005 Hit and Run Holiday Read Online Free PDF

the lifeguard too. So he was Ricardo. And his chair was the “perch” Kim had mentioned. No wonder he’d clammed up when she mentioned seeing him at the hit-and-run site. She wondered what he would have done if she’d told him about overhearing Kim’s phone conversation with him, or seeing him sneaking around Kim’s hotel room. Instead of letting me step on a jellyfish, he’d probably have tried to feed me to the sharks, she thought with a shudder.
    At least she knew who the enemy was. All she had to do was find out why he was the enemy. Looking at Ricardo, who had made noapology and no move to help her, Nancy realized that deliberately letting her step on the man-of-war was his way of telling her to keep her nose out of his business.
    You blew it, Ricardo, Nancy thought. Scaring me off doesn’t work. And if you hadn’t tried it, I might not have learned your name, and then I wouldn’t come after you. But I will now.
    Nancy started to walk away, stumbled, and nearly fell again. Her foot was beginning to go numb.
    “Hey, you okay?” asked the boy who’d helped her up.
    “No, but I’m sure I will be,” Nancy told him. Then she raised her voice so that Ricardo could hear her. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be back, too. You can count on it.”
    As quickly as she could, Nancy made her way up the beach to her hotel. Bess and George had already changed, and when Nancy told them what had happened, they helped her change, then hustled her into the car and rushed her to the hospital emergency room as fast as possible. By the time they got there, the bottom of Nancy’s foot was red and swollen, and the pain went clear up to her knee. But after checking her over, the doctor on duty said she’d be fine.
    “You’re lucky,” she told her, as she rubbed some salve on Nancy’s foot. “You must havestepped on just one of its tentacles. If you’d been badly stung, your friends might have had to carry you in here.”
    Nancy smiled in relief as the medicine started to ease the stinging. The doctor gave her the tube of salve, and after thanking her, Nancy, Bess, and George took the elevator to Kim’s room. Kim’s mother had just arrived, and she greeted the three girls with tears in her eyes.
    “I just don’t understand how this could have happened!” Mrs. Baylor pulled a fresh tissue from the box on Kim’s bedside table and wiped her eyes. “I was against this trip in the first place. I should never have let her come!”
    Nancy reached out to touch Mrs. Baylor’s arm. “You can’t blame yourself,” she said gently.
    “Oh, I know.” Mrs. Baylor smoothed back her hair and blew her nose. “I’m just so worried. The police don’t seem to be very hopeful about finding the driver or the car. They were nice, but I can tell they’re not going to spend a lot of time on this. Meanwhile, my daughter’s lying here unconscious!”
    Nancy, Bess, and George stared at Kim, not knowing what to say. The doctors had told them that Kim was stable, that things looked very promising for her. But she still hadn’t wakened, and it was hard to sit and just watchher. It made them feel helpless, and that made them feel edgy.
    Nancy was especially edgy. First of all, Kim’s mother couldn’t seem to stop crying. Not that Nancy blamed her. Her daughter had been run down; she had every right to cry. But all the sniffing and nose-blowing and sobbing made it hard to think. And Nancy needed to think. She was still in the dark about what was going on, despite the fact that she had two good leads—the picture of the girl and Ricardo. He was obviously mixed up in it, but how? And exactly what was he mixed up in? Maybe Dirk Bowman knew. His not-so-subtle hint made Nancy very curious, and she wished she could be with him at that very moment.
    But one glance at Bess told Nancy that she’d better keep that wish to herself. Between the man-of-war sting and visiting Kim at the hospital, Nancy hadn’t had a chance to explain things to her. Not