Nancy read a few more pages before closing her eyes herself and letting the lake breezes cool her face.
When Bess screamed, it took Nancy a few minutes to remember where she was.
“What’s wrong?” Nancy gasped.
“My bag is gone. It had my purse in it!” Bess cried. “Somebody stole it!”
Nancy and George quickly found that their canvas bags were where they had left them.
Nancy looked around. “I know how it was done,” she said. She walked to the corner. “Someone was hiding here”—she pointed around the corner—“and reached out and took your bag, Bess. It was the one on the end, so it was the easiest to take.”
“What are we going to do?” Bess said. “It has all my money and …”
“Well, at least we know the thief can’t have left the ship,” Nancy said. “Let’s go to the reception desk and report the loss.”
They were already on the same deck as the reception desk, so they hurried there as fast as Bess’s crutches would allow.
Just as they rounded a corner Bess shouted, “There it is!” Sure enough, Bess’s canvas bag was sitting on top of the counter.
No one was manning the desk, but there was a bell to ring for service. Nancy hit it with her palm.
Meredith appeared through a door that was obviously some kind of office. “Hi!” she said brightly. “What may I do for you?”
“This is my bag!” Bess said.
“Oh … all right,” Meredith said. “Did you want to leave it here … or something?”
“No, it was stolen from me!” Bess said. “And I want it back.”
It was obvious to Nancy that Meredith didn’t have a clue as to what was happening.
“Did you know this bag was here on the counter?” Nancy asked.
“No, I’ve been doing some paperwork in the office,” Meredith explained. “Rae Dawn is sick, Sheila has transferred to another area, and I’m totally behind. I put this bell out here so passengers could ring it if they needed service.”
“So you didn’t see how this bag got here?” George said.
Meredith shook her head. “Sorry.”
“Okay, well, it does belong to Bess,” Nancy said, “and it was stolen just a few minutes ago from her while we were relaxing on deck.”
“Oh, I see. That’s horrible!” Meredith said. She looked around. “I’m not quite sure what to do in this case, since the bag’s here.”
“Don’t worry,” Bess said. “I’ll just take it, and we can forget about it.”
“You’d better look inside and see if everything is still there,” George said.
“Good idea,” Bess said. She rummaged through the bag, checked her wallet for missing money and credit cards, and then, finding nothing gone, she said, “Oddly enough, it’s all here.”
“Good!” Meredith said.
Nancy could see the relief on her face. “I guess we’ll let you get back to your paperwork,” she said.
Meredith gave them a big smile, then returned to the office.
As they started back toward the elevator Nancy said, “We were lucky this time.”
“I’m not so sure,” Bess said.
George looked at her. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Nothing’s missing, but everything is all messed up,” Bess said. “It’s obvious that somebody went through my things—looking for something.”
10
Craig Is Missing
“Why would someone go through my things and not take anything?” Bess asked. “Especially since I had a lot of cash and credit cards.”
“The person clearly didn’t want any of that,” Nancy said. “Whoever did it wanted to find out about you.”
George turned to her friend. “What do you mean, Nancy?”
“Someone on this ship knows that he—or she—is being watched,” Nancy explained, “and they want to know more about who’s doing the watching.”
“Why didn’t they take your canvas bag, then, Nancy?” Bess asked. “You’re the one who’s most involved.”
