“Good thinking,” Nancy said. “When we catch sight of them, we’ll radio the Coast Guard and give them the exact location of Nick and Leah’s boat. By then Stan and the police should have informed the Coast Guard of what’s going on.”
Ned jumped into the cockpit from his perch on the deck, where he had just cast off the starboard jib. “The question is, how are we going to recognize the boat Leah arid Nick are on?” he asked.
Andy laughed. “They’ll be the only ones besides us crazy enough to head out in the middle of a brewing storm.”
“Plus, Stan said the marina mentioned the boat they’d bought was a new Sabre Forty,” Nancy added. “Do you know what that looks like?” she asked Andy.
“Sure do. In fact, that’s one coming out of the marina now.” He nodded to his right.
Nancy had already taken out her binoculars. Now she stood up and looked through them. She could see two figures on board, but their faces were hidden under the hoods of their rain gear. On a hunch, Nancy trained the binoculars on the stern. The boat was aptly named Fooled Them All.
“That has to be Nick and Leah,” she decided. “Andy, are you ready to alert the Coast Guard?”
Andy nodded and went below. Just then the wind hit them from all sides.
“Reef the mainsail!” Annabel shouted above the noise.
Immediately Ned leapt for the boom, where he began to roll up part of the mainsail. Annabel turned the wheel, steering the Skipper’s Surprise after the Sabre. “Winch in the jib,” she directed Nancy. “Then hold on tight. We’re going after them!”
“I got the Coast Guard!” Andy announced when he came up the ladder a few minutes later. “Your buddy Stan had them ready and waiting.”
Soon after, the rain started to pummel them. Bess and Parker came topside to relieve Ned and Nancy and let them dry off. The Skipper’s Surprise was still sailing south. Although Fooled Them All was racing through the storm, Annabel had managed to keep the other boat’s navigational lights in sight. But even after an hour, there was no sign of the Coast Guard.
“Where are they?” Nancy snapped as she paced along the small aisle in the cabin. The sailboat lurched, and she grabbed the edge of the table to keep from falling. “We can’t tail them much longer. This storm’s getting too nasty.”
“Hey, sit down before you fall,” Ned said calmly. Grabbing her arm, he guided Nancy next to him in the booth. “We’ve got to rest up so we can give Annabel and Andy a break.”
“You’re right. It’s just that if Nick makes it to the Atlantic Ocean, we’ll lose him—forever.”
Ned slipped his arm around Nancy and held her close. “But at least we have the proof to clear Andy.” With a chuckle, he said, “Nick Lazlo, alias Bill Jobeson, will be awfully surprised when he finds out that he doesn’t have a passport.”
“But by then he’ll be too far away for us to do anything.” Sighing, Nancy laid her head on Ned’s shoulder. His hair was damp from the rain, but his arm felt warm and comforting, and Nancy closed her eyes.
A loud scrape announced the opening of the hatch. “We need you guys up here!” Parker yelled.
Without a word, Ned and Nancy scrambled for their storm gear. When their hoods were fastened, they climbed the ladder to the cockpit.
“What’s wrong?” Nancy shouted. Not that she needed to ask. The rain was coming down in sheets. Andy had reefed the mainsail even more, and Parker had taken down the jib. Bess was bailing water from the cockpit, and Annabel’s fingers looked as if they were frozen to the wheel.
“We’ve lost them!” Andy shouted. “I’m going down below to radio their last position to the Coast Guard.”
Lost them! The bottom dropped out of Nancy’s stomach as a giant wave picked up the boat and dumped it roughly. Grabbing the handrail, Nancy scanned the rough seas in every direction, but it was so dark that she could barely see a few yards beyond the boat.
Her heart sank. In this raging storm, there was no way the Coast Guard would be able to find Nick and Leah’s boat. The two were gone forever.
Chapter
Sixteen
I CAN’T BELIEVE we lost them!” Annabel cried out. She looked exhausted as she put her forehead down on the steering wheel.
“I wish this rain would just stop,” Bess said in a voice laced with frustration.
As if in answer, the rain suddenly slacked off a little and the wind slowed. Nancy stared at the dark sky.
“I think it’s over,” Andy said softly, as though he didn’t dare believe it was true.
Nancy reached for Annabel’s ice-cold hand and gave it a squeeze. “You did great,” she told her.
In the next instant, a bright light blinded Nancy.
“What’s going on?” Ned asked from on top of the cabin, where he and Parker had been checking the condition of the mainsail.
“Stay where you are!” a voice commanded through a bullhorn.
Nancy threw up her hands to shield her eyes. Despite the glare, she could make out the shape of a sailboat that had drifted silently up to their starboard side. Its navigational lights had been turned off, and in all the confusion of the storm, no one had noticed it. The floodlight from the other boat made it difficult for her to identify who was speaking on the other boat, but she had a hunch she knew who it was.
Beside her, Annabel sucked in her breath. “Nick Lazlo, you—you—creep!” she shouted furiously.
Someone chuckled from the other boat. By shielding her eyes from the blinding light, Nancy could see the outline of two people standing on the port side of the boat.
“Still so sweet and forgiving, Annabel,” Nick Lazlo said sarcastically. “A good sailor, though. I figured I’d lose you hours ago. Too bad you weren’t good enough to keep me from circling around behind the Surprise during the storm.”
“How did you know it was us?” Nancy asked.
Lazlo aimed the light right in Nancy’s eyes. “If it isn’t Ms. Drew, the big glitch in my whole plan. If you hadn’t been so relentless, things never would have come to this.”
“Come to what?” Bess asked in a shaky voice.
Lazlo raised a long, slender object in the air, and Nancy shuddered when she realized that it was a rifle.
“Your shipwreck,” Nick stated. “Four or five well-placed holes in your hull and the Skipper’s Surprise will sink like a rock.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Annabel screeched. “I’m your wife! Andy is your best friend!”
“Was,” Nick corrected. “Andy and his conservative ideas about making an honest buck were getting in my way. And you, dear Annabel, were never much of a wife.” Reaching out his arm, he grasped the waist of the woman next to him and pulled her closer. “I think Leah and I are much better suited to each other.”
Beside Nancy, Annabel growled low in her throat. Quickly Nancy reached out and put a restraining hand on the woman’s arm. Andy was still below radioing the Coast Guard. If he could just get them before Nick Lazlo and Leah got away!
“Don’t listen to him, Annabel,” Bess whispered. “He’s just trying to make you mad.”
Nancy cupped her hands around her mouth. She had to do something-—anything—to stall Nick. “You wouldn’t sink the Skipper’s Surprise,” she declared. “You worked too hard on this boat.”
“And she’s the perfect racing boat,” Ned joined in. He caught her gaze, and Nancy realized that he’d picked up on what she was doing.
“That’s a laugh.” Nick chuckled. “I knew from the first time I sailed her that the keel design was no good. At least, not good enough to make me the fortune Leah and I deserve.”
“So you decided to steal money from Lazlo Designs, instead,” Parker said from on top of the cabin. Nancy glanced over at him. He was next to Ned, gripping the boom tightly, as if he’d like to use it to knock Lazlo into the water.
“Pretty brilliant, huh,” Lazlo replied. “Andy never suspected a thing when I wrote those checks to Steele Lumber on our main account. And all I had to do was intercep
t the last two bank statements from our special joint account, and he never knew that I’d moved the insurance money into the Steele Lumber account, either. It ended up being quite a nice chunk of money. Enough for Leah and me to live comfortably on some tropical island.”
“What about the pirates?” Ned wanted to know.
As Nancy turned to look at her boyfriend, a movement from the bow caught her eye. She could see the forward hatch rising, ever so slowly. Her heart quickened. Andy must be trying to sneak up that way! She had to get Lazlo’s attention so he wouldn’t notice.
Abruptly she jumped onto the starboard side of the cockpit. Lazlo swung the light into her eyes.
“Stay where you are,” he warned.
“I just wanted to get a closer look at a murderer,” Nancy said, pointing at Leah. Through the blinding light, she could see Leah pull away from Nick. “I bet the pirate thing was just a hoax, Mrs. O’Halloran,” Nancy went on. “I think that you killed your own husband!”
“And who’s going to prove it?” Leah shot back in a cocky voice. “You five are going to be at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay!”
From the corner of her eye, Nancy could see Andy pull himself quietly from the hatch and hunker down on the bow.
Parker must have noticed him, too. Quickly he called over to the other boat. “Why fake your death, Lazlo, then set up my cousin? Why didn’t you just split with the money?”
“Because I didn’t want to have to run for the rest of my life,” Lazlo explained. Nancy could hear the impatience in his voice. She knew they didn’t have much longer before he’d blast several holes in the boat. “So I planned to ‘die’ and come back as Bill Jobeson. I knew Old Bill was going to go any time. All that drinking had ruined his liver. So when he conveniently died Thursday morning, Leah and I put the final part of our plan into action. Setting up Andy was the easy part.” He laughed heartily. “Where is that predictable, trusting sucker, anyway? In jail?”
“Arrrgh!” A furious cry came from the bow of the Skipper’s Surprise. Nancy started in surprise as Andy launched himself into the air across the water, straight toward Lazlo. Nick whirled, but he was too late. Andy knocked him to the deck, and the rifle flew into the air, then clattered onto the roof of the cabin.
“Nick!” Leah screeched. Swinging around, she turned the spotlight away from the Skipper’s Surprise, focusing it on the two men grappling on the deck.
Nancy quickly judged the distance between the two boats. It was about five feet. Could she make it?
When she saw Leah scrambling for the rifle, Nancy knew she had no choice. She stepped over the lifeline, steadied herself, then jumped. She landed awkwardly on the rail of the other boat. Clutching the lifeline, she pulled herself over. But Leah had reached the rifle. Grabbing the barrel, Leah swung it toward Nancy like a club.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Nancy heard Ned yell. The next thing she knew, a yellow slicker came hurtling through the air. It caught Leah in the face, stopping her just long enough for Nancy to yank the rifle from the woman’s grasp and toss it over to Ned. By then Annabel had swung the Skipper’s Surprise closer to the other boat, and Parker had jumped onto the bow. Together he and Andy subdued Nick. When Ned jumped aboard with the gun and rope, they quickly tied up Nick and Leah.
“Are you guys all right?” Bess shouted from the Skipper’s Surprise. She had grabbed the lifeline of Fooled Them All and temporarily tied the two boats together. Now she joined Annabel at the wheel.
Standing up, Nancy surveyed the group on the bow of Fooled Them All. A disgruntled Nick Lazlo and Leah O’Halloran were tied to the mast. Andy, Parker, and Ned were standing over them, with satisfied looks on their faces.
Nancy gave Bess the thumbs-up sign. “Everything’s shipshape!”
• • •
“So Leah and Nick planned the whole boat theft scheme? Both times?” Andy asked.
It was the next morning, and Nancy, Ned, Bess, Parker, Andy, and Mr. and Mrs. Devereux were sitting on the patio enjoying a sumptuous brunch. Andy’s parents had also invited Annabel Lazlo and Stan Yadlowski, to thank them for all their help in clearing Andy.
With a nod, Nancy picked up a sugar-coated strawberry. “Mike O’Halloran was in on the first scam, too. Then Leah must have fallen for Nick and decided that three was a crowd.”
“My sources at the police department say that Nick and Leah are both singing like birds,” Stan spoke up. “Leah’s blaming everything on Nick, and he’s blaming everything on her.”
Annabel gave a disgusted snort, “At least I know Nick’s a selfish jerk with all women.” Nancy noticed that Annabel had hardly touched her food and there were dark circles under her amber eyes. Nancy couldn’t help feeling sorry for the woman. Even though her marriage hadn’t been a happy one, it had to be painful to find out that her husband was an even worse scoundrel than she had suspected.
“I still don’t understand why Nick sabotaged his own boats,” Andy’s father said. He and Mrs. Devereux were sitting across from Andy. “They’d already been sold. Lazlo Designs would have made a lot of money from the sale.”
“Which Nick would have had to split with Andy,” Nancy said. “Nick was too greedy for that. Besides, he didn’t sabotage the boats. From what the police told us, Leah and Mike contacted him a while ago saying that they knew of foreign customers who wanted to buy boats ‘under the table.’ ”
“I get it,” Ned cut in. “Nick sold the boats to the foreign customers, then had Leah and Mike deliver them. They’d rendezvous in the middle of the ocean. Then to collect again from the insurance company, they concocted the story about the first boat sinking and pirates stealing, the second boat.”
“I bet Leah and Nick have the money from the sale to the foreigners deposited in a secret account in another country,” Nancy said.
Andy was shaking his head. “I’ve got to hand it to Nick, it was a brilliant plan. Even when the insurance company started getting suspicious, he had it covered. Plan his own death and set me up for it.”
Giving Andy a knowing look, Annabel said, “I told you Nick was a snake, but you’re so trusting! You probably even gave him a copy of the key to the drawer where you kept your gun.”
“Uh, as a matter of fact, I did,” Andy admitted, his cheeks reddening. “But Nick was my friend! I never would’ve guessed that he’d turn on me . . .” His voice trailed off, and he stared down at his plate.
“He planned his so-called disappearance well in advance,” Nancy said to Andy. “That’s why you never guessed what was going on.”
“Plus, he was very smart,” Ned added. “After that argument at the party, he had us all believing someone was out to get him. I bet the person he was ‘fighting’ with was Leah, pretending to be the irate competitor.”
“So Nick must have rigged the mast, too,” Bess put in, “figuring that everybody would guess that it was meant to fall on him.”
Parker sighed. “He never even let on that the keel design was a sham.”
“That’s for sure,” Andy said glumly. “My boatbuilding friend confirmed that. And that means that Lazlo Designs is about to go down the tubes.” He sighed. “I don’t see how I can save the company—we owe too much money from developing the Nican. And even if the insurance money is recovered, it would just go back to Bayside Insurance, since the claim was fraudulent. The most I could ever collect is the money Nick took from our main account. And fifteen thousand won’t go very far.”
Andy’s mother reached over to pat his shoulder. “At least you’re not in jail,” she said comfortingly.
“If it’s any consolation, Nick told the police that he was going to send proof that you didn’t kill him,” Stan said as he bit into another muffin.
“Oh, that was sweet of him,” Annabel said. “I just bet he was going to write a cutesy letter from some faraway island where he was living on all of Andy’s money.” Then she shrugged. “But at least he didn’t get my money. And now that he’s bound for a long jail sentence, I can happily
divorce him.”
Nancy looked at Andy. She had expected to see him brighten at the news, but he didn’t react. “Don’t look so gloomy, Andy,” Nancy told him. “Maybe there’s still a way you can save Lazlo Designs.”
“I doubt it,” Andy said. “I’ll have to sell the company to pay all the debts from developing the Nican.”
Suddenly Annabel sat bolt upright in her chair. “What is all this pessimistic talk? And why would you even think about selling the company, Andrew Devereux?”
Everyone stopped eating to stare at Annabel.
“I’ll be your new partner,” Annabel went on. “After all, I’ve got plenty of money and sailing experience.” Standing up, she opened her arms wide. “So what if the keel design is a little off. We’ll design a new one, a better one.”
Andy was staring at Annabel, a glimmer of hope in his eyes. “Are you serious?”
Annabel snorted. “Of course I’m serious. On one condition. That the new line of boats isn’t called the Nican Forty.”
“Why don’t you name it the Anna Forty,” Bess suggested.
Annabel looked around the table, grinning at each person in turn. “Hey, I like that!”
Everyone broke out laughing. Standing up, Andy raised his glass of orange juice in the air. “Let’s toast the new Anna Forty.” He turned toward Nancy, who was leaning against Ned, his arm around her shoulder. “And to Nancy Drew, who solved this crazy case and who also learned how to grind that jib like the best of sailors!”
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Simon Pulse
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division