Free En Garde (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 17) by Carolyn Keene Page B

hesitated, then nodded again. “Most days, I don’t know who I’m fencing for,” she said. “For Bela, so he can show me off as his prize pupil? For my mom, so she can believe all the sacrifices were worth it? Or for Damon, so he doesn’t feel inferior?”
    She lowered her head, wiping her eyes. “I’m sure not doing it for the love of fencing anymore. It seems like my whole life has been devoted to this sport—and now it’s killing me!”

8
The Other Side
    I was still brooding about DeLyn the next morning, as George and I got into my car and drove the twenty miles to Cutler Falls. “It would be a pain to drive this far every time you wanted to take a fencing lesson,” George remarked. “In the end, I don’t think students will defect from Salle Budapest if they have to go all the way to Salle Olympique.”
    “I don’t know,” I said, thinking of how unhappy some folks at Salle Budpest were—including its brightest star. “Some people might think it was worth the drive. Especially fencers who got the impression that Bela Kovacs is a lunatic.”
    “It’s too bad he didn’t let Derrick inside to do that follow-up story yesterday,” George said. “The sooner his public image is corrected, the better. Any studentwho’s worked with him knows the real Bela.”
    I stole a sideways glance at her. She really seemed convinced. But the Bela Kovacs she thought she knew was very different from the Bela Kovacs that Ned Nickerson knew. Different also from the Bela who was making Damon and DeLyn so miserable. So which one was the real Bela Kovacs?
    I looked away, feeling a little guilty. I hadn’t told George about the conversation I had heard yesterday—about how Bela had only been puffing up her ego in order to goad DeLyn. I didn’t have the heart to tell George what he really thought of her.
    “What do you think was the deal with Damon’s mask yesterday?” George asked, changing the subject.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “We’ve got to figure Damon lied, though. He said he used cleaning fluid on his mask, right? But I was holding that mask he wore—it was DeLyn’s mask, George. It had her name all over it.”
    George’s eyes grew round. “Wow. So does that mean somebody was trying to hurt DeLyn?”
    “It looks like it to me,” I said. “After all, she is the salle’s most prominent fencer, isn’t she? If someone wanted to make the salle look bad, it would be logical to go after DeLyn. She had one of the tampered foils in her bag. The incident at the tournament the other day occurred in DeLyn’s bout too.”
    “It’s got to be Paul Mourbiers,” George said. “He’s the one who hates Bela. He’s the one who has most to gain if Salle Budapest goes under.”
    I shook my head. “I wish it were that simple. Paul Mourbiers might have had access to Una’s gauntlet at the meet the other day, but how would he have gotten into Salle Budapest to damage so many foils? And DeLyn’s mask? It was in her bag when she was at your house yesterday. You had more opportunity to tamper with it than Mourbiers did.”
    George frowned. “What are you saying, Nancy?”
    “Don’t worry, George,” I said, smiling. “You’re not on my suspect list. I’m just saying that I don’t see Salle Olympique as our chief suspect anymore.”
    George looked out the window. “So Mourbiers must have sent spies. That’s why we’re going to Cutler Falls now—to find them, right?”
    “Perhaps,” I said. “We have to check out that possibility, but there’s no guarantee that yesterday’s students have anything to do with Salle Olympique.”
    “What about that scruffy-looking guy you were telling me about?” George asked. “You know for sure he was at Salle Budapest a couple of times, plus he was at the meet. Maybe he’s working for Mourbiers.”
    “Maybe,” I agreed. “But it’s hard to believe that Mourbiers would hire somebody who so obviously stands out to do his undercover dirty work. If thatguy went