Warning: This chapter contains mature subject matter.

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Chapter 7: What Next?

Frank knocked on the open door of the coroner's small lab, which also served as her office. "Dr. Chambers, do you have a minute?"

The coroner looked up from her desk with a harried expression, but she smiled when she saw Frank. "I can spare a few for you, Frank," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm still curious about that body we found," Frank said. He walked in and sat on the corner of the desk. "Do you know yet if she was sexually active the night she died?"

"It doesn't look like it. At least, I'm about ninety percent sure she didn't have intercourse, anyway." Dr. Chambers leaned back and put her feet up on the desk. "Do you have any hunches? I find yours are usually better than Tom's."

Frank smiled. "Thanks! As it happens, I'm looking into a possible connection with a murder that happened in River Heights a few weeks ago."

Oh, really? What's the connection?"

"The guy was castrated after he was killed."

Dr. Chambers dropped her feet to the floor with a thump. "No kidding? That's quite interesting."

"I thought so, too. Especially once we found out he went to school with Tonya Amberson."

"Does the sheriff know this?"

"Not yet. I was planning to talk to him this afternoon, after I talk with Nancy Drew. She's checking on a few things for me."

"Well, don't wait too long."

"I won't." Frank grinned and stood up. "My dad's pestering me about it, too. Thanks for the information, Doctor. I'll let you and Sheriff Becker know what I find out."

"You do that."

Frank left the coroner's office and headed back to his car. So Tonya didn't have sex before she died, Frank thought, but Darren probably did. So, if the same person killed them, it probably wasn't because of sex. He pulled out his phone and rang Nancy's number. Her answering machine picked up immediately, indicating her phone was off.

That's weird, Frank thought as he waited for her answer message to finish. Nancy used to say she'd die if her phone ran out of power during the day. The phone beeped and Frank left a message. "Hi, Nancy, this is Frank. I was just calling to see if you learned anything following up your leads. Call me back when you can." He disconnected and stared thoughtfully at the phone. "Nancy's never out of touch. Something's wrong."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The police car turned into the Drews' driveway and stopped.

"Here you go, Miss Drew."

"Thanks, Officer." Nancy stepped out of the cruiser and waved as the patrolman backed out and drove away. Her car was parked in the driveway, so she was not surprised when Bess and George burst out of the front door of her home and hurried toward her.

"Are you all right, Nancy?" Bess asked worriedly.

"That took an awfully long time," George added.

"You know what Chief Jones is like," Nancy replied tiredly. "He had to ask every question three times and still act like I was trying to hide something. Let's go in. I need a cold drink."

"Chief Jones is such a jerk!" George declared angrily. "Chief Henderson was much better."

"Yeah, he respected you," Bess agreed.

"I know. But Jones is the one we're stuck with."

They went into the house. George and Bess followed Nancy into the kitchen, where she grabbed a soft drink out of the fridge.

"Do you want a glass?" Bess asked, opening a cupboard.

"No thanks." Nancy popped the top and took a long drink. "That's better. Do either of you want one?" Both girls shook their heads, so Nancy closed the door and took another drink. "Let's go in the living room. I need to put my feet up."

The three girls went to the living room, where Nancy collapsed into her dad's recliner and raised the footrest. Then she shifted around for a moment to slip her arms out of her purse, which she was wearing backpack-style, and dropped it on the floor beside the chair. George and Bess sat close together on the couch.

"So was that the woman you were looking for?" George asked.

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Bess exclaimed suddenly. "Ned called. He was worried because your phone was off."

"Dammit, that's right!" Nancy swore as she reached for her purse and dug her phone out. "That bastard Jones insisted I turn it off." She turned it on and then swore again as the screen came to life. "Five missed calls! Five! Stupid, arrogant…" She trailed off, still calling Chief Jones names as she retrieved her messages.

Only three of the missed calls had left messages. The first two were from Ned: one to ask her out next weekend and the second expressing concern about her phone still being off.

The third message was from Frank Hardy.

Nancy swore again. "I missed a call from Frank!" she growled. She listened to the message. "I need to call him back. You guys don't mind, do you?"

"No, go ahead," Bess replied.

Nancy punched Frank's number.

"Hello Nancy. I see you've got your phone back on. What's up?"

Nancy couldn't help smiling. "It seems like everyone knows me too well when it comes to my phone." But then she got serious. "Tonya and Darren did know each other. They were among a close group of friends in high school. This morning I went to see another one of their friends and found her dead in her living room. She'd been murdered about a week ago."

"You're kidding?!" Frank sounded stunned.

"I wish I was. The police grilled me for four hours. They acted like I'd killed her, not that I found her body."

"How was she killed? Was she mutilated like Tonya?"

"Her throat was slashed, probably with a piece of glass, which I think came from a picture frame I found broken. But no murder weapon was found and there was no broken glass anywhere. There was no blood either. My housekeeper couldn't get a place that clean. But I don't know if we'll be able to get the coroner's report. Chief Jones is pissed at me; for 'interfering', he says. He said he would speak to Sheriff Becker about you. I hope I haven't gotten you in trouble, too."

"Don't worry about it. Sheriff Becker and I get along just fine. I'll tell him everything we know when I see him. You better give me all the details."

Nancy proceeded to tell Frank everything she had learned since talking to him last. He listened carefully and only occasionally stopped her to ask questions. Nancy felt a little wrung out when she was finished.

"Nancy, that's great! I can't believe you got that much that fast." His voice took on an urgent tone. "We need to find the rest of the people from Darren and Tonya's group. I think they might be in danger."

"You may be right about that," Nancy agreed.

"And next time you're going to see someone, call me. I'll go with you."

"I'll do that." Nancy smiled again at the warm feeling his statement caused. "Talk to you later. Bye." She disconnected.

"So I take it he was pleased," George said.

"Yup." Nancy sipped her drink. "Now I'm really parched."

"Shouldn't you call Ned?" Bess asked.

"In a minute." Nancy closed her eyes and reclined a little further. "I'm ready to stop talking for a while."

George and Bess exchanged a glance.

"Should we stay for dinner?" asked George.

"You probably shouldn't." Nancy sighed. "I'm sure Chief Jones will have talked to Father by then. No doubt we'll end up having a 'discussion'." She made quote marks with her fingers.

"Ok, we'll take off then. See you tomorrow?"

"Definitely. I need to hit the gym."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Frank picked Joe up after school so he could fill him in on what he'd learned from Nancy.

"Wow!" Joe exclaimed. "She sure does work fast!"

"Nancy's a good detective, whatever else one may choose to think of her. Anyway, I think it's time to talk to the sheriff. Three high school friends being murdered within weeks of each other is too suspicious to keep to ourselves."

"True," Joe agreed. "But what about the empty picture frame? Is that worth mentioning?"

Frank thought for a moment. "No, not right now. For all we know the victim broke it herself and just left the frame on the wall to cover up a light spot."

"All right."

Frank drove to the sheriff's office.

As they walked in, Joe heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness!" he whispered to Frank. "Rose isn't on duty."

Frank just smiled as he addressed the deputy on duty, Burt Waverly.

"Afternoon, Burt. Is the sheriff in?"

"Hey Frank, Joe." Burt nodded a leisurely greeting. "Sheriff's pretty busy right now. Is it important?"

"Yeah. We have more information about that body we found."

Burt's eyes lit up with excitement. "That was something! Finding a body just lying there in the woods like that! It must've been real creepy!"

Frank tried not to laugh at Burt's rather comical expression. "It was definitely out of the ordinary."

"Well, hang on a second, I'll tell Tom you're here." Burt went into the back and knocked on the sheriff's office door. He stuck his head in, spoke for a second, and then came back to the front desk. "Sheriff says come on back; he wants to talk to you anyway."

"Great. Thanks, Burt."

Burt had left the door open, so Frank and Joe went right in.

"Shut the door, Joe," Tom said. "I'm glad you boys came by today. I needed to speak to you," he continued as they took seats in front of his desk. "What's this about you and Nancy Drew interfering in an investigation up in River Heights?"

Frank shook his head and smiled disarmingly. "We weren't interfering, Sheriff. I read about a murder in River Heights that struck me as really odd, and it turned out the victim worked for Nancy's father, Carson Drew. So we went to see Nancy and she took us to her dad's office. We looked through the victim's effects that were still in his office and found a picture of the victim and Tonya Amberson together, in his high school yearbook."

Tom's eyes widened. "When was this?"

"Yesterday. Nancy did a little more investigating about that picture and this morning she went to see a woman that she thought was a friend of theirs. Nancy found the woman dead. She'd been dead for a week." Frank shrugged. "Apparently, the River Heights police chief was a little unhappy that Nancy had found the body and thought she was interfering with his investigation of the other murder. But she was really helping me out about Tonya."

"I wish you'd told me all this sooner, Frank," Tom said. He frowned slightly. "This information could be very useful."

"Or it could have meant nothing." Frank leaned forward. "Look, Sheriff, I didn't say anything about it before now because we could just as easily have found nothing. No connection to Tonya Amberson."

"Well, that's true, I suppose…"

"And I didn't want to waste your time on a false lead." Frank tried to sound very earnest. "But as soon as I talked to Nancy, I came right over."

Tom nodded slowly, and then he smiled. "You've got real good instincts, Frank. Chief Jones does tend to get a little territorial when it comes to police matters, but I don't mind a little quality amateur help."

Frank smiled. "Thanks, Sheriff."

"Well, then, why don't you fill me in?" He grabbed a pencil and a notepad and leaned forward expectantly.

"All right," Frank said. "The other victim was named Darren Bolton…" he began.