I do not Own Nancy Drew.

"Is he dead Joe?"

Joe took a deep breath. "No." Then he got up and walked over to where the gun was and picked it up. Then he walked over to some old furniture. When he started pulling a wooden, dining room chair away from the rest, Bess asked, "What are you doing?"

"Look through those boxes and see if theres anything that we can tie him up with." Joe told her.

Bess started looking around and she asked, "Why?"

"Why?! He was gonna shoot us! Hes carrying around a gun, completely edgy and hes totally suspicious!" Joe yelled.

"But you have the gun now!" Bess said.

"Yeah but what if he wakes up and we find out the hard way that hes a kung fu champion!"

Bess rolled her eyes and kept looking. After about three boxes she held something up. "Will this work?" She held up a thick red velvet strap. "There are more in here."

"What is it?" Joe grunted. He was pulling cornets body up onto the chair as he asked.

"I think its the think that you tie curtains back with. Theres a big one to tie around his shoulders and a couple little ones to tie up his hands and feet." She told him.

"Great. Now lets get him tied up before he wakes up." Bess held cornet back in the chair while Joe tied him up.

Half an hour later, Cornet woke up. "Who are you?! Where am I?" he yelled.

"You are in the building that we followed you to, and we are the people that you tried to shoot!" Joe said.

Cornet eyed him suspiciously. "Why were you following me?" he asked, quieter now.

Joe's eyes narrowed. "Why were you acting suspicious? Why were you carrying a gun?"

Kenny Cornet started intently at Joe, as if trying to think of something. Then his face cleared and he looked back between Bess and Joe. "Hey! I know where I've seen you before! You two are at the resort! What are you? Like miniature detectives?" he laughed.

Joe ground his teeth, "Thats right and we think we just caught a killer."

Mr. Cornets face paled. "You can't think that I killed that young girl?"

"See thats the problem, we can, and we do, and we're pretty sure that the police will see it our way too." Joe told him.

There was a look of pure panic on his face, but after a minute it cleared a little. "Your bluffing, theres no phone service in here."

"Well that would be a problem if there was just one of us, but oh look," he said sarcastically, "I can stay here with you and she can go call the cops." Joe said, pointing toward Bess. He turned around and pulled out his cell phone and tossed it to Bess. "Go call."

Bess caught the phone and started walking toward the door when Cornet yelled. "Stop! I didn't do it! I swear!"

Bess stopped and turned to look at him. Joe's eyes narrowed. "If you didn't do it, who did?" He asked.

"I can't tell you. I can't tell anyone." Mr. Cornet said, looking down.

Bess walked over and bent down by the chair. "Why not?" she asked.

Cornet looked Bess, then Joe in the eye. "Because if I do, they'll kill me."

Joe's eyes widened, that wasn't something that he had suspected. "At least I can't tell you now, but meet me tomorrow night at 7:30 on the board walk and I'll tell you everything."

"Okay." Joe said. "We'll meet you tomorrow night at the surf board shop on the boardwalk." He kept the gun in his hand and looked at Bess, who was staring at him incredulously. "Untie him. Legs first, then hands, then the one around his sholders." When she hesitated, he gave her a reasuring look, then want over and whispered in her ear. "It'll be okay. I've got a plan." She looked him in the eye then nodded and untied Cornet.

With his finger on the trigger, Joe watched Cornet leave. When he was out of the building, bess turned to Joe. "What the heck was that? How could you just let him go?!"

Relax Bess! While he was out cold, I put a small tracking divice in his shoe, so we can keep track of him."

"Oh," Bess's anger deflated. "What if he changes shoes?"

"Bess, I've been keeping tabs on this guy for two days and I've never seen him in different shoes." Then he took her by the elbow and led her out of the warehouse. "Lets go back to the resort. We'll call Nancy and Frank later and fill them in."

Frank got a call while eating dissert. He got his cellphone out of his pocket, looked at the collar ID, then answered it. "Hey Joe." HE said, looking at Nancy. He motioned for her to come with him. He led her down the stairs to there room.

"Okay. Whats up?" He inquired. He paused and lestened for a long time. "What!" He finally said. "You knocked him out, tied him up, then let him go?" Frank practicly shouted.

"What happened?" Nancy asked. Frank held his hand up, signalling for her to wait a moment.

"I still can't beleive that you did that Joe, he had a gun! Even if you weren't thinking about yourself, whar about Bess?" Frank asked.

Nancy waved her hands around and mouthed, 'What?!', but Frank just waved her off. "Yes, we'll meet you back at the hotel as soon as we get off the shop tomorrow. . . yeah. . . okay. . . yeah, bye." Then Frank hung up.

"What happened?" Nancy yelled, jumping up from her seat on the bed. Frank retold the story that Joe had told him. "Wha--but---I---are they okay?"

Frank went and sat her back down on the bed, sitting next to her, seeing the look of panic on her face. He brushed some hair away from her face, and took her hand. "There fine. Calm down."

She looked releived. "So whats happening tomorrow night?"

"Oh, we're all going to meet Cornet. He says he has some information and he'll tell us tomorrow night at the boardwalk." Frank told her.

"Does Joe really think that he knows anything?"

"Hes not sure. He said that he saw something in his eyes." He looked at her and sighed. "Do you want to go back up to the deck?"

She shook her head. "No I want to stay here. . . and talk."

"What do you want to talk about?" Frank asked, though he already knew.

"I want to talk about earlier, when we kissed, and then when we almost kissed." She took a deep breath. "Why did you kiss me in that closet?"

"Nancy, we were about to be caught evesdropping on possible murderers and it was all I could think of at the time."

"Is that the only reason?" Nancy asked quietly while looking at the floor.

Frank gor up and started pacing. "Nancy why are we having this conversation, you know I have feelings for you! And don't you have feelings for me?!" He looked at her when she didn't answer. He walked over and nelt down in front of her. "Nancy I need to know. If you don't I'll back off, it you do. . . " he didn't finish.

"Yes. . . I have feelings for you, but that doesn't change how things are. Your with Callie and I'm with Ned."

"Yeah but do you want to be? You said that Ned has been acting strange lately, That you feel weird around him sometimes."

Nancy didn't object, she just looked at him. "What about you and Callie? You can't just forget her."

"Half the time, I thnk me and Callie are only together, because people expect us to be. She doesn't understand things about me, especially involving mysteries, like you do. There are things I can't tell her that I can tell you." Nancy's face looked undecisive. "You don't have to say anything now Nancy. Just promise me that you think about it." Frank said taking her hand.

She put her free hand on his face and smiled weakly. "I will. I promise."