• • •
When Nancy and George stepped into the lobby of the aquarium, they noticed a small cluster of visitors gathered around the bright lights and portable equipment of a TV camera crew.
“Looks like Holly Payne is taping another segment,” George said as she and Nancy wove through the crowd to get a better look.
“Since the aquarium’s opening, millions of visitors have passed through this lobby,” Holly intoned, her blue eyes focused on the camera lens.
The girls watched for a moment, then moved away. The reporter’s presence reminded Nancy that time was ticking away, and she still hadn’t come any closer to solving this crime. The aquarium party was Friday night, and it was already Wednesday morning!
The girls were halfway across the lobby when Chris waved them over to the giant pool in the center of the room.
“You’re just in time to see us swim with the rays,” Chris said. Dressed in a form-fitting wet suit, he straddled the railing that separated the public from the wide-open turquoise pool.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Nancy asked, staring down into the pool. “Don’t they sting people?”
“Only as a defense mechanism,” Chris explained. “And though it’s painful if you get stung, it’s not fatal for humans.”
“Still, I think I’d rather watch,” Nancy said, glancing down at the pool full of triangular rays.
“Then I’ll have to show off for you,” Chris teased. “You know, things were a little dull without you two around yesterday afternoon. Where were you hiding?”
“We had to comb through personnel files all afternoon,” George explained.
“Ah! Digging up our family skeletons?” Chris wiggled his eyebrows comically. “I hope mine was interesting at least.”
“Definitely,” Nancy said, deciding to use this chance to find out Chris’s explanation of his college dismissal. “I was intrigued by your school records. How did you manage to get kicked out of that New England college?”
Chris’s blue eyes widened in surprise. “You really did find some skeletons. If you want to know the truth, I was proud to be dismissed from that stuffy school. I was involved in a movement against a huge chemical company that donated money to the school. We staged a protest on the steps of the administration building, trying to get the school to turn down the funding until the chemical company cleaned up its act.”
Smiling, Nancy told him, “I know the end of the story, so I guess the school didn’t turn down the donation from the chemical company.”
“Instead, they dismissed me and half a dozen other students. The rest, as they say, is history.” Chris turned as three other divers joined him. “Got to start the show,” he told Nancy and George. “Catch you later.”
“What do you think, Nan?” George asked. “Do we have time to watch the presentation?”
“Let’s watch,” Nancy decided. “We may learn something that will help us.”
“And besides,” George teased, “how many chances will you get to see a guy like Chris in a wet suit?”
“George!” Nancy could feel herself turn red. “Just because he’s cute doesn’t mean I’m interested.”
“I know, I know. You’re totally devoted to Ned,” George added. “But you don’t lose points for looking.”
Chris picked up a portable microphone as the other three divers tucked in the mouthpieces of their scuba gear and jumped into the tank.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “welcome to Wings Under Water.”
A hush descended on the crowd as people pressed closer to watch the presentation. Nancy leaned against the railing and peered down at the aquamarine pool. Flat and triangular and smooth as silk, the gray and black rays glided through the water like dancing kites. “They look so graceful,” she whispered to George.
“This tank is home to three species of rays,” Chris explained to the audience. “Southern stingrays, bluntnose stingrays, and cownose rays, which are found locally in the Chesapeake and Delaware bays.”
“How many live in the tank?” asked a curious boy who was visiting with his class.
“We have fifty rays,” Chris answered.
Another visitor asked about the danger of rays, and Chris repeated what he had told Nancy, adding, “Rays are not predators of man. This myth was dreamed up by divers who got scared when manta rays swam over them. With wings that span twenty feet, the manta rays created a huge cloud over the divers.”
Nancy was so engrossed in Chris’s stories and the sight of the graceful rays that she was startled when Jackson touched her on the arm. The minute she saw his troubled gray eyes shaded by the bill of his Orioles cap, she could tell that something was bothering him.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“I need to talk to you but not here.” He nodded at the attentive crowd.
“Come on,” Nancy said, grabbing George by the arm and cutting through the audience.
They reached the edge of the lobby, but Jackson waved them on to the exit. “It’s outside,” he said. “At the seal pool.”
Glad that she still had her jacket on, Nancy plunged out into the cold winter morning. The threesome raced around the side of the aquarium until the rocky seal pool was in sight.
Nancy saw a familiar figure, a tall, thin redhead, crouched over on the cement platform. She recognized the woman as the mammalogist who had fed the seals the day that she and George had arrived.
When they arrived at the seal pool, Jackson climbed over the wall, then extended his hand to help Nancy and George up. “That’s Megan O’Connor,” he explained under his breath. “She works with the seals and whales.”
Quickly Jackson introduced Nancy and George to the distraught redhead.
As Nancy moved closer, she saw that tears were running down Megan’s cheeks, splashing onto a piece of paper that was crumpled in her fingers.
“She’s gone—stolen,” Megan said, lifting her tear-streaked face to look at Nancy.
“Who?” asked Nancy.
“Asia.” Megan held up the note, then sobbed again. “Asia is gone. Someone has stolen our seal pup!”
Chapter
Eight
A STOLEN SEAL?” George wrinkled her nose in confusion. “How could someone swipe a seal in broad daylight with all these people around?”
Good point, Nancy thought as she looked out at the visitors gathered around the seal pool. Already, people in the crowd were pointing and staring curiously at her, Megan, George, and Jackson. Nancy could only imagine the stir that would be caused if a thief climbed into the pool and made off with a seal pup.
Fortunately, Nancy and the others were standing behind the pool on a cement platform, so the visitors couldn’t hear what they were saying.
Nancy stared into the seal pool, searching the rocky nooks and crannies for Asia. She saw Ike, Lady, and nearly a dozen other seals, but there was no sign of the seal pup.
Kneeling down beside Megan, Nancy asked, “Are you sure that Asia isn’t inside the building? Maybe one of the other mammalogists took her in for an examination—”
Megan’s coppery hair flew around her thin face as she shook her head no. “That’s what I thought this morning . . . when Asia wasn’t in the pool for the ten o’clock feeding. So I went inside and checked with the other mammalogists.”
“Don’t you have some system to keep track of the animals?” Nancy asked.
“Yes, we do,” Megan said. “We’re supposed to sign animals out when we take them from their area, but sometimes people forget. I talked to Doug and Russell and a few of the assistants, but no one had seen Asia.” Megan picked up a bucket. “Then I found the note in here.”
Nancy noticed that the pail was divided into three sections, and each was marked with a seal’s name. The sections marked Marmalade and Queenie were empty. The section marked Asia was still filled with halved fish.
“It was tucked in with Asia’s breakfast,” Megan said as she handed Nancy the note.
Nancy unfolded th
e wet paper and read the block printed handwriting: “ ‘Put the task force on hold, and Asia will return.’ ”
Jackson frowned. “That makes four incidents now, not counting Annie’s murder. I wish this creep would cut us some slack.”
“That’s for sure,” George agreed.
Thinking back to the list of task force members, Nancy remembered that Megan’s name had been on it. When she asked the slender redhead about her involvement with the group, Megan said, “Sure, I’m a member, but I’m thinking about turning in my resignation. I can’t bear to see our animals suffer just because of some political thing.”
“But that’s the whole point of the task force, isn’t it?” George said. “It’s designed to protect the animals and the bay.”
Megan shrugged. “Doesn’t seem to be working, does it? The newspapers say that Annie Goldwyn was murdered. We’ve got a dead bird, a tank of dead fish, and now a missing seal. If it means saving our seal pup’s life, I’m willing to back off.”
Nancy could tell that George didn’t agree, but she let the point drop when Nancy said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to discuss the aquarium’s problems in front of this crowd.” She turned to Megan and asked, “Is it okay if I meet you in your office this afternoon?”
“That’s fine.” After wiping the tears from her cheeks, Megan picked up the empty fish buckets and headed inside the building. “I’ll see you later.”
As Megan climbed over the stone wall, Nancy’s eyes followed the low barricade that circled the seal pool. There were no broken-down areas, no holes that Asia could have squeezed through.
Then Nancy turned to Jackson. “I know your father wants to keep these problems away from the press, but the stolen seal should be reported. I’m going to phone the news in to Detective DePaulo.”
“I’ll let Dad know,” Jackson said.
“In the meantime, I think we need a plan—and some lunch,” Nancy said, nodding toward the restaurants across the water at Harbor Place.
Ten minutes later, Nancy, George, and Jackson were settled in at a corner booth in a cozy Mexican restaurant overlooking the inner harbor. As soon as they ordered, Nancy used the pay phone by the door to call Detective DePaulo and tell him about the missing seal pup. He promised to stop over at the aquarium that afternoon to take an official report.
“We have Stuart Feinstein’s apartment staked out,” DePaulo told Nancy. “We’ll grab him if he turns up there.”
Nancy wasn’t sure that Stuart was the one responsible for all the incidents going on at the aquarium. After all, how could he gain access to the seal pool and the tank of porcupine fish? She mentioned her doubts to Detective DePaulo, and he suggested that Stuart might be working with an aquarium employee. Nancy agreed to mull over his theory. Then she returned to the table.
“So what’s the plan for this afternoon?” George asked as she bit into a corn chip.
“I’m going to track down Russ Farmer, the guy who’ll take Annie’s spot on the task force.” Nancy twirled the straw in her glass of soda, thinking. Then she said, “I’d also like to talk to the other mammalogists Annie worked with. Besides Russ, there are Megan O’Connor and Doug Chin.”
“They’re all on the task force, too, aren’t they?” asked Jackson.
Nancy nodded as a waitress served her a steaming chicken fajita. “I’m working my way down the list that Annie gave me. After that, there are three other key members who work at the aquarium, in the rain forest, I think.”
“You’re in luck,” Jackson said, biting into his taco. “They should be returning tomorrow from an aviculturists’ convention in Chicago.”
“How long have they been out of town?” Nancy asked. If the three curators from the rain forest hadn’t been in Baltimore recently, that would certainly rule them out as suspects.
After a moment of thought, Jackson answered, “The convention started last weekend.”
“That disqualifies them as suspects,” Nancy said, “though I’d still like to speak with them.”
“Do you want me to help you interview people?” asked George as she took a bite of her beef burrito.
Nancy shook her head. “If you don’t mind, I need you to search for Asia. The seal pup might still be on the premises, hidden away somewhere.”
“I’ll search every nook and cranny,” George promised.
“And speak to the guard at the visitors’ entrance,” Nancy suggested. “I’d like to know how Asia could be stolen when there’s a camera on the seal pool twenty-four hours a day.”
• • •
“Nancy Drew? Put it there!” the man said, shaking Nancy’s hand firmly. “I’ve heard your name a million times in the past two days!” Russell Farmer’s smile was dazzling against his dark skin.
“And I keep hearing yours.” Nancy smiled up at the tall man. With a broad, hefty build, he looked more like a linebacker than a marine mammalogist. “Everyone thinks you’re going to replace Annie as head of the task force.”
Russ leaned against the doorway of his windowed office in Pier 4. Situated at the edge of the giant mammal pool, the small office looked out at the amphitheater. “Well, I’d be proud to fill her shoes. Though her death was a real heartbreak.”
He motioned Nancy into the office. “That’s her desk over there.” He pointed to a small modern desk tucked in the corner below a poster of a dolphin arched over the ocean. “We shared this office. And we were the ones in charge of the dolphins. You work so closely with these animals, sometimes you feel like their parents. I guess you could say Annie and I were ma and pa dolphin.”
“You must miss her,” Nancy said as she went to Annie’s desk and picked up a framed photo. It was a picture of Annie and Stuart, laughing, standing arm in arm in front of the Friendly Fin.
Russ sighed. “I miss her, the dolphins miss her . . . it’s a wonder that this place is still running without her.”
“Sounds like you and Annie were close,” Nancy said, still eyeing the work area.
“Like brother and sister,” Russ said, gesturing toward Annie’s desk. “Go ahead, look around if you want.”
“Thanks.” Nancy pulled out the desk chair and sat down as Russ sat back on the desktop.
The bulletin board behind Annie’s desk was covered with posters with the slogans Recycle today for a better tomorrow and Keep the Chesapeake clean!
In the drawers Nancy found a box of tissues, an extra uniform, a bottle of hand lotion, and a few other personal items, but nothing that would help in her investigation. “Did she tell you about the threatening notes she was getting?”
Russ nodded. “Yeah, I saw the notes. Now I wish I’d taken them more seriously.”
He looked as if he had lost his best friend. Nancy believed that Russ was sincere. “Do you know if anyone else on the task force has received any threats?” she asked him.
“Just Annie. That is, if you don’t count what’s been happening to the animals around here.”
“Are you thinking of disbanding the task force?” Nancy asked.
“No way! Annie would be back to haunt me in a minute if I let this creep intimidate me. I’ve been in touch with the other members, and most of them agree.” He crossed his arms. “If a few people want to bail out, that’s fine. But Russ Farmer is in for the duration.”
Nancy was impressed by Russ’s determination.
“But look at us, cooped up in this tiny room!” Russ jumped up. “Let me show you around.”
“I’ve seen the amphitheater,” Nancy told him as they left the office. “It’s very impressive.” Her voice echoed through the empty amphitheater as they walked along the cement platform surrounding the circular pool.
From close up, Nancy could see that the giant pool was divided into three sections, to keep the whales and dolphins apart. She followed him to the rear section, where a dolphin had its nose poised on the edge.
“That’s a girl,” Russ said, reaching down to stroke its blue-gray head.
He motioned
Nancy over, and she knelt down and touched the dolphin’s bottle-shaped nose. “This is Nani,” said Russ. “She’s one of our oldest dolphins.”
At the other end of the pool, they came to a small windowed office identical to Russ’s. “This is for the seal and whale people,” Russ said, poking his head in the door. “Hello!”
From her place behind a desk, Megan O’Connor glanced over at the doorway. A stout man with red hair and freckles was leaning over her shoulder. “Oh, hi, Nancy,” Megan said nervously. “We’re just finishing up here. I’ll only be a minute.”
“I’m giving Nancy a tour,” Russ explained. “I’ll send her over when we’re through.”
“Great,” Megan said.
Nancy noticed that Megan was on edge, but she supposed that the young woman was probably still upset over Asia’s disappearance.
When they were a discreet distance away, Nancy asked, “Who was that man with Megan?”
“Don’t know,” Russ said, and shrugged. “I’ve seen him around before. Cousin or boyfriend or something like that.”
Russ completed Nancy’s tour with a peek at a special area at the end of a long hallway. “This is one place that most visitors don’t get a chance to see,” he said as they walked into a room with two surgical tables and medical equipment.
“It looks like a giant operating room, except for this pool.” Nancy walked over to the turquoise pool in the corner. It was filled with water, but there were no animals swimming in it.
“This is our animal care and research center,” Russ said. “That pool has its own filtration system so that we can isolate and care for a sick mammal. Using this facility, we’ve been able to rescue and rehabilitate stranded mammals.”
“How did Annie get along with her co-workers?” Nancy asked as she followed Russ back to his office.
“Everybody loved Annie,” he said, then paused. “Well, maybe not everybody. There was a little bad blood between Annie and Megan a few months ago when Annie was promoted. Megan had hoped that she would be named curator.”
A little rivalry? Nancy thought. She would have to ask Megan about that.