A Script for Danger (Nancy Drew Diaries #10)(29)

“I’ll ride with you, bro,” Cora offered.

“Nancy, I know you’ll be able to crack this one. Won’t you?” Alex asked, his expression desperate.

“Sure I will,” I replied, though I wasn’t sure I believed myself at this point. Lali walked Alex to the car with Cora, who seemed to be doing everything possible to soothe him.

“This is terrible,” Bess said, shaking her head. “Nancy, what are you thinking?”

I kept running through the suspects in my mind, but this latest prank was a game changer.

“You saw how heavy-duty the security is here,” I said. “There’s no way some amateur prankster would risk that kind of break-in.”

Lali returned to us and said, “I’m going to call the police again. This time we’re looking at a straight-up theft. They’ll have to pull security tapes from the building and the parking lot. But what if those drives are really gone? What if they’ve been deleted? This is going to set us back days. And the investors, I don’t even know . . . what am I going to tell them?”

“What about . . .” I trailed off as I spotted something familiar in the parking lot. A beat-up red car with California license plates. Ronan Beale’s.

I walked closer and peered through the rear window. There was a comic book lying on the backseat.

“Nancy?” George called out. “What is it?”

“That’s Ronan’s car,” I replied. “I remember it from when I met him for coffee. He did say he was editing something at a postproduction facility, so maybe he’s working here.”

“So it is him!” Lali exclaimed. “Good work, Nancy!” She was about to race into the building, but I stopped her.

“Not so fast! This doesn’t make any sense,” I pondered aloud. “We have no evidence that Ronan did this. Plus, there’s no way he would have been able to target Brian’s costume, write on the call sheet, or steal Zo?’s necklace without someone seeing him. And whoever rigged the light falling had to be a crew member.”

“We always said the suspect probably wasn’t working alone,” Bess pointed out. “Maybe someone on the set is helping him.”

“Or,” George joked, “maybe Ronan’s some kind of superhero.”

George’s words echoed in my head, and the pieces clicked into place! I saw exactly what I had been missing all along.

“Lali,” I said, “I have to run a quick errand.”

“What is it?” Lali asked, bewildered by my sudden change in energy.

“Don’t call the police and don’t confront Ronan!” I shouted, jumping into my car. “Just meet me at the carnival in an hour! Bess and George, you too! Trust me!”



I arrived at the fairgrounds exactly one hour later, a brown paper bag—and a major piece of evidence—tucked under my arm. The sun wouldn’t be setting for a while but I knew the crew would be getting ready for the shoot to begin as soon as it got dark. Although I attended the River Heights Fourth of July Carnival every year, I had never seen the games without people crowded around them, or watched the Ferris wheel turn absent the tinny music and the smell of popcorn. I didn’t have time to linger, though.

I easily spotted the film crew under the bright lights and crates of equipment. The process of setting up was much more chaotic than what I had seen in the shoot’s first few days.

Lali had texted saying that she was stuck in traffic, but my news couldn’t wait. I quickly ran up to Nysa, who was barking orders at the extras.

“Nysa, where is Alex?” I asked breathlessly.

She handed me a call sheet and pointed toward the Ferris wheel, where Zo? sat alone on a bucket seat at the very bottom. Alex and the cinematographer stood directly in front of her, while Brian leaned on the side of Zo?’s bucket, smiling flirtatiously.

“They’re going to start shooting when the Ferris wheel begins to move,” Nysa informed me.

“I need to talk to Alex right now,” I stressed.

“You’ll have to wait until after this shot, Nancy,” Nysa said. Then a flash of aggravation crossed her face. She yelled into her walkie-talkie, “Wait, why is Brian here? He’s not even in this scene. Did someone forget to give him the updated schedule?!”

“Okay, Nysa, we’re ready to do a take!” Alex called out.

Nysa jumped into action. Spencer stood behind the Ferris wheel operator, who was poised to start the ride. Everyone else backed away . . . everyone, that is, except for Brian. He was doing some lunges several feet behind it. At first I didn’t find his behavior odd, but I suddenly remembered something about the package under my arm. I raced forward.

“Quiet on set! And start the—”

Before Nysa could finish, I threw myself in the Ferris wheel operator’s way.

“No! Don’t start it!”

“Nancy?” Alex looked over at me. “What’s going on?”

“Check Zo?’s seat,” I gasped. “I bet you anything that something is wrong with it.”

“What?” Zo? cried. She scrambled down while the operator checked the bars holding the bucket in place.

“She’s right,” the operator replied. “There’s an attachment loose. But I just did a safety check right before!”