The Black Widow Read online

  Through a haze of pain, Nancy could see the car operator watching them. Randy still held her in a close embrace. She moved her leg to kick him, but he stomped viciously on her foot, drawing an involuntary groan from her.

  Pinning her arms behind her back with one hand, Randy raised his other to give the operator a reassuring wave. To Nancy’s horror, the man waved back, then disappeared into his booth. She was on her own!

  “He thinks we’ve just patched up a lovers’ quarrel,” Randy murmured, his mouth stretching in a ruthless grin. It distorted his handsome face, making him look like a hungry shark.

  “Ah, ah—no tricks,” he cautioned as Nancy tensed for a karate kick. He shook his sleeve, and a switchblade dropped into his palm. He clicked it open and held the point to the corner of Nancy’s jaw. “I’m sure you remember this little toy.”

  “You won’t get away with this, you know,” Nancy said through clenched teeth. “Murder is a heavy charge, Randy, and you’re going to have an awfully hard time explaining my corpse to my father once we arrive at the restaurant.” There was a hum of electricity. Suddenly the lights flickered on, and the car began to lurch out of the loading bay. Nancy fought down fear. “Why don’t you quit while you’re ahead?”

  There was a dull thud outside—on the roof?—and the car rocked heavily from side to side, banging against the concrete lip of the platform. Nancy couldn’t control her start. She peered at the windows, trying to see what was outside, but the darkness turned the lighted car into a huge mirrored box. Everywhere she looked, all she could see was Randy’s face!

  His knowing leer broadened. “These cable cars are not too safe,” he said nastily. “Rickety as old tin cans. People say it’s as much as your life is worth to ride this line—the couplings are so rusty that a good strong breeze could knock these cars right off the cable. Now, wouldn’t that be a tragic accident?”

  A sick feeling grew inside Nancy, but she forced herself to speak calmly. “No matter what you do to me, Randy, you’re through. Ned knows everything, and he’s already gone to the police.”

  “You’re trying to bluff me,” Randy sneered. “But it won’t work. I know you didn’t get a chance to speak to Ned after we met up, and I know he won’t put all the pieces together like you did. He’s not as smart as you, blue eyes. You know, you are very intelligent. I like your style. A smart little snoop. Too bad it’s going to get you killed.”

  “Even without me, the emeralds are already out of your reach,” Nancy lied. If she could only keep him talking long enough, maybe she could form some plan to get herself out of this mess! “Ned has material evidence. Oh, yes, we retrieved an emerald, did I forget to tell you? The police are probably heading out to the Emerald Queen right now. By the time you get there, they’ll have confiscated everything of value. Unless you have a plan to stop them?” She put a deliberately contemptuous tone into her question.

  Randy’s grin faltered for an instant, and the point of the knife jerked against Nancy’s jaw, making her gasp.

  “Sorry about that,” Randy murmured. He laughed without humor. “You shouldn’t try to upset me, you know. It isn’t healthy.

  “As for the police,” he went on, his voice growing sure again, “I’m not worried about them. There’s a Carnival going on here, didn’t you notice? It’s the biggest holiday of the year, and if I know Rio—and I do—the cops will be out whooping it up with everybody else. Your boyfriend”—he laid an unpleasant stress on the word—“isn’t likely to find anyone at home when he calls in at precinct headquarters.”

  A cold fist closed around Nancy’s heart. For the first time, she felt the approaching chill of despair. What if she couldn’t fool Randy?

  Snap out of it, Nancy! she berated herself. There’s always a chance. Just keep him talking—as long as he talks, you stay alive.

  She forced her muscles to unknot a little. Randy’s grip tightened around her waist. She gave him a pained look. “You’re hurting me,” she complained. “Can I sit down?”

  “Poor thing,” Randy taunted her, but he did let go of her waist. Just as quickly, though, he grabbed her thick hair and twisted his hand in it, pulling her head back. “All right, sit.”

  He’s trying to intimidate me any way he can, Nancy realized. He’s worried that I might try to escape, so he’s making sure I don’t believe I can. Which means that he isn’t so sure of himself as he seems! Maybe I can use that.

  Sitting up as straight as she could with his grip on her hair, Nancy looked at Randy’s reflection in the window of the car and let a little smile play on her lips. “So tell me,” she said. “How did you do it all? The box full of black widows in Mrs. da Silva’s room—the note with my flowers—the ‘accident’ that was no accident in Paranagua—it must have been a lot of work.”

  Randy smirked. “Grunt stuff. The menial work. I let Tony Ribeiro handle most of those details, which, by the way, was a mistake I’m not going to repeat. He almost blew everything, the idiot. If he hadn’t threatened the da Silva woman and made her suspicious, I would’ve been able to charm that drawing out of her. And if he hadn’t messed up the early attempts to get rid of you, I wouldn’t have to bother with you now.”

  “Why did you save my life at Paranagua?” Nancy couldn’t help asking.

  Randy frowned. “That motorcycle was Tony’s idea. He hired a local to run you down and didn’t even tell me until after all the arrangements were made. But I’m the boss—I’m the one calling the shots around here! So I screwed up his plan to teach him a lesson. He had to learn that no plan could work without my say-so.”

  “I see,” Nancy commented dryly. She was thinking, Boy, this guy sure has delusions of grandeur! Why didn’t I notice it before?

  “Besides, it was too obvious,” Randy was saying. “All of Tony’s plans were too obvious—which isn’t going to look very good at his trial, you know. Those attempted murders can all be traced to him. But my tracks are covered. Who’s going to believe him when he tries to point the finger at me? Nobody. And that means a nice long jail term for him and a big, fat stack of money for me.”

  “So you’d sell out your own partner,” Nancy muttered.

  “Welcome to the real world,” Randy said softly. He chuckled. “Would you like to hear what happens now?”

  Nancy’s mouth went dry. Was this it?

  “Don’t worry, blue eyes,” Randy taunted as he saw her fear. “You’ve still got a few more minutes. “I’m talking about what happens to your dear old dad and the charming widow when I tell them that you sent me because you’re in trouble and couldn’t come yourself. I’m talking about what happens when we three get into this car, and the coupling begins to go, and I go up on the roof to check it out.”

  Nancy gasped. He was going to kill her father and Nina, too!

  “You see, there’s a particularly nasty spot down there on the ground below us, where a bunch of sharp rocks stick up out of the grass. And if anyone fell onto those rocks from this height, car or no car, they’d be killed instantly.”

  Crack! There was a sharp report on the roof. At that instant, the lights in the cable car winked out. Now or never! Nancy thought, and shot straight up from her seat to butt Randy in the chin with her head.

  Randy let go of her hair and reeled backward, cursing. Without thinking, Nancy threw herself forward, trying to knock the knife from his hand.

  Even as Nancy twisted and rolled, Randy tightened his grip on the knife. She dove for it but barely missed. She slammed against the floor with her left shoulder and lay there dazed for a second.

  It was one second too long. Randy tackled her, slapping the knife against her neck. A low growl of rage came from his throat as he dragged her to her feet and pushed her back into the seat.

  “So you want to play rough, huh?” Randy panted. Out of breath, Nancy didn’t answer. She’d need all the help she could get. He was insane!

  Randy shook her, his mouth twisted in a horrible imitation of a grin. His teeth gleamed in the moonlight
.

  Randy paused. In the moment of stillness, Nancy heard the roof creak again. It almost sounded as if there was someone up there. If only!

  “Well, playtime’s over. No more fun and games,” Randy said in her ear. Turning her around, he shoved her so that she stumbled over to the doorway.

  Without warning, Randy reached over and unlatched the door. Realizing what he meant to do, Nancy aimed a desperate kick at his knife hand, but he danced out of her way. “Bon voyage, Nancy Drew,” he whispered.

  Then he pushed her out!

  Chapter

  Seventeen

  AS NANCY STARTED to fall, she grasped desperately at the cable car, twisting her body in the air. As her right hand closed around something that stuck out from beside the door, she felt a searing pain in her right shoulder.

  But she wasn’t falling anymore. She had grabbed one of the safety rails on the outside of the cable car.

  With a stifled groan, she brought her left hand up to grip the bar. Her right shoulder throbbed agonizingly, but she was alive—and determined to stay that way.

  Randy was standing with his back to her at the front of the car, enjoying the view of the approaching mountain.

  Nancy began a slow, excruciating hand-overhand climb up the vertical rail. If only she had enough strength to hoist herself up to the roof of the car before Randy turned around!

  With a shudder, Nancy clenched her teeth and reached for a higher grip on the bar.

  Suddenly, her blood froze. Her hand wasn’t holding the metal of the bar anymore. It had been grasped by a human hand!

  “I’ve got you, Nancy,” came a whisper from above.

  Nancy looked up. It was a miracle—Ned! He must have climbed on the roof before the car left the landing! It had been his weight swaying the car.

  Blinking back tears of relief, Nancy managed to squeeze Ned’s hand. His grip tightened on hers reassuringly. Then he reached down and grabbed her aching right arm.

  Nancy tried to stifle her yelp of pain, but it was too late. Randy had heard her. He turned, surprised, and saw Nancy hanging in the open doorway of the cable car.

  His face split in a cruel smile as he said, “My detective friend, lovely as you are, you are really becoming quite a pest.”

  He started toward the door, the knife glinting in the moonlight.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Nancy said between clenched teeth. Knowing Ned had her firmly by both hands, she ignored the tearing in her shoulder as she kicked out and back with her full weight.

  Nancy aimed her kick at Randy’s stomach and, just as he struck out with the knife, she caught him with both feet squarely in the solar plexus.

  Clutching at his stomach and gasping for breath, Randy lost hold of the knife as he fell backward. He hit his head sharply on the edge of a seat and lay still.

  The knife skittered across the floor of the car and fell, spinning, into the darkness below.

  Ned began to haul Nancy up, inching back on his belly across the top of the car. When he tugged on her right arm, she saw white stars. She clenched her teeth as he slowly pulled her up and over, grunting with the effort. There was a terrifying moment when she thought he was going to drop her, but at last they lay panting on the roof.

  “Ned, how in the world—”

  “Shh. Don’t talk.” Ned drew her into his arms and held her for a long moment.

  “Just how did you end up on the roof?”

  “I’m only sorry I couldn’t get in there to help you, but this door is stuck,” he said, pointing to the rooftop emergency hatch.

  “After I went back to the ship, Ribeiro came back, too. I was hiding under the gangplank, and he walked right over my head! And he wasn’t alone! So I tagged along. Well—” Ned broke off as they heard Randy stirring below them.

  Nancy figured out how to release the catch on the emergency hatch and they scrambled down through the opening.

  Randy Wolfe was rubbing his head, attempting to sit up. When he saw Ned and Nancy leaping down on him, he tried to stand, looking wildly around for his knife.

  “You won’t be needing that knife where you’re going!” Ned cleared the two yards between them in one jump and locked Randy in a full nelson.

  “Better give up, Randy,” Nancy advised the struggling man.

  “You two think you’ve got something on me?” Randy asked as Nancy tied his legs together with her belt. “Well, think again!” Randy’s face was red, and his eyes bulged with rage. “Who’s going to believe some harebrained girl detective and her muscle-headed boyfriend?”

  “Well, for starters, them.” Nancy pointed to her father, Nina da Silva, and Captain Brant waiting at the mountaintop cable landing with a few others.

  “What happened? Who’s in there—Nancy! Are you all right?” Carson Drew impatiently pulled the doors open just as the car arrived.

  “Carson was looking out the window and saw the lights go out, and people on top of the car, and he realized something was wrong,” Captain Brant put in.

  Nancy ran to her father and gave him the biggest hug her shoulder would allow.

  “You have no idea how glad I am to see you!” Nancy felt the tension of the last few minutes—it seemed like hours!—falling away from her, and she clung to her father for a moment.

  Then she pointed to Ned, who was holding the now sullen and disheveled Randy in a wrestler’s grip.

  “I think we can call the police now,” she said quietly.

  Chapter

  Eighteen

  I’M TELLING YOU, you could have knocked me over with a feather!” Matt Jordan said, shaking his head admiringly.

  It was the next morning, and Ned, Nancy, Carson, and the Jordans were gathered on the terrace in front of the Imperial Hotel for a late breakfast. The Jordans had been at the restaurant by chance the night before, and Matt was so excited about what had happened that for once he couldn’t seem to stop talking.

  He went on, “When Melissa and I came out to the landing, and we saw the police arriving to take Randy away, and then Captain Brant said that Randy tried to kill Nancy, well . . .” Matt trailed off, his ears turning red as he realized everyone at the table was listening to him.

  “It was like a movie!” Melissa picked up the end of her husband’s sentence. “I mean, just think about it! Here’s Nancy, the beautiful young undercover agent—”

  “Let’s not get carried away, Melissa,” Nancy interrupted, laughing.

  “Nancy, you’ve got to let me tell this story right.” Melissa shook her fork at Nancy in mock severity. “Although why I’m still friends with you, when you never once let on that anything funny was going on—even when we asked you!—is beyond me.”

  “Hey, give me a break!” Nancy reached for the platter of fried plantains. “I didn’t know what was going on. At one point I suspected practically everyone on the ship of being involved in some huge conspiracy! For all I knew, you two could have had a cabin full of black widow spiders, just waiting to be used on your victims.”

  “Us?” Melissa shrieked. “Nancy Drew, I can’t believe you thought that about us.”

  As Nancy opened her mouth to protest, Melissa waved her to silence. “I don’t want to hear it. I’ve had enough. I don’t want to hear another word from you.”

  Then the twinkle in Melissa’s dark eyes gave her away. “Unless, of course, you want to tell us what really did happen,” Melissa added, grinning conspiratorially at Matt.

  “Well, as I said, for a long time I was really in the dark myself,” Nancy began. She told them about the chocolate box full of spiders, and the conversation she had overheard on the Pearl Deck, and the attempts on her own life.

  “So, from the very first day of the cruise, I knew there was something wrong aboard the Emerald Queen. But no one else seemed to think so.”

  Nancy sneaked a glance at her father. Nina da Silva had caught an early flight to Miami that morning, after Carson had seen her off.

  “Nancy means I was being a little thickheaded,”
he put in. “Which is very true. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.” Carson Drew’s eyes were tired and a little sad, but he smiled at his daughter anyway.

  “See, the confusing thing about this case was that for the longest time all I had was a bunch of suspects,” Nancy went on. “Here were all these people acting very much like criminals, but I couldn’t see that any crime was being committed.”

  “There was no crime, right?” Ned asked. “I mean, the actual crime—the emerald heist—happened a year ago.”

  “Exactly.” Nancy nodded and took a sip of coffee. “Here’s what really happened.” She told them about Hector da Silva and his money problems.

  “Hector couldn’t stand to lose the cruise line completely, though,” Nancy continued. “He stayed on as general manager of the Emerald Queen. I think that even then he was still hoping that someday he’d be able to come up with the money to buy back the line from the new owners.

  “So when a bright young crewman named Randy Wolfe suggested a foolproof way to steal a consignment of cut emeralds and sell them on the black market, Hector couldn’t resist. Randy would hijack the consignment and deliver it to Hector.”

  “But wait a minute, Nancy,” interrupted Carson Drew. “How did Antonio Ribeiro get in on all this? If I remember right, he was your number-one suspect all along.”

  “I’ll get there, Dad,” Nancy said with a twinkle. “Anyway, all Hector had to do then was hide the gems on the Emerald Queen and then notify the buyer in Miami. He wouldn’t have to do any of the dirty work, and yet he’d end up millions of dollars richer.”

  Nancy took a sip of her orange juice. “My guess is that Antonio Ribeiro somehow found out about the whole plan.” She looked at her father. “Remember when Mrs. da Silva said that Hector and Ribeiro got very friendly around that time? Well, it wasn’t really a friendship—Ribeiro was trying to blackmail Hector da Silva into sharing the wealth.”