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said. “You’ll need a new key to get into the rooms to do your work. Mr. Wasilick can’t blame you if the key was stolen from you. But I promise I won’t tell anyone that you opened a room for a guest.”
    Rosita looked at Nancy gratefully. “Thank you!”
    Nancy went back to her room and phoned Ms. Peabody for the names of the guests at the far end of the hall. None of the names were familiar, though she jotted them all down for future reference. Then she went downstairs and grabbed lunch at the mezzanine-level café. She knew Bess was still waiting tables, and George was back at the pool.
    Next, after signing her room check, Nancy went to find Ned. She knew that Gina and Sally had workshops all afternoon. In a hallway outside the meeting rooms, Nancy finally spotted him, tipped back in a chair, reading a magazine. Seeing Nancy, he brought the chair down with a thump. “Hey, Drew, what’s up?” he called to her happily.
    Nancy mustered a smile, hoping she wouldn’t look too uptight at seeing him. She sure felt uptight. “Hey, Ned. How’s the bodyguard business?” she replied.
    â€œBor- ring,” Ned complained.
    â€œLook, Ned, I need to search Gina’s room for clues,” Nancy said. “Is that okay with you?”
    â€œSure,” Ned replied. He pulled out two keycards from his pocket. “One’s for my room, one is Gina’s—I can’t remember which is which. Take them both. Bring them back when you’re done—I’ll be here till four.”
    â€œThanks,” Nancy said, taking the cards. “See you then.” With a little wave, she turned to walk away.
    â€œHey, Drew!” Ned called. Nancy turned. He tapped a finger on his lips. Slipping back, she bent over for a kiss. He reached up, caught her shoulders, and held her for a few extra seconds.
    Nancy broke away. “I miss you,” she murmured.
    Ned nodded. “I miss you. Let’s not let Gina catch us, huh?”
    Nancy’s face darkened. “Why not?” she asked.
    Ned shrugged. “I thought we weren’t supposed to let on we knew each other,” he said casually.
    â€œOh, right,” Nancy said. But as she left, she felt uneasy. Ned had seemed his old self again—until the remark about Gina. They both knew how Gina would have reacted if she’d seen them kissing.
    Nancy went upstairs and started her search of Gina’s room. She dusted for fingerprints on all doorknobs and drawer handles, but they were too smudged to read. She pulled a couple of snags of clothing fiber from a splintered edge of the desk. A quick check in the closet showed they were threads from Gina’s clothes.
    She sifted through the wastebaskets, looking for anything the thief might have discarded. But all she found was makeup-smeared cotton balls, an empty film container, and wrappers from the hotel chocolates left on guests’ pillows each night.
    Then, on a memo pad on the desk, Nancy spied dents in the paper, left by writing on the previous top sheet. Shading over it with pencil, she outlined the message:
    Ned—Sweetest dreams. I feel so much safer knowing you’re on the other side of my wall. If I get lonely during the night, can I call you?—G
    Nancy tore off the paper and crumpled it up. So that’s what is going on! she fumed.
    Storming out of the room, Nancy went back downstairs. She knew Ned was waiting for his keycards, but she couldn’t face him right now. Instead she found Bess in the Muskoka Lobby, setting up a snack table. Nancy asked her to return the keycards to Ned. “I have to check in with George,” she added, not wanting to go into the real reason, and headed for the pool, which was on the roof of the hotel’s three-story annex.
    Wearing a red tank suit, George was walking along the pool with a screen on a long pole, skimming leaves from the water. “Nancy, put on your suit and go for a