Strangers on a Train Read online

  “The what?” Alan asked.

  “My mom read about it in the newspaper when we were getting ready for this trip.” The kid sounded excited. “She said the police arrested some guy for stealing tusks and bones and stuff from rare Alaskan animals.” He poked Alan on the arm. “Which ­Alaskan animals are the rarest? Think we’ll see any when we tour the park tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know, little buddy. What do you mean by rare?” Alan said.

  “He probably means endangered species,” I put in. I wasn’t too interested in their conversation, though I couldn’t help being a little surprised that Alan didn’t seem to know much about Alaskan wildlife. Still, I guessed an environmental studies degree covered a lot of ground. He couldn’t be expected to know everything about every ecosystem in the world, especially after only a year of study.

  “Right.” Alan shrugged. “Maybe you can ask the tour guide at Denali about it, Tobias.” He grinned. “You can also ask him if there are any tarantulas there!”

  I shot him a look, pretty sure he had to be kidding this time. Even I was pretty sure that tarantulas were mostly found in warmer parts of the world.

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “Tarantulas in Alaska?”

  “Hey, there are spiders everywhere, right?” Alan shrugged again. Then his face lit up. “Here come Bess and George.”

  I glanced up and saw my friends hurrying toward us. Tobias saw them too and jumped out of their seats.

  “Switch places back?” Alan said, standing up quickly as they reached us. “No offense, Nancy. But I miss my best girl.”

  “Sure, whatevs.” George flopped down beside me. “Yo.”

  “Yo yourself. Find out anything interesting?” I asked quietly.

  She took a quick look around. Tobias was hanging on the back of Alan’s seat across the way, still chattering away at him about grizzly bear skulls or something.

  “We tracked down Scott and chatted with him for a while,” George told me. “We realized there’s no way he’s our guy.”

  “Really? How come?”

  “Because he was in full view of a number of people up on the main deck from the time we arrived to the time you found that note in your luggage.” She added, “In the detective biz, we call that lack of opportunity.”

  “Thanks for the lesson, detective.” I rolled my eyes. “But I see your point. And I guess his weird behavior on the train could be explained away by the gambling stuff he told me about when I saw him meeting with those tough guys in Ketchikan. If he’s still in debt, he’s probably stressed, especially if that sort of thing could get him fired if anyone finds out.” I thought back to that scary encounter. “No wonder he wasn’t thrilled to catch me listening in on his phone conversation, even by accident, since he knows I know about his problem.”

  George nodded. “Next we went looking for ­Tatjana. We found her, but didn’t get to talk to her much. She blew us off after, like, three minutes. Said something about needing to go downstairs to take care of some paperwork.”

  “Hmm. Think she was telling the truth?”

  “Who knows? Everything she says sounds mysterious in that crazy Russian-sounding accent of hers. But that’s probably because I’ve watched too many old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.” George grinned. “Anyway, we looked for Hiro on our way back here, but we couldn’t find him.”

  “No mystery there. He’s probably still with the security people or something.” I was still thinking about Tatjana. She’d been on the list for a while, but we hadn’t really investigated her very much. “Anyway, we can talk to him later. For now, I’m thinking maybe we should focus on finding out more about Tatjana.”

  “Wow, that was a long train ride.” George stretched as we all climbed off the bus that had carried us from the train to the lodge where we would be staying that night, a pleasantly rustic place on the outskirts of Denali National Park. “I can’t believe it’s only four in the afternoon.”

  “Yeah, well, we left Anchorage pretty early,” I pointed out.

  “After all that sitting, I’m ready to go out and stretch my legs,” Alan put in, slinging Bess’s carry-on bag over his shoulder. “Good thing I booked us on that horseback-riding excursion this afternoon. It should be a nice long ride, since it stays light so late here this time of year. Come on, we’d better get checked in and changed or we’ll be late.”

  I traded a look with my friends. As usual, Alan had signed us all up for an activity without checking in first. Not that I had anything against horseback riding. But I’d been hoping to have some free time to investigate this afternoon, since from what Scott had told us, we’d be on our Denali bus tour for most of the following day.

  As we entered the lodge’s impressive wood-and-stone lobby, I noticed Tatjana standing off to one side of the check-in desk. She was chatting with the ABCs and a couple of other passengers. Okay, maybe this was my chance.

  “Can you guys check us in?” I asked Bess and George. “I just want to, um, look around the lobby.”

  Bess followed my gaze and nodded. “Of course.”

  “Thanks.” As they headed for the check-in desk, I eased closer to Tatjana. The other passengers were talking excitedly about the scenery they’d seen that day. As Babs described her impressions of a particularly scenic gulch, I hovered on the edge of the group, waiting for an opportunity to join the conversation.

  Before I got the chance, I was distracted by the sound of George’s voice. Her very loud voice.

  “What are you talking about?” she exclaimed. “What do you mean, our reservation was canceled?”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Reservations

  THE NEXT FEW MINUTES WERE PRETTY chaotic. I rushed over to find the lodge staff apologizing profusely, saying that someone had called the day before to cancel the reservation for the cabin Bess, George, and I were supposed to be sharing. The interesting thing? Nobody seemed to know exactly who the caller had been. He or she—nobody seemed sure about that, either—hadn’t left a name.

  Soon Tatjana and Hiro appeared and got involved, and they were still trying to work things out when the buses arrived to take people off to the various afternoon excursions, including the horseback ride Alan had booked for the four of us. Deciding to look for the silver lining in the situation, I offered to stay behind and straighten out the room mix-up while my friends went on the excursion. Maybe I would have my chance to investigate today after all.

  Alan still didn’t seem to catch on to the whole silver-lining angle, since he tried to change my mind, insisting that Tatjana and Hiro could take care of it for us. Luckily, Bess and George were a little more savvy. They dragged him off toward their bus.

  The lobby cleared out quickly as most of my fellow passengers headed off on their activities. Within minutes the place was all but deserted, though I noticed Wendy paging through some brochures over near the entrance. It looked as if she’d decided to skip today’s optional trips. No wonder, after what she’d told me earlier. Becca had arranged for Superstar to comp all the activities my friends and I did, but I’d caught a glimpse of the prices when Scott had passed out some information earlier. Most of the activities weren’t exactly cheap, especially for someone in Wendy’s financial situation.

  Thinking of Scott reminded me of what my friends had figured out. Thinking back, it did seem unlikely that he could have planted that threatening note. Unless he’d had help from someone else—like Max, for instance. This whole time we’d been focusing on one person who could be the jewelry thief’s accomplice. What if there was more than one person involved? If so, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to cross someone like Scott off the list. True, he probably couldn’t have left me that note. And it seemed unlikely he could have been the one to push me off that Ketchikan walkway, either, since I’d seen him heading in the opposite direction shortly beforehand. But what about the other stuff—the moose antler, the loud argume
nt I’d overheard in the ship’s kitchen, the pre-cruise problems, and of course sneaking the robber aboard? There was no reason he couldn’t have been involved in any of those incidents.

  It was an interesting thought. But Scott had disappeared, presumably to accompany the excursion groups, so I turned my attention to two handier suspects, Hiro and Tatjana. They were still having a stern discussion with the front desk staff. I stepped back and watched the pair. What if one of them had canceled that reser­vation? It certainly would have been easy for either of them to do it. But why? Was it just another way to throw me off balance, warn me not to mess with them?

  I looked around for Wendy again, but she’d disappeared. There were only a few other passengers still lingering in the lobby. An elderly couple sitting by the fireplace. A cluster of women heading into the dining room. A woman with an active young toddler from the redheaded reunion group.

  I watched as the redheaded mother led her child around by one chubby hand. The redheads had been around when I’d been pushed off that walkway. And the whole extended family seemed kind of excitable. What if one of them had bumped me by accident? That would mean the whole Ketchikan incident was a red herring—no pun intended.

  But if one of the redheads had bumped me, wouldn’t he or she have noticed and fessed up? And wouldn’t that person have been the one to call for help instead of Alan?

  Thinking about the incident in Ketchikan brought my mind back around to Scott again—and the rough-looking guys he’d met with there. Okay, so he had a reasonable explanation for meeting them, and I had enough sleuthing experience to know I shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on appearance. That didn’t change the fact that both those guys would be totally believable as robbers or thugs in the movies. What if my new theory was right, and I needed to be looking for more than one culprit? What if Scott was one of them, and had helped one of his “poker buddies” onto the ship?

  Pulling out my phone, I sent a quick text to Becca, asking for a description of the thief the police had arrested.

  My phone rang almost immediately. It was Becca.

  “Got your text,” she said. “I don’t know what the guy looks like, but I can try to find out.”

  “Cool, thanks,” I said. “Anything interesting happening on the ship?”

  “Not really,” she replied. “But I’ve been asking around about John.”

  “John?” For a moment I couldn’t place the name. “Oh! You mean the fired busboy?”

  “Yeah.” I heard her sigh. “The more I talk to ­people who know him, the weirder that whole situation seems. Everyone swears he’s the nicest, most honest guy around. Nobody I’ve talked to can imagine him getting mixed up with drugs.” She paused. “Do you think that could mean something? Is it connected to our case somehow?”

  “I don’t know. But I’ll keep it in mind. Call or text as soon as you find out about the jewelry thief, okay?”

  “Will do.”

  Wandering closer to the desk, I found that Tatjana and Hiro were still working arrangements out with the lodge staff. “Don’t worry, Nancy,” Hiro told me. “We’ll have this sorted out shortly.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  As I watched them, my mind returned to my new theory. If we really were looking for two culprits instead of one, which pairings made the most sense? I’d already thought of Scott and Max—Scott could have smuggled the robber aboard, Max could have planted the note, and either of them could have ­fiddled with the moose antler, though neither of them made sense as the walkway pusher. Besides, what connection did they have to each other? Did some other pairing make more sense? Maybe Max and Hiro, or Scott and Tatjana?

  I was about to text Becca again to see if she knew of any connections among our suspects. But at that moment I spotted Wendy wandering toward me.

  “Hey, Nancy,” she said. “Why aren’t you off white-water rafting or whatever?”

  I quickly explained the room situation, watching her closely for any sign that she already knew about it. But she barely seemed to pay attention. In fact, she seemed distracted and a little jittery.

  “Bummer,” she said. “But listen, epic news. I was just hanging outside chatting with some peeps and surfing the net, and I think I came up with a fab new idea to promote the blog!”

  “That’s great,” I said. “What is it?”

  She grinned, tapping her laptop, which was tucked under one arm as usual. “Top secret for now,” she said with a coy smile. “You’ll have to wait and see after my investigation is complete!”

  With that, she hurried off, humming under her breath. I stared after her, feeling troubled. What kind of “investigation” was she talking about?

  I started to follow her, but Tatjana intercepted me. “Good news, Nancy,” she said. “I can show you to your room now. The porters are already fetching your luggage.”

  “Thanks.” I followed her out of the main lodge building. Most of the guest rooms were located in small separate cabins out back.

  Tatjana led me to a cabin at the edge of the complex. It overlooked a small meadow dotted with wildflowers. Beyond that began a thick tangle of forest.

  “Very nice, yes?” Tatjana said as we stepped inside. “They gave you an upgrade due to the misunderstanding.”

  The place was very nice. There was a small sitting room, a full bath, and three bedrooms. Our luggage was already piled near the door.

  “It looks great,” I said. “Thanks for straightening this out.”

  I glanced at her, trying to figure out a way to question her about the case. But she was already on her way out the door. “Have a lovely evening, Miss Drew,” she called over her shoulder.

  “You too,” I said, though she was already gone.

  With a shrug, I walked over to the coffee table and dropped my purse on it. I could unpack later. Right now I wanted to get back out there.

  First, though, I headed into the bathroom to wash my hands. As I reached for the towel hanging under the window, I caught a glimpse of movement outside.

  I took a better look, guessing it might be some of the area’s well-known wildlife. Instead I saw Tatjana tiptoeing past, heading for the woods!

  “What?” I murmured, all my detective instincts suddenly on alert.

  Dropping the towel, I raced outside and around to the back of the cabin. By the time I got there, Tatjana was just disappearing into the woods.

  I sprinted across the meadow, hoping she didn’t look back—and also hoping that nobody else was looking out the windows of the nearby cabins. Luckily, Tatjana didn’t seem to realize she was being followed. As I ducked into the shade of the thick evergreens, I could hear her footsteps up ahead, crunching on the dried pine needles that carpeted the forest floor.

  My heart pounded as I followed, trying to keep a little quieter myself. Was I about to solve the case?

  I trailed her for about five minutes. Finally she stopped short in a pretty little sun-dappled clearing. Huddling behind a broad tree trunk at the edge, I watched as she glanced around, then pulled a compact out of her pocket and applied a fresh coat of lipstick. Weird. What was she doing out here?

  I was so focused on watching Tatjana that it took me a moment to notice the hurried footsteps coming up behind me. By the time I tuned in, it was too late. I spun around.

  “Hey!” Hiro blurted out, looking as startled as I was. “What are you doing here?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Strange Discoveries

  “HIRO!” MY HEART POUNDED AS I RECOGNIZED the danger I was in. We were pretty far from the lodge out here—definitely too far for anyone to hear me scream if Tatjana and Hiro were up to no good.

  I glanced back at Tatjana, who was coming toward us. “Nancy!” she cried, her eyes flashing with anger. “Did you follow me?”

  “Obviously she did,” Hiro snapped, frowning at her. “I told you to be careful!�
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  I cringed back against the tree trunk as he spun to face me. My eyes darted around, looking for anything I could grab to use as a weapon—a rock, a fallen branch . . .

  “Nancy, please don’t tell anyone you saw us out here,” Hiro begged.

  I blinked, focusing back on his face. All the anger had disappeared from his expression. Now he just looked anxious and kind of freaked-out.

  “Yes, please, Nancy,” Tatjana put in. “If anyone knows we are together, especially Becca—”

  “Wait,” I said, confused. “What’s going on here?”

  Hiro reached for Tatjana’s hand. “Don’t worry,” he told her, his voice thick with emotion. “Even if they fire us, it was worth it.” He planted a kiss on her lips.

  I blinked. Okay, I’m no Bess, but I recognize romance when I see it. “So you two are—a couple?” I asked. “That’s why you’re sneaking around out here?”

  “Yes.” Tatjana squared her shoulders. “But you cannot tell Becca. She wouldn’t understand.”

  Hiro nodded. “I know you’re friendly with Becca,” he told me. “So I suppose you already know that she and I used to date when we both worked for Jubilee.”

  “Actually, I didn’t know that.” But now that I did, some things were starting to make a lot more sense.

  “We broke up when we both got hired by Superstar.” He shrugged. “She’s technically my boss now, so we didn’t think it would be appropriate to keep seeing each other. Then Tatjana came along. . . .” He glanced over at Tatjana and squeezed her hand, which he was still clutching. “Anyway, we weren’t sure at first how serious things were between us, so we kept our relationship a secret.”

  Tatjana added, “It seemed a good idea at the time.”

  “Yes. But now that things are more serious, we’re worried that Becca won’t understand.” Hiro sighed, running his free hand through his spiky dark hair. “In fact, I’d planned to talk to her about it before now, but I can’t seem to catch her alone.”