Foreword: To "nancy drew": I think the name Nedfan is great. But you always said that Nancy and Ned should be together, and your temporary username is "nancy drew". I think the name "nancy nickerson" would sound better for you. It's just my suggestion, so if you want Nedfan, then it's okay. The process of putting your story up is easy: you just have to load the document at Document Manager and post it. There is a Logout link by your username at the top once you log in. And to put stuff in your profile, just go to Account, then click on Profile at the top right corner. I hope I answered all of your questions.

Anyway, I wanted to get my readers involved in this mystery, so I came up with a challenge to you. There will be three challenges. The first one will be to see how the killer escaped from the locked room. The second one is the message hidden in the coded message I will show you at the end of this chapter. The last one is the killer's identity.

The first and the third challenges will be answered at the end of the story. The answer to the unknown message will be known in the next chapter. Try to find out the message before I give you the answer.

Nedfan, a.k.a. nancy drew, told me how Nancy solves more mystery in 57 to 175 of the original series and some in the NDFiles. But I only consider 1 to 56 as originals, since it's impossible for a girl to solve three hundred mysteries in only three years (not to mention most of them are out of print right now), so these stories happen in between The Thirteenth Pearl and The Triple Hoax.

This foreword has been a little bit too long, so I will just let you read the newest chapter. Oh, and please review!

7

Too Many Motives

"Why, Ned!" Nancy managed to say. "I think of him as a friend. Nothing more, nothing less."

Ned looked at Nancy with a hurt expression. "I was just…well…confused. You and Frank seemed to be more than just friends."

Nancy was silent. "All I can say is that you are my boyfriend, Ned. I know we sometimes dated different people, but I was always thinking of you. You are the only one meant for me."

Turning around once again, Ned said, "I don't want to lose you, Nancy."

Nancy looked at Ned.

"I don't want to lose another girl I loved," Ned said.

Nancy kept quiet.

"I fell in love with a girl when I was a junior in high school. She was really sweet and nice to me. Then, I found one day that she was just hanging out with me because she wanted to meet the quarterback in my football team. I was really hurt when she dumped me right after we won the championship. I invited her over for dinner as a celebration, but she laughed at me, saying, 'Do you think I was really in love with you?'"

Ned stopped talking. He looked out the window into the darkness outside that covered the entire sky, grass, and trees. "I was really shocked when she left and went to a different party hosted by the quarterback. I hated the feeling. And I promised never to like a girl again. But…" He turned toward Nancy. "Then, I met you at the burning house two years ago."

Nancy remembered every single detail. She nodded.

"And I knew you were different from that girl. I knew you were honest. Honesty really does count, especially when you are dating someone. I trusted you. And I still trust you. I was really worried when I saw you falling down the staircase."

Nancy managed a smile. "I'll be careful."

Ned hugged his girlfriend tightly. "I love you, Nancy."

"Wake up, sleepy bone!" George shouted as she opened the curtains. A bright burst of sunlight shot into the room, making Nancy nearly blind. She opened her eyes lazily. "Come on, out of the bed!" George kept shouting.

Nancy sat up on the bed and rubbed her eyes. When she looked at the clock, it was already seven o'clock.

"Oh, great," Nancy muttered as she changed her clothes from pajamas to the usual street clothes. In less than five minutes, the girls ran out the door and into the corridor. As they did so, Nancy saw Frank and Joe come out of their rooms as well. Frank waved to Nancy and she waved back. She then spotted Ned coming out of the room right next to hers.

Ned smiled warmly at the girl sleuth and said, "So, what's the plan for today?"

"We have to cancel our investigation for the second murder for now. We'll have to investigate the murder that I was asked to solve."

"But first, I'd like some breakfast," Frank said, putting his hand on his stomach. "That hot dog I ate last night wasn't enough."

Joe agreed. "Do we go down to the dining room now?"

Nancy nodded. "They will be serving breakfast anytime now."

When the detectives arrived, all the quests were already at the dining room. Now that Nancy looked at it thoroughly, she noticed that the dining room was quite big. Even though it seemed small from the outside, they could easily seat ten people at the table with a foot of space between each chair. They took their seats.

Mrs. Morley came into the dining room wearing an apron and a broad grin. She was holding a bowl filled with fruits including grapes, oranges, apples, bananas, cherries, and strawberries. Next she brought a loaf of bread and some butter and jam, then a jar filled with orange juice.

Even though the breakfast was simple, the orange juice was very delicious and tasted different from the ones Hannah bought at the local supermarket. Nancy smiled. "This is really marvelous, Mrs. Morley," she commented.

"Thank you, Nancy," the cook said. "I hope you'll have a good day."

As Nancy and her friends finished breakfast, they went out to the orange orchards and started investigating. When they got to the scene of the first murder, Nancy saw the sets of footprints leading to the cliff and back. There were yellow police tapes surrounding the area.

Nancy noted that there were two sets of footprints. One was leading to the cliff and the other one went to the cliff and came back.

"According to the police, the day Christina died, the ground was muddy because the rain had been falling for a whole day. She was found with a broken neck and it appears that someone had pushed her down the cliff," Nancy said grimly. "And I guess the person got away with murder."

Joe was thinking. "We don't know why she was here or why she was pushed."

"Maybe she was pushed because she was here," Frank suggested. "But why was she here? Who was here with her?"

"We can't solve any mystery if we just stand here," Ned said. "We'd better find out about Christina in person."

Nancy smiled and nodded. Sometimes, she was really amazed at Ned's detective skill and his logical mind.

Maybe, she would think, someday, Ned and I can open a detective agency. Drew-Nickerson Agency? No, Nickerson-Drew sounds better, for some reason…

Oh, what am I thinking? Nancy shook her head to clear away her daydreaming. This is time for some investigative works, not a time to daydream!

"I suggest that we go to her friends and ask if anyone held a grudge against her," the detective with the titian-colored hair said. The others agreed.

"Usually, there are three kinds of motive for murder," Frank said. "First one is for revenge. A person, like Bailey in our more recent case, for instance, can hate another person so much she decided that the only way to please herself was to kill the other person.

"The second type is money. People do many strange things for money. For instance, the wealthy couple in our last case wanted money desperately they didn't care if they had to put an innocent girl behind bars.

"And the third is accidental. This doesn't count as motive, but when a person has seen another person do something illegal, the person breaking the law will have no choice but to kill the witness."

Joe pretended to yawn. "Is the seminar over yet, Professor Frank Hardy?" he asked teasingly. "When will we get a chance to interview her friends?"

Nancy grinned. "I think it's time to pay a visit to Christina's room…"

The detectives went to Mr. Percival Stuart, Christina's husband. He was typing on his laptop when he heard a knock on the door. "Yes?" he asked when he opened the door. He saw the detectives' faces and smiled, letting them inside. Once they were all inside, Percival sat down and asked, "Well, what is it that you want now?"

"We want to search Christina's room," Nancy said. "That way, we can find out who had been in contact recently and find out if she had enemies."

Percival seemed happy that the detectives were working on the case. He said yes and told them to ask his sister for the key to Christina's room, which was the vacant one on the second floor. Because police didn't want the evidences to be disturbed, they had asked Percival to move to a different room. That was a good idea, Nancy thought, since he could be the killer and he could tamper with the room as much as he wanted.

Mrs. Morley nodded as they explained to her the situation. She took out a key and then went to the key stocker. Nancy looked at how all the keys were hung on the key stocker, with the room number written on a piece of paper that had been taped on each key. Mrs. Morley explained that when a person wanted to get the key, the person couldn't take it out because he didn't have the key to unlock the key stocker. She usually kept the key, so nobody could steal it. She said that she must be careful, since the key was a special kind and couldn't be duplicated. It was also impossible to pick on the lock.

Nancy was then handed the key for Christina's room. The five teenagers went up there and unlocked the door. It was room number ten, the room right in the middle of the second floor and with only one window. The only thing they could see out of the window was the dimly lit corridor. When they entered, it was pitch black. They turned on the light and saw a table, a queen-size bed, two chairs, a closet, and a door leading to the bathroom.

The first thing the detectives looked at was the table. There were quite a few letters on it. Nancy told the others to put on their gloves they bought at a store right after eating dinner. They did as told and started investigating the room to see if they could find any more clues.

Nancy carefully opened the letters. They were already opened, so Nancy had no problem taking out the letters inside without ruining the envelope, which she thought was important. She looked at the first letter. This one was from a friend in Louisiana. Her name was Adrienne Lupus.

"All it talks about is how she is doing in Louisiana after moving two months ago. It seems like this Adrienne was writing to Christina every week," Nancy muttered. "Hmm…?"

Something in the letter caught her eyes. "This sentence says, 'I hope Patricia and you made up.' And the one after it says, 'I know you didn't do it on purpose, but I heard from you how mad she became when you dropped and broke her prized vase when you were cleaning it.'"

She looked up. Frank was reading the letter from behind her. "I think we should consider Mrs. Morley a suspect as well," he muttered, giving Nancy a wink.

Ned was a little impatient when he saw Nancy with Frank. Quickly he asked, "Does the letter say anything else?"

"Let's see…" Nancy read the entire letter and shook her head. "But I'm sure there are a lot more to look from."

She looked at the pile of letters on the table in front of her. She then caught something shiny and brown beneath the pile of letters. She looked at it. It was a wooden picture frame. The girl detective turned it around. Her eyes got wide as she saw the people in the picture. "Look!" she told to Ned. Ned looked at it and nodded.

"Christina looks just like Mr. Chandler!"

Nancy saw that Christina was standing with Mr. and Mrs. Morley, Jerome, Percival, and Kent in the picture. They all were standing in front of the Orange Farm Inn. They were all smiling and looked a little younger. She took the photo out and looked at the back of the photograph. It was taken in October, but Nancy couldn't see what day. But she could see that they took the photograph less than seven years ago. The caption said: "Opening Party of Orange Farm Inn."

"So this bed-and-breakfast was built seven years ago?" Ned asked as he saw the picture. Nancy shrugged.

"I don't know, but they opened the inn seven years ago. The inn itself might have been here for years, maybe decades or centuries."

Nancy put the picture back into the frame and looked through the pile of letter once again.

Joe, meanwhile, was searching the closet. He took out a suitcase that had the initial CCS on it. "Must stand for Christina Chandler Stuart," he hypothesized. When he opened it, he saw Christina's clothes and an envelope. It seemed to be there for a long time. He opened the envelope and took out the piece of paper that was in it.

"This is a divorce paper!"

Joe couldn't believe it. He looked at the names. Sure enough, it had the names Christina Chandler Stuart and Percival Stuart printed on it.

"I think I got one person who got a motive to kill right here," he muttered to himself with a grin.

George was in the bathroom. There was a book placed on the rack right above the toilet seat. "What's this?" She took the book out. It was a mystery novel. She opened it to the page which had the bookmark placed. The brunette then found that it was not a bookmark. It was a piece of paper with a couple of handwritten paragraphs. The first one started with "Dear Jenny," so she was sure it was a letter written to a friend of hers. She read the entire letter.

" '…Jerome has been a successful mystery writer because he stole my idea from my notebook. I always wrote the ideas I had for a mystery down on it. I don't know how he got it, but the concept and the idea is the exact same thing as the one I came up with. I'll have to talk to him and tell him that if he doesn't give me half the money he earned from the sale of the book, then I will tell my lawyer about it.'"

George thought for a moment. "So Jerome was somehow involved in this, too… I wonder if this caused him to kill her!"

Frank was looking at the letters. He picked them up one by one, but all he could find were junk mails and bills. "Not unusual," he thought. Then, he saw Joe and George coming toward the trio with grins on their faces.

"I found a person who has a motive to kill Christina," said Joe.

"I found a person who could have killed Christina," said George.

The two said it at once, and when they noticed that, they broke out laughing. "Okay, you first, George," Joe said.

The brunette told the other four detectives about the book and the letter she found in the bathroom, and Joe told the rest about the divorce paper he found in the closet. Nancy knew that nearly all the guests had motive to kill Christina.

"But we don't have one for Kent so far," she said.

"I knew he wasn't involved," said George. She looked quite relieved.

"I don't know about that," Frank said. "Remember, everyone is a suspect in this case."

Ned was looking at the bed when he saw something gray sticking out from underneath the bed. He crouched down and took it out. It was a newspaper dating several weeks ago. As he looked at the newspaper, he saw that it was the personals section. And he saw one of the personals circled with a red pen.

He read it: " 'Weil loll mien eats ants clod, road lad, or lain Edo root; see site. Keel nets.'"

"Huh?" Nancy looked at him. She then noticed what Ned was holding.

"This is the personal ad posted on this newspaper dated like a few weeks ago. I found it under the bed."

Nancy looked at it. "It looks like a coded message!"

"And Christina circled it," Frank said as he looked at the message. "I think it might be a clue!"

"But we'll have to decode it first," George said.

Frank nodded. When he looked up, he could see a faint outline of a person right outside the curtained window. He immediately stood up when he noticed it. Immediately, the shadow fled to the staircase. Now everyone else noticed it. The person must have been eavesdropping in on the conversation inside!

Postscript: The message, which is typed in bold letters, is the one I want you to find out before I get five reviews and update my story. If you figure out the message, let me know by e-mailing me your answer or tell me your answer in your review. Good luck! And please review!

The keywords for the next chapter: skip in rhythm, meeting place, forbidden relationship.