Free Power of Suggestion by Carolyn Keene Page B

have fallen out of Diana’s pocket when Nancy threw her down. Was it another love letter? She picked it up and opened it.
    The envelope contained two small computer diskettes. She’d have to wait until later to examine them, though. For now, she wanted to finish looking around and get out of here. If Diana had been telling the truth about the police circulating, she didn’t want to get caught!
    As Nancy slipped the envelope into the pocket of her jeans, she felt the glossy coating of the Positive Tapes pamphlet Larry Boyd had given her earlier. She made a quick search of the rest of the house but didn’t turn up anything that could be a clue to who Wayne’s murderer was. Ten minutes later, Nancy left, slipping out the kitchen door and carefully replacing the police tape across the doorway.
    Since she didn’t want to be spotted by any patrol cars, she sneaked through the yard next door, then crossed the street a few houses down. She approached the Mustang quietly, on the passenger side. Ned was staring intently at Wayne’s house and didn’t realize that Nancy wasthere until she flung open the door and popped into the car. “Boo!” she said. “Miss me?”
    Ned jerked around, startled. Then he started to laugh. “Who taught you to sneak around like that?”
    â€œYears of practice, Nickerson,” she responded, giving him a quick kiss.
    â€œFind anything?”
    Nancy nodded. “Diana DeMarco,” she replied. Before Ned could ask anything more, she said, “I’ll tell you all about it. But right now let’s get out of here. The cops might be patrolling this street.”
    Ned started Nancy’s car and pulled away from the curb. Before they reached the end of the block, a police car rounded the corner, then drove past them, headed in the direction of Wayne’s house. Nancy gave a sigh of relief. It had been that close.
    As they drove back to the Emerson campus, she told Ned about her encounter with Diana.
    â€œThey were actually dating?” Ned asked, looking surprised. When Nancy nodded, he added, “So do you think she could have killed him?”
    Nancy grew thoughtful. “It’s possible, though I don’t know what motive she could have. She seemed genuinely upset by Wayne’s death, but I had a definite feeling she was hiding something.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the envelope Diana had dropped. “Maybe these will help.” She told Ned about the diskettes and how she’d found them.
    â€œWhat’s on them?” he wondered.
    â€œI don’t know. I didn’t get a chance to look.” She opened the envelope and took out the diskettes, then read the hand-lettered labels. “Hey, this might be important!”
    Ned glanced over from the driver’s seat. “What’ve you got?”
    â€œThis one is labeled Subliminal Persuasion: Analysis and Assessment,” Nancy told him. “I think these are the records of Professor Edberg’s study!”
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    â€œI’m glad Parker and Bess had a good time at the movies,” Nancy said two hours later as she and Ned walked down the upstairs hall of the Omega Chi Epsilon house. They’d just knocked on Parker’s door and found him half-asleep. He woke up long enough to tell them that after the movie, he had dropped Bess off at Packard Hall, then returned to the fraternity.
    â€œLet’s just hope Maury is having some luck with those diskettes so that we can all get some sleep,” Ned said. He pushed into a tiny bedroom that was filled with computer equipment. A narrow bed was squashed against one wall, as if it were an afterthought.
    â€œThis is interesting,” Maury Becker said, looking up from his computer screen. Immediately after leaving Wayne’s house, Nancy and Ned had gone back to the fraternity to show Maury the diskettes Nancy had found. He’d immediately agreed to