058 Hot Pursuit

  Nancy was frowning as she said goodbye to Melvin, thanked the nurse, and left the infirmary. She took off her shoes and ambled aimlessly along the beach, deep in thought. Devil's Chain —did it mean anything? As the cool water splashed over her calves, she curled her bare toes in the sand and stared out at the cove.

  From there the islands in the Devil's Chain were just tiny black mounds in the water. She stood staring at the bleak-looking islands. Vincent himself had said they were uninhabitable.

  That was when it hit her. Had Vincent given away Maria's hiding place? Nancy blinked, then took another look at the black, rocky pieces of land. It was just a hunch, but she had to check it out.

  Nancy hurried down the beach to the boat-house, where she arranged to take out a small sailboat. While she was waiting for a staff member to check out the gear, the waterfront director waved Nancy over to him.

  "There's a slight hitch with your boat," he said. "We'll have to find you another one. If you'll just wait over there," he said, pointing to the far side of the boathouse, "I'll call you when we get one ready."

  As Nancy rounded the corner of the boat-house, she wondered why the director, and not the staff member checking her sailboat, knew the boat wasn't fit to sail. But then she stopped short.

  Steven Gibbs was sitting on the edge of a motorboat, his arms crossed over his chest. "Still exploring, eh, Nancy?" He smiled, but she wasn't fooled by his fake charm.

  Nancy glared at him, then realized that it was deserted on this side of the boathouse. A deep sense of foreboding came over her as her eyes darted around the empty dock. But before she could move, everything went black.

  Chapter Fifteen

  A DEEP BLUE SKY dotted with silky white clouds whirled above Nancy's eyes. She blinked, wondering why her legs and wrists were throbbing and her head hurt so much. Then she remembered—Gibbs. Someone must have hit her over the head and tied her up.

  A sideways glance told her that she was lying in the hull of a motorboat. She heard the rumble of the engine and felt the rocking of the boat as it slapped across the surf.

  "Ah, our guest is awake." Gibbs's blond head loomed into view as he leaned over her. "I'm sorry about that little bump on the head, but we didn't want you to miss the cruise, did we?"

  An eerie laugh rang out from the rear of the boat, and Nancy recognized Daniel's voice right away. No doubt he was the one who had knocked her out. No one must have seen him hit her, and no one would have noticed her tucked low in the hull as the boat sped out to the cove.

  Pushing with her feet, Nancy managed to prop herself up so she could sit upright. Daniel objected at first, but Gibbs called him off.

  "We're far enough from shore," he said. "No one will be able to see her. We want our guest to be as comfortable as possible, after all."

  Somehow, Nancy didn't think that her comfort was truly his prime consideration. "I should never have listened when that guy asked me to step around the boathouse," she muttered, her head throbbing.

  "Who, the waterfront director?" Gibbs asked. "Fortunately, some employees follow directions. He had no idea what we were up to—though, of course, / knew what you were up to."

  He tossed back his blond head in an arrogant gesture and continued, "I was suspicious of that story your friend gave me last night. A bouncing coconut? Come on. When I went back and checked the roof, it was obvious that someone had been spying on us." He leaned closer to Nancy. "In other words, you've been caught snooping around."

  Nancy glared at him but didn't say anything.

  "Actually," Gibbs continued, "I'm sorry about the turn your whole vacation has taken. Imagine a beautiful girl detective disappearing from an exclusive Caribbean resort! The press will have a field day with us, but I'm afraid I have no other choice."

  Looking over her shoulder, Nancy saw that the beach was shrinking from view as the boat moved toward the mouth of the cove. "It won't do you any good to get rid of me," she told Gibbs. "I'm not the only one who knows that Pineapple Grove is just a front for a secret moneymaking operation."

  "You make it sound so mercenary," Gibbs protested, "when in fact I'm giving people a chance to buy their freedom. In many cases, I'm reuniting families. I like to see it as a humanitarian endeavor."

  "An illegal endeavor," Nancy said.

  Gibbs waved off her comment. "Save your arguments for the guys who smuggle drugs and jewels. There's nothing immoral about helping people enter the U.S."

  Nancy couldn't believe he really thought that there was nothing immoral about being a criminal! But she had to admit he was a slick one. "How did you come up with copies of the lawful permanent resident certificates?" she asked him. "I thought U.S. documents were difficult to forge —like dollar bills."

  "You're right." Gibbs beamed with pride. "But our certificates aren't forged—they're the real thing. I have a good friend in the Department of Immigration who managed to get me a packet of original blank certificates—for a price, of course."

  "They're beyond dispute when our clients show them to immigrations officers. We supply our clients with nothing less than the best," Daniel finished with a hearty laugh.

  "After we found the means of supplying identification, we only needed to select a convenient location to process our clients' paperwork," Gibbs explained. "I considered a resort on the mainland, but it would have been much more difficult to get our clients past the Coast Guard and border patrol."

  Nancy looked at Gibbs curiously. "Doesn't the U.S. Coast Guard patrol the waters in the U.S. Virgin Islands?" she asked.

  "Yes, but so far we've been able to give them the slip. It's easier here in the Caribbean, where territorial waters crisscross so much."

  "So you built this whole resort as a cover for the smuggling operation," Nancy guessed. Gibbs was turning out to be slimier every second!

  "Very perceptive," he told her. "A resort is always filled with people from different countries who are constantly coming and going. What better cover? And most of my clients choose to stay for a few days, as a sort of adjustment period."

  He kept on talking, obviously enjoying bragging about his criminal activity. "Once our clients reach the continental U.S., they have the proper paperwork to get a job and a Social Security number. They have all the rights of a citizen. Our system usually works like a charm."

  Nancy couldn't believe how arrogant Gibbs was, but at least he was answering some important questions. "What really happened to Eva Rivera? And the Cordero brothers?" she asked.

  Gibbs gave Nancy a stern look. "I instructed them to leave immediately after you met them. When your friends told me you were a detective, I kept an eye on you. And it's a good thing, too. In just a matter of an hour or so you almost got that girl Eva's picture as a souvenir. And photographs of my clients could make for damaging evidence."

  Nancy nodded. So that was why Gibbs had thrown a fit over the appearance of "guests" in the Hot Rods' video. She was beginning to see how all the pieces fit together. Except for one.

  Looking closely at Gibbs, she said, "Something went wrong in the case of Maria Angeles. What?"

  Gibbs sighed. "I have recently discovered that some of my employees are greedy."

  "You call it greed," Daniel chimed in, "Vincent and I call it free enterprise. We take thousands of crisp American dollars into our hands— but they go straight to you. We want a bigger piece of the action."

  "I'm not cutting you in, and that's final," Gibbs snapped, losing some of his good humor.

  "If you treated us better," Daniel shot back, "we might not have kidnapped the girl."

  Nancy watched the exchange between the two men with interest. She had thought that Gibbs had called all the shots—including keeping Maria hostage. Now it seemed that Daniel and Vincent had pulled a fast one behind his back.

  "Your feeble attempt at a kidnapping cost me!" Gibbs barked angrily. "How could you be so stupid as to rob the poor girl, then let her die? What kind of ransom do you expect for a dead girl?"

  Mari
a, dead? Nancy didn't want to believe it. She couldn't believe it.

  "And then the bumbling attempts on Ricky's life—not to mention your little spat with Vincent that landed him in the infirmary." Fury glittered in Steven Gibbs's eyes.

  "Vincent was supposed to take care of Ricky Angeles on the bike trip, but he botched it," Daniel said, defending himself. "I didn't mean to hit him that hard, but after he messed up the bike accident, I flew off the handle."

  Gibbs turned to Nancy. "Unfortunately, I didn't know anything about all this nonsense until it was too late. Imagine, trying to kill off one of the guests! I only found out about it when Vincent was out of commission and Daniel needed my help in processing our new arrivals." He shot Daniel a reproachful look. "Don't talk to me about more money. Incompetence will not be rewarded. Your foolishness has put our entire operation at risk."

  Nancy noticed that they were approaching the Devil's Chain. Now that Maria was dead, the rocky, blackened clumps of land looked more threatening than ever. Gibbs and Daniel had answered all her questions about the case, but now they were going to make sure she kept quiet about it—for good!

  Nancy was still looking at the Devil's Chain when Gibbs turned back to her. "I really am sorry that things have to end this way. Killing people is not what Pineapple Grove is about," he said with a sigh. "But now that Daniel and Vincent started this mess, I have to see it through to protect my interests."

  Daniel cut the engine as the boat reached one of the rocky islands, and used an oar to navigate carefully through the jutting rocks. Finally he grabbed a craggy boulder and anchored the boat to it.

  Gibbs stood up and climbed from the boat to the boulder. "Shall we?"

  Before Nancy knew what was happening, Daniel lifted her in his arms and draped her over his shoulder. As she was being carried, Nancy searched frantically for a means of escape. She saw none—her only hope was in trying to talk some sense into Gibbs.

  "You'll never get away with this," she called, bouncing against Daniel's back.

  "Save your breath," Gibbs said.

  A moment later Nancy felt herself being lowered to the ground. Daniel grabbed her by the waist and dragged her into a sitting position on the sandy bottom of a tide pool. Nancy gasped as seawater seeped into her sneakers and clothes. The water level came up to her shoulders, and she was leaning against the smooth edge of a large rock. "What are you trying to do?" she asked.

  "Destroy incriminating evidence," Daniel said as he looped a rope around Nancy's waist and tied her to the boulder. "At the moment, that includes you. You got away from that steel barrel. But this time the ocean will do our dirty work for us."

  It was no use arguing with him. After all, he'd already tried to kill both her and Ricky. Nancy looked around at Gibbs. "Steven, you can't condone this. It's just not your style," she said in as firm a voice as she could.

  Gibbs merely shrugged, then glanced at his watch. "Our timing is just right. The tide is coming in." As he spoke, a wave crashed over the surrounding rocks, spraying salt water into Nancy's face.

  Nancy blinked until the stinging sensation was gone from her eyes. If the tide was coming in, the water level in the tide pool would be rising. In just a few minutes it would be over her head!

  Daniel smiled down at her. "I'll be back in a few hours to cut off the ropes." His hollow laughter chilled her.

  "The coroner's report will say death by drowning," Gibbs said wistfully. "And everyone will mourn the foolish girl who swam too far from shore."

  Drowning! Nancy squirmed, but the rope around her waist kept her in place.

  "Don't add murder to the charges you're already facing," Nancy told Gibbs. "Juries don't take kindly to killers."

  "There will be no charges at all," Gibbs said calmly. "Why do you think I'm going to the trouble of eliminating you?"

  In a much calmer voice than she felt, Nancy said, "My friends went to the authorities this morning. Immigration agents and local police are probably waiting for you at the resort this very minute!"

  "Ah, yes, George Fayne and Bess Marvin. My people told me they were taking the air taxi to Saint Thomas this morning." Gibbs shook his head. "I had a hunch that they were part of your little detective team. That's why I took the precaution of calling an old acquaintance of mine, in Saint Thomas. He's very good with a knife. Of course," Gibbs continued, "my friend will make it look like a robbery. Two unfortunate tourists who resisted a mugger and paid the price with their lives."

  Nancy shivered as she listened to Gibbs's chilling words. A helpless feeling wrenched at her.

  "I haven't yet decided what to do with Ricky Angeles." Gibbs tapped his chin thoughtfully, as if he were considering what color wallpaper to use in the resort lobby. "I may try to buy his silence, since he's incriminated himself by trying to buy his sister's freedom. On the other hand, it might be best just to dispense with him, too. I hate loose ends, don't you?"

  Nancy gasped. "Come on, Gibbs," she called out in desperation. "You're not a killer! Call this thing off before it's too late."

  "No. I'm a businessman, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect my interests."

  Daniel tugged on the rope one more time, then the two men stepped back.

  "Goodbye, Nancy," Gibbs said politely. "It's been a pleasure. But soon it will be high tide— and then farewell to Nancy Drew."

  Chapter Sixteen

  GIBBS AND Daniel turned and climbed over the jagged rocks and out of sight. A few minutes later Nancy heard the motorboat roar to life, then the sound fade as it sped away.

  She glanced down at the rising water, which now reached halfway up her chest. She had to get out of the tide pool before it was too late!

  Nancy pushed against the sandy bottom, but the rope around her waist was just tight enough to keep her down. If she could loosen the bindings on her hands and feet, she thought desperately, she'd have a chance of escaping.

  A giant wave crashed over the rocks, and Nancy sputtered as water hit her face. When her vision cleared, she searched the bottom of the tide pool. The rope on her ankles seemed to be a little worn. She knew she couldn't break it, but a sharp object might cut through it.

  Nancy felt around quickly with her hands, but the surface of the boulder was as smooth as glass. As she felt to the right, however, she found that the rock jutted out into a shelf.

  "Ouch!" she said, wincing as she reached under the rock shelf. Small, sharp objects were growing there. Barnacles!

  The water had already reached Nancy's shoulders. Working quickly, she stretched her wrists apart until the rope between them was taut, then she rubbed the rope against the sharp, calcified shells. After a few minutes she stopped rubbing to feel the rope with her fingers. It was shredding but too slowly. The water was up to her chin!

  Panic welled up inside Nancy as she worked the bindings against the barnacles. Her heart raced with each wave that splashed into the deepening tide pool. She gave the rope another pull and—snap! It split in two. Her hands were free!

  Nancy flexed her fingers, then quickly went to work on the double knot around her waist. The tide had risen so high that she now had to strain upward, take deep breaths, and work underwater.

  Finally the knot loosened and Nancy ripped it open. The slackened rope floated away from her as she propelled herself above the surface, gasping for air.

  She was free!

  Taking huge, gulping breaths, Nancy crawled back onto the boulder and reached down to untie the rope around her ankles. There wasn't a minute to spare. She had to find a way back to St. John to stop Gibbs and his men from killing her friends—if it wasn't too late already!

  Finding small toeholds, Nancy slowly scaled the jagged cliffside. As she climbed, she tried to remember everything Vincent had told them about the Devil's Chain that day in the glass-bottomed boat. Hadn't he said something about dark pits you could fall into? she thought nervously.

  She kept away from the shadows, pausing when she reached a wide stone ledge. From there she could cut
inland, away from the barren cliflfs, and search the island for trees and plants. If she could find some dry brush, she could start a signal fire to attract the attention of passing boats and planes.

  She was crossing the ledge when she noticed a dark opening in the rock. Edging closer, she saw that it was the mouth of a cave. Her skin prickled as she peered into the blackness.

  Nancy froze as she glimpsed a movement in the cave. She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness. Soon she was able to make out a shadowy figure. Her pulse pounded in her ears as she tried to focus in the darkness. She couldn't tell what the creature was, but it was moving toward her!

  Nancy backed out of the cave and flattened herself against the stone wall, gripping the jagged surface. She gasped as the figure stepped out onto the sunny ledge.

  It was a young woman! She was barefoot and her clothes were tattered, but she moved with a graceful stride. The slight, dark-haired woman glared suspiciously at Nancy.

  As Nancy got a closer look at the girl's almond-shaped brown eyes and pale complexion, she knew immediately who she was—she had stumbled onto Ricky Angeles's sister!

  "Maria?"

  A puzzled expression crossed the girl's face. "How do you— You're not with them, are you?" she asked, backing away.

  "Your brother sent me to find you," Nancy explained gently, trying to calm the girl down. "Ricky's been worried sick about you." She smiled warmly at Maria. "I'm Nancy Drew, a friend of your brother's. Are you okay?"

  Maria was baffled as she shook Nancy's hand. "I'm fine. How did you find me here?"

  "That's a long story," Nancy said. "I'll try to explain everything as we work, but first we need to start a signal fire. Do you know where we can find some dry leaves or grass?"

  "Follow me," Maria said with a nod. As she led Nancy from the stone ledge to a sandy path, she explained. "I've combed every inch of this island in the days that I've been here. I was left here by two men, who stole all my things then went off in a motorboat. After my long trip from the Philippines, I was so exhausted I didn't know what to do."