EDITING: Politics and Poison

Chapter Seventeen: Romance, and other Distractions

Nancy Drew: After two of McGuinness's men had bundled the Mayor into their police cruiser, I dropped Bess home. She was pretty shaken up by the whole incident, and despite her offers to help me sleuth, I knew she'd rather be in front of the TV watching Days of Our Lives and eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream from the tub.

McGuinness took our statements on her doorstep, and then shadowed me in his own car, to the convention. I could tell he no longer trusted me.

"Who will it be next time Nancy?" he asked wearily, getting out of his cruiser, and walking over to meet me by my car in the lot. "You've just got into an altercation with the Mayor, not to mention, trespassed on his property. I don't know if I can let you run free any longer, Nancy. The stakes are too high."

I gave him an even look. "With all due respect, that's why you need me, Captain."

He was ready to argue, but closed his mouth mid sentence, instead lifted his phone from the holder at his belt, and dialed a number. "Jones," he muttered, "I need a warrant. I want Mayor Lawson's house searched as soon as possible. I suspect that he has been hiding access to a hidden account. It is my belief that he's been accepting bribes, so get to it. All the usual suspects, Cayman Islands, etc etc."

I felt my own phone vibrate, and quickly checked my messages. I had a text from Frank Hardy, and motioned hurriedly to McGuinness that something had come up.

His shaggy brows drew together, and he abruptly ended his call. "What now, Nancy?"

"Lawson isn't the poisoner. Not unless he hired someone." I showed him my phone. "The guys had the footage, and they're in the main tent."

"And how did they get access to the CCTV?" McGuinness cried, incensed, as he read the message. "And since when has Fenton Hardy's son being sending you kisses?"

The single x at the end hadn't escaped my attention either. Oh boy, I thought. Now even the Police Captain knew about our, what was it again? In a small town, the news would travel fast. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, especially since Frank and I had talked very little about it ourselves. We'd always been like that, on cases, in real life. I got too focused, as did he. And we'd kissed in the past: at Mount Mirage and in Cairo, Egypt. This time was different. We had no one else to say that it was wrong. Thus, there were no more excuses.

"Frank is a bit of a computer whiz," I explained, as we walked. "I don't know how he got into the system. But he would have asked your permission; if you weren't busy."

"So that makes it okay?"

I pretended not to notice the ghost of a smile upon the Captain's face. "Captain, it must. Unless you'd prefer that an innocent man goes to jail for a crime he didn't commit," I said reasonably.

When we got to the tent, Frank and Joe were glued to a large laptop, sitting on the stage. Hannah Gruen was talking heatedly to her ex husband, in the doorway.

"What's that about?" I asked the boys softly, sitting down beside Frank.

"Mr. Gruen has letting go issues," Joe said absently. "Want a doughnut?"

I shook my head, distracted by the close proximity of Frank's broad shoulder, to mine. "No thank you. Isn't that weird? They've been divorced for years!"

Joe took a bite of a roll. "Yeah, but." He smirked, swallowed, said with his mouth still partially full, "she's been a free bird. Now, though, she's obviously got her mind on your Dad. I'd suspect him, if he had a motive for poisoning the Senator."

"Can we concentrate?" Frank asked irritably.

He looked tired. I felt an irrational urge to take his face between my hands, and stroke the lines of weary anxiety from his brow. Instead, all I said was, "sure. What are you guys doing?"