The Last Case

Chapter 16 | Confronting Connie

"It's all my fault, you know." Nancy sighed and closed her eyes, afraid to look at George.

George didn't reply. The girls have been sitting in the waiting room of the too familiar hospital, for a few hours now. Rich has been taken in by the paramedics shortly after he collapsed and Nancy and George managed to follow the ambulance.

"Do you think he will be alright?" Nancy asked.

"I wish someone would finally tell us something," George said, ignoring Nancy's remark. "We've been waiting for hours."

"These things take time, I suppose," Nancy continued, more to herself than to anyone else. "I just can't believe that it's all my fault."

George sighed. "You can't be so hard on yourself. There's nothing you could've done--Rich seemed a bit nuts anyway, if you'd have asked me."

"He wasn't nuts, George. He knew what he was talking about and he felt that he was in danger. I should've seen it. I could have prevented it."

"I'm sorry to be so insensitive. It's just that I'm stressed out as it is, with this big soccer tournament coming up on Friday. It's more for the seasoned players, of course, with scouts looking out for the upperclassmen but you never know. At least, that's what the coach tells us. It's never too early to start standing out at these sort of events--"

Nancy stood up abruptly. Noticing George's startled expression, she added: "I just need to get outside to clear my head." She headed down the hallway without stopping to look at the closed room, behind which, Rich lay.

The clanking of the push bar on the hospital door, brought a wave of fresh air over Nancy's tired head. She thought about the last thing Rich had said to her: Drop the case and watch those around you.

The first person that Nancy decided to tell, was Connie. After being assured by the hospital staff that Rich would not be fit for visitors within the next 24 hours, Nancy urged George to head to her practice and asked Connie to meet with her at the library.

From within the library, Nancy watched Connie hesitate before climbing the few steps to get inside. She was early and her face didn't light up as it usually did, when her eyes fell on Nancy.

"Thank you for meeting me," started Nancy. She tried to sound less professional. "I know this must be weird for you."

"I'm sorry for taking your letters, okay? There!" Connie blurted out. A group of nearby students turned their heads toward her. Her cheeks reddened.

"It's okay."

"It's not okay! It's totally not okay!" Connie continued more quietly. "I'm humiliated! Believe me—if I had one do-over, it would be to have never taken those letters in the first place. I will do anything to make it up to you. ANYTHING."

Nancy shrugged. "Thank you for saying that but that's really not necessary. I didn't want to see you today, just to make you feel bad. What's done is done."

Connie stretched her hands out across the table and cocked her head towards Nancy. "Oh Nancy! You're too awesome. I'm so glad to hear you say that but I've really messed up. I don't deserve this." She shook her head. "Why did you want to see me?"

"I've thought about things and decided to drop the case." She registered Connie's surprised expression. "I just want to focus on being a regular college girl! I mean, I feel like I've already missed so much of the orientation. Have you been to any of the events?"

Connie stared at Nancy in disbelief. "What events?"

Nancy shrugged. "Oh, you know, the orientation events. What's been going on?"

"Nancy, a killer is on the loose!" Connie couldn't contain her voice level. "You can't suddenly start worrying about 'orientation events'. You're Nancy Drew."

"I don't know what that means!"

"It means that you've still got a case to solve! And as thankful as I am for you forgiving me so easily, I just have to ask: Why the change of heart? Rich is in the hospital and Terry is dead. You can't possibly entertain the idea of giving up now."

"I'm not giving up," said Nancy. "I just don't think there's anything else to be done."

Connie stared at her. "Well of course there are things to be done. For starters you need to figure out whatever happened to that story in the paper. When I first met Rich at the hospital, something told me to focus on what happened that day at the library. Why did he collapse? And more importantly, why did he claim to see Terry that day? I've been trying to piece it all together in my head while you weren't talking to me. It all seems so strange and suspicious."

"Can you be honest with me, Connie? About what really happened with my phone and those fake letters?" Nancy said abruptly.

"I don't know what you mean? I took the letters from you; don't make me repeat it."

Nancy sighed. "If you can't be honest with me, Connie, I see no way that I could talk about the case with you or if I even decide to pick it up again." She added, "You're the only person that I've met here who has shown a genuine interest in helping me and I want to believe that despite everything, you're on my side."

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"How exactly did you find out about the letters in the first place? I don't remember ever opening my laptop around you."

Connie said," I hacked into your phone. I'm super sorry about that, but that's the truth. How pathetic right? Thinking that deleting all of your incoming
calls and messages would make you feel isolated enough to be friends with me?"

"I don't remember giving you my phone."

"Oh it was when we'd exchanged numbers. That's all I know. Honestly Nancy, for a detective, you're acting like you haven't figured any of this out and I know that's just not the case. So spare me the humiliation and please, do not drop the case."

* * *

Nancy made her way to the Campus News Office. By this time, the campus was quiet, and she was able to get into the empty office fairly easily. The snooping commenced at once. Using the computer database, Nancy was able to scroll through all of the editions of the Gilmont newspaper in the months leading up to Terry's murder. A heading in one of the recent advice columns caught her eye and she managed to print the page. Across the top of the freshly printer paper was the heading: "Gilmont Advice: Blackmailed by my date."