Foreword: As promised, here is the sixth chapter. (Let's see… only fourteen more to go!) Here, I divided one chapter into two parts: romance and mystery. Because I know that my readers want both, I included both. That is why this chapter will be a little bit longer than the previous one.

I started drawing graphic novels, and it's really fun! I love to draw (and my drawings aren't really bad, actually) and drew the first four pages of my new Nancy Drew mystery graphic novel! Yay! To me, the graphic novels out there don't actually depict Nancy and her chums as accurately as the novels do. Creating a graphic novel was easier than I thought. I just had to draw using pencil or pen, and I could color using Photoshop.

I guess I included too many things in my introduction today. Anyway, read this new chapter, enjoy, and please REVIEW!

Chapter 6

Puzzle of Her Mind

Nancy took the pendant from her pocket and clenched it tightly. Ned looked at his girlfriend with a look of empathy. "I didn't know your mother was killed," he muttered.

The girl detective opened the lid of the pendant. Her mother's face was shown, and her eyes were filled with tears. "You don't know this because you weren't with me when Frank, Joe, Bess, and I were in Seattle. Mrs. Fontaine was our mother's friend from college and told me that my mother was killed. And I thought she died of an illness all along. But I now remember the face of the killer clearly. It was June! She was the one who killed my mother!" She then started crying uncontrollably. Frank and Callie came out to see what the matter was. Ned hugged Nancy gently.

"I never lost a parent before, so I don't know how it feels to lose a loved one," he said, "but I know that something that I lost can't be brought back. And I also know that criminals always pay for the crimes they committed. If they don't get caught, then they will pay one way or the other. In this case," he looked at the body, "she paid her life for it. So please stop thinking about it, Nance. Your job right now is to catch the killer who killed the…" He then stopped, thinking about something. "Well, I guess this killer killed the killer who killed your mother."

Nancy couldn't help but laugh slightly. "You're right, Ned," she finally said, wiping away her tears. "I'm a detective now, like my mom."

But she still had something in her mind that troubled her. No, this woman wasn't the only one in the car. There was another person, sitting at the passenger's seat. But who was that person? She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember if the person was a man or a woman. Her memory was like a huge puzzle. One by one, the pieces fit into the puzzle, but at this point, the puzzle wasn't complete yet. She still needed a few more pieces to make her remember everything.

"Think, Drew," she murmured to herself, but the face of the person sitting at the passenger's seat was a huge blur. The only thing she could remember was the menacing face of June, the one who drove the car that ran over her mother…

Nancy shook the thoughts away. "No, I shouldn't be thinking about this. I should be thinking about the current case."

Then, a surprising thought came over her mind. "Wait," she murmured. "What if there was a hidden passageway here in the room?"

Ned looked at Nancy, puzzled. "Do you think there's a passageway here? Where do you think it is?"

Nancy didn't know, but she started looking. She then found out that the bed had rollers beneath its legs. Pushing it, she found out how easy it was to move the bed. It wouldn't take a man's strength to move it, she thought. Then, she looked at the ground and touched it. It was quite clean, with no dust on the floor.

"Hmm…"

After thorough search of the room, the detectives found no sign of a trapdoor. Nancy looked at the bed again. For some reason, the bed was a small one that could fit only one person. Nancy's bed could fit about two.

But she had another idea. "What about the window?" she asked. "The killer could've entered through this window after Frank went out."

The girl looked at the lock of the window. It was locked. She opened it and looked down. She saw a cliff. Sighing, she looked up. There she saw the roof of the hotel. She thought out loud. "What if the killer stayed up there on the roof till Frank left the room? Then, he entered the room with June, who was already dead, decorated the place, closed the window, and then left."

Frank interrupted, "Your ratiocination has one huge hole in it, Nancy."

Nancy turned around and looked at Frank. "Why do you say that? I don't detect any flaw in my assumption."

"Well, your reasoning is great and is quite actable, but you missed one critical thing: the weather."

The girl detective gasped.

"See? The killer, if he did what you said, would be soaking wet by the time he joined us. Even if he changed his clothes, his hair would be wet. I didn't see anybody with wet hair."

"Besides," Callie added, "Frank checked the lock of the window and said that it was locked tightly from the inside. How did the person enter through the window when it was locked? I'm sure there's no key to open it."

Nancy was mad that her inference was wrong. But she remembered that she had a question to ask Edna. Then, the girl detective went to Edna and asked why the bed in Room 13 was smaller than the one in Room 9. Edna smiled. "Each room is different," she said. "Rooms 1 through 5 and 11 through 13 are for guests who travel by themselves. Rooms 6 through 10 are for those who travel with a friend or a spouse."

Nancy asked, "Do you have a map of the hotel?"

Edna nodded. She gave one to her. Nancy noticed that the wall where the ghostly phantom disappeared was right above the kitchen. Nancy then asked, "Where do all the guests stay?"

Edna explained: "I stay in Room 1, Xavier stays in Room 2, Derek uses Room 3, Frank is staying in Room 4, Callie in Room 5, Ms. Takahashi in Room 6, Mr. Friedrich occupies Room 7, Mr. Nickerson is in Room 8, you are in Room 9, Mr. LaSalle stays in Room 10, Joe was supposed to stay in Room 11 but the room is currently unoccupied, Room 12 is Miss Yale's, and the last one is the scene of the horrid crime." She finished with a sigh. "I do hope the police will be here soon."

Nancy doubted it, for she knew that the storm wasn't going to clear for at least a day. In other words, she and the rest of the guests were stuck in the hotel with a killer who called himself "Magician". Nancy bit her lip. The locked room murder still baffled her. How did the killer get into the house without a key? If he didn't get inside with a key, then how did he stay unnoticed from Frank?

At that moment, Norma entered the lobby. She asked the owner, "Where can I get a toothbrush? I accidentally forgot mine."

Edna looked into the desk drawer and pulled out one. "Here you go."

Norma smiled. "Thanks."

Nancy looked at the woman's clothing. She wore a white T-shirt.

"Norma," she asked, "Why are you wearing a white T-shirt? I thought you wore black sweater before."

Norma looked down and smiled. "Well, I spilled some water on my sweater, so I'm wearing this instead. Besides, I don't think it's that cold."

The girl detective watched as Norma went up the stairs. Then, she went to investigate more on the murder.

Nancy looked out the window. The rain was falling harder and the lightning became more frequent. She shuddered despite the warmth in the hotel. She didn't shudder because of the temperature; she shuddered because of the thought that a ghost could be present in the hotel. If it wasn't a ghost, then how was that impossible crime committed?

Nancy decided to call her father back home. As soon as she reached the phone, it started ringing. She answered it and heard Mr. Drew's voice.

"Dad!" shouted Nancy, glad to hear her father's voice again. "You should hear what just happened!"

Listening to the tone in her daughter's voice, Mr. Drew knew that something was wrong. "What happened in the hotel?" he inquired.

Nancy told him everything; she started from the time she felt dizzy after the conversation with him to the time the body was found. Mr. Drew listened in amazement. "Murder, you say?" he asked as Nancy finished. Nancy said yes. "I would never have let you come if I knew that you'll be involved in a mystery again…"

The girl detective grinned. "Dad, you know it's inevitable. Anyway, I forgot to tell you this, but the lady who was killed, as I noticed when looking at the photograph of her when she was about fifteen years younger, was the one who ran over Mom!"

"What!" shouted Dad. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I was the only one who saw her face, but I saw it very clearly; there's no doubt about it in my mind. Someone killed the person who killed my mother, but I'm one of the suspects, since I don't have a solid alibi during the time of murder."

Mr. Drew sighed heavily. "I just hope this is the last of this murder."

Nancy didn't tell her father this, but she had a bad feeling that the killer hadn't finished his diabolical plan yet; he wouldn't stop after killing a single person when he did so much work to make the crime impossible, if it wasn't from the beginning. She knew that he would strike again, but she didn't know when. She didn't want to know.

After saying goodbye, Nancy looked at her notes she took. Then, she looked at the map. "Hmm…"

Someone knocked on the door a few minutes later. Nancy knew it was Ned when she heard the voice of the visitor. She opened the door for him and let him in.

"What is it, Ned?" she asked, closing the door behind him.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay," he answered.

"Okay?" Nancy asked, confused. "I'm as okay as ever, Ned. You should know that."

Ned smiled. "Well, I wanted to give you something, too."

It was then that Nancy noticed how Ned's right hand was brought behind his back. She was curious to know what it was. "What is it? And why are you giving it to me now?"

Ned continued to smile. "For someone with a sharp mind like you, Nancy, you don't remember much, do you?"

Nancy pretended to be angry. She brought her fists to her hip. "So what day is today?"

Her boyfriend brought his hand from behind his back, revealing a small blue box. "Okay, I'll tell you; today is the second anniversary of our first meeting."

Nancy gasped. "Oh, I never thought about that!" It was true. Two years before, the girl sleuth and her boyfriend first met at a burning house. The mystery would later turn out to be called The Clue in the Diary. Nancy looked at the box. Opening it, she found a bracelet made of pure gold chains. She looked up at Ned, too surprised to utter a word. On the bracelet were the words: Nancy Drew, the world's finest detective.

Ned's grin broadened. "Well, this was the best I could afford from my part time jobs. I thought about a necklace or a diamond ring, but I couldn't buy them."

A tear rolled down the girl's cheek. "Thanks, Ned," she said, wiping her tear away. "I…it's the best gift I ever received." She clipped the bracelet around her wrist and observed it with fascination.

The night went on gloomily. It felt like the storm wasn't blowing just outside the hotel, for the guests weren't speaking to each other anymore and the tension grew as they sat in their rooms, vindictive.

The hotel was as silent as the outside was noisy. Only the sound of wind from the storm blowing into the closed windows was heard, and the mood got gloomier by the second. A huge cloud of fear was covering the mansion and the guests within. Callie was in her room, which was right by the dining room, and sighed as she looked out the window. The storm wasn't about to clear in less than forty-eight hours. She looked down at the book which she was reading. Opening the book, she looked at the picture. She used that picture as a bookmark for a long time. It showed Callie with Frank. They were still in their early teens, and Callie was smiling radiantly at the camera while Frank was grinning mischievously.

She was nervous. She knew that Frank was interested in Nancy from the time he met her. Nancy and Frank were solving many mysteries together while Callie was in Bayport waiting for Frank to come back. And now, she is here with Frank, but she is still nervous. To tell the truth, she never solved a crime by herself in her life. She was always tagging along Frank and Joe when they investigated. But Nancy was a different story. She always solved mysteries in, around, and out of her hometown of River Heights. And ever since she and Frank first met, she liked him. He liked her.

Callie grunted as she closed the book. She shook her head. Her curly blonde hair bobbed as she did so. She opened her mouth and sighed. Standing up, she went to her bed and lay on it. If Frank was truly interested in Nancy, then he would never think about Callie. Callie was just a girl from Bayport, just like any other girls. Iola would never be ignored, for she was the sister of Chet, the boys' best friend. But what about her? She wasn't anybody special, just a girl whom Frank knew and played with since they were little. For many years, they went to school together, ate in the cafeteria together, but she never asked if Frank really liked her.

"Does he?" she pondered. "Does he really like me or just hanging around with be because we knew each other for years?"

She closed her eyes. Only one thing repeated in her head as she tried to sleep: "Who does Frank like? Me or Nancy?"

When she was about to fall into a deep slumber, something caught her attention. Outside, a person was laughing hysterically. She was a little scared by this, but she then got out of the bed, ready to check what the laughing was about.

She got to the window and stared out. The weather was still not improving, and she thought that the laughter was only in her mind. As she turned around to go back to the bed, she heard someone knock on the window. When she reached the bed, she turned around, wondering who it was. Then, she saw it.

A masked man was staring at her through the window.

Postscript: Who could the mysterious masked man be? What will happen to Callie? Will Frank choose Nancy over her? What will happen? Read the next chapter to find out!

As always, if you find any errors or vagueness in the story, feel free to tell me in your review. I admit that I am still a student and have a long way to go till I can be a professional writer, so if you could tell me a few comments, I will appreciate that.

Oh, and don't forget to review!