Riverboat Roulette Read online

  “This isn’t your fault,” she whispered. “You didn’t steal the money.”

  “I know,” I said, “but I said I could find it and I didn’t.”

  “You tried your best,” Bess continued. “You aren’t perfect.” I knew Bess was right, but I still felt terrible. I hated letting people down.

  I looked over at Catherine, who was wrapped in a blanket. I realized that there was still one angle of this investigation I hadn’t fully explored. I set my jaw. There were still ten minutes before I had to turn this case over to the police.

  “So, Catherine, now that you’re warmed up, can you tell me more about what happened when you got pushed off the boat?”

  Catherine looked up at me, surprised. “I really don’t remember much,” she said, rubbing her neck.

  “Anything at all could be helpful,” I prodded.

  “Sorry. It all happened so fast,” she said, quickly.

  I studied her closely. I didn’t believe her. I was sure she remembered something about the person who pushed her over.

  “Even a sound or a smell could help narrow down the suspects,” I insisted.

  Catherine sighed, then looked at me directly. “I’m telling you,” she said, rubbing her neck again, “I don’t remember anything. Between the sound of the paddle wheel and the wind, I didn’t even realize someone was out there before I felt hands on my back. The next thing I knew I was falling over the side of the boat.”

  All of a sudden it hit me. She was lying. Rubbing her neck was her tell. If I was right, it meant she was lying about everything she said happened on that deck. But why would she lie?

  I felt my phone buzz, pulling me out of my reverie. I took it out to see a group text from Bess to George and me. Our cell service must have come back when we docked.

  “I know that look,” it read. “What have you figured out?”

  “I need to go to the restroom,” I announced.

  George and Bess stood up too. “We’ll go with you,” Bess said.

  Mrs. Marvin gave us a small nod. She could tell that we had made a break in the case.

  We speed-walked across the boat to the restroom. Once we were inside, Bess locked the door and George spun toward me.

  “What have you got, Nancy?” George asked.

  I explained how I thought that Catherine rubbing her neck was a tell, that she was lying about not knowing anything about who pushed her off the boat.

  “But why would she lie?” George asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe she’s protecting whoever it was.”

  “Yeah,” George said, “but that person put her life in danger. Why would she stay loyal to them?”

  I shrugged. “People are complicated. Maybe it’s someone she’s close to, like her best friend or her cousin.”

  “I don’t get it,” George complained. “Bess, if you pushed me off a boat, I would tell Nancy in a heartbeat.”

  “I doubt it,” Bess said. “What if you knew that I needed the money for something really important?”

  “Wait,” I interrupted them before this disagreement spun out of control. “Her mom. She said there’s a treatment that the insurance company won’t pay for. So maybe Catherine needed the money to pay for her mom’s hospital bills,” I suggested. “She doesn’t have a boat to sell like Buddy does. Plus, think about it,” I continued. “We assumed the money was stolen from the safe, but Catherine is the one who handed the box of money to Margot to put into the safe. Do we even know that the money was in the box?”

  “That’s true,” George said. “Catherine encouraged us to question all the guests.”

  “Do you think Catherine would betray Margot like that?” Bess asked. “She’s worked for her for a long time.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, “but Margot wasn’t particularly nice to her. She demanded that Catherine be here even though her mom was in the hospital. Maybe Catherine was tired of being treated badly.”

  “But if Catherine stole the money, who pushed her off the boat?” Bess asked.

  “Maybe no one did,” I said. “Maybe she jumped.”

  “Why would she do that?” George asked.

  “To take any suspicion off her,” I said. “And it worked. We’ve been thinking of her as a victim, not a suspect.”

  Bess and George nodded. I could see that they were toying with the idea of Catherine as the culprit.

  “So if Catherine stole the money . . . ,” I started.

  “Then it’s still on the boat!” Bess and George finished.

  “We have to find it,” I said.

  George and Bess and I marched out of the bathroom on a mission.

  “We should search around the check-in desk first,” I said, “since that’s where Catherine was stationed. Maybe she didn’t move it far.”

  We headed toward the front of the boat, toward the check-in desk and office located right outside the main room, but before we could start looking, we were greeted by Margot leading two River Heights police officers onboard.

  “Nancy!” I looked up to see that it was Officer Parker, a friend of my dad’s. “If you’re on the case, what am I doing here?”

  “Unfortunately,” Margot said, “Nancy was not able to solve this matter for us.”

  Officer Parker looked at me, surprised. He turned to his partner, whose uniform said ANG on it. “Nancy has a better solve rate than most of the detectives in our department,” he said.

  Officer Ang nodded. “So I’ve heard.”

  “Well, actually,” I said, “I do have a new theory.”

  “Hit me with it,” Officer Parker said.

  I looked around, making sure that Catherine was still in the main room with Buddy and Mrs. Marvin, and then leaned in and explained how I thought the money was still on the boat and why.

  “I can’t believe Catherine would do that to me,” Margot said.

  Officer Parker nodded. “Well, we’ll take a look for sure,” he said. “You girls go into the main room with the others.”

  I started to tell him that I wanted to help too, but he cut me off before I could say anything. “It’s protocol, Nancy,” he said. “You know that. I can’t let you help.”

  I sighed, disappointed, but we dutifully headed back to the main deck. If Officer Parker and Officer Ang did find the money, I would know that I’d helped, but it wouldn’t be as satisfying as finding it myself.

  We sat down with Catherine, Buddy, and Mrs. Marvin. I could hear the officers moving tables, opening cabinets, and pushing aside chairs in the check-in area. Across from me, Buddy shifted uncomfortably.

  “They’d better not break anything,” he muttered.

  The chaos continued next to us. I kept waiting to hear a triumphant shout that they’d found the money, but there was nothing; just the sounds of doors opening and closing. I started to get worried. There weren’t that many places that the money would be hidden. Margot shifted her glare between me and Catherine. I couldn’t tell whether she wanted me to be right. If I was right, she’d have her money back, but it would also mean she’d been betrayed by her most trusted employee. Even Mrs. Marvin shot me a worried glance.

  There was a loud noise from the check-out desk.

  “Seriously,” Buddy grumbled. “I need this boat to be in peak condition. My mom’s medical bills aren’t going to pay for themselves.”

  My head shot up, a million thoughts flying through my brain. I looked between Catherine and Buddy as the pieces clicked together for the first time. They’d both said their mom was in the hospital. Catherine said her mom had met her dad on a riverboat. Buddy’s stepdad had worked on a riverboat.

  “You’re half siblings,” I blurted out. “You stole the money together.”

  “That’s absurd,” Buddy said.

  “No, it’s not,” George said, holding up her phone. “I just found a wedding announcement for a Violet Gibson marrying a man named Frank Lewis, and it says here that Violet has a son named William ‘Buddy’ Gibson from a previous mar
riage.”

  “Okay, fine,” Catherine said. “He’s my half brother. That doesn’t mean we stole the money.”

  Officers Parker and Ang entered the room.

  “Sorry, Nancy,” Officer Parker said. “We looked everywhere. No sign of the money.”

  “See,” Buddy said. “We’re not the thieves. The money’s not on the boat.”

  I looked at him, my mind racing. Where could the money be? I was so close to solving this case, I could taste it, but it still felt so far.

  My phone buzzed in my purse. I reached in to grab it, and my hand closed around something unfamiliar. I looked inside and realized it was the set of keys I’d found on the deck earlier. Beside the key chain with Catherine’s name on it, I saw a second key chain I hadn’t noticed before. It was for DEEP SEA ADVENTURES. It took a second for me to remember why that name sounded familiar: It was the logo on the oxygen tank I had seen in the restricted area!

  Suddenly I knew. “You threw it overboard!” I said.

  “They did what?” Margot shrieked.

  I nodded. “The money was inside the life preserver that Buddy threw to Catherine. She took it out before she came back onboard.”

  “That’s why she kept going under the water before she got herself into the life preserver,” Bess said.

  I nodded again. “And that’s why the life preserver was so light when I picked it up, even though it looked so heavy when Buddy threw it over. And it explains the big rip in the side of the life preserver.”

  “Well, if that’s true, how are we supposed find the money now?” asked Margot.

  I indicated the watch Catherine was wearing, the one she and George had geeked out about earlier. “I’m pretty sure she logged the GPS coordinates where she dropped the money on her watch,” I said. “There’s scuba gear belowdecks. They were going to retrieve the money sometime later, once the coast was clear.”

  Officer Parker stepped forward. “Ma’am, I’m going to need to see the watch.”

  Catherine hesitated for a moment, but then she grudgingly handed it over. Officer Parker looked at the watch hopelessly for a few seconds before handing it to George.

  “I don’t know how to work this thing,” he said. “Can you figure it out?”

  George took the watch and hit a couple of buttons. We all watched as she manipulated the screen. No one said anything. There was a nervous energy floating through the air. My heart was racing.

  “Found it,” she said finally. “Right there. Those are coordinates that have been saved. I’m not an expert, but they seem close to where she went over.” She handed the watch back to Officer Parker.

  Margot turned on Catherine. “Please tell me this is all a big misunderstanding.”

  Catherine hesitated for a second, but then it came bursting out of her, as if she had been holding it in for hours, if not longer. “You raised all this money for your precious cats and dogs,” she hissed defiantly, “but when I told you my mother was sick and asked for a raise, you said you couldn’t afford it.”

  “It would have meant less money for the animals,” Margot said, uncomprehendingly.

  Catherine let out a frustrated sigh. “But what about me? What about my mother’s life? Why don’t we matter? And then when Buddy started talking about selling the Delta Queen, this boat he had wanted for so long, I knew I needed to do something. If we were successful in stealing the money, then he could take the Delta Queen off the market.”

  Mrs. Marvin put a sympathetic arm around Catherine. “I understand what you were going through, but this wasn’t the way.”

  “Then what was the way?” Catherine asked. Even Mrs. Marvin didn’t have an answer for that.

  Officer Parker shook his head, then reached for his radio.

  “We’re gonna need a diver out at the dock,” he said.

  Half an hour later, George, Bess, and I were sitting in a motorboat with Officer Parker and Madison Jones, the police department’s diver, racing down the river, retracing our route from earlier. This was an entirely different experience from our leisurely trip this evening. We were covering the same ground we had on the Delta Queen in about one-fourth the time. The sound of the engine was too loud for conversation.

  As we pulled in front of the lighthouse, Officer Parker cut the motor.

  “I think we’re almost there,” he said.

  George consulted the watch. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Just a few yards that way.”

  Officer Parker went where she directed.

  “Here?” he asked.

  George nodded.

  “All right, Madison,” Officer Parker said to the diver. “Time to do your thing.”

  “On it,” Madison said, as she pulled the hood of her wet suit over her head and strapped on a weight belt and oxygen tanks. She made sure that all her equipment was working, then put on her face mask and flippers and secured her powerful flashlight.

  “All set,” she said. She moved to the edge of the boat, put her mouthpiece in, and dropped into the water with a small splash. We watched the ripples she created disappear. It was odd to know that she was swimming around in the river and there was no evidence of her on the surface.

  “What if the current moved the money downstream?” George asked. “We might have no idea where it ended up.”

  “I think it’ll be okay,” I said. “Buddy and Catherine really thought this through. I bet they put weights in the bag to make sure it went straight down.”

  “You’re right,” George said. “I’m just nervous. I really want Pet Crusaders to get that money.”

  “I do too,” Bess said. “But if it was really to pay for their mom’s hospital bills, I understand why they did it.”

  “That’s true,” I said. Often capturing a culprit feels double-edged, and this case was no exception. On the one hand, it felt good to nab someone who had done wrong, but on the other hand, many people have good reasons for doing bad things. I didn’t agree with what Buddy and Catherine had done, but I understood why they had done it. If my dad had been in the hospital and needed surgery, I’d do everything in my power to make sure he had it.

  We were all quietly waiting for Madison to surface with the money. It felt like we had been there for hours, but when I checked my watch, it had been only twenty minutes. It was weird how time worked. Earlier in the evening an hour felt like a second and now every second felt like an hour.

  Finally there was a splash, and a garbage bag edged its way over the side of the boat with a thunk. We all jerked back in surprise. The boat rocked precipitously. Shortly thereafter, Madison pulled herself into the boat, panting.

  “That was really heavy,” she said.

  I looked at Officer Parker, who gave me a nod. “It’s your case, Nancy. Go ahead and take a look.”

  I leaned forward and worked open the knot. The bag was ice cold and covered with dirt and other detritus from the river. My hands quickly grew numb, but I kept working. I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I saw the money with my own eyes.

  At long last, the knot came free, and I quickly opened the bag. All of us leaned forward. I closed my eyes, unexpectedly nervous. When I opened them, I was greeted with the sight of piles of cash. A wave of relief spread over me. I felt my shoulders unclench. I hadn’t realized how nervous I had been that Madison wouldn’t find the money.

  “You did it, Nancy,” Bess said, putting her arm around me. “You solved a case in record time.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

  “We’re a good team,” George agreed.

  “Let’s get this money back to Margot,” I said.

  Officer Parker nodded and started up the engine. I clung to the bag of money the entire way back to the dock.

  Margot and Mrs. Marvin were waiting for us. When Margot saw the bag in my hand and the grins on our faces, she ran toward us. She checked the bag and threw her arms around me in a deep, appreciative hug. I was caught off guard—Margot hadn’t struck me as a hugge
r—but I put my arms around her in return. Mrs. Marvin gave me a grateful smile.

  “Thank you so much,” Margot said, her head buried in my shoulder. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all your help. I’m sorry I wasn’t nicer to you.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “You give so much to the animals, you don’t have a lot left over for people.”

  “I’m going to change that,” Margot said. I pulled back and looked her in the eyes. There were no tics: no rubbing of her cheek, no pulling on her hair, no shifting of her mouth. I believed her.

  Officer Ang came off the boat, escorting Catherine and Buddy to the police car. There was a tense moment as Margot and Mrs. Marvin exchanged looks with Buddy and Catherine, but to my surprise, Margot strode over to them.

  “Can you hold on a second?” she asked Officer Ang.

  Officer Ang nodded. “Just for a minute,” he said.

  Margot took a deep breath. “I’m going to pay the hospital bill,” she said.

  Buddy and Catherine looked at her in shock.

  “You were right,” she said to Catherine. “I should have valued you more. I should have given you that raise.”

  “Thank you,” Catherine said. Buddy nodded, looking like he would cry if he spoke.

  “We have to go,” Officer Ang said.

  The police car pulled away. Officer Parker and Madison headed off shortly afterward. Mrs. Marvin and Margot went to finish up on the boat, leaving Bess, George, and me alone in the parking lot.

  “What do you want to do now?” George asked.

  “Go home, turn off my alarm clock, and sleep for as long as I want,” I said. “In fact, I don’t want to look at a clock at all tomorrow.”

  “Fair enough,” George said. “You definitely went all in tonight.”

  “And no more poker puns, either!” I said.

  Bess and George laughed and we headed back to my car.

  Dear Diary,

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  I COULDN’T BELIEVE I’D SOLVED A case so quickly. It was close, but in the end I was glad I had pushed myself. Sometimes you have to take yourself out of your comfort zone—take a gamble, as George would say—to grow as a person. I don’t know if I’ll ever solve a case that fast again, but I’m glad to know that I can.