Nancy waited until nighttime, when the photolithography machine would finish etching the circuit board. Nancy wasn't sure why it took so long. Whenever she etched things on her etch-a-sketch, it didn't take half a day.

While she waited, Nancy got a phone call from her enemy-turned-mystery-buddy, Deirdre Shannon.

"Nancy, Ryan's alibi holds up!" Deirdre said. "She couldn't have killed Niko."

"Because she was at the conference thing, right?"

"Right. The police didn't accept her alibi, because it wasn't airtight. There was a fifteen minute range, between the end of the conference and Niko's death. But I did some digging around with the freelance journalists who covered the conference. There were about ten pictures of Ryan taken after the event."

"And this establishes her alibi, because Ryan was standing near a visible clock!" Nancy said excitedly.

"No, of course not," Deirdre said. "A visible clock, are you crazy? That's a ridiculous plot device. Need I remind you that she could have easily set the clock forward a half-hour, to make a fake alibi?"

"Oh," Nancy said. "Well, how do the photographs of Ryan prove anything?"

"You don't know anything about photography, do you? Photographs have timestamps! Digital photographs have timestamps going down to the millisecond! The three photographers were able to confirm that she stayed around for ten minutes, after the conference ended. She didn't have enough time to kill Niko."

"Great, you've been a big help," Nancy said. "Thank you."

"That is...a genuine compliment," Deirdre said. She was unused to hearing those. "Anyway, I already gave this info to the police. If this doesn't bring up my grade, nothing will."

After Deirdre hung up, Nancy called Victor Lossett. "Hey, Boss. Big news about the investigation!"

"You managed to prove that Ryan is guilty?" Victor asked.

"Just the opposite!" Nancy said. "I've got proof that she's innocent!"

"WHAT?" Victor shouted.

"Yeah, Deirdre found timestamped photographs of Ryan at the science convention thingy! She sent them to the police."

"Augh!" Victor said angrily. "But that means they'll reopen the case, and everything will get stalled out again!"

"Uh...okay..." Nancy said. Victor seemed overly upset about the fact that she had made actual progress. "What's my next move, then?"

"I don't know! I have to think!" Victor said.

"Maybe I could investigate the other suspects?" Nancy suggested.

"Well, who's your prime suspect now?"

"If Ryan's innocent, the culprit has to be either Gray, Mason, or Ellie," Nancy said. "The only other employees with access to the labs are you and Niko and...hey, what if his death was a suicide?"

"Focus on Mason," Victor said. "Niko suspected that Mason was secretly stealing his work."

"Yeah, Niko mentioned that on his audio diary that I found."

"Find the other audio diaries. Maybe they will give you more information," Victor said. "Now that I think about it, Mason has always seemed suspicious to me. Gray and I are celebrating No Shave November this year, and Mason refused to participate. I don't know why."

"Maybe he's hiding a clue in his beard, and he doesn't want anyone to see it!"

"...Beards don't work like that, Nancy," Victor said. "Either way, Mason is now your top suspect. Make sure to investigate him."

"Aye, aye, Boss Man!"