Shrugging, Nancy said, "I doubt Zip could have managed all those attacks on his own, which means my biggest suspects are probably innocent. I've got to do some more digging!"

"That's all very interesting," Bess said impatiently. "But what about my note? You didn't even read it!"

Nancy took a closer look:

DEAREST JERRY,MY LITTLE SNICKERDOODLE!WILL YOU EVER KNOW HOW I LOOOOOVE YOU SOOOO?WHENEVER I SLEEP, I DREAM OF YOU...

"You're too much, Bess!" Nancy laughed, unable to read any more of it.

"Aren't I?" Bess said proudly. "Personally, I think it's a masterpiece." She reached for the note, but Nancy tugged it away.

Her blue eyes sparkled as she said, "Really? And how would you feel if I pa.s.sed this masterpiece along to dearest Jerry?"

"Nancy, you wouldn't!" The color drained from Bess's face.

"No, I guess not," Nancy relented, handing the note back to Bess. "We'd better get going," she added. "Ned will kill us if we're late for the parade."

"Wow!" Bess exclaimed a half-hour later. "The floats look so huge! Like giant toys."

She and Nancy were sitting on a low brick wall along the homecoming parade route. The street was lined with students, people from nearby towns, and alumni of all ages.

Nancy stared up at the float that was pa.s.sing in front of them, a fifteen-foot-high globe of the world that actually turned on its axis. "They are pretty amazing."

"Here comes the drill team float. Look at the roses!" Bess jumped up and pointed at the giant cake. "My design looks fabulous, doesn't it?"

"Definitely," Nancy agreed. She waved at Kristin Seidel as the blond girl marched by in her purple-and-orange majorette's uniform.

"Hi!" Bess joined in, waving an Emerson pennant that she had bought.

The drill team's giant cake disappeared around a corner and was followed by a bagpipe band. Then came the float bearing the homecoming king and queen.

"Those thrones are great," Bess commented, pointing to decorated golden chairs on the float. Behind the thrones were trellises threaded with real roses.

"And Jerry was right. The king does have to wear purple tights!" Nancy added with a laugh.

The next float was built by the football team and displayed a huge replica of a football. Nancy shook her head as the papier-mache-and-wood model rolled down the street.

Anch.o.r.ed to a raised platform behind the giant football was a goalpost. Sitting on the goalpost's crossbar was Randy Simpson, his legs swinging freely in the air.

This was the first time Nancy had seen Randy since his accident. He seemed to be fine and was grinning easily as he waved at the cheering bystanders. The rest of the team hailed the crowd from the edges of the float.

"I think he sees us!" Bess jumped up and waved her pennant as Randy tossed them a salute.

Randy's expression changed a moment later, though, when the goalpost began to wobble as the float came to a corner. The color drained from his face as the raised platform began to rock back and forth.

"Oh, no!" Bess shrieked.

Nancy gasped. "It's going to fall right off the float!"

When the tractor and flatbed rounded the corner, the giant football tilted to one side and the raised platform lurched to the edge of the float. Randy lost his balance and slid off the crossbar but managed to grab it with his hands. He held on to the wildly swinging goalpost, but he couldn't stop its downward plunge.

Before any of the other players knew what was happening, the goalpost toppled off and crashed onto the street with a sickening crunch, taking Randy with it!

Chapter Thirteen.

HER HEART in her throat, Nancy jumped down from the wall she and Bess had been sitting on.

"Poor Randy!" Bess cried, but Nancy was already halfway around the corner. She was only dimly aware of the shrieks from the crowd, her attention focused solely on getting to Randy. Pushing past the crowd that had gathered around the disabled float, Nancy rushed over to the mangled goalpost on the street. The giant football had fallen on top of it.

"Randy!" she called.

"Where is he?" Bess cried, right behind her.

At last Nancy heard Randy's m.u.f.fled voice. "I'm under here!"

The football players joined Nancy and Bess, and they all tugged at the football and the goalpost. Randy was curled in a ball underneath them, his arms wrapped protectively around his head.

"I'm okay," he gasped, crawling out onto the street. He stood up and wiped his hands on his jeans, while his teammates pressed forward with concerned expressions.

"That was some fall!" Bess exclaimed.

Randy nodded, breathing deeply. "That's for sure. Luckily, one of the first things a quarterback learns is how to take a tumble."

Glancing up, Nancy saw that the parade was continuing despite the accident, moving around the Wildcats' ruined float. The tractor driver had pulled his vehicle off to the side, and now he came rushing over to them.

"I don't know how that happened," the short, rotund man said, obviously fl.u.s.tered. "Are you okay?" he asked Randy. "I nearly died when I heard that thing land. I don't get it. We weren't going that fast when we took that corner."

Nancy had been so worried about Randy that she hadn't even thought about that. Now that she did, something seemed very wrong about the whole accident. "The float started rocking before before the turn," she pointed out. the turn," she pointed out.

Randy nodded. "It never did seem stable, but I just figured we were hitting lots of b.u.mps."

Nancy tuned out the noise from a group of clowns that was parading by. Walking along the perimeter of the cracked football, she checked the holes that were drilled along its edge. "These were used to attach the football to the platform, right?"

The tractor driver nodded. "There are six studs on the platform. The studs go through those holes, and a bolt is secured on top to keep it in place."

"That's strange." Nancy sifted through the wreckage of the float until she found a metal bolt. "Is this one of the bolts?" she asked, holding it up.

"Yeah," the driver replied, scratching his head. "But there should be five others."

Nancy stared at the bolt. "I wonder what happened to them?"

While colorful floats curved around them, Nancy, Bess, and Randy carefully sifted through the wreckage of the float. They checked the road and the flatbed, but they didn't find any of the other bolts.

"Someone must have removed them," Nancy told Randy, frowning.

"That's what I figured," Randy mumbled, tugging angrily on the end of his football jersey. "But you know what? I'm not afraid anymore. I've had it with this creep! He made me look so bad with those pills." His dark eyes were sincere as he added, "I don't take drugs, Nancy! Honest. I'm not about to screw up my life that way."

"I believe you, Randy," Nancy a.s.sured him. "But you're still in danger-now more than ever. The person who wants Emerson to lose tomorrow is obviously not going to stop these attacks. And the game is less than twenty-four hours away! With time running out, I'm afraid our culprit might resort to even more desperate measures."

She put a hand on Randy's shoulder, saying, "It's time to get more help from the college administration." Checking that no one could overhear, Nancy lowered her voice and told Randy about her investigation.

She finished up, "I need to do a thorough check of all the players on Emerson's team. If Dean Jarvis can help me cut through some red tape, I might have a chance to get this thing solved before tomorrow's game."

"I hope it's not one of the guys on the team," Randy said, "but you're the detective." With a weary smile, Randy made a fist. "Go for it, Nancy!"

Nancy turned to see Ned running up the street. Josh was jogging beside him.

"I came as soon as I heard what happened," he said breathlessly. "It's a good thing that you didn't get hurt, buddy," he said, clapping Randy on the back. "What happened?"

Nancy, Randy, and Bess all launched into an explanation at once. When Nancy told Ned about the missing bolts, his eyes glimmered with anger. "We've got to catch the guy who did this."

"I'll second that," Randy put in.

Nancy nodded. "Ned, can you check with other people who worked on floats in the shed, and ask if they saw anything suspicious? Maybe someone got a look at the person who tampered with the Wildcats' float."

Ned nodded. "I'll check it out right away. Everyone has to meet back at the shed to dismantle the floats." He nodded at Jerry and Josh. "We'll be tied up there for the rest of the afternoon, but I'll pick you up at seven for the dance."

"In the meantime," Nancy said, "I'm going to see if Dean Jarvis can help us."

"And I'm going to take a long, hot shower to recuperate from this parade," Randy added.

While Bess went back to the room to rest up for the dance, Nancy went to the office of the dean of students. Although he wasn't in, his secretary directed Nancy to the student center, where the dean was supervising the setup for that night's dance.

When Nancy arrived, she saw that lilac-colored tablecloths covered the cafeteria's round tables and that a vase of fresh asters had been placed in the center of each one. The room was empty except for the staff of caterers who were scurrying about. Dean Jarvis was standing next to the serving counter, talking to someone wearing a chef's cap. Nancy waited until they finished their conversation before approaching the dean.

"The decorations are beautiful," Nancy told him.

"h.e.l.lo, Nancy," he said. "We try to put out a nice spread for our alumni." Folding his arms over his chest, he added, "But I'm guessing that it's not the dance preparations that bring you here."

"Good guess." Nancy told him about the float that had crashed into the street. "I was wondering if you could look up the records of some of the suspects and fill me in on anything unusual."

"That information's confidential-" Dean Jarvis began hesitantly.

"I understand that," Nancy cut in quickly. "I'm not asking to read anything. But it wouldn't break any rules for you to check, would it?" Noting the dean's frown, she tried another tack. "If you feel uncomfortable about releasing confidential information, you don't have to tell me. But, please, check the files. And if you find anything unusual, at least report it to the police."

Dean Jarvis stared down at the floor for a moment. Finally he looked up again and said, "You've got a deal." Pulling a small notepad from the breast pocket of his tweed jacket, he asked, "Now, who are the suspects?"

Nancy asked him to check on Tamara Carlson and recheck her sister Susannah's file. The dean jotted down their names. She also added all the members of the football team.

"I was also wondering about Emerson's first-string quarterback, Josh Mitch.e.l.l," Nancy went on. "Maybe he thinks you'll let him play if Randy is injured."

"But Josh was nearly injured, too," the dean pointed out.

Nancy had been having second thoughts about Josh's accident, and now she spelled them out for the dean. "It looks that way," she said, "but I have my doubts. Josh definitely wasn't doing any studying in the library when he was attacked today. He didn't even have a pen with him, much less any books. It's possible that he worked with an accomplice and engineered the 'accident' to divert suspicion away from him."

She took a deep breath as she added, "I'm also wondering about Josh's father, Coach Mitch.e.l.l. His motive could be the same as Josh's."

Dean Jarvis stopped writing and lowered his pad. "You suspect a member of our own faculty?"

His question made Nancy feel a little uncomfortable. "I know he doesn't have an obvious motive, but I'd rather double-check and be safe."

Frowning, Dean Jarvis wrote down the name.

With a sigh, the dean closed his notepad and tucked it away. "All right, Nancy. I'll check the files on everyone-including the coach-if there's any chance of finding our menace."

Nancy grinned at him. "Thanks, Dean Jarvis."

"I have a special message for you," Bess said with a smile as soon as Nancy opened the door to their suite. Bess was sitting on the couch in the living room with a book in her lap and her feet tucked beneath her. She was in her pink terry-cloth bathrobe, and a towel was wrapped turban-style around her hair.

"From a special guy?" Nancy inquired, raising her eyebrows.

"It's from your one and only," Bess confirmed, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Ned has a surprise for you. Instead of picking you up, he wants to meet you at the entrance of College Woods in an hour."

"A surprise?" Nancy felt a delicious tingle. "I wonder what Nickerson is up to?"

"It sounds incredibly romantic to me," Bess gushed.

Nancy flew into her little bedroom and began peeling off her leather jacket, jeans, and turtleneck. "In that case, I guess I'd better start getting dressed!"

After a quick shower, Nancy pulled back her reddish blond hair in a French braid. She slipped on a green silk dress and matching belt, then applied just a touch of eye shadow and blush.

"How do I look, Bess?" she asked, going to the open doorway to the bathroom.

Still in her bathrobe, Bess was rubbing moisturizer on her face. Looking at Nancy's reflection in the mirror over the sink, she smiled and said, "Terrific! I love that color. It really brings out the blue in your eyes."

"Thanks." Nancy pulled a black blazer on over her dress. "Are you wearing the pink or the purple?" she asked, nodding to two dresses that hung on the inside of the bathroom door.

"I haven't decided," Bess moaned. "What do you think?"