Free Model Suspect 3 by Carolyn Keene Page A

A fly! It was just—just walking across my food!”
    “Oh, horrors!” Bo cried out in a falsetto, fanning himself dramatically with one hand. “A fly, you say?”
    Akinyi glared at him. “Very funny,” she snapped. “Just because you boys are happy to eat cow pattiesor whatever on your silly little show, it doesn’t mean the rest of us care to poison ourselves.”
    “Cow patties?” Vic said. “We never ate cow patties. Now cow
eyeballs
, on the other hand …”
    By then Akinyi’s outburst had brought several resort employees running. They gathered around, a manager apologizing profusely as a waitress whisked away the tainted plate and the others busily shooed away every fly in the vicinity.
    Taking advantage of the momentary hubbub, I leaned over to Sydney. “How about a run to the ladies’ room?” I asked her.
    She nodded and set down her napkin. “Right behind you.”
    As we stood up, Donald glanced over from the next table. “Where are you two going?” he called out.
    “We’ll be right back!” Sydney said cheerily. Then she grabbed my hand. “Hurry!” she hissed in my ear. “Before the cameras catch on!”
    We scooted for the exit. Miraculously, we managed to escape the dining room before Donald could alert the cameramen. Once inside the nearest ladies’ lounge, which was large and luxurious, Sydney collapsed into a chair in front of a wall of mirrors.
    “Oh, Nancy,” she said, her voice quavering. “I’m trying so hard to stay strong here. But with everything that’s happened …”
    I nodded sympathetically. As upset as she seemed, I was hesitant to tell her about that note we’d seen just before the fire. But she had to know what was going on.
    “Listen, Syd.” I took a deep breath. “There’s something you need to hear about….”
    As I told her the whole story, her eyes widened more and more. “Oh, no!” she burst out when I’d finished. “I’m so sorry, Nancy. I’m sure that message was meant for me, and you and the girls almost got hurt instead!”
    “I’m not so sure about that, actually. What if this MrSilhouette, whoever he really is, knows that I’m here to investigate the trouble?” I briefly flashed through the list of possible suspects. As far as I knew, only Vic and Akinyi knew I hadn’t just gotten lucky busting Candy and later Pandora—that I was actually a pretty accomplished amateur sleuth. But that didn’t mean any of the others couldn’t have found out somehow. They’d all spent enough time in River Heights to have figured it out, since my rep is hardly a secret there.
    Sydney was shaking her head, tears welling in her eyes. “Either way, it’s all because of me,” she moaned. “What if that nut sets another fire while Vic and I are sleeping?” Her hands flew to her face as another thought occurred to her. “Oh, and what if that hadbeen Vic climbing the rocks over the pool today? He could have been killed!”
    It almost
had
been Vic, I realized. That was who Butch had been goading into trying the stunt….
    Before I could explore that idea, though, I had to get Sydney calmed down. “Listen, it’s up to you to decide what to do next,” I told her. “I talked to the resort manager just before dinner, and she said that slab of rock over the pool was definitely loose, and that it shouldn’t have been. But she seems to think it was an accident—something that happened while they were power washing the pool area or something.”
    “What about the fire?” Sydney asked. “They can’t think that was an accident, can they? Especially with that horrible note you found!”
    “Well, they are kind of disturbed that the smoke alarm never went off, but I didn’t exactly tell anyone about the note yet,” I admitted. “Mostly because I forgot in all the drama afterward. And then, well, considering the circumstances, I thought I’d better check in with you first about what to do next.”
    Sydney looked surprised. She was silent for a moment, staring