#inncorrectnancydrew

[jancydroogs]

A little free write...

George and Nick break up. Ned sells The Claw back to George and opens a vintage auto restoration and “specialty repairs” shop. He buys a craftsman mansion near downtown and turns it into a boy's home.  

With seed money from Nick and Ryan, George opens a cafe, a pizza parlor and buys Johnny Mac's bar (re-naming it Buddy's) in addition to the Claw. Her sister’s help run what will become their family’s burgeoning hospitality empire. There is tension between George and Jesse who isn't interested in business and wants to go to the JC in hopes of becoming a marine biologist. George buys the Breaker Hotel later in her life. All of her establishments are notoriously (and conveniently) "haunted". Trip advisor stickers on the door and mentions on lonely planet-all the things. George becomes a rags to riches business marketing wonderkind about town. George struggles to be taken seriously by the old money investors and conservative business owners she must rub elbows with now. In the end she'll expand to Boston and NY and get into real estate and have enough money to throw in all their faces for the rest of time just like Nick whom she may reconnect with at some point.

Ryan struggles with alcoholism again, gets a DUI and enters rehab where he becomes interested in art. He gets involved in collecting and patronizing and when he falls in love with an artist he is inspired to become the Cathrine the Great of Horseshoe Bay: investing in culture, the arts and championing the environment and the education of young women in particular.  He gets his pilots license and flying in his vintage plane (restored by Nick of course) becomes a favorite hobby of his. He turns the Lilac Inn into the local girl's home.  He opens what becomes a renowned museum in honor of the the forgotten historical figures of New England in Boston. With the help of Carson he lobbies NYU to create a journalism scholarship in Lucy’s name.  He dies before he turns 60 in a landing accident while returning from a half hour flight he took to observe the bay on a particularly nice day.  

Bess acquires a student visa by becoming a cosmetology student at the local JC but doesn’t fit in and becomes an “illegal” resident again when she drops out of beauty school.  She’s a part time secretary for Nick and waitress at the claw again. She bungles Nick’s flow and he has to let her go at which point she finds a job in a bookshop after bonding with the manager over a mutual love of AJ Crane novels. She hones an affinity and strong sales numbers for the antique/rare book section and she uses her Newley sharpened expert eye to forge her papers all while angling for an apprenticeship with the mysterious owner which will allow her to begin building clientele amongst the wealthy collectors of Horseshoe Bay and get out of the counterfeit game she's been running on the side to get by. She fully embraces the dark-intellectual trope and pursues her PHD. at a historic, prestigious and secretive private school in Horseshoe Bay. She buys a dope ass queen-anne with a turret that she restores and lives in. She eventually becomes an art dealer (specializing in "rare objects" of course), chief buyer for the Hudson family trust and patron of the historical society.  After her eventual death at a ripe old age she gets a statue in her likeness, her house becomes a historic landmark and she becomes a legend in horseshoe bay for being it’s favorite Rich Auntie Supreme. Rumor has it her spirit still walks the town. Local legend says if you happen to see her ghost it’s an omen of good luck to come.

Nancy and Ace briefly open their own PI detective agency in Nick's building downtown. They begin to build a respectable reputation despite their youth. They assist Horseshoe Bay PD on "strange" cases, accept work from the town’s folk, and PI work from Carson. Nancy gets into Columbia and makes the tough choice to leave town for her education.  Grant moves in to fill her place at the agency. Things go well for a while but end up sideways when Ace suffers from an opioid addiction. Grant does his best to cover his brother’s tracks for a while but Nancy briefly must return from Columbia at his panicked behest to help him track down Ace when he goes missing on New Years Eve.  After a short stint in a detox center Ace decides to join the army on a whim without consulting anybody. He becomes a field medic first and an Army Ranger after that.

With the PI agency dissolved Grant joins the NYPD police academy (like his father *winkwinkwink*) after Ace goes to bootcamp and begins pursuing an advanced degree studying criminal psychology at NYU in hopes of someday working for the FBI as a profiler.  He naturally joins the nypd and becomes a rising star in his precinct. He and Nancy develop a close friendship while both living as students in the city and bond over their concern for Ace. Frant often lends her an assist, a quote, a clue or feeds her information for her stories.

Nancy shows up in the city at Columbia quickly becomes the darling of the journalism school and lands an internship at the school paper but after a promising freshman year is kicked out for breaking the school’s code of ethics whilst pursuing evidence that a cult is running a human trafficking ring fronting as a powerful and infamous secret society on campus that has been laundering it's profits through a fraternity's alumni donations by blackmailing a member of their executive board. After her expulsion she continues to pursue the story with encouragement from her friends and family  (in particular from Ace whom she maintains regular contact with via WRITTEN letters before he joins RRC. It’s romantic af but everything remains plutonic on the surface as is cannon, of course)  She publishes the story online. It goes viral and she's able to enter the workforce as a freelancer without her degree. She takes all kinds of assignments and has become celebrated for her thought pieces on buzzfeed, bellingcat, jezebel etc... but her bread and butter is working the crime beat in NYC.

Her sudden notoriety and reputation for being young, talented, and tenacious mean her colleagues are intimidated by her brilliance and they make her work especially hard for their respect. Despite her commercial success she's a loner and mostly isolated in the field.  She's thrilled when Bess shows up to the city looking to lay low for a while after the death of her mentor and burning some bridges in order to get out of the forgery game. She finds that she fits into city life and likes being close with Nancy and Grant after Ace's departure and George and Nick's breakup. She decides to move and she and Nancy become roommates. Bess gets a job as a bartender at Nancy’s favorite spot (a real dime store detective novel dive bar that's open in the middle of the day with low light and brick walls; maybe live music on the weekends but no marble countertops and tapas and shit) while attending Hunter college for her degree in cultural anthropology. Nancy eventually writes a true crime novel that becomes an infamous cult classic based on her experience uncovering her mother's murder and another based on her experiences with Gomber.

Bess’ graduation coincides with Ace’s homecoming and Ryan’s wedding to a renowned local artist. The crew returns to Horseshoe Bay for a couple of weeks before the ceremony for the subsequent reunions/celebrations.  While in town, the disappearance of a local girl proves to be the work of a serial killer when her body along with another girl's are found stuffed in a tree in the Gorham Woods. Nancy is hesitant to run down the story even at the behest of her editor’s pleas but decides to stay and investigate at George’s request when an arsonist burns down The Claw the night of Ryan’s reception.