Nancy Drew Case Files #8: Two Points to Murder (1987)

Nancy got a call from Ned's basketball coach that caused her to pack up and rush to Emerson College to investigate a new case. Since she can't do anything alone, Bess and George come along for the ride. George can't wait to hit the college's gym and take in some basketball games, while Bess just wants to check out the hot college guys. Nancy is a little nervous because things aren't great between her and Ned, so she isn't sure what will happen.

See, Ned is co-captain of the basketball team, and they're just about to make it to the big playoffs. Someone keeps pulling all these pranks on the team that make it hard for them to concentrate and play. The coach brought in Nancy in the hopes of getting to the bottom of things.

As soon as she arrives, she meets Pat, the coach, and Dr. Riggs, the team doctor. She also gets to meet some of the other players who tease her about how much Ned talks about her. The only problem is that Ned seems kind of uncomfortable with her being around. They don't talk that much, she notices that he isn't as affectionate as he once was, and they don't really spend very much time together.

On her first day, someone rushes in and shouts that a player hanged himself from the hoop. When Nancy checks it out, she finds that someone made a dummy and hung it from the hoop. At a party with the players, she finds the same material used in the dummy in Mike's room. Mike is the other captain of the team and Ned's best friend. When she shows him what she found, Ned pretty much explodes on her for not trusting his friend and how she's clearly wrong to blame the guy.

Though Mike winds up on her suspect list, she also picks up a few others. Ray played for the team before the coach cut him for his grades. He made a big scene about how the team sucked and he would never play for them again. Tom is the president of the student council and obsessed with the team getting money. He claims that the college actually pays players to play, which is against the rules.

Tom comes off the list when she learns that he was with the debate team when one of the pranks happened. She then removes Ray after talking to him. It turns out that his grades dropped and that he appreciates the coach cutting him because it motivated him to study more and get his grades up. Her main suspect is still Mike, which pisses Ned off to no end. He literally shouts at her multiple times about how Mike is his best friend and would never do anything to hurt the team.

A bunch of terrible things happen, including:

-Someone shoots a gun at the bus while the team is one its way to their next game

-Someone trashes the girls' room and leaves a threatening note that Nancy needs to GTFO

-Someone locks Nancy in a sauna in the gym. She almost dies before using a pen Carson gave her to short out the system.

-Someone shoots a gun at Nancy

-Someone in a black Camaro tries to run her down in the middle of campus

Though she still suspects Mike, she thinks it's weird when she hears a guy on a pay phone talking about the push, spread, and stuff like that. She later sees the same black Camaro chasing that guy. The driver gets out, beats the crap out of the guy, and runs away. Nancy tells the cops what she saw, but the guy swears he never saw anything and doesn't know anything. She also finds that all the scholarship players, including Mike, suddenly have a bunch of money. He's supposedly broke but has a brand new gold watch and hundreds of dollars in his locker.

Right before the big game, word comes down that Mike “fell” off the roof. He asks to talk to Nancy, but Dr. Riggs pops up and says he needs to get to the hospital right away. They learn that with some hard work that he'll walk again but that he'll never play basketball again. Ned once again explodes on Nancy about minding her own business. Is this a steroids story?

During the final game before the tournament starts, the team is winning. One of the guys says something about a push, and another player knocks Ned down hard enough that the coach takes him out of the game. George makes a comment about how the other team would bet on Ned being down, which causes Nancy to put everything together.

This leads to a big altercation between her and Dr. Riggs. It turns out that he set up a whole gambling ring that spread across the campus. He used scholarship players to ensure that the team always made the push, which is the point spread or something like that. Just as she threatens to go to the cops, he pulls a gun on her and brings in some big dude to hold her back while he runs off.

The big dude reveals that the guy on the phone kept losing and couldn't pay his debts. Mike was in on the whole thing, but when he decided he couldn't do it anymore, big dude threw him off the roof. Nancy basically karate kicks him in the face to incapacitate him and then takes off. George and Bess called the cops when she disappeared, they get there, the cops find Riggs, and he confesses the whole thing.

In the end, Nancy asks Ned about a silver bracelet he bought her. Tom told her that Ned was getting cash from the college to play, which was how he bought the bracelet. Ned then explodes again and points out that he can't give Nancy anything without her constantly questioning him and pushing things. He then confesses that he's tired of taking a backseat to all her cases and says that no matter what he does, he can't ever be enough for her.

It's actually pretty sad. Ned explains that Nancy is perfect and pretty much has it all. Whenever they're together, she's so busy with her cases, friends, and a million other things that she doesn't have time for him. He also tells her flat out that he can't give her anything that she couldn't get from a dozen other guys and that he can't understand why she even wants to be with him. That's when he drops the bombshell that it's time for them to break up. Nancy cries and begs him to change his mind, even telling him that she loves him, but Ned just tells her that it's over and leaves. The book then ends with Nancy sobbing and watching him walk away, just hoping he'll come back to her.

*The college conveniently has a huge suite with its own kitchenette and private bathroom ready for the girls. Ned explains that it's for special guests. Yeah, suites at my college were in high demand. There would be a riot if the school reserved one just in case.

*They literally find a box with all the stuff needed to make the dummy in Mike's room, and Ned still goes off about how she doesn't have enough evidence and Mike would never do that. He doesn't apologize in the end for her being right either.

*Bess is the one who points out all the fancy clothes the scholarship players have, but it only happens because they're among the hottest guys she's drooling over.

*Ned thinks it's great that Bess went to the gym with George, but Nancy just laughs it off because it won't change her exercise habits. Once again, who's the girl that the guys go crazy over all the time?

*Riggs isn't on the suspect list at the very beginning and only pops up in two scenes before Nancy solves the case. I feel like the bad guy should be in a few more scenes.

*I actually sobbed like a baby when I read the last few pages of this book! Even though Nancy and Ned had problems in this book, I figured they'd work things out in the end. Him telling her that he isn't enough for her and that she could find dozens of guys like him kind of made me feel like my heart was breaking!