Foreword: Phew… As I said before, I'm trying to balance mystery with romance, and I now find it VERY difficult. But I managed to add some romance in this chapter, and things are going according to my schedule. In this chapter, the detectives are trying to find out who killed the victims, but Nancy finds more about the mysterious couple who were allegedly killed. Does the couple have anything to do with the murder? Also, the girl detective's two best friends are back in the mystery! Read, enjoy, and please review!

Chapter 13

Beneath His Mask

Ned scratched his head as he read over his notes. "There has to be a way," he muttered. "There always was a way to make something seem impossible." He remembered the case the detectives worked on just a few weeks ago in Miami. In that case, the murderer used an ingenious trick to frame Frank and make a perfect locked room. But Nancy figured out the trick and soon caught the killer. However, this case was different. In fact, this was exactly the opposite!

"In Miami, the murderer could enter through a door but could not exit the room. And in this case, the murderer could not enter the room but could exit easily because the room's lock was auto-lock. So it could be possible that he hid in the room, but Frank is the one denying that, for he searched every single space in the room," he muttered.

And what about the alibis? The only person in the whole hotel without a single solid alibi was Nancy. During the first murder, she was asleep in her room, and in the second murder, she was found in the same room with the victim! There wasn't a worse situation for her, and Ned was determined to reveal the identity of the cold-blooded killer. He got up from his seat in the dining room and went up the stairs.

Nancy started searching in the room where the first murder occurred. She looked at the walls but found absolutely no way to get in or out of the place. The window was tightly locked. As her flashlight flickered off, she sighed and decided to turn the lights on. She tried the light switch. It worked. In a moment, the room was illuminated.

Suddenly, Nancy remembered something important. "Wait a minute," she muttered. "Frank tried the light switch but said that it didn't work. Then why does it work now?" She looked at the light bulbs of the chandelier. They seemed perfectly fine. "Did Edna or her staffs change the light bulb? But nobody entered this room since the time of the murder!"

She checked the entire room again, but still couldn't find a new clue. She sighed and went out to the hallway. As she turned left, she noticed the door right next to the room. It was the door to the linen room. She went inside. A huge box was on the ground just a few feet in front of her. There were also some old lamps and a heap of linens. She looked at the cardboard box. It was labeled "Mattie's Mattress." She presumed that this box contained the mattresses when they were shipped to the houses of the buyers. It seemed to be especially designed to carry one mattress. She then looked at the linens. They were stacked up neatly in three piles. Each of the piles was about three feet high. She turned to the lamps. They seemed quite old and dusty. She could even detect an old cobweb at the top of one of the lamps.

Nancy then got out of the small room. Then, she noticed that Norma's room was facing June's door. And across the hall from these rooms was Amy's. The girl detective stood in the hallway where June's room was located. She noticed that from where she was standing, she couldn't see the stairs at all.

"I wonder if she…" murmured Nancy. But she didn't finish the sentence. The girl then went back downstairs to meet the other detectives.

But she suddenly remembered how Henri explained about the murder case. "How did he know about that?" she wondered. "And why did he know the reason behind the magician's wearing his mask?" She then turned around, thinking. "Does he know more than he tells?"

She took out her notebook and wrote down his name. "Henri LaSalle. I'll let Dad do a little research on him, since I didn't bring my laptop with me."

The girl went back to her room and called her father, since her cell phone was still missing. "Hello? Dad?"

"Hello, Nancy," answered the middle-aged man. "How is your investigation?"

"Very bad," explained the girl detective. "And I'm the prime suspect!"

"What! Why?"

The girl detective explained everything, from the puzzling impossible crimes and to the alibis that everyone had except for her. "And everyone believes that I'm the one who killed those two people. And sadly, I have the motive!"

Mr. Drew wondered, "So what do you want me to research?"

"Oh. About Henri LaSalle. He's a Frenchman who knows a lot of things. He has blond hair and blue eyes, which I consider to be in the kind-of-cute category. But not as cute as Ned, of course."

Mr. Drew chuckled and told her that he'll call her as soon as he got any information. Thanking her father, the girl detective hung up and read over her notes. "And if my guess is right, his history may have a lot to do with why he knows so much." But she also had another question in her mind.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again. Nancy answered it. It was from Bess and George.

"How was it at the luxurious hotel in Maine?" asked Bess, giggling. "George just did the funniest thing ever!"

"What is it?" asked Nancy.

"It isn't funny, Bess," answered George, somewhat bitterly. "What she's giggling hysterically about is the fact that I slipped on the hay on the floor of the ranch house and my face landed on the horse's butt."

Nancy couldn't stifle her laughter. George seemed more cross than ever. "That's not funny, Nancy!" said the girl. "It'll take years before the smell of horse-butt will disappear from my face!"

"Oh, don't exaggerate, George," Bess said, finally stopping her giggles. "I'm sure Burt Eddleton won't mind. If you're still worried, I can lend you my perfumes!" Burt was George's long-time boyfriend who was also Ned's friend.

George pretended to throw up. "No way, Bess! I can bet that smelling like a horse is better than smelling like a sissy in a rose garden!"

"Hey! My perfumes have more varieties of scents than just roses! In fact, I have the Cherry Champ, Peach Punch, Coconut Craze, Apple Amour, and even Strawberry Splash! Wanna try?"

Then, Nancy heard a sound of a spray, and George immediately shouted, "Ah! Bess! That reeks! And you got the coconut odor all over my favorite T-shirt!"

"Stop whining, George!" Bess said. "Mmm… You smell like a coconut, and I like it."

"Well, let's change the subject," George suggested, sighing. "So how is your stay there, Nancy?"

"Bad," answered the girl detective. "I'm the prime suspect for two murders!"

Bess gasped. "Omigosh! Why? How?"

Nancy summarized everything that happened, and the two girls listened attentively. Bess even gasped once in every three to four sentences. "So you're stuck there with a maniacal killer?" Bess finally asked. Nancy answered yes, and she gasped one more time.

"Okay, enough gasping," George said. "I hope you'll be careful, Nance. We'll do anything we can to help you."

But Bess interrupted: "So did you meet any cute guy over there?"

"Bess!" George exclaimed. "Nancy already has a boyfriend and so do you! Why do you even ask her these things?"

Nancy grinned. "Well, to tell the truth, I did find a few interestingly handsome guys. Their names are Derek and Henri."

"Henri," Bess said. She pronounced the name dreamily with a strong French accent. "That's a nice name. He's from the land of ooh la-la, isn't he?"

Nancy chuckled. "Yes, he says he is, but his English is way too good."

"Sounds like he's hiding something," George remarked.

"My thoughts exactly. I asked Dad to do some research on him, but if you girls can do some research for me as well, I'd really appreciate it."

"Of course we can!" Bess exclaimed. "Besides, George here is a genius when it comes to computers, and I'm the genius in fixing those computers. She does break them quite often."

"Hey, it's not my fault all these spy wares are entering my laptop!" said George, once again crossly. "Anyway, we'll call as soon as we get any information that you might find interesting."

"Sounds good," answered the titian-haired girl. "And I'll call you once in a while to check how you guys are and to tell you how far I got in the investigation. Bye!"

As the girl hung up, she got yet another call. This time, it was from her father. "Dad, did you get any new leads?"

"It seems that this Frenchman you talked about has been in America for some time now."

"What do you mean?"

"He is a writer and a reporter in France. For some reason, he moved to United States five years ago when he was still in his early twenties. Actually he is one of the owners of the highest IQ!"

"Wow!" remarked Nancy. "How high is his IQ?"

"Well, it says here in the French website that he has an IQ of 180."

Nancy couldn't help exclaiming, "180! That must make him a genius!"

"Yes, and I would advise to be careful when investigating. I can tell that he has more than a few skeletons rattling about in his closet."

Nancy said that she would be careful and hung up. She then thought about the man. Having an IQ that high must make him very intelligent. Could he have somehow come up with the trick to enter the locked room without a key?

The girl sleuth went to the suspect's room and knocked on the door. Henri answered.

"Well, mademoiselle, what can I do for you?" asked the Frenchman. "I'm busy here, as you can see."

Nancy nodded. "I just wanted to know why you came here," she said. "I mean, this isn't a very luxurious resort or anything. So why did you come here?"

Henri looked a little stern as he heard the question. "Well, I came here because it's close to the ocean. I wanted to enjoy the breeze from the Atlantic, but now it seems that I can't because of this storm."

The girl detective nodded. "I wanted to know another thing… How did you find out so much about the magician and about my mom?"

Henri smiled. "I'm a reporter back in France. You might not know this, but I came here to study about the criminals and their psychology. I might look quite young, but I am also one of the most distinguished writers in France as well."

"That's amazing," Nancy said, suddenly feeling herself blush a little. Talking to a blond-haired and blue-eyed man who came from France was definitely not easy, especially when they were the only ones in the hall. "And… Is it true that you have an IQ of 180?"

The man smiled warmly again. "IQ is just a method for people to see where their overall intelligence is located at. But I can say that not all the people with highest IQ can be as intelligent as the killer apparently is in this murder mystery."

Nancy looked into his eyes. They were as blue as the rough ocean beneath the cliff but were also as cold as the winter sky. However, she couldn't seem to escape from his gaze. After a few seconds, she forced her eyes to look away.

"Well…I have to go now," she finally said, looking away from him. "It was nice talking to you."

But before Nancy could turn around, he lightly touched her arm and swung her around. He kissed her once on each of her cheeks and smiled. "That's called la bise. We do that very often in France."

Nancy blushed even more now.

"I…I…" she stammered, not knowing what to say. "Well, thanks…I guess."

Then, she noticed someone standing there. As she turned her head around to her right, she saw a person standing there with a look of shock on his face. Her eyes got round with astonishment.

"Ned!" Nancy shouted.

Epilogue: What will happen to Nancy and Ned? And Henri seems to have a very high IQ, and he acts like he knows more than he tells. Could it be that he was the one who thought of a way to accomplish an impossible crime? Find out in the next chapter, titled: Misunderstood...