woman and her warning message to “go away and
never come back.”
“I-I'm going back into the tent,” Bess said, shud-
dering.
“Not yet. I need your help. Bess, you and George
grab a flashlight and go that way.” Nancy pointed to the
left. “Susan, you come with me. We're going to find
this woman. Let's meet back at the tent in ten
minutes.”
Nancy and Susan had no luck finding the woman.
Nancy was almost relieved when the ten minutes were
up, because it was weird and scary tramping through
the dark with just a flashlight.
Bess and George were there when Nancy and Susan
returned. “No ghost,” George said.
“We didn't find her, either,” Nancy said.
Bess crossed her arms over her chest and peered out
at the darkness. “Are you sure she wasn't a ghost,
Nancy? Absolutely one hundred percent sure?”
“There's no such thing as ghosts, Bess, and besides,
we saw footprints,” Nancy replied. “The real question
is: Was it Jade?”
“I don't believe it,” Susan said, shaking her head.
Then she stared at Nancy curiously. “What did she look
like?”
Nancy pointed to George. “She looked just like
George.”
Susan gasped. “It had to be Jade then.”
“Maybe. On the other hand, if it was Jade, why
would she be telling us to go away?” Nancy asked.
Susan sighed. “I have no idea. It doesn't make any
sense.”
“It definitely doesn't,” Nancy agreed.
* * *
The next morning the girls woke up bright and early.
Over a breakfast of pecan pancakes and coffee with
evaporated milk they discussed the ghostly incident
from the night before.
“Isn't it possible,” Bess mumbled, her mouth full of
pancakes, “that those footprints belonged to one of
us?”
Nancy started. “I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, I
guess it's possible.”
“Which means that could have been a real ghost,”
Susan pointed out.
“No way,” Nancy replied. “I refuse to believe that.”
Susan didn't look convinced. “I don't know, Nancy,”
she said in a low, frightened voice. “What if Jade really
is dead? What if something really did happen to her
while she was camping? What if that—that thing last
night was really her ghost, and she's warning us to stay
away from this island?” She looked really upset as if she
were about to cry.
Nancy took a sip of her coffee. “There's got to be
another explanation, Susan,” she said gently.
“I don't know, I think Susan is right,” Bess said,
shuddering. “I think we should exit this place ASAP
and just leave the whole thing to the police. It's getting
way, way too dangerous.”
“As much as I hate to say it, I'm starting to agree
with Bess,” George confessed.
“That's a first!” Bess exclaimed.
Nancy convinced Bess and the others to stay for at
least one more day. After breakfast they broke up into
two teams—Nancy with Susan, Bess with George—and
began searching the island in earnest. Nancy instructed
her friends to look for anything and everything that
might be related to Jade's disappearance, or to the
“ghost.”
“I really, really don't want to run into that ghost,”
Bess said.
“I don't think you will. But keep your eyes open for
any clues to this so-called ghost, okay?” Nancy told her
friend.
Bess and George headed north. Nancy and Susan
walked down a wild, brambly path through the woods,
toward the southern part of the island. They were both
dressed in khaki shorts and T-shirts. Even though it
was still early, it was already blazing hot and humid.
Nancy was wiping the sweat off her forehead when
she heard the roar of an engine.
“Another motorboat,” Nancy remarked.
Susan craned her head to listen. The motorboat was
really gunning its engine. “It's going much too fast,”
she said worriedly. “That's how manatees get killed.”
Nancy frowned. “Really?”
Susan nodded. “Manatees are huge creatures. They
average about ten feet long. They can't swim very fast,
so they're killed by speeding motorboats all the time.”
“That's awful,” Nancy said.
The two girls continued down the path. All at once
something caught Nancy's eye. Off to the right, several
objects lay glinting in the sunlight.
Nancy knelt down to pick up one of the objects. It
was small and thin and sharp and caked with mud. The
mud was fresh, not dried.
“It's a metal pick,” she said after a moment. “And
here's a shovel.” She picked up a small shovel that was
half-buried in twigs and leaves.
Susan knelt beside her. “Could be camping
equipment,” she remarked. “Maybe some campers left
them behind.” She added, “Or maybe these are the
remnants of an archaeological dig.”
“Archaeological dig?” Nancy glanced at Susan.
“Here, on this island?”
“We often conduct digs around the park, mostly to
look for Native American artifacts,” Susan replied. “I'm
not aware of any recent digs around here, though.”
Nancy remembered the article she'd found about
Native American artifacts among Jade's belongings.
She'd tucked it away in her backpack somewhere.
Maybe I brought it with me, she thought. She wouldn't
mind learning more about the subject.
“Nancy! Susan! Emergency!”
Nancy glanced up. Bess was running down the path,
waving her arms.
Nancy and Susan rose to their feet. “Bess? What's
going on?” Susan demanded.
Bess stopped in front of them. Her arms were all
scratched up, her blue eyes filled with tears.
“It's George!” she cried out. “She's disappeared!”
13. The Search for the Panther
“George has disappeared!” Bess repeated frantically.
Susan put a hand on Bess's arm. “Slow down. Tell us
what happened.”
Bess panted, trying to catch her breath. Her long,
blond hair was tangled with leaves and burrs.
“George and I—we got separated in the woods,” she
said after a moment. “We were going down this path
together. All of a sudden George says, Hang on, I
think I see something. Be back in a sec' Or something
like that.”
She added, “Anyway, she went off into the woods.
But she didn't come back in a sec' She didn't come
back at all. The next thing I knew, I heard this little
scream. I called her name, but she didn't answer. I
went into the woods to look for her. And this—this is
all I found.”
She held up George's mud-covered baseball cap.
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “I'm
telling you, she's gone!” Bess wailed. “J
ade's ghost must
have kidnapped her!”
Nancy's mind was racing. What was going on? She
wondered. First the mysterious ghostly woman last
night—and now this. Who else was on the island with
Nancy, Bess, George, and Susan?
“Jade's ghost did not kidnap George,” Nancy re-
assured Bess. “There is no Jade's ghost.' “ She added,
“We'll find George, don't worry. Come on, Bess. Show
us where the two of you got separated.”
Bess led Nancy and Susan to a spot in the northern
part of the island. Once there, the three girls
proceeded to search the entire area from top to bot-
tom. They called George's name over and over again,
but there was no sign of George anywhere.
Nancy sat down on a rock, exhausted. Susan and
Bess did the same. Nearby, a great blue heron rose into
the air, fanning its enormous wings.
Nancy took a long swig of water from a thermos and
passed it around. “Okay,” she said after a moment. “I
think it's time to get some help. Something has
obviously happened to George, and we need to get a
search party going.”
“This is awful,” Bess moaned. “What am I going to
tell my aunt and uncle?”
“You're not going to tell them anything yet, because
we're going to find her,” Nancy said firmly. “We need
to get help. One of us is going to have to go back in one
of the kayaks.”
“I'll go,” Susan offered immediately. “I know my way
back.”
Nancy nodded. “Good. Bess and I can stay here and
keep searching for George.”
The girls returned to their campsite with heavy
hearts. Susan packed up her gear and got into her
kayak. “I'll be back soon, with reinforcements,” she
promised. “Don't worry, we'll find her!”
“Be careful of alligators,” Bess said.
“I'll be careful,” Susan replied.
Nancy watched Susan paddle away. For the first
time since they'd arrived at the Everglades, she felt as
though they were in over their heads.
It was early evening. A single star was twinkling in
the pale gray sky. Nancy and Bess were sitting around
the campfire, eating their dinner. Or at least, they were
trying to. They were both too anxious about George to
have any appetites.
“I'm worried sick,” Bess said. She hadn't touched
her plate of pasta.
“So am I,” Nancy said. She forced herself to smile,
for Bess's sake. “I haven't given up hope, though.”
But Nancy wasn't really so sure. What could have
happened to George? Was her disappearance con-
nected to Jades disappearance? Was Griffin involved
somehow?
Or was it the Drakes who were responsible? And if
so, was this all part of a grand scheme to protect the
interests of the Panterra Corporation?
And who was the blond woman with the purple cell
phone?
She voiced her questions out loud to Bess. “I'm just
not sure what to think anymore,” she said when she
had finished. “I wish I had some answers.”
“Panterra, Panterra,” Bess murmured. She glanced
up from the fire, her blue eyes sparkling. “Hey, I just
thought of something. Maybe it's nothing, but . . .”
“What?” Nancy said curiously.
“I took Spanish in high school, remember? The
word pantera. I think it means panther.' “
Nancy stared at her friend. “Really?”
“Really,” Bess replied, nodding. “Pantera, panther.'
The Panther Corporation.”
“Is that pantera with two r's or one?”
“One.”
Nancy frowned. “The word pantera on that slip of
paper I found in Jade's stuff had one r. Panterra
Corporation has two r's.”
“Oh. Hmm. Maybe somebody doesn't know how to
spell,” Bess speculated.
Nancy and Bess brainstormed about the word
panther for a while. “I remember Susan telling me that
the Florida panther is an endangered species,” Nancy
said. “Mrs. Drake mentioned that, too. There are only
a few of them left in the Everglades.”
“There really are panthers here in the Everglades?”
Bess's eyes grew enormous. “Like, maybe right here on
this island?”
“I don't know about that,” Nancy said. “Anyway, do
you suppose there's some sort of connection between
the Florida panther and the fact that the Panterra
Corporation's been accused of causing environmental
problems to the park?”
“Maybe. Sounds possible,” Bess agreed. She set her
plate of pasta down. “Me, not eating! This is a first.”
Nancy reached for her backpack, which was lying
against a nearby tree. She pointed her flashlight at it
and started rooting through it.
“What are you looking for?” Bess asked her.
“One of the articles I found in Jade's files. I saved it
because it sounded land of interesting.”
Nancy finally put her finger on it. Holding it up to
the flashlight, she scanned it quickly.
“It says here that a wooden statuette of a panther
was discovered in southwest Florida in the nineteenth
century,” Nancy explained to Bess. “It was made by the
Calusa Indians, who inhabited the area perhaps as
early as the fifteenth century B.C. There was a rumor
that the statue's twin was buried somewhere in the
Everglades. No one's ever been able to find it, though.”
“A statuette of a panther?” Bess repeated, looking
confused. “Made of wood? How could it survive in the
ground for all those years? Wouldn't it get all rotten
and icky or something?”
“It says here that the muddy ground preserved the
wood and kept it intact,” Nancy said.
Nancy was about to continue reading the article, but
all of a sudden, she heard a noise in the woods.
Something rustled in the bushes.
Nancy glanced up and shined the flashlight around.
A figure was walking through the woods toward them.
Bess leaped to her feet. “Nancy, it's—it's George!”
she cried out joyfully.
The figure was dressed in khaki pants and a white
shirt. It was a woman with short, dark hair.
The woman smiled and pulled out a gun. “Guess
again,” she said in a voice that was nothing like
George's.
“That's not George,” Nancy said to Bess. “That's
Jade Romero!”
“Oh, you know my name,” Jade said to Nancy. “Very
clever.”
“Yes, she is very clever, isn't she?” came a voice from
behind Jade.
The person stepped forward, out of the shadows. It
was a woman—an older woman—dressed in slacks and
a denim shirt.
Nancy couldn't believe her eyes. “Mrs. Drake?”
14. The Truth Is Revealed
Mrs. Drake smiled coldly. “Hi, Nancy dear. Nice to see
you again.” She glanced at Bess. “I don't believe I've
met yo
ur friend. Another reporter, is she?”
Nancy's mind was racing. What was Mrs. Drake
doing with Jade? All along, she had thought the Drakes
might have had something to do with Jade's
disappearance.
Now Jade was holding a gun on Nancy and Bess,
and Mrs. Drake was going along with it.
“You two, sit closer together,” Jade ordered Nancy
and Bess. “I want to be able to keep an eye on both of
you.”
“W-what are you doing with h-her?” Bess asked
Jade, moving closer to Nancy. “We've been looking for
you. Susan was super-worried about you!”
Mrs. Drake smiled. “I hired Jade and Griffin to do a
job for me,” she explained.
“Jade and Griffin,” Nancy repeated. Things were
becoming a little clearer now.
“I met Jade at a CAMC meeting,” Mrs. Drake went
on. “I was there in disguise. I wanted to see what the
opposition' was planning for Bill and me. Anyway, I
managed to recruit Jade for a little project. I convinced
her that it would be far more fulfilling than fighting
Manatee Commons. And certainly more lucrative.”
“Pantera,” Nancy said suddenly. “With one r.”
Jade started. She held the gun a little higher in the
air. “What are you talking about?” she snapped.
It's all coming together now, Nancy thought. The
slip of paper I came across in Jade's files, with the word
pantera written on it. The panther-shaped brooch Mrs.
Drake was wearing at the manatee benefit. The small
pick and shovel Susan and I found on the island
yesterday. The article about the Calusa Indians . . .
“You're after the twin of the Calusa panther stat-
uette, aren't you?” Nancy said to Mrs. Drake. “You
hired Jade and Griffin to find it for you.”
Mrs. Drake started. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” Nancy replied.
Mrs. Drake's eyes gleamed. “I've dreamed all my life
of finding that panther,” she said in a faraway voice.
“My father used to talk about it when I was a little girl.
He was an archaeologist, you see.”
“Did your husband know about the panther?” Nancy
asked her.
“Bill knew nothing about it,” Mrs. Drake said,
shrugging. “With him it's buildings, buildings,
buildings. Anyway, recently, I came into possession of
some very old maps that pointed to this area—this
island—as the place where the panther might be