Dead ends and delays

When I walked into the kitchen the next morning, my father was sitting at the table with a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him. He looked up from the newspaper when I came in.

“Morning, Nancy,” he said, stifling a yawn.

“Is that really you?” I joked, opening the refrigerator and grabbing a single-serving bottle of OJ. “You’ve been working so hard, I almost forgot what you look like.”

“Sorry about that.” He smiled sheepishly, setting aside the paper. “This case I’m working on is a monster.”

“Anything you can talk about?”

He shook his head. “Sorry, can’t,” he said. “You know the drill. Supersensitive material, top secret info, yadda yadda. It’s looking pretty touch and go whether we’ll be able to get a conviction and make it stick.”

“Got it.” I leaned over to give him a kiss on the forehead. “Guess I’ll have to read about it in the Bugle when it’s all over, huh?”

“Something like that.” He smiled. “Speaking of the Bugle, it sounds like there was some commotion over at the university yesterday. You hear about that?”

I glanced down at the newspaper. Sure enough, a headline halfway down the front page blared VISITING PROFESSOR THREATENED; POLICE CALLED AS PRESS CONFERENCE TURNS POTENTIALLY DEADLY.

“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did,” I said, picking up the paper and scanning the article. It didn’t say much that I didn’t already know. Along with photos of Professor al-Fulani, there was a shot of Shannon’s aunt standing on the university green looking rather confused. The caption underneath read: LOCAL WOMAN AND FREQUENT CONTRIBUTOR TO OUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PAGE AGNES FITZGERALD IS BEING HAILED AS A HERO FOR HER QUICK THINKING AND IMMEDIATE ACTION.

“Sounds like the police assume it was all some kind of prank,” my father said, reaching for his coffee. “Just someone causing trouble with one of those laser pointers.”

“Yeah, that’s what George said, too.” I set down the paper. “Speaking of which, Bess should be here any second to drive me over to George’s house. Have a good morning, and don’t work too hard.”

Dad grimaced. “Too late. Anyway, I’m off to the office as soon as I finish eating. When I surface from this case, how about a nice father-daughter dinner or something?”

“It’s a date.” I smiled and hurried out of the room.

Bess was just pulling to the curb as I stepped outside. “Did you talk to Ned?” she asked when I climbed in.

“Uh-huh. I called him right after I e-mailed you guys.” I’d sent her and George the link to that bulletin board page as soon as the shock had worn off. “I’m pretty sure things are smoothed over — he knows I’d never write something like that about him; he just needed to hear me say it. And we’re definitely going to talk things out more thoroughly on Friday’s date, if not before.” I sighed, popping open my OJ. “I’m not too worried about that. What I am worried about is figuring out who’s targeting me and why.”

Bess, George, and I spent the next couple of hours trying to do exactly that. However, we didn’t make much progress. There were no new messages from UrNewReality, and most of the virtual protesters had disappeared from in front of VirtualNancy’s home. Guitarlvr15 was nowhere to be found, and ParteeGrl21 and NedNick02 were both inactive. VirtualNancy wandered around for a while, garnering a few dirty looks and comments here and there, though most people seemed to have forgotten the scandal already and moved on to fresher gossip. Even so, George was still pushing for us to invent a new avatar for snooping around.

“No way,” I told her when she brought it up for the third time. “One fake me is more than enough.”

“Besides, VirtualNancy just got that hair-and-makeup upgrade, and we won’t be able to take our custom-designed outfits with us to a new character,” Bess added. “I’d hate to lose all our hard work!”

George rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she said. “I’m hungry. Let’s go scrounge up some lunch. Maybe you guys will see the light once you’ve eaten.”

We were wolfing down the last bites of our peanut butter sandwiches when Hannah called to let me know the garage was looking for me. When I called the owner, Mr. Carr, he apologized for not yet having an answer on my car.

“We’ve been swamped this weekend, Nancy,” he said. “We’ll definitely take a look at it tomorrow. In the meantime, I can have the guys drop off a loaner car if you like. No charge.”

“Thanks, that would be great,” I said, telling him where I was. That was a relief — I’d been worried about how I was supposed to get over to River Street to meet Ibrahim in a couple of hours, since Bess and George were leaving for a family party in less than an hour and wouldn’t be able to drive me around for the rest of the day. Now I wouldn’t have to beg Hannah for a ride or take my bike.

I hung up and gave my friends the news. “At least that’s one problem solved,” I added. “Now if only we could get a handle on this case before this UrNewReality character decides to switch out all the songs on my iPod to elevator music or something….”

“Impossible,” George said. “Even the greatest hacker in the world couldn’t do that.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “At least I don’t think so. But you might want to make sure it’s unplugged just in case.”

I sneaked a peek at my watch. It was just after five. I’d been sitting at Barbara’s Beans chatting with Ibrahim for more than two hours. He’d seemed so happy and relieved to be out being “normal” again that I hadn’t had the heart to cut our visit short, even though my half-finished cappuccino had gone cold long ago and the remainder of the foam had congealed into an unappetizing film at the top.

Oh, well. So much for stopping off at Sylvio’s today, I thought. I’d hoped to visit the pizza parlor that day and ask around about the caller who’d ordered those pizzas in my name, but the restaurant closed early on Sundays.

Just then Ibrahim’s cell phone rang. “Excuse me, Nancy,” he said, picking it up. “Hello? Oh hi, Ned.” He listened for a moment, then sighed. “Oh, I see. All right, I suppose Nancy will forgive me if I must rush off…. What? Yes, your Nancy. We’re having coffee and a nice talk.”

I winced. This certainly wasn’t going to change Ned’s impression that I was spending too much time with Ibrahim!

“I’m afraid I must go,” Ibrahim told me sadly when he hung up. “My father has asked me to be home early tonight. I know he is still worried about what happened yesterday.”

“That’s all right,” I said, standing up. “I understand.”

After he left, I checked my watch again — definitely too late for Sylvio’s. Instead, I wandered over to the computers against the wall. The coffee shop wasn’t very busy at the moment, and there were several open monitors. Sitting down at one, I logged on to BetterLife.

FIVE NEW MESSAGES, my welcome screen informed me. I clicked through them. Only three were hate mail this time. Another was a mass mailing about a sale at the virtual mall, and the last an administrative message from the site informing me that my job title had been upgraded. There was nothing at all from UrNewReality.

I sat there for a moment tapping my fingers on the computer table, wondering what to do next. Without George and Bess there helping me, hitting buttons to make VirtualNancy wander around seemed pointless and boring. Even more than usual, I mean.

A TEXT BOX POPPED UP ON-SCREEN. A FRIEND HAS INVITED YOU TO COME OUTSIDE, it read. At the bottom was ParteeGrl21’s name.

I got VirtualNancy up and took her outside. Sure enough, a familiar miniskirted figure was waiting there.

HI VN, ParteeGrl21 greeted me. HOWZ IT GOING?

OKAY, I typed back. HOW ARE YOU?

A few picketers were still on the job nearby. One of them separated from the others and hurried toward us. It was NedNick02.

HI GRLZ, he said. HEY PG21, CAN I TALK 2 VN 4 A SEC?

TOTALLY, ParteeGrl21 replied with a wink icon. I’LL LEAVE U 2 LUVBIRDS ALONE. TTYL!

She walked away and disappeared off the edge of the screen. I stared at NedNick02, wondering if Ned had figured out from his conversation with Ibrahim that I’d be likely to check in on BetterLife at the coffee shop. He was smart that way.

HI, I greeted him. I’M GLAD YOU’RE HERE. IS EVERYTHING OKAY BETWEEN US?

TOTALLY, he typed back. HOW COULD I STAY MAD @ U?

I HOPE YOU BELIEVE I REALLY DIDN’T WRITE THAT E-MAIL, I responded. I STILL FEEL BAD THAT YOU GOT SUCKED INTO ALL THIS.

It felt pretty weird to be having this kind of conversation online. Then again, why not? It had been so hard lately for the two of us to get together face-to-face — F2F, as George would have typed. I might as well take what I could get.

I’LL ONLY 4GIVE YOU ON 1 CONDITION, NEDNICK02 SAID. U HAVE 2 GIVE ME A HUG.

Again with the hugging! Apparently being “virtual” was making Ned bolder than he was in real life. Much bolder.

Suddenly I felt an uneasy jolt of doubt. This was Ned, wasn’t it?

To make sure, I decided to give him a little test. HEY, I TYPED QUICKLY. DID I LEAVE MY LAPTOP AT YOUR HOUSE?

That should do it, I thought as I hit the button to send the text. If this was Ned, he would know I didn’t even own a laptop.

I DON’T WANT 2 TALK ABOUT LAPTOPS, the reply came right away. & I WON’T SETTLE 4 AN ONLINE HUG. I WANT 2 C U 4 REAL. MEET ME WHERE WE HAD OUR LAST REAL DATE? U KNO — PICNIC SPOT BY THE RIVER.

When I read that, I relaxed immediately. Shortly before leaving on a trip to New York a couple of weeks earlier, we’d had a picnic at a local park’s scenic overlook. Nobody but Ned would know about that.

Thinking about that day made me just as eager to see him as he seemed to see me. I’LL BE THERE IN 20 MINUTES, I typed, quickly estimating how long it was likely to take me to get there.

CAN’T WAIT. CU SOON.

I smiled and moved the mouse, preparing to log off. Before I could do so, another avatar approached VirtualNancy and said hi. For a second I thought it was a stranger. Then I took a closer look and realized it was MrNiceGuy, the handsome blond avatar I’d noticed protesting in my favor the day before.

HI, I returned his greeting. I WAS JUST ON MY WAY OFF-LINE.

PLZ DON’T GO! MrNiceGuy said. I WAS HOPING TO TALK W/U!

SORRY, I said. MAYBE ANOTHER TIME.

The avatar’s face formed a frown. OK, IF U INSIST, he said. I’LL B WAITING 4 U!

I hesitated, finding the comment vaguely threatening. Then I shook it off and logged out. I could worry about the online world later. Right now, I had a real-life boyfriend to meet, and I didn’t want to be late.

Exactly twenty minutes later my loaner car was parked in the otherwise deserted gravel lot at the park, and I was pacing back and forth on the grassy bluff overlooking a picturesque bend in the river. Ned wasn’t there yet, which was a little surprising. His house was only a ten-minute drive away, and he was always prompt.

While I waited, my mind wandered back to the case. I walked to the edge of the bluff and stared out over the high iron safety railing, pondering everything that had happened in the past couple of days. I still hadn’t come up with any decent motives for someone to be harassing me, let alone a good suspect. Maybe George was right and I should consider whether Dad’s case had anything to do with it.

Just then I heard a crunch of gravel from the direction of the parking lot. I spun around, expecting to see Ned.

Instead, I was just in time to spot a large rock flying straight at me!

Дата добавления: 2017-01-14