The minute the three friends parted, Nancy felt a hand on her arm. “Hey,” a voice said in her ear, “want some company?”
Nancy turned and found herself looking into the brown eyes of a boy wearing a fish-net shirt, a gold neck chain, and a self-satisfied grin that didn’t attract her at all, but she smiled at him anyway. “I sure do,” she said softly. “I don’t know anybody at all, and I was starting to feel a little lonely.”
“Well, now you don’t have to, because you know me. And I have a feeling that before the night’s over, we’ll be real close friends.” He squeezed her hand and grinned again.
Nancy forced herself to laugh, and as they walked up the gangplank she glanced over her shoulder. George, tall and mysterious-looking in her hooded caftan, was in deep conversation with two guys, and Bess had attached herself to a group of giggling, dateless girls. She must be miserable, Nancy thought, smiling to herself.
“Welcome!” a sultry voice called out. “Welcome aboard the Rosita!”
It was Lila Templeton, dressed in a long robe of shimmering sea green silk that opened in the front to reveal an extremely small bikini. Her honey blond hair spilled over her bare shoulders like a lion’s mane, and she was flashing her toothpaste-ad smile to everyone coming up the gangplank. “If there’s anything my boys or I can do for you, just let us know,” she called out, “because we want each and every one of you to have the most fantastic night of your lives!”
Each and every one of us except two, Nancy said to herself, thinking of Kim and Maria. Turning to her “date,” she flashed a smile of her own, ducking her head and pretending to be fascinated with whatever he was babbling about. That got her safely past Lila, but she knew she’d still have to be careful of Lila’s “boys,” who were patrolling the deck like sentries.
Fortunately, the party to nowhere was booked solid, and Nancy soon found herself on the jam-packed deck, trying to dance and make conversation with her new friend, whose name she still didn’t know. She was hot and sweaty, and she’d lost sight of Bess and George, but at least she was inconspicuous.
At eight o’clock, a cheer went up as the Rosita pulled smoothly away from the dock. In twenty minutes, they’d left the lights of Fort Lauderdale behind and were moving swiftly through the water under a starlit sky. Nancy decided she’d better start exploring. It wouldn’t take long to reach the island, and she knew she had to find Kim and Maria before then, or it might be too late.
“Listen,” she said when there was a break in the music, “I’m going to collapse if I don’t get some breathing space. I think I’ll just wander around a little bit, okay?”
“Aww, come on,” her date said, “the party’s just getting started.” Grabbing her hand, he pulled Nancy close to him as a slow number began playing. “I thought you and I were going to spend the whole night together,” he whispered in her ear.
“You thought wrong,” Nancy whispered back. She slipped down out of the circle of his arms and turned him around until he was facing another girl. “Sorry, but I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding a partner.”
Obviously not heartbroken, the boy immediately asked the other girl if she wanted to dance, and Nancy left them together, threading her way quickly through the crowd until she reached the deck rail. Then she craned her neck around, trying to find Bess and George.
She spotted George standing near the entrance to the galley, which was roped off, sipping a can of soda and watching the dancers. Bess was still attached to the group of unattached girls, tapping her foot to the music and looking frustrated. Lila was nowhere to be seen, but her boys were all over the place, carrying trays of drinks, mingling with the crowd, and keeping their eyes wide open, Nancy noticed.
Casually Nancy raised her hands above her head, as if she were stretching. Bess and George both caught the movement, and just as casually, started making their way toward the Rosita’s bow. Nancy lowered her hands, pretending to be adjusting her turban, but instead of the silk of the scarf, her hands came down on her hair.
What had happened to her scarf? Nancy’s reddish blond hair was as big a clue to her identity as a fabulous figure was to Bess’s. With her telltale hair swirling around her shoulders and her thick makeup dissolving in sweat, Nancy knew she’d be recognized by anyone who’d spent even five minutes with her. And that includes Lila, Dirk, and at least two more of Lila’s boys, she thought frantically.
Nancy realized it was too late to go searching for her scarf. It must have come loose when she broke free from her date’s arms, and had probably already been trampled by at least eighty feet. She grabbed her hair in both hands and swept it back, tying it in a loose knot that she knew wouldn’t hold for long, but it was the best she could do. Hoping to get lost in the crowd, she moved into the mass of dancing bodies, and that’s when she saw Lila’s “maintenance” man.
He was heading straight toward Nancy, one hand in his pocket and both eyes on her face.
Whirling around, Nancy grabbed the hands of the nearest boy, not caring if he was with anyone else or not, and started dancing with him. When she sensed that the maintenance man was drawing close to her, she spun around again so that her back was to him. By that time, she’d lost her dance partner, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that the maintenance man had recognized her. She was sure of it. Just keep dancing, she told herself; at least it’s rock and you can move fast.
With a few quick dance steps, Nancy reached the other side of the Rosita. Only then did she dare look back. She expected to spot the maintenance man somewhere in the crowd, but she found that was impossible. There were too many people bouncing, clapping, and swirling around the deck.
Nancy took a deep breath, tightened the knot in her hair, and headed toward the bow. The water was becoming rougher, and she clung to the rail, bumping into a few romantic couples on the way, but finally she reached the bow.
The deck was narrow there, and in spite of the lights on the rail, it was dark. Nancy stepped into the shadows, expecting to find Bess and George waiting for her.
No one was there. Nancy edged her way around the bow, toward the other side of the boat, but before she reached it, a voice—throaty and sultry—called out, “Looking for someone, Miss Drew?”
Chapter
Thirteen
TURNING SLOWLY, NANCY found herself face-to-face with Lila Templeton, her silk robe billowing gently in the breeze, her green eyes glittering as brightly as the barrel of the gun she held in her hand.
“I said,” Lila repeated, “are you looking for someone?”
Nancy didn’t bother to answer. “I have a question too,” she said, keeping her eyes on the gun. “Is that the same gun that killed Ricardo?”
Lila laughed softly. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I suggest that you be careful, or it just might kill you. I also suggest that you be cooperative,” she went on. “I want you to turn around and walk slowly and calmly back to the main deck.”
“Then what?” Nancy asked.
“I guess you don’t understand,” Lila told her, stepping so close to Nancy that she felt the gun barrel pressing against her stomach. “I’m in charge. You don’t ask questions, you don’t make comments. You just do what I tell you. Now move!”
Nancy turned, raised her hands above her head and started walking. Behind her, Lila hissed, “Put your hands down!” and when Nancy felt the gun prodding her in the back, she decided not to push Lila any further. She lowered her arms and walked slowly around the bow, heading back to the main deck.
The music and laughter were still going strong, and for a second Nancy was tempted to break away and try to lose herself in the dancing crowd. But then what? she wondered. It wouldn’t get her any closer to Kim and Maria, or to Bess and George, wherever they were. If she let Lila call the shots for a while, she might learn something. Besides, with a gun at her back, she figured she didn’t have much choice.
“The galley,” Lila ordered.
“I thought i
t would be off limits,” Nancy quipped, figuring that that might be where Kim and Maria were hidden.
Lila laughed again. “Not for you, Miss Drew. Consider the Rosita your home. The last home you’ll ever have.”
With the gun barrel nestled between her shoulder blades, Nancy went down the steps and into the narrow galley. But Lila didn’t stop there. She urged Nancy through it and past some bunk beds. At last Nancy stopped, thinking there was nowhere else to go.
But Lila shoved her roughly aside and, still aiming the gun at Nancy, dropped to her knees, took hold of a brass ring on the floor, and pulled up a section of the floor. Looking down, Nancy saw a steep metal staircase leading to the bottom of the boat.
“After you,” Lila said.
Nancy lowered herself through the hole, found her footing, and stepped backward down the staircase. When she reached the bottom, she looked up, hoping that Lila would back down too, so she could grab her ankle and get the gun. But Lila came down facing forward, holding the gun in front of her, aimed at Nancy’s chest.
They were in a very narrow, dimly lit passageway, with two doors on each side. Obviously not first-class accommodations, Nancy thought. “Look, I know all about your operation,” she said to Lila. “I know you bring in illegal aliens, and then force them to work on your family’s farms. They don’t have any ID cards, not even fake ones, and they don’t have any money, because you charged them so much to bring them into the country. If they escape you, they get caught by the immigration police. They’re trapped.”
“That’s right,” Lila agreed. “They’re trapped, and so are you.”
“Then you admit it?” Nancy asked.
Lila shrugged. “Why not? You’re not going to tell anyone. In a few hours, you’ll be food for the fish.” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a key and slid it into the lock on one of the doors.
“One of my boys will be down soon to take care of you,” she said, opening the right-hand door. “Until then, I suggest you and your friends enjoy the time you have left.”
My friends? Nancy barely had time to wonder whether she meant Kim and Maria or Bess and George, before Lila shoved her inside and slammed the door shut.
“Nan!” Bess raced across the small, stuffy room and hugged her friend. “Thank goodness you’re okay!” She pulled Nancy farther into the room. “Come on, join the party!”
Nancy looked around the dim room and couldn’t help smiling. All her friends were there. George, Kim, and Maria were sitting on storage crates, a single can of soda on the floor in front of them. With a slight grin, George pointed to it. “We’ve been passing it around,” she said. “Help yourself.”
Nancy shook her head. “Some party,” she joked.
Everyone laughed, and the tension was broken for a moment. Then Nancy crossed the room and looked closely at Kim, who was wearing Bess’s baggy pants and print shirt. Bess, she noticed, looked much more comfortable since she had stripped down to the bikini she’d brought along—for fun on the island. “Are you all right?” Nancy asked Kim gently.
“Physically, I’m okay, except for this,” Kim replied quietly, holding up her plaster-casted arm. “Mentally, I’m terrified.”
“That makes two of us,” Nancy admitted. The room was incredibly hot, so she slipped out of her caftan, and instructed George to do the same. If they ended up in the water, Nancy didn’t want them bogged down by unnecessary clothing. Feeling slightly cooler in her bikini, she sat down on a crate and took a sip of the soda. “Kim, why didn’t you tell me what was going on when I came to your room the other day?”
“I didn’t think there was time,” Kim said. “I was freaking out—Maria was gone, and Ricardo was yelling at me to meet him. I just panicked.”
Nancy nodded. “Did George and Bess tell you what happened to Ricardo?”
Kim took a deep breath and lowered her eyes. “Yes,” she said softly. “I still can’t believe it. I feel terrible about it. We weren’t in love,” she admitted with a sigh, “but he was special.”
“How did you get involved in all this?” Bess asked.
“By the time Maria escaped from Lila, Ricardo and I were good friends,” Kim explained. “He’d told me all about himself—how he tried to help illegals—and he knew I was sympathetic. So when Maria needed a place to stay, I was the obvious one to ask.”
“How come you didn’t go to the police?” George asked.
“I wanted to,” Kim told her. “I knew Ricardo couldn’t because he was an illegal too, but there was nothing to stop me. He didn’t trust the police, though. He asked me to wait, and I did. But I should have gone anyway.”
Maria, who had been quiet until then, brushed her long hair back from her face and spoke rapidly in Spanish.
Kim nodded. “Maria wants me to tell you that she’d tried to get Ricardo to talk to you. I’d told Maria about you when she was hiding out in my hotel room. I guess I said something about having a friend who was a detective and wishing you were here,” Kim said with a smile. “But Ricardo wouldn’t listen to her. He just didn’t trust anyone. He didn’t let her talk to you until last night.”
“We really can’t blame him for that,” Nancy said softly.
“I don’t think we should be talking about blame at all,” Bess pointed out. “I think we should be talking about how to get out of here.”
Nancy laughed. “You’re right. It’s a good thing the five of us are here, too, because we need all the brainpower we can get to figure this one out.”
Springing to her feet, Nancy started exploring the room, which took her all of two minutes. “There’s not even a closet to hide in,” she remarked. “Not that hiding would do us any good.”
“How about the crates?” George said. “Is there something we could do with them—hide in them, block the door with them?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Nancy said.
“They’d find us anyway,” Bess told her. “I mean, nobody but Lila and her crew knows we’re in here. So what if we blocked the door? They’d just wait until everybody’s partying on the island and then break it down. We’re trapped!”
Nancy knew that Bess was right. Hiding or blocking the door would only postpone whatever was going to happen. It was a stopgap, and they needed an escape hatch. But Lila had made certain they didn’t have one. She’d backed them into a corner, and she was closing in fast.
Suddenly Nancy felt a change in the rhythm of the Rosita; it seemed to slow down. The five girls steadied themselves as the boat began rocking from side to side.
“What’s happening?” Kim asked.
“We’ve almost reached the island,” George said. “The Rosita’s too big to go all the way to shore, so they take everybody in on little speedboats. We’ll be stopping any minute.”
“And after everybody’s ashore, the Rosita sails away,” Bess continued. “With us on it.”
“Yeah,” Nancy said with a grim smile. “Then Lila’s private party begins.”
The girls looked at each other fearfully; they knew what was going to happen, but they didn’t know how to stop it. At that moment, the door handle clicked. Everyone jumped, and then Bess gasped.
Standing in the open doorway was Dirk Bowman, a dimpled smile on his face and a shiny revolver in his hand.
Chapter
Fourteen
IN A FLASH, Bess darted across the room, stopping just a couple of feet in front of Dirk.
“Listen to me, Dirk! Please listen!” she cried. “I know what you think, but it’s not true, it’s really not! I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t know anything, and even if I did I wouldn’t tell. You have to believe me!”
“Wait a minute,” Dirk said, frowning.
“There’s no time to wait!” Bess interrupted frantically. “I know what Lila plans to do with us, and you have to get me out of here. Please, Dirk, I’ll do anything you want, I’ll say anything you want, if you’ll just let me go!”
As the other four listened in amazement, Bes
s kept on pleading with Dirk Bowman to save her. Kim and Maria stared at her in horror; obviously, they thought she was so panicked that she was willing to say anything to save her own neck.
Nancy was amazed too, but for a different reason: She knew that Bess was acting—and it was working. Dirk couldn’t get a word in edgewise; he’d try to say something, but Bess would immediately interrupt him, pleading, whining, shouting, whispering, doing anything to distract him. From the look on George’s face, Nancy could tell that she hadn’t been fooled either. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, the two of them might have started clapping. It was a beautiful performance, and it was up to Nancy to take advantage of it.
Slowly but smoothly, Nancy moved closer to Dirk Bowman. Bess was saying something about how she and Dirk could spend the rest of their lives together. “It’ll be fantastic, just the two of us, I promise you!” she pleaded, her voice almost cracking. Dirk was completely distracted. He didn’t notice anything but the near-hysterical girl in front of him.
Nancy was less than a foot away from him; it was time to make her move. Without warning, she pivoted into a powerful spinning back kick, her heel hitting Dirk’s hand. The gun went flying upward, and Nancy moved in slamming her shoulder into Dirk’s stomach, pushing him across the room and into a stack of storage crates.
“Somebody get the gun!” Nancy shouted, scrambling off of Dirk.
“Got it!” George called triumphantly, holding the revolver up. “Nice work, Nancy!”
“You taught me that move, remember?” Nancy said. Turning to Bess, she grinned. “I think you missed your calling. You should go on the stage.”
Bess laughed. “I just hope I don’t have to give any encores. I’ve never been so scared in my life!”
Kim and Maria were standing over Dirk. “He’s out cold,” Kim reported. She put an arm around Maria and hugged her. “We’re free,” she said.
005 Hit and Run Holiday Page 7
