Model Suspect 3

He’s back!

There was a moment of panic. We all hit the floor and covered our heads as another shot rang out. With my face pressed against the glass bottom of the boat, I had an excellent view of several brightly colored angelfish drifting by beneath us, their gently waving fins showing their complete lack of concern for the predicament of the humans up top. I could feel Bess shaking beside me and hear the sound of Sydney sobbing.

Now what?
I thought desperately, casting my mind around for something to do.
Should we dive into the water and try to swim away? Or—

“Oh, no!” Sydney sat up. “Look—they hit both our pontoons!”

I gasped, realizing she was right. Those shots had been no accident.

It was difficult to tell which direction the shots had come from—based on where the holes had appeared in those pontoons, I was pretty sure the shooter had been somewhere in the thick jungle off beyond the beach to the north.

I scanned the shoreline in that direction. I squinted toward a jumble of large boulders. Had something moved behind there, or was it my imagination? Even if it wasn’t, how was I supposed to tell from here if it had been a bird, a monkey, an innocent hiker … or the wedding saboteur?

#1 Without a Trace

#2 A Race Against Time

#3 False Notes

#4 High Risk

#5 Lights, Camera …

#6 Action!

#7 The Stolen Relic

#8 The Scarlet Macaw Scandal

#9 Secret of the Spa

#10 Uncivil Acts

#11 Riverboat Ruse

#12 Stop the Clock

#13 Trade Wind Danger

#14 Bad Times, Big Crimes

#15 Framed

#16 Dangerous Plays

#17 En Garde

#18 Pit of Vipers

#19 The Orchid Thief

#20 Getting Burned

#21 Close Encounters

#22 Dressed to Steal

#23 Troubled Waters

#24 Murder on the Set

#25 Trails of Treachery

#26 Fishing for Clues

#27 Intruder

#28 Mardi Gras Masquerade

#29 The Stolen Bones

#30 Pagent Perfect Crime

#31 Perfect Cover

#32 Perfect Escape

#33 Secret Identity

#34 Identity Theft

#35 Identity Revealed

#36 Model Crime

#37 Model Menace

Available from Aladdin

CAROLYN KEENE

GIRL DETECTIVE
^®

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Aladdin paperback edition October 2009
Text copyright © 2009 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc., and related logo is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
NANCY DREW, NANCY DREW: GIRL DETECTIVE, ALADDIN PAPERBACKS, and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected]. The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
The text of this book was set in Bembo.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Control Number 2008943893
ISBN 978-1-4169-7841-1
ISBN 978-1-4169-9688-0 (eBook)

Contents

1
Beachy Keen

2
Smile! You’re On Camera

3
Fire and Water

4
Danger in the Water

5
Finny Business

6
Safe House

7
Burning Questions

8
Shadows, Sacrifices, and Suspicions

9
It’s a Jungle Out There

10
Dead Ends and Discussions

11
Unpleasant Surprises

12
Questions and Answers

BEACHY KEEN

“So this is what it feels like to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous,” Bess Marvin said, peering out the airplane window.

Leaning over from my seat next to her, I glanced out and saw a tiny, lush island ringed with white sand beaches. The midday sunlight sparkled off the azure waters of the Caribbean, making me squint.

On my other side, George Fayne let out a snort. “Yeah, right,” she muttered, twisting and wriggling in her seat in an attempt to find a comfortable position for her long, jeans-clad legs. “I’m sure the rich and famous don’t have to travel in coach.”

Bess rolled her eyes, and I laughed. Bess and
George are cousins and my lifelong best friends. But any possible resemblance ends there. Bess is what you might call a glass-half-full kind of girl. She has a sunny nature to match her sunny blond hair, and prefers to see the best in people until they force her to do otherwise. George, on the other hand, can be a little too quick to see the dark side of any situation.

“Don’t complain,” Bess told her cousin. “We’re just lucky Sydney wants all three of us to come down and investigate this latest trouble instead of only Nancy. After all, she’s the real sleuth in this bunch and everyone knows it.”

I smiled at the disgruntled look on George’s face. “Don’t be silly,” I told both of them. “The Nancy Drew Detective Agency would be nothing without the little people who’ve supported me all these years.”

I was just kidding around and they both knew it. I don’t really have a detective agency. However, I
am
pretty well-known around our hometown of River Heights for solving crimes now and then. And it’s true that I probably couldn’t have figured out most of them without help from Bess and George.

And it was a good thing I had their help now. Because the mystery we were facing looked like a seriously tricky one.