Danger on Parade by Carolyn Keene Page A

explosion.”
    Jill glanced up from her printout, a puzzled look on her face. “I’ve never even heard of Heath Nealon,” she said. “And I know the names of everyone working on this parade. Let me call personnel and ask if they have any record of him.”
    When she hung up the phone a few moments later, she was frowning. “Heath Nealon is a stockboy at the store,” Jill explained to Nancy and Bess. “I don’t know why he’d be at the warehouse. He has nothing to do with the parade.”
    â€œCan you call him to find out?” Bess suggested.
    Once again, Jill picked up the phone on her desk. First she called Heath Nealon, and then she spoke with his supervisor. Nancy couldn’t tell much from Jill’s side of the conversation. She and Bess waited anxiously until Jill finished.
    â€œSo?” Nancy asked, leaning forward.
    â€œHeath Nealon said he’s never been to the parade studio,” Jill began.
    â€œBut my printout says he was here Monday morning,” Bess protested. “Besides, his supervisor can’t know what Heath does at night, after work is over.”
    Jill held up a hand. “Actually, Heath told me something very interesting.” She paused, giving Nancy and Bess a meaningful look. “A few days ago, his ID card was stolen!”

Chapter

Eleven
    N ANCY AND B ESS exchanged looks of shock.
    â€œAre you sure he didn’t lose it?” Bess asked.
    Jill nodded. “He told me he always keeps it in the same place, in the pocket of his jacket, which he hangs on a hook in the stockroom. When he got to the store on Monday morning, he reached into his pocket for his card, and it was gone.”
    â€œWhy didn’t he report that it was missing?” Nancy wanted to know.
    â€œI asked him the same thing,” Jill told the girls. “He said he thought he’d get into trouble. Apparently a friend of his in the stockroom has been letting him in every morning.”
    Nancy’s mind was racing. “So whoever stole his ID card is the real culprit,” she said.
    â€œBut how can we find out who that is?” Bessasked. “We only have until tomorrow morning to find out. What if the person does something terrible and tries to pin it on me again?”
    â€œI think you’re in the clear now,” Nancy said. “You’ve never even been in the stockrooms or met Heath Nealon, so there’s no way you could know where to get his ID card.”
    Seeing that Jill’s expression was still guarded, Nancy added, “It’s possible that Howard Langley has an employee doing his dirty work for him. That person could have stolen Heath Nealon’s ID card.”
    Jill sighed, then smiled at Bess. “And I supposed we still can’t be sure Louis Clark isn’t a saboteur as well as a thief,” she added.
    â€œI just can’t wait until everyone believes I’m innocent,” Bess said.
    â€œWell, the good news is that everything’s on schedule,” Jill said, changing the subject. “The repairs to the balloons are almost finished, and all the floats and balloons are being transported to the Museum of Natural History. Neil is making sure all the guests, bands, and other groups are checked in at the parade site by six in the morning.”
    Bess’s expression brightened as she said, “It must really be something to see the balloons and floats being readied at the museum tonight.”
    Jill nodded. “It’s a major preparade event. Tons of tourists and people from the neighborhood come to watch.”
    Nancy looked up to see Neil Steem walk into Jill’s office. Greg Willow and a woman with curly red hair and a camera around her neck were with him.
    â€œHi!” Neil said brightly. “We came out to get a couple of publicity shots of Greg on the lead float.”
    Bess was fidgeting with the hem of her striped sweater. After all that had happened, she was