The Red Slippers (Nancy Drew Diaries #11)(28)

Kevin looked at Jamison, clearly unsure what to do. “Don’t do it,” Jamison ordered.

From the stage, another sneeze. “Kevin, come on,” I implored.

Now a cough. If we didn’t cut those lights now, it was only going to get worse.

Kevin looked back and forth between me and Jamison. I could see the gears turning in his head as he tried to figure out who he should listen to.

Another cough.

“Kevin—” Jamison started, but before could finish, Kevin sprang into action.

“I’m sorry. Don’t kill me,” Kevin said as his hands flew over the lighting board, and suddenly, just as Jamison had predicted, more than half the stage was dark. The audience gasped, but Jamison had trained his dancers well. They kept going as if nothing had happened.

“Thank you,” I said to Kevin. “You did the right thing. Now can you make sure that a crew member removes the powder from the lights at intermission?”

He nodded.

For the first time since we’d encountered him, Jamison was speechless. He seemed completely in shock. I wasn’t going to wait around for him to start yelling again. I turned back to my friends. “Let’s get backstage and tell Maggie the case is solved,” I said. “Her big solo is right after intermission. I want her to feel completely confident.”



Backstage was chaos. Intermission had just started, and the dancers were all abuzz about the lights going out. We couldn’t find Maggie anywhere.

“Where’s Maggie?” I asked Fiona.

“I think I saw her go into Sebastian’s dressing room,” Fiona said.

We rushed there as fast as we could.

The door was locked, but we could hear the muffled sound of Maggie crying. “Why are you doing this? I thought you were my friend!”

“My turn,” Ned said, as he put his shoulder into the door with all his might. The door flew open with a groan. Maggie was tied to the chair and Sebastian was pacing in front of her.

“I’m sorry,” he was saying. “I was trying to protect you. But Jamison cut the lights. He knows about the tear gas. There’s no other way to destroy Jamison and save you from him.”

“Sebastian,” I said. “I know why you’re doing it, but this isn’t justice. This isn’t taking care of Maggie.”

He looked over at me, completely destroyed.

“I told her not to dance tonight. I didn’t want Maggie to get hurt, but Jamison broke her. He needs to pay,” Sebastian said.

“Not like this,” I said. “Innocent people could have been really hurt from the tree falling. And the tear gas!”

“What are you talking about? Who needs to pay?” Maggie asked from the chair.

“You have to tell her,” I said to Sebastian.

He looked at me, then glanced at Ned, George, and Bess blocking the exit.

“Jamison. He needs to pay . . . for what he did to Veronica.”

Maggie looked at him confused. “He got her into the New York City Ballet,” she began.

Sebastian looked enraged. “But at what cost? He got her into the New York City Ballet, but now she’s in a mental institution. You want to know why she doesn’t return your calls? It’s because she’s not allowed access to her phone.”

“What?” Maggie said, shocked.

“Veronica loved to dance . . . until she met Jamison. Then nothing she did was ever good enough. He kept pushing her, critiquing every little thing she did. He insulted her. Told her she didn’t work hard enough, but all she ever did was work. You saw her.”

“But that’s how you become great,” Maggie said.

Sebastian shook his head. “You didn’t see her in the months before she left. You were in Paris on that exchange program, but she was a nervous wreck. When she finally got to New York, she said she could still hear Jamison’s voice echoing through her head, all day, every day. With the added competition and the pressure, she lost it. Next thing we knew, we were getting a call from the emergency room that Veronica had been admitted due to a nervous breakdown.” He paused and knelt in front of Maggie. “I saw him doing the same thing to you, and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t let him destroy you like he destroyed Veronica.”

Tears ran down Maggie’s face. “I can take it,” she said. “I promise. He’s not going to destroy me.”

“Ruining Maggie’s shot,” I told him, “will destroy Maggie—just like Jamison pushing Veronica broke her. It would make you no better than him.” Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Ned moving toward Sebastian. I had to keep Sebastian focused on me and away from Ned. “I know you don’t want to do that,” I said, saying anything that came into my mind, just to keep him interested. “You care about Maggie. She’s like another sister to you.”

Suddenly Ned pounced, tackling Sebastian and restraining him. Bess rushed over to untie Maggie. Sebastian didn’t struggle. It was like Ned had literally knocked all the fight out of him. Instead he collapsed into a heap, heaving loud sobs. Maggie stared, as if she didn’t know who he was.

In the hallway, dancers yelled that there was only one more minute of intermission.

“Time for your solo,” I said to Maggie.

Maggie hesitated, still trying to process everything that had happened.