Cindy jumped up. “You mean I can do the campaign after all? That’s fantastic!”
Cody was still taking in the news. “Who would do such a thing, Nancy?” he asked.
Cindy had already grabbed Wilbur and started for the door. “Who cares, Cody?” she declared. “What are you waiting for? I’ve got to get back and explain to everybody. I just hope they can forgive me for running away.”
She grabbed the wrought-iron door latch and tugged. It didn’t move. “It’s stuck,” Cindy said, confused. “Or locked.”
“It can’t be locked,” Cody said, joining her. “There’s a hasp for a padlock outside, but the padlock is over there on the mantel.”
He, too, tugged at the door. It didn’t budge.
Nancy got up to help. But as she moved past the window, a sharp whiff of gasoline caught her nose.
Nancy ran to the window and looked out. An orange glow whooshed up, flickering against the bushes around the cabin.
Nancy tried to keep her voice very calm. “We’d better find a way out, right away,” she said. “Somebody’s set the cabin on fire!”
16
Ablaze!
The smell of gasoline gave way to the smell of burning wood. A little trickle of gray smoke drifted in under the bottom of the door. Cody gripped the handle with both hands, braced one foot against the wall, and heaved. The door didn’t open.
Cindy stood in the center of the room, clutching Wilbur in her arms and breathing shallowly. Nancy was sure she was about to faint. “Bess?” Nancy said in a low voice. “Take care of Cindy. I’ll look for a way out.”
The three windows in the living room were high and small. Cody had pushed a table against the wall, under one of them, and was trying to climb out the narrow opening. He got his head and shoulders through, but he couldn’t go any further.
Meanwhile, behind a curtain, Nancy found a door that led onto the deck. She tugged at the knob, but it wouldn’t budge. The upper half of the door was four small panes of glass. Nancy took one step back, swiveled on her left foot, and kicked out with her right. One of the window-panes shattered, and the thin wooden frame cracked.
She kicked again and again, smashing the rest of the panes. By then Cody had joined her. He wrapped his jacket around his hand and knocked out the jagged pieces of glass that still remained.
“Okay, everybody, let’s get out this way!” Nancy shouted. Cody helped Cindy and Bess climb through the waist-high opening. Then he hoisted himself out and turned back to help Nancy. The narrow deck hung out over the water, but one end was just a couple of feet from the island. Nancy climbed onto the railing and jumped the gap, then offered a hand to the others.
In seconds everyone was safe on dry land. Nancy ran to the front of the cabin, looking for a hose, a bucket, or anything to help fight the fire.
At the corner of the house, she skidded to a stop. “Hey, it’s not the cabin that’s on fire,” she called to the others, who were hurrying up behind her. “It’s the footbridge!”
Several planks at the near end of the wooden bridge were burning as well as the wide poles the supporting ropes were lashed to. Before Nancy and her companions could do anything, the flames ate through the ropes. The bridge sagged and then fell into the water, with a hiss of steam.
“Someone’s trying to trap us on the island,” Nancy said.
“How do we get off?” Cindy wailed. “I can’t swim!”
Cody gave her a quick hug. “Don’t worry,” he said. “There’s still the motorboat.”
Nancy inspected the front door of the cabin before joining the others in the boat. “No wonder we couldn’t get out,” she told them. “The intruder stuck a thick stick through the steel loop where the padlock usually goes. We could never have forced the door open from inside.”
After half a dozen jerks on the starter cord, Cody got the outboard motor going. Two minutes later, they were scrambling out near the narrow path that led back to the clearing and Cody’s car.
Cody moored the boat to a tree, and then took the lead. As they reached the clearing, he let out an angry yell. “I’ll strangle him!” he shouted. “Just give me two minutes alone with the creep who did this!”
Nancy looked past him to see what was the matter. All four tires on Cody’s car were flat. Deep gashes on the treads showed that someone had gone at them with a knife.
Cody jerked the door open and looked inside. “He stole the cellular phone, too,” he announced. “Now what will we do?”
“Maybe my car is okay,” Nancy suggested. “I left it out of sight on the other side of the road.”
The four teens jogged down the dirt track to the highway. Nancy’s convertible was still where she had parked it, and the tires were still fine.
“Whew! He didn’t see it,” Bess said gratefully.
“Either that, or he was in too much of a hurry to damage it,” Nancy said as she unlocked the doors. “Or maybe he thought the jammed door and burned bridge would be enough to keep us out of his hair.”
“Or maybe he tampered with the motor,” Cody added grimly as he hopped in. “Check it out, Nancy.”
Nancy slid into her seat and tried the ignition. The Mustang started at once. “Next stop, Chicago!” she called.
As they pulled onto the road, the teens speculated about who had followed them to the cabin. “I assume it’s the same person who put nuts into your cereal, Cindy,” Nancy said. “But the way this crazy case has been going, you never know.” She quickly filled in Cody and Cindy on Erik Johansen’s confession to the incidents at Carlo’s studio.
Then Nancy asked Cindy more questions about the box of cereal. Who had had the opportunity to add crushed nuts to it?
“I brought it home that afternoon,” Cindy explained. “It was the first sample the company had given me, so I was eager to taste it. I ate a little bit then, and nothing bad happened. Then, before I went to sleep, I wanted a snack, so I took it to the kitchen and poured out a bowlful.”
“And you put the box back in your room?” Bess asked, turning from the front seat to face Cindy.
“Not right then,” Cindy remembered. “I felt really restless, so I went out for a long walk.”
“The nuts must have been added while the box was in the kitchen, during the evening,” Bess said. “Who was in the apartment during that time?”
