Dana called to Phyllis, who was waiting for her at the entrance. Together they continued toward the bank. Dana put her bank card in the door slot and the two women entered the twenty-four-hour lobby. Nancy longed to get out of her car and move closer. But she didn’t dare. The glass walls of the lobby made it too easy for the women to notice her.
Nancy picked up her binoculars and peered into the window. With a happy, almost triumphant look on her face, Phyllis handed Dana something.
It was a wad of cash!
Chapter Fourteen
Nancy held her breath and adjusted the focus on the binoculars. That money had come from Phyllis’s purse, not the machine. She couldn’t tell the denomination of the bills, but even if they were twenties, the amount would be large. Dana studied the wad a moment, then smiled and shook Phyllis’s hand. Dana wrote out a deposit slip, put the cash and the slip in an envelope, and deposited the envelope in the automated teller machine.
Nancy watched the women a while longer. They seemed happy when they left the bank, got into their respective cars, and drove off. Nancy’s mind was racing. Normally two people didn’t meet at a bank just to make a deposit. Obviously they were up to something. Was Phyllis giving Dana her cut of the illegal money?
When both cars were out of sight, Nancy got out of her car and went to a phone booth near the bank.
Luckily she was able to reach Harrison Lane in his office. After Nancy explained what she wanted to know, he took the number of the telephone she was calling from and promised to call her right back. In fact, it was almost ten minutes before the telephone rang.
“I’m sorry to have taken so long,” the banker told her, “but I wanted to be absolutely sure of my facts.”
“What did you find?” Nancy asked. “Was I right? Was a big deposit just made into the I. Wynn account?” She held her breath and waited for his response.
“I’m afraid not,” said Lane.
Nancy’s mouth fell open. “There wasn’t?”
“No,” he replied. “I’m sorry, but the only recent activity in that account was that withdrawal yesterday afternoon. By the way, I gather your little trap was a success.”
“Yes and no,” said Nancy. “I got answers to some questions, but the big one is still a mystery. If anything, it’s more of a mystery now than ever. You’re positive that no one put money into that account from the Archer Street cash machine in the last fifteen minutes? Maybe your records are running a few minutes behind?”
“No, I’m afraid not,” Lane said once more. “The only activity at that cash machine in the last quarter-hour was a deposit of two thousand dollars into the account of PointTech Computers. Hmm—I think that’s the company that installed the system at the school.”
“PointTech?” she repeated. Suddenly an idea occurred to her. “Thanks, Mr. Lane. I’ll let you know if I get any closer to a solution.” Then Nancy said goodbye and hung up.
As she walked back to her car, she tried to make sense of what she had just learned. Of course! she thought. I should have realized right away! The I. Wynn account was just a cover-up account. It was only for drop-off and pick-up purposes. The money was actually going into the PointTech account. It was the perfect cover. Yet there had been no activity in the I. Wynn account at all. Maybe the two thousand dollars represented most of the cash students had paid till then.
Nancy was distracted from her thoughts as she felt her hands throbbing. It was time to put more anesthetic cream on them, so she started up her car and drove home, hoping her dad wasn’t mad because she hadn’t called him.
“Hannah, that pot roast was delicious,” said Nancy, pushing her empty plate away from her. It turned out that Carson Drew had had to work late anyway, so Nancy and Hannah ate a dinner of pot roast, potatoes, and broccoli alone. “I couldn’t eat another bite.”
The housekeeper raised her eyebrows, a teasing glint in her eyes as she said, “I guess that means you won’t be having any of my chocolate-chip cookies.”
“Bite your tongue!” Nancy exclaimed. “You know I can always find room for a cookie, Hannah.”
She got up and began helping Hannah clear the table, but the housekeeper waved her away. “I’ll get it, dear. You need to give those poor hands a rest.”
“Thanks, Hannah.” She gave Hannah a quick hug after grabbing a couple of cookies, and went up to her room. Stretching out on her bed, Nancy simply let her mind wander. In the past she’d discovered that sometimes confusing clues made sense when she did this. She began to drift off to sleep, images from the case swimming through her mind.
One face continued to reappear—that of Walter Friedbinder. Walter Friedbinder standing next to the faculty mailboxes. Walter Friedbinder making plans to check the filing cabinets. Walter Friedbinder reacting to the note Kim had left him. And, Nancy thought, he knew her real last name.
She’d noted his odd behavior on several occasions, but she’d been so busy concentrating on Dana and Phyllis and Victor that she hadn’t actively investigated the headmaster.
Nancy suddenly came fully awake and sat up in her bed. She got up and went to her desk for Friedbinder’s biography. Then she began dialing the universities that he said he’d attended. It was late, though, and she wasn’t able to get through to any of the offices. She’d have to wait until the morning to check on Friedbinder’s background story.
Propping her elbows on her desk, Nancy rested her chin in her palms. She could be wrong about Friedbinder. After all, Kim was the only suspect she’d ruled out so far.
She headed downstairs, her mind still on the case, but the sound of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts. Nancy opened the door to find herself face-to-face with Victor.
“Hi,” he said a little nervously. “I hope you don’t mind, but I looked up your address in the phone book.”
An alarm went off in Nancy’s brain. In order to look up her address, Victor had to know her last name—her real last name. “Is that so?” she asked. “How did you know where to look?”
“Kim told me who you really are.” Victor’s tone was flat. The sparkle in his amber eyes and his easy grin were gone. He was pale and seemed anxious. “I’d like to talk to you,” he said. “Want to take a drive? It’s kind of important.”
“Okay,” Nancy agreed, grabbing her denim jacket from the hall closet. She called to Hannah to let her know where she was going. “Come on,” she said, pulling the door closed behind them.
They climbed into Victor’s beat-up car and began to drive. The night had grown foggy, and the streetlights gave only a hazy, dim glow. Occasionally Victor flipped on his wipers to brush the mist from the windshield. For five full minutes neither of them said a word. Then, pulling to a stop at the curb of a residential street, Victor turned to her.
“So you’re the famous Nancy Drew,” he said. “I guess I’m the guy you’re after, huh?”
Nancy shot Victor a quick look. What was he saying? Was this an admission that he was the grade-changer? “I don’t know,” she hedged. “Are you?”
“Don’t play games with me,” Victor said, a rough edge in his voice. “I know changing Phil’s grade wasn’t right, but I’d do it again.”
“Why don’t you just tell me how it all started,” she said carefully. Nancy didn’t want to reveal that she didn’t know about Phil or even who he was. I’ll just hear Victor out, she decided.
“That’s simple,” Victor replied. “About a year ago, a guy who’s been a close friend of mine since we were kids told me he was in big trouble. He’s an ace basketball player, and a couple of good universities had their eye on him, but he had flubbed one of his courses during fall semester. He was afraid that they were about to put him on academic probation, right before basketball season started. He’d be bumped from the varsity and lose his chance at a scholarship.”