Nancy followed them, keeping a safe distance, sticking to the trees wherever there were any. Ricardo and Rosita seemed to be having a very intense conversation, and Nancy was sure they had no idea she was behind them. She was looking ahead, not really watching where she was going, when she stepped into another grove of palms, tripped over two reclining bodies and went sprawling head first into the sand.
A girl gave a piercing shriek and a boy grumbled, “Hey, give us a break, huh? Things were just getting romantic here!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Nancy said, trying not to laugh. It would have been funny, but she was worried. Had Ricardo and Rosita heard the shriek? Not wanting to lose sight of them—or ruin the little love scene—Nancy stepped out of the trees and into the bright moonlight.
Ricardo and Rosita had stopped. They were looking in Nancy’s direction. As soon as Ricardo saw her, he grabbed Rosita’s hand, and the two of them took off running.
Nancy tore after them, not bothering to hide anymore. All she wanted was to catch up with them. Running on the wet, hard-packed sand, she saw them round a bend in the shoreline, and pushed herself even harder, not wanting to lose them. The music from the beach parties was growing fainter; as Nancy rounded the bend, she realized she’d left the crowds behind. She stopped suddenly and looked around, panting from her dash along the beach.
In front of her were the docks. She saw a few boats tied up and heard soft thuds as they bumped against the pilings. But that was all. Nancy was alone.
Still breathing hard, Nancy kicked at the sand in frustration. Then she headed for the docks, thinking that Ricardo and Rosita might be hiding in one of the boats. Of course, the way her luck was running, they’d probably doubled back. They could be sitting around a campfire at that very minute, she told herself, roasting hot dogs and having a good laugh.
Nancy had dropped her sandals somewhere along the way, and as she stepped onto the wooden pier, she reminded herself to be careful of splinters. But before she’d taken two steps, she gasped—not because she felt a splinter sliding into her foot, but because a hand, reaching out from the shadows, was closing tightly on her arm.
Chapter Eight
Nancy whirled around, ready to fight as hard as she had to, and found herself facing the pretty, black-haired girl whose photograph she’d been carrying with her for the past four hours. Nancy glanced around nervously. No Ricardo in sight, but she figured he was lurking somewhere close by, watching.
Still on edge, Nancy looked at the girl again and was surprised to see that she was nervous too. Her eyes were wide with fear. She’d dropped Nancy’s arm and was clenching her hands together tightly.
“Rosita,” Nancy said. “You’re Rosita, aren’t you?”
The name turned the girl’s fear to terror. She backed away and shook her head vehemently. “Maria,” she stammered. “Maria.”
Nancy was confused. For one thing, the girl whom she’d thought was her enemy was hardly acting like an enemy—one loud “boo” from Nancy and she’d probably collapse. Furthermore, her name wasn’t Rosita.
“Okay,” Nancy said. “You’re Maria. My name’s Nancy Drew. Now that the introduction’s out of the way, why don’t you tell me what you and Ricardo and Rosita are up to? Whatever you got Kim involved in just might have killed her, and . . .”
The girl was shaking her head again, holding out her hand for Nancy to stop talking. “Please,” she said in Spanish, “I can explain everything, but I speak very little English.”
Nancy nodded. “That’s all right,” she said, also in Spanish. “I know your language, so go ahead and explain. I’m listening.”
Maria breathed a sigh of relief and began to talk.
Nancy did know Spanish, but after two sentences, she realized she didn’t know Maria’s Spanish. Still frightened, Maria was talking away a mile a minute, and she was speaking in a dialect that Nancy could hardly follow.
Nancy followed Maria’s story as best she could, though, and did manage to learn that Maria was an illegal alien. Her country was in the middle of a violent revolution and lots of people were escaping to the United States to start a new life. Kim had been hiding her in her hotel room.