028 The Black Widow

  "The people on the beach are going to be pretty surprised when we come cruising by in a lifeboat," Nancy said.

  "We'll just tell them we were up the creek without a paddle. Any idea how to say that in Portuguese?"

  Nancy giggled in spite of her concern. He really was wonderful. "I'm beginning to see why I love you, Ned," she said, a smile curving her lips.

  "I know—I'm wonderful. Don't worry, I'll expect payment later. A steak dinner and a walk on the beach should fit the bill," Ned joked. "Oh, you! Keep quiet and row."

  When Ned and Nancy half supported, half dragged Nina into the Drews' suite, Carson jumped from his chair, a frown of concern creasing his face.

  "Nina!" He rushed to help with Nina. "What are you doing here? Nancy, what's happened?"

  "It's a long story. Dad." Now that she was back in the suite, Nancy suddenly felt bone weary. "Let's get Mrs. da Silva to bed, and then Ned and I'll bring you up to date."

  For the next two hours, they discussed the case while Nina slept. Then they ordered a pot of strong Brazilian coffee from room service, and Nancy went into the bedroom and gently woke Nina. Finally, it was time to talk.

  The woman was still unsteady on her feet, but she sat upright on the brocade sofa in the suite's living room. Perched on the ottoman facing her, Nancy leaned forward. "So," she said, "where should we start?"

  Nina cleared her throat and looked significantly at Ned, wanting him to leave.

  Ned was instantly on his feet. "Think I'll go buy a map of Rio," he said, with a let's-humor-her look at Nancy. "I don't want to get lost." He left the suite.

  "I suppose Fd better go back to the very beginning/' Nina murmured. She stared down at her hands, curled around a steaming cup of coffee, and heaved a deep sigh.

  "Hector—my husband—was a good-hearted man," Nina began. "Too good-hearted, one might say. He just didn't seem able to make the hard decisions that businessmen must.

  "Hector was once a part owner of the Sea Queen Cruise Line. But things went sour for him. He made some foolish investments, so he sold his share in the business. It almost broke his heart. Hector loved the cruise line. He even accepted the job of general manager aboard the Emerald Queen, just so he wouldn't lose contact with his friends and the business.

  "Unfortunately, the money we got from the sale soon vanished—Hector had such bad luck in the stock market!

  "And that, I think, is when Hector got this— this offer." Nina bent her head over her coffee cup again, her shoulders hunched. Nancy shot a quick look at her father. He was watching Nina, his jaw set as though he were afraid of what he mi^t hear.

  "Please go on," Nancy said softly.

  "Someone told Hector he had access to a cargo of emeralds," Nina continued in a rush. "It was the perfect setup. Hector would hardly have to do anything. This person would steal the emeralds, and Hector, in his capacity as general manager, would hide them aboard the Emerald Queen and make sure they got through customs."

  "This person you're referring to is Antonio Ribeiro, isn't it?" Nancy asked.

  Nina nodded. "Hector never actually told me who his accomplice was, but I knew it had to be Ribeiro. They got to be great friends right around then." She shuddered. "At the time, I didn't understand why.

  "Anyway," she continued, "Ribeiro would arrange to sell the gems in Miami, and the two of them would split the profits."

  "But then Hector got nervous," Nancy said. "He probably worried that Ribeiro would try to sell the jewels before it was safe. He decided to change the emeralds' hiding place. And then, when he knew he was dying, he thought they might get lost forever. So he sent Ribeiro a letter, saying that you had the map of the new location."

  Nina da Silva nodded. "Hector wasn't the sort of man who would betray a friend, no matter what else he might have done."

  "Then why did Ribeiro say that Hector was a double-crosser?" Nancy asked.

  "He'd slander anyone," said Nina scornfully.

  "At any rate, your husband died—suddenly— and no one knew where the emeralds were hidden. Am I right?"

  "Yes.. .. Believe me," Nina suddenly burst out, looking at Carson for the first time, "I did try to stop Hector, We needed the money, but I didn't want to get it that way!"

  Carson closed his eyes. "Fm not condemning you, Nina," he said quietly.

  Nina withdrew for a moment, then turned to Nancy.

  "Hector told me about a drawing he had made of the emeralds' location. He was very proud of it—he kept saying that was the key, but that his ^partner' and I would have to figure it out together. He made it for us, he said. I didn't think about it until I was going through some old papers of his about six months ago." She paused, her eyes lowered.

  "You found the drawing of the spider—and you remembered what he had said," Nancy said.

  Nina nodded.

  "And?" Nancy prompted.

  Nina swallowed hard. "And," she echoed, "I decided to find the emeralds for myself. I booked myself on the cruise. But I had no idea where to begin. So when I met you, Nancy, and heard about your—abilities—I realized that I might be able to use you to decipher the drawing for me."

  "You slipped it under my door, with a phony note written to make me think it was just a joke puzzle. You figured that I'd work out the code and then tell my dad all about it—and he, of course, would tell you."

  Tears welled up in Nina's eyes. "Fm sorry," she whispered to Carson.

  Carson rose and strode to the window, where he stood with his back to Nina. '*Go on/' he said in a tight voice. "Fd like to hear the rest of this."

  Nancy felt awful for her dad, but there was nothing she could do or say to help him.

  "I was going to tell you everything," Nina moaned. "But Tony Ribeiro wouldn't let me be. I finally told him that I had passed the drawing on to you, but still he kept hounding me. That day when you came to offer me yoxir help—I had decided I needed someone to trust. I couldn't keep up the lies, the evasions. But before I got the chance to speak to either of you, I was attacked."

  Nancy stood up and began to pace. "Mrs, da Silva, that's the one thing I don't understand. Why attack you? Why put you out of the way? He had the drawing from my cabin, so he knew as much, if not more than you—"

  Nancy broke off. Nina was staring at her, bewildered.

  "Did I say Ribeiro attacked me? Oh, no, Fm sorry to have misled you. It wasn't he."

  "What?" Nancy was stunned.

  Nina shrugged. "Whoever it was put out my cabin lights, but I could tell—even in the dark— that it was someone much smaller than Ribeiro."

  "Of course!" Now that Nancy thought about it, her own attacker couldn't have been Ribeiro, either. He hadn't been much bigger than Nancy

  herself! Her mind racing, she whirled toward Ned, who had just slipped quietly back in. "How could I have missed it?" she asked.

  Ned stared back. "Missed what?"

  "The obvious. Ribeiro isn't the only one we're up against. He's got an accomplice!"

  Chapter Thirteen

  BUT WHO? Nancy thought hard about the person who had held the knife to her throat. It had definitely been a man—she could tell that much in the dark.

  What about the masked motorcyclist? The cyclist could have been tall or short, male or female—she just couldn't tell.

  "Dad," Nancy said, "think about who went ashore with us at Paranagua. What about Lynn Ashley? Melissa Jordan said she disappeared a couple of minutes after we all split up."

  "Nancy," replied Carson Drew reasonably, "I think a lot of shopkeepers in Paranagua will be willing to vouch for her whereabouts. I just don't see her as a hoodlum."

  Nancy was pacing the room, deep in thought. She looked up at Ned, her father, and Nina.

  "Don't you all see, something's not adding up here!" she exclaimed urgently. "Whoever this accomplice is, he or she doesn't stop at murder. Look at the rigged switch in my cabin. So why take all this trouble to kidnap Mrs. da Silva and hide her, when they could just as easily have dumped her in the
ocean?"

  She turned to Nina. "Mrs. da Silva, there must be something else they need, some clue to where the jewels are. Something you have!"

  Nina looked bewildered. "I can't imagine what."

  Nancy sighed. "Neither can I. But let's take a look at that spider code. Can you help me remember it?"

  Together, Nancy and Nina reconstructed the picture of the spider with the tiny letters at each of the eight legs.

  When they had finished, Nancy said, "Now, think. Do the letters suggest anything to you?"

  Nina looked at the drawing. "Nothing," she said glumly.

  "What if we try attaching numbers to each letter?" suggested Ned.

  They set to work, using every combination of letters and numbers they could think of. But they remained stumped.

  Nina sighed. "Oh, Nancy," she said wearily, "I've felt for a long time that the answer was right in front of me if I could only see it."

  Nancy felt a spark in her mind. She leapt out of her chair. "You did! That's it! It's right in front of you—and everyone else on the ship!"

  "Now wait a minute—slow down," said Carson Drew. "What do you mean?"

  "Dad, it's the oldest trick in the book!" Nancy's blue eyes sparkled. "How would you hide a fortune in gems from hundreds of passengers who roam freely over a ship?"

  "You mean the emeralds are out in the open where everyone can see them?" Ned asked.

  "Yes!" Nancy could barely contain her glee. "I'll bet you my whole tape collection they're in the ballroom chandelier, the one with eight spokes, made of green 'crystal'!"

  She turned to Nina again. "And you are the key. Look again at the letters on the spider's legs." She held up the drawing and pointed. "See? A, W, N, P, I, Y, N and F. That's clockwise. But if you go the other way"—she traced her finger counterclockwise—"there's your name: N-I-N-A, spaced out to every other letter. That must indicate the location of the emeralds."

  "Well," said Carson Drew, "it seems we've finally got a case to take to the Rio police."

  "No," said Nancy. '^That's exactly what we don't have. We need material evidence. We don't have much time; we sail at dawn. The police will take too long.

  "And I want to get them, not just the jewels. Remember, they've tried to kill me three times, and I'm starting to take it personally!"

  "I'm with Nancy, Mr. Drew," said Ned. "We can't wait."

  Nancy felt a surge of relief and affection for Ned. Much as he sometimes disagreed with her methods, he always came through.

  She got to her feet. "It's a little after seven now—it'll be dark in a half hour or so. I think we should go back on board then.

  "Let's leave now, Ned, and walk to the docks. We can pick up something to eat on the way— I'm starving!" Nancy's stomach rumbled, and she blushed. Ned laughed.

  Nancy went into her room and grabbed a black sweatshirt to wear over her bright T-shirt. She made sure her penlight was in her jeans pocket. "Okay, let's roll," she called.

  Carson Drew walked them down to the lobby. "John's expecting the three of us to join him for dinner at the restaurant on top of Sugarloaf later." He chuckled hollowly. "Won't he be surprised when I show up with Nina instead?"

  "Dad—" Nancy put her hand on her father's arm. "I'm really sorry it turned out this way."

  Carson straightened his shoulders. "Ah, well/' he said, walking away.

  "Cheer up, Nancy," said Ned softly behind her. "You did the only thing you could under the circumstances. Besides, wouldn't it be a lot worse if your father found this out after they got really close?"

  "I know," said Nancy sadly.

  Ned put his arm around Nancy's shoulders. "Come on. They'll work it out themselves. Now let's get some food—we've got work to do!"

  Fifteen minutes later, moving through the gaudily dressed crowds that filled the streets of Rio, Nancy did feel better. They had picked up Brazilian beef kebabs from a street vendor, and now her attention was mostly occupied with holding onto her kebab with one hand and Ned with the other. She didn't want to lose either in the mob.

  And it was a mob. Nancy had never seen anything like it. Drumbeats filled the air with a frenzied tattoo, and the whole city seemed to be dancing to its rhythm.

  Already many in the crowd were dressed in costume for the night's Carnival festivities. As the evening darkened into night, torches appeared as if from nowhere, casting an eerie glow in the sequined and feathered processions.

  They arrived at the docks. Nancy looked up at the bulk of the Emerald Queen looming above them. "I feel like we're going on a commando raid," she said with a nervous laugh.

  Ned didn't laugh. ''Just be careful, Drew," he said and hugged her. They climbed the rope ladder single hie.

  Keeping close to the shadows, Nancy led Ned up the five short companionways. They stopped in front of the darkened ballroom. Nancy pushed one of the heavy glass double doors slowly open.

  She played her penlight on the ceiling of the huge room. "That's where the emeralds are," she whispered.

  ''Nancy, how are we going to reach that chandelier? It must be sixteen feet in the air!" Ned gasped as it became clear what Nancy meant.

  Leaving Ned in the shadows, Nancy went to the tables at the edge of the dance floor. After dragging one out to a position directly under the giant chandelier, she placed a tall bar stool on top of it and centered it carefully. She secured it with two chairs to keep it from toppling over. Then she climbed her homemade ladder.

  Nancy knew that every other spoke of the chandelier contained emeralds instead of crystal, but she had no way of knowing where the sequence started. The hundreds of dangling green teardrops looked exactly alike. Da Silva must have planned this very carefully.

  But wait. The emeralds would be much harder than the crystal—Nancy remembered that much from geology. She pulled out her nail file—how useful it had turned out to be!—and gently scratched at one of the pear-shaped stones with the file's tip.

  The sharp point moved over the surface of the stone without leaving a mark.

  It was a genuine emerald.

  Stifling an urge to shout the good news to Ned, Nancy let out some of her excitement in an explosive sigh.

  " 'Welcome to my parlor,' said the spider to the fly."

  Antonio Ribeiro's voice came from an open floor-to-ceiling window opposite the doors.

  As Nancy's eyes focused slowly in the darkness, she saw the cold gray barrel of a gun.

  Chapter Fourteen

  RIBEIRO BEGAN MOVING slowly toward Nancy, a cruel smile twisting his face.

  "Miss Drew, you simply don't know what a pleasure it is for me to have you as my special guest at last," he said smugly. "You've led me quite a dance, you realize.

  "But it's all been worth it. And now that you've shown me where the emeralds are, I regret that we must say goodbye. Please come down here."

  Nancy descended slowly. "I hope you don't think you can use that gun on me and get away with it," she replied coolly. "You'd have the American consulate on your tail within minutes."

  Ribeiro wasn't moved. "On the contrary, Miss Drew. Fve got the entire ocean at my disposal for getting rid of your body. And even if they traced your movements to this ship, we could be in another country by then, and South America doesn't necessarily care about extraditing people to the United States. And, even were I caught and charged with your death, I could say I shot an unknown intruder in self-defense."

  Nancy wondered wildly where Ned was. It looked as if Ribeiro didn't know she had a companion on the ship. Playing for time, she asked, "Why did you kidnap Mrs. da Silva?"

  "Kidnapping is not one of my vices. Nina da Silva may not be the worid's brightest woman, but at least she had the sense to get out of my way and leave the cruise."

  Suddenly, a tall dark figure came flying out of the shadows. Ned!

  The hotel manager's right arm flew into the air as the gun went off*. His bullet whizzed past Nancy's head and shattered a window on the far side of the room.

  Nancy star
ted forward to help Ned as he and Ribeiro grappled. "Look out!" she cried. Ribeiro was about to club Ned with the heavy gun butt.

  Ned twisted aside, and the two of them crashed to the floor amid a pile of barstools.

  They broke apart. Nancy bit her lip as she tried to see what was happening. Then Ned staggered to his feet.

  "Come on, Ned," Nancy yelled. '*He's still got the gun!'*

  The two teenagers ran for the open deck. By the time they got to the companionway, Nancy could hear footsteps pounding behind them. And the gangway was still five decks below them!

  Nancy's brain was moving as fast as her feet. Ribeiro obviously didn't know that someone had kidnapped Mrs. da Silva! If he wasn't involved in that, then was it possible that he wasn't the mastermind here?

  Nancy and Ned clattered down the last companionway. The gangplank was just in front of them. As they raced across the open deck, another bullet whistled through the air.

  "Get down, Nancy!" Ned shouted. He grabbed her hand, and together they rolled down the gangplank.

  "Keep going!" gasped Nancy as they hit the ground. "Head for that crowd—he won't dare shoot at us there."

  Nancy and Ned dashed across the wharf, ducking in and out of the shadows cast by the huge ships. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the Emerald Queen.

  No one. Nancy didn't like that. Ribeiro couldn't have given up so easily. And if he was chasing them, she would have preferred to know where he was.

  They crossed a broad avenue, and Nancy began to breathe a little easier. Maybe Ribeiro had given up after all—in which case there was still work to be done!

  "Ned, I don't know how much you heard back there," she said, "but if Ribeiro wasn't lying, he didn't even know Mrs. da Silva was kidnapped!"

  Ned nodded. "Yeah, I caught that," he replied. "So that must mean Ribeiro and his accomplice aren't telling each other everything."

  "Yes, and I'm not sure I like that. If this accomplice has some initiative, that makes him or her that much more dangerous. All right, here's the plan."