Nancy Drew Case Files #69: Running Scared (1992)

 

Since George is the absolute best athlete of all time, the girls are off to Chicago to watch her compete in the Heartland Marathon. On their first day in the city, they see Annette, the top women's marathon runner in the country. She nearly gets hit by a car, but Nancy steps in and saves her. Kevin, her trainer, feels an instant connection with George and makes plans to see her at dinner.

Derek, her agent, gets Nancy alone and reveals that someone started sending her threatening notes. They make plans to get together later and talk. Bess also randomly runs into this hot guy named Jake. They spend a few hours together before he gets super busy and leaves. He starts to talk to her at dinner that night but gets distracted by Gina, another runner. After a bad encounter with “ace reporter” Brenda Carlton, Nancy catches Annette and Gina fighting, with Gina vowing to get her revenge.

During her meeting with Derek, she realizes that Gina didn't write the notes. Gina is Italian and doesn't speak very good English, and the notes all feature lots of American slang. Derek calls her to Annette's room later to show her that someone left her a threatening note with a knife through it. Annette tells them about how Gina blames her for getting disqualified from a race and how Gina then stuck metal in her friend's shoe to force her out of another race.

The other main suspect is Irene, the owner of a big name shoe company. Rumor says that she wanted Annette but was turned down and went to this girl Renee. Since Renee hasn't won many races, the company is about to drop her. Brenda shows up at a press conference and taunts Irene about Annette being a winner and Renee being a loser.

Bess and Nancy head to a hot club and meet up with Jake. Jake leaves early but dances with Bess a few times. The next morning, they find that George already left with Kevin. She left a note though about how he shot footage of Annette almost getting run over and solid to a big company. Nancy starts suspecting him of hurting Annette to further his career. Before she can do much though, she and Bess almost get hit by a planter falling from the sky.

Nancy moves them in time but sees someone looking down at them from the eighth floor. They run upstairs and see Gina coming from that floor. It turns out that the planter actually came from Irene's window. Bess points out that they now know it wasn't Kevin because he was with George the whole time. When they go to the gym to meet them though, George reveals that he left early. They then find Annette trapped and passed out in the sauna.

Annette wakes up quickly and claims that she's fine. She also refuses to let Nancy call the cops. That all changes when they head out to do some shopping. Someone grabs Nancy in the dressing room and tries to choke her before running away. The only person who knew where they went was Irene. Nancy then sneaks into Irene's office and finds that her company did make an offer to Annette who turned them down. Irene also has a memo that says if Renee doesn't start winning, the company will drop her endorsement deal.

Our three main gals and Annette go out again and get shot at. The sniper used a gun with a silencer on it. Nancy gives chase and sees him get in a car with the logo of Kevin's company on it. When she tells George her suspicions, George says it can't be him. Annette finally agrees to call the cops. After hearing all the evidence, they confront Kevin.

It turns out that it wasn't him though. He checked the car out from the head office after the shooting. Kevin tells Nancy that he was out shopping for a good luck charm for George, which is a silver running shoe on a necklace. George finally admits that she can see why the evidence would point to him. That doesn't stop her from letting Kevin take them all out for dinner though.

Two other things happen. Gina confronts Bess in her hotel room and tries to attack her before Nancy shows up. Bess then tells Nancy that Jake is super boring and obsessed with running so she doesn't plan on seeing him again. Brenda loudly goes off in the lobby about an exclusive interview she has with Gina and how she'll bust Nancy's investigation open first. When Nancy tells her to chill the eff out before she puts someone in danger, Brenda says she's just jealous because she's such as a better detective.

Brenda then shows up all confused because Gina missed their meeting. They all head upstairs, and Nancy uses her lock picking kit to break into the room where they find Gina passed out with a massive bruises on her head. The cops get all the suspects together and in a great move, the head detective throws Brenda out. No one really breaks down or confesses anything, but Renee does go off about how she can't wait to beat Annette in the race.

Nancy then sees someone try to drag Annette into a waiting car. She gets there in time to save her but not in time to stop Brenda from taking a bunch of photos. Brenda claims she got an anonymous tip from someone who told her to be out there with her camera at that time. After some thought, Nancy sits down and tells Derek that she has some big news: the person behind everything is Annette.

In the end, the person helping her the entire time was Charles, a random dude only mentioned once who is also Renee's trainer. It turns out that his real name is Calvin and that he's on Interpol's most wanted list for poisoning racers in Europe. They figure out that he knows they know the truth and wants to kill Annette to save himself. Nancy even realizes he'll hide at one of the water stations during the actual marathon.

The cops come to the race and catch Calvin/Charles at the 26 mile mark. Renee comes in first in the race with Annette 100 yards behind her. The cops arrest Annette and tell her that her accomplice already talked. George then finishes the marathon with her best time ever. Kevin makes plans to come to River Heights for a week and suggests he bring along a racing friend for Bess, but she cuts him off and tells him she's done with racers forever.

*George wants to check out the race route and claims it's not a good idea to run it before the marathon. BUT, she's totally fine with cycling the whole route on a bicycle. What the heck?

*Since Bess hates any physical activity – their emphasis, not mine – she decides to go shopping instead of bike riding.

*Kevin is an Olympic athlete who retired to become a sportscaster and personal trainer. Of course he would fall for some random girl from Illinois.

*The club they go to is called Mrs. O'Leary's Cow, which seems really poor taste.

*Gina hates Annette because she was in a race and threw an elbow pretty hard into another runner and hurt her. That runner submitted an anonymous complaint that got Gina tossed from a race. Despite no evidence, she thinks Annette turned her in.

*The detective actually tells Brenda that he won't let his investigation turn up in her gossip column, which is a sick burn for someone who thinks she's a star reporter.

*Annette started the whole thing because she realized there were better racers coming up behind her and she wanted to stay on top.

*I have no knowledge about marathons at all, but are there really huge marathons like this just for women? I always assumed marathons were for all ages and genders.