Foreword: A reader told me how stessed she was because I wasn't going to update until I get five reviews. Well, I finished writing this chapter, and even though I only got three reviews for the previous chapter, I decided to update the story. But I really wish my readers can review more because if nobody does, then I won't be able to tell if they like it or not. As I said, not being able to hear from my readers is a big stress for me. So please review for this chapter! Also, I seem to come up with a cliffhanger for every chapter. I think that's because I read so many ND and HB mysteries. I'm sure some of you will be shocked to read the last sentence, guaranteed, especially the illustrious Ned-fan:-)

6

Air-Tight and Rock-Solid Alibis

Frank and Ned were the ones who moved immediately. However, Ned was two yards behind when Frank dashed to break Nancy's fall. He was still a yard away as Frank caught the falling detective, whose eyes were opened wide in fright and surprise. "Thanks, Frank!" she managed to say as she tried to stop trembling.

"That was a close one, Nancy," Joe said, rushing to her with George. "That fall could've killed you or paralyzed you for life!"

Nancy nodded. "I know. Thanks a lot, Frank. I owe you one."

Frank grinned. "Don't mention it. After all, detectives are supposed to help each other."

Ned didn't say anything. He just stared coldly at Frank.

"But what made you fall?" George asked. "It's not as if you were wearing a high heel. In fact, you are wearing a pair of new sneakers you bought just a month ago."

"No," Nancy said, "it's not about my shoes, George. It's about the stuff that was on the top of the staircase."

The detectives went there to investigate. They saw some kind of liquid on the floor. Frank touched and smelled it. "Oil," he said. "It's the usual vegetable oil you use in cooking."

"Vegetable oil?" a voice asked from behind. The teenagers turned around. It was Mrs. Morley. She was coming to see what was causing such a fuss.

Nancy turned to her. "I slipped because of this vegetable oil that was poured on the ground. I have a feeling someone put it there intentionally."

"Oh, my!" Mrs. Morley was surprised. "Someone wanted to hurt you, Nancy?"

"I guess so," Joe answered.

"But why?"

"That we don't know yet."

Mrs. Morley was astonished. "I can't believe this. This vegetable oil is the same kind we use in the kitchen. I know it because the brand I use has a special scent because they used different ingredient to make it. I have to check if someone used it recently."

The brown-haired woman then went straight to the kitchen. Nancy followed her there. When they got there, Mrs. Morley opened the cabinet. "This is where I usually store my supplies," she said. After a while, she took out a bottle of vegetable oil.

"I knew it!" Mrs. Morley shouted. "This has been used recently! When I used it to make myself a cup of tea about forty minutes ago, it was still half full. Of course, an officer was standing by me all along. And he said that I was the only one to come into the kitchen ever since they came. But now, it's not even a third full!"

The rest soon joined. "That figures," Joe said. "Someone has been in here recently."

"Hmm…" Frank was thinking. "When did the police leave?"

"Oh, they finished gathering all the evidence they needed and cleaned the floor after taking the broken vase and the blood sample. They said they still didn't want us disturbing the evidence, so we are supposed to wear gloves when touching anything in here. They talked to us about what our alibis were and left just thirty minutes ago."

Nancy thought for a moment. "That means we have to check with the guests' alibis for the time of the murder and just thirty minutes ago." She looked at Mrs. Morley. "Where were you just thirty minutes ago?"

"I was in my room watching TV all the time. I don't have anyone to prove it."

Nancy quickly jot down what the woman said onto her notebook and nodded toward the others. "Now let's go check the other suspects," she said.

The second person they talked to was Jerome Stuart, who was Patricia's younger brother and Percival and Kent's older brother. He had brown eyes and gray hair. He smiled as he invited the detectives inside his room. "So, what is this about?" he asked them.

Nancy said, "We are here to investigate the murder. I would like to know where you were from five to six."

Jerome seemed to be uncomfortable talking about it. "Do you think one of us is the killer?"

Before Nancy could answer, George interrupted, "We don't know. That's why we are checking your alibi. If it turns out solid, then you obviously are not guilty."

Jerome nodded awkwardly. He sat down onto the chair and took a sip of tea. "I was in my room talking to my friend in Washington. You can call her and she'll tell you that my alibi is solid."

Nancy wrote down the telephone number of the friend he was talking about and kept a mental note to call her later and see if he was telling the truth. And then she asked him what he was doing just thirty minutes ago.

"I was here in my room, of course. Where else would you be in this late?"

"Do you have someone to back it up?" Nancy asked.

"I was calling my friend again and was telling her what happened. She seemed awfully upset."

Nancy nodded. "Well, thank you for your time." As she said so, she motioned the others to go out to the corridor. Frank immediately went to the lobby phone and called the woman with whom Jerome was talking on the phone. She answered it on the fifth ring. The detective asked her if she was talking to Jerome Stuart from five to six. She said yes and told them she had been talking to him almost every week at that time.

Frank jotted down some notes and nodded. He then remembered that the detectives came back at eight o'clock. Then, after talking with Mrs. Morley for fifteen minutes, Nancy ran up the stairs and slipped on the oil deliberately poured on the floor. So thirty minutes before that would be a quarter to eight.

"And I would like to ask one more question," Frank continued. "When did Mr. Stuart call you the second time?"

"Let's see," the woman said. She paused for a moment and said, "That was when my favorite TV show was about to end. I guess he called at seven-thirty and we talked until five minutes ago, which was five minutes before nine-thirty. I remember that because I had been watching TV."

Frank thanked the woman and hung up, then sighed. "His alibi is rock-solid," he said. "That means he couldn't have poured the oil on the floor."

"Then he must be innocent," George said.

"Not quite," Ned stated. "He could have used a cordless phone. I checked that all the phones in here have cords, so he could have brought a cordless phone with him."

"But the problem is," said Joe, "that we can't search his room without a search warrant. Let's just say his alibi is solid for now."

The young detectives went to the third suspect's room. He was Percival, the prominent lawyer. He was occupying the vacant room located on second floor to work. When he heard the knock, he unlocked the door and welcomed the sleuths. "Hello, how may I help you?"

Nancy smiled. "I'm checking everyone's alibi for the time the murder was committed and just thirty—I mean, forty—minutes ago." She quickly said forty because ten minutes had already passed since the police have left.

The attorney thought for a moment and then said, "Well, I was in my room all along, working on my case. I was sending my client some e-mail during the process. When was the murder committed?"

"From five to six," the girl detective answered.

"My computer can prove my innocence," the attorney said, moving aside, showing the teenagers the laptop. "I sent an e-mail approximately every ten minutes while I worked on my case. The computer's history will prove that. It stores the information of when I send and to whom I send my e-mails to."

Frank took seat and began searching. Several moments later, he nodded. "Yes, we have it, Percival. I think that's all we have to ask for now."

As they got out, the detectives thought for a moment again. "His alibi is solid," Joe said, "but his computer is a laptop. He can carry it around any time. And he doesn't even need ten minutes to go to the kitchen, take some of that vegetable oil, and then pour it onto the last step of the staircase. I think we should consider him without an alibi."

The next and the last suspect they visited was Kent, who was the youngest and had blond hair just like Joe. In fact, he was barely ten years older than him. He was very cooperative. His room number was number three and it was the closest one to the second door that led to the dining room, which was locked. Nancy thought he was the most suspicious because he was closest to the dining room so he could have gotten out of there unseen. "Hi, playing detectives as usual, I see," he said cheerily as he opened the door.

George grinned. "Hi. We want to see about your alibi. Where were you from five to six this morning and just fifty minutes ago?"

Kent thought for a moment. "Well, I was out to get myself some dinner and went out at five," he said.

"Dinner? That early?" Frank was suspicious.

"Ha-ha! There's nothing weird about that. You see, I'm a morning person and wake up at five everyday to go to work. So I eat breakfast at five-thirty, lunch at ten, and dinner at five-thirty. In other words, my clock is one to two hours faster than yours."

Nancy nodded. That made sense. She then asked, "Where did you eat at?"

"At Sea Mayhem Café. They serve the best seafood Florida can have."

"And when did you come back?"

"Exactly at six," he said. "That's when I saw everyone gathering at the dining room door, so I went there. And to my surprise, there was a body lying in there."

George nodded. "I saw him enter when all the other guests came to see what happened," she said. "And I think it was impossible for him to send Frank the note, knock him out once he went to the dining room, and then disappear from the room after shattering the vase."

"And what about just fifty minutes ago?"

"I was here. No one can prove it, unfortunately."

"Okay," Nancy said as she jot down what she heard. "Thanks for your time."

As the detectives left the premise, George said, "I think he's clean. His alibi is airtight. Besides…" She blushed. "He's kind of cute, too."

Nancy rolled her eyes. "Didn't you say you were going to wait for Burt to come back?" Burt Eddleton was George's former boyfriend who left the state, like Dave, because he needed training at a more advanced university than the one he was in. Ned stayed there, unlike his friends, and he thought that was what kept his relationship with Nancy steady.

"Oh, don't talk about it!" George said. "I know he'll come back someday."

"Hello?" Joe interrupted George's thought. "We need to find out who was the killer here, George," and, with a wink, he said, "and I don't want you falling in love with a suspect."

"Hey, Joe! Who's the new girl-of-the-week here?" Frank added mischievously. "I'm going to tell Iola that you are flirting with another brunette!"

"No fair!" Joe said. Now it was his turn to blush. "You know how angry she gets when she finds out I was even going close to another girl, especially a dark-haired one!"

Nancy stuck her hands out like a traffic cop. "People! We need to focus on this case, not do some flirting game. I need to find out who framed Frank. We don't have much time before the police gather all the evidence they need. And it's already nine o'clock!"

Everyone looked at the clock. Nancy was right. The old grandfather clock in the lobby rang nine times as it announced the hour.

"I think we should go back to our rooms," George said. "It's been a long day for us, especially for Frank. We'll meet in the morning and discuss this matter. Besides, I want to investigate the other murder tomorrow."

The rest nodded in agreement. Nancy wanted to investigate some more, but she knew she was tired and needed some rest. As each of them went to their own rooms, Nancy thought about what they should do tomorrow.

George already went into the room she shared with Nancy. The oil spill was already wiped off the floor, but Nancy took caution anyway. When she was about to open the door, two strong hands grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. Nancy had no time to scream, but she only gasped as she saw the face of the person who grabbed her from behind. "Ned?"

The expression on Ned's face told Nancy that he was serious. He asked her, "Can I talk to you privately?"

Nancy nodded and the two went into Ned's room. Inside, Ned turned to Nancy with a grim expression. The question that came out of her boyfriend's lips shocked Nancy.

"Are you in love with Frank?"

Postscript: One of my readers says she wants to see more Ned-Nancy scenes. Well, here is one. I never really liked romance novels and dreaded soap operas, so don't expect it to be a red-hot love story (no offense to those people who like reading those kinds). Next chapter will be up as soon as I finish it and/or when I get five reviews, as usual.

I'll give you some keywords for the next chapter so you'll have an idea what the next chapter will be about. The keywords are: second murder, motives, Ned's sorrowful past.