A pile of lounge chairs on deck 2 broke Nancy’s fall. Just as she landed the ship tilted again, so instead of sliding toward the railing, Nancy and the chairs crashed against a wall. Nancy was stunned, but conscious. She struggled to sit up. Nancy knew that whoever had done this might be at that very moment coming down from the deck above to finish the job.
Nancy was feeling sick, and her evening gown was torn in several places. Finally, she got to her feet.
She used the railing to steady herself and tried to make it to safety. Nancy remembered that deck 2 consisted only of cabins. There were no other facilities on it. What she had to do now was get to her suite. At the moment she trusted no one on the ship—except Bess and George, of course. Nancy had no idea who had pushed her over the railing, but the last thing she wanted to do was to make the mistake of asking for help from someone who had just tried to kill her.
Nancy didn’t know if it was her imagination or not, but the ship didn’t seem to be riding as high on the waves as it had been a few minutes ago. Maneuvering along the railing wasn’t very difficult now since no waves were crashing on deck. The thought that the storm might actually be dissipating encouraged her to keep moving.
Finally, Nancy found some stairs that led to the next deck. She looked up, trying to see if the hooded figure was waiting for her at the top. Not seeing anyone, Nancy decided to take a chance. The metal railings were still slippery. She clung tightly to them and slowly made her way up the steps.
When Nancy reached deck 3, she hesitated a second before deciding to use the stairs to reach deck 4. After all, she told herself, her assailant could still be on deck 3. It might be prudent of her to avoid looking for the elevators.
Nancy made it to the next deck without any trouble, but she was beginning to ache all over. She was sure that nothing was broken, but the fall had definitely been a shock to her body—so much so that she wasn’t sure she could climb the stairs to deck 5. Although the waves didn’t seem overly high, it was still raining quite hard. It took Nancy several minutes to locate a door to the interior, but once she was inside, she rested for a moment. Then she leaned up against the wall and slid her way slowly toward the elevators.
Nancy soon found herself in familiar surroundings. She pushed the elevator button and stepped back, suddenly remembering a scene she had seen in a mystery movie. Someone in a condition similar to hers had been standing right in front of the elevator doors when they opened, and she was immediately grabbed by the person who had been stalking her.
When the doors opened, though, Nancy could see that the elevator was empty. Nancy got on and pushed the button for deck 5. Traveling up, she stood very close to the doors so that when they opened she could get out as quickly as possible.
Nancy’s whole body was now throbbing with pain. She slid along the wall of the corridor until she finally made it to her suite. It was then that she realized that the purse she had taken with her to dinner was missing. She was sure that it had washed overboard. It held only her makeup and her cell phone, no important papers or credit cards, so it was no big loss. But it also had her key to their suite—so she had to knock on the door.
Bess immediately flung the door open. “Nancy!” she screamed. “Where have you been? What happened?” Throwing down one of her crutches, she took Nancy’s arm and helped her inside. “We tried your cell phone, but we got no answer.”
George took Nancy’s other arm. “We wanted to go look for you, but the crew said we had to stay in our cabin,” she said. “Did they find you?”
Nancy managed to shake her head. She had begun to shiver violently. “Could you get me a blanket?” she whispered. “Hurry.” Nancy knew that she was about to go into shock.
Bess and George quickly helped Nancy undress and get into bed. They piled on top of her all the blankets they could find.
For several minutes Nancy continued to shiver uncontrollably. Then she began to warm up. Bess had made some hot tea. She held the cup while Nancy sipped what she could.
Incredibly, the ship was now almost completely stabilized. Lake Erie had almost returned to normal.
“I think we should call the doctor,” Bess said. “We need to make sure that you’re all right.”
Although she was almost sure that she was fine, Nancy didn’t protest. “First, though, I need to tell you exactly what happened,” Nancy said.
Bess and George listened in stunned silence as Nancy related how she had been pushed over the railing and had been saved only by landing on some plastic deck chairs. Before Bess and George could say anything, Nancy told them that under no circumstances was the doctor to know the whole story. As far as he or she or anyone else was concerned, Nancy had slipped and fallen on her way back to the cabin. “I’ll need to report the loss of my cell phone,” she said. “It’s probably at the bottom of the lake.”
Bess went to the telephone and called the clinic. She was told that the doctor was attending to some other passengers who had suffered minor cuts during the storm but that she’d be there to see Nancy shortly.
“What happened is surely related in some way to the Interpol investigation,” Nancy said.
“Whoever did this must still believe that Amber’s boyfriend is the real Craig Oliver,” George said. “Even though he’s no longer on the ship, they must think you’re continuing the investigation.”
“Right, Nancy!” Bess said. “They got rid of the phony Craig Oliver in Port Huron—thinking he was the real Craig Oliver—and now they’re trying to get rid of you.”
“Amber just thinks that Craig ran out on her,” George said. “She doesn’t know that someone thought he was a real Interpol agent.”
“Something’s not making sense, though,” Nancy said. “What happened to the real Craig Oliver? Our Craig obviously didn’t tell Amber the entire truth about what they were doing. Amber thought the Interpol angle was just that: an angle. It obviously wasn’t, though, because there really is an investigation into the jewelry store robberies. Why did Craig choose a real investigation and a real agent’s name as a cover—and how did he know about all of it?”
“Maybe he overheard somebody talking about the case and decided to assume the agent’s identity,” Bess suggested. “We don’t even know where Amber’s boyfriend worked. Maybe in a police station? Even janitors can pick up tidbits of information there.”
Thirty minutes later, as Nancy, Bess, and George were still trying to sort out the maze of information, they heard a knock on the suite door.
A woman with a doctor’s medical bag was standing at the door. “I’m Jane Dell,” she said with a smile. “I’m here to examine the patient.”
As it turned out, Nancy was right. Other than a few bruises, which had already turned black and blue, Nancy was fine. Dr. Dell didn’t even ask how Nancy got bumped. It was obvious that she was used to all kinds of accidents during storms on the lakes.
Dr. Dell gave Nancy a couple of pills that she said should help with the pain and told her that if she didn’t feel any better in the morning, she should come by the clinic.
“Thank you,” Nancy said.
After the doctor left, Nancy, Bess, and George all agreed that the only thing they wanted to do now was go to bed.
Nancy didn’t sleep well at all. Over and over, she kept seeing the hooded person who had pushed her over the railing.
At dawn Nancy decided to get out of bed. It was much more difficult than she thought it would be. She could hardly move. She forced herself to a sitting position, slowly put her feet on the floor, and pushed herself into a stand.
Little by little, Nancy made it to the bathroom. She thought a very hot shower might make her feel better.
Thankfully, it did. When she came out of the bathroom, Bess and George were just waking up.
“How do you feel, Nancy?” George asked.
“Better now,” Nancy replied, “although when I first got up, I felt as though I had been run over by a truck.”
Bess limped over to the porthole, and Nancy was glad to see that she could get around now without the crutches. “I see land,” Bess said. “Where are we?”
“That’s the New York coast,” Nancy said. “The ship stops at Lake Erie Beach before we go through the Welland Canal to Lake Ontario.”
“This is where Laura said those candy factories are,” Bess said. “I want to check them out.”
“When we see her at breakfast, let’s tell her we want to go with her,” George said.
The girls dressed and headed to the restaurant. When they got there, only the Lowes were seated at the table.
“Where’s Laura?” Bess said. “We thought we’d go to the candy factories with her when we get to Lake Erie Beach.”
“We haven’t seen her,” Mrs. Lowe said.
Over breakfast everyone at the table talked about storms: the one they had just gone through the evening before and several that had hit the Texas Panhandle.
“Mr. Lowe and I aren’t getting off the ship here. We don’t dock very long—just a couple of hours,” Mrs. Lowe said. “We’re going to get our luggage ready for Toronto. Once we get through the Welland Canal, we’re almost there.”
On the way back to their suite Nancy said, “Bess, why don’t you call Laura and ask her if we can go with her to the candy factories?”
“Okay,” Bess said.
But when Bess tried Laura’s room, no one answered. “That’s strange,” she said as she hung up the receiver. “I wonder if we should check on her.”
“Maybe she had another upsetting telephone conversation with her husband and doesn’t want to be bothered,” George said.
Nancy and Bess agreed that might be the case.
“We won’t have time to go to all of the candy factories,” Bess said, “but I want to make sure that we go to the one that Laura thinks is the best.”
“Well, we could ask some of the people in town to see if there’s one that most tourists seem to like the best,” George suggested.
“We could do that,” Nancy said, “or we could just follow the crowds.”
Bess and George looked at each other.
“Leave it to Nancy to come up with the most sensible solution,” Bess said.
Within an hour, the ship had docked at Lake Erie Beach. The passengers were once again reminded that the ship would be there only for a couple of hours.
“That’s not really a lot of time,” Bess complained as she, Nancy, and George headed for the gangway on deck 3.
“Well, it’s a small place compared to the other ports of call,” Nancy told her.
Just as they reached the top of the gangway Bess spotted Laura at the bottom. She started to shout to her, but Nancy stopped her.
“Let’s not press our luck, Bess. She may not want company. But now we don’t have to follow the crowds—we can just follow Laura and see which candy factory she goes to,” Nancy said. “Once we’re inside, if we happen to bump into her, we can gauge her mood.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” George said. “Maybe she doesn’t want any company. I don’t want to make a nuisance of myself.”
Lake Erie Beach had a few more streets than Nancy had thought it would. George and Nancy—with Bess limping just a little behind them—had to hurry to keep from losing sight of Laura Houston. She quickly turned a corner.
Suddenly, the girls heard, “Hey! Wait for me!”
They stopped and looked around. Amber was running toward them.
“I wonder what this is all about,” Nancy said.
Just as Amber had almost reached them she stumbled and slid on the sidewalk, scraping a layer of skin from her knee.
“Ow!” Amber cried. “That hurts.”
The girls rushed to her side and managed to get Amber into a sitting position. Nancy took a medicated wipe from the alternate purse she had packed and began cleaning the wound.
“You’ll need to have this bandaged when we get back to the ship,” Nancy said. “Can you stand up?”
Amber managed to stand, but it was obvious that walking on the leg would be difficult for her if she didn’t have some help.
“There’s a café just up the street,” Bess said. “Why don’t we get a table there so we can sit down?”
“Oh, thank you so much,” Amber said. “Where were you going?”
“We heard that the candy here is very good,” George said. “We were thinking about buying some of it.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Amber said. “If you want to go on, I’ll be all right.”
“That’s okay. You’re going to need some help getting back on the ship,” Nancy said. “Besides, Bess shouldn’t be putting too much weight on her leg.” She knew that they’d probably never find Laura now—she would be too far gone. “It wasn’t really all that important, just something to do.”
When the waitress came, they ordered flavored sodas. They soon learned that this was another specialty of Lake Erie Beach—the waitress told the girls the story.
“Delicious!” Bess pronounced after taking a sip.
Nancy, George, and Amber agreed.
“We probably need to head back to the ship,” Nancy said. She looked at Amber. “Do you think you can make it?”
Amber stood up and put some weight on her leg. “It still hurts,” she said, “but if I don’t walk too fast, it should be all right.”
The girls paid their bill, and the four of them headed toward the ship. Most of the other passengers were on their way back. Nancy kept looking around to see if she might spot Laura, but she didn’t see her.
The closer they got to the ship, the slower Amber walked.
“This really hurts,” she said. “If I’m going to make it up the gangway, I think I’m going to have to lean on someone.”
George volunteered.
When they reached the top, Bess said, “Why don’t we go to the clinic first so you can get that scrape bandaged? You don’t want it to get infected.”
Amber gave a little laugh. “You sound just like my mother,” she said. “No, if you’ll just take me to my cabin, that’d be great. I have some ointment and some bandages in my suitcase.”
“Are you sure?” Nancy said. “It’s no problem to stop at the clinic.”
“I’m sure,” Amber said.
The closer they got to Amber’s cabin, the faster Amber seemed to be able to move.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do once you get to Toronto?” Nancy asked her.
Amber shook her head. She took her key out of her purse, inserted it in the lock, and opened the door.
The four of them entered the room.
Suddenly, the door slammed behind them. Nancy turned to see Laura Houston pointing a gun at her.