Nancy considered a jump for Tina’s gun arm, but the table was in the way, and she knew she’d never make it. She felt paralyzed, powerless.
“Wait, there’s more!” Marty babbled, his eyes rolling around to catch Tina’s. “I set the fire at JZA. I knew one big setback would put them over the edge. I made it look like arson so Jane wouldn’t get the insurance. Okay? I’m spilling my guts. Don’t shoot!” He cringed away from the gun.
Tina backed away a step and turned to the others. “All right, Sean, you first,” she said. “You started it all, anyway. I was happy with you, and I haven’t been happy since you dumped me.”
As she raised the gun, Sean shrieked and flung himself sideways out of his chair. Frowning, Tina turned to follow him.
“Ned! Now!” Nancy shouted, seeing Tina’s attention focused wholly on Sean.
Ned launched himself into a low dive just as the pistol went off with a deafening roar. The shot hit the wall behind Sean. Ned grabbed Tina’s wrist and forced the weapon upward. A second shot buried itself in the ceiling.
Tina tried to rake Ned’s face with her nails, but he bent back, twisting the gun handle out of her grasp. She collapsed in a sobbing heap.
For a moment the room was silent except for the sound of Tina’s sobs.
Sean slowly got to his feet. “She tried to kill me,” he growled. He moved toward Tina, his face red with fury. “I ought to—”
Ned grabbed Sean’s shoulder and spun him around. “You ought to sit down and keep your mouth shut,” he snapped. He shoved Sean back into his chair, then turned to Nancy. “Nan, are you all right?” he asked.
She looked up at him and nodded.
Tina now lay silently, staring at the wall. Her face was slack and empty of expression.
“You can’t use anything I said against me!” Marty shouted. “I said it at gunpoint—it wasn’t true.”
“You didn’t start the fire at JZA?” Nancy asked.
“No!” Marty was gaining more self-assurance with Tina disarmed and defenseless.
“Then one thing puzzles me.” Nancy fixed her eyes on Marty. “How did you know that the alarms and sprinklers at JZA didn’t work?”
Marty blinked. “What?”
“The day we first talked to you, you said that Jane should sue the company that installed the alarms and sprinklers,” Nancy said. “How did you know they didn’t work?”
Ned stared at Nancy, then at Marty. “Hey, that’s right. He did say something like that.”
“I . . .” Marty hesitated for a moment. “The police—I heard it from them!”
“We’ll have to ask Lieutenant Antonio and Inspector Matsuda if they mentioned it to you,” Nancy said. “Because if they didn’t, there’s only one way you could have known that—if you set the fire yourself and made sure the alarms and sprinklers didn’t work.”
Marty swallowed and closed his eyes. His self-assurance was suddenly gone.
Ned sat on the arm of Nancy’s chair and put his arm around her. She leaned against him. Looking at Tina’s motionless body, Nancy felt drained.
“Tina?” Ned called. There was no response.
“She doesn’t hear you,” Nancy said quietly. “I think she’s in her own world right now. Let’s call the police and wrap this up. It’s time to put it behind us.”
• • •
“I wonder if Tina will come around.” Jane Zachary’s eyes were solemn as she spoke.
It was late that afternoon. Tina had been taken into custody and, according to Lieutenant Antonio, would get a psychiatric examination to determine if she was fit to stand trial. Her fingerprints had been found on the valve of the balloon, and the handwriting on the threatening letters hidden at Ursula’s had been matched with Tina’s. Sean was under arrest for his assault on Nancy, and Marty had been charged with arson.
Jane was in her office with Ned, Nancy, and Evan Chandler. She had gotten a full account of what had happened earlier that day.
“I told the police that I’ll press charges against Sean,” Nancy said. “With his prior record, I imagine he’ll do time. As for Marty, the lieutenant is certain that he didn’t learn about the alarms and sprinklers from the police. Marty wanted the fire to look like arson so that Jane couldn’t collect the insurance money. The arson charge will probably hold up.”
“Which means that he’s through as an agent,” Jane said with satisfaction. “His contracts will no longer be valid, and the people signed with him will be free to go elsewhere. My guess is that, with Marty out of the picture, Top Flight is through.”
“How will Jane Zachary Associates do, now that Top Flight Artists is no longer a threat?” Ned asked.
“I expect that we’ll eventually re-sign most of the people who left,” Jane replied. “This experience has been a lesson to me. I think our position as the top agency in the city had made us a little complacent. I’m going to see to it that we don’t lose our edge in the future. The next time some ambitious agent starts up, we’ll keep our clients loyal, because we’ll earn it.”
“What about you, Ned?” Evan asked. “I forgot to tell you in all the excitement, Freddy wants to reschedule that King Kola commercial in a few days. Would the end of the week be all right?”
Ned and Nancy looked into each other’s eyes for a moment before Ned spoke.
“Can I get out of it?” he asked. “I’ve given it some thought, and right now, all I really want to do is get in a few days of real vacation time with Nancy before I go back to school.”
Nancy reached over and gave Ned’s hand an affectionate squeeze.
“Don’t worry about it, Ned,” Jane assured him. “We’ll find Freddy someone else for the job, and I’ll make sure that he understands.”
“Was it that business with the balloon that put you off?” Evan asked. “Because I believe they’ve decided to do something entirely different, and completely safe.”
“It’s not that,” Ned said. “I feel as if I’ve been on some kind of crazy amusement park ride for the last few days. Maybe I’ve got some acting talent, I don’t know. I don’t much care. Right now, the only role I want to play is Ned Nickerson. And the only script I care about is real life. There’s nothing quite like it.”
His brown eyes shone as he smiled at Nancy. “Especially when I have the right person to share it with.”
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Simon Pulse
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1991 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
ISBN: 978-0-6717-3079-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3679-3 (eBook)
NANCY DREW, and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
THE NANCY DREW FILES is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
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