A/N: A huge thank you to Caranath, catlover1033, max2013, zenfrodo, Stork Hardy, Jackie, Leya, and Vinsmouse for the reviews! You made me momentarily forget that I am buried in 26 inches of snow at my house. Much appreciated. Thanks also to those who are reading!

Chapter 6

Nancy sat in the front pew of the cathedral with Emily, watching the afternoon tourists come and go.

"Okay," Nancy whispered after an elderly couple had passed by. "So what we know is that someone has managed to get the keys to the main altar, and the marble box where the monstrance was kept."

"And Father Bertrand is the only one with a complete set of those keys," Emily said.

"Correct." Nancy thumbed through her notes. "And he never even uses the key to the main altar gate, because it's so old."

"The priests go in the side gates with the modern keys, right?"

"Right." Nancy said. "Which means that if Father Bertrand has the only key to the main altar, the perpetrator must have gotten it from him. So when would Father Bertrand be without his keys?"

"When he's sleeping?"

Nancy wrote it down, hoping that if she read through all her notes tonight, something might jump out at her. Something that was completely evading her at the moment.

"And showering." She paused and looked at Emily. "I think this is an inside job."

"You mean one of the monks?" Emily's jaw dropped.

"Maybe. Or maybe someone disguised as a monk, or someone else who works here."

"Well, that narrows it down to a thousand people." Emily sighed.

"Yeah, but it can't even be that many, if you think about it." Nancy pursed her lips. "It would have to be someone who knows Father Bertrand has the key on his person, and who could get close enough to him to have access to it."

"What if someone just broke into his room and stole the keys while he slept?"

Nancy nodded and continued writing. "That's a definite possibility, too. But I still think it would have to be someone on the inside. And someone who has access to a decent amount of keys themselves. There are too many doors he would need to go in and out of to even put himself in a position to steal Father Bertrand's keys."

"So, what you're saying is that we have nothing."

Nancy shut her notebook. "Pretty much. I think we need to start meeting some of the other people Father Bertrand spends time with."

"Sounds like a plan."

"I'm going to ask him to make a list for me. Then maybe we can split up and start asking some hard questions."

Emily's eyes grew wide. "You want me to do this? Me, the one in the bunch who's not a detective?"

Nancy smiled. Emily doubted herself far too much in Nancy's opinion. No, she wasn't a detective, and Nancy would never make the mistake of treating her like one again, not after what happened during their case on an Oklahoma cattle ranch.

But as far as questioning people was concerned, Emily was great at it. She came across as very nonthreatening…something Nancy wasn't always able to master. And the fact that Emily was gorgeous had most male suspects willing to talk to her immediately. And even though these guys were monks, they were still men. Yep, Em was perfect for this assignment.

"You just need to ask questions. If someone seems suspicious, I'll follow up on it."

"I don't know, Nance," Emily said. "This sounds like something you should be doing. I can do research, but questioning suspects?"

"You'll be great," Nancy assured her, then furrowed her brow. "Although I do wish Frank were here. I would love to get his thoughts on this whole mess. Did Joe mention anything about what they were doing?"

"No, just said it was some government assignment in D.C. and he couldn't give me any details," Emily said. "He actually thought it was going to be boring."

"Yeah, Frank said the same thing." She pasted a bright smile on her face. "Maybe they'll finish up quickly. I'd love for them to come and help us."

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Emily said, her tone wistful. "I really miss Joe."

Nancy stared down at her notes as an intense longing for Frank washed over her. He'd become her true partner in the nine months they'd been together. She counted on him now…in more than just a professional capacity, and not being able to talk to him had been harder than Nancy ever imagined it would be. As much as she hated to admit it…she needed him. That thought exhilarated and terrified her all at the same time.

Nancy exhaled deeply. "Yeah. Too bad they're half a world away."

OOOoooOOO

"Wh-what happened?" Kathy asked, bewildered as she stared into the suite.

It was completely ransacked. Furniture cushions were strewn everywhere, pillows had been torn open, glasses from the bar smashed on the floor, bottles of alcohol poured out, lamps broken and tables overturned.

In the middle of the room was a note plunged into the back of a wing chair with a penknife.

"No stupid lock will keep me out," Kathy read aloud. She began shaking. "Joe?"

He slipped his arm around her shoulders. "It's okay."

"No, it's not!" she protested. "Th-this is real. This isn't some prank. This guy is a nut!"

Kathy continued to stare around the living room. She'd never seen this kind of destruction before, and for the first time since she'd arrived in Switzerland, she was genuinely afraid.

Joe put his arm around her and Kathy leaned into him, grateful for his strength. He really was amazing. How could he be so calm in the face of all this? She took a deep breath and tried to stop the churning in her stomach. She did not want to be sick in front of him…because that would definitely not be romantic.

"It's all clear." Frank stepped out of one of the bedrooms and gestured for Kristen and Lauren to come inside the suite, while Joe guided Kathy into her own bedroom.

Kathy's only focus was on getting to the bed before her knees buckled. Although if they did, then maybe Joe would carry her. That might be good, except that she still thought she was going to be sick. And actually throwing up on Joe would probably completely kill her chances with him.

"Listen," he said. "You stay in here with your friends. We're going to call the police and look around out there."

"I don't want to stay in here," Kathy wailed. "I'm scared."

"Kathy, we can't have you disturbing any evidence," Joe insisted. "I'll come back and check on you, okay?"

"No, but I guess it'll have to be." She slumped down on the bed. This was not going the way she wanted it to. Why wouldn't he stay with her? She needed him, how could he even think of leaving her right now?

"It'll be fine," Joe said again.

Kathy watched as he stepped through the bedroom door and called to Frank who was surveying the damage.

"I'm beginning to lean toward that 'escalating psycho' theory."

OOOoooOOO

Nancy and Emily strolled back to the lobby of the hotel when Nancy noticed a police cruiser stopped in front of the entrance. "Hope there's nothing seriously wrong."

"Well, the last thing we need right now is another mystery." Emily stared pointedly at her friend. "So I'm just going to pretend I don't see anything and you are too. Right, Nancy?"

Nancy craned her neck so she could get a better view of the two police officers exiting their vehicle and hurrying into the lobby.

"Right, Nancy?"

"What?" Nancy turned back to see Emily standing at the hotel entrance with her hands on her hips. "Oh, yeah. Right."

Nancy stepped through the door of the lobby and watched as the officers dashed up the stairs, bypassing the bank of elevators. A high-pitched giggle from the lounge caught her attention and she turned her head.

Bess Marvin was seated on a leather sofa in front of a roaring fire, surrounded by several young men.

Of course, Nancy thought. Where else would she be? "I see Bess hasn't been wasting her afternoon the way we have."

"No, I'd say she's done quite well for herself," Emily agreed.

Bess looked up, and spotting her friends, waved them vigorously toward her.

"This should be interesting," Nancy said under her breath, as she and Emily headed into the lounge.

OOOoooOOO

Joe stepped back and moved to Frank's side as the police officers took over investigating the ransacked hotel suite.

"Did you find anything?" Frank asked.

"Nothing." Joe ran his hand through his hair.

"Okay, let's think about our suspects."

"What suspects would that be, Frank?"

"Well, the only ones we have at the moment are Louis, Simone, Tammy and Lauren."

"You really think it's one of them?"

Because Joe didn't. This seemed to him like the MO of a stalker. Someone who wanted to make Kathy afraid. But afraid of what? And why?

"Not really, but it's all we have at the moment. At least if we can clear them, we can start looking to the outside."

"For the psycho stranger."

"Yeah."

"I'm betting on that one," Joe said, as he entered his bedroom and grabbed his notepad. "Okay, the girls were with us the entire afternoon, right?"

"Right." Frank followed his brother and shut the door behind him. "Wait...no. Tammy left to come back here to get her gloves, and Kathy and Lauren went into the women's locker room to get changed after we got off the slopes."

"Then we need to talk to Tammy," Joe said. "We would have spotted Lauren sneaking out of the locker room."

"What would her motive be?" Frank asked. "Why would she want to terrorize Kathy?"

Joe shrugged. "Not sure she has one, but if I had to pick, maybe jealousy? I don't know."

"Well, that might be a possibility." Frank leaned one hand against the bedroom wall and turned toward his brother, lowering his tone to a whisper. "What did that dossier say about Tammy, do you remember?"

Joe looked at the ceiling, trying to recall what he'd read.

"Um, I think it said she was from somewhere in the mid-west and that she grew up on a farm." He paused. "Oh, and that she was at the school on a scholarship."

"Exactly." Frank nodded. "Her family isn't wealthy. Maybe she's jealous. Maybe she feels inferior to these girls. Maybe this is her way of striking back a little bit."

"That's a lot of 'maybes,'" Joe said. "She doesn't act weird around Kathy or Lauren. They seem to get along well."

"True," Frank agreed. "But you know people can act one way and be thinking something entirely different."

"Yeah, but have you noticed Kathy or Lauren treating Tammy badly?" Joe shook his head. "I don't know. That theory doesn't feel right."

"Fine, but let's not completely discard it. We don't really have anything else to go on."

"I'll keep a closer eye on how they interact together," Joe said. "If something seems fishy, I'll pursue it with Kathy."

"Sounds like a plan," Frank agreed. "I think we need to interview Louis and Simone a little more, too."

OOOOoooOOO

"Hi, Bess!" Nancy said, as she surveyed the handsome entourage surrounding her friend.

Bess gave her a mischievous smile. "Nancy? Emily? I want you to meet my new friends."

Two extremely handsome dark-haired men and a devastatingly good looking blond one greeted the girls. If Nancy could just bottle whatever it was Bess gave off that attracted all the hot men within a ten mile radius of her, she'd make a million dollars.

Bess touched the arm of the blond, who was seated next to her.

"This is Lars Svenson. He's one of the ski instructors here. He's an Olympian. From Norway."

Of course he was. Nancy looked down into a pair of piercing blue eyes. "Hi, I'm Nancy Drew."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Drew. Bess has been telling us about her beautiful friends."

"She didn't do you justice," one of the dark-hair men said. He stood and moved toward Emily. "I'm Matteo D'Amico."

"Let me guess." Emily giggled, as she stared into his warm brown eyes. "You're from Italy."

"Ah, my accent has given me away again." He flashed a brutally handsome grin.

He had dimples. Nancy almost laughed out loud. Bess never did things halfway, that was for sure.

Emily smiled in return. "Well, that...and your name."

The second young man stood and walked toward Nancy. "I'm his twin brother Marco."

"Are you a skier, too?" Nancy asked as she shook his hand. Or just a cover model?

"Yes," he answered. "We both are. We're representing Italy in the upcoming Olympic games."

Three Olympians. Yep, Bess had hit the jackpot.

Lars spoke up. "Are you ladies interested in some dinner? I know a great restaurant nearby. It's small and the tourists usually pass it by, but the food is the best in town."

"Well..." Emily hesitated and looked sideways at Nancy.

"Ah, you aren't comfortable going on a date with two brothers?" Matteo asked.

This time Nancy did laugh out loud and Emily shook her head.

"No, that's not it at all." She gestured between herself and Nancy. "In fact, we're dating two brothers back in the States."

Marco waved his hand. "Is that all? Not to worry then." He grinned. "You are not in the States. Now you can date two brothers in Europe as well."

Nancy exchanged glances with Emily, as she thought about how Joe would respond to that logic. She turned to Matteo.

"That's very sweet of you, but we couldn't possibly go on a date. We're committed to our boyfriends."

"Okay," Matteo replied. "No date. Just friends. But you still have to eat, do you not?"

"He's right, Nancy," Bess chimed in. "Of course, if you don't come, I'll have to go with all three guys by myself..."

"We'll come," Nancy jumped in, thinking no matter how nice these guys seemed, she was not letting Bess walk out the door with three men she barely knew.

"Friends only though," Emily clarified as Matteo guided her to the door of the hotel.

"Friends only," he agreed.

OOOoooOOO

After the police had questioned everyone in the suite, and taken the items they considered evidence, they left, along with the nearly hysterical hotel manager. Frank began straightening the living room with Joe, Lauren and Tammy's help. Kathy, too traumatized by what happened, had remained in her bedroom.

Frank knew he had to question the girls, but he didn't want to frighten them. He also didn't want to tip anyone off if they happened to be the guilty party. And honestly, he thought they looked too scared to actually be involved in any of this. Usually the perpetrator wasn't able to disguise their emotions that well…especially a perpetrator this young. They didn't have the skills.

Frank gathered the sofa pillows from the floor and turned to the girls.

"Tammy, when you came up here to get your gloves, did you notice anything suspicious?"

"N-no," she replied, still clearly shaken at the turn of events. "Everything was normal. Simone was just leaving the suite, as a matter of fact, when I got here."

"And that would have been around one p.m., right?" Joe asked.

"I think so. I didn't look at the clock," Tammy explained. "I just hurried into the bedroom, grabbed my gloves, and left."

"And the door locks automatically when you leave the room," Frank mused.

The lock showed had no sign of being tampered with and Frank knew that meant things looked mighty suspicious for the people on his suspect list. No one had broken into this room, they already had access to it.

"Does that mean the guy who did all this had a key?" Lauren squealed.

"Possibly," Joe said, glancing over at his brother.

Frank knew Joe was thinking exactly what he was. Whoever was doing this was someone very close to Kathy.

"I'm never going to be able to sleep tonight," Lauren said, her eyes as big as saucers.

"Don't worry, the hotel manager is having the locks re-keyed," Frank said, not wanting to alarm her. "So if the person had a key earlier, it won't work anymore."

"What if he didn't use a key?" Tammy asked softly.

"There were no signs of forced entry," Joe explained. "He used a key."

OOO

They were interrupted by a ringing telephone as well as the door to the hotel room opening. Louis and Simone entered the room, while Kathy called out from the bedroom, "It's probably my dad. I had a call into his office. I'll get it."

"What the hell happened here?" Louis asked, as he stepped inside.

He never got an answer. Kathy's hysterical screaming from the bedroom stopped everyone cold.

Joe dashed in and found her pressed back against the headboard staring at the telephone. He grabbed for the receiver and heard what sounded like a man's voice on the other end.

"Did you hear me, Kathy? Nothing you can do will keep me away from you."

"Who is this?" Joe shouted into the phone.

"Don't even try to hide anymore. It won't work. I'm always close by."

The phone was disconnected abruptly. Joe set the receiver down and turned to Kathy. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes.

"There's nothing I can do, is there? He wants to hurt me and nobody can stop him."

OOOoooOOO

"You know, I have to admit it," Nancy said to Bess and Emily in their hotel room later that evening. "That was, without a doubt, the best fondue I've ever had in my life."

She'd actually enjoyed herself, hearing all the tales of life as an Olympic athlete that the guys had regaled them with. If she hadn't been so head over heels for Frank...she definitely would have been smitten.

Bess fell back on her bed, clutching the sweater she'd just removed to her chest. "That's because we were surrounded by the best looking men in the world while we were eating it."

Emily smiled. "I beg to differ."

Bess sat up. "What? You didn't think Matteo was handsome? Those dreamy brown eyes? That Italian accent? That dark, wavy hair?"

"He's very handsome," Emily agreed, as she reached for one of Joe's old t-shirts she'd brought to sleep in. "He's just not as handsome as my boyfriend."

Bess snorted. "Whatever." She sighed dramatically. "I simply don't know which one of them to choose."

"Lars seems to be rather hot for you," Nancy remarked, running a brush through her strawberry-blonde hair. If feeding Bess chocolate covered strawberries with his fingers was any clue.

"He does, doesn't he? And with those amazing blue eyes, he's hard to resist." Bess frowned. "But we're both blond. I don't think that would look good in the wedding photos."

Emily turned to Nancy. "Is she serious?"

"Completely," Nancy assured her. "Bess is one of a kind."

"It never hurts to think ahead," Bess said defensively. She settled herself against the headboard. "Okay, which sounds better? Bess Svenson or Bess D'Amico?"

"Bess Svenson?" Emily laughed. "That's a mouthful."

"It sounds like one word," Nancy chimed in. "Bessvenson."

Emily laughed louder. "It sounds like you just sneezed. Like I should say 'God bless you' afterwards."

Bess made a face. "Well, that won't work at all."

She twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her finger. "So, which cute Italian boy do I pick? Marco or Matteo?"

OOOoooOOO

Joe pulled his t-shirt off over his head and tossed it to the floor of his bedroom in the suite. He lay back in his bed and stacked his hands underneath his head, turning the events of the evening over in his mind.

"Something's bugging me about that phone call, Frank."

Frank bent over and picked up Joe's t-shirt. "You too, huh?"

"You want to go first?" Joe asked.

Frank flung Joe's shirt toward the laundry bag in the closet, then sat on his own bed.

"It was staged."

"Did you hear the clicking?"

"At the end of the call? Yes." Frank sat on the edge of his bed and removed his shoes. "Even listening in on the living room extension, it was obvious."

Joe stared at the ceiling. This added a whole new twist to everything. "So it was a recording. Now the question is, did the perp make the phone call himself and play the tape to disguise his voice..."

"Or did someone trigger it remotely?" Frank finished.

"And how are we going to find out?"

Frank pounded his pillows into shape before he fell back against them.

"And why would he do it?" Joe wondered. "Is he just trying to terrorize Kathy or is there some point to this?"

Frank turned his head to look at his brother. "You mean does he want to hurt her?"

"I think that's something we need to figure out."

"And pretty quickly, too." Frank agreed. "If your theory about the escalating psycho is the right one...I would say the next step is going to involve violence."