Foreword: Are you excited because the last book of Harry Potter series is coming up? I sure am--not. Seriously, I had no idea that the seventh book was going to be published until June, and some of the fans might have known it since Christmas! Well, because I'm sure at least a few of the readers will be going to that all-night thing to get the book at midnight, I'll post this up a little earlier, since I'm sure those people will be reading that Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollow (or something like that. Sorry, I'm too lazy to look that up!) all day in their rooms on Saturday. Well, good luck with that. I think I'll go get it once it arrives at the library:-) So, for the rest of us non-Harry-freak Muggles, here is the nice little chapter that will unveil a lot of Nancy Drew's adventure in Paris. Will she be able to catch Lord Vol--I mean, the killer--before all the evidence is permanently destroyed? And in this chapter will be the good old Nancy's way of gathering clues: snooping! This chapter will have more things unveiled, and I think might have revealed too much, but if you read it carefully, and if you have a good memory, you will see lots of clues scattered here and there in this chapter alone! Also, there will be a nice little tribute to Harry Potter in this chapter, for all you Harry fans. Hint: look at dates mentioned in this chapter and the title of a book that's in French;-)

Sorry at my tone in the previous paragraph. It's that I don't quite like J. K. Rowling. Because I'm an author (and especially a mystery author) myself, I just don't like how she blabbers on and on about what will be "important" in the last book. If you want a list of her "clues," go to wikipedia and look up the last book's title. You'll see loads of hints and spoilers that Rowling herself says during her innumerable interviews. She even says that Aunt Petunia won't use magic in desperate situations! Now, why does she have to erase all these possibilities? I was hoping that Aunt Petunia would turn out to care Harry a lot when he faces danger and uses magic to save him--or something like that. But since I know that's not possible, I'm kind of disappointed, too. Sigh... Anyway, let's just say that I like Harry Potter books, not the author herself. The plot is quite fine, if not marvelous. It kind of reminds me of the earlier Nancy Drew stories in which Nancy must handle many mysteries at once.

Also, I have a question about the new Nancy Drew Girl Detective series. The ads say that this series is newer, better, faster, smarter, etc., but after reading the books, I don't see if the storyline is any "faster" than the original series or how "smarter" Nancy is, since Nancy is clearly a ditz because she forgets to put gas in her hybrid a million times! And it's certainly not "better" because the good old originals of the first 30 mysteries in the original series are TONS better than this trash. So, if you find any difference between the old series and the new one (besides the setting and characters, of course), please tell me in your review. I'd really appreciate it.

Wow! I talked a lot today! I should stop now before I go on too much. Happy sleuthing! Please don't forget to review!

Chapter Twenty

Entrer furtivement

Sneaking In

"So what's next?" asked Ned.

Frank and Iola had arrived to the hotel, and the detectives were again trying to figure out their next move. The innkeeper was still sunk deep in his own memories, so there was no way they could get any information from the man.

"I say we go to Marie-Jacque's house," Nancy suggested. "Oh, and call Frank—well, actually Joe's phone—if you see that Mr. Charlock can talk again, okay?"

"Roger that," George said. "Bess and I will keep an eye on him."

"So let's go," Frank said as he got into his car with Iola. "And you don't have to ride in your own car. There are only four of us, anyway, so we can share a car. That's convenient in a lot of ways."

"Good idea," Nancy agreed. She then got into the rear seat with her boyfriend Ned, then the group was off to the photographer's house.

The house looked empty from the outside, since all the curtains had been drawn shut even though the sun was still out. Just to be safe, Nancy knocked on the door several times and called out to Marie-Jacque. There was no answer after a few minutes, so Nancy assumed there was no one in there. Then, she sneaked into the backyard, with Ned watching concernedly, and looked into the house. There was nobody inside, and all the lights were turned off.

"I think she's away," Nancy said. "And I'm sneaking in."

She took out her lock-picking set and started picking the lock. Within seconds, the door was unlocked. Putting on her gloves, the young detective went inside, making sure not to touch anything that she was not supposed to.

The living room was dark and gloomy particularly because the curtains had been drawn. Nancy did not even dare to open the curtain lest someone sees her, and she took out her penlight and looked around.

The first thing she wanted to find was any kind of record written by the photographer. Being a journal-keeper herself, Nancy knew that she would write down anything in her journal, even things that she would hate for the others to know.

"Think, Nancy! If you still kept your journal, where would you hide it?"

The first thought was to look under the pillow, but the girl detective found nothing there. She then looked into the drawers of the desks, but she found nothing of interest. Then, her eyes went to the bookcase at the corner of the woman's bedroom. The books were all neatly put away, but there was one book that was placed in a bookcase, and only the back of the box was visible, not the spine of the book itself. Nancy took that book, and as she had suspected, there was a journal hidden inside the bookcase. The book had the symbol of a crescent moon, the exact one that had been drawn by Dr. Devereux when he was killed! Surprised, the girl detective took out the diary and unlocked it.

Though she knew that reading someone else's journal was morally wrong, she suppressed that feeling and opened the book. Se she did so, her eyes got larger with surprise.

"Oh, my gosh!" she exclaimed silently.

Meanwhile, the other detectives were waiting in the car as they awaited Nancy's return. The day had become much hotter than the day before, so they didn't want to wait outside in the heat. They never felt more thankful that the air conditioning system had been invented.

"How long ha she been in that house?" Iola asked Frank.

"I guess thirty minutes."

"I sure hope she comes back soon," murmured Ned. Just then, he saw a car appear from around the corner. "Wait a minute…" Ned squinted and tried to make out what kind of car it was. It was a small red car, the exactly car that Marie-Jacque had ridden to the hotel!

"Shoot!" Ned muttered as he took out his cell phone and dialed Nancy's number as fast as possible. Within seconds, the girl detective answered.

"What is it, Ned?"

"Nancy, get out of the house as soon as possible! Marie-Jacque's returning!"

"Oh, no! In how many minutes?"

"I don't know, maybe less than a minute. Be sure to get out through the backdoor and wait out there. After Marie-Jacque has entered, I'll give you a call, and you can walk around the side of the house without any windows and meet us at the front yard. Oh, and don't forget to put your cell phone in the silent setting," he added quickly.

"Got it."

Nancy looked around. She needed to make a copy of the page which she was reading. She finally found a scanner by the computer, and she placed the page of the diary on the scanner and made a copy.

As soon as the copy was made, Nancy heard the front door unlock.

"No!" she thought. "She's back already!"

Silently but quickly, the girl detective folded the copy in half and shoved it into her purse. Then, she placed the diary back into the shelf. Afterwards, she sneaked to the kitchen. The front door opened, and just as it shut, the girl detective got out through the backdoor.

But when she closed the door, her cell phone vibrated. Ned had called. Nancy never knew how loud a cell phone's vibration was when there was no other sound in the house. And because of the small noise, there was a slight pause in the footsteps as Marie-Jacque stopped and listened.

"What was that?" the woman murmured anxiously. "Is it a thief?"

Feeling like a real thief, Nancy tiptoed to the side of the house with no window. She almost reached that point when there was a loud crash as she accidentally bumped into a clay pot, which then shattered noisily on the ground.

"What was that!?" a voice came from inside. The person in the house then ran towards the backdoor, and she immediately opened it.

"Now I've done it!" Nancy muttered as she hastily hid herself behind a bush. Marie-Jacque was now walking cautiously with a metal bat which she must have bought to ward off burglars. Nancy held her breath. The woman was only a few yards from Nancy when a ball fell from the sky and onto the bush right behind Marie-Jacque. She immediately turned around, now having her back to Nancy. Nancy caught this as a great chance to escape, and she ran as fast and quietly as she could to the front yard.

In the car, the girl detective let out a large sigh and a gasp. "I thought I would be caught for sure!" she muttered breathlessly.

"Are you okay?" Ned asked worriedly. "What was with that loud crash?"

"I accidentally broke a clay pot, and I would have been caught for sure if that ball didn't come into play."

"You should thank the boy who hit the ball next door," Iola said as she handed Nancy a bottle of water. "The boys were playing baseball when one of them hit a homerun that flew right into that house."

Nancy chuckled. "Wow, I was never more relieved to see a ball! But my risky search wasn't all in vain. I found two interesting thing. The first is the front cover of the diary that Marie-Jacque kept. There was a crescent moon on it, which looks exactly like the picture that Dr. Devereux drew just before he died. The second is the content of that diary. I made the photocopy of the most interesting page right before Marie-Jacque got back."

The three detectives looked at the crumpled-up photocopy. The first entry was dated just a few weeks ago. It read:

"July 21: What a terrible day it was! After I went to the bookstore to buy Les Reliques de la Mort, which is a book that I was dying to read for the last two months, I saw Martin talking with that disgusting actress Renee Frazier. I hated her when she was on TV, but I hate her even more when I see her off-screen. And why was Martin talking to that woman? I overheard a bit of their conversation as I sat at the table just a few meters away from them in the same restaurant, and Renee was asking Martin for seventy-five hundred euros. No, it was more like she demanded the money! Why was she demanding money? And why was Martin obeying that vile woman!? Martin then said that he'll ask around for money, since his pay wasn't enough, so I decided to help him a bit. I went to the bank and got the money in cash, but am planning to ask him why he is giving that woman money. From the tone of her voice, I think she might be blackmailing him. If she was, then there can't be any better chance to ruin her career by bringing this to the press. I'm sure the gossipers would jump to hear something like this."

The second entry was dated a couple of days after that:

"July 23: Martin was glad to receive the money, but he refused to talk about why he needed the money. After I asked him persistently, he admitted that he owed Renee a lot of money, so I guess it's not blackmail after all. But I'm still not satisfied. Why is Martin keeping all these from me? Why doesn't he tell me anything even though I'm his fiancée?"

The third entry was dated a week from the previous one:

"July 30: I was amused to hear how that nasty Renee had been in trouble with money. Serves that woman right! It was told on the news that she had been gambling a bit too much, and her bills are going sky-high. But I know why she doesn't seem too concerned. It's because of Martin. If Martin keeps giving her money, then she will keep getting money. I will not tolerate Martin's being treated like this. I would like to see that woman suffer, but I can't do anything about it. If only I knew why Martin had to give her money…"

That was the end of the photocopied pages. The four detectives looked at each other.

"Jackpot," Ned said with a grin. "I guess now we're seeing the motives. From the tone of this journal entry, I think Marie-Jacque is more than willing to kill Renee to help Martin. And there's the problem with money. I still think that Martin is blackmailed, and Renee knows something about him that nobody else does."

"…I guess it's time to search Renee's house," Nancy said.

Sneaking into Renee's house was much easier and more carefree than the suspects' houses. Nancy found no diary in her home, but she managed to find something just as interesting.

From Renee's house, she took the woman's data CDs. Nancy said as she took them out of her purse, "I figured that if she knew something bad about him, she must have the record of what she was blackmailing him about. And if you look at theses CDs, I'm sure we'll eventually find something that's out of the ordinary."

"I see," Ned said. "So let's start looking."

After a while, the detectives found a file with the name "Martin." They opened the document, and they saw only a few lines of text written.

"Peaklodge Mountain, July 15. 4 pm. Audrey Jensen."

"What does it mean?" Nancy wondered aloud.

Frank shrugged. "Maybe we'll find something once we look at what happened at Peaklodge Mountain. It's pretty close to Bayport, actually."

However, Nancy noticed that as she clicked at the bottom of the document, there seemed to be a text hidden in it. She dragged the mouse over the blank spaces beneath the initial sentence and saw that more messages began to appear.

"What is this?" she wondered. The others looked.

Nancy read the message aloud:

"'You'll regret it, Martin Rousseau. You will regret dumping me!! And I will make your life miserable, you two-timer! You're lucky I didn't tell that rich girlfriend of yours about your other girlfriend, Annette. If I did, you'll be as poor as church mouse after she leaves you. What a sight to see!! I wouldn't dare miss that out!'"

The foursome looked at each other.

"Wow, she surely hates Martin," Ned remarked.

"And what a loser he was!" Iola said disgustedly. "To borrow money from his fiancée and to two-time on her! What a nerve he must have!"

Nancy took the CD from the laptop and placed it back inside its case. "Now I should be calling Dad and get help with this case. I can't search nearly as efficiently on the Internet. Dad can virtually look up anything anywhere!"

She took out her cell phone and called her father. However, the message stated that he was either away to a place where the signal was not reaching or had his cell phone turned off. She sighed and flipped her phone shut. She then looked at Frank.

"Frank," she said. "Your father is a private investigator, right? Then can you ask him to search this for us? I can't reach my dad right now, and I need the info as soon as possible."

Frank nodded. He called his father, who was more than eager to help, and Mr. Hardy agreed to investigate the case right away.

"This is one case off our back," Nancy then said, sighing.

"Now we should get back to the hotel," Frank suggested. "Mr. Charlock must have come to his senses by now."

Nancy sighed again.

"What's wrong?" Ned asked.

"It's just that I can't figure out the trick that was used in the second murder. Just think about this. Iola saw Martin get killed in Renee's room. And then we found one set of footprints leading to the cabin. In the cabin we found Martin's body. But if the killer killed Martin, carried his body to the cabin, and left it there, then how did he vanish?"

Frank shrugged. "Oh, I think it's time to use that notebook," he then said with a grin. He took out Joe's notebook. Nancy looked at it confusedly.

"This is the notebook that Dad gave Joe, and there are tons of useful tips in here. Let's see…His first hint would be this: Do not believe everything that you see or hear from others, no matter how reliable he or she is."

Nancy listened to the tip, and suddenly something in her mind fell into place. The big jigsaw puzzle that she was unable to complete was starting to come together!

"I get it now!" she exclaimed. "So what we thought was there actually wasn't!"

The others looked perplexedly at Nancy while she told Frank to drive as fast as possible to go to the hotel. "I have something in mind," she added with a grin.

Once back at the hotel, the detectives went to the old innkeeper, who was sipping a cup of coffee that Bess had made. George grinned as she saw the detectives.

"So…Found anything?"

"A lot," Nancy answered. "But first, Frank and Iola, can you go talk to Mr. Charlock? I'll go look for something."

Frank agreed and stayed with Iola. Nancy then rushed to the cabin, with Bess, George, and Ned following her. As they reached the cabin, Nancy looked at inside the cabin. She grinned. "Just as I thought. There's just little amount of blood. This means that Martin was killed somewhere else and then carried to this cabin. Now, we'll have to find the place where he was killed."

Nancy then went outside again and to the back of the cabin. She squinted. There was nothing out of the ordinary, with dried mud everywhere. She thought about it and nodded. Without answering her friends' calls, she ran back to the hotel and came back with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. Confused, the others asked her why she needed that.

"It's a little science experiment," she said with a wink. She started pouring small amounts of the liquid onto the ground. Then, she stopped as she saw the fizzing that took place at a certain spot. She poured some more around the area and found that mud around that place was also fizzing. She stopped.

"That's definitely it," she said. "Martin wasn't killed in Renee's room, as Iola had said. He was killed here."

Postscript: What does she mean when Nancy said that what they thought was there actually wasn't? And why was killed behind the cabin when his demise was witnessed by Iola herself? Find out more in the next chapter of this story, which will be up next Friday. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as much as you'll enjoy Harry Potter! (Well, if you like Harry Potter books, that is.)