False Moves by Carolyn Keene

why?” the first girl wondered. “I mean, whoever took them couldn’t possibly wear all those shoes. Besides, no one would want to use someone else’s pointe shoes. There’s no way they’d be able to dance in them.”
    â€œHey, pass me one of those carrots,” said the girl who liked Robert Sierra.
    Her friend handed her the bag, and pretty soon the group was busy talking about the guys in the company again.
    But Nancy had stopped listening. Stolen pointe shoes. She’d been hearing a lot about stolen shoes since she’d gotten to CBT. She remembered how Katya had asked Bridgit if she’d found a pair of her shoes. And the first time she had come to the dancers’ lounge, some of the ballerinas had beensaying they, too, had lost shoes. Katya’s missing shoes in the costume shop that day were probably just another example of the same thing.
    Nancy remembered the torn piece of silk she and Ned had discovered in the costume storage room. She hadn’t been sure if it was part of a costume or a small bit of a pointe shoe. Now she was convinced it was from a dance slipper. A slipper that the black-clad intruder had ripped apart in his wild search for the diamond.
    Slowly Nancy began to develop a theory. The diamond must have been hidden in a pair of pointe shoes. That was how the thief had smuggled the diamond past the police and out of the new theater. If the jewel were wrapped up in lamb’s wool—which the dancers used to pad the toes of their pointe shoes—and stuffed in a slipper, it would be the perfect way to safeguard the stolen pin and smuggle it past the police.
    But when the costume people carried the costumes back to the old theater, the thief must have lost track of the shoe with the diamond. And no wonder. There’d been costumes, personal possessions, and makeup to move. And that included pointe shoes belonging to thirty women!
    Quickly Nancy calculated. If each girl owned five or six pairs, that would mean three or four hundred individual shoes to pack up and bring back to the old theater! It wasn’t at all surprising that the thieves had lost track of the right one!
    Okay! Nancy told herself excitedly. All I have to do is find that shoe and I’ve got the diamond!
    But Nancy knew it wouldn’t be at all simple. After all, the thieves had been searching among the shoes for four days already. They had a very big head start, but, she consoled herself, they hadn’t found it yet. She still had a chance. It would be a huge undertaking, but after the thieves had tried to kill her that morning, she was more determined than ever!
    Her theory didn’t tell her who had stolen the gem, but at least she could recover the stolen property.
    Nancy quickly checked to see if Katya was still there. There were some important things she wanted to ask the group of dancers, and it would definitely not be a good idea to do it in front of one of her prime suspects. But the older ballerina had already left.
    Nancy leaned in toward the girls. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help hearing what you said about your pointe shoes disappearing lately. Maybe I can help you out.” And if I’m lucky, she added, you’ll be able to help me out.
    â€œOh, you’re the detective who’s investigating the diamond robbery,” the redhead said. “Sure, it would be great if you could find our shoes for us. It’s very painful breaking in new shoes.”
    â€œWell, the first thing I need to do is take a look at some of your shoes.”
    â€œOkay,” the girl said. She pulled two pairs out of her bag and handed them to Nancy.
    â€œWhat’s so special about these?” Nancy wanted to know. “I mean, why wouldn’t any other dancer want to wear them?”
    â€œPointe shoes aren’t all the same,” the dancer explained. She turned one slipper over and pointed to a tiny letter engraved in the middle of the hard leather