bill. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about his body language that made me feel like something was off about him. If I had more time, I could figure it out, but we only had two hours left.
“I don’t know,” George said. “I can’t see his face.”
“Yeah,” I said, as I scanned all six of the cameras, but his face was obscured on all the cameras. “That’s weird.”
“I’m sure it’s just a coincidence,” George said. “Look, there’s Joe getting out of the elevator.”
I checked the time stamp on the footage. “He was up there for twenty minutes. That’s definitely enough time to have trashed the room,” I said.
“And Tami’s still up there,” George added.
My eye drifted back to the man in the baseball cap, but before I could watch him any further, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Bess.
“Security is on their way back down.” Suddenly I noticed the time she had sent it. “Oh, no. She sent this six minutes ago. I only have one bar down here. It must not have gone through right away. They’ll be here any second.”
All of a sudden there was a rattle at the door.
“Who locked this door?” the same gruff voice I had spoken to on the phone grumbled.