Carolyn Keene - Hit and Run Holiday

“Because he works for Lila Templeton,” Bess finished with a groan. “How come I always fall for the wrong guy?” she asked, plopping down on one of the beds. “This time I really, really thought I’d found somebody special, and he turns out to be a creep, the creep!”

Nancy couldn’t help laughing. “Don’t feel too bad, Bess. I fell for him, too.” Grinning, she told them about the broken pole on her windsurfing sail. “I mean I really fell for him!”

“Well, now that we’ve got it all figured out,” George said, “what are we going to do about it?”

“Good question,” Bess remarked. “The only one who can prove anything is Maria, and who knows where she is?”

“Kim could prove it,” Nancy said, “if she’s still . . .” Instead of finishing the awful thought, Nancy reached for the phone and dialed Kim’s hospital room. “Now there’s no answer at all,” she reported.

“What could that mean?” Bess asked.

“I don’t know.” Nancy suddenly jumped up and headed for the door. “Come on, let’s get to the hospital and find out.”

Half an hour later, Nancy, Bess, and George were standing nervously outside the door to Kim’s hospital room. They looked at each other for a moment; then Nancy took a deep breath and pushed it open.

Kim was gone.

The bed was empty and freshly made, ready for a new patient. The only reminders of Kim were two flower arrangements—one was dried and drooping, but the second looked as if it had just been delivered.

Bess’s eyes filled with tears. “We’re too late,” she whispered.

George bit her lip. “I can’t believe she’s—”

“Wait a minute,” Nancy broke in. “This doesn’t have to mean she’s dead. Maybe they moved her to a different room or took her for tests or X rays or something. Come on!”

The three friends dashed out of the room and headed down the hall. As they turned a corner they heard a loud commotion at the nurses’ station.

“I never authorized any such thing!” a voice cried. “How could you possibly think I would?”

It was Kim’s mother, but she didn’t look grief-stricken. She looked furious.

“Mrs. Baylor?” Nancy rushed up to her. “What’s going on?”

“I’d like to know myself!” Mrs. Baylor exclaimed. “I leave my daughter’s room for all of twenty minutes to get a cup of coffee in the cafeteria and what do I find when I come back? An empty bed, that’s what I find. With no daughter in it!”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Baylor,” the nurse said nervously. “But the doctor who signed her out said you wanted her taken back to River Heights as soon as possible.”

“That’s ridiculous! Why would I have her moved at such a crucial time?”

“You mean Kim had gotten even worse?” Nancy asked.

“No, she was getting better! Just a couple of hours ago, she actually woke up,” Mrs. Baylor explained. “She didn’t say anything, of course, she was too weak. But she knew who I was—she smiled at me before she went back to sleep. The doctors said it would be just a matter of days before she’d be back on her feet.” She turned to the nurse again. “They also told me it was very important to keep her quiet and calm,” she said accusingly. “It would be the most ridiculous thing in the world for me to take her back to River Heights right now!”

The nurse started to say something, but Mrs. Baylor didn’t give her a chance. “I’m going to see your supervisor right this minute,” she told her. “And you’d better hope she has some answers for me! If she doesn’t, heads are going to roll around here!” Without a backward glance, Mrs. Baylor strode to the elevator and furiously punched the button.

When she was gone, the red-faced nurse puffed out about a gallon of air. “This is definitely not my day,” she complained. “I’m new here and all I did was follow a doctor’s orders, and now my job’s on the line!”

Nancy barely heard her. “If we’d just gotten here an hour ago, this whole thing would never have happened,” she muttered.

“What are you talking about?” Bess asked.

“Those flowers,” Nancy said, pacing back and forth in front of the desk.

“What flowers?”

“In Kim’s room, remember? One of the bouquets was drooping and the other was fresh. I’ll bet you a brand-new string bikini that they were both sent by the same person.”

“Lila?” George asked.

“Lila.” Nancy stopped pacing and shook her head. “Lila Templeton has been one step ahead of me ever since I got here. That tan hunk who works for her probably delivered those flowers so he could find out what shape Kim was in. When he realized she was recovering, he called Lila. That’s why the phone was busy. And Lila decided that Kim better disappear.”

Nancy thought for a moment, then suddenly turned to the nurse. “That doctor,” she said, “the one who signed Kim Baylor out. Who was he?”

“It wasn’t a he, honey,” the nurse replied. “That doctor was a she, and she had two of the cutest orderlies with her that I ever saw in my life.”

“Lila Templeton,” Nancy said again. “The doctor had blond hair, right?” she asked.

“Blond hair and big green eyes,” the nurse replied. “She was real friendly, smiled a lot.”

“A great bedside manner, huh?” Nancy asked with a wry smile. Without waiting for an answer, she looked at Bess and George. “We’ve got to get going,” she said.

“Where?” Bess wanted to know.

“To the Rosita .”

“You think Lila has Kim on her boat?” George asked.

“Kim and Maria,” Nancy said. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? They’re the only two people who can point a ringer at Lila. She knows she has to get rid of them, and the Rosita is a perfect way to do it.”

Bess’s face turned pale under its tan. “You mean she’ll kill them and dump them in the ocean?”

Nancy nodded. “Don’t forget Ricardo,” she said. “Lila Templeton has killed before, and unless we stop her, she’s going to kill again.”

Chapter Twelve

At seven-thirty that night, the Rosita sat peacefully at the dock, swaying slightly in the breeze. It was a beautiful boat, sleek and trim, but with enough deck space for close to fifty people to dance on. Its rails were strung with brightly colored lights, and from somewhere on board, powerful speakers blasted rock music into the evening air. It was scheduled to leave at eight o’clock, and already the decks were filling with laughing, joking people, eager to party the night away.

As Nancy, Bess, and George joined a crowd of kids heading for the gangplank, Nancy raised her eyes and scanned the crew on the small upper deck. “I just spotted my friend the maintenance man,” she whispered. “The florist is up there, too.”

“And there’s Dirk the Jerk,” Bess hissed. “Is it my imagination, or does he look nervous?”

Dirk Bowman, wearing white cotton shorts and a muscle-hugging T-shirt, was standing at the rail, his eyes roving over the approaching partiers.

“I’d be nervous too,” George said, “if I had Kim and Maria hidden away in the hold somewhere.”

“Lila probably ordered them all to keep an eye out for me,” Nancy said.

“But she thinks you’re dead,” Bess reminded her.

“She can’t be sure,” Nancy told her. “If she sent one of her goons to check, all he would have found is the sash from my sundress. Until she hears about my body being washed ashore, she can’t take any chances.”

“ We’re the ones taking a chance right now,” George remarked. “If Dirk spots the three of us together, he’s going to see right through our ‘disguises.’ ”

Nancy nodded. She wished they really could have disguised themselves, but after all, they had to wear clothes that were right for a party to nowhere. George had on a long striped caftan with a hood that covered her hair and shadowed her face. Bess, whose figure was a dead giveaway, especially to Dirk, had reluctantly decided on a pair of baggy cotton pants, rolled to the knees and topped with an oversized shirt patterned with gaudy palm trees. “I look like a tourist,” she’d complained, tucking her blond hair under a wide-brimmed straw hat.