As Nancy walked back to her table she could almost feel Kim’s glare boring into her back. If that was the way Kim was after cooling off, it was a good thing that she hadn’t stayed heated up!
Victor looked up as Nancy sat down. “You were gone so long that I went ahead and ordered for you. A cheeseburger and french fries—okay?”
“Fine. I just ran into a friend of yours.” Nancy made a slight motion of her head in the direction of Sally and Kim’s booth.
Victor glanced across the room, then shifted uneasily. “Oh. Did you have any, uh, problems?”
“Sort of. Kim seems to be pretty hot-tempered and impulsive.”
“You could say that,” he replied with an empty little laugh. “Did she try to show you her deed? The one that says she owns me?”
“No,” Nancy said, chuckling.
“Good. It’s a forgery, anyway.” He paused and studied the top of the table. “We had a few dates, that’s all. No big deal. And we stopped dating, because it wasn’t working for either of us. We were both okay with that—I thought. But now she looks at me like I’m a worm she’s planning to dissect for her biology project.”
Nancy leaned back to let the waiter set their food on the table. She wanted to get off the topic of Kim and back to investigating the case. “How long have you been interested in computers?”
“Since I was fourteen,” he said. “I was in a car accident. I got banged up pretty bad—missed a whole year of school. I should have graduated last year, but I had to make up the year I lost. Anyway, while I was laid up, I started hacking around with my dad’s home PC. I couldn’t do much else that year.” Victor leaned back in his chair and smiled. “And that is how I became the computer genius you see before you today.”
“I bet I can guess what you’re going to study in college,” said Nancy, taking a bite of her burger.
His smile disappeared, and he became serious. “The big question isn’t what, it’s where. The places that have really good Information Sciences programs cost a fortune. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m at Brewster on a full scholarship. So either I get a college scholarship or I settle for a second- or third-rate school. That’s where you come in.”
“It is?” Nancy asked cautiously.
“For sure. You’re going to help me raise my grades. I’m counting on it.” He gave her another of his charming grins.
Nancy couldn’t help smiling back, but as she did, she studied Victor’s face. He seemed to be open and uncomplicated, but could she really tell? Did his remark have a double meaning, or was he simply talking about the tutoring program?
“How about a movie tonight?” Victor asked boldly as he wolfed down the last of the fries.
Time to tell him about Ned, said Nancy to herself. She told Victor all about her relationship with her boyfriend. To her surprise, Victor began searching for something under the table, then the chair. “What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Ned,” he said with a smile.
“Well, he’s sure not here.” Nancy laughed.
“Exactly,” said Victor, gazing meaningfully into her eyes. “I am. So let’s forget about Ned.”
“I can’t,” said Nancy. “Anyway, I’m your tutor—I don’t think I can go out with students.”
“It’s not like you’re a real teacher. Come on, why not?” Victor replied.
Nancy felt herself melt a little in the warmth of his gaze, but all she said was “I have a couple of errands to run. Let’s get the check.”
“I should get home, too,” said Victor. “My computer must be starting to wonder what happened to me.” He signaled the waiter and paid for their burgers, and then they left.
As she drove home, Nancy reviewed the case. Even though she liked him, Victor Paredes definitely had to be a suspect. He had bragged to her that he could do whatever he wanted with the computer system. He hadn’t made a secret of his poor grades in English or about his need for money to go to college. What if he had first cracked the school records access code while trying to change his own transcript, then realized that he had a very profitable product to sell? He was no dope—he might have decided to leave his own grades unchanged for the time being, just in case suspicion fell on him. Hadn’t he been awfully quick to bring up just that point?
Nancy laughed. That was like saying that because a criminal might try to look innocent, anyone who looked innocent must be guilty!
Pushing Victor out of her thoughts for the moment, Nancy started to think about Kim. Had her attack on Nancy really been caused by jealousy? Or was she somehow connected to the case? But Nancy didn’t see how Kim would know that she was a detective, or that there was a grade-changing scheme.
And what about Randi, the newspaper reporter? Was she as straight as she seemed? She obviously knew how to use the computer very well, and she had seemed anxious to clear her computer screen when Nancy showed up. In addition, she was petite and a brunette, just as Mrs. Tillman had described I. Wynn. So far, she was the only one who fit that description.
And, of course, there was Phyllis Hathaway. She was still Nancy’s number-one suspect. Nancy resolved to find out more about her and her mysterious friend Dana the next day.
The next morning Nancy had a break after her third student. It wasn’t long enough to do any investigating, but it did give her time to go to the faculty lounge and fix herself a cup of tea. As she was carrying it back to the learning lab, she ran into Victor. He was standing in the hall talking to a heavyset young woman with curly dark hair and green eyes. She was wearing a navy blue business suit and had a still-damp raincoat draped over her arm. It had poured all morning.
“Hey, Nancy,” Victor called. “Come here, I want you to meet someone.” When Nancy joined them, he continued, “You were asking questions about the school computer system? Here’s someone who knows it inside out. Meet Ms. MacCauley, president of PointTech Computers and queen of the River Heights hackers.”
“Victor!” the woman said in mock outrage. “I’ve told you before, you don’t call people hackers these days. It’s like—oh, I don’t know what, but don’t do it.”
Victor saluted. “Yes, ma’am!” Then he turned back to Nancy. “Ms. MacCauley heads up PointTech, the company that designed the system here at Brewster. Whenever it goes down, she’s the one who catches the flak and puts it back on line.”
“Does the system go down often?” asked Nancy.
“No,” Ms. MacCauley answered.
“Yes,” said Victor at the same moment.
“Let’s put it this way,” Ms. MacCauley said, smiling. “It’s a complex system that’s had a lot of different demands put on it. It’s designed to handle them, but sometimes the pressure makes it a little ornery. That’s when I step in, to give it lots of strokes and a few well-placed strategic kicks.”
Nancy returned the woman’s smile. “I can easily imagine kicking a computer,” said Nancy. “But how do you go about stroking it?” Maybe this was her chance to learn something helpful about the computer system at Brewster. “Do you have a few minutes to show me a little more about the system?”
Ms. MacCauley glanced at her wristwatch, then said, “I guess I do.”
“There’s a terminal in the learning lab, where I’m working,” Nancy added.
Victor gave a snort and said, “Thanks to Ms. MacCauley, there’s a terminal in practically every space in this school, except the broom closet!”
The woman turned to him and said with a straight face, “What happened to that one? Did someone steal it?” Then, laughing, they all went up to the learning lab.
A few moments later Nancy found herself seated at the terminal with an expert leaning over each of her shoulders. She turned on the power, typed in her password at the log-on prompt, and hit the Enter button.
A list of menus appeared on the screen. “Is there anything in particular you’d like to know how to do?” Ms. MacCauley asked her.