Strangers on a Train (Nancy Drew Diaries #2)(30)

George jumped to her feet. “Come on, let’s go get in line.”

We were waiting to board the bus when Tatjana found us. "I just finished talking with the police,” she told me. “I thought you’d like to know that Scott is agreeing to make a full confession about the smuggling business.” She pursed her lips and shook her head disapprovingly. "I still can’t believe he’s a criminal!”

“But he confessed to everything?” I asked.



She shrugged. “Almost everything. He realized he’d get off easier if he ratted out the rest of the smuggling ring. He also confessed to planting those drugs to get John Sanchez fired. And to giving that Troy Anderson fellow his security card to get him on the ship.” She smirked. “He was pretty angry that the guy robbed the jewelry store on his way out, since he blames that for getting him busted.”



“He didn’t know that Nancy was on the case.” George clapped me on the back. "She always gets her man!”

“Hmm.” Tatjana didn’t look too impressed by that. "Anyway, it seems he was also responsible for some funny business Becca was worried about before the cruise. Probably to distract her from his real mission.”

I nodded, thinking back over the various troubling little incidents Becca had told me about, checking those off my mental list. "What about the falling moose antler, and the glass on my seat?” I asked. “Oh, and the note in my suitcase—we know he couldn’t have done that himself, but if he got someone else to do it..

I trailed off. Tatjana was shaking her head. "I don’t know anything about any of that. Scott claims he had no idea you were investigating him. He had no reason to try to hurt you.” She glanced at her watch. “Excuse me. I need to start getting things organized.”

She hurried off. "Never mind, Nancy,” Bess said. "I know you like to tie up all the loose ends, but those things are no big deal.” “She’s right,” George added. “We knew all along that the fallen moose could’ve been an accident.”



“On my seat? By the window?” That didn’t seem super likely to me. “And what about the note in my suitcase?”



George glanced over at Tobias, who was waiting with his parents a few yards away. "Maybe that was a prank,” she said, nodding toward him. "You-know-who’s cabin is right next to ours, and we all know he’s a bit, uh, exuberant.”

There was no more time to discuss it as Tatjana, Hiro, and the bus driver starting herding us all onto the bus. I realized there were a few other loose ends we hadn’t discussed—like my fall into the creek in Ketchikan, our canceled reservation, even the crazy laundry mix-up. I couldn’t help wondering if there was yet another culprit still out there—maybe Max? But no, he probably couldn’t have pushed me off that walkway, and he definitely couldn’t have planted the glass. . ..

My phone buzzed, interrupting my thoughts. It was Becca texting me with a description of the jewelry thief. “Too bad I didn’t think to ask that question earlier,” I murmured as I scanned the message.

“Huh?” George glanced over at me. She’d snagged the window seat yet again.

“I asked Becca to find out what the jewelry thief looks like,” I said, showing her the text. “She just heard back from the cops, who described him as an average-size white male in his midthirties with a large scar bisecting his face. Just like one of the guys I saw with Scott in Ketchikan.”

“Whoa. If we’d known that earlier. . . ” George began.

I nodded, staring at the phone’s little screen. “I know.”

Hiro was walking up the aisle, checking names off a list. He paused by our seats and grinned. “Better get all your calls and texts in now,” he said, gesturing toward my phone. "Won’t be much cell coverage out in the park.”

“So I’ve heard.” I smiled back, then tucked my phone away. “But that’s okay. I’m sure we’ll have better things to do than chat on the phone.”

As the bus pulled away from the lodge, I did my best to shake off those last few doubts. Maybe my friends were right. We’d solved two separate cases already. What were a few minor loose ends, anyway?

It wasn’t too hard to put the case out of my mind as we entered Denali National Park. Three smaller buses were lined up, waiting for us. They looked like school buses that had been painted green. Tatjana had already divided our group into three, and we all headed for our assigned buses. My friends and I ended up on the first to depart.

As we trundled off down the road, I glanced around at my fellow passengers. The ABCs and a few other acquaintances from the ship were onboard, along with Tatjana. However, Hiro, Wendy, Tobias and his family, and others were on the other two buses.

Within minutes, the visitor center had disappeared behind us, and we were surrounded by wilderness as far as the eye could see. A great greenish-ye I low plain stretched out on either side of the road, and we almost immediately spotted a herd of caribou grazing in the distance. Farther off were gorgeous snowcapped mountains, including Mount McKinley, which our guide, a chipper young woman, told us most Alaskans referred to by its original native name, Denali. She also told us that the park covered around six million acres, and that the road we were on was the only one in the entire place.