Bess took each step as if she expected it to tip her into the water. Reaching the island at last, she whispered to Nancy, “Never again! I’d rather swim!”
“You won’t have to,” Nancy whispered back, pointing to a small boat with an outboard motor tied up nearby. “We can borrow their boat instead.”
Nancy and Bess crept up to the cabin. There was a tiny, square window about six feet to the left of the door. They approached it cautiously and peered inside.
Nancy heard Bess gasp.
Inside was a rustic living room with a hardwood floor and knotty pine furniture. Cody, his back to the window, was talking earnestly to a blond girl with a round, moonlike face and swollen eyes. In a moment Nancy realized with shock who it was.
Cindy!
At that same moment, Cindy looked past Cody at the window. Her eyes met Nancy’s. Her mouth flew open in alarm.
Cindy said something to Cody, who looked quickly over his shoulder and saw them. He sprang for the door. Looking around, Nancy spied a pile of firewood and grabbed a piece. She braced herself, ready for a fight.
Cody came charging out the door. He skidded to a stop when he saw Nancy brandishing the wood. “Whoa,” he said, holding up both palms. “We don’t want a fight. We need to talk to you.”
“Go ahead,” Nancy said, ready for anything. “Talk.”
Cody glanced around nervously. “Can we go inside?”
Nancy nodded warily. Cody reentered the cabin, with Bess and Nancy right behind him. As they crossed the porch, Nancy tossed her piece of firewood on a stack of logs, next to a rusty ax and a red metal gasoline can for the motorboat.
Cindy came running over to greet them. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you,” she cried, throwing her arms around Bess, then around Nancy. “This has been such a nightmare, I can’t tell you.”
It occurred to Nancy that Cindy could have seen them anytime, if she’d simply come out of hiding. “It’s been rough for a lot of people,” she said. “Carlo, Ms. Bowers, your mom . . . ”
“I don’t know how I’ll make it up to everyone,” Cindy declared, tears brimming in her eyes. “But I will, I swear!”
“Cindy, what happened to your face?” Bess asked sympathetically. “It’s an allergy attack, right?”
Cindy stepped backward, flushing with embarrassment. “Let’s sit down,” she said. “I’ll tell you the whole story.”
There were chairs near the fireplace. Once they were settled, Cindy started. “When I woke up the day before yesterday,” she said, “I knew I couldn’t let anybody see me. You must think I look grotesque now, but this is nothing compared to that morning. I didn’t even think, I just ran.”
Nancy nodded toward a pink stuffed pig propped up on the table. “Taking Wilbur along, I see,” she noted.
“I figured I needed all the good luck I could get,” Cindy admitted. “So I crammed him into a shoulder bag, with a toothbrush and a few clothes, and caught the train to O’Hare.”
“The airport?” Bess asked, surprised. “Why?”
Cindy shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “I guess I was thinking about flying somewhere far away. But when I got to the airport, the first thing I saw was an ad with my picture on it. That’s when I realized I couldn’t run away—people would surely recognize me. So I decided to hide instead.”
“When you called me that morning, Nancy, I had no idea where Cindy was,” Cody added. “But she called me from O’Hare a minute later. I drove up to get her as fast as I could, then brought her here to my uncle’s weekend cabin.”
“Which one of you thought up the kidnap hoax?” Nancy asked.
“Me,” Cody admitted. “When I found out about that escape clause in the contract, I realized that Cindy couldn’t simply drop out of sight. So I called Ann Bowers and pretended to be a kidnapper. Then I went over and said I’d got a call, too.”
Bess said, “We spotted you eavesdropping at Carlo’s studio and chased you into the freight tunnels.”
“How did you know it was me?” Cody asked, amazed.
“We saw your footprint on the stairs,” Nancy told him. “You left the same print when you tried to crush us with that Dumpster.”
“What?” Cindy demanded. “Cody, what is she talking about?”
“They tracked down your herbalist,” he told her. “I was afraid they’d figure it all out. So I decided to distract them. I knew they’d have time to get out of the way. Dumpsters don’t roll very fast.”
“Was that why you slashed Nancy’s jacket on the subway, too?” Bess asked, giving him a steely look. “To distract us?”
He stared at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nancy studied his face. He seemed sincere.
“Look, none of this really matters anymore,” Cindy said miserably. “I’ve had time to do a lot of thinking out here, and I’ve decided I have to give up the Healthibits campaign.”
“Cindy! Why?” Bess protested.
“How could I film a commercial, eating Healthibits?” Cindy explained. “I’d swell up on the first take! Besides, I couldn’t sell a product I’m allergic to. I’d be living a lie.”
“But, Cindy—” Nancy started to say.
“What hurts most is how they lied to me,” Cindy went on, getting more and more worked up. “I asked, you know. I asked Stella if Healthibits had nuts in it. She told me it didn’t. I didn’t say why I was asking—I pretended I just didn’t like nuts. But why did she lie to me like that?”
“She didn’t!” Bess broke in. “Healthibits doesn’t contain nuts. We confirmed that this morning with Sherman Pike.”
“Then what made my face swell up?” Cindy demanded. “I had a bowl of Healthibits the other night, and the next morning I looked like something from a horror movie!”
“The box in your apartment did contain nuts,” Nancy told her. “Bess tried some, and she tasted the nuts. But they must have been added after the box was opened. Somebody played a very dirty trick on you.” Nancy found herself looking over at Cody. His expression showed obvious surprise.
