False Moves by Carolyn Keene Page B

instant Nancy wason her feet beside Ned. Every eye in the room turned from the terrified Belinda to Nancy and Ned. “All right, what are the charges against Belinda Morrison,” Nancy demanded.
    â€œShe stole the Raja diamond!” Ana cried, half-hysterical. “That priceless object belongs to the Rajas, and we want it back! Now!”
    â€œDo you have any evidence?” Nancy demanded. “Without concrete evidence, it would be completely illegal to arrest her.”
    â€œI heard her talking about it on the telephone. She said she wanted to sell it, and then she would have all the money she needed.”
    Nancy turned to the dark-haired dancer. Belinda threw her a pleading look. “I was talking about my car. I swear. I never stole the diamond.”
    Nancy glanced at Ana. “It doesn’t seem to me that you’ve got a very solid case. It’s your word against hers, and it’ll take more than that to convince a jury.” She faced the man in the brown suit. “You ought to know better than to make an arrest on circumstantial evidence.”
    â€œShe—she told me she had proof—” the man stammered, staring at the floor, embarrassed.
    â€œWell, if you’re not going to arrest this thief,” Ana said, “I am getting out of here.” She marched out of the studio, her head high. But Nancy knew that Ana must be feeling foolish. She had messed up, and she’d done it in front of a lot of people.
    The detective followed her out. “Sorry for the interruption,” he said. He shrugged feebly at Nancy as he left.
    For a moment the room was completely quiet. Then, the entire company burst out into loud chatter. One handsome male dancer crossed over to Belinda and gave her hand a supportive squeeze. Colby stood glaring at James as if it were his fault Ana had interrupted the class.
    Amazed at what had just happened, Nancy dropped back into her chair. She had gotten Belinda off the hook for the robbery—at least for the time being. But was she really innocent? She could have been lying about trying to sell her car, rather than the diamond. Nancy pursed her lips in concentration. Well, if Belinda had done it, Nancy would figure it out—and she’d get the evidence Ana had failed to find.
    Nancy pushed her hair off her forehead. The other possibility was that Ana had stolen the gem and was trying to pin suspicion on Belinda.
    It was also possible that the real thief was neither Belinda nor Ana. Nancy had four other good suspects, and any one of them could have been responsible.
    It was awful having so few clues and so many suspects. But sooner or later, Nancy told herself, she’d come up with conclusive proof, something no one could ignore.
    Ned moved over to Nancy, leaned down, andwhispered, “Thank you,” in her ear. Her heart beat excitedly at his nearness. “You saved Belinda from all that and—and I don’t know how to thank you.”
    Nancy’s heart skipped a beat and sank. Every time Ned talked about Belinda, his face seemed to glow. But Nancy felt as if she had had a bucket of ice water dumped all over her.
    Then Belinda walked over to them to join Ned. She smiled at Nancy with her usual sugar-sweet expression that Nancy hated. It was all so fake.
    â€œThanks for getting rid of Ana,” Belinda said. “When Ned first said he wanted to ask you to help on this case, I wasn’t sure it was a good idea. But he’s so smart and clever that I should have known he’d be right.”
    Nancy stared at Belinda. What a faker! She glanced over at Ned, who was beaming. Nancy just didn’t understand how he could be taken in by Belinda’s act. “Well, I couldn’t let them take you away until they have hard evidence, could I,” she said innocently.
    Colby clapped his hands together and silenced whatever Belinda would have said. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get back to work. We