Strangers on a Train (Nancy Drew Diaries #2)(22)

Bess followed my gaze and nodded. "Of course.”



"Thanks.” As they headed for the checkin desk, I eased closer to Tatjana. The other passengers were talking excitedly about the scenery they’d seen that day. As Babs described her impressions of a particularly scenic gulch, I hovered on the edge of the group, waiting for an opportunity to join the conversation.

Before I got the chance, I was distracted by the sound of George’s voice. Her very loud voice.

“What are you talking about?” she exclaimed. "What do you mean, our reservation was canceled?”





CHAPTER EIGHT




Reservations



THE NEXT FEW MINUTES WERE PRETTY chaotic. I rushed over to find the lodge staff apologizing profusely, saying that someone had called the day before to cancel the reservation for the cabin Bess, George, and I were supposed to be sharing. The interesting thing? Nobody seemed to know exactly who the caller had been. He or she—nobody seemed sure about that, either—hadn’t left a name.

Soon Tatjana and Hiro appeared and got involved, and they were still trying to work things out when the buses arrived to take people off to the various afternoon excursions, including the horseback ride Alan had booked for the four of us. Deciding to look for the silver lining in the situation, I offered to stay behind and straighten out the room mix-up while my friends went on the excursion. Maybe I would have my chance to investigate today after all.

Alan still didn’t seem to catch on to the whole silver-lining angle, since he tried to change my mind, insisting that Tatjana and Hiro could take care of it for us. Luckily, Bess and George were a little more savvy. They dragged him off toward their bus.

The lobby cleared out quickly as most of my fellow passengers headed off on their activities. Within minutes the place was all but deserted, though I noticed Wendy paging through some brochures over near the entrance. It looked as if she’d decided to skip today’s optional trips. No wonder, after what she’d told me earlier. Becca had arranged for Superstar to comp all the activities my friends and I did, but I’d caught a glimpse of the prices when Scott had passed out some information earlier. Most of the activities weren’t exactly cheap, especially for someone in Wendy’s financial situation.



Thinking of Scott reminded me of what my friends had figured out. Thinking back, it did seem unlikely that he could have planted that threatening note. Unless he’d had help from someone else— like Max, for instance. This whole time we’d been focusing on one person who could be the jewelry thief s accomplice. What if there was more than one person involved? If so, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to cross someone like Scott off the list. True, he probably couldn’t have left me that note. And it seemed unlikely he could have been the one to push me off that Ketchikan walkway, either, since I’d seen him heading in the opposite direction shortly beforehand. But what about the other stuff—the moose antler, the loud argument I’d overheard in the ship’s kitchen, the pre-cruise problems, and of course sneaking the robber aboard? There was no reason he couldn’t have been involved in any of those incidents.



It was an interesting thought. But Scott had disappeared, presumably to accompany the excursion groups, so I turned my attention to two handier suspects, Hiro and Tatjana. They were still having a stern discussion with the front desk staff. I stepped back and watched the pair. What if one of them had canceled that reservation? It certainly would have been easy for either of them to do it. But why? Was it just another way to throw me off balance, warn me not to mess with them?

I looked around for Wendy again, but she’d disappeared. There were only a few other passengers still lingering in the lobby. An elderly couple sitting by the fireplace. A cluster of women heading into the dining room. A woman with an active young toddler from the redheaded reunion group.



I watched as the redheaded mother led her child around by one chubby hand. The redheads had been around when I’d been pushed off that walkway. And the whole extended family seemed



kind of excitable. What if one of them had bumped me by accident? That would mean the whole Ketchikan incident was a red herring—no pun intended.

But if one of the redheads had bumped me, wouldn’t he or she have noticed and fessed up? And wouldn’t that person have been the one to call for help instead of Alan?

Thinking about the incident in Ketchikan brought my mind back around to Scott again—and the rough-looking guys he’d met with there. Okay, so he had a reasonable explanation for meeting them, and I had enough sleuthing experience to know I shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on appearance. That didn’t change the fact that both those guys would be totally believable as robbers or thugs in the movies. What if my new theory was right, and I needed to be looking for more than one culprit? What if Scott was one of them, and had helped one of his "poker buddies” onto the ship?

Pulling out my phone, I sent a quick text to Becca, asking for a description of the thief the police had arrested.

My phone rang almost immediately. It was Becca.

"Got your text,” she said. "I don’t know what the guy looks like, but I can try to find out.”

"Cool, thanks,” I said. "Anything interesting happening on the ship?”

"Not really,” she replied. "But I’ve been asking around about John.”