The Red Slippers (Nancy Drew Diaries #11)(23)

“Do you think that was the plan?” George asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “If several members of the corps de ballet were unable to dance tonight, that would ruin the show.”

“And Maggie did get that note threatening her if she danced today,” Bess said.

“Plus,” George added, “she was onstage right before it fell. The suspect’s timing could have been off.”

“We need to take a look at that scenery and figure out why it fell.”

There was a knock on the door.

“That must be Linda with the ice,” Bess said, opening the door.

Only it wasn’t Linda standing in the doorway. It was Jamison.

“We need to talk,” Jamison said.

“Her foot is injured,” George said.

“Yeah,” Bess said. “She won’t be able to dance tonight.”

One look at the amused smirk on Jamison’s face told me everything.

“He knows,” I said to George and Bess.

“Did you really think I don’t know who the members of my corps de ballet are?” Jamison asked.

“If you knew I wasn’t part of your show, why did you make me dance? Why didn’t you just kick me out?” I asked.

“You sneak into my rehearsal and you think I’m not at least going to have a little fun? I was going to let you humiliate yourself, and then kick you out, which I’m still going to do. Get out of my theater just as fast as you can hobble.”

“You think Nancy’s trying to ruin your show?” Bess asked.

“We’ve been on this tour for more than two weeks now. This is our tenth performance. Not one single thing has gone wrong in our nine previous shows, but we show up here, you three invade my theater, and suddenly the whole thing is falling apart. Explain that to me.” He frowned and added curtly, “Or I’m calling the police.”

“We’re not causing the problems,” I assured him. “We’re trying to stop them. Someone is threatening Maggie. We’re trying to figure out who before the show tonight.”

Jamison laughed. “First of all, Maggie is being hazed. Every star dancer goes through it.”

“No—” I started, but Jamison didn’t stop to listen to what I had to stay.

“Second of all, a kid like you is a detective? Yeah, right.” He headed to the door. “Get out of my theater and don’t come back.”

“I can’t wait to see the look on his face when you do solve it,” George said.

I tried to calm the anger bubbling inside of me, and instead slid myself forward on the table. “Hand me those crutches,” I said to George. “We need to find out why that scenery fell—no matter what Jamison says.”

It took longer than expected for me to wobble out to the stage on the crutches. By the time I got there, I was sweating and my arms were exhausted.

The theater was empty except for a few members of the stage crew, who were working fast to repair the scenery. Even still, the tree wasn’t going to be perfect. There was no way they would be able to reattach a branch that had broken off.

I approached the crew member who looked like he was in charge. “Hi,” I said.

I could see that he didn’t want to waste time talking to me, but when he saw the crutches, his face softened.

“I’m really sorry about what happened to you, sweetheart. We’re all just glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But I was wondering if you could tell me what went wrong. I thought the cables holding this tree were strong.”

“They are,” the guy said. He looked around to make sure no one was listening. “I shouldn’t be telling you this—you seem like a sweet kid who caught a bad break—but this wasn’t an accident.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Someone cut the wire.”

I shook my head. “I was looking up right before the tree fell. There was no one there.”

“Someone cut it a couple of days ago. Just enough so that it would fray little by little until it broke all the way.”

My head shot up. “A couple of days ago?”

“Yeah,” the guy said. “My bet is that it happened during load-in. That cable’s been weakening for at least three days now.”

Suddenly it all made sense. I had been right—we had been looking at it upside down this whole time. Bess and George saw my face and knew I had made a breakthrough.

“Thank you for your time,” Bess said.

“You’ve been extremely helpful,” George added as we made our way through the theater, my crutches clattering loudly.

“What is it, Nancy?” Bess asked.

“The cable was cut three days ago,” I said.

“What’s so important about that?” George asked.

“It was cut way before Maggie ever got the note at Hugo’s.”

“Right . . . ,” Bess said.

“It didn’t matter if Maggie hadn’t come to rehearsal today. That scenery would have fallen no matter what.”

“So . . . ,” George said.

“The note wasn’t a threat,” I revealed. “It was a warning!”

I could see the gears turning in Bess’s and George’s minds as they put the pieces together.