Back at my house, my fingers flew across my laptop. My eyes darted from file to file, scanning for clues. Nancy had many enemies, but according to my computer, a lot of them lives miles from River Heights. The closest one was Brenda Carlton. She was also the most recent one released from jail on bail.
Bess had watched me work for a few minutes, but got bored instantly. Any gadget was not her thing. She had a hard enough time turning on her cell phone.
"Did you find anything yet? It's been an hour! I'm so bored. I don't understand how you can stare at a screen for so long. I wish I could help in some way. I'm doing nothing," Bess complained.
Without leaving the screen's blazing light, I said, "First of all, it has only been ten minutes. Second of all, you're keeping me company and no, I haven't found anything very useful. If anything, I am making Brenda look more suspicious."
"Well, maybe we should call the Hardy Boys and see what they are up to."
I considered this. I didn't want to call them, saying I came up empty handed. I hated failing. I wanted to get to the bottom of this. Whoever did this to Nancy would pay.
"Wait a sec..." I sat up a little straighter.
Bess ran to my side, "What?"
"Brenda doesn't live in River Heights anymore."
"What? Where do you see that?"
"Right here," I pointed to the article I was reading about her bail, "It says here that Brenda's mom payed the bail fee and got her out after Brenda had been in there for a few months. It says her mom apparently wanted her to learn a lesson, but thought Brenda didn't deserve to be in jail for the time she was given. After that, no one would hire Brenda because of what she did, so she moved to New York City to find a better job as a reporter because so much action took place there and she could get tons of publicity."
"New York City! That's hours away!" Bess's mouth fell open, "That means she couldn't have kidnapped Nancy! We have to call the boys!"
"OK," I spun my chair around to face Bess, "Can you turn on your cell phone or should I help you?" I got a light slap on my arm for that one. Finally, we were getting somewhere.
