The Last Case

Chapter 25 | Fashion Killer II

The once quiet audience was slowly erupting in panic.

"Don't leave your laptop! Get back!" Nancy urged.

"What's the point?" Bess whined. "My show is ruined and this is way worse than I imagined! Everyone getting a copy of the photos?"

Ignoring her, Nancy descended the stage and began to push through the crowd. Her own phone was buzzing but she didn't dare answer it and headed West.

Confusion was building among the crowd. "We're locked in here!" someone shouted.

The room was still dark. As she got closer to the exit door, she witnessed a struggle going on, with Spencer's head bobbing up and down above the throng of people. He was trying to restrain someone! A student was recording the altercation.

"I got him!" shouted Spencer upon seeing Nancy. "But he still has the phone."

"Get back! Everyone please get back!" Nancy commanded. Then, to the culprit: "Give it up now. It's over."

Nick stopped struggling in Spencer's clutches and turned bright eyed to Nancy. "Well played, Miss Drew. It's been fun."

"You can save it for the police," said Nancy.

Nick smiled wide and shook his head. "With my connections? I'm not going down for this. Just. You. Watch. I'll be seeing you very soon."

"I doubt it. I have plenty of evidence right here." Nancy held up Rich's phone.

Red and blue lights flickered from under the exit door. The police were here.

With a frantic jerk, Nick broke free of Spencer's grasp. For a moment, he was able to reach into his pocket and grab Terry's phone to try to erase all of the evidence.

Nancy tried to reach out, but she was too far away. "Stop him!"

Nick smiled at Nancy again, taunting her with Terry's phone as a throng of people walking in front of them, separated them even more.

Spencer tried to rush to grab Nick before he got swallowed by the crowd.

All seemed lost, until out of nowhere, a quick hand reached out from behind Nick and grabbed the phone right out of his clutch. "Not so fast!" yelped Connie, backing away with the phone just when the police started filing into the building.

Spencer was finally able to restrain Nick once more.

Constable Huever handcuffed Nick and shook her head. "One of our own? You oughta be ashamed of yourself."

"You've got the wrong person!" Nick yelled as he was being led outside by the constable. "It was Rich Dransset, he coerced me into doing this."

Nancy watched him get dragged outside. Spencer waited behind her.

"Save it, Nick," replied the constable. Turning to Nancy and Spencer she said: "You two, come with me."

Several deputies worked on crowd control. Students were recording and taking pictures of the arrest. Dave was among them.

He touched Nancy's arm. "Not so fast. I need my story. How do you know he killed Terry?"

"He was using her phone. It has most of the evidence on it." Nancy said.

"Most? Is it enough to convict?"

Students were overhearing the exchange. The phrase: "Terry's killer," echoed through the nearby crowd. A small commotion was building.

"Everyone, move away from the door!" yelled an officer.

Dave held up his phone and raised his voice so that Nancy could hear him over the building commotion. "There was no mass text. No blackmail. Half the school got a signal failure text, so why should you get all the credit for solving this? You got lucky that no one was exposed."

Nancy spoke fast. "I knew Nick would send the blackmail photos over mass text. It's much easier to hack into the school's public WiFi than the laptop controlling the projector. Especially since I knew the person in charge of running all the technology for the show. So, thanks to my good friend Connie Wright, we beat him at his own game! Hacked into the school's WiFi first and sent our own text: Signal failure."

"That doesn't explain how Nick got caught."

"He thought the signal failure text was real and tried to send the blackmail photos again, but instead of going to everyone's phones, they only went to us. This proves that he was the one texting from Terry's phone which means all the threats from Terry's phone, can be tied to him."

Dave was relentless. "Hacking into public WiFi is one thing, but you were able to get every student's phone number? Are you saying that Gilmont's security is lax and all of our personal information is easy to access at any time? By a couple of first year students?"

Nancy gave Spencer a knowing look. "I'd say it's fairly safe, unless you know a member of staff."

Constable Huever stepped back in the building and yelled toward Nancy and Spencer: "You two, with me! Now! I won't ask again."

Before Dave could ask more questions, Nancy and Spencer obliged and followed the police.