Strangers on a Train (Nancy Drew Diaries #2)(16)

“I didn’t.” I shrugged. “I had no idea, actually. And you can all relax—I’m not here to turn you in to management. I had no idea any of this was going on, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s none of my business.”

"So you’re not going to tell?” Daisy asked.

I shook my head. "As long as there’s nothing illegal going on here—and it sounds like there’s not—your secret’s safe with me.”

Murmurs of relief came from around the room. Daisy’s sunny smile reappeared. “Thanks, Nancy,” she said.

"No need to thank me.” I smiled back, then returned my attention to Fred. “So this whole time, you’ve been trying to organize a union?” I said. “That explains why you spend so much time in the kitchen and places like that.”

Fred still looked suspicious and a little confused. “Hang tight, people,” he told the employees. "I’ll be back in a minute.” Then he steered me out into the hallway. “So you’re really not a management spy?” he asked when we were alone. “Then why are you always talking with Becca Wright? And why do I keep running into you everywhere I turn?”

“Becca’s an old family friend,” I told him. “As for running into each other, that’s bound to happen. This ship is big, but not that big.”

"Hmm.” Fred still didn’t look entirely convinced. But he shrugged. "All right, then. You don’t really fit the mold, anyway. But when you turned up on the dock in Skagway after John Sanchez got fired, I really started to wonder.”

"Yeah, that was weird, wasn’t it?” I realized that just because Fred was a union organizer, it didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t also be my culprit. I might as well take this opportunity for a little snooping. “But I heard they really did find drugs in his locker.”

Fred frowned. "That’s what they say. I find it pretty hard to believe.”

“Oh? How so?”

“That kid was a model employee. Hardworking, well-liked, no history of any kind of trouble. Definitely no history of being mixed up with drugs.” Fred squared his shoulders. “This is exactly why I’m here—to help workers.” He looked back into the room. “At least maybe seeing him get axed with no real evidence got some of the others to wake up and listen.”

Personally, I wasn’t sure that finding illegal drugs among someone’s possessions counted as "no real evidence.” But it was pretty obvious that Fred had latched on to the incident and was planning to milk it for all it was worth and then some.

"You could be right,” I said. "Then again, there have been some odd things happening on this cruise. Maybe this Sanchez guy had something to do with all that.”

“Huh?” Fred looked confused. "What odd things?”

"You know—like the jewelry store getting robbed, and the chandelier falling in the theater,” I prompted. Okay, so I already knew that Vince and Lacey had sabotaged the chandelier. I figured it would still be interesting to see his reaction.

"I thought they caught the robber, didn’t they? And I heard the chandelier thing was some kind of accident.” He chuckled. “Actually, I’m not convinced the thing actually fell at all. Figured Merk the Jerk just felt like lounging by the pool for a few more days instead of doing an honest night’s work.”

He was already glancing back toward the room behind him. But I wasn’t ready to let him go just yet. “There was an accident on the mini-golf course, too,” I said. "An antler came off that big fake moose.”

“Really? Wow, didn’t hear about that one. Were any employees hurt?”

"No, no employees were nearby.” I didn’t bother to tell him that I was the one the antler had almost landed on. Unless he was a better actor than I thought, I was pretty sure this was the first he was hearing about the incident.

“Crazy.” He rubbed his chin. “Guess being friends with the assistant cruise director gets you all the gossip, huh? But listen, you can tell your friend Becca that John Sanchez wasn’t involved in any of that stuff. He’s a good kid.” He glanced over his shoulder again. "Now if you’ll excuse me...

"Sure.” I watched as he hurried back into the meeting room. I wasn’t ready to take Fred’s word that the busboy couldn’t be our culprit. He had too much to gain by insisting that Sanchez had been wrongly terminated.

As for Fred himself? Now that I knew why he was really on the ship, his suspicious behavior didn’t seem so suspicious anymore.

I was pretty sure I could cross him off the suspect list.





******





"Now this is traveling in style!” George exclaimed, settling back against her comfortable seat. “Where else can you sit on your rear end and get views like this?”



“No argument there,” I said. “But you’re going to give me a shot at the window seat sometime, right?”



George grinned. “Maybe. If you’re nice to me.”

We were aboard the train that was carrying us from Anchorage to Denali National Park. It was definitely a different experience from the train ride in Skagway. This train was a sleek, modem double-decker. We were on the top level, which featured two double rows of seats and enormous windows that offered an uninterrupted panoramic view of the scenery we were passing. The bottom level held the dining cars.