Shadows, sacrifices, and suspicions

“It’s lucky Bo knows how to fall thanks to all his adventures on the show,” George commented. It was dinnertime, and my friends and I had gathered in the open-air restaurant along with almost everyone else at the resort. All traces of Bo’s earlier adventures with the fire juggling had been eradicated from view. But the same couldn’t be said about his tumble from the top of the waterfall. His head was bandaged, one arm was in a sling, and he looked generally banged up and bruised.

Still, all things considered, he appeared to be in pretty good shape as I glanced over at the table where he was seated with Jamal and Akinyi. He was in his usual high spirits, letting out an occasional shout of laugher and trading high fives with Jamal with the arm that wasn’t in a sling.

“You’re right about that,” I mused in response to George’s remark, not taking my eyes off Bo. “If he hadn’t managed to get himself right side up and push away from the wall when he got near the bottom…”

Bess shuddered. “Let’s not talk about that,” she said firmly, reaching for her water glass. “I’m just glad Sydney wasn’t there to witness it.”

“Where is Syd, anyway?” George glanced around the restaurant. “I haven’t seen her since we dropped her off you-know-where, you-know-when.”

I realized she was right. Sydney hadn’t made an appearance since we’d left her in Akinyi’s bungalow earlier.

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I really need to talk to her. Things are getting pretty serious — first the fire, which could have killed us, and now Bo’s close call.”

Just then I caught a commotion over near the entryway. Glancing over, I saw Vic and Sydney entering the dining area.

“There she is,” I said.

Bess looked over too. “She looks pretty normal, considering.”

That was true. Sydney was maybe a little paler than usual, but otherwise looked as pretty and pulled together as ever. She clung to Vic’s arm as the cameras swarmed around them.

“Hmm,” I observed. “Looks like it could be a challenge to catch her alone.”

“Maybe you can set up a meeting for later, like after the cameramen go to bed,” George suggested.

“I really don’t want to wait that long. Who knows how soon our culprit might strike again?”

“Good point.” George shrugged. “For all we know, Vic’s dinner might already be poisoned.”

“Don’t say that!” Bess looked alarmed.

I stood up as Sydney and Vic sat down with Akinyi, Bo, and Jamal. “Come on,” I said. “There are still plenty of seats over at their table. Let’s join them.”

“Nancy! Girls!” Sydney looked up and smiled as we approached. “I was just about to call you over. I feel like I’ve barely had a chance to spend any time with you since you arrived.” She shot me a meaningful look, but didn’t say anything else.

“Yeah,” I agreed, trying to sound casual and not look at any of the cameras that were filming us. “Maybe we can go for a walk on the beach after dinner or something.”

“Sounds good,” Butch muttered from behind his camera. “Madge wants more footage of the bride doing the island thing anyway.”

I bit back a sigh. No, it wasn’t going to be easy to get any time alone with Sydney….

“So who’s up for some Jet Ski action tomorrow?” Bo spoke up.

Akinyi stared at him. “You’re planning to drive a Jet Ski with that sling on your arm?” she asked in clear disbelief.

“Oh, he won’t let that stop him, trust me,” Vic said with a chuckle. “One time on the show when we were doing a stunt at Mount Rushmore, the producers said he had to skip it because he’d sprained his wrist doing the last stunt, and…”

From there, they were off and running with a series of Daredevils stories. Under any other circumstances I probably would have found the tales and bragging amusing, and I was sure the audience of the TV special would eat them up. But at the moment all I could think about was finding an opportunity to talk privately with Sydney.

Finally it came. “Oh!” Akinyi shrieked, pushing back from the table so quickly that her chair almost tipped over backward. “Did you all see that? A fly! It was just — just walking across my food!”

“Oh, horrors!” Bo cried out in a falsetto, fanning himself dramatically with one hand. “A fly, you say?”

Akinyi glared at him. “Very funny,” she snapped. “Just because you boys are happy to eat cow patties or whatever on your silly little show, it doesn’t mean the rest of us care to poison ourselves.”

“Cow patties?” Vic said. “We never ate cow patties. Now cow eyeballs, on the other hand…”

By then Akinyi’s outburst had brought several resort employees running. They gathered around, a manager apologizing profusely as a waitress whisked away the tainted plate and the others busily shooed away every fly in the vicinity.

Taking advantage of the momentary hubbub, I leaned over to Sydney. “How about a run to the ladies’ room?” I asked her.

She nodded and set down her napkin. “Right behind you.”

As we stood up, Donald glanced over from the next table. “Where are you two going?” he called out.

“We’ll be right back!” Sydney said cheerily. Then she grabbed my hand. “Hurry!” she hissed in my ear. “Before the cameras catch on!”

We scooted for the exit. Miraculously, we managed to escape the dining room before Donald could alert the cameramen. Once inside the nearest ladies’ lounge, which was large and luxurious, Sydney collapsed into a chair in front of a wall of mirrors.

“Oh, Nancy,” she said, her voice quavering. “I’m trying so hard to stay strong here. But with everything that’s happened…”

I nodded sympathetically. As upset as she seemed, I was hesitant to tell her about that note we’d seen just before the fire. But she had to know what was going on.

“Listen, Syd.” I took a deep breath. “There’s something you need to hear about….”

As I told her the whole story, her eyes widened more and more. “Oh, no!” she burst out when I’d finished. “I’m so sorry, Nancy. I’m sure that message was meant for me, and you and the girls almost got hurt instead!”

“I’m not so sure about that, actually. What if this MrSilhouette, whoever he really is, knows that I’m here to investigate the trouble?” I briefly flashed through the list of possible suspects. As far as I knew, only Vic and Akinyi knew I hadn’t just gotten lucky busting Candy and later Pandora — that I was actually a pretty accomplished amateur sleuth. But that didn’t mean any of the others couldn’t have found out somehow. They’d all spent enough time in River Heights to have figured it out, since my rep is hardly a secret there.

Sydney was shaking her head, tears welling in her eyes. “Either way, it’s all because of me,” she moaned. “What if that nut sets another fire while Vic and I are sleeping?” Her hands flew to her face as another thought occurred to her. “Oh, and what if that had been Vic climbing the rocks over the pool today? He could have been killed!”

It almost had been Vic, I realized. That was who Butch had been goading into trying the stunt….

Before I could explore that idea, though, I had to get Sydney calmed down. “Listen, it’s up to you to decide what to do next,” I told her. “I talked to the resort manager just before dinner, and she said that slab of rock over the pool was definitely loose, and that it shouldn’t have been. But she seems to think it was an accident — something that happened while they were power washing the pool area or something.”

“What about the fire?” Sydney asked. “They can’t think that was an accident, can they? Especially with that horrible note you found!”

“Well, they are kind of disturbed that the smoke alarm never went off, but I didn’t exactly tell anyone about the note yet,” I admitted. “Mostly because I forgot in all the drama afterward. And then, well, considering the circumstances, I thought I’d better check in with you first about what to do next.”

Sydney looked surprised. She was silent for a moment, staring at her own reflection in the mirror. I was half expecting her to say that she was going to leave the island, or at least that she wanted to call in the local authorities right away.

“I don’t think you should tell anyone yet,” she said at last. “I mean, I already went the police route the first time around, back in New York. Both the NYPD and that private investigator I hired tried and failed to track down MrSilhouette’s identity before.” She turned to face me. “So at this point, Nancy, I’m thinking you’re my only hope.”

What was I supposed to say to that? “Okay,” I replied. “You know I’ll do my best, Sydney. But this guy’s tricky, so it might not be a bad idea to bring in reinforcements, or —”

“No,” she broke in grimly. “Like I said, you’re my only hope — or should I say my last hope. If you can’t track down this crazy MrSilhouette guy in this place, this little resort on an island with hardly anyone around, then I’ll just have to accept that it’s hopeless. That I really will be looking over my shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of that extra shadow behind me, for the rest of my life.” She turned to stare at herself in the mirror again, her expression somber. “I’ve been thinking a lot about that possibility today, actually, and I’ve reached a decision. If we don’t solve this thing before we all leave the island, I’m planning to leave Vic as soon as we get back to New York.”

“What?” I squawked.

She nodded. “MrSilhouette obviously doesn’t want to see me with anyone else. It seems like he’s willing to do anything to make sure of it. I love Vic way too much to put him in that kind of danger.”

“Sydney, think about what you’re saying!” I exclaimed, horrified. “Vic loves you, too. And he’s used to doing dangerous stuff — just talk to him first, okay?”

“I can’t. You’re right, he’ll think he can handle it.” Her lower lip quivered. “But how am I supposed to handle it when MrSilhouette finally succeeds one day and the love of my life ends up dead — because of me?”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. It was pretty obvious that Sydney’s mind was made up. That meant I really was the only hope for her and Vic’s future happiness. Talk about pressure!

Sure, I knew I could go to the authorities myself with what I’d seen in that honeymoon cabin. But without Sydney backing me up, would they believe me? Would they take action? I had to wonder, based on the resort employee’s reaction when I’d told her about the pontoon shooting.

Besides that, if a bunch of cops swarmed into the resort, what was to stop MrSilhouette from going back into hiding? That might fix things for the short term, but Sydney would know he wasn’t gone for good. That would almost guarantee that she’d follow through on her plans to leave Vic.

She turned away from the mirror to face me. “So?” she said. “How about it, Nancy? Will you help me?”

I took a deep breath, meeting her eye. “I’ll do my best.”

“I can’t believe Syd’s really planning to leave Vic for his own safety.” Bess looked up from tucking some clothes into a drawer in our bungalow bedroom. “If it wasn’t so serious, I’d say that was totally romantic!”

“Are you nuts?” George said, wandering into the room. “Syd and Vic are perfect for each other. We have to make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

I was perched on the edge of my bed watching Bess unpack. It was late, but I was feeling far too antsy to sleep — or even unpack my own suitcase beyond pulling out a nightgown and my toothbrush.

“So let’s go over the case,” I suggested. “Starting with Bo’s fall. I can’t help remembering that the whole climbing-the-waterfall thing was Butch’s idea.”

Bess’s eyes widened. “You’re right! And he actually wanted Vic to be the one to climb up there.”

“Butch,” George said. “ Bald Butch. It all fits perfectly!”

I nodded thoughtfully. “Almost too perfectly. If Butch is MrSilhouette, it would mean he’s getting sloppy. He urged Vic to climb up there multiple times, right in front of a whole bunch of people — Bo, Jamal, Akinyi, us, Madge, Donald, the other cameramen… If the worst happened, that would’ve looked awfully suspicious.”

“So what?” George argued. “If his plan had worked, and Vic had cracked his head open and died, everybody would’ve been too upset to think about that kind of thing. The resort probably would have accepted responsibility, and that would be that.”

“Plus MrSilhouette would’ve had what he wanted — Sydney all to himself again,” Bess pointed out. “He probably wouldn’t even care if he got caught at that point.”

My heart thumped. Could they be right? “So if what we’re saying is true, that would mean that Butch — aka MrSilhouette — might have been right there under our noses the whole time,” I said. “But could he have pulled off all the other unsolved mischief?”

“Well, he was certainly around for the jet fuel thing,” George said. “And he might have sent those threatening texts and e-mails as easily as anyone.”

Bess started ticking things off on her fingers. “He probably could have been the one who ripped up Syd’s wedding dress, and he definitely could’ve rigged that light that almost fell on Vic, and framed Pandora….”

“Come on.” I stood up and checked my watch. “It’s after hours for the crew by now. Let’s see if we can find where Butch is staying and maybe spy on him a little. If he is our bad guy, he might be plotting his next stunt right this very second.”

It didn’t take long for us to find Butch. That’s because he was on the beach along with the rest of the crew. They were all having some kind of private party out there on the sand, whooping it up and having a great time. Even Madge was there — her nasal voice pierced through the party noise like a knife through butter. A rusty knife.

My friends and I huddled out of sight behind a handy stack of beach chairs for a while watching the festivities. Butch was clearly visible, his bald head gleaming in the moonlight as he stood in the shallows juggling a bunch of bottles while Lainie and a couple of other girls from the crew watched. He wasn’t a very good juggler, but no one seemed to mind. They giggled and applauded every time he dropped one of the bottles.

After a while Madge wandered over to watch too. But she apparently had a short attention span. After a moment she shrugged and splashed out to join a bunch of people who were swimming around and splashing one another farther out in the water. Butch noticed and tossed aside his bottles.

“Splash fight!” he called out, his gruff voice carrying on the night air.

Several people screamed gleefully as he dove in, splashing everyone vigorously by pumping his feet in the water. Lainie and one of the other girls with her wandered back up the beach and sat down on the sand to talk to Donald while everyone else rushed to join in the splash fight.

“Okay, this is pretty pointless,” I murmured to Bess and George after a few more minutes. “This party looks like it could go on for quite a while, and it’s getting late. We need to get some sleep if we want to figure things out tomorrow.”

Bess nodded, stifling a yawn. “Let’s head back.”

We tiptoed up the beach, heading for the main walkway leading back out to the bungalows. Akinyi’s bungalow was the first one we had to pass to get to ours; as we approached it I saw that there was still a light on inside. Then I saw the front door open. A tall, thin figure slipped out and hurried off down the walkway without noticing us watching — but I was pretty sure that tall, thin figure wasn’t Akinyi.

Bess realized it too and let out a soft gasp. “Hey!” she whispered. “Who’s that sneaking out of Akinyi’s hut?”

“I’ll tell you exactly who it is,” George hissed grimly. “It’s Vic!”

Дата добавления: 2017-01-14