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, staying 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.

Дата добавления: 2017-01-14