The Cheating Heart by Carolyn Keene Page B

shoulder. When she saw the noose, she came to a dead halt. “Whoa,” she said softly, clearly shaken.
    Nancy tried to slip the note into her pocket, but her jeans were too tight to do it easily. Brook reached out for the paper. “What’s that?”
    â€œIt came with the noose,” Nancy said dryly.
    Brook read the note. “What’s this all about?”
    â€œOh, I’m sure it’s nothing. It’s pretty routine in my line of work.”
    â€œBut you’re not working on a case now,” Brook responded, confused.
    â€œWell, maybe just a little case,” Nancy admitted.“One of the professors here at Emerson found out that some kids were cheating on a test, and he asked me to look into it. Minor stuff.”
    â€œOh.” Brook glanced at the note again. “With this demented handwriting and the lousy grammar, I thought it was from a weirdo or something.”
    â€œNah, it’s probably just a nervous student,” Nancy guessed, fingering the smooth white sheet of note paper.
    â€œGood.” Brook stepped past her into the room. “Because with all this stuff that’s been happening to Paul, not to mention your fall at the concert Saturday night, I was starting to worry.”
    â€œWell, whatever it is, I’m sure you’re in no danger,” Nancy reassured her. “But it does mean that I’ll need to stay on a couple of days.”
    â€œGreat!” Brook exclaimed, smiling.
    Dropping her sweater on the bed, Nancy said goodbye to Brook, promising to check in with her later. She went downstairs, where Ned was waiting for her, and they walked over to the Omega Chi Epsilon house.
    On the way, she showed him the weird note she’d found. Ned frowned, looking worried. “Someone really is trying to scare you off this case.”
    Nancy shrugged off his concern. “This isn’t such a threatening note,” she pointed out. “If anything, it tells me I’m closing in on the test thief—and that’s good news.”
    Inside the fraternity house, Ned buzzed Paul’s room on the intercom, but there was no answer. “Let’s hang out till he shows up,” Nancy suggested. “I have a couple more calls I ought to make, anyway. I should check my other suspects’ alibis for Monday afternoon, which was probably when the test was printed out from the computer.”
    â€œWhy don’t you use the phone down the hall?” Ned offered. “No one’s around.” He handed her a copy of the campus directory, and she settled down at the desk.
    Her first call was to Tom Mallin.
    â€œMonday afternoon, after three o’clock?” Tom sounded surprised. “I was working at the pizza restaurant.”
    A quick call to the pizzeria confirmed Tom’s alibi. Next, Nancy tried Annie Mercer. She wasn’t in, but her roommate Claire promised to have Annie return the call. Nancy phoned Gary Carlsen next.
    â€œHe’s at the library,” his roommate reported.
    â€œBut classes haven’t even started yet,” Nancy replied in surprise.
    Gary’s roommate gave a sardonic chuckle. “He just likes to browse around there. The other night, in fact, he stayed there all night. He told me he went down into the stacks and hid from the librarians at closing time—nine-thirty. He took a flashlight with him so he could read all night. He says a senior he knows from chesstournaments does it all the time. Bunch of nerds, if you ask me. Want to leave a message?”
    â€œNo, thanks,” Nancy said, smiling. More than ever, she couldn’t imagine Gary being her culprit.
    Her last call was to Linda Corrente. “Monday afternoon?” Linda repeated. “A week ago? Let me see—I was in my room, working on a poem.”
    â€œWas anybody else there?” Nancy asked.
    â€œNo,” Linda said. “I need solitude to write.”
    Not much of an alibi, Nancy thought, but