The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #133: The Mystery at the Crystal Palace (1996)

Nancy and the gals are off to help Alison MacDonald find a missing fortune. Alice was a good friend of hers when she was kids but left town after her parents died. She inherited the Crystal Palace, a big ass arena, from her uncle. Her uncle's will left her money that went missing. Though she called Carson for help, he was way too busy and sent Nancy in his place.

Alison meets them and explains that she used a lot of money to make repairs to the building and desperately needs the missing cash. The big Midwestern skating championship is taking place that week too. She introduces them to some other people. There's Ted, the handyman, Meg, a former Olympian turned coach, Sarah, one of the skaters, Scott, a skater, and Amanda, another skater paired with Scott. Scott and Sarah are also a couple. Meg comes over and gets really snappy because her students didn't get their own private practice place and basically warns Alison that the competition will be a disaster.

We learn that Amanda ditched her old coach to work with Scott and that Sarah doesn't really like anyone. Alison also reveals that Ted is close to proposing to Meg. She takes the group to her office and shows them a sculpture her uncle had made based off an ice sculpture she once bought him, which shows a skater on the ice. Sarah shows up and makes a big deal out of getting the tape she made of her practice out of the office and an even bigger deal when the tape goes missing.

The girls go to the outdoor sculpture garden and see one that Alison's uncle always loved. They find out that he often hid things and forgot where he hid them. Ted shows up and keeps poking around that specific sculpture but then claims he was just meeting Meg there and runs off. Nancy overhears him talking about investing in art with the museum curator.

Whey they get back to the hotel, the door to their room is slightly open. Bess heads to the bathroom and promptly screams because someone wrote a threatening message to Nancy on the mirror. As it turns out, the person did it with her own lipstick. She also finds that someone stole some of the files she had on Alison's uncle. The hotel manager doesn't seem too concerned but agrees to talk with his staff about it.

While at the rink the next day, the Zamboni goes out of control and heads right towards Amanda. Nancy gets on the ice and drags her to safety. Ted finds the Zamboni still works and answers some questions that Nancy has. She realizes that whoever did it probably had some help and also finds a barrette on the ice. Amanda says it isn't hers but looks really scared.

Bess introduces Nancy to Kerri, the former it girl of ice skating. She had to take a year off because of an injury and isn't in top form. Kerri turns out to be the nicest chick on the ice. She's friendly to everyone and actually compliments Amanda on how much she improved since the last time they faced off. Nancy hears Meg snapping at Sarah about her hair and sees that girl wearing a barrette exactly like the one she found earlier.

Kerri joins the girls for lunch at a big burger place and still seems super nice. When they head back to the rink, she tells them that she's the new spokesperson for some juice company and orders one from the snack bar, which shares with Bess. As she starts skating though, she gets a little dizzy and passes out. The doctor thinks she has food poisoning and sends her home, and then Bess gets sick too.

Nancy and George go to the drugstore to pick something up for her and run into Ted. The pharmacist is Scott's mom, and she makes a comment about how Meg shouldn't need a refill on her eye drops so soon, which no one finds suspicious. They also see Ted buying Meg a new lipstick, which is the same shade Nancy wears, and they find out that Kerri took a turn for the worse and may not be able to compete.

When they realize that both girls drank the same juice, Nancy calls Alison to see if she can come in early to check on the drink. They head into the rink to find the ice melting. Alison finds that someone shut off the compressors and gets them running again. If Nancy hadn't called though, the ice would have completely melted, which would take days to fix and ended the competition. Nancy tries going through the trash but only finds a video tape, which is the tape someone stole out of the office of Sarah's routine. They also find that someone used a small screwdriver to break into the office, which is the same type used by skaters to tighten their blades. Alison remembers hearing Meg yelling at Amanda for having a loose blade and wonders if she couldn't tighten it because she lost her screwdriver.

Nancy heads to the hospital to visit Kerri and finds a guard posted outside her door. He makes everyone sign in for a visit, and she sees Meg's name on the list. Kerri isn't there, so she checks her file and finds that she really was poisoned. The girls then do some research and learn that Meg was a gold medal favorite at one point but only won the silver. She then revealed that she suffered from a degenerative eye condition that would one day leave her blind. The eye drops she uses cause symptoms like Bess and Kerri had.

The first day of the competition finally arrives. Amanda and Scott do a great job until he does the death spiral. When she stands up, her skirt falls off. They manage to finish their routine but come in fourth. Amanda asks Nancy to find proof that Sarah sabotaged her. Apparently, Sarah and Scott were once partners, Meg made her go solo, and now Sarah wants to skate with her guy again. Bess finds that someone moved a button on the skirt, which made it tight enough that it popped open when Amanda made a certain move.

Alison agrees to let the girls stay late and skate on their own. It takes about five seconds for Nancy to fall and hit her head on the ice. Someone left some broken glass behind that blended in with the ice. Alison thinks someone did it on purpose. The original plan called for the skaters to have one last practice session, which makes her think someone wanted to knock a few people out of the competition.

Nancy finds out from Alison that Pete, Ted's helper, accidentally turned the compressors off, which is like the 40^th mistake he's made lately. She told him to fire the guy but finds it strange because he spent 10 years working at another rink. When Nancy calls that rink though, the dude who answers tells her he can't help and hangs up on her. They then run into Amanda buying a new screwdriver and complaining because Scott took hers. She's also ticked off at him because he blew off their practice with claims that he cut his hand, which makes it really bad when they see him practicing with Sarah.

They explain that they plan on getting back together again but haven't yet told Meg. It's just way too hard for Sarah to see Scott with another woman. She figures that if she does well in this competition, Meg will let them become partners again rather than risk losing Sarah. Sarah also tells them that Meg hard core recruited Amanda into leaving her old coach and that Amanda keeps threatening to tell people, which would result in Meg losing her professional coaching rating, which is important I assume. Oh and that barrette that Nancy found actually belongs to Meg.

Nancy learns that Alison's uncle made a large payment to a company called Waterworks but that she could never find out what they did or where the money went. The owner of the company retired to Florida, and his son took a long break. She goes through personnel files and starts wondering if Ted is involved. Meg gets her barrette back and seems really happy because it was a special gift from Ted. The fire alarm then goes off, and when Nancy tries to leave, she runs right into the man.

Ted pretty much admits to everything. He spiked Kerri's drink with Meg's eye drops, used Meg's lipstick in their room, and did all the other stuff. Ted says that he wanted to save the Crystal Palace before Alison ruined it. He makes her sit down and watch a video that the uncle left behind. The uncle says that he invested his money in diamonds and hid them under the seventh crystal. Nancy realizes he meant the sculpture he had made. As she and Ted fight, he throws the sculpture her, which breaks on the ground to reveal hundreds of diamonds inside.

While he tries to scoop up the diamonds, the firefighters show up with Bess, George, and Alison. They keep him contained until the cops arrive. Alison feels bad because she thought of him as family but is happy to have the money she needs.

The book ends at the competition. Sarah winds gold in individuals, and Kerri brings home bronze. Amanda and Scott win gold medals too. Meg tells Sarah that she would be an even better skater if she focused on her own work and not pairs work, which makes Sarah admit that she was just jealous and that she wants to focus on her own skating, so Amanda and Scott remain a pair. They then have cake as Alison toasts to her uncle.

*Bess goes back on a diet after seeing how skinny the skaters are, especially Meg. I probably wouldn't compare my weight to that of a professional ice skater though.

*One of the sculptures they see is the really famous one of the cherry on the spoon. I know I saw that one in person when I was younger because my dad took a few business trips to Minneapolis, but I'm almost certain we never went to the sculpture garden.

*Nancy finds it odd that the hotel room door is slightly open because she remembers locking it when she left. I find it odd that any hotel room door wouldn't automatically shut and lock.

*George actually suspects the Kerri poisoned herself because she was too afraid to compete and possibly lose. Nancy points out that faking a leg injury is an easier way to skip the competition.

*Scott is a dumb ass. If your gal is so jealous that she can't even handle seeing you skate with someone else, which is your actual job, how will she handle serious problems you have?

*Kerri only gets mentioned at the end as being super pouty over only getting a bronze. It's funny that she was the nice girl for the whole book and then gets replaced by Sarah at the end.

*I also hate that Sarah decides to focus on her own skating after all. Yeah, you only made your boyfriend practice with you and blow off practices with his own partner dozens of times before realizing that.