032 High Marks for Malice

by Carolyn Keene

  “There’s four years’ worth of classes on this screen,” Marty said. “What could be on page two?” He pressed a key. A copy of a Basson diploma appeared, awarded to Arthur Bladinsburg.

  “If he graduated, why isn’t he listed anywhere?” Ned demanded.

  “Wait a minute,” Marty said. “What’s a diploma doing on the computer? Basson orders them from a commercial printer. I know; I worked in the registrar’s office my junior year. The secretaries used to joke about how the printer kept the master for the diplomas in a locked vault.”

  “Why?” Nancy asked.

  “A diploma from Basson is like a blank check,” Cass said. “You can write your own ticket, especially in the business world. All the big companies recruit our graduates and pay them top dollar.”

  “That’s it!” Nancy said. “Maria, erase that one and see if there are more of these.” Maria tried and was rewarded with the transcript and diploma of someone named B. Josephson.

  “He was on that list of graduates Marty gave me,” Ned said.

  “Something’s different about these diplomas.” Marty gazed intently at the screen. “Mine’s right above my desk. I know it by heart—and the Latin’s different on these.”

  “See if you can pull up your own,” Nancy suggested to him, certain now she was on the right track.

  There was no transcript for Martin Chan. Or Maria Arnold. Or Cassandra Denton.

  “Where are my records?” Cass asked, alarmed.

  “Probably right where they belong,” Nancy said, “in a file in the registrar’s office. This is a different file altogether. Someone’s been filling out fake transcripts and diplomas and probably selling them.”

  “Which is why you couldn’t find any of these names listed anywhere,” Marty said. He looked as if he was in shock.

  “Right,” Nancy said. “They never went to Basson!”

  “That’s what was bugging Doc,” Marty exclaimed. “He had a memory like an elephant and he couldn’t remember Bladinsburg, even though they supposedly graduated in the same year!”

  “And when he started searching for the man’s records,” Nancy said, “especially after he came across Maria’s program, he became a threat, so they had to get rid of him.”

  “And when Line tried to finish what Doc had started, they tried to kill him, too,” Ned said, his face tight.

  “They embedded my program on the mainframe,” Maria wailed. “They buried the commands, and—”

  Nancy spun around to face Ned. “That’s what Line meant! He wasn’t saying a man was buried here. He was saying commands!”

  “No wonder Pick can afford to drive a Mercedes,” Cass said angrily.

  “Now that you mention it,” Nancy said, “I wonder how much he’s been charging. Maria, can you see if there are any other kinds of hidden files?”

  Still clearly shaken by the way her program had been used, Maria nodded, erased the screen and went to work. “Hey,” she said, after a moment. “I think—” She hit a key. “Nancy, look! Here’s another file on Bladinsburg!”

  Nancy stooped beside her. “Andrew Bladinsburg. Nineteen seventy—that’s the year he was supposed to have graduated, the amount—two thousand, five hundred dollars.” She frowned, staring at the monitor. “Wow!”

  “What?” Ned asked.

  “Look at all the contributions he’s made to Basson. Five thousand dollars the first couple of times, then ten thousand dollars, twenty thousand dollars, thirty thousand dollars.”

  “At least the college got something out of this crooked deal,” Marty muttered.

  “I smell a rat,” Nancy said. “Check the next guy on the list.”

  Maria pressed a key and the file of a Reginald Calloway appeared.

  “I remember his name. He’s part of a big research company,” Ned said.

  “Three thousand dollars for the diploma,” Nancy said, her finger trailing down the face of the monitor. “And he’s doled out a total of—one hundred thousand dollars!”

  “Those guys have really paid for those diplomas,” Cass said.

  “You bet they have,” Nancy said. “Look at these comments about the last couple of Calloway’s donations. ‘Uncooperative. May need stronger threat next time.’ ”

  “Threat?” Marty said, squeezing in next to Maria.

  Nancy turned around. “They weren’t sending contributions, they were paying out blackmail money to Jim Pickering! Calloway would be ruined if people found out he had falsified his credentials.”

  “All of them would be,” Marty said. “Their careers would be down the tubes.”

  Nancy stood up. “There’s our motive. Pickering and his accomplice have been making a fortune with this little scam. That’s why they killed Doc!”

  “This is awful,” Maria said, tears in her eyes.

  Suddenly the computer beeped three times. Maria froze. “That’s the signal I told you about, the one that means someone’s trying to break into confidential files. What should I do?”

  “Didn’t you say you’re supposed to press two keys?” Nancy asked. “Do it. Let’s see what happens.”

  “Okay, but I’ll probably lose what’s on the screen,” Maria warned her. “If I’m working on something when the signal comes, the screen goes blank until after I’ve typed in the code to alert the mainframe. Then whatever I was working on comes back. Here goes. I press A first—”

  She hit A and a line of type scrolled across the screen. “Hey!” Maria cried. “That’s the print command I wrote in my program!”

  “Ned!” Nancy exclaimed. “Doesn’t that look familiar?”

  He leaned over to see, his eyes widening. “It’s the command Line left in the taffy!”

  Nancy shook her head, inching closer to the screen with excitement. “What’s the second letter you’re supposed to type?”

  “B.” Maria hit the key. The computer beeped five different notes and the same line of type appeared a second time, along with a message: Wait. Printer activated.

  “What printer?” Ned asked. The one beside the computer was silent.

  The message continued: Printing: Contributions.

  “Well, well, well,” Nancy said softly. “Pickering lied to you. The signal you’ve been answering all this time is part of your own program.”

  “It turns on a printer somewhere!” Maria said. “But where?”

  Suddenly Nancy had an idea. “The bell tower,” she said, pulling on her coat. “Let’s go!”

  “How can you be sure?” Cass asked.

  “It makes sense. Why risk killing Line there—unless he’d found something conclusive? Come on!”

  “It’s time for my shift to start,” Maria said. “I’ll stay here.”

  “No, you go, I’ll stay,” Marty said. “In case there’s any trouble here.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Maria threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. Then she blushed and hurried out of the lab.

  The four teenagers jogged across to the carillon, slowing to a walk when they saw someone ahead of them taking one of the paths away from the tower. They waited until he was out of sight. Then Nancy unlocked the door. There was barely room enough for the four of them.

  “Bet you it’s in there with the mechanisms that ring the bells.” She pointed to the door with the High Voltage sign on it.

  “Better hurry,” Ned advised.

  It took several tries before Nancy heard a click. As she opened the heavy door, a light in the space beyond came on. Nancy drew in a breath. Then she saw that the stained-glass windows on the front were boarded over. No one could see the light from outside.

  The gears, ropes, and motors for the bells sat in the middle of the room. Over in the corner between the windows, they found what they were looking for: a laser printer.

  “Bingo!” Nancy said, removing a sheet of paper from the bin on the side. “Here it is in black and white, the whole dirty scheme.”

  “Bingo again!” Ned had pulled a piece of paper from a cardboard carton besi
de the printer. “Basson diplomas with a blank where the laser prints in the name.”

  Cass wrinkled her nose. “What’s that smell?”

  Nancy sniffed. “Gasoline. And smoke—” She broke off. Hurrying to the door, she opened it and was confronted by a wall of leaping flames.

  She had led them into a trap!

  Chapter

  Sixteen

  NANCY SLAMMED THE DOOR against the inferno. “Quick, Ned,” she exclaimed. “We’ve got to find the fire extinguisher! There must be one to protect the motor that rings the bells!”

  Ned went in one direction, Cass ran the other. “Someone’s taken it,” Ned yelled. “The wall rack is empty!”

  “We’ve got to get out! Help! Somebody help us!” Maria screamed, panicked.

  “Keep calm,” Nancy said firmly. “No one can hear you. Let’s see if we can remove these boards and break out the windows.” But the boards were bolted into the stone.

  Smoke seeped through the seams around the door and the temperature in the room was rising. Nancy gnawed on her lip, trying not to let guilt and fear clutter her mind. They were there because of her. If they all died, it would be her fault. They couldn’t get out, but was there a way to let people know that they were trapped in here?

  Suddenly the light overhead dimmed, then blinked. “Uh-oh,” Ned said. “The fire’s gotten into the wiring.”

  Nancy gasped. “Look! Smoke’s coming from behind the printer!”

  Crossing to it, Ned peered at the rear of the machine. “There are sparks shooting out back here! It’s starting to burn!” Suddenly the lights went out. Pitch-blackness swallowed them up—except for the printer, which shot sparks as if it were full of firecrackers.

  A spark whizzed past Nancy and hit one of the ropes which led to the bells up above. That gave Nancy an idea. “The bells!” she shouted. “We’ve got to ring the bells!”

  Ned grabbed her and gave her a quick bear hug. “I told Line you were a genius! Come on, Cass! Quick, Maria! We’ll make enough racket to wake up this whole campus!”

  “They’re programmed by a computer,” Maria said, coming to life. “It’s under that metal cover. Maybe we can get it to play something.”

  Nancy shook her head, her hair flying. “Not if that fire’s spread to the electrical wiring. Besides, this is no time for ‘Silent Night’! It needs to sound like something’s gone wrong, so somebody will come! We’ve got to untie the ropes and do it ourselves!”

  She rooted in her pocket and found her pen-light. “This’ll have to do,” she said. She directed her penlight at the carillon machinery.

  The ropes were attached to pulleys with a knot Nancy recognized. “Watch me!” she instructed. Grabbing the end of a loop, she flipped it upward. The knot undid itself.

  The others followed her lead. Ned managed two ropes and twisted them together so he could ring both of his bells at once.

  “Let ’er rip!” Nancy yelled, tugging on hers.

  Everyone pulled, and above them, the clamor began. The big bells filled the room with ear-splitting volume. The notes clashed and tumbled against one another.

  The room was boiling and the bells were heavy. It took all of Nancy’s strength to keep them swinging. Her arms began to burn from the effort.

  “I know it hurts,” she called to the others, “but don’t let up!”

  Smoke was thick in the air now. It stung Nancy’s nose and coated her tongue.

  “Hey!” Maria shouted above the noise.-“Are those sirens?”

  Nancy wondered how anyone could hear anything. Between the pounding of the bells and the pounding of her heart, she was certain that she would be hearing-impaired for life.

  “They are!” Cass yelled.

  Then Nancy heard it, the rise and fall of sirens, as sweet a sound as had ever split the night air. The bells had done the job. They were safe.

  • • •

  The fire was out. A policeman had taken brief statements from the four teenagers. Now, Nancy and Ned watched as the firemen began to rewind their hoses. A crowd had gathered. Maria and Cass, who had been milling around, trotted back to Nancy.

  “We’ve been listening to the fire inspector,” Cass said, keeping her voice low. “He knows the fire was no accident. He said the police would want to ask further questions.”

  Nancy shook her head. “That’s no good. They won’t take us seriously unless we can hand them hard evidence, like one of those faked diplomas—but it’s all just gone up in smoke.”

  “There’s still Maria’s program,” Ned offered. He snapped his fingers. “We’d better get over to the Fish Tank before our friends do. I’ll bet they’re on their way there to destroy the program!”

  “They wouldn’t risk it,” Maria said. “Not with Marty there. They’d access the program from somewhere else.”

  “Like where?” Nancy asked.

  “Well, they can log onto the mainframe from the computer center at the administration building. But it’s awfully late—it’s probably locked.”

  “Locked doors don’t seem to be a problem for these guys,” Nancy remarked. “I think we should head over there. It’s our only chance to get any proof against them.” She looked around anxiously. “Let’s go before the police get here, or we’ll be stuck for hours.”

  They eased through the trees until they were out of sight, then raced toward the Administration Building. Approaching from the rear, they skirted along one side. All the offices were dark except one.

  “Whose office is that?” Nancy whispered. The question was answered when a familiar figure crossed hurriedly in front of the window, then moved out of sight. It was Mr. Chapin, the registrar. In a moment, he passed again, a stack of papers in his arms.

  “We’ll have to wait for him to leave,” Maria groaned.

  They watched curiously as Chapin went to a large picture on the wall. He pushed it aside to reveal the door of a safe. Opening it, he removed a stack of files and shoved them into a briefcase on his desk. Then he crossed to a coat rack to retrieve a white jacket. Folding it quickly, he stuffed it, too, into the briefcase.

  “He travels a lot to address alumni groups,” Cass said. “I guess he’s going out of town.”

  Frustrated, Nancy said, “We can’t waste time while he packs. We’d better get back to the Fish Tank. Maria, is there anything you can do from there to prevent someone from erasing your program?”

  “I’m not sure. I can try.”

  “Then let’s go,” Nancy said. The teenagers took off running.

  When they arrived at the Fish Tank they saw Marty sitting at the computer, his back to the door.

  “Marty—” Nancy began.

  “Welcome back,” he said and swiveled around in the chair. “Anybody know where I can take some boxing lessons?”

  Nancy gasped. Marty’s glasses were broken. One eye was swollen closed. A knot the size of a Ping-Pong ball decorated his left temple, and his lip was split.

  “Bro—ther!” Ned exclaimed. “What happened to you?”

  “Don’t ask.” Marty grinned, then winced and touched his lip gingerly. “I was sitting here trying to analyze Maria’s program when somebody reached around and snatched my glasses off. Smart, because without them I can’t see a thing.”

  “Look at his poor face!” Maria said.

  “Then he—I’m sure it was a he, but that’s all—punched me, and when I wouldn’t go down, he used my head for a baseball. Knocked me cold. While I was out, he erased the program.”

  “Oh, no!” Maria slumped against the desk.

  Nancy struggled with her despair. All that time they’d wasted watching Chapin pack! “Well, it’s not a total loss. We still have the printout.”

  “You were smart to make copies of it and keep the original,” Marty said. “Our man took the one I was using.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ned said. “I made five of them. But you should put ice on the swelling immediately. I’ll get some.”

  “There’s an ice machine
in the basement,” Cass said. “Take the hallway past the spa and go down the back steps. It’s at the rear of the building.”

  “Be right back.” He sprinted out.

  Cass stooped beside Marty, peering at the swelling. “Whoever hit you was a southpaw,” she said. “Pick isn’t.”

  “But Mr. Chapin is,” Nancy said, her thoughts skidding around. “Left-handed, I mean.”

  “Mr. Chapin?” Maria squeaked, her eyes round with alarm. “You think he’s in on this, too?”

  “Does he know computers?” Nancy asked.

  “You bet,” Marty said. “He even has a computer terminal at home linked to the school.”

  Suddenly all color drained from Maria’s face. “Oh, Nancy! I just realized—it didn’t even register!”

  “What?” Nancy asked.

  “I only wrote one print command into my program. But tonight there were two! They added a step. When I hit the second command it must have signaled Mr. Chapin’s computer that the laser was being activated! And his house is right across the street!”

  “Where does Pickering live?” Nancy asked. A feeling of certainty was growing within her. The solution to this case was in sight.

  “Four houses down from me,” Marty said, his unswollen eye widening.

  “Within walking distance of the carillon,” Nancy said, her expression grim. “All Chapin had to do was phone Pickering to warn him the laser printer had been activated by someone here. Chapin comes to see who’s at the computer—”

  “Knocks yours truly into next week,” Marty supplied angrily. “And erases the program.”

  “Meanwhile, Pickering goes to the carillon, hears us inside, and sets a fire.”

  “And who turned up in the emergency room right after Line was admitted?” Cass said. “Mr. Chapin! No wonder he was so concerned about how Line was doing!”

  In that instant everything fell into place for Nancy. Why hadn’t she seen it earlier? “He wasn’t just packing, he was getting rid of evidence! He—” She stopped, as a horrifying realization hit her. “That jacket!” She bolted for the door. “Come on, Cass! We’ve got to get to the hospital!”