En Garde (Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective Book 17) Read Online Free PDF Page B

head. “No, George’s friend DeLyn caused the injury. She didn’t mean to—in fact, she felt pretty lousy about hurting her opponent. And on top of that, she lost the bout because her coach started the fight.”
    “So her coach is this Hungarian man?” Dad clarified. His lips twitched with a smile he couldn’t ward off. “Attila the Hun’s descendant?”
    “Come on, Dad, Bela Kovacs isn’t that bad,” I protested.
    “Of course he isn’t!” Dad said. “It was so obvious that Frenchman was trying to ruin his competitor’s reputation. I’m just surprised the TV station ran such a one-sided piece. But you, Nancy, I trust. So what’s your impression of Bela Kovacs?”
    I settled back in my chair, trying to sort out my thoughts. “Well, he’s not a guy I’d invite to dinner anytime soon,” I admitted. “He isn’t the model of a supportive, nurturing teacher. Ned took a couple of classes with him last winter and he’s terrified of him.”
    Hannah paused in her needlework. “Ned? Why, that boy usually gets along very well with people.” Hannah’s kind of partial to Ned Nickerson, for obvious reasons.
    “But on the other hand, George takes fencing lessons from Bela Kovacs and she thinks the world of him,” I said, determined to be fair-minded.
    “I don’t need hearsay. I need your direct impression,” my father insisted. He’s a lawyer—and a pretty successful one at that. He hates fuzzy thinking. I guess I get that from him too.
    I thought for a minute. “I did see Kovacs speak pretty rudely to George’s friend DeLyn, and it made me uncomfortable. But he was giving her solid coaching advice, about doing warm-ups and preparing mentally for her match. I never heard him tell her to cheat.”
    Dad nodded. “In the law, we have some pretty clear guidelines about this sort of thing,” he said. “You can be sued if you spread lies about someone. Even if the information you spread is true, you can still be sued for slander if it’s proven you did it for a malicious reason. Now, clearly this Mourbiers fellow is trying to ruin Bela Kovacs’s reputation. For all we know, those accusations may be true. But he has no right to go on television and make such remarks, especially not when Kovacs had no chance to defend himself.”
    “That poor man’s business could be ruined by this,” Hannah said, jabbing her needle into her canvas with an outraged scowl.
    “Are you saying Bela Kovacs could sue Paul Mourbiers for slander, Dad?” I asked.
    Dad tapped his temple, thinking. “I’m not sure he’d have a case,” he said. “Those are usually tough cases to prove. First, he’d have to produce evidence that the news report cost him a significant amount of business. It’s no good just saying someone made you look bad—you have to show concrete damages. And then you’d have to prove that Mourbiers did it intentionally.”
    “Like, for example, if Mourbiers had called the TV station and got them to cover the fencing tournament in the first place?”
    Dad raised his eyebrows and asked, “Did he?”
    “Maybe. It’s just a hunch.”
    Dad rolled his eyes and lifted up his newspaper. “Hunches don’t stand up in a court of law, Nancy. I hope you don’t think this is another case for you to solve.”
    “No one has asked me to get involved,” I answered. That was true—no one had. But I was starting to get curious on my own behalf.
    “It sounds as if these two coaches go back a long way,” Dad continued. “Whatever lies between them, you won’t clear it up with a few discreet inquiries. You can’t fix all the problems in the world, you know.”
    True. But when I thought about how miserable Una and DeLyn had looked when their coaches started fighting, it made me wish there was something I could do about it.
    The next afternoon I parked outside Salle Budapest. I’d promised to pick up George after her fencing clinic, but I was also there because I was curious. I wondered whether Hannah was right.