Haunting of Horse Island Page 7

  Nancy sighed. She felt so helpless. She’d been here several days and still was no closer to catching the culprit than she had been on the first day.

  “This pie is incredible!” Bess gushed.

  “You haven’t finished your supper!” George chided her.

  “Who cares?” Bess said. “I’m on vacation!” Everyone laughed.

  The girls finished their meal and joined a group of young people playing badminton.

  “I think I’ve had enough,” Bess said, holding her stomach after several minutes of play.

  “But we just started!” George said.

  “I have a bad stomachache,” Bess said. “I think I’ll go back to the cottage and lie down.”

  “Boy, me, too!” said one of the girls who had been on the horseback ride. “I guess all that food and exercise didn’t mix.”

  When several others complained of stomachaches, Nancy became alarmed. She walked over to the food table and examined the dishes.

  “George!” she called out sharply, stopping in front of the blueberry pie that Bess had eaten.

  “What?” In a moment George was right beside her.

  Nancy pointed to several berries on top of the pie. “Aren’t those from a mountain laurel bush?” she asked.

  George looked at the berries and then, with a horrified expression, looked at Nancy.

  “Yes!” she said. “They’re poisonous!”

  11

  Suspicions

  “We’d better check with the closest hospital,” Nancy told George. “They may want to send ambulances here.”

  Not wasting a moment, George ran off to make the call. Nancy looked around for Otis. The crowd had thinned out a little, but there were still more than a dozen guests remaining who were playing badminton and chatting around the picnic tables.

  Otis wasn’t in sight, and Nancy wondered if he had a reason for leaving the festivities early. Could he have been responsible for the guests’ illness? He was certainly in the best position to poison the food. Still, Nancy thought, he had to realize that he would be the most likely suspect if he tampered with the food. But because of his bad temperament and anger toward the Steadmans, he certainly was someone she needed to talk to.

  Maybe he had gone back to the kitchen, Nancy thought. She moved quickly down the lane to the lodge dining room and found her way to the kitchen. Three of the helpers Nancy had seen earlier were busy washing dishes. She found the large man sitting at a desk in an office off the kitchen. He seemed to be involved in paperwork.

  “Excuse me. Otis?” Nancy said.

  The man looked up at her and frowned. “Yes?” he said in a deep baritone voice.

  “I’m Nancy Drew, a guest here.”

  “Guests don’t generally barge into the kitchen,” he said impatiently. He went back to his work.

  “Well,” Nancy continued, “I certainly didn’t mean to bother you, but I’d like to talk with you for a few minutes.”

  “Yes?” Otis left the question hanging and didn’t look up.

  “Are you aware that one of your desserts tonight contained poison berries?” Nancy asked.

  Otis looked up sharply. “What are you saying?” he asked angrily. He rose from the desk and took a step toward Nancy.

  Nancy held her ground. “My friends and I were hiking yesterday and found a mountain laurel bush covered with berries,” she said. “A field guide to plants in this area says they’re poisonous. My friend and a few others ate the dessert, not recognizing the berries, and now they’re complaining of stomachaches.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Otis thundered, his face red with anger. “That’s preposterous! The very thought that I’d put inedible berries in my desserts!”

  “Where do you get your berries?” Nancy asked.

  “At the fruit wholesaler in town!” Otis shouted, still furious.

  Nancy gazed a moment at Otis. He sure was displaying his bad temper for her in a grand style.

  “Do you still have the leftover food?” Nancy asked, unblinking.

  Otis stalked into the kitchen furiously. “Yes!” he barked, and he led Nancy to a table piled with the pots and dishes with bits of food still in them. He pointed to them and took a step backward. “Maybe this will straighten you out.”

  Nancy stepped up to the table and looked over the array of plates. “Here,” she said. “This is the dessert.” There was half a pie remaining on the tray.

  Otis looked at the pan and gasped. “This is not my pie!” he bellowed. “I did not make this dessert!”

  “Maybe you can tell me,” Nancy said. “Does this serving dish belong to the resort?”

  “Yes,” Otis admitted. “It does. I was looking for it yesterday when I was getting organized for the fish fry. I never found it. Someone stole it from me!”

  “That is certainly possible,” Nancy said.

  “Possible?” Otis repeated. “That’s exactly what happened!” He looked at her suspiciously. “Perhaps you took it and set me up!”

  “I assure you,” Nancy said evenly, “that is not what happened. I think this is likely to have been arranged by the person who has pulled a number of other tricks around here. Did you see anyone hanging around during the preparation of the cookout?”

  “No,” Otis said. “But when I get my hands on him—”

  “We’ll turn him—or her—over to the police,” Nancy said. “But tell me, Otis—I understand that you have had some arguments with the Steadmans about your salary. Would you—”

  “How dare you accuse me of this terrible act!” Otis raged.

  “You just accused me,” Nancy reminded him.

  “I am having an ongoing discussion with Henry Steadman about what he should pay me,” Otis said. “I’m an artist. And now that people are leaving this resort in droves because of several unfortunate incidents, Steadman has reduced the size of my staff! It’s getting harder and harder to make a living in this place.”

  “Well, if you will excuse me, I think I’d better go and talk with Henry Steadman,” Nancy said. “He should be told that he may have a serious situation on his hands.”

  Nancy turned and walked out the kitchen door just as George came hurrying up the lane.

  “It’s okay,” George said, smiling with relief. “Bess and the others will be all right, probably by tomorrow. The doctor I talked to said that the mountain laurel berries will cause discomfort but nothing worse. I just checked on Bess. She’s asleep now.”

  “Oh, good!” Nancy said, and she expelled a lungful of air. “Come on, George. Henry should know about this last episode.”

  Nancy and George walked around to the front of the lodge and inside the main door. They found Henry and Ruth behind the desk.

  “Hi,” Nancy greeted them both. “May we talk to you?”

  “Sure,” Henry said, frowning. “You girls look serious. I hope nothing more has happened.”

  “I’m afraid something has,” Nancy said. She and George told the Steadmans about the poisonous berries in the dessert. “Fortunately, everyone will be fine after an uncomfortable night,” Nancy said. “I just talked with Otis,” she continued. “He was furious that I would question him about it.”

  “That sounds just like Otis!” Ruth said angrily.

  “Now, Ruth,” Henry said. He gazed at the girls. “Ruth thinks Otis is a—well, a—”

  “A madman!” she said.

  “Madman?” Nancy questioned.

  “Oh, it’s his artistic temperament,” Henry explained. “He flies off the handle all the time, but he wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that!” Ruth said. “He threatened you last year, remember? He said if he didn’t get a substantial raise, you would be sorry!”

  Henry turned to Nancy. “Otis is here because he wants to live in the country. But he thinks he should be earning big-city money. We simply can’t afford to pay him more than we do now. He’s worth every penny we do pay him—the food here is a big
reason people keep coming back. But we just can’t give him more.”

  “Do you think Otis could be responsible for the weird things going on here?” George asked.

  “Yes!” Ruth said.

  “No,” Henry said at the same time.

  Nancy smiled a little. “Well, we’ll keep him in mind, anyway.”

  “Can I join this powwow?” a voice called out.

  The girls looked up to see Steve Matheson approaching them. He was wearing a pair of jeans and an old blue-and-white cotton shirt that had a tear in the sleeve. “Sure,” Nancy said.

  “Say, Henry,” Steve said, “I went over to Horse Island, just as you asked me to. I didn’t see any horses.” He looked at Nancy. “You girls really saw wild horses?”

  “We sure did!” Nancy said. “They nearly trampled us, but we managed to get out of the way just in time.”

  “That’s incredible!” he said. “I thought they’d been captured years ago.”

  “Oh, every season we hear of someone who has seen the horses swimming out to the island,” Henry said. “It would be exciting to see them. Of course, if they are there, they’re protected by law.”

  “Henry,” Steve said, “I’m going to make a quick run into town for supplies.”

  “Sure thing,” Henry said. He excused himself to make a call to the hospital about the berries. Steve left, and Nancy and George said goodbye to Ruth.

  “Let’s pay a visit to Teresa Diamond,” Nancy said to George. “I want to ask her why she was on the island this morning.”

  When the girls knocked on Teresa’s door, it was yanked open immediately. Teresa was wearing a pair of jeans, a cotton blouse, and a red bandanna around her neck. She did not look happy to see Nancy.

  “Teresa,” Nancy said, “we were stranded on Horse Island last night. This morning we saw you on the island. We called to you for help, but you ran away, jumped into a motorboat, and sped off.”

  “What are you talking about?” Teresa said angrily. “I wasn’t on the island. I was here working all morning.”

  “We saw you,” George said. “There was no mistake. It was you.”

  “What sort of work do you do?” Nancy asked.

  “I’m a writer,” she said. “Now, unless you have any other questions”—she glanced back and forth between Nancy and George—“I have to get back to work.” Before Nancy or George had a chance to respond, she slammed the door in their faces.

  • • •

  “I think I’ll take a little walk,” Nancy said to George later that evening. “To think about the case.”

  “Sure,” George said. “Bess is still sound asleep, and I’m going to start that new novel I brought.”

  “See you later,” Nancy said. She stepped out of the cottage and closed the door softly behind her.

  The night was cool, and Nancy zipped her jacket. The air smelled of the surrounding pine trees. The lake lapped gently against the dock not more than two hundred feet away. Nancy took a deep breath of the night air and started off.

  She really didn’t have a destination in mind, just a quiet place to walk and think. She looked up the hill and decided to head to the swimming pool.

  This case is certainly a tough one, Nancy thought. So many strange things are going on, but nothing really points to any one suspect. Still, it was definitely noteworthy that Otis held such hostile feelings toward the Steadmans. He certainly believed he had good cause. And Teresa Diamond was hiding something, and she apparently had an interest in the island. But why?

  Nancy reached the top of the hill, opened a gate, and walked along the sidewalk that circled the heated pool. A sign saying that the pool closed at ten P.M. was dimly lit by the light near the gate. The lights surrounding the pool were turned off, and no one was around. Nancy strolled to the edge of the pool, sat down, kicked off her sandals, and dipped her feet in the water.

  A soft noise from behind startled her. Nancy turned but saw nothing. Just an animal, she decided, turning back to the water.

  Suddenly, from out of the darkness, someone grabbed Nancy from behind. Before she could react, Nancy was pushed into the pool. A strong pair of hands forced her head underwater as she held her breath and thrashed her arms and legs desperately to free herself!

  12

  Follow That Car!

  Her lungs nearly bursting, Nancy dug her fingernails into the hands of her attacker. She couldn’t budge from their grasp. She opened her eyes and saw only the black water.

  Knowing that she couldn’t hold her breath a moment longer, Nancy managed to get one of the hands to her mouth. She bit down hard, and her assailant immediately released her.

  Shooting above the water’s surface, Nancy threw her head back out of the water and gulped in great gasps of air. She grasped the edge of the pool with both hands and stayed there a moment, breathing heavily.

  She suddenly realized that her attacker could be standing over her. She looked around, but no one was there. Her assailant had apparently disappeared into the darkness.

  Nancy heaved herself out of the pool with the small amount of strength she had left and walked to the electrical box on a pole at the far side of the pool. She flipped a switch, and instantly the pool area was illuminated with bright overhead lights.

  She was alone at the pool now, she was sure of it. There was no place for her attacker to hide in the immediate vicinity. Her eyes swept over the deck, and something red caught her attention.

  She walked over to it. It was a red bandanna, lying at the spot next to the pool where she’d been attacked.

  A red bandanna, Nancy thought, just like the one Teresa had been wearing earlier in the evening!

  • • •

  “You really think it was Teresa who tried to drown you?” Bess asked in a low voice.

  The girls had gotten up early to stake out Teresa’s cottage. Bess was feeling weak, but she insisted on joining her friends. They were sitting at a picnic table behind a bush where they had a clear view of the cottage. They would be able to see—without being seen—if Teresa left.

  “Her scarf doesn’t prove that she was responsible,” Nancy said, “but it makes her the likely suspect.”

  “She sure is big enough to overpower you,” Bess said.

  “Obviously she didn’t mean to drown me,” said Nancy. “It was another warning—just like all the rest of the warnings at the resort.”

  “And a pretty serious warning,” George said, looking worried. “They seem to be getting worse and worse. Have you noticed?”

  “You’re right,” Nancy agreed. “They started out with a harmless snake in a tackle box, but now this creep is using fire, poisoning, and a near-drowning to scare everyone.” Nancy set her mouth in a tight line. “We’ve got to find out what is going on before anyone is seriously injured—or worse!”

  Suddenly George grabbed Nancy’s arm and put a finger to her lips. She pointed at Teresa’s cottage, where a door had just opened. The girls watched Teresa lock the door behind her and then go to her car, which was parked on the far side of the cottage.

  Nancy gestured for Bess and George to move away. “Our car,” she whispered, and they took off toward the side of their cottage, where Nancy had parked.

  “I don’t want Teresa to see us,” Nancy said as they seated themselves in the car, “so I’ll stay a little behind her.”

  They followed Teresa down the lane and out of the resort. Teresa drove into the thick woods and kept the car moving at a steady but slow speed to avoid the bumps in the road.

  “I wonder where she’s going,” George said.

  “Well,” Nancy said, “she told me yesterday that she was working—and she’s a writer. Maybe this is a working vacation.”

  Nancy slowed down a little more when Teresa got to the highway.

  “She’s heading toward town,” Nancy said.

  “Maybe she needs supplies of some sort,” said George.

  “Or maybe she’s meeting somebody,” Nancy guessed.

  The
y followed far behind for the ten miles into town. Teresa pulled up at a public telephone booth on the sidewalk along the main road and got out. Nancy stopped the car a half block away. Teresa walked into the booth and picked up the phone.

  “Now, why would she do that?” Bess wondered. “The cottages have telephones.”

  “Yes,” Nancy said, “but they’re linked to the switchboard in the lodge office. Maybe this is a very private phone call.”

  “It’s long distance, anyway,” said George. She had pulled a pair of binoculars out of her backpack and was studying Teresa through the glasses. “She pulled a telephone credit card out of her bag. See? She’s dialing and referring to the card.”

  “Interesting,” Nancy said.

  Teresa finished her call in about three minutes and hung up. She got into her car and pulled out onto the main street.

  “Are we going to follow her?” Bess asked.

  “Definitely,” Nancy said. She pulled the silver car out onto the street and, once again, trailed behind Teresa.

  At the next corner, Teresa turned right, and Nancy followed. At the corner after that, Teresa turned left and sped up.

  “Uh-oh,” Nancy said. “She knows she’s being followed.” Nancy sped up, too, and kept close behind her.

  Suddenly Teresa pulled into a parking lot.

  “We might as well pull in,” Nancy said. “She knows we’re here.”

  Nancy pulled into the space right next to Teresa’s car. Teresa got out of her car and marched over to Nancy’s window.

  “Just what do you think you’re doing?” Teresa demanded angrily. “Why are you following me?”

  Nancy got out of the car and faced the woman. “I have reason to suspect that you are behind several threats that have occurred at Steadman’s,” she said coolly.

  “And why would you possibly suspect me?” Teresa asked, her eyebrows raised in a haughty expression.

  Nancy reached into her pocket and pulled out the red bandanna. “This is the main reason,” she said. “You were wearing it yesterday.”

  “Where did you get that?” Teresa snapped. She tried to snatch it away, but Nancy tossed it into the car window behind her.