"I"m glad we weren"t planning a trip for tomorrow," Bess said. "We"ll be better off sticking around here."
The next morning everyone else was already on the beach by the time Nancy finished breakfast and changed into her suit. As she walked down the path toward the water, she saw Bess and George posing on beached Windsurfers for Dimitri. The photographer was kneeling in the sand, taking their picture. Dressed in a black wet suit, he looked more like a diver than a photographer.
"I will have all your photos back to you tomorrow," Dimitri promised Bess, smiling as he strapped the bright yellow waterproof camera around his neck. "But now I must meet a group of British tourists who have hired me. They want me to take photos of them snorkeling so they can brag to their friends back home."
As Dimitri headed off down the beach, Bess walked over to the beach towel where Nancy had just sat down. "I"m afraid to see those photos he took of me that afternoon in Chora when you guys searched his studio. It was such a hot day-I probably look awful."
"All in the line of duty," Nancy teased, her eyes on Dimitri"s retreating form. Was his friendly smile just a cover-up for a master forger? Were he and Theo working together?
She lay down on her stomach. She was thinking about how to proceed with her investigation when she felt a splash of cold water on her back. She rolled over and sat up just as Mick tossed a snorkeling mask onto the beach towel beside her.
"Time for a dip, Nancy," he teased. "There are some amazing fish out there today."
"You"re on, Devlin," Nancy said. Grabbing the mask, she raced him to the clear turquoise water.
With the help of the snorkeling gear, she spent the next half hour exploring the underwater world of the Aegean Sea. A school of tiny silvery fish fluttered past her, tickling her legs as they went. Lingering over a clump of seaweed, she discovered fish in dazzling shades of blue, orange, and yellow. She carefully avoided a group of pincushiony sea urchins, whose spines could sting.
Mick was just pointing out a tiny gray octopus when Nancy caught sight of a diver out of the corner of her mask.
Turning her head, she saw that he was wearing a black wet suit, mask, and scuba-diving equipment-she couldn"t make out his features at all. Nancy was about to look away when she noticed a strange contraption in the diver"s arm. It looked like a cross between a rifle and an archery bow.
A second look made her gasp. The man was holding an underwater spear gun!
Grabbing Mick"s arm, Nancy twisted around in the water to point out the armed diver.
Just then the diver aimed the gun and fired! With a burst of bubbles, a sharp spear torpedoed straight toward Nancy and Mick!
Chapter Thirteen.
NANCY FELT her whole body go tight. Pressing her hands against Mick"s side, she pushed-as hard as one could push underwater-sending him in one direction while she moved in the other. A split second later she felt a rush of water as the spear zoomed past her.
Mick"s arms flailed for a moment. Then Nancy saw him start swimming off in the opposite direction from the diver. Following his lead, she kicked frantically through the water behind him.
Quickly she turned back to see if another spear was coming her way. The masked diver was loading another one!
Without a moment to waste, she and Mick pushed above the surface and swam, trying to put distance between them and the diver. Nancy knew that they could move more quickly if they weren"t under the surface, but with every stroke she took she thought about the sharp end of that spear.
Her muscles were screaming from exertion when she ducked her head under the water to check on the man with the spear gun. She was just in time to see the second spear veer off to her left. Then the diver turned and swam away from them.
Breaking through the surface, Nancy took a deep breath. "That was close," Mick said, coughing as he propped his mask on his head. "Did you get a look at that guy?"
Nancy pulled off her own snorkeling gear. "No, but there he is again!"
The diver had surfaced near a small motorboat that was floating some twenty yards away. Nancy watched as he tossed the spear gun into the boat, then heaved himself aboard. His head was covered with the black hood of a diver"s suit, but Nancy was able to see that he was a man of medium build. A moment later the boat"s engine roared to life, and the masked man sped away.
"Guess he"s not going to stick around for a chat," Mick said, smiling weakly.
"No, but I think his message was clear. Someone wants us out of the picture." Nancy frowned. "I just wish I knew who that someone was."
When Nancy and Mick finally waded to sh.o.r.e, they found their friends playing cards, oblivious to what had transpired out in the sea.
"I can"t believe all that action was going on while we were sitting here," Bess said, brushing sand from her legs.
"It"s a good thing both you and Mick are good swimmers," George said, scanning the nearby water.
"Thank goodness you weren"t hurt," Zoe added.
Nancy combed her wet hair and pulled it back into a ponytail. "I just wish I had seen the face of that man with the spear gun."
"Well, let"s think about it," Kevin said. "Who could get their hands on a black wet suit?"
Mick dried off, then pulled a blue T-shirt over his head, "Theo has one. I saw it stashed in the cabin of his boat."
"But no one has seen Theo all morning," Zoe said defensively. "Besides, you would have recognized the Sea Star Sea Star."
"He could have borrowed a boat from one of his friends at the marina," Nancy pointed out, then added, "But we also saw Dimitri wearing a wet suit just this morning."
George snapped her fingers. "That"s right! A black wet suit. He could have jumped in a boat after he disappeared down the beach."
"But he said he"d been hired to spend the hour photographing some tourists underwater," Bess added. "That"s why he was wearing the wet suit."
"We should check out his story, just to be sure," Nancy said.
Mick looked out over the sea, a serious expression darkening his handsome face. "Do you think that those criminals decided to come after us?" he asked after a moment.
Nancy winced. "I sure hope not. First of all, I"m not sure they"d be able to find us that easily. And if the police are looking for them, my guess is that they"d want to lay low."
"But it is is a possibility," Bess said, her brow furrowed in concern. "I think we all need to be careful." a possibility," Bess said, her brow furrowed in concern. "I think we all need to be careful."
"I don"t intend to mess with those terrorists again," Nancy a.s.sured her friends.
Just then she caught sight of a young man in a black wet suit coming down the path from the hotel. At first she was alarmed, but that feeling faded when she realized it was Theo. He waved and headed right for them.
"Theo"s finally turned up," Nancy whispered to her friends, "and he"s dressed for the part."
"Yasou!" Theo called out cheerfully. "I"ve just come back from Dragonisi. I caught a few fish this morning, too." Theo called out cheerfully. "I"ve just come back from Dragonisi. I caught a few fish this morning, too."
"Why are you wearing that?" Zoe snapped at him. She looked as if she didn"t know whether she should attack or defend her friend.
Theo glanced down at the wet suit. "I was snorkeling," he said, confused.
"You hate hate snorkeling," Zoe retorted. snorkeling," Zoe retorted.
"I changed my mind," Theo said. He looked from Zoe to the others on the beach. "What"s going on here? Why are you all so serious?"
Jumping to her feet, Zoe went nose-to-nose with Theo. "Nancy and Mick were just attacked by a man with a spear gun-a man in a black wet suit."
"You must be joking!" he said. Then, realizing that they were serious, he said, "Wait a minute. You don"t think that I-"
Zoe jabbed a finger at his chest. "And you"ve been spending a lot of time on Dragonisi-where three international terrorists were hiding out!"
"What?" Theo looked completely baffled. "What is she talking about?"
Although Nancy wasn"t happy that Zoe had told Theo about the terrorists, she couldn"t let the subject drop now. She told Theo about the letter from Mick"s diplomat friend and about the cushions from the Sea Star Sea Star that she and Mick had found in the terrorists" cave. that she and Mick had found in the terrorists" cave.
"I never met those people-I swear it," he insisted. "A lot of things have disappeared from my boat over the past few weeks. First there were the missing cushions, then fishing equipment and cans of food. I thought the other fishermen were playing tricks on me. Then I realized everything disappeared while I was anch.o.r.ed near Dragonisi."
"That explains about the orange cushions," Mick said to Nancy. "And the terrorists probably stole the canned food and fishing stuff, too."
Nancy still wasn"t convinced. "But what about the red-haired girl?" she asked. Theo blanched at the question, but she didn"t back off. "We saw you with a young woman-a pet.i.te girl with red hair who looked just like the female terrorist."
"She"s not a terrorist!" Frustrated, Theo rubbed his hands over his eyes, then peeked out through his fingers at Zoe. "I have been taking snorkeling lessons from a diving instructor on Dragonisi. A pretty girl, a redhead. But her name is Eleni. And she would never hurt anyone."
"Then why is Eleni such a big secret?" George asked.
Nancy thought she knew the answer, but she waited for Theo"s reply. Staring at Zoe, he said, "I didn"t want to hurt you. I know you"ve been mad at me for breaking up, but I want to stay friends."
"I"ve been mad at you for acting so strange!" Zoe protested. "What kind of friend refuses to talk about what he does all day, every day?"
Theo shrugged. "I"m sorry. Will you forgive me?"
Zoe rolled her eyes and sighed. "Only if you promise to be honest with me from now on," she said. "And wipe that sheepish look off your face."
"I promise," Theo said, smiling.
Nancy was glad that Zoe was on better terms with her friend, but she knew that Theo couldn"t be ruled out as a suspect yet. His explanations were reasonable, but how could she be sure that he was telling the truth?
"I don"t understand how Dimitri can still be a suspect," Bess said as she toweled off her hair.
After a walk down the beach to check up on Dimitri"s whereabouts, the girls had returned to their room to shower before lunch.
"She"s right," George added. "Those British tourists said that Dimitri spent the entire morning with them, so he couldn"t have been the guy with the spear gun."
"That proves he didn"t attack us," Nancy said, "but Dimitri could still be the forger." Nancy slipped on a royal blue tank top and tucked it into her white denim miniskirt.
"What about Theo?" George asked. "Didn"t you believe his explanation?"
Nancy let out a sigh. "I want to believe him," she said, pushing back her hair with a blue cloth headband. "But we can"t be sure until we have proof-not just his word." She opened the wooden shutters to the balcony, and sunlight streamed into the room.
"I wish we knew who we were up against," Bess said.
"It"s a dangerous situation for all of..." Nancy"s voice trailed off. She was standing with her back to the balcony doorway. The sunlight that streamed in hit the top of the dresser, illuminating Bess"s gift-wrapped package.
"Wait a minute," Nancy said, stepping over to the dresser. Because of the sunlight directly hitting the package, she could see tiny, squiggly blue lines on the wrapping paper.
"What"s wrong?" George asked, standing up.
The intricately patterned blue-green wrapping paper looked familiar to Nancy. She picked up the package and looked more closely. She could make out an eagle in the center of the page. "That"s it!"
She whirled toward Bess and George, who had paused in the middle of dressing to gaze at her. "The answer has been sitting right in this room for days."
"What are you talking about?" Bess asked.
Nancy waved the package in the air. "See the wrapping paper on this gift? When Dimitri wrapped it in Spiros"s shop, he must have used the wrong paper. This is engraved with an eagle-just like the pages of a U.S. pa.s.sport."
George hurried over to Nancy and grabbed the package. Bess moved in close to study it.
"That means Spiros could be the one who"s forging the pa.s.sports!" George exclaimed, looking up at Nancy in awe.
Nancy nodded. "Exactly."
Chapter Fourteen.
"I CAN"T BELIEVE that clue was in our room all along-right under our noses," Bess said.
After she, Nancy, and George had shared their revelation with their friends, the group decided to talk over the case at lunch. Now they were at a small waterfront sandwich shop on the harbor in Chora.
"I am disappointed that my father"s friend would steal from our hotel," Zoe said as a waitress brought a tray of iced lemonade to their table. "But if Spiros is the forger, the police should know about it."
Nancy took a long drink of lemonade. She was glad that Zoe understood the need to follow through on their suspecting Spiros.
"I don"t get it," Kevin said. "How could Spiros be so stupid as to wrap a gift in a fake pa.s.sport page?"
"Spiros didn"t do it," George explained. "Dimitri wrapped the gift while Spiros was out of the room."
"Which proves that Dimitri isn"t involved in the pa.s.sport forgery," Nancy added. "He would never have used that paper if he knew what it was intended for."
"I"ll bet Spiros will be steaming mad when he figures out Dimitri"s mistake," Mick said.
Nancy nodded. "I just wish I could figure out how Spiros got his hands on those stolen pa.s.sports."
"I think he stole them himself-right from our safe," Zoe said grimly. Seeing Nancy"s surprised expression, Zoe explained that Spiros had been visiting her father at the inn the morning the thefts occurred. "I forgot that he was there, since I never considered him a suspect."