Author's Note: Thanks to all those who have read and reviewed the story. There is something I wanted to mention just for clarity, in this story, Nancy, Bess and George are 17 years old, John is 19 and Michael is 20. It does not have any story significance, but I felt it would be good to mention it.

Story so Far:- In light of the recent rock climbing incident, Nancy, Bess and George sit down to chalk out their information. They get a not-so-long list of suspects because almost anybody in the camp could be involved.

Chapter 5: Sleuthing Around

"Whom shall we talk to first?" George asked as we made our way out of the tent once I had filled in Bess and George about the new information I had got.

"Nancy, I was thinking that we could ask around a bit, you know, if anybody noticed something during the climb," Bess suggested.

"Yeah, we could do that, but let's make the suspects our first priority," I looked around at the crowd, unsure of where to start from, "Guys, any idea where we can find Mr. Malcolm?"

"He seems to have headed back to the bungalow," Bess said scanning the crowd.

Uh-oh. I didn't want to head to the bungalow right now. It must be full of the police. "How about we find James first?" I suggested.

We found him sitting on the branch of a tree, with headphones plugged in his ears. We had to shout a few times before he heard us.

"Hey! Wanna come up? The network's better here," James called out to us.

"Well we were wondering if you would bother to come down," I said mentally preparing a non-existing list of questions.

Whatever my dad said, I wasn't going to give him a clean chit without being sure. Still, I wasn't quite sure what to ask him. I racked my brains and all I could think of was to ask him what he was doing here camping. But first I needed him to get down the tree and pull out his stupid earphones.

James merely shrugged and plugged in his earphones once again. This was going to take time.

One thing I have learnt in such a situation is to never stop being adamant. If I could irritate him enough, he was bound to come down.

Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I tried again, "Hey! We are waiting. We can wait here all day if need be". It was working. James was getting restless. After another couple of shouting round, James was forced to oblige.

"What?" he asked indignantly, as he jumped onto the ground, "What do you want to know, sleuth?"

"What are you doing here, climbing cliffs and trees? Shouldn't you be in a five-star hotel?" I got straight to the point.

James scowled. This was clearly not his favourite topic, "Apparently, my grandparents feel that I need to introduce some 'discipline' into my life, and my dad immediately felt it necessary to send me on a camp".

"You are making a great show of discipline. Why, we were just talking about how James is the kind of boy who never pushes people on a cliff, who will always think about how dangerous it can be to not follow the rules while rock climbing," I replied sarcastically.

"What? You implying I tried to kill the owner of this blasted estate?" He started walking in the direction of the tents. The three of us followed him. James continued, "Well all because I bullied Michael, doesn't mean I am out with a knife to kill off anybody and everybody I come across".

He had started walking with longer strides and I had to strive to keep up with his pace, "Well, I have one question. You are not one for sports. Why were you so desperate to scale the cliff?"

"Well I have a question for you," He said turning around from the entrance of his tent, "Why would I bother to kill her, girl sleuth?" and he disappeared inside the tent.

I stood there, debating whether to go in or not, but finally decided against it. Besides, what was left to ask him? And what he said was true. He might be a bully but I could see no reason as to why he would want to murder Ariana Willin and later question it rhetorically.

I turned around and started walking towards the bungalow, wondering whether it would be less crowded now.

Apparently, we didn't need to go all the way to the bungalow. As we gradually approached the house, we decided to take a detour through the woods. We had hardly been walking five minutes, when we spotted Mr. Malcolm, taking a stroll through the woods, his frown back in place.

What better could I hope for? "Excuse me! Mr. Malcolm!" I called out.

He spotted and spotted us. We reached him. I had decided that taking the offensive with him won't help. So, I started by introducing myself. "I am Nancy Drew from River Heights, and these are my friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne". He looked at each one of us in turn. He seemed a little confused on seeing 'George', just like most people usually are, but didn't ask any questions so I didn't bother to elaborate.

"I am an amateur private detective back in River Heights. So, after this-err-mishap, our camp instructor, Mr. William Jones asked me to look into the matter. I thought that since you have been here for quite some time now, you may have some valuable information."

"Uh, well I came here for a recovery four months ago," he said, "I had been pretty much completely confined to my room for the first two months and it has only been recently that I have started going out, so I don't know an enormous lot about this place."

"Ok. What was the nature of your injury?" I asked cautiously.

He sighed and said, "I was cycling down a hill a little after dark. A very dangerous activity, I later learnt. All I remember was the wheel stumbled over a stray rock, and I fell tumbling down. My torso was bruised all over, my left knee cap had to be replaced and I dislocated my left shoulder joint."

That was a lot of injuries. Enough to put a permanent scowl on a national-level athlete. Maybe I had judged him a little too quickly.

"Oh, I am sorry to hear this," I said in a small voice as I felt a little guilty.

"Why should you be sorry? If it was anybody's fault, it was mine," he said with an edge to his voice, "Just one day of careless cycling will probably ruin my entire career."

"Wasn't there anybody to look after you?"

"Oh yes, my personal assistant, Charlie. He worried himself a lot over my health. He was a little too uptight at times, always insisting that I should take rest," his expression softened a little before continuing, "Of course, when I heard you all were coming over, I practically told him to clear off. You see, I am not supposed to be taking part in any form of physical activity, but I guess I had my share of sitting around. It was after months that I did any form of sports today," he finished.

What my Dad said did turn out to be right after all, I thought. Sometimes I am a little too rash at judging people, I guess.

"No negative effects, I hope?"

"Not much, although, now that I think about it I feel rather worn out, so if you don't have any further questions for me, I would return to my room. That is if the police let me," he grinned.

"Yeah sure, but I hope you will cooperate if I need further help."

"Oh sure," and with that he turned around and headed back towards the bungalow.

The three of us unwillingly left the quiet of the woods and walked back to the bustling crowd of the campers.

"Seems like we seriously misjudged someone," Bess whispered.

"I know," I said, "You know what, let's just go and have lunch."

In contrast to the breakfast, lunch was a silent affair. No one felt like talking much.

"What to do now Nancy?" George asked when we had finished eating and were sitting on the logs aimlessly.

"Well, the best course of action would be to ask around if anybody noticed something amiss," I said.

"Then let's do it," Bess proceeded to get up when she noticed the look on my face, "What's wrong, Nancy?"

"Nothing," I said standing up, "It's just that any leads we had got busted," I tried to pull myself together, "But you are right, "Sitting around won't help solve the problem. We need to get a move on."

Turns out that everyone was rather too busy focusing on not falling down to notice much of what was going on. Not much of a surprise. It is probably a first-time thing for most of them. Even for those, who have done it before, there wasn't much of a scope for paying attention to others.

John, when Michael had somewhat calmed down, did say that it was possible for almost anybody to be the sabotager since at times there were several climbers climbing along the same line.

It was clear that the sabotager had used all this to their advantage.

Some people thought that this investigating was a waste of time. "The rope could simply have worn out," a boy called Bob had said. I pursed my lips and decided that it would be best to not answer this statement.

There was a fair amount of complaining going on as well. Dorothy grumbled about how it was unfair that she had to stop the climb halfway. Ruhi said "And I was so close to the top. Had I got only a couple more minutes, I could have done it". Most of them weren't much bothered that one of the owners of the estate had barely avoided losing her life or at least breaking her neck.

When I finally met up with Bess and George, my ears ringing with complains, it was past sunset.

After we all exchanged our similar experiences, George commented, "And here we were, thinking that the accident had caused all the bustle and din this morning."

I huffed in exasperation, "Seems like we are pretty much the only ones in this camp who are bothered about this incident," I said as I finished typing out a super-long text message to Dad, "What if it really was just that? An accident. And we are just making a mountain out of a mole hill," I finished with a bitterness in my voice.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review about whether you liked the chapter. Nancy is in a despondent mood now, she is so out of leads. She is just waiting for something to happen to leave her with a clue.