Sisters in Crime

N
ANCY
! Y
OU
'
RE HERE
!” Susan Victors, reached out and hugged her old friend Nancy Drew, after Nancy walked through security at the San Diego airport.

“I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been able to come!” Susan exclaimed. “Thank you
so
much.”

“I'm happy to be here, Susan,” Nancy responded as she returned the warm hug and then stood back to look at her old friend.

“Tan, in February!” Nancy exclaimed, pointing to the deep golden coloring on Susan's arms beneath her short-sleeved pink T-shirt. “You
look wonderful! Now I know why you wanted to go to college in California!”

Susan, who had always been quiet and studious at River Heights High, looked very different to Nancy now that she was a student at San Diego University.

“And you cut your hair,” Nancy added, looking at her friend's short, dark curly hair. All through high school, Susan had worn her hair in a long ponytail. “It looks great.”

Glancing down at her own clothes—an oversize gray cable-knit sweater with a bright blue cowl-neck sweater under it, and navy pants, Nancy said, “It's still winter in River Heights.”

“And you
still
look wonderful,” Susan said, looking at her fair-skinned friend with the shoulder-length reddish blond hair. “No matter what the season.” Nancy had a slim build and was perhaps four inches taller than Susan's five feet three.

As they headed toward the baggage claim area, Susan said, “I can't tell you how much I appreciate your coming, Nancy. I really do need you.” Turning and looking at Susan's eyes, Nancy saw the pain that she had heard in her friend's voice during her urgent phone call the day before.

When they were seated in Susan's little yellow car, Susan turned to Nancy. “You're the only one who can help me,” she said softly. “The only one who can possibly uncover the truth about Rina's death.”

Nancy nodded her head. “I'll do my best,” she promised.

Susan pointed to the book,
Scuba-diving Safety,
that Nancy was holding on her lap. “I see you've started to do your research already.”

“I wanted to make sure I'd understand all the technicalities and jargon,” Nancy said. “The police still believe it was an accident?”

Susan nodded. “They say she was washed up with an empty air tank near the place she likes to dive—I mean, where she used to like to dive.” Susan shook her head as she corrected herself. Nancy could see it was hard for Susan to believe that her roommate, Rina, was really dead.

“They found her on the beach wearing her wet suit and weight belt,” Susan said sadly. “They say that she must have read the air gauge incorrectly. That's all.”

“But that's not all?” Nancy prodded.,

Nancy Drew, at eighteen, was already established as a top-notch private detective. For years everyone in her hometown had known of her excellent work, especially that done in cooperation with her father, Carson Drew, the famous criminal lawyer.

Now her reputation and skills were taking her farther from home. Southern California was a long way from River Heights, where she had recently solved a mystery at the exclusive River Heights Country Club.

“I have no hard evidence, Nancy. I wish I
did.” Susan sighed. “But I
know
her death wasn't that simple,” she said with determination. “I just
know
there's more to it than a poorly read air gauge.”

“Tell me what you think,” Nancy said, encouraging her gently.

Although Susan had the car keys out and in her hand, she made no attempt to start driving. Slowly she began the story that had brought her friend halfway across the country.

“Rina Charles had been my roommate since last fall, when we lived in the dorm together. This semester we were
both
invited to join Delta Phi, so we were happy we could continue rooming together.” Susan took a deep breath. “I guess I told you this on the phone yesterday.”

“It's okay. Just give me any information that you can.”

“Well, Delta Phi is considered to be ‘the' sorority to be in, and when we lived in the dorm, Rina could only think about whether she was going to be asked to pledge. Her mother had been a sorority member twenty-five years ago, and I think it was important to Rina not to let her mother down. That was how she saw it, anyway.”

Nancy slipped off her oversize sweater and put it in the backseat so she would be more comfortable as she listened to Susan.

“When the sorority bids first went out, Rina didn't get one, and she was crushed. Someone let it slip that she didn't have ‘the right image.' But
soon, I think it was the very next day, the girls of Delta Phi changed their minds. It seems that if you're a legacy—if your mom or some other relative has been in the sorority—they
have
to give you a bid. It's some sort of rule, so Rina's hurt was for no reason.”

Listening to Susan, Nancy couldn't help but think of Bess and George, her two closest girlfriends. They had been friends for years. Nancy knew how heartbroken she would feel if anything happened to either of them and could appreciate the pain that Susan was in.

“How hard for Rina to know that she was being asked to join only because the rules made them ask her.” Nancy shook her auburn head sadly.

“Yeah, it was pretty rough,” Susan admitted. “And I had even suggested to Rina that we both forget the whole sorority thing and just live in the dorm. Wait until you see the campus, Nancy, it's so beautiful. But,” Susan continued, “Rina wouldn't hear of it. She wanted to be a Delta Phi more than anything in the world.”

“How was it after you moved into the sorority house?” Nancy inquired, leaning back against the locked car door.

“That's the beginning of the strange part,” Susan said curiously. “Some of the members were a little rude to Rina, but most of them were nice. There's this small group of six sorority sisters who, along with the president, Lori Westerly,
pretty much run things. You know, they're all officers, and assign rooms, and that type of thing. And they're pretty snobby. I heard it was that group who didn't want Rina in the sorority in the first place. Well, suddenly, right after we moved in, Rina started hanging around with that crowd.”

“That is strange,” Nancy agreed.

“I mean, one day she's being told she isn't good enough, and the next day she's best friends with all the officers,” Susan said. “It was really weird. Anyway, for that short time Rina was very happy!”

“Do you think that being in this inner circle is somehow related to what happened to Rina?” Nancy asked.

“I don't know. And that's what I mean by having so little evidence. But a week ago Wednesday Rina told me that there was something wrong going on in the sorority.” Susan looked at Nancy as she added, her voice shaking, “Something
dangerously
wrong.”

“Dangerously wrong?” Nancy said, encouraging her friend. She could see that it wasn't easy for Susan to talk about this.

Susan nodded. “Those were her exact words. Rina said that she couldn't tell me, or anyone else about it yet, but she would soon.” Susan took a deep breath before she continued. “She said she
had
to tell someone what she knew.”
Looking down, Susan added, “She sounded very desperate, Nan.”

“Do you think she talked to anyone else?” Nancy asked.

Susan shook her head. “No. And you're the first person I've told,” Susan said as she put her key in the ignition. “I just haven't known who to trust.”

“And you never did find out what it was that was ‘dangerously wrong'?” Nancy inquired.

Shaking her head, Susan stared out the front window at the huge airport parking lot. “That was on Wednesday. By Friday, Rina was dead.”

“And you think—” Nancy prodded gently.

As Susan looked back at Nancy, tears were visible in her eyes. “I think Rina knew something that she died never having told anyone.” Susan turned the key in the ignition. “I think”—she hesitated—“I think Rina knew something that got her killed.”

T
HE SORORITY PHOTOGRAPH
Susan showed Nancy pictured forty-two members. Nancy studied it during the drive to the campus, memorizing names and reminding herself how deceptive looks can be.

“See Fran Kelly?” Susan asked.

“Yes—here with the bangs?” Nancy asked, pointing. “Is her hair tied back in a ribbon?”

“Always. She must have a thousand of them.”

“Is she a friend? She has a nice smile.”

Watching the road, Susan shook her head. “No, not a friend,” she said. “She's the person I'm most afraid of.”

“Why is that?” Nancy asked, peering out the
window at the Pacific Ocean, inviting white sand beaches, and palm trees that lined the highway.

“On the very day of Rina's funeral, Fran came to my room and asked if she could move in with me. She said she was having trouble with her roommate and wanted to switch to a different room.”

“How did you handle it?” Nancy asked.

“I told her that it was a little soon for me to have a new roommate. That I needed some time. The truth is that I don't like Fran much and don't want to live with her.”

“How come?”

“A lot of reasons, but mostly because she never even spoke to me before that day. I was surprised she even remembered my name when she came to my room. She's the most stuck-up person in Delta Phi, and only wants to be in Lori's group.”

“I can understand how awful you must have felt,” Nancy said sympathetically.

“And she didn't even seem sad that Rina had died. I mean she went to the memorial service and everything, but I'm sure it was just because that was where everyone else was going to be that day. Even the girls who didn't like Rina didn't want to see her dead. Everyone else, with the exception of Fran, was very upset.”

As they pulled onto the sprawling campus, Nancy could hardly believe that such a beautiful, peaceful-looking place might be hiding something as sinister as murder.

She looked back down at the photograph on her lap. Rina Charles had short, straight hair, one side cut slightly shorter than the other. She was looking straight at the camera as all the other girls were. Nothing in particular distinguished her from the forty-one other girls. Nancy also looked closely at those girls that Susan said made up Lori's inner circle: Pam, Jan, Ellen, Kathy, and Johanna.

She felt anxious to meet all the people in this picture. Could one of these seemingly normal girls be involved in murder? The photograph would never tell her. Nancy would have to rely on the girls themselves to do that. She needed the guilty person to make a mistake, and she had to be there when it happened.