The Red Slippers (Nancy Drew Diaries #11)(11)

Finally Bess stopped in front of a door marked LILAC FAIRY DRESSING ROOM and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Maggie said from the other side.

As soon as the door swung open, my jaw dropped. The entire room had been destroyed. All of Maggie’s belongings—her makeup, her brush, her phone, her clothes—had been thrown on the ground and stomped on. The lightbulbs lining the mirror were shattered. The mirror itself sported a long crack right through the middle. One of a chair’s legs had been broken off.

Maggie sat crumpled in the far corner of the room, as if she was trying to stay as far away from the chaos as possible.

“It looks like a hurricane came through here,” George said.

“I take it back, Nancy,” Maggie said, looking up at me, tears streaming down her face. “I want you to catch Fiona red-handed. She needs to be stopped!”

“We’ll nab whoever did this!” I told Maggie. “You have my word.”

“Mine, too,” George said.

Next to me Bess cleared her throat. We all turned to look at her.

“The thing is,” she started, “I kept a close eye on Fiona all afternoon. She never left my sight for more than a few seconds. There’s no way she had time to do all of this,” she said, swinging her arm out to take in the full dressing room.

A loud sob erupted from Maggie. “You mean we have no idea who did this?”

It was closer to the truth than I wanted to admit. The poster hadn’t turned up anything, and with Bess ruling out Fiona, I was at a loss. Looking at Maggie, though, I couldn’t say that out loud.

“Just because Fiona didn’t do this herself,” I said, “doesn’t mean she wasn’t behind it.” Maggie looked up with a glimmer of hope on her tear-streaked face. “It’s been a long day,” I continued. “Why don’t we go to dinner and you can give us a rundown of Fiona’s friends who might have helped her.”

Maggie nodded. “That sounds good.” She quickly changed into her street clothes and we headed out.

Sebastian was sitting on a chair in the lobby, but he jumped up as soon as he saw Maggie.

“Maggie! Are you okay? I heard what happened.” He came close as if he were going to hug her, but held back. I saw Bess smile. She loves couples. I think she was more excited when Ned and I started dating than either Ned or I were.

“I’m fine.” Maggie sighed. “We were actually all going to grab dinner. Do you want to come?”

“I’d love to,” Sebastian answered, following as we all headed out into the cold.



By the time our entrées arrived, Maggie was noticeably calmer. We’d decided to go to Hugo’s Restaurant, much to George’s chagrin. George is a burger and fries girl, and Hugo’s specializes in organic health food. Maggie explained she was on a strict diet. She ate a lot of calories because of how much she exercised, but they were all healthy calories. It was imperative that she maintain her slim figure if she was going to have any shot at becoming a professional dancer.

George had been shocked when she found out all the things Maggie didn’t eat: pizza, ice cream, steaks. She couldn’t believe that anyone would voluntarily not eat ice cream.

“Evelyn Young and Nicole Rush,” Maggie said. “Those are Fiona’s best ‘friends.’ I say friends, but they’re more like lapdogs. They would do anything for her.”

“Great,” I said. “I’ll focus my investigation on them tomorrow.” I turned to Bess. “Can you just walk me through this afternoon one more time? I know you were focused on Fiona, but did anyone leave the rehearsal for a prolonged period of time?”

Before Bess could answer, Sebastian returned from the bathroom. “You guys are still talking about the dressing room? I thought the point of coming here was to give Maggie a break, get her mind off things,” he said. “She needs to relax so she can get a good night’s sleep tonight and be ready for tomorrow.”

I was going to protest that I needed all the information I could get to solve this case before the performance. I had less than twenty-four hours, and we’d made very little headway so far.

But looking over at Maggie and seeing how distraught she was, I realized Sebastian was right. We weren’t going to solve the case at the restaurant, and belaboring all the details wouldn’t help Maggie do her best tomorrow.

I turned to Sebastian. “All right,” I said. “Tell us about you. You seem really young to be the pianist for the tour.”

Sebastian finished chewing a bite of his salmon salad. “Well, my sister, Veronica, is a ballet dancer too.”

“She’s not just a ballet dancer,” Maggie added. “She’s a member of the New York City Ballet—Jamison’s only student to get into the company. Veronica is pretty much my idol.”

“Right,” Sebastian said. “What she said. When we were young, my parents decided we should practice together, make sure we kept each other honest about how much time we put in. She’d dance while I played. By the time I was eleven, I was accompanying all her recitals, and when I was fourteen the school started paying me to play for classes and performances, so I’ve basically been doing it for most of my life.”

“That’s incredible,” Bess said.

“Hey,” Maggie said to Sebastian. “Have you heard from Veronica recently?”