Author's Note: Here is the sixth chapter. Thank you to everyone who has read the story and left a review. This chapter is a little longer than the previous ones. The chapters might get longer as the story progresses. Enjoy the story!

Story so Far:- On interrogating the suspects of the rock-climbing incident, what did Nancy get? A spoiled boy and an injured ex-athlete. Not very suspicious... Nancy thinks so too. Will Nancy get anything worthwhile from her following investigation?

Chapter 6: One Fire and Zero Leads

"Nancy! Come on, how long are you going to sit and sulk?" George called out to me.

I looked up at her. Both she and Bess wore the same looks of exasperation. The reason was obvious: me. They were fed up with my mood. Thing is, I can't accept it. I can't accept that yesterday's incident was nothing but an unlucky incident. What was more unbearable was the knowledge that I had absolutely zero leads.

I turned away from them and looked instead at the lake on my left. As was already planned, we had come boating. The lake where we currently were was around ten miles away from our camp. That, and the fact that the roads were pretty bad, made us inevitably late.

I had hardly uttered a dozen words as we had boarded the same bus which had bought us to the camp. All during the bus ride, Bess and George had made several futile attempts to get me to join the conversation. I had distractedly made a few disjointed comments here and there, but anybody could see my mind was elsewhere.

"I will come and join you once the boats have been arranged," I snapped back. When we arrived half an hour later than our appointed time, we found that there were a few less boats than we had expected. So, we had to wait.

George walked up to me, "Listen Nancy, Bess and I know that you are disappointed with the progress of this case. You would never have dismissed it as an accident otherwise. But that's no reason to spoil the wonderful week ahead."

Bess added, "She's right, Nan. Things will look up. Believe me or not, you will soon see to the end of yesterday's incident."

Feeling slightly more hopeful, I willed myself to stand up from the rock I had been sitting on.

We joined John and Michael for some small talk. John was talkative as ever. Michael seemed subdued but he was much better than the total nervous wreck he had been the day before.

When enough boats could be arranged we get called. It's no more than five to a boat plus the person who will ensure safety of the boaters. John and Michael accompany us.

We all took turns rowing following the instructions. As expected, George did it fairly well. Michael, it turned out, was really strong. He is hefty, true, but I would never have guessed he could row so fast. It's like he is a natural at it.

After a long time of messing around, we rowed back to the shore. Even after having a late lunch, we still had an hour to spare.

I got Bess and George to accompany me on a long walk. It was pleasant to walk along the narrow and nearly empty roads and being able to forget the failure of the case, if only for a short time.

As we made our way back to the camp after half an hour, we were forced to stop on hearing the roaring of the engine of a bike. We turned around and spotted a Kawasaki coming towards us.

On seeing the three of us, the bike slowed down to a stop. The biker removed his helmet. He was probably in his early thirties, with sandy hair piercing blue eyes. Those eyes vaguely reminded me of someone. The man asked us, "Excuse me. How far away will Lincer Estate be?"

That's when I remembered where I had seen those eyes before. Ariana Willin. "It's about an hour away from here," I said.

The man sighed, "This place has changed remarkably in the last couple of years. It's a shame, I have to ask for the directions to my own ancestral house," he looked at us enquiringly.

"As a matter of fact, we are going there as well," I said, "We are actually camping there for a week. We came here to a lake for some boating. If you like, you can follow our bus."

"That would be great. You mentioned a lake. Is it the one which is about twenty minutes from here?"

"Yeah, that would be it," Bess said, "Do you live there? In Lincer Estate I mean."

"No. Not anymore at least. I had lived there for a considerable part of my youth. My father inherited a house in the next town while his brother inherited this plot. I come to visit this place once in a while. Jen did mention a few months ago that some campers will be arriving around this time."

"My name is Derek by the way," he added, "Oh, here's my card." He pulled out his wallet and took out one card, "My stock is running low," He handed it out to us a little apologetically.

I slipped it into my pocket after a brief glance.

"Lead the way," he said dismounting from his bike. His phone started ringing. He took the call.

I watched as his expression gradually transitioned from 'cheerful' to 'horror'. He uttered 'What!' and 'Oh my god' a couple of times. 'Be right back," he said just before hanging up.

He looked really distressed over something. He proceeded to turn around his bike in the opposite direction. He seemed to have forgotten that the three of us were standing there.

"Um...excuse me...," I said feebly. He looked up and seemed to have noticed us for the first time.

"Uh, I got a-a really bad news. My house, it has-it has gone up in flames, I have to return back right now. I will call Jen and inform her later. I need to go home," and with that, he started the engine and the Kawasaki disappeared within seconds.

"That's some serious bad luck," George said, "Thank god it's just the next town."

"Poor man, if his house was anything like Lincer Villa, then, then it is a tragedy," Bess said.

"Hope they were able to clear out from the house, who knows how long the fire truck will take to reach the place," I said.

After a few more comments, we continued walking back towards the lake. Turns out, nobody was very keen to leave the lake and the beautiful surroundings and it was well in the evening when our bus left for the camp.

"Let's go out and take some pictures," Bess suggested, I need to change my profile pictures. It's been a week since I last changed it."

George rolled her eyes behind Bess. George was a tech-enthusiast, no doubt, but she was only interested in the editing part while Bess was bothered only in clicking model-perfect photos.

"In this dark?" I asked. It was already 7 p.m. and other than the camp fire, the rest of the campsite was in near darkness.

"I think there is a feature in cameras which we call as 'flash', Nancy," Bess teased me.

"Oh yeah, of course, I am going mad," I shrugged.

As we headed out of the tent, I realised that I was kind of dreading having to watch Bess pose fancy shots for what could well be hours.

So, I said, "Why don't you two carry on with the photo shoot? Meanwhile, I will call dad."

It was the only convincing idea I had. It was not like Bess and George were boring or irritating; it's just that I wasn't in the mood for watching a photo shoot.

I called dad and had a long chat with him. I told him everything; about our boating, how my fellow campers thought I was making a mountain out of a molehill, how I sometimes doubted myself to be capable of solving mysteries, "And I really wonder now if there is any substance behind my suspicions over yesterday's incident." While talking, I had walked into the woods and sat down at the foot of the tree. I leaned my head against the bark of the tree and closed my eyes, trying hard to keep my emotions from surfacing.

My dad took a deep breath, then said in a soft, reassuring voice, "Tell me again, what did you think when you saw the severed rope?"

"It had been cut in a straight line with a sharp instrument. It hadn't worn out."

"Tell that to yourself whenever you are in self-doubt. A rope can't cut itself. Someone had done it, and you will find out who did it, right?"

"Right, dad," I said. My voice shook a little. I took a deep breath and steadied my voice. There was another thing I had to tell him, "Today we met a man..." I told him the incident with Mr Derek.

"Ok. I will try to get some information about it, but I really need to hang up now. Bye Nancy."

"Bye dad," I said. I looked up and noticed someone a little denser in the woods. I got up from the foot of the tree and walked stealthily towards the person.

"Oh no, it's ok." I recognised the voice immediately. Ariana Willin. She was talking with someone on the phone. I made to walk away but curiosity got the better of me when I heard her say, "No Derek, that was obviously your first priority."

She had her back turned towards me, so I really didn't have to bother about her spotting me.

It soon became obvious that she was talking to the very same Derek we had encountered earlier that day. Nobody from the bungalow had accompanied us today, I suddenly remembered.

She was saying, "What! Oh that's terrible. It was a really nice fountain. Oh no, all burnt to ashes," she didn't appear to be genuinely bothered, but she was really good at acting. Not many people could have judged it, but with my experience, I could say that she couldn't be less bothered about her cousin's estate.

After a few more minutes of fake moaning, she hung up the call with a final, "Yeah, that's true. I did plan a bonfire had you come. Never mind, it will be kept due."

With a slight smile on her face, Ariana slipped the phone in her pocket and headed back to the bungalow.

The smile didn't bother me, to be honest. There could be a hundred different explanations behind it. There might have been an old family scuffle, or there might have been disagreements on land inheritance, or Ariana Willin might as well be so mean that she is glad simply because she didn't have to arrange the bonfire.

That wasn't my business, I thought. Right now, my business was to find Bess and George and make up to them for my lack of enthusiasm in their photo shoot plans.

I found them around the campfire chatting with Amelia and Dorothy. Bess and Amelia were comparing their picture filters. George and Dorothy were engrossed in what appeared to be a very absorbing discussion. I paid attention to the latter.

They were talking about the power of electronic media and how fast news can travel in today's time.

I said, "You know, my father knew about the rock-climbing incident even before I could get a call through to him. He said he saw your post, George."

"Yeah, the post did draw some attention," Dorothy said, "You see most people hadn't even heard of Caslart Hill or Coneycombe. They wanted to know more about the place."

"I was thinking about an article, you know about the place. If possible, then a brief history of this estate and a brief interview of the residents," George said.

"No chance," Dorothy shook her head, "I asked Miss Willin for permission to do the same but she told me in no unclear terms that it was a residential place and occasionally a camping ground, but in no way was I supposed to publicize and turn it to a tourist spot," she shrugged.

"I wonder why is it so. It is a really nice place. Many people would like to come here," George said.

"This is the Lincer Estate, my child, the Lincer Estate," Mr. Gordon, the caretaker said, "One is not supposed to ask many questions around here."

But suddenly, I had a question for him, "Mr. Gordon, does Miss Willin have any enemies?"

"Who doesn't?" Mr. Gordon said.

It was evident that he wasn't going to answer any questions the straightway.

Nevertheless, I tried again with something out of the context, "I wonder why Miss Willin ascended the cliff just over the rocks."

"Uh Nancy, she didn't," Dorothy answered, "She started more towards the left, but as her line of ascent got crowded, she was forced to shift to her right, with the rocks below her."

Another lead busted, I thought. Mr. Gordon had walked away before I could pose any further questions. Nothing was going as I had anticipated so far in this case.

Minutes before I drifted off to sleep that night, I felt I heard two disjointed voices talking in the woods. Then their voices changed into shrill shrieks as a house burnt up in flames. George was standing there, updating a post when the house changed into my house with Dad and Hannah trapped inside and they got wiped from my memory for all eternity.

Author's Note: Nancy is still not in a very good mood, and Mr. Gordon has creepy vibes. Let's see what happens on the next day. You won't be disappointed, hopefully. Please leave a review.

Also, in this chapter Nancy still loves Bess and George a lot. It's just that it isn't one of her best days and she is really upset about the case and as a result she is being a little short with her all-time companions.