“And then there’s Chris Marconi,” Russ said, rolling his eyes. “That guy is nuts, and he nearly drove Annie crazy, hounding her about her boyfriend and telling her how to run the task force.”
“Do you think Chris might have killed Annie?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know,” Russ said. “He’s stubborn and radical, but I don’t know if he would go that far.”
Back in Russ’s office, Nancy used his phone to call the office of Lydia Cleveland. She was told by a secretary that Ms. Cleveland was in a meeting.
“My father wishes to invest in the bay area,” Nancy lied, “and I heard that Ms. Cleveland might have some worthwhile real estate.”
That convinced the secretary. By the time Nancy hung up, she had an appointment to meet the developer in the lobby of the Lady Baltimore Hotel that evening.
When Nancy turned away from the phone, Russ was staring at her. “That was some story you concocted!” he said, laughing.
Nancy shrugged. “It got me the appointment.”
He was still chuckling as Nancy left and circled the giant pool to reach Megan’s office. Her visitor was gone, but Megan was now on the phone.
Nancy waited outside, then wandered down the hall to the animal care complex that Russ had shown her. Walking past the huge operating tables, she wondered if Annie had ever worked with one of the stranded dolphins in this room.
As she stood at the edge of the clear pool, Nancy could see her own reflection. A second later, she tensed as she noticed something in the reflection—an odd flicker of motion behind her. Or was she just imagining it?
She turned to look behind her, but it was too late. The room was plunged into darkness.
“Hello?” Nancy called into the pitch-black room. This might be just a power failure, but she doubted it. Then she heard a sound behind her.
Every nerve in Nancy’s body tensed as she listened to the sound of footsteps. There was someone else in this room!
Suddenly she felt a solid object hit her head. At the same time a hand firmly pushed her forward. “Wait, I—Hey!” The push sent her flying off her feet.
A moment later, she was falling, thrashing through the air—and plunging into the pool of water.
Chapter
Nine
ARMS FLAILING, legs kicking, Nancy fought the force of the water. She felt dazed from the knock on the head, and in the pitch-blackness of the water she couldn’t see a thing.
Her clothes were like weights, pulling her down. Unable to breathe, Nancy felt a surge of panic. The water seemed to press against her chest until she was desperate for air. She was going to suffocate!
Nancy’s hand scraped against a rough surface. What was that? Reaching out again, she realized that it was the side of the pool. Frantically she swam to the surface.
At last, her head pushed up into the air, and she gasped with relief. In a moment she remembered that someone had pushed her into the pool. Was he or she still lurking in the room—or worse, beside her in the pool?
As silently as possible, Nancy swam to the far side of the pool and grabbed the edge. She felt her head, but there didn’t seem to be an injury. She listened for signs of another person but heard only the distant clap of footsteps.
“Nancy!” She heard Russ’s hearty voice as he charged down the hall.
A moment later, the lights went back on, and Nancy saw Russ by the wall switch near the door. Megan was right behind him. Otherwise, the room was empty. Whoever had pushed Nancy into the pool had fled.
Megan and Russ ran to the edge of the pool.
“Are you all right?” asked Megan.
“I’m fine. Just help me out of here, please.” Russ reached down and pulled her out of the pool.
“I had just hung up when I heard you shout,” Megan explained. “What happened?”
“Someone decided I should go for a moonlight swim—without the moonlight,” Nancy said, wringing out the bottom of her sweater.
Russ and Megan exchanged a confused look. Then Russ shook his head, adding, “Things are getting too creepy around here.”
Together they searched the corridor leading to the animal care complex but found no sign of an intruder. Megan put a hand on Nancy’s wet shoulder. “Come on. You need to get out of those wet things.”
Nancy used the staff ladies’ room to change into one of Megan’s uniforms. After drying her hair with a towel Megan had given her and hanging up her clothes on the doors of the stalls, Nancy joined Megan in her office. “We have a presentation with the whales in an hour,” the woman said. “Until then, I’ll be happy to answer your questions. Doug should be along in a minute, too,” she added, nodding to the other desk in the cubicle.
“Great.” Leaning down, Nancy cuffed the hem of Megan’s khaki pants, which were a bit too long. Otherwise, it felt good to be dry again. Megan had even loaned her an old pair of sneakers.
Nancy asked Megan a few questions about the care of the seals and whales, and about the task force. Unfortunately, Megan’s answers didn’t offer any new insights into Nancy’s case.
“I know that you joined the staff this year,” Nancy said. “What did you do before that?”
“I was working at an aquarium in Texas,” Megan explained. “My husband and I worked in the same department. When our marriage broke up, he stayed on, and I moved back here to be closer to my family. I’m originally from Baltimore.”
Trying to be as diplomatic as possible, Nancy said, “I heard there were some problems when Annie was promoted to curator.”
At Nancy’s words, Megan’s face turned bright red. “And I guess you heard that I resented Annie for that promotion,” she muttered. “Well, it’s true,” Megan continued. “I was a little surprised when Annie was made curator. I mean, she had worked here longer, but I had the credentials for the job, and I sure could have used the extra money.” Megan looked at Nancy beseechingly. “But I hope you don’t think that I would have hurt Annie over that!”
Before Nancy could answer, a voice from the doorway interrupted. “You’re not harping on that promotion business again, are you?”
A slim Asian man stood at the door. He was wearing a wet suit, and his dark hair was slicked back with water. “Hi. I’m Doug Chin.”
“My name’s Nancy Drew.” Nancy recognized Doug from her first day at the aquarium, when she had seen him working with one of the beluga whales.
Doug shook Nancy’s hand, then plopped down behind his desk. “Megan’s been suffering from guilt ever since Annie died. I keep telling her that Annie wasn’t killed by a little on-the-job competition.”
“Thanks for the insight, Doug,” Megan said sarcastically. Obviously uncomfortable, she stood up and went to the door. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to change into my wet suit for the presentation.”
After she left, Doug winced. “I’ll pay for that remark.” He smiled at Nancy. “Megan has been on edge ever since Asia disappeared.”
“I’d love to know how our thief managed to steal away with a seal pup.” Nancy frowned. “Will Asia be okay? I mean, does a baby seal need to be near water to survive?”
“Seals can live on dry land,” Doug explained. “Because they’re mammals, they can stay out of the water indefinitely. As long as Asia is kept cool, she’ll be okay. Winter seems to be hanging on forever, so that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“What about food?” Nancy asked.
“Asia just switched to solid food a week ago,” Doug explained. “If she had been stolen two or three weeks earlier, she might have died without her mother. Our thief had impeccable timing.”
That’s true, Nancy thought. Did that mean the thief was someone inside the aquarium? Someone who knew the seal’s habits and routine? It was definitely a possibility.
“I notice that you aren’t a member of the task force,” she said to Doug.
He nodded. “It’s a worthy cause, but I’m too wrapped up in my work here. I’ve been doing special research with the whales. And now that Annie’s gone, I’ll be h
elping Russ with the dolphins for a while. It’s good experience, but I feel bad for the animals.”
“Why?”
“The dolphins loved Annie,” Russ explained. “It’s really sad. Russ and I can see the change in their behavior. They miss their trainer, and I don’t know how to tell them that she’s never coming back.”
• • •
“I’m glad you’re okay. If that creep had had more time, you might have been seriously hurt,” George told Nancy as she stabbed a fork into a slice of chocolate cake at the hotel restaurant.
Nancy had just finished filling George in on her afternoon. After speaking with the mammalogists, Nancy had questioned a dozen more employees. Over and over, people mentioned the same names: Mills and Paperworks.
“I know,” Nancy said. “I guess I’m lucky that I just got to go for a swim.”
George laughed. “I have to admit that I was tempted to jump into a few pools while I was searching for Asia. The warm, tropical water seems tempting after all this wintry weather.”
“Too bad you couldn’t find her,” said Nancy.
“I’ll say. I checked every fish tank, every closet. I even looked in the walk-in refrigerators. No seal pup. But I did learn something interesting from the security guard. You were right about that closed-circuit TV. On Tuesday night, the monitor showing the seal pool went black.”
“What?” Nancy brightened at the clue. “Do you think someone disconnected it?”
“The guard thought it was broken,” George explained. “He went out to check the seal pool, and everything seemed to be fine. But the next morning, when the technicians came to fix the camera, they found black tape stuck over the lens—the lens focused on the seal pool.”
“So the thief knows the security system,” Nancy said. “One of the employees must have stolen the seal pup that night.”
George nodded. “He probably waited until the aquarium was closed. If it was dark, the thief could have gotten away unnoticed.”
“Dragging an eighty-pound seal behind him?” Nancy asked dubiously.
“I can hear that detective mind clicking away.” George smiled. “What are you thinking, Nan?”
“That the incidents at the aquarium are being staged by someone on the inside,” Nancy explained. “I still don’t know of any employee with enough of a motive, though. It’s clear that Annie and Chris didn’t get along, but that doesn’t tell us why Chris would sabotage the task force.”
“Chris is so much fun, I keep forgetting that he’s a suspect,” George said, wrinkling her nose.
Then Nancy told George what she had learned about Megan. “She was jealous over Annie’s promotion, but that’s no reason to commit murder.”
“Besides,” George pointed out, “did you see how upset she was over Asia’s disappearance?”
Nancy nodded. “She’s a bundle of nerves.”
“So where does that leave the case?”
Nancy shrugged. “Detective DePaulo suggested that someone at the aquarium could be working with one of the task force’s enemies. That’s one reason I’m meeting with that developer, Lydia Cleveland, tonight. And tomorrow morning, you and I are going to check out those two companies everyone keeps talking about.”
“Mills and Paperworks?”
Nancy nodded.
“I wish you’d cancel your appointment with that woman and come to the game with us tonight,” George said. Jackson and a group of his friends had invited the girls to a pro basketball game.
“Are you kidding?” Nancy teased. “My rich real-estate investor dad would never forgive me.”
“What a ruse!” George shook her head. “I hope you can get the information you need before that woman figures out that you’re a detective instead of a debutante with a superrich father.”
Forty minutes later, Nancy rode the elevator back down to the lobby. She was dressed in a black knit jumpsuit. She was walking by the lobby desk when the hotel clerk stopped her. “Miss Drew?” the woman called. “I have a message for you. Someone phoned this in a few minutes ago.”
Nancy took the slip of paper from the clerk and read it: Want to know who killed Annie Goldwyn? Be in the rain forest—9 P.M. tonight.
Nancy read the message a second time. The idea of meeting a stranger in the aquarium’s rain forest at night made her shiver. This was not an appealing invitation. She would have to go it alone, too, since George was on her way to the game.
She knew there was a strong possibility that this was a trap. Still, she had to check it out. She would just have to be very careful.
In the meantime, Nancy had a few questions for Lydia Cleveland. She hoped she looked the part she was trying to play. Taking a deep breath, she checked out the people waiting in the hotel lobby.
After ruling out a young couple and three businessmen in suits, Nancy spotted a petite, smartly dressed woman with silver hair held back with a silk headband.
Nancy approached the woman. “Ms. Cleveland?”
“Yes, I’m Lydia Cleveland.” The woman smiled as she shook Nancy’s hand. “And you must be Nancy Drew.” The woman sat back and gave Nancy a critical glance. “I’m afraid the message from my secretary was vague, but your name is familiar. Tell me, are you one of the Atlanta Drews?”
Nancy suppressed a laugh. “No, I’m from outside Chicago,” she said, trying to keep her answer general. “My father is interested in making some investments in the bay area, but we’ve heard a few rumors of problems.”
Lydia Cleveland nodded. “Every developer deals with problems. However, I’ve overcome them in the new complexes we’ve built down in Annapolis and right here in Baltimore. If you’re interested—”
“The rumors were about political problems.” Looking Ms. Cleveland in the eye, Nancy said, “We’ve heard that environmentalists were fighting the development of some areas of the Chesapeake Bay—like your plot at Terns Landing?”
Lydia’s smile seemed forced. “Oh, that piece of land has been a thorn in my side. I went so far as to draw up plans for condos at the site, but some group fought us.”
That group was Annie’s task force! Nancy thought.
“Fortunately, that land won’t be a problem much longer,” the real-estate developer said firmly.
Lydia seemed awfully sure of that, Nancy thought. Was it because she herself was behind the threats to stop the task force?
“Now I remember where I heard your name,” Lydia added sharply, her gray eyes narrowing. “Lenny Miller called me and said you were trespassing on my land, along with a bunch of those radicals from the aquarium.”
Oops! Nancy hadn’t anticipated that word of her little visit to Terns Landing would get to Lydia Cleveland so quickly.
It was time to drop the charade. “Annie Goldwyn was found dead not far from your land,” Nancy stated firmly. “Did you think you could go ahead and build your condos once the head of the task force was out of the picture?”
“No!” Lydia Cleveland seemed genuinely horrified. Indignant, she rose to her feet. “And I resent the implication. I’m a businessperson, Miss Drew. I do not break the law. And I do not have people murdered!” With that, Lydia Cleveland swept out of the hotel lobby.
Nancy mulled over what had happened as she returned to her room to change into jeans and a cotton sweater for her meeting in the rain forest.
Lydia Cleveland had seemed shocked when Nancy brought up Annie’s death, but the developer had admitted that she had plans for Terns Landing. What had she said? That land won’t be a problem much longer.
• • •
By the time Nancy walked through the private entrance of the aquarium, it was already 8:50. She signed in for the night watchman, then used her key to get into the main lobby of the building.
An eerie stillness filled the air. Nancy could see that the escalators had been shut down for the night, so she tried the elevator. It whirred to life as she pushed the button. A moment later, she was in the car, riding up to level five, where the tropical rain forest
was located.
Nancy reminded herself that this meeting could be a trap. Even so, she was sure she would be meeting an aquarium employee. Someone from the outside would have no way to get into the rain forest at night, when the building was closed to the public. But who could it be—Russ, Megan, Chris, Doug? Or someone she hadn’t even met?
Nancy patted her rear jeans pocket, which held her Swiss army knife. She had brought it at the last minute.
In a matter of moments, the elevator door opened, and she was on level five. She stepped out of the elevator and checked her watch. Perfect timing. It was two minutes before nine.
The heavy door to the rain forest was unlocked. Slipping her key back into her pocket, she tugged open the door and entered the misty jungle.
The rain forest was much darker and noisier than Nancy remembered. The airy space, so alive with visitors and sunlight by day, now belonged to the wild animals who cackled and cooed in the dark. Moonlight filtered in through the glass roof, casting eerie shadows along the path.
Thinking back on high school biology, Nancy remembered that most jungle creatures were nocturnal. Surrounded by chirping birds, croaking frogs, and scampering lizards, she could see firsthand how the animals lived at night.
Nancy moved warily along the path as her eyes adjusted to the dim, moonlit surroundings. She caught a glimpse of a quaint wooden bridge on the path just ahead of her. Then the light faded as clouds passed in front of the moon.
Pausing, Nancy listened intently. The cackling birds and the rustling palm fronds had a regular rhythm, almost like a song. The only problem was, there were no human sounds.
Where was the person who had told her to be there?
At last, the moonlight grew stronger again, and Nancy continued walking toward the bridge, which arched over a narrow stream. As she leaned over the railing and peered at the dark water rushing under the bridge, she wondered what was holding up her contact. It was already ten after nine, and there was no sign of another person in the rain forest.
The stream below had been created by a waterfall that cascaded over a man-made cliff, which Nancy could just barely make out more than a dozen yards away. What kind of wildlife lived in the stream? she wondered, studying the churning water. Frogs? Tropical fish? Killer piranhas?