“Nancy, you did it!” George shouted.
“That was one nice piece of driving, Detective,” Dirk said with a grin.
Nancy laughed. “Thanks. Just don’t ask me to do it again!”
“Being stuck out there serves Lila right,” Bess said. “I just hope there’s no way she can escape.”
“Uh-oh, I just thought of something,” Nancy said. “I’ll bet the Rosita has lifeboats. That means Lila does have a way to escape. And you can bet she’ll use it.”
“She couldn’t get very far, but you’re right, Nancy,” Dirk agreed, “she’s not the kind to give up until every last door’s been slammed in her face.”
“I don’t think even that would make her give up,” George commented. “Not when she’s as desperate as she is right now.”
There was no time to waste. As soon as they were safely back to shore, Dirk raced for the nearest phone and called in his backup team to help capture Lila and her crew. Nancy and the others hopped into their rental car and rushed Kim back to the hospital.
“I wanted to stick around and see them bring Lila in,” Kim protested on the way. “Honestly, I’m perfectly fine!”
“You might be fine,” Nancy told her, “but your mother’s probably having a nervous breakdown by now.”
“That’s right,” Bess said. “She wasn’t even with us when we left the hospital before, so she’s still completely in the dark. She must be frantic!”
Bess was right. When they got to the hospital, they found Mrs. Baylor still frantic with worry, and the entire staff in an uproar over the missing patient. As soon as Kim appeared, the doctors whisked her away to check on her condition, and finally her mother calmed down enough to listen to what had happened.
When Nancy finished telling the story, Mrs. Baylor sighed in relief. “Thank goodness you were here, Nancy, and that it’s over!”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Bess said with a yawn.
“Well, it’s not quite over,” Nancy reminded them. “We’ll all have to give statements to the police. And if there’s a trial, Kim and Maria will probably have to testify.”
“I will be very happy to do that,” Maria said. “Even if it means that I can’t stay here. I want to see Lila Templeton get . . .” she searched for the right words.
“Get what’s coming to her!” Bess finished with a laugh.
“You’re very brave, Maria,” Nancy said. “I hope things work out for you so you don’t have to go back to your country if you don’t want to.”
One of the doctors came in then and gave them the good news—Kim was weak and worn out, but otherwise she seemed to be fine. They just wanted to keep her in the hospital for a couple of days to make sure.
Leaving Maria at the hospital with Kim’s mother, Nancy, Bess, and George sped back to the docks just in time to see the police patrol boat arrive. A very happy looking Dirk Bowman waved to them from the deck, then pointed to a small group of people—it was Lila Templeton and her handsome, deadly crew, looking very unhappy.
The sun was just coming up as Nancy, Bess, and George let themselves into their room at the Surfside Inn. They took turns in the shower, and then George and Nancy started packing. But Bess wrapped a towel around her wet head and flopped down on the cot.
“I’ve never been so exhausted in my entire life,” she yawned. “Nobody wake me for at least twelve hours.”
“Sorry,” George told her, “but our plane leaves in four hours. You don’t want to miss it, do you?”
“I don’t know,” Bess said. “Now that everything’s over, I wouldn’t mind sticking around for a couple of days. There are a lot of cute guys around and I’d hate to miss out.”
Nancy laughed. “I thought you said there were plenty of guys back home,” she teased.
“That was when I thought I was going to die,” Bess protested. “But now that Lila and her crew are behind bars, I figure I might as well enjoy the rest of spring break.”
“I would have given anything to see the look on Lila’s face when the police came to ‘rescue’ her,” George said. “I wonder if she tried to lie her way out of it.”