Terror at High Tide (13 page)

Cartwright nodded. “And to destroy the manuscript. I made Geovanis give me his key and the alarm code by threatening to harm his lovely daughter if he didn't obey.”

Alicia's eyes flashed with anger as she looked at Cartwright. “And then you wanted me to take Dad's other copy from his safe-deposit box.”

“That was a bluff,” Mr. Geovanis cut in.
“There's no other copy in the bank, but I was trying to buy time, and the bank wouldn't open until Monday. I hoped Frank and Joe might track me down by then—and I was right.” He grinned at the Hardys. “I made a mistake telling Cartwright that you guys were detectives—I'm sorry. I was desperate, and I thought he'd back off if he knew you were after him.”

“So you tried to scare us by running us off the road,” Frank said to Cartwright.

Cartwright nodded proudly. “Then I lured you to the mill. I wanted to arrange some accidents for you.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Joe said. “And of course, the cuff link was yours.”

“Yes,” Cartwright said. “George ripped it off during a struggle on the way to the shed.” He paused, then added dreamily, “I wore those cuff links sometimes, but I never thought anyone would link them to the
Ebony Pearl
so many years later.”

Alicia turned to her father, putting her arm around him. “Dad, tell us how he kidnapped you from the party with all those other people around.”

Mr. Geovanis's brown eyes looked pained. “We argued about whether or not he was Harris, and he suggested that we settle our argument in private. So we took a drive. Near the cranberry bog, he took out a knife and forced me out. After
a struggle, he tied my hands and put me in that ramshackle shed.”

“Then he returned to the party, ate dessert, and gave a speech,” Joe added with disgust.

“But how were you able to call my car phone, Dad?” Alicia asked.

“I escaped for a moment the next day when I asked Cartwright to change the ropes on my arms and legs because they hurt me. We struggled for a moment, and I knocked him down. I made a run for his dune buggy, hoping his keys were in it. They weren't, but his phone was. I called your cell phone after our answering machine at home cut me off. It took only a few seconds before Cartwright caught up to me and cut us off.”

Frank glanced around. The fog was finally lifting, and he could see patches of blue in the sky. Looking at Cartwright, he narrowed his eyes. “It's time to go, Mr. Harris,” he announced. “The police are waiting for you.”

•   •   •

The next day, Monday, the skies above the island were clear and the air was hot. Frank, Joe, and Callie had joined Alicia and Geovanis for a swim at the beach in front of their house. As Frank spread his towel on the sand, Joe jogged over to him, carrying his surfboard.

“Hey, Frank, don't get too comfortable. We've got some waves to catch.”

Frank looked at Callie and shrugged. Then grabbing his surfboard, he ran into the water alongside Joe. “Aren't we repeating ourselves here?” he asked as a huge wave crashed off shore.

Joe grinned. “Just stay off the beach, Frank. One mystery a trip is enough.”

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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