Strangers on a Train (Nancy Drew Diaries #2)(27)

We went into the main building, where one of the hotel’s night staff rustled up some hot tea. Some of the other people I’d awakened were there too, so I couldn’t tell Bess and George the rest of the story, though they kept giving me curious looks. Half an hour later, the men finally returned.



I jumped to my feet and hurried over. "Well?” I asked Hank.

"We found your shed,” he said. "But there was no box there. And no sign of the shooter.” He shrugged. “Did see a coupla fresh bullet holes in the wall, though.”

"The box was gone?” My heart sank, though I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised. Instead of chasing me, the shooter must have grabbed the box.

"We’ll notify the police just in case,” Hank said. "But chances are it was a hunter who mistook you for a hare or something.”

“Okay,” I said. “But that doesn’t explain the box.”

"Hmm.” Hank didn’t quite meet my eye. "Maybe it was a cooler of beer or something.”

"It definitely wasn’t any kind of cooler,” I insisted. "It was a cardboard box, about this big.” I made a shape with my hands. "It smelled really weird, like whatever was inside had been stored in a moldy basement or something.”

"Well, I’ll let the cops know about that. Now you’d better get to bed, miss.”

I frowned, annoyed, as I realized he didn’t care about the box or what may have been in it. Why would I make up something like that?

Still, it wasn’t as if I could prove anything. So I let it go. Maybe my friends and I could hike back out there in the morning and look around.





******





"I still can’t believe someone actually shot at you last night,” Bess said as she slathered butter on a piece of toast.

"You’re not the only one.” I glanced around the lodge’s homey restaurant. It was early, but lots of people from our group were there having breakfast. Scott was among them; he was sitting at a large table with the ABCs and a couple of people I didn’t know. As I scanned the room, I caught several people watching me. Was one of them the hooded figure I’d followed into the woods? It was a creepy thought.

George noticed the glances too. “You’re the talk of the lodge, Nancy,” she commented. “Everyone’s buzzing about what happened last night.”

"Yeah. I can’t believe nobody woke me up.” Alan speared a sausage with his fork. "I missed the whole thing.”

"It’s okay, sweetie.” Bess patted his hand. "Nancy’s fine, and that’s what matters.”

The other tables were too close to risk talking about the case, so we spent the next few minutes chatting about the day’s plans while we ate. We were scheduled to catch a bus over to the visitor center of Denali National Park in a couple of hours. There, we would split up into several smaller buses for an all-day guided tour.

Finally Bess took one last sip of her grapefruit juice. “I’m stuffed,” she said. "Think I’ll take a walk. Want to come?” She smiled at Alan.

He jumped up, dabbing some syrup off his face with a napkin. "Sounds good.”

"Have fun,” George said, reaching for another slice of bacon.

As Bess and Alan made their way out of the crowded restaurant, Wendy hurried in past them. She glanced around, then made a beeline for our table.

"Uh-oh,” I told George under my breath. “Bet I’m about to be interviewed for the next big blog post.”

George smirked, but didn’t have time to say anything before Wendy reached us. “Nancy!” the blogger exclaimed breathlessly. "I heard you were in here. Everyone’s all atwitter about you, you know. What really happened last night, anyway? I tried to talk to that security guard afterward, but the dude wouldn’t tell me a thing.”



"There wasn’t much to tell,” I said. “I just wandered into the woods, and I guess someone out there wasn’t happy to see me.”



"Oh.” To my surprise, Wendy didn’t seem too interested. Shooting a look around, she set her laptop on the table and sank into the seat Bess had just vacated. “But listen, I just figured out who you really are.”

I blinked. “Um, what?”

"You’re the big-time amateur detective from the Midwest, right? Don’t tell me there’s another Nancy Drew out there who looks just like you.”

I exchanged a slightly panicky look with George. “Uh...

"Don’t worry. If you’re here, like, investigating a case or something, I won’t blow your cover.” Wendy waved a hand. “But this totally changes things. I might be willing to share my thing—if you promise to give me the scoop for my blog, that is.”

"Your thing?” I echoed.

"Wait,” George broke in. “How’d you figure out that Nancy’s a detective?”



Wendy shrugged and reached for piece of bacon. "It wasn’t that hard.” She popped the bacon into her mouth, continuing to talk as she chewed. "I’ve noticed how Nancy always seems to be around when weird things happen. So when I found out about the mysterious stuff going on around here, I wondered if . . . Well, you know.”