The rest of the day seemed to drag after the interviews were over, especially as they couldn't go to the party to help it go by faster. Tom did tell them about the history between him, Linda, and Ned McKay and all agreed to keep an eye out for him. Their friends from Cedar Grove and the rest of their Sanford classmates sent them multiple texts to which they eagerly replied, and then their phones finally went quiet around the time the party started. They went and had a rather quiet dinner in the Sanford cafeteria before calling it a night and heading to their rooms. If Roger came into the room at all, he did so long after Tom and Astro had fallen asleep and was already gone by the time the two rolled out of the bed in the morning.

Tom, however, couldn't stop thinking about, well, everything about the incident. Did No-Good Ned have enough time from talking to Ted to getting to a plane? If so, where was it hidden? But more importantly, if Ted was right and his father hadn't returned to the hangar once they had arrived, how did he know they were there? In fact, was this even his revenge? If Captain Strong was right about No-Good Ned, he wouldn't have waited so long to get it. Which brought him right back to the burning question, who was piloting that plane?

"Earth to Tom Corbett. Come in Tom!" Astro waved his hand in front of Tom's face.

Tom blinked, coming out of his stupor. "Oh, sorry, Astro. Were you trying to talk to me?"

Astro shrugged. "Not really, but you're definitely spacing out. Thinking about yesterday's incident?"

Tom nodded and sighed. "Yeah, can't exactly get it out of my head."

"Can't say that I blame you. That was pretty stressful!"

Tom scoffed. "No kidding." He paused and thought for a moment. "Hey Astro?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you notice anything on the ground? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Uh, I'm on Earth, everything's out of the ordinary."

"No, no, no, as in, did you see anybody acting suspicious?"

Astro tapped his chin and thought for a moment. "Not that I recall, but then, I was focused more on being concerned for you guys, especially as there wasn't anything I could do to help." He shot Tom a quizzical look. "You don't think No-Good Ned was the pilot?"

"I'm trying to look at this from all angles and eliminate what I can," Tom replied. "But the only thing I've got is, if No-Good Ned really is behind this, then he must have an accomplice as I doubt he could have made it to the plane and came at us in such a short amount of time."

"You think so?"

Tom nodded. "Pretty sure. All planes on Sanford property should be accounted for, namely at the airfield. Stealing one off the air field would be pretty hard with all the personnel running around, so he would have to stash it away off campus grounds." He went to his desk and pulled a map out of the top drawer. His fingers traced the outline of campus grounds. "All of this belongs to the college. It takes us a little more than a hour to get to Pixie's, and even with a car, he has to go a distance to find even the barest of good tree coverage. There aren't many places nearby that could hide a plane. And I doubt he would stay there long as I'm sure he knows those will be the first places searched. But besides that, I think Captain Strong is right, No-Good Ned wouldn't have waited that long. Why wait ten years, after all?" His voice trailed off as the number fifteen flashed through his mind. The timeline added up. Ned McKay had to have been the crew member Kenneth Manning gave his life for, and the military became suspicious concerning the details around the incident. If it was in fact No-Good Ned, they would have been right in being suspicious. He must have gone to the Carlton ranch to lay low and wait until the investigation blew over, but the ranch hands had complained enough about him that roughly three years later, he was fired and John Corbett was given the job. But then, who was the third member of the team and what did he have to do with anything?

"Uh, Tom? You're spacing again."

Tom blinked and shook his head. "Sorry, Astro, not used to voicing my thoughts out loud."

"Well, it's not like you have to, but you were on a roll and then just left me hanging."

Tom chuckled. "Sorry, was thinking about his crewmate and his captain. What was going on that ship that he thought it was necessary for the Captain to die?"

Astro threw up his hands. "Whoa, hang on, leave that mystery to the military. They've been at it all these years and have more info on it than we do. We've got to be worried about dealing with this creep for the rest of the semester!"

"That's if he is the creep we have to deal with. The guy piloting the plane could be someone else entirely!"

"But then what would his motive be?"

"That's what we've got to find out! And stay alive!"

Astro scoffed. "No kidding." He knitted his brow. "If only Rod had known about us going yesterday, it would make the motive pretty clear. He's hired someone to eliminate his top competitors, especially Mike."

Tom sighed. "Yeah, it would, wouldn't it? I almost wish Mike had said something …" But that didn't have to be the only way Rod could find out their plans.

"Tom, you're spacing again," quipped Astro.

"Who are Rod's roommates?"

Astro blinked. "What?"

"Who are Rod's roommates? If any of our friends are rooming with him, he could have found out from them. Linda did invite a few others, like Ralph." Tom knitted his eyebrows. "Phil Morgan is one of Ralph's roommates, who's the third? Heck, we don't know who Jackson's roommates are either! Is Rod one of them?"

Astro rubbed his chin. "You have a point there."

"Well, there's one way to find out," remarked Tom as he proceeded to get dressed. Astro followed suit, and the two dashed to the cafeteria. They found their friends already there, eating and chatting away. Ralph had sat down right next to Linda, and Mike was sitting on the other side. Tom quickly wiped away the smirk that was forming on his face when Ralph shot him a dirty look as he approached. If Ralph wasn't so dense, he would notice that it was Mike who he needed to worry about, not Tom. And maybe even Ted McKay. But if anything, only Mike and Ted had to compete, Tom knew Linda well enough that she would rather the two of them over Ralph. But all Tom said when he got to the table was, "Hello Ralph, good to see you too. Who's your other roommate?"

Ralph blinked in surprise. "Huh? Say what?"

"Who is your other roommate? We met Phil Morgan, so who's the third guy?"

"Uh, why?" Tom could tell that Ralph was starting to get to the point where he would definitely decide not to give him that information. What could Tom say to get him to give it up? He glanced at Linda, and knew.

"Because I, we, have a hunch about that pilot who nearly killed us and I'm just eliminating all possibilities."

Ralph straightened up at that and narrowed his eyes. "You think someone in the program is out to eliminate competition?"

But Mike let out a loud groan. "Not this again! Tom, please, I told you, Rod is most certainly not behind this! I told you I didn't tell him about us going to the hangar!"

Tom heard Ralph suck in his breath, then saw Johnny's and Martie's eyes widened before he looked at Ralph.

"But I, I did … but he was in bed that morning!"

"Rod Harger?" asked Tom. Ralph nodded. "Ralph, his family is almost as wealthy as yours, he could have hired someone."

Ralph gritted his teeth. "Yeah, yeah, he could have. If I had known …"

"Stop it!" stated Mike, standing up.

Tom glanced at him. "Then you won't mind a test, would you?"

Mike blinked. "Uh, no, no I wouldn't."

Johnny leaned forward. "What would this test entail?"

Tom let out a breath. "Frankly, I don't know … yet. Give me some time to think about it."

"But the last party is tomorrow and I already told him about it being a full day event!" blurted Ralph.

Tom and Astro blinked. "What?"

Linda nodded and sighed. "They were just telling us. Last night Mr. Aramon made the announcement that there will be a full day party tomorrow. Pool party first, starts at eleven, we break at three to head back to our dorms to change, then come back around five-thirty for the dance party, and we finish with a movie. All the girls are heading to the mall to do some shopping."

"Oh? What movie?" asked Astro.

Ralph shrugged. "He said it was a surprise, we just have to show up. Oh, which reminds me." He turned to Linda. "Kit wanted me to get her pearls out of the bank for the party tomorrow and asked that you help."

Linda blinked. "What?"

"Yes, Kit requested you accompany me to get her pearls. She wants to wear them tomorrow night. I told her I'd get them to her tonight, but I do need a second person, and, like I said, she requested you."

Tom also blinked in surprise. Kit would never try to set up Ralph and Linda, so Ralph must have had the freedom to choose who would help. He shot a glance at Dot. Dot had long surmised that the Claverings were descended from leprechauns, without knowing it, which would explain quite a few things, like their luck, and some of their odd traditions, like this. If a Clavering asked for someone to deliver jewels or money, it could be seen as a test of the person's trustworthiness. Those who passed were given good luck, those who failed, or basically stole anything, were given bad luck. It would certainly explain why the Claverings never seemed to worry about thieves, everything that was stolen was pretty quickly returned due to the immense bad luck. Though, in this case, it seemed Ralph just wanted some good luck with Linda.

Tom noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head slightly, and saw a janitor wiping down tables. He was certainly within earshot.

"Are you sure?" asked Linda.

"Yes! With everyone going shopping this morning for the party tomorrow, I figured I'd meet up with you after lunch to get them."

Linda sighed. "Oh, alright."

"You're the best!"

"As we all know, but come on ladies, we had best not leave Louise and the others waiting!" Dot rose from the table and grabbed her plate.

"You're right. See you boys later!" quipped Linda as she too rose from the table.

"See you after lunch!" said Ralph, a rather satisfied smile on his face.

Tom turned to wave at the girls as they quickly left the table, then turned back to watch the janitor. He was leaving the cafeteria. Tom's eyes narrowed. Had he been listening in? True, if he was to steal the pearls, he would promptly return them to their rightful owners once the bad luck got too much for him. But Tom still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling gnawing at him. He turned to Ralph. "Are you sure you don't need someone else along with you?"

Ralph scoffed. "No, we'll be just fine."

"Listen, I think …"

"If I want to know what you think, farm boy, I'll ask. Linda shouldn't be holding your hand."

Mike glared at Ralph. "Hey!"

Astro slammed his hand on the table. "Watch it!"

Tom blinked and shook his head. "What? No, that's not what I'm talking about. Ralph, listen …"

"What's there to listen? This conversation is over." With that, Ralph got up and walked away.

Astro growled. "That little punk!"

Tom just sighed and rubbed his temples. "Oh Ralph, how can you be so dense?"

"You think he was listening in?" Johnny asked, his eyes darting towards the door through which the janitor had gone through.

Mike blinked. "Who? What?"

Tom glanced at him. "There was a janitor cleaning within earshot of us. He had to have been listening in. He left when the conversation finished." The others glanced between Tom and Johnny worriedly.

"Do you think we should follow them ourselves, just to make sure?" asked Mike.

Astro scoffed. "I say let him steal them."

"I am not going to risk Linda's safety because of Ralph's big mouth," Tom stated firmly. "Besides, those are Kitty's pearls and are important to her because they were a gift from her grandmother. Ralph might deserve it, but Kitty and Linda do not."

"Sorry," mumbled Astro.

"So, we should follow them?" said Orin slowly

"Maybe, I don't know. But I do know we should talk to the Commander. There's a chance that janitor was No-Good Ned."

Johnny quickly stood up. "Then let's go." They gathered their trash, tossed it in the can, and dashed off to find the Commander.

(Author's Note: Welcome back, my rosy readers! Sadly, this chapter and the two for Sprite Society I'm posting today were the only chapters I was able to finish. But that was with a trip to the family reunion, several storms, and a power outage last night. Plus, did a lot more plotting and world building in my notes for this world and barely thought about Nancy or the Hardys, despite wanting to try and finish the last five chapters of Nancy's mystery. I've hit a snag and need a bit more time to figure those two out, but will be coming back to these all in July! Right now, switching over to Fantasy Faire and some articles and short stories for LogoSophia and Fellowship & Fairydust. That being said, hope you enjoy these chapters! Have a great month and see you in July! God bless!)