out.”
Ten minutes later Nancy turned her Mustang into
the parking lot of the Sports Complex. She waved to
Randy and George, who continued down Campus
Road toward the Student Center in Randy's Jeep.
“Here goes.” Nancy parked, got out of her car, and
started toward the glassed-in atrium.
If anyone knew where Dennis was, it was Mel
Lorenzo. He had been keeping track of each team's
progress during the Clues Challenge. Nancy knew she
had to be careful not to arouse his suspicion, though.
That was why she, George, and Randy had decided it
would be best if she went alone to talk to Mr. Lorenzo
while they went to the Student Center to bring the rest
of the team up to speed.
Nancy pulled open the door to the atrium and went
inside. Mr. Lorenzo looked up at her from his table,
then glanced curiously behind her. “Did you lose the
rest of your team?” he asked.
“I thought they might be here, solving the last clue,”
Nancy fibbed. She pretended to be surprised not to see
her teammates. “They didn't already head out to get
the banner, did they?”
“Man, oh, man. No one's gotten that far,” Mr.
Lorenzo said, letting out a laugh.
“I guess we'd better hurry then, if we want to keep
ahead of the other teams,” Nancy said. She quickly
scanned the equipment—then blinked when she saw
the melted snow that dripped from the Sigmas' cross-
country skis. “The Sigmas already got the clue from the
old oak tree?” she asked.
Mr. Lorenzo nodded. “Skied back about ten minutes
ago,” he told her.
That was fast, thought Nancy, checking her watch. It
had only been two and a half hours since Mr. Lorenzo
had blown the whistle to start that day's competition.
Yet the Sigmas had managed to get the clue from
outside the administration building, solve it, and ski all
the way to the old oak and back. It seemed next to
impossible.
Unless Dennis already had the answers to the clues,
Nancy thought.
“Everything all right?” Mr. Lorenzo's voice cut into
her thoughts.
Nancy shook herself and forced a smile. “Fine,” she
told him.
At least now she had a better idea of where Dennis
might be. He and his teammates were probably solving
the last clue.
So our best chance of finding Dennis, she thought,
is to solve the clue ourselves and catch up to him
where the banner is hidden.
“See you later, Mr. Lorenzo!” Nancy called.
She sprinted for the door. But as she burst out into
the cold air, she felt his watchful eyes upon her.
No sooner did Nancy enter the Student Center than
she heard someone call her name.
“Nancy! Over here.”
Ned waved to her from a bank of computers that ran
along the wall just inside the massive wooden doors.
He, George, C.J., and Randy crowded around a
terminal while Grant sat at the keyboard. “We've got
the answer to the last clue!”
“Great!” Jogging over, Nancy read the clue that lay
right next to the keyboard:
REJ - 29
BP - 30
LS - 42
HL - 63
SM - 66
High atop their Hall of Fame
The victory banner lies.
Beyond the vents, beneath the snow,
Our happy-sad medal marks the spot.
Go quickly, challengers, find your way in.
Good luck to all, and may the best team win.
“We figured out those letters are initials,” C.J. said.
“At first we thought they were top players in some
sport, and that those numbers were from their jerseys.”
“That would fit with the reference to the Hall of
Fame,” Nancy said.
George pointed farther down the list of clues. “But
look here, at the part about the happy-sad medal,” she
said. “That made us think about the Drama Club.”
“Right!” said Nancy. “The happy and sad masks are
the symbol for theater.”
“We found out that the Drama Club has their own
Hall of Fame,” Grant explained. “I checked their Web
site. In 1929 Rose Ellis Johnston was voted in. In 1930
it was Brian Peters. Linda Schmidt in 1942 . . . You get
the idea.”
Nancy ran her finger down the list of initials at the
top of the clue. “REJ, BP, LS . . . You guys are bril-
liant!” she crowed. “According to this, the banner is
somewhere high up, where there are vents and snow.”
“The Drama Club Hall of Fame is in the MacClaren
Performance Center,” Ned said. “We were just waiting
for you to get here so we can head over there and look
on the roof.”
Nancy grabbed the clue and shoved it in her pocket.
“Excellent! I found out that Dennis's team is working
on solving the last clue, too. Let's hope we can catch up
to him at the performance center.”
“Randy told us about how he thinks Mr. Lorenzo is
that guy Papazian—and about how Dennis might be
blackmailing him.” C.J. frowned as he pulled on his
parka and zipped it.
“We need to find out for sure,” Nancy said.
As she pulled on her team hat, she caught sight of
Dede, Krista, Rosie, and the rest of the Kappa team.
“We finally got the clue from the administration
building,” Dede said, holding up a slip of paper with a
grin.
“Good luck,” Nancy told her. She headed for the
doors, then paused with her hand on the carved wood.
“Have you guys seen Dennis?” she called back to the
Kappas.
Krista rolled her eyes. “That guy is so full of himself.
He practically bowled us over outside the ad-
ministration building just now. He just kept going. No
sorry. No excuse me. Nothing.”
“Which way was he headed?” Grant asked.
“East,” Dede said. “Toward the dorms.”
Grant took the campus map from his backpack and
looked at it. “The MacClaren Center is in the total
opposite direction from where he was going,” he said,
frowning.
“We'd better split up,” Nancy said. “Grant, you're
the best climber. You'd better head over to the Mac-
Claren Center to get the banner.”
“I'll go with him,” C.J. offered.
“The rest of us can look for Dennis on the east side
of campus,” Nancy said. She took the map Grant held
out, then pushed through the wooden door into the
bright sunshine. “Let's go!”
“What about the police? Shouldn't we tell them
what we suspect?” George asked.
“Let's wait till we find Dennis,” Ned said. “He's the
one we need to talk to.”
Nancy scanned the map of the campus as she, Ned,
George, and Randy headed east. Grant was right about
the MacClaren Center, she realized. It was on the far
western side of campus, not far from Fraternity Ro
w.
Dennis must have been going somewhere else. . . .
“But where?” Nancy murmured. She ran her finger
over the buildings on the east side of campus. One of
the dorms? The Academic Quad?
“What's this?” she asked, pointing to a square on the
map that wasn't labeled.
Ned glanced over Nancy's shoulder at the spot.
“That's the old theater building. It's been abandoned
for years, but I heard the college is planning to turn it
into rehearsal space for the music department.”
“There's an old theater building?” Nancy pulled the
clue from her pocket and skimmed it. “Oh, my gosh . . .
Look at the years next to the initials. The most recent
one is 1966. How old is the MacClaren Center?”
Ned frowned. “It just opened last year.”
“Which means the Clues Challenge banner isn't
there. It's on the roof of the old theater building!”
George picked up her pace, jogging forward on the
snowy path. “We'd better hurry if we want to catch up
with Dennis.”
Ten minutes later they angled around the bell tower,
and the building came into sight. It was five stories tall,
with boarded-up windows and crumbling bricks.
“That fire escape is ancient,” George said, jogging
through the snow toward the building. “It looks like it's
rusted totally through in some spots. I don't know if we
should risk climbing it.”
Nancy's eyes flew over the area, taking in every de-
tail. “Footprints!” she said, following the prints off the
path. “They go around to the other side of the
building.”
She, Ned, George, and Randy kicked through the
snow, following the footprints. As they rounded the
corner of the building, Nancy's eyes fell on a thick rope
dangling from the roof.
“Someone's up there, all right,” George said.
“It's got to be Dennis.” Randy reached into his
jacket pocket, then frowned. “I've got a cell phone in
my Jeep,” he said. “I'll call the police.”
Nancy watched him jog back the way they had
come. Then she took hold of the rope and started to
climb. She placed a boot carefully against the wall and
pulled herself up with the rope, angling her body out
from the bricks.
“Steady,” George called as Nancy's boot slipped on
the snowy wall.
Step by snowy step, Nancy made her way upward.
Wind whipped her hair over her eyes, and her fingers
felt stiff and numb. But finally she grabbed the top
bricks and pulled herself on to the roof. As soon as she
let go of the rope, it went taut again. It would just be a
few minutes before Ned and George made it up to join
her, but Nancy decided not to wait for them.
She looked out over the roof. A series of vents and
towers blocked her view. Nancy followed the foot-
prints, circling around the obstacles until she was fi-
nally able to see the far side of the roof.
“Dennis!” she called.
He was bent over a wooden crate near the far wall.
“Huh?” Dennis jerked upright, shooting a surprised
glance at Nancy. In his left hand was a wooden
medallion, with two masks painted on it in gold, one
happy and one sad.
Nancy's mind raced a mile a minute. She still didn't
know for sure that Dennis was behind the blackmail or
the sabotage. But she decided to take a chance.
“Tell me something, Dennis,” she said. “When did
you realize Mr. Lorenzo was really Andrew Papazian?”
she asked.
Dennis's mouth fell open. “How did you know?”
Yes! thought Nancy. Dennis's slip confirmed it. Mr.
Lorenzo was Andrew Papazian. And Dennis definitely
knew his real identity.
“Blackmail is a serious crime, Dennis,” she went on.
“One you're going to jail for,” Ned added, appearing
next to Nancy.
Dennis's mouth hardened into a tight, angry line.
“Oh, yeah?” he challenged.
In three powerful strides he plowed through the
snow to the edge of the roof. He sent a puff of white
powder flying into the air as he slid his legs over the
side. For a second he balanced on the edge, with the
lower part of his body hanging out of sight.
“What are you doing?” Nancy called over to him.
“You'll hurt yourself!”
“You think I'm going to jail?” Dennis countered.
Sparks of challenge shot from his eyes. “You'll have to
catch me first.”
With that, he slipped the rest of the way over the
edge of the roof and disappeared from sight.
15. Over the Edge
“No!” Nancy vaulted toward the spot where Dennis
had gone over.
“What happened?” George's breathless voice came
from behind her. “Where's Dennis?”
Nancy glanced over her shoulder just long enough to
see George wade through the snowdrift toward Ned.
Nancy slid to a stop inches from the edge, weaving
back and forth to catch her balance. “He's using the old
fire escape!” she called.
Just below Nancy, Dennis's black parka stood out
against the snow-covered fire escape. He gripped the
rusted metal railing, sending showers of snow into the
air. The fire escape groaned and shook unsteadily with
his every step. Nancy gasped when his boot actually
broke through the brittle metal.
“Whoa!” Dennis caught himself. Clutching the
stumbled down the creaky iron stairs to the fourth-
floor level.
“That things a death trap!” Ned said, coming up
beside Nancy.
But she was already lowering herself over the edge
of the roof. “I'm going after him,” she said.
She dropped to the highest platform, doing her best
to ignore the screech of metal as the fire escape pulled
at the metal pins anchored in the crumbling bricks.
“Dennis, stop!” she called.
His head jerked upward. “Not a chance,” he said.
He moved faster along the rusted metal strips that
formed the fire escape floor. His steps made the fire
escape shake even more unsteadily.
Nancy let out a frustrated groan as Dennis made his
way down the rickety stairs to the third level. “I've got
to catch up!” she muttered, clattering down the
unsteady metal steps to the fourth level. He was just
one floor below her now. But between the snow and
the crumbling weak spots . . .
How can I catch up with him? her mind screamed.
It didn't seem possible.
“Unless . . .”
Nancy crouched down at the very edge of the fire
escape. The iron there seemed fairly stable. If she was
lucky, it would take the stress of what she was about to
do.
She got her hands around the metal in as firm a grip
as she could. Holding on tight, she shot her legs out
into the air, letting her body fall so s
he swung below
the fourth-floor level.
For one terrifying moment, her body swung outside
the fire escape and there was nothing at all to break
her fall.
Don't slip, she begged silently. Please don't slip.
“Nancy!” she heard George cry out. “What are you
doing!”
Then Nancy swung back and saw the rusted iron of
the fire escape below her again. Letting go, she
dropped to the third-floor level of the fire escape. She
landed right in front of Dennis with a thud that caused
the whole fire escape to shudder and shriek.
“What—?” A look of total shock registered on
Dennis's face. But it disappeared a split-second later as
Nancy's left boot broke right through the fragile iron
floor.
Even as she whirled off-balance, Nancy was deter-
mined not to let Dennis get away She grabbed the
front of his parka and managed to pull her boot out of
the gaping hole. But as she did so, she pushed Dennis
into the metal railing.
With an awful scraping sound the entire railing gave
way behind him. Dennis began to fall backward, his
face filled with panic. A huge wave of fear swept over
Nancy as she felt herself being pulled along with him.
“Nooo!” she cried.
Bracing her feet, she angled her body away from the
gaping hole in the railing. She pulled on Dennis's parka
with all she had. For a fraction of a second, she wasn't
sure she could do it. Then they both stumbled back
against the wall of the building.
“Everyone all right?” Ned's worried voice called
down.
It took Nancy a moment to realize that she and
Dennis were both unharmed. Dennis was crouched
next to her, his hands on his knees.
“Fine,” she called, then turned back to Dennis.
His dark eyes flew from the gaping hole in the rail-
ing, to the rusted iron strips of the rest of the fire es-
cape. Nancy got the feeling he was still gauging his
chances of getting away.
“Don't even think about it,” she said. “Randy's called
the police. They'll be here any minute. It's over,
Dennis.”
He shot one last desperate glimpse downward, then
sagged heavily against the brick wall. “Okay. Okay.”
Nancy gulped as the fire escape shifted with a
creaky groan. “Let's get off this thing,” she said.
She gestured for Dennis to go ahead of her. As he
started to move, Nancy thought back over all that had