Author's Note: Here is the fourth chapter. From now on, the updates will be once a week. Thank you to Drumboy 100 and Elizabeth Joan-hbnd girl for reviewing every chapter. Thanks to everyone who has read this story. Enjoy the story!

Story so Far:- Rock climbing didn't turn out to be much of an enjoyable experience after all. At least, not when the a life attempt is made on the owner of the campsite. What will Nancy do now?

Chapter 4: Suspicions and Leads

I squeezed Bess's arm. She looked at me with a pale face, and then seemed to pull herself together.

"Come", I tugged on Bess's arm motioning her to follow me. George, John and Michael followed us. We made our way to the back of the crowd.

"Having some problem, blank head?" James shouted hitting Michael hard on the head as he passed by. Michael tumbled forward and nearly fell.

"Hey!" I shouted at James indignantly but he had already run far away.

"Are you okay?" I asked Michael, concernedly. Michael looked rather shaken and he had a blank, desperate look in his eyes. I felt really pitiful for him.

"Umm...well, I think I should better take him to our tent. He isn't coping too well with the flashback", John said looking agitated.

I nodded my head in response. John led away his best friend.

Beside me, Bess had recovered from her state of shock.

"You need to get to the bottom of this Nancy," Bess said in a hushed voice. "Yeah, of course," I said distractedly, "You know what, let's head to our tent and chalk out things a little." Ever since the sabotage incident, the whole camp had been buzzing with noise. I needed some place quiet to concentrate, and the tent would be perfect.

"How are we supposed to proceed?" George asks quizzically "Well...," I pondered for a moment, "Let's make a list of all possible suspects...", I trailed off noticing the look on Bess's and George's face.

"I know, that would be almost all the people in this camp", I sighed. "Let's just start talking and we will see where it leads to", Bess suggested. Not having any other idea I started talking while George jotted down points on her smartphone.

"Well, to start, I was the last person to reach the top before the mishap occurred", I said searching my mind for further points.

"How about listing all those people we are sure weren't involved, I mean those who had already reached the top?" Bess said.

"Umm...you two were there, Amelia, Mr. Jones, and there were those two gymnasts who go to the state meets every year. Anyone else?" This wasn't a really long list but my brain was working slowly.

"There was a tall girl from Camber Hedge, who was well-skilled at climbing, but rather slow", Bess added thoughtfully.

"And there was that girl, Rihanna, I think she is called, from Camber Hedge", George provided, typing the last few keys, "Really, I think that is all".

"Now, about those, who were on the cliff. We all saw where the rope had been severed. So we can guess that the sabotager was quite close to the top", Bess provided.

I nodded. "Umm...to start..." I trailed off. I couldn't think of any specific leads. There were just too many people on the cliff.

"That boy James, you know, the one who is always picking on Michael, wasn't he roughly pushing everyone to get to the top first", Bess said, "As long as I noticed, he wasn't actually making much of a headway, his technique is so wrong", she pondered.

"He also appeared unperturbed about the accident", George added.

"But why would he?" I asked, "What is the possible motive?" I couldn't understand how attempting to murder Ariana Willin would help him.

"But it is suspicious", I agreed, "There might be more to the story. What's next?"

"Other than James...umm...Mr. Malcolm was also close to the top", George said.

"That's weird", Bess muttered, "Isn't Mr. Malcolm supposed to be a national-level athlete. If so, shouldn't he have scaled the cliff faster?"

"You have a point, Bess", I said thoughtfully. "Add him to the list of suspects just next to James. We will check them out this afternoon".

I scanned my memory for anything else that was suspicious but unless we were planning to add half the camp as a suspect, we didn't have any other leads. Still, I will make sure to ask around in the camp if anybody noticed anything.

"Yeah, but first I would like to call dad. You two can go on". I wanted to ask dad about Mr. Nicholas Malcolm.

My dad, Carson Drew, was a lawyer and he would often give me valuable information while on a case. Ever since my mom passed away when I was 3, my dad has been both my mom and dad. I knew from experience that it was always best to discuss a case with him beforehand.

"Hey dad," I smiled as he answered the call, "Sorry I couldn't call yesterday. I was a little worn-out."

"It's ok. I have been seeing your friends' social media posts. I have a pretty good idea what you have been doing," he said, "Anyways, how is your camping going?"

"Pretty good, I think. We went rock climbing today," I bit down on my lip, "An incident happened today."

"And does that involve the owner of the campsite rolling down the cliff?"

I was a little stumped. I knew that he had been keeping an eye out for any events but I didn't know information would reach him so fast. "Whoa!" I said, "It is creepy, the way you know about it so fast."

I could hear my dad laughing.

"I mean, who posted the news? The network is fluctuating pretty badly up here..."

"None other than one of your best friends, George. She posted an update about an hour ago."

Of course. Who else would it be? Now that I think about it, she was indeed tapping away on her phone, while still on the cliff. I think the network was better on the cliff.

I proceeded to fill in the details to dad. When I was done, I gave him a few seconds to arrange his thoughts and further added, "And Mr. Malcolm, who is supposed to be an athlete was still on his way, when half a dozen were already done. Isn't he supposed to be fitter than the rest of us?"

Dad waited a second before answering, "Well, I think it would be unwise to comment on his fitness without knowing about the nature of his injury. It might as well be that he has been out of practice for a long time or that his injury is taking time to heal."

I realised that what he was saying might be correct. It won't be good to accuse somebody without knowing the full story.

"Anybody else?" Dad asked.

"Uh...yeah, dad do you know about this boy from River Heights called James?" I know that he might be nothing more than the usual trouble-makers scattered over the wall, but I would still prefer to talk him over with dad.

"Would that be James Stigman, son of Simon Stigman?"

"James Stigman?" I wondered aloud. From the other side of the tent, both Bess and George nodded their heads in approval. "Yeah, that would be him, why?"

"Well, Simon Stigman won a lottery a few years ago and he invested the money in a business, which turned out to be rather profitable, and now he is one of the wealthiest businessmen in River Heights."

"He pampered his son James to no end, made him a spoiled miscreant who squandered pounds of money every day. It is a surprise that he is out there camping instead of indulging in his ever-present luxuries," Dad finished with bitterness in his voice. He was a firm believer in working hard and valuing money.

"Has he been up to something?" Dad asked, "He has a record as a mishap-maker."

"Actually he appeared to be pretty care-free while the rest of the camp was agitated. Also, he was disturbing the other climbers, but these are petty things, right?" I sighed. I was getting to nowhere.

"You are right Nancy. These aren't surprising facts. Rather, they match with his character."

"Yeah, that's about all I guess," I said with yet another sigh, "Say hi to Hannah for me. You take care."

"You take care as well Nancy. Don't let the case spoil the camping."

"I won't. Bye Dad," I hung up dejectedly. Somehow, the call had left me with lesser leads than I had at first.

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