📚 NANCY DREW📓
in
🎠SNOW MYSTERY🎠
by Ann ♪
~A Nancy Drew Fanfic~
Chapter Ten
The rider observed silently, waiting to see what the couple would do. He’d recognized them both immediately and knew they were determined to stop the vandalism and cyber attacks currently hitting the town of Hopeville. Sitting tall astride his white stallion, he gave a firm tug on his black Stetson, bringing the rim down a little as the wind picked up, so that the frozen particles were held in check for the most part. Having traveled from Arizona in an official capacity as a US Marshal, and where his horse ranch was located, snow wasn’t something he had to deal with there.
His watchful Cherokee eyes looked over at the trussed up vandal, who had been hired to kill Nancy and Ned, until the rider had convinced the killer to cease from what he’d been about to do. It had taken more than a little determined persuading, but the correct effort had prevailed. The fight had been fierce, but fast and very definite. The loser glared angrily, but silently, thanks to the gag, at the winner, whose smile and twinkle in his eyes were evidence that he enjoyed a good laugh. He had to admit, he really enjoyed upsetting the plans of wicked people. In fact, he did that as often as he could. Something that helped the world be a better place was worth doing.
Snow swirled around gently as the rider kept the killer in his line of vision and used his peripheral to note where the now-safe-almost-victims were at. He knew that Nancy and Ned would have to go around a ways to get to where he was, if they decided to come searching out of curiosity from seeing his horse. That would give him time to disappear, along with his ‘guest’, who would soon be waiting on the doorstep of Hopeville’s police department. Along with a note of explanation and evidence that included footage of the killer lying in wait for Nancy and Ned then the interrupted murder attempt.
The rider waited plenty of time after Nancy and Ned left before cautiously heading out himself. As he rode, after delivering the very angry – and embarrassed – killer, who wasn’t going to get untied without a lot of assistance, the rider thought over what he’d found out so far. Someone somewhere was going to be extremely unhappy. You can tell a lot about someone from what they’re happy about and unhappy about.
************
Nancy awakened the next day to sunshine beaming through the curtains of her room in the suite. This evening was the dinner for Miranda Hamm and maybe, hopefully, they’d be a lot closer to finding out who was bothering the people of Hopeville and stopping them.
As she got ready to go out with the Nickersons for breakfast, she ran through that evening’s strategically arranged dinner. The idea was to catch the ex-councilwoman in her lies and hopefully find out if she was behind the attacks. Having talked with her, spoken with people who’d worked with her or been employed by her, and read through her tweets and posts, all publicly visible, including her numerous uploaded selfies, Nancy could tell what a bigoted, selfishly power hungry, greedy person the ex-councilwoman obviously was. The question was just how far she was willing to go to feed those ugly traits. Nancy noticed Miranda was prone to posting whining and other non-helpful tweets over and over.
A glance at her phone and the info on her lockscreen let Nancy know that it was nearly time for Miranda’s jet to take off from Chicago. Any minute now some of Nancy’s people in the area would let her know what vehicle of Miranda’s had been loaded onto the aircraft to be transported to Hopeville. Sometimes it was the little pieces of information like that which made a world of difference that could lead to a victorious outcome in a fight with the enemy. Especially when you have plans, very unique plans, that require that information.
About twelve minutes later, Nancy’s ringtone played its happy little tune. Answering it, Nancy smiled at the sisters on her phone’s screen and returned their greetings.
“You were right, Nancy. Like she has other times she’s going to stay somewhere for a few days, she just has to have her car with her,” stated Jean Dana, one of the two member sister detective team responsible for stopping a lot of crime and solving quite a few mysteries. “They’re loading on a luxury sports car.”
“Very, very carefully, too.” Louise Dana sounded amused. “We did some investigating while we’re here. Sending you interesting info on her family members and dubious activities. I think corruption is a common theme in their family history. Of course, a person isn’t guilty of what their family does – unless, of course, that individual does the same crooked things.”
“Thanks so much for the help. I really appreciate the info – that you just sent.” Nancy saw the notification pop-up. “Got it.”
“And, Nancy.” Jean’s expression and voice were serious. “You and Ned and his mom and dad be careful. Don’t trust this Miranda person. Be on high alert. There’s talk by some reliable sources that the Hamm family is deadly.”
Louise seconded her sister’s words of warning. “We can’t emphasize that enough, Nancy. She’s mean.”
“Don’t worry, Jean, Louise. We’ll be careful. Thanks for the words of caution. There are people you just know you can’t trust – and she’s one of them.”
They talked a little while longer, discussing theories, partly in code, even though they did everything they could to make sure no one eavesdropped, they knew still to be careful. Before long they ended the call, with the Danas going to a very early breakfast and Nancy about to get in some reading real quick then she would make a phone call in a short while.
Nancy perused the info the Dana Girls had gathered and sent. It all backed up what her own observations and instincts were telling her. She looked at the photo of the car Miranda was bringing with her. Then she called Norm and Katie and sent them the photo.
Breakfast was pleasant and tasty. Ned and his parents listened with interest as Nancy quietly caught them up on what the Dana sisters had found out. That portion of the plan was now in effect. Nancy smiled as she anticipated and imagined what the evening would bring. It promised to be real.
************
One of the pieces of info the Danas had learned had more to do with suspicion rather than evidence or facts. Nancy knew the one could lead to the others. She told Ned and his parents about it at breakfast at their favorite restaurant in Hopeville. It wasn’t very crowded right then. Their table they’d requested was secluded so that they could talk and not be overheard. Nancy sat beside Ned, facing toward the front of the restaurant.
“Hamm was on a city council in a different state and they had a problem with ransomware, with that city’s computers hijacked and held hostage for a large amount of money for a while. She voted and fought for them to give in and pay the ransom. Several of the council members argued that the policy was not to play ball with them because it would encourage and cause more if it ended up being profitable to the crooks.”
“Someone thinks she was behind it?” asked Ned’s dad asked.
“Yes. Besides calling for the city to pay the ransom, she blatantly bought an expensive new car right after the city paid up. Which, ironically, is the one she’s bringing here.”
“And you think she’s going to try that here.” Ned was pretty good at reading Nancy, who nodded.
“Yes. The cyber attacks, like the breaches in the online banking, the cryptomining, etc., made me think they might try and hit the town system with ransomware.”
“What did they say when you warned them?” Mrs. Nickerson asked. She had no doubt that Nancy had already done so. She was right.
“They’re trying to protect themselves and be on the lookout for any potential, malicious attacks like that.” Nancy suddenly stilled, her expression thoughtful as she set down her glass of orange juice. “You know, Phil Cohen was talking about preventive measures for that last year. He’s a real tech genius, I wonder if he’s developed anything yet.”
************
As soon as they were finished breakfast, Nancy wanted to hurry back to talk with Phil from the even-more-secure hotel room. She’d already made sure there were no listening devices there, nor any of her own belongings being manipulated to spy on her. Being constantly vigilant with her phone and other devices was a necessity.
It wasn’t long before she was discussing the situation with Phil in Bayport, New York. She explained succinctly what she needed help with.
“As a matter of fact, Nancy, I have something called Boomerang I’ve been working on.” Phil continued. He cleared his throat, feeling a little shy, but enthusiastic about the project. Nancy listened with interest as he told her the concept and the success he’d had testing it so far.
“How safe is it to install?” asked Nancy.
“Totally safe. It doesn’t compromise the system. If it doesn’t work, it’ll just fail to block the attack. But I have it programmed to recognize and stop basically any hostile, unauthorized takeover of a computer system such as the aspects of ransomware. I developed it on information derived from what works and what doesn’t in blocking various types of programming that attacks and corrupts. Bayport has had it running effectively for a couple of months now.”
“Great! Now for the really big question. Could it be installed and good to go by tonight if I get the approval of the town government at such short notice? I know several members so far and I believe they’d go for it. Especially from Bayport’s success with it.”
“Absolutely, Nancy. You’ll do a good job.” Phil’s voice held confidence. “Just let me know when and the info I need to get in to install it then I can do it remotely in a short amount of time with the right details available. I’ll be on standby for you.”
“Thanks, Phil. Really appreciate it.”
“No problem. I appreciate the confidence in my abilities. I was really nervous thinking what would happen if it failed with Bayport’s system. And me getting blamed if something went wrong, anything, even if it had nothing to do with what I did. But I couldn’t not say something since I could help. I just tried my best to search for vulnerabilities in the program and take care of them.”
“I think you’ll have some more grateful people here by tonight,” Nancy assured him.
“And if it goes as planned, there will be some unhappy people, too, by stopping their evil intents.”
“Exactly.”
“Be careful, Nancy. Those unhappy people won’t be playing nice.”
“I know. Thanks, Phil. And don’t worry.” Nancy glanced at the time. “I’ll try to get this rolling and hope everything is in time. Talk with you later. Tell everyone hi for me.”
“Will do.”
~ TAP/CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER ELEVEN! ~
Hardy and Drew Mysteries 