006 White Water Terror (5 page)

“I wish I’d been there,” Tod said. He glanced
at Max. “That ol’ bear wouldn’t have been able to walk away when I got through with him.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Max snapped. “You don’t want to go messing around with bears—not with that toy knife of yours.”

Nancy stepped between them. “We’re just glad this is all over,” she said, interrupting Tod. “And that nobody got hurt.”

Tod threw them a baleful look and turned angrily away. “You think you’re so smart,” Nancy heard him say under his breath as he stormed past her.

She stared after him, puzzled. Was his remark aimed at her or at Max?

Bess looked around. “Where’s Ned?” she exclaimed. “I heard him shouting just a moment ago, but I haven’t seen him since before the bear attacked.”

“Here I am,” Ned said. He limped up to them, covered with scratches. Sammy was still sitting in the berry bushes with a sullen look on her face. “I tried to help, but I didn’t quite make it.” He threw a disgusted look over his shoulder at Sammy. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Nancy couldn’t help chuckling. “By the looks of you, you’d have been better off meeting up with the bear.”

Ned flashed a weak smile, then grew red-faced. Nancy knew he was embarrassed about Sammy, and that it was time to help him feel better about what had happened.

“That’s okay,” she said comfortingly. “It’s the thought that counts. I know you would have helped if you could have.”

Ned came closer. “Forgiven?” he asked softly.

“Nothing to forgive,” Nancy replied, and Ned’s face broke into a wide grin. Sammy scrambled to her feet and walked away without a word, her face stormy. Nancy looked after her. She didn’t think Sammy was the kind to bear a grudge, but it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on her.

Max called for attention. “Listen, kids, when you’re out in the woods, make a lot of noise to let the bears and other big animals know that you’re not trying to sneak up on them. If you happen to surprise a mama bear when she’s out for a stroll with her cub, or if you manage to get between a mama and her cub, you’re asking to have a tremendous bite taken out of you.”

“Is that how you got that scar on your face?” Bess asked curiously. “A bear?”

Max ran his hand across his jaw. “No,” he said brusquely. “I got it in a rafting accident.” He picked his cap up off the ground and jammed it on his head. “Got to go see how lunch is coming along,” he said, and left.

Bess looked longingly after him. “I wonder what kind of accident it was,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll bet he rescued somebody, or something like that.”

“Well, it’s obviously something he doesn’t want to talk about,” Nancy said. It concerned her that Bess was developing a giant crush on Max—the kind of crush that could easily blind her to the real person.

Apprehensively, Nancy remembered how Mike and Tod had implied that there might be something wrong with Max’s raft-handling abilities.

“Listen, Bess,” Nancy said, as they started together down the path to the river. “I need to say something to you about Max.”

“Isn’t he wonderful?” Bess asked with a dreamy look in her eyes, her words bubbling over. “You know, I wasn’t sold on this trip in the beginning. But
now,
well, you should see Max handle the oars on that raft, Nan. He knows exactly what he’s doing. And those muscles—wow!”

Nancy gave her a cautioning look. “You know, Bess, maybe it isn’t a good idea to let yourself fall head-over-heels for this guy. There are some pretty weird things going on on this trip, and Max could be involved in them.”

“He isn’t that kind of person,” Bess said flatly. “He saved us from the bear, remember? I mean, he could have let the bear attack us, and that would have taken care of us for good.”

Nancy flung up her hands in confusion. “I don’t know. Maybe the bear wasn’t part of the plan, and he just reacted spontaneously. Or
maybe I’m entirely wrong and he’s not involved at all. But there’s something awfully strange here, and I don’t want you to get hurt, that’s all.”

They reached the end of the trail, where it opened out onto the sandy beach. “Well, I appreciate your concern for my feelings,” Bess said huffily, “but I’m a big girl now. I think I can be trusted to know what’s good for me and what isn’t. I—”

Nancy put a hand on Bess’s arm. “Shh,” she said. The rafts had been pulled up on the deserted beach about ten yards ahead. Everybody else was off picking berries or making lunch farther down the beach, or walking in the woods. Everyone except Mercedes. She was bent over the pile of gear stowed in the middle of Paula’s raft.

“What’s she doing there?” Bess wondered. “Hey! She’s going through someone’s pack.”

But Nancy was already on the beach, marching forward. “That’s not anybody’s pack,” she said grimly. “She’s going through mine!”

N
ANCY WALKED TOWARD
the raft, Bess following her closely. “Can I help you, Mercedes?” she asked pleasantly.

Mercedes straightened up and jumped back. “Help me?” she stammered. “No, I . . . I was just looking . . . in Paula’s pack. For—for some sunscreen.”

Nancy pointed. “The pack you’re looking in just happens to be mine.”

“Yours?” Mercedes looked down. She gave a nervous little laugh. “How silly of me. Of course it’s yours. It even has your name on it. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m so sorry. I hope you don’t think that I—”

“Well, as a matter of fact—” Bess began hotly.

“No, of course not,” Nancy interrupted, overriding her friend. “I’m sure it must be easy to make a mistake like that.”

Nodding, Mercedes backed away, then turned and hurried up the beach.

“Now, what was that all about?” Bess asked, turning to Nancy. “Mercedes
knew
what she was doing.”

Nancy looked quickly through her pack. “Nothing’s missing,” she said. “But you know, in a funny way this doesn’t surprise me. I’ve had the feeling all morning that Mercedes has been watching me.”

“Could she have anything to do with the mooring line?” Bess asked.

“I suppose so. But so could almost anybody else—especially Paula and Max.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Bess said. “I still don’t think that Max—”

Nancy held up her hand. “Finding a criminal is different from defending him in the courtroom, Bess. Out here, everybody is guilty until we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they’re innocent. No exceptions.”

Bess sighed. “Well, I still don’t think he did it,” she muttered.

Fifteen yards down the beach, everybody was beginning to gather around the fire that Paula
had built. She and Max had spread sandwiches on a towel, along with apples and bananas and bags of chips. George and Ned were there, helping themselves, when Nancy and Bess arrived. The four friends sat down on the sand with their lunches, a little apart from the others.

“ . . . and then she just walked away,” Nancy said in a low voice as she finished telling George and Ned how she and Bess had caught Mercedes rifling her pack. On the other side of the fire, Sammy and Mercedes were deep in conversation. Nancy wished she could hear what they were saying.

“Mercedes is Paula’s cousin, isn’t she?” George asked quietly. “Do you think it’s possible that Paula or Max asked her to look through your pack?”

“At this point, there’s no way to know—she might even have done it on her own,” Nancy said, ignoring the look Bess gave George. “You know, this is really an odd situation. Usually when I’m working on a case, I know what kind of crime we’re dealing with—and the clues usually make some sort of sense.”

“Yeah,” Ned agreed. He trailed his fingers idly up and down her spine. “But this time, there are just these crazy things that keep happening. Since there’s no real crime, it’s hard to know whether any of the things are tied together.”

“It’s all so bizarre,” Nancy said, moving a little closer to Ned. The touch of his fingers tingled through her. At that moment, Sammy looked up and saw what Ned was doing. She glared at him and then turned back to Mercedes.

George pushed a brown curl out of her eyes. “You know, I’m beginning to think that maybe the most bizarre thing of all was my winning the contest in the first place.”

Nancy nodded. “None of the other kids can remember entering the contest, either. It’s as though this whole thing were invented.” A shadow fell across her shoulder and George’s cautioning glance made Nancy stop talking.

“So you’ve had your first taste of rafting,” Max said, squatting down next to Bess. “Did you like it?” His voice was friendly, but bis eyes were watchful. From the way Max had reacted when Bess asked about his scar, Nancy knew she would have to be cautious questioning him.

“Yeah, we’re having a good time,” Nancy said casually. “And we’re getting curious about the rafting business. Are there many rafting companies on Lost River?”

Max picked up a stick and turned it in his fingers. “Maybe a half-dozen or so. Most of them are headquartered up at the Junction.”

“Have you and Paula worked together often?” Nancy asked.

“Nope,” Max said, shaking his head.

Nancy waited, hoping he would say something else. “We’re sort of curious about her company, White Water Rafting,” she went on. “The sign on the building looked new. Has she been in business long?”

“I don’t think so.”

“And the contest,” Nancy pressed. “What do you know about the contest?”

“Nothing,” Max replied. “Paula just hired me to run the raft for this trip. She didn’t even tell me there was a contest. I heard that from one of the kids after I got here. It seemed a little weird to me.”

“Weird?”

“Oh, you know—I mean, what was she running a contest
for,
anyway? But what do I know? I’m just a rafter. I don’t know anything about the business end.” He raised an eyebrow. “You sure are asking a lot of questions.”

Nancy shrugged. “Just curious.”

“You know, I’ve got this feeling that I know you,” Max said. “Like maybe I’ve seen your picture somewhere. Have you been on television or something? Are you famous?”

“No, I wouldn’t say I’m famous.” Nancy decided it wouldn’t hurt to tell him who she was. “Actually, I’m a private detective.”

“A pretty
famous
private detective,” Ned put in proudly. “Internationally famous.”

“So maybe you
have
seen her picture,” Bess added. “She’s been in the newspapers more than once.”

“A detective?” Max asked, surprised. “You mean a private eye, like in books and on TV?”

Linda and Ralph wandered over. “A
girl
detective?” Linda asked curiously. At that, Mike and Tod broke away from the fire and joined the others. They listened intently.

“That’s right,” Nancy said, laughing.

Max gave her a long look, as if he were trying to remember something. “What kind of cases have you worked on?” he asked.

“Oh, all kinds,” Nancy said modestly. “Blackmail, sabotage, embezzlement, murder, theft . . . you name it—”

Suddenly Max gave a quick flicker of recognition—and then, just as suddenly, it was as if a shutter had closed down over Max’s eyes. He stood up abruptly. “Got to see about a few things,” he said. And he walked quickly away.

Bess looked at Nancy anxiously. She got to her feet, too. “I think I’ll just make sure Max isn’t angry about something.”

Nancy watched Bess follow Max as he walked away. Why had he gotten so upset? She could swear that he recognized her—but she couldn’t remember meeting him, and he wasn’t exactly the kind of person she would forget. Was Max trying to decide whether to tell her something? That was possible—but it was also possible
there was something he would go to any lengths to keep her from finding out.

She frowned as Bess caught up with Max a little distance away. She wished that Bess could manage more control over her feelings. It really wasn’t a good idea for her to get so involved so quickly.

Linda stepped forward. “Gosh, I’ve never known a
real
detective,” she said with a shy smile.

“Well, I don’t know if I count,” Nancy said. “I’m a real detective, all right, but I’m on vacation.”

“Well, I sure hope we won’t need your services,” Ralph said cheerfully.

“Okay, everybody,” Paula called. “Lunch break’s over!”

By the time the rafts were loaded up again, the sun had faded behind a bank of threatening clouds. Mike asked George to trade places with him so he could ride with Tod. Sammy asked Mercedes to trade places with her, probably because she didn’t want to be around Ned and Nancy, so Mercedes sat just ahead of Nancy and Ned, with Tod and Mike in the bow together. Secretly, Nancy was glad that Sammy was on the other raft. And she welcomed the chance to talk to Mercedes. But it was difficult to find out anything from her.

“I don’t know the first thing about the contest,” Mercedes insisted with a nervous glance
over her shoulder at Paula. Nancy sensed that Mercedes was afraid of her cousin. “When I heard about the trip, I asked Paula if I could go. That’s all.” She bit her thumbnail. “I thought it would be fun to get out on the river. I’ve never been rafting.”

“Did you see any advertisements for the contest?” Nancy asked in a low voice. “The others can’t remember entering it.” Mercedes shrugged and turned away.