Chapter Twelve
"That was Paula!" Linda screamed.
Mercedes moaned and turned away, covering her eyes. Ashen-faced, Sammy put her arms comfortingly around her.
"Do you think she's dead?" Tod asked, peering over the edge. "Can you see her? Where is she?"
"There," Mike said excitedly, pointing down the ravine. "In the creek." They all watched in incredulous horror as Paula's plaid jacket ballooned up in the deep water of the creek far below, buoying the body along almost like a life jacket. It drifted lazily in the water for a minute or two, then it was sucked into the swift current and swept down over a jumble of rocks and out of sight.
"We've got to get down there!" Mercedes said, struggling hysterically against Sammy's restraining arms.
Ned shook his head. "It's a fifty-foot cliff," he said. "None of us has the experience to climb it, especially without any rock-climbing gear. Anyway, the chances of survival from a fall like that are next to nothing." He gave Mercedes a sympathetic look. "We'll have to send a team back to recover her body—after we get out."
"Max!" Bess suddenly exclaimed. She looked up the cliff. "Where is he?"
Tod laughed harshly. "If you were Max, would you hang around to shake hands with your audience after you'd murdered somebody?"
"Murdered?" Linda whispered, her mouth dropping open. "You mean Max pushed her?"
"Wait a second. We don't know that Max—" Bess began hesitantly.
George whipped around to confront her. "For Pete's sake, Bess. We heard their fight. We heard Paula scream. And then we saw her go over. It's as simple as one, two, three. Paula's dead and Max killed her!"
Bess sat down and put her face in her hands.
"I'm afraid George may be right, Bess," Nancy said gently, kneeling beside her. "But there is still a chance Max may not have killed Paula. After all, we don't know exactly what happened up there—only what we saw and heard."
"What do you want? A signed confession?" Tod said.
"But why?" asked Ralph. "Did he and Paula sabotage both rafts and the radio just to get us stranded out here?" He shook his head in puzzlement. "It doesn't make sense."
"Maybe Paula found out that Max did all those things," Tod suggested. "And when she confronted him with what she knew, he pushed her over the edge to shut her up."
"Could be," Mike said. "Or maybe she was getting on his case about capsizing the raft. Between that and those drownings last year, he'd be finished on the river. Maybe she said something—"
"Listen, everybody," Nancy broke in. "Before you get too far out on a limb with your theories, I'd better tell you that Paula stole the compass out of Bess's pocket. Ned saw her take it—and so did Max."
"Paula took it?" Mercedes exclaimed. "Why?" It seemed to Nancy that there was an odd note in her voice, almost as if Mercedes had half suspected that that might happen.
Nancy nodded, convinced Mercedes knew more than she was revealing. Maybe with Paula out of the picture, Mercedes would be willing to talk.
"I think Max believed Paula holed the raft, as well," Nancy continued, "and that he thought he knew what her motive was. I intended to question him about it this afternoon, but now it's too late."
"But why?" Sammy demanded. "Ralph's right. It just doesn't make sense. Why would Paula take the compass?"
"Maybe she wanted to keep us lost, for some reason we don't understand," Ned pointed out. "Don't forget, as long as she had the compass, she wasn't lost. She could find her way out—even if the rest of us couldn't."
