Model Suspect Read online

  “Not exactly,” I said carefully, glancing toward the cameras. There were two cameramen there filming the scene from different angles, though I couldn’t help noticing that Butch wasn’t one of them. In fact, aside from the two camera operators and an older woman from the makeup team, nobody from the TV crew was in view at the moment.

  “Wow, that looks painful,” Bess was saying to George, bending over to peer at the cut on her foot. “You might want to get it looked at.”

  A uniformed resort employee pushed forward. “Yes, please come with me, miss,” he said in a polite but firm voice. “I’ll take you to the medical hut straightaway.”

  “Don’t be silly,” George protested. “It’s just a little scrape. All I need is a Band-Aid.”

  But the employee wouldn’t take no for an answer, explaining that coral cuts could be very dangerous if left untreated. George insisted it had been a sharp rock she’d stepped on rather than coral, but evidently the resort wanted to take no chances. Soon the young man and another employee were hustling her off down the beach.

  Meanwhile I sidled toward another uniformed employee, an intelligent-looking middle-aged woman. “Listen,” I whispered to her. “I don’t want this to be on camera, but you should know—someone shot at us.”

  The woman blinked and turned to stare at me. “I beg your pardon?”

  I repeated the information, adding that I was pretty sure the shots had come from the direction of the jungle. By the time I finished, the employee was already shaking her head.

  “I’m sure this was a very frightening experience, miss,” she said in a smooth, sympathetic voice. “But as the person who gave you that boat should have explained, there are a few spots with very sharp coral that can tear the rubber pontoons if one isn’t careful. I’m sorry you weren’t properly warned about this.”

  “No, you don’t understand.” I cast another quick look around to make sure neither of the cameras was too close. “It wasn’t the coral. Someone shot out those pontoons! You’ll see when you bring the boat in.”

  “All right, we’ll take that under advisement.” The woman’s tone indicated quite plainly that she was humoring me, though her polite smile never wavered. “I’ll send someone out to get it first thing tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” I exclaimed. “No, you need to bring it in now! If someone looks at the punctures, maybe …”

  My voice trailed off as I realized one of the cameramen had stepped closer and was filming me. The other camera was still aimed at Sydney and Vic.

  “I’m very sorry your visit with us started out with this sort of unfortunate occurrence,” the employee said in that same smooth, professional voice. “We at the Oro Beach Resort would like to make it up to you with a complimentary massage at our world-class spa.”

  With that, she turned away. I stared at the back of her head, feeling frustrated. Chief McGinnis of the River Heights Police Department might not be the sharpest tack on the bulletin board, but at least he usually took me seriously! It was clear this woman didn’t. She wasn’t even planning to drag that pontoon boat out of the lagoon until the next day, let alone warn people that there might be a gun-toting maniac on the loose. So what was I supposed to do now?

  I glanced around. Vic was still holding Sydney. She was crying, and he was trying to shield her from the camera with his body. Nearby, Bo and Jamal were just standing there, shifting their weight from foot to foot and looking uncertain.

  “Please!” Sydney wailed as the cameraman stepped around for a better angle. “Can’t you just leave us alone for a second?”

  Vic glared at the cameraman. “Yeah, have a heart, dude,” he said. “Give us a sec, okay?”

  “Sorry, Vic. Just doing my job,” the cameraman responded calmly, taking a step closer and focusing on Sydney.

  Vic scowled and gently lowered his new wife to the sand. “Listen,” he blustered, clenching his fists. “You know I’m usually cool with the whole all-access thing. But I asked you nicely, and now I’m telling you. Back off. Or I’ll have to make you do it.”

  Uh-oh. He sounded pretty steamed. And it looked like the cameraman wasn’t planning to back down—he was a big guy, almost as broad and burly as Butch or Bo. I glanced around, wishing Madge or Donald was around to break this up, but neither of them was anywhere in sight.

  “Listen, both of you,” Bess said in her most soothing tone. “Let’s just take a deep breath….”

  “Yes, please,” added the female employee I’d spoken to. “I’m sure we can work things out, gentlemen.”

  Vic just glared at her. Before he could respond, there was a loud buzz from the direction of some beach chairs nearby.

  “Dude, it’s your phone,” Bo said, grabbing something off one of the chairs and tossing it to Vic.

  Vic caught the cell phone and glanced at it, seeming distracted. Then he blinked and brought the phone closer to his face, peering at the tiny screen with an expression of confusion and dismay.

  “What is it, Vic?” Sydney asked, stepping closer for a look. When she saw whatever was on the phone, she let out a loud gasp. “Oh, no!” she cried.

  “Hey!” Madge’s loud, abrasive voice broke into the scene. She came barreling onto the beach. “What’s going on? Heard there was some kind of trouble.”

  “What is it, man?” Jamal asked, staring at Vic with concern.

  Vic glanced at him, then over at Bo. “Nothing,” he said. “It’s nothing. Just that guy we met in Seattle.”

  Bo nodded. Then he glanced out toward the lagoon. His eyes widened, and he jumped forward, pointing out that way.

  “Hey, check it out!” he shouted. “Shark!”

  FINNY BUSINESS

  Bo’s sudden outburst caused another flurry of exclamations and shouts of alarm. “Are you serious? There’s a shark out there?” Madge cried. She turned and jabbed a finger at the cameramen. “This is golden. Get it on film!”

  Both cameramen were way ahead of her. Their lenses were already turned out toward the waters of the lagoon, searching for the shark.

  “Hang on, I’m on it!” Bo hollered, ripping off his T-shirt. “Yo, I’ve always wanted to wrestle a shark. Banzai!”

  He raced down toward the water’s edge and flung himself in, causing a huge splash. I just stared along with everyone else, startled and a little confused by this turn of events.

  “Where is it?” Bess stepped over next to me, shading her eyes with one hand. “I don’t see any shark.”

  “Me either.” I was already starting to recover from my surprise.

  Madge was standing at the water’s edge, not seeming to notice that tiny, gentle waves were lapping over the toes of her expensive-looking leather pumps. One of the cameramen was in up to his knees, while the other had scooted down the beach to catch another angle.

  Bo was a pretty strong swimmer and was already a good distance out. He stopped and came up for air.

  “There it is!” he yelled, waving one hand vaguely ahead of him. Then he let out an excited whoop. “Yeah, you better swim away from me, Jaws, if you know what’s good for you!”

  He flung himself forward again, swimming hard. “Whoa,” Madge muttered. She shot a look at the cameramen. “This could be huge! Keep on him, guys.”

  “You go, Bo!” Jamal shouted, dancing around at the edge of the water pumping both fists in the air. “You’ll show that shark who’s boss, boy!”

  I was surprised anew by that. It was never a surprise to see Bo or Vic hamming it up for the cameras. But Jamal hadn’t really seemed like the type.

  I glanced over to see how Sydney was taking all this. She was already on edge, and I was afraid a random shark appearance might be all that was needed to send her over it.

  But to my further surprise, she was nowhere in sight. Neither was Vic. The two of them had disappeared during all the commotion!

  Just then Bess nudged me. “Come on,” she whispered. “This way.”

  Feeling a little confused, I followed as she tiptoed away, stayin
g out of Madge’s sight line. We both ducked behind a neatly clipped hedge at the edge of the beach and hurried along until we were well hidden behind an equipment shed. We rounded the corner and saw Sydney and Vic there waiting for us.

  Now I realized what was happening. “You mean the shark thing is a ruse?” I asked Vic, feeling slightly sheepish for taking so long to catch on.

  He shrugged. “It’s a code Bo and I invented,” he explained, glancing out around the edge of the shed to check that Bess and I hadn’t been followed. “We use it back in NYC all the time. Whenever one of us mentions a guy from Seattle, the other one’s supposed to kick up a scene as a distraction.”

  “Oh.” I glanced at Bess, realizing there was one mystery remaining about all this. “But wait, how did you know where they went?”

  “As soon as we got out of the way, we tried to text you, Nancy,” Sydney spoke up. “But I guess your phone’s not working or something, because you didn’t answer.”

  I touched the pocket of my shorts. “Oh. I guess I forgot to get it out of my bag after we left the airport. Just as well, since it would’ve gotten soaked when we ended up in the lagoon.”

  “Luckily mine’s got a water-resistant case,” Bess said. “They tried me next.”

  I nodded, glancing at the couple. Vic looked grim and pale, and Sydney had stopped crying but still appeared to be pretty worked up.

  “Okay,” I said briskly. “So does this mean we finally get to talk about that mess you guys found in your room when you got here? Or did you guys have any ideas about what happened with the pontoon boat?”

  “Sure, we can talk about that stuff if you want. But first …” Vic pulled out his cell phone and held it out to me. “This just came.”

  Once again, I felt a little slow as I remembered that a message had come in for him right before the shark thing—a message that had made Sydney gasp in alarm and get even more upset than she’d already been.

  “Oh, right,” I said, reaching for the phone. “What’s it say?”

  Glancing down, I saw an e-mail blinking on the screen. The text consisted of a single line: TELL YOUR BRIDE SHE CAN’T ESCAPE FROM HER SHADOW.

  But that wasn’t all. Below that message was a photo. It showed the lagoon right there at the resort under the moonlight—with the back view of a shiny bald head sticking up from the dark water!

  “Whoa,” I murmured, realizing what this meant.

  MrSilhouette was back. And he was right here at the resort.

  SAFE HOUSE

  “It’s from MrSilhouette!” Sydney cried, sounding on the verge of hysteria. “I should have known it wasn’t over. He’s here! He has to be the one doing all this terrible stuff. What am I going to do?” She turned and buried her face in Vic’s chest. “I never should have agreed to marry you,” she sobbed, her words slightly muffled. “Now you’re in danger too.”

  “It’s okay, love,” he said, rubbing her head soothingly. “We’ll get through this.”

  Bess stepped over and patted Sydney on the back.

  “Yeah, try not to let it get to you so much, Syd,” she added. “Nancy’s on the case now—she’ll track this guy down. She always gets her man.”

  I barely heard her. This was an alarming new development. Of course I’d known all along that there was a pretty good chance that Sydney’s old stalker could be behind all the trouble. But this appeared to prove it. I stared at the message and photo, wishing George was there to try to track who’d sent it.

  Never mind, I told myself, realizing it probably wouldn’t do any good. This guy was a pro—even the NYPD hadn’t been able to trace his first batch of e-mails. Somehow I doubted he’d gotten any sloppier since then.

  Still, I punched a few buttons to forward the message to George’s phone, hoping it hadn’t been totally ruined by its saltwater bath. Just as I finished, the phone buzzed in my hand.

  “Incoming message,” I said.

  “Got it,” Vic said, grabbing the phone out of my hand before I could see who the message was from. He glanced at the screen, then immediately stuck the phone in his pocket. “Just my agent,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll call him back later.”

  He sounded kind of jumpy. And no wonder. We were all a little jumpy at this point.

  Sydney was still sobbing inconsolably against Vic’s chest, with Bess crooning into her ear to no apparent avail. Vic glanced around, still looking nervous.

  “I think I’d better take her somewhere more private to get her settled down,” he said. “When Madge and the others notice we’re gone …”

  I nodded. The last thing Sydney needed right now was a camera shoved in her face. “How about our bungalow?” I suggested. “The TV people never bother to film the three of us unless we’re with one of you guys, so you should be safe there for a while.”

  Bess cleared her throat. “Right,” she said. “Except we don’t really know where it is. I mean, we can follow the little map on the key, but we haven’t been there ourselves yet, and so—”

  “Never mind,” Vic broke in. “Akinyi’s hut is the first one out on the walk, right out there over the sand—she made them give her that one because she said she’d get seasick trying to sleep out over the water.”

  Despite the serious circumstances, I couldn’t help a brief smile. Yeah, that sounded like Akinyi.

  “She wasn’t out there on the beach,” I remembered. “So maybe she’s in the bungalow.”

  Or maybe not, I realized with a flash of concern. After all, I’d originally suspected Akinyi and Jamal of causing all the trouble. Now that Pandora appeared to be innocent, did I need to consider whether I might have been right about the other two after all?

  There was no time to think about that at the moment. We scooted out from our hiding place, tiptoeing across the beach toward the steps leading up to the warren of wooden walkways that stretched out over the water. Soon we were huddled on the tiny front porch of the first bungalow, with Bess keeping a lookout for roving cameramen while Vic knocked softly on the door. I stood behind him, one arm around Sydney, who leaned limply against me. In the distance we could still hear shouts and whoops, presumably from the Great Shark Hunt out in the lagoon.

  “Who is it?” Akinyi’s accented voice called out from inside.

  “It’s us! Let us in, okay?” Vic hissed, shooting a nervous look around at the nearby bungalows. We were hidden from the beach here, but not very well. Anyone could come down one of the walkways at any moment and spot us there.

  Several long seconds passed before the door opened a crack. Akinyi peered out at us, looking wary. “Oh. It is you,” she said, raising one perfectly groomed eyebrow when she took in the sight of Bess and me in our damp street clothes. “What is it? I just stepped out of the shower.”

  “Please let us in, Kinnie, okay?” Vic urged. “We just got some pretty wild news, and now Syd’s upset, and we’re trying to stay out of camera range….”

  “Oh, I see.” Akinyi finally seemed to notice Sydney standing there, and her face softened. “Just wait one second while I throw something on, all right?”

  “Kinnie, wait!” Vic began. But it was too late. The door slammed in our faces.

  “She’d better hurry up,” Bess whispered from her vantage point at the edge of the porch. “It sounds like the fun’s over out there.”

  Sure enough, the shouts had finally died down. I guessed there was only so long that Bo could pretend he was chasing a shark before it became obvious he wasn’t actually going to catch anything.

  “She should know she doesn’t have to get all dressed up for us,” I muttered, casting a look at Akinyi’s door as several thumping noises came from inside. “What’s taking her so long?”

  Finally, after another few endless moments, the door opened again. This time Akinyi let it swing wide, revealing that she was wrapped in a plush terrycloth robe with the resort’s logo printed on it.

  Weird, I thought as we all rushed in. If she wasn’t getting dressed, what was all the thumping a
bout?

  “Finally!” Vic blurted out. “I thought you’d never—whoa!”

  He caught himself just in time as he stumbled and almost went flying. Glancing down, I saw that he’d tripped over a pair of muddy sandals that had been sitting just inside the door.

  Akinyi glanced at them too. “Oh, sorry about that,” she said, kicking the sandals out of the way under a nearby dresser. “I went for a walk in the rain forest to get away from the cameras for a while. That’s why I was in the shower, actually.” She shrugged. “It’s a bit muddy out there.”

  Vic didn’t seem too interested in any of that. “Listen, can we hide out here for a while?” he asked, already guiding Sydney toward the nearest chair. “It’s been kind of a tough afternoon. See, first Sydney was out on the water with the girls when someone took a shot at them….”

  He went on to explain what had happened, from the pontoon incident to the message from MrSilhouette. Akinyi seemed alarmed by the former and positively horrified by the latter.

  “No!” she blurted out, covering her mouth as Vic showed her the photo on his phone. “But I thought all that was over. Oh, Syd, this is terrible! You poor baby!” She rushed over and wrapped her long, slim arms around her friend.

  “Come on,” I murmured to Bess. “Let’s leave them to it. We should go get George and then find our bungalow.” A lot had happened since we’d arrived on the island just a couple of hours earlier, and my head was spinning. It was way past time to sit down, catch my breath, huddle with my friends, and discuss it all privately.

  * * *

  An hour later my friends and I were sitting on the deck of our swank private bungalow. It consisted of a small but luxurious sitting room flanked by two bedrooms, one with a double bed and the other with two singles. George had immediately claimed the private room on the basis that she was injured and needed her rest.

  “Oh, please.” Bess had let out a snort. “It looks like they just stuck on a Band-Aid, like you wanted in the first place.”