"We did it!" Andy cheered. Across the top of the cabin, Ned gave Nancy the thumbs-up sign. The Skipper's Surprise was ahead. If the rest of the race was this successful, they were going to win!
"So what happened?" Bess grumbled three hours later as the tired crew sailed back up to the Devereux' dock. "At first we were winning, and then . . ." Her voice trailed off as she slumped onto the cockpit seat. Next to her, Nancy could see Andy staring glumly out across the Severn River. Ever since they'd lost the race, he'd been silent.
Annabel sighed. "Well, I can't blame it on the crew," she said, giving everyone a reluctant smile.
Thank goodness, Nancy thought. When they'd come in fourth, she'd been braced for Annabel's wrath. Nancy was sitting with Ned on the deck, leaning against the side of the cabin. Ned's arm was draped around her shoulder. The wind, the sun, and the fast pace had drained them both.
"Maybe if Nick had been skipper, we would have won," Annabel said, casting a worried look at Andy.
"No, you did a great job," Andy shot back. "It's the Nican. Something's not right."
"What!" Parker exclaimed, echoing Nancy's surprise. He was standing at the bow, folding up the jib. "What do you mean?"
"There was no way anyone should've beaten us," Andy said firmly.
"Do you think someone sabotaged the boat?" Nancy asked.
"I don't know how. I checked her from stem to stern this morning." Andy's angry expression changed to one of bewilderment. "This is all so crazy! And the worst thing is, we may get to shore and I'll find out something else horrible—like that I'm going to jail for the rest of my life."
"No way!" Annabel said, a determined set to her jaw. "There's no way they can prove you shot Nick."
The two of them looked genuinely distressed, and Nancy wished she could believe they hadn't been involved in Nick's disappearance. Still, she couldn't be sure. With Stan's possible deceit, Leah O'Halloran's involvement, and perhaps sabotage, Nancy didn't know whom to suspect— or whom to trust.
"Look, someone's coming to meet us," Ned said.
Nancy turned to see two figures moving across the lawn. "Oh, great," Andy groaned. "I bet it's those two homicide detectives."
Nancy stood up and trained her binoculars on the dock. "No, it's your mom and dad, and they have big grins on their faces."
"I hope it's not because they think we won," Annabel spoke up from the wheel. "Bess, you
grab the mooring line. Nancy, help Parker in the bow. Andy, drop the mainsail. And, Ned, you get ready to keep the boat from hitting the dock's pilings."
"How'd the race go?" Mr. Devereux asked after the group had docked. "Did the Skipper's Surprise leave the rest in her wake?"
"Um, not exactly," Andy replied quietly.
As Nancy jumped to the dock with the bowline, Mrs. Devereux turned to her. "Nancy, a Stan somebody has called twice for you. It sounded important. I left a number by the phone where you can reach him."
Nancy thanked the older woman, but her stomach was churning. That morning she had thought Stan was an ally. Now she had no idea what he was up to. Was he working for someone who wanted to steal the design of the Nican Forty's keel? Or was he helping to sabotage the boat so it wouldn't be a success? It was Sunday, so she couldn't double-check the office of Bayside Insurance. That meant she'd have to be extra careful when she spoke to Stan Yadlowski.
Nancy excused herself and jogged up to the house. She found the number by the phone in the front hall. This time Stan answered on the first ring.
"Hi, Stan." Nancy kept her voice as calm as possible. "What did you find out?"
"Lots," Stan replied in a grim voice. "But I don't think you're going to like it."
Nancy sucked in her breath. "Why not?"
"Because it makes your friend Andy look awfully suspicious. I checked into the account where the insurance money was deposited."
"And?" Nancy prompted, tightening her grip on the phone receiver.
"There is no money," Stan replied. "The balance in the account was under a hundred dollars."
"What? What happened to the rest?"
"A friend of mine just happens to work at Annapolis National. She checked the computer for me and said that the money's been slowly paid out to—now, get this—Steele Lumber."
Nancy drew her breath in sharply. "That's the company I noticed in Lazlo Design's account books."
"Right," Stan said. "Lucky for me, one of the checks written to Steele Lumber had just come in the day I visited. My friend pulled it for me." Stan hesitated briefly before adding, "And the check was signed by none other than your friend Andrew Devereux."
Chapter Twelve
Nancy almost dropped the telephone receiver in her shock. Andy had been the one withdrawing the money! But he'd denied even knowing about Steele Lumber.
Just then, a hand closed around her shoulder. With a gasp, Nancy spun around to find Andy behind her, a grim look on his face.
"Nancy! Are you still there?" Stan said over the phone line.
Keeping her eyes on Andy, Nancy slowly spoke into the receiver. "Yes."
Andy's parents strode into the hall behind their son. "What's going on?" Mr. Devereux asked.
"What did Stan say?" Andy asked.
Nancy took a deep breath, willing her heartbeat to slow down. Holding up a finger to Andy and his parents, she spoke to Stan again. "What about the license plate number of the van that met Leah O'Halloran?" she asked.
While waiting for Stan's answer, Nancy tried to reason through what she'd just learned. If Andy was trying to keep the Steele Lumber account a secret, why would he have mentioned it to her in the first place? For all she knew, Stan was feeding her false information. If he was working for a rival company or a saboteur, it would be to his advantage to make Andy look as guilty as possible.
Stan's voice came back over the line. "The van's from a local rental company. It'll take a little more time to figure out who rented it. I should have that information and something on Steele Lumber by Monday. My guess is that Steele Lumber is just a dummy account."
Nancy thanked Stan and hung up.
"Well? What did he say?" Andy probed. Mr. and Mrs. Devereux were right behind him.
"From the look on your face, I'd say it wasn't good news," Andy's father guessed.
Taking a deep breath, Nancy told them about the insurance money having been withdrawn from the special account they had set up. Andy's mouth dropped, and his eyes glazed over.
"You don't believe that J took it, do you?" Andy exclaimed as his parent's surprised gaze swung to him. His face went from white to bright red. "Someone is setting me up. And when I find out who it is, I'm going to kill them!" Spinning around, he started for the stairs.
Nancy ran after him, catching him on the bottom step. "Andy, wait!" she said. "Stan might be lying. We need to get a look at that account."
"That's right!" Mr. Devereux added determinedly. "The account is at Annapolis National, right? I play golf with the president. He'll help us clear this up, even if it is Sunday."
An hour later Mr. Stewart, president of the Annapolis National Bank, and Mary Masterson, the manager, were standing with Mr. Devereux, Andy, and Nancy behind the counter of the bank. The others had stayed at the house to finish cleaning up the Skipper's Surprise and fix dinner.
Andy was staring at a computer printout statement of his account. Nancy was standing next to him, reading down the list of checks drawn against the special account. In the last two months, numerous checks had been written out to Steele Lumber until the balance of the account was only ninety dollars. Photocopies of the checks showed that Andy's signature was on them.
"I did not write those-checks," Andy declared angrily. "Someone must have forged my signature."
"Uh, the signature would have been compared to your signature card," Mary Masterson spoke up hesitantly.
Andy's eyes narrowed. Nancy had never seen him so angry, not that she blamed him. If someone was setting him up, they were doing a good job.
"So you and Nick were joint account holders?" Nancy asked. A germ of an idea had just come to her.
"What are you getting at?" Andy asked, puzzled.
"You mentioned that Nick had also written out several checks to Steele Lumber from the company's account," she said quickly. "Could he have taken out the insurance money without your knowing about it?"
Mr. Devereux clapped his son excitedly on the shoulder. "Of course he could have."
Andy thought about it for a second. "It's possible. Come to think of it, I don't think I received any statement for this account last month—or the month before. I know this sounds stupid, but I didn't even think about it because we had agreed not to touch it. So someone could have withdrawn the money without my knowledge."
"Then that explains everything," Mr. Stewart said. "Nick must have had a reason to take the money out."
Nancy's mind was whirling a mile a minute. If Nick Lazlo had written the checks, why had he signed Andy's name to them? And why was he paying out such large sums of money to Steele Lumber?
Absently, Nancy took the computer statement and folded it. Maybe when they found the answer to those two questions, they would solve the case.
Monday morning Ned, Nancy, Andy, Parker, and Bess were finishing breakfast on the patio. The air smelled sweetly of cut grass and flowers. Still, everyone's mood was gloomy.
"Let's try to look at this rationally," Nancy said. "Maybe if we all put our heads together, we can figure out this case."
"I just know Andy didn't do it," Parker declared. "I mean, if you were going to make off with over half a million dollars, you'd at least do it right—head for some remote tropical island so you could enjoy it."
"And you certainly would wipe your fingerprints off the gun that was used to shoot at Nick Lazlo," Bess chimed in, as she finished eating a muffin. "I think all this account stuff is to confuse us. Leah O'Halloran is our crook. Let's concentrate on her."
Nancy silently agreed. One thing she knew was that Andy Devereux wasn't stupid. All her instincts told her that he wouldn't have left so many obvious clues pointing to himself. That meant that someone else was setting him up.
Someone who knew a lot about sailing and the business—someone like Annabel or the O'Hallorans.
"At least we know Stan Yadlowski was telling the truth about the account with the insurance money," Nancy said. "By the way, he called just before breakfast. He said he wants us to meet him at his office—he has some interesting information to show us. So I'd say he's working with us instead of against us."
"Unless the interesting information he wants to show us is a gun," Andy put in.
Dropping her napkin on the table, Nancy stood up. "That's why we're going to pay a visit to Bayside Insurance first and find out for sure if Mr. Stan Yadlowski is who he says he is."
"Not me," Andy said, getting to his feet as well. "I'm meeting a boatbuilder friend of mine at the office so he can study the design of the Nican. If no one sabotaged the Surprise, I want to know why she didn't win yesterday's race. You guys can take my car. I'll take my mom's."
"Why don't Bess and I go with you?" Parker offered. "We can go through Nick's office and look for those missing account statements. If we can find something that proves Nick was the one withdrawing the insurance money, that'll really help your case."
"But why would Nick do that?" Ned wondered aloud.
"That's the ten-million-dollar question. Hopefully we'll learn the answer soon," Nancy said. Turning to Andy, Bess, and Parker, she added, "Ned and I will meet Stan at his office, then call you at Lazlo Designs."
An hour later Ned and Nancy stood in front of the door of a small clapboard house on the outskirts of Annapolis. The paint on the door was chipped, and the bushes flanking the stoop had taken over.
"Are you sure this is Stan's office?" Ned asked dubiously. He was stretching sideways, trying to peer into a window.
Nancy nodded. "This is the address."
"Let me knock. If he shoots us through the door, at least you'll be left to get him," Ned joked.
"Not necessary. You may not trust him, but after talking to Mr. Aquino of Bayside Insurance, I'm convinced that Stan's on the level. Aquino confirmed Stan's story about the pirates and about their investigation."
Just then the door opened, and Stan waved the two teens inside. "Hi. I thought I saw someone spying in my window," he said with a smile.
As Nancy stepped in, she looked around with a practiced eye. Stan's house may have looked ramshackle from the outside, but inside it was cozy and cheery. In the center of his living room, he had a state-of-the-art computer system.
"Nice equipment," Ned commented.
"Only the best," Stan said. He sat down in a swivel chair in front of the computer. "People don't realize that nowadays half the work a P.I. does is at a keyboard."
"So what do you have for us?" Nancy asked.
"Steele Lumber's bank records." Stan pointed to a list of numbers on the left of the screen.
"How did you get access to that?" Ned asked.
Stan chuckled. "Don't ask."
Nancy had kept the computer printout from Annapolis National. Now she took it from her pocket and unfolded it, comparing the figures on the screen with the figures on the paper. "It looks as if the deposits made to Steele Lumber coincide with the withdrawals from Andy and Nick's special account as well as the checks written by Lazlo Designs." She frowned. "There don't seem to be deposits from anyplace else."
"That's what I thought," Stan said. "Which means this is a dummy account set up strictly to hold money being taken from Lazlo Designs. Plus, all my sources say there is no legit business named Steele Lumber."
"I don't get it." Ned shook his head. "Why move the money from one account to another?"
Stan leaned back in his chair. "My guess is, it's the only way Nick Lazlo would've been able to move that amount of money without anyone else knowing. A person can't draw out large sums all at once, because he'd have to come into the bank in person armed with various IDs. Plus, since it's a joint account, the bank might call Andy to verify the withdrawal."
"So Nick does it a little at a time," Nancy said. "And if he does it by writing checks to another company—"
"A fake company set up by him," Stan put in.
Nancy nodded before continuing her thought. "Then the bank sees only the check. He probably could have forged Andy's name. And he must also have been siphoning money from Lazlo Designs' regular account, which is why we saw five-thousand-dollar checks to Steele Lumber."
Stan pressed his fingertips together, making a small steeple with his hands. "Right. Now we have to find out why Mr. Lazlo needed all this money," he said. "And why he didn't want Andy to know about it." Frowning, he stared intently at the screen. "The only other information this gives us is the name of the person who has access to Steele Lumber."
"It's not Nick Lazlo?" Nancy asked in surprise. "I just assumed it was."
"Nope. I wish it was that easy. The name on the account is Bill Jobeson."
"Bill, Bill. . ." Nancy said. Why did that sound familiar?
"Maybe Lazlo was paying the money out to a blackmailer?" Ned suggested.
Stan shrugged. "Could be. Hopefully, I'll find out that answer when I learn who Bill Jobeson is."
He spun his chair around to face Nancy and Ned. "I've got some more interesting news, too," he told them, a gleam in his eye. "My sources on the police force say that the placement of Andy's fingerprints on the gun look very strange."
"Why?" Nancy asked.
"Because his fingerprints were found only on the barrel of the gun, not on the grip. The grip had been wiped clean."
Nancy squeezed Ned's hand excitedly. "So somebody else could have shot the gun, wiped his or her prints off, then planted it in the bushes!"
"Right," Stan said. "
And since it's Andy's gun, the real shooter would have assumed that at least one of Andy's prints would be on it somewhere."
Nancy breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad all this information pointed to Andy's innocence. "Now I know what our next job is. I want to head back to the scene of the crime. The police zeroed in on Andy so quickly that they might have overlooked evidence to the identity of the person who really did shoot at Nick Lazlo."
"Now, what's the plan again?" Annabel Lazlo asked Ned and Nancy an hour later. "Andy's going to sail the boat to the cove?"
Nancy and Ned were following her along a narrow path that wound through the woods owned by Annabel's mother. Andy had called Annabel for permission to explore the property, and Annabel had insisted on being their tour guide.
"Yes," Nancy answered Annabel's question. "He should be there at about the same time we get to the top of the cliff." Andy, Parker, and Bess were going to moor the Skipper's Surprise at the same spot where they'd found Nick Lazlo's deserted boat a few days earlier. That would help Nancy to "re-create" the shooting.
Nancy was glad that Annabel had come. She wanted to see her reaction at the scene of the crime. If anyone had had the opportunity to set up Andy, it was Annabel. Annabel knew Nick would be at the cove, she knew how to get to the cliff, and she knew Andy had a gun. Annabel seemed to genuinely care for Andy, but Nancy knew that criminals could be convincing actors.
Had she been working with Leah O'Halloran? Even though no new evidence had come to light implicating Leah, Nancy didn't want to lose sight of her as a prime suspect.
Nancy was behind Annabel as the three pushed through ivy and brambles. Nancy could hear Ned behind her, grumbling about the brambles snagging his jeans. Ahead of her, Annabel moved with long, graceful strides. With her streaked hair and golden eyes, she reminded Nancy of a tiger on the prowl.
"So what is it you're trying to prove with this little hike?" Annabel asked as they walked along.
"Fm still trying to clear Andy," Nancy replied. "Wouldn't you like that?"
Turning her head, Annabel shot her an annoyed look. "Andy's lawyer will get him off. But if you want to stomp around in the woods, be my guest."
081 Making Waves Page 7