Free Mystery at the Ski Jump by Carolyn Keene Page A

said. “I wish you’d told me!”
    “It’s a mistake,” Nancy said, moving on hurriedly. “I’ll explain later, Chuck.”
    She edged past the dressing rooms until she came to one with her name on it. She knocked on the door. There was no response. Nancy took a deep breath and opened the door.
    The dressing room was empty!
    Nancy was crestfallen. She had missed Mrs. Channing again! A quick survey of the room convinced her that the woman had been there recently. The scent of her heavy perfume was thick in the air.
    Had Mrs. Channing been frightened away? Who had warned her? Had she seen Nancy come into the arena?
    Nancy left the dressing room and made her way back through the crowded corridor. She questioned the skaters she met, but none recalled having seen the woman she described.
    Chuck Wilson greeted her again. “I have a solo part in the first number,” he told her. “I’d like to have you see it. You’ll still have time to get into your costume.”
    “Chuck, I’m not going to skate—really!” Nancy said. “I’m not the girl who signed up for the Pair Skating!”
    “What?”
    “Tell me, did you speak about me to anyone here after that announcement on the loudspeaker?”
    Chuck grinned. “Maybe I did mention to some of the performers that I know you,” he admitted. “I said you were with your father in the arena.”
    “When you said that, were you standing anywhere near the dressing room with my name on it?”
    “Well, I guess I was,” Chuck replied. “Now, won’t you tell me what all the mystery is about?”
    “Not yet—not in this crowd,” she said. “Too much has been overheard already!”
    “Is Miss Drew here?—Miss Nancy Drew?”
    A short, plump man with a waxed mustache came down the corridor, looking hastily about as he asked the question.
    “That’s Mr. Dubois, the manager of the show,” Chuck told Nancy.
    “I can give you information about Nancy Drew,” the young detective told the man.
    Mr. Dubois motioned to Nancy and Chuck to follow him to an unoccupied dressing room. “Tell me where this young woman is,” he urged. “She must perform in thirty minutes.”
    “I’m sure she has left,” Nancy said. “The woman who entered the exhibition isn’t Nancy Drew at all. That’s my name. This other woman is Mitzi Channing, and she’s wanted by the police.”
    The manager threw up his hands. “The police! Are you implying that I’ve been sponsoring a criminal?”
    “I know you’ve done nothing wrong,” Nancy said quickly. “But surely you want to help catch a thief. Please tell me what you know about this skater. What does she look like?”
    The description Mr. Dubois gave identified the woman as Mitzi Channing. She and a man named Smith had come that afternoon to try out for the show. Mr. Dubois described the man, but Nancy did not recognize him.
    “They were excellent skaters,” the manager said, “and I gave them permission to enter the Pair Skating. The woman wouldn’t allow her partner’s name to be announced.”
    Nancy thanked Mr. Dubois. Just then a bell sounded. The manager and Chuck hurried off, and Nancy went to a telephone to tell the police of her suspicions.
    In the auditorium, Mr. Drew was becoming increasingly anxious about Nancy. Once he considered going to search for her. “No,” he told himself, “she works fast when she has a lead, and I trust her to act intelligently.”
    The lawyer assumed that the late entry in the Pair Skating would be scratched. He was surprised when the announcer declared that the next skater would be Miss Nancy Drew and that her partner would be Charles Wilson.
    Mr. Drew watched his client, wearing close-fitting black slacks and an open-necked white satin shirt, glide gracefully onto the ice. Then the young man was joined by a titian-haired girl in a white satin ballet costume.
    The lawyer gasped. “Nancy!”
    The two skaters danced in unison, then spun off to skate individually. While Nancy executed some simple steps,