Club Dread (6 page)

NANCY

I woke up in the morning to a text message from Joe, warning me about danger. I texted him back, letting him know I had some news of my own, and we made plans to meet up that afternoon at the café. I guess they wanted to sleep in for once—this was definitely more of a vacation for me than it was for them. Something must have gone down in the night, but I'd have to wait a few hours to find out what.

I looked around. Our new suite was even more beautiful than the first. This one had an underwater theme. One whole wall was a giant aquarium, with all kinds of fish, from tiny pink ones the size of my finger to a giant yellow-and-green-striped fish that was bigger than my head. There was even an octopus hiding at the
bottom of the tank, trying its best to blend in with the coral around it. There were more than seventy fish in total. And I know, because I spent all morning counting them, too excited and nervous to do anything else.

“So you think this Petrovitch guy might be in league with Nikitin?” Bess asked me, leaning on one of the couches that looked like coral but was much softer and more comfortable. She was wearing what I thought of as her “action Bess” outfit—a pair of frayed jean shorts, sneakers, and a pink tank top. On anyone else, it would have looked boring. On Bess, it looked like it could have come straight from a runway in Paris. We were all dressed to investigate—shorts we could run in, our hair pulled back. For the time being, our vacation was officially over.

“Maybe. It seems like it would be possible. But we need something that would connect them. I mean, I've never even seen them together. But Petrovitch was pretty angry at the guests here, and Joe seemed certain Nikitin was involved.”

George, as usual, was on her computer. I thought she was checking her e-mail, or playing solitaire, or surfing the Web, but I should have known better. She was doing what she did best.

“It's funny—I can't find any records for ‘Andrew Nikitin' anywhere,” said George, her fingers flying across the keys. “It's almost like he doesn't exist. No
address, no phone number, nothing. Sorry, Nancy, I can't get you anything on him. But I did find this.

“It's a newspaper article about Jasmina's assault and robbery. The usual stuff, basically what we already know. But listen to this: ‘There was no sign of forced entry, leading authorities to speculate that the victim knew her attacker.'” George stopped reading.

“Hmmm,” I began. “So if it was Petrovitch—”

“If it was Petrovitch, it would make sense that there was no evidence of a break-in, since she was expecting him,” George finished.

I nodded. It did seem to fit in with what we knew. And perhaps the robberies were getting more violent because Petrovitch himself was getting angrier and angrier. One thing was for sure, I needed to talk this all over with Joe and Frank.

“How was your date with Matthias, George?” Bess asked, trying to change the subject and distract us for a while.

“It wasn't a date. I mean, not really,” George stammered. “But it was good. He's definitely a little odd. Uptight, but nice. He showed me all around the swamp. There are some beautiful islands hidden out there. You'd never find them if you didn't know exactly where to go. And he gave me this present—”

There was a knock at the door. We all jumped, and then laughed at ourselves. We were a little bit on edge.
When I opened the door, a bellhop in a Wetlands uniform was standing there holding a silver tray. It was Thatcher again! He winked at me, and then bowed deeply, enjoying his uniformed role. He lifted the silver lid off his platter and held the platter out to me. On it was a small envelope. I opened it up while Thatcher watched.

Inside, it read,
You are cordially invited to dine today with Mr. Jack Thorton. 4:00 p.m. in the White Heron Restaurant.

“May I inform Mr. Thorton that you will be joining him?” Thatcher's rich Australian accent rang out.

I nodded, too overwhelmed by the silly formality of it to speak. Thatcher smiled, tipped his hat, and left. I was curious to finally meet Mr. Thorton in person. Perhaps he'd have some insight on the robberies.

As Thatcher got into the elevator, he called out over his shoulder, “Oh, and if your friends don't have other plans this afternoon, there's going to be a barbecue on the beach today. I could give them both surfing lessons.”

“Sure,” Bess and George yelled out. Thatcher gave me a thumbs-up as the elevator doors closed. Looks like we all had big plans for this evening!

Finally, lunchtime rolled around. We were headed out the door when Bess called my name.

“You forgot something, Nancy.” In her left hand, Bess was holding my sandals. I looked down at my bare feet and blushed. It was a sure sign I was on a case when I
was too distracted to remember to put on my shoes. I was thankful for my friends at moments like these.

At the Courtyard Café, Frank and Joe were wearing normal clothes, not their uniforms. Today was their day off, and they were free to try and find some answers. Quickly, they told us all about what had happened to them last night.

“Wow, I'm glad you weren't hurt,” said Bess, reaching out to put her hand on Frank's shoulder. Frank blushed beet red and seemed to swallow his own tongue. He coughed and took a big drink of water.

“Luckily, I came along just in time to save him,” said Joe, but Bess was too busy patting Frank on the back to notice Joe. Once Frank stopped choking, I told them everything I'd learned the night before at the spa.

“So I think Petrovitch is in on it—maybe he's even Nikitin's partner,” I summed up.

George showed them the article she had found about Jasmina's attack. It felt like we had all the pieces of the puzzle in front of us, but for whatever reason, it still wasn't coming together.

“We need something to link Petrovitch and Nikitin,” said Frank. “But until we figure it out, Nancy, you might need to lie low for a while.”

George laughed and mumbled something under her breath that sounded like “fat chance.” She knew me too well.

“Yeah,” Joe added. “This is getting a dangerous. If you had been the one out on your balcony—”

“Exactly,” I cut Joe off. “
Our
balcony. Whoever set that trap already knows we're involved. If we back off, that just means fewer people trying to solve this case. Besides, I think I know just the person we need to talk to—and I have plans with him tonight.”

I told Frank and Joe about Mr. Thorton's invitation. They didn't much like it, but they didn't have a choice. As lowly busboys, there was no way
they
would ever get to talk to him. And if anyone knew more about the robberies or the employees at the Wetlands than Mr. Thorton, I would be amazed. I'd try to find out as much as I could about both Andrew Nikitin and Petrovitch.

“All right,” Frank said. “But leave Petrovitch to us.”

“Be careful,” I told them. Petrovitch was bigger than both of the Hardys combined. He could have bench-pressed them!

“Don't worry.” Joe grinned. “I can take care of Frank.”

Well,
I thought,
Frank and Joe can take care of themselves. Most of the time.

Bess, George, and I decided to head out to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. There didn't seem to be anything more we could do around the hotel. I had the feeling that, by the end of the day, we'd have some answers, one way or another.

I was standing to go when Matthias came running up out of nowhere. His hair was messy and he looked upset. His face was red and he was breathing hard. His uniform was soaked with sweat.

“Where have you been?” he barked at Joe and Frank. Then he noticed George was sitting with us and tried to smile.

“I'm sorry to interrupt,” he said. “I've just been looking for Joe and Frank all morning.”

“We had the day off, so we decided to sleep late,” Frank said.

“For once,” Joe mumbled after.

“Well, even on your day off you're supposed to be wearing your ID badges. I think we went over that in your staff orientation, did we not?” Matthias was getting worked up. His words were very precise, like a teacher's when he is upset and trying not to let it show.

“Chill out,” Joe said. “I've got mine in my pocket.”

“You do?” said Matthias. “Let's see it.”

Joe fumbled through his pockets and came up empty-handed. He said something about forgetting to take it out of his uniform. Matthias started railing on him again about how important it was that they carry their IDs at all times. For an “old friend,” he didn't seem to like Joe and Frank very much.

“We were just leaving,” I said to Matthias. “Would you like my chair?” It was weird having him towering
over all of us, looking so angry. At least if he was sitting down, it wouldn't be quite so uncomfortable.

Frank and Joe seemed embarrassed, even though it wasn't their fault Matthias was behaving so rudely.

“Oh,” he said, looking only at George. He seemed to suddenly remember we were here. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to smooth it back into place. “You're leaving? I hope you enjoyed the tour yesterday. I'd love to get to take you out again while you're here.”

“Maybe,” said George coolly. Frank and Joe were friends of hers, and as much as Matthias might be cute, she wouldn't tolerate anyone yelling at them.

“I was thinking maybe this evening, if you don't have any plans, we could go to the beach, or out for dinner?”

“Actually, Bess and I have plans tonight,” George said, linking her arm through Bess's. “But thanks for the offer.”

With that, we left.

FRANK

Once Nancy, Bess, and George left, Matthias really got down to business. The business of chewing us out, that is.

“Where were you last night, Joe? I find it incredibly irresponsible that you would leave your assigned post in the middle of an investigation.”

Matthias made it sound like Joe had left a stakeout, or something else important, not just a sink full of dishes.

“I had something bad, man. I was puking everywhere. You wouldn't have wanted me to stay in that kitchen.” Joe tried his best to look sick, but it was pretty clear Matthias wasn't buying it. “It must have been one of those twenty-four-hour bugs. Maybe food poisoning or something.” He coughed a little, for good measure.

I tossed him an eye roll.

“I am beginning to doubt how serious you two are about solving this crime. I've got to say, I was expecting more from the two of you. Everyone says you're the golden boys of ATAC.”

“What?” Joe said. “That's crazy. We're just agents like anyone else.” Joe realized he was starting to get loud, and pulled his chair in closer. It wouldn't be good for the entire restaurant to hear that we were secret agents.

Sure, our dad had started ATAC, but we never received any special treatment because of it. If I didn't know better, I would have said Matthias sounded…
jealous
. He must have been really nervous about this case. I guess it meant a lot more to him, since he'd been working down here for so long.

Maybe we were wrong to keep what we had learned from him—he might have been annoying, but he was still a fellow ATAC agent, and we needed to do our best to work with him. I decided to tell him what had actually happened last night.

“Look, Matthias, the truth is—”

“I'm really growing tired of your excuses,” Matthias said. “From now on, I'd appreciate it if you two would follow my orders. Perhaps we could really get somewhere then. Now go get your staff IDs.”

Ohhhh-kay. Maybe I didn't need to tell him anything after all.

Joe was practically shaking with anger, and I put my hand on his shoulder to calm him down. The last thing we needed was for him and Matthias to get into a screaming match in the middle of the hotel. We started to walk away, when Matthias called out over his shoulder.

“Oh, and, Joe? Try not to get any more
food poisoning,
okay?”

All the way back to our room, Joe kept muttering under his breath about Matthias. When we finally got there, he swung the door open and it banged against the wall.

“Hey, calm down,” I said.

Joe looked embarrassed.

“Sorry. He just gets on my nerves, you know?”

“Yeah. But we've only got a few more days to get to the bottom of this. So what's our plan?”

I grabbed our staff IDs while we were talking. The photo of me was terrible—my hair was a mess and my skin was breaking out when they took it. The IDs themselves were weirdly clunky. Much heavier than I would have expected. I tossed Joe's ID to him.

“Let's find Petrovitch,” Joe said. “Maybe if we talk to him, he'll let something slip.”

“Yeah, like ‘Oh, hi, I'm Petrovitch. I've been robbing this hotel blind. What's your name?'”

“Okay, hotshot. You got a better plan?”

He had me there. From what Nancy said, Petrovitch wasn't the kind of guy we'd want to catch us breaking into his place. We left our room and headed toward the spa. I figured we'd have to set up a stakeout and follow him to someplace where we could talk. But we were in luck.

“Hey, Frank, check it out—over by the employee pool.”

The pool had been closed in the morning while the cleanup crew dragged the balcony out of it, but it seemed like it was open now. I turned and looked as we walked past. Huge, bald, and lying out on one of the deck chairs—that had to be Petrovitch.

 

Suspect Profile

Name:
Petrovitch

Occupation:
Massage therapist

Suspicious behaviors:
Last person to see Jasmina the night she was attacked. Has anger-management problems. Hates rich guests.

Danger factor:
Anger could easily get out of hand.

 

“So—guess it's time for us to go swimming, eh?” I said. Finally, this mission was starting to look up.

Joe tore off his T-shirt and whooped.

“Race you?” Joe said.

We ran to the pool. Thankfully, we were at the deep
end, so when we made it to the edge, I dove straight in. I could feel Joe doing the same next to me. The cold water came as a shock after the days of hot sun and even hotter dishwater. I surfaced halfway down the pool.

“Ha! Beat you, old man,” Joe said.

“No way. I was
definitely
in the water before you.”

“You wish!”

We drifted over to the side of the pool where Petrovitch was lying, debating as we went. We played water games for a while. Eventually, we got out and flopped down on two of the chairs, conveniently placing Petrovitch between us. Up close, he was even bigger than Nancy had said—like three people pasted together.

“Hey there,” I said.

Petrovitch grunted and opened one giant eye.

“Did you see us jump in? Which one of us hit the water first?”

“Don't know.” He grunted and closed his eyes. I could hear the accent Nancy had mentioned, and I felt a slight thrill—this had to be the right guy.

“So, do you work here too?” Joe tried to get him talking.

“Yep.”

This time, he didn't even bother opening one of his eyes.

“We just started,” I said. “Got any tips for new people?”

Silence. I thought he might have fallen asleep. So far, our fact-finding mission was a total bust. He had seemed eager to talk to Nancy. Maybe it was because she was a pretty girl—a totally unfair advantage. Or maybe we were just trying the wrong tack.

“Bleh. I can't believe we have to work in the kitchen again tomorrow, Joe. This job is the worst.” Hopefully Joe would catch on.

“I know,” Joe said, anger creeping into his voice. “And the guests—man! They act like we're not even people sometimes.”

“Ha!” A deep rumble came from Petrovitch. I thought it might be a laugh. “That's because we are not people, not to them.”

“Totally,” I agreed. Actually, I'd found most of the guests to be really nice, but there were a few spoiled types who were clearly used to having people wait on them hand and foot.

“It just gets me so angry,” Joe continued. “It's like, without us, there wouldn't be a resort. So the least they could do is be respectful.”

“All day, every day, it's, ‘Do this!' or, ‘Get that!'” Both of Petrovitch's eyes were open now, and he had raised himself up on his elbows. “I didn't even have to work this hard on my family's farm!” He made a noise of disgust.

“Yeah, it's ridiculous!” I said.

Petrovitch was really on a roll now.

“No one respects the laborers. The people who put bread on their table.”

“Right,” said Joe. “I guess they're getting what they deserve now, with these robberies and all.”

Petrovitch stopped dead. I could feel him freeze up. Did we go too far too soon? Did he think we were onto him?

“My friend, these are dangerous waters you are wading in,” he said. “I have seen what happens when people think they can take these things into their own hands, and it goes to a bloody place. What we need is a union, not a bunch of thugs.”

“Well, what about what happened to that singer? Jasmina? Wasn't she just getting what she deserved?” This was our chance, and I jumped on it.

“What do you know about that?” Petrovitch roared. “She was a nice girl! Whoever did that to her is an animal.” He seemed genuinely upset about Jasmina. If he was acting, he deserved an Oscar.

“Someone told us you were close to her. That you had seen her on the night she was attacked.” I tried to be as calm as I could. Petrovitch was beginning to draw attention, and I needed to keep him talking.

“Bah! I already went over this with the police.” He
shook his head in disgust. “These filthy rumors. Yes, I saw her that night. But when I left, she was fine. And she had another visitor after me, a tall guy.”

“Who? What did he look like?” I was too excited to hold my questions in. If someone else had been in Jasmina's suite that night, we needed to find him.

The loud ring of a cell phone broke through our conversation. Petrovitch pulled it out of his pocket.

“Da? Okay. I'll be there immediately.”

He stood up.

“See? Even on our days off, they make us work. But believe me, friends, violence is not the answer to this. I'm organizing a union meeting next week, for all of us workers to come together. I hope to see you there.”

“Wait!” I called after him, but Petrovitch was already running toward the main part of the hotel, taking the information we needed with him. We had been so close!

“What do you think?” Joe said.

“Nancy was right—he certainly is angry. But I don't think he was lying to us.”

“Yeah, me either.”

“We need to find out who was the last person to see Jasmina.”

“Agreed.” Joe looked longingly at the pool. “Maybe there's a clue in there?”

“Well, ATAC always tells us to investigate every
possible angle, right? And we've got some time to kill before we check in with Nancy, so…”

I leaped in. This time, I definitely hit the water first.

 

JOE

Please. I totally beat you.