Chapter Seventeen
"Yes, it's me," Paula said, panting and out of breath. She clattered up the stairs toward Nancy. Her long hair was matted and full of twigs and brambles, her cold amber eyes wild and staring. In that instant, Nancy realized that Paula was insane.
"What do you want?" She held Paula's eyes with her own as she gingerly backed up the stairs.
"I want you," Paula said over the roar of the wind. "You're the one I've been after all along. I'm going to kill you!"
Nancy sensed that if she could keep Paula talking, she might be able to distract her. At least she could stave off an attack for a few minutes until Paula was in a position where she could be overpowered.
"Why are you trying to kill me?" Nancy said. "I don't even know you."
"Are you sure?" Paula asked, baring her teeth in a smile. Her amber eyes glittered like the eyes of the rattlesnake. She came up another step. "Does the name Peter Hancock mean anything to you?"
"Peter Hancock?" Nancy was genuinely puzzled. "No," she said. "Why should it?" And then she remembered. Suddenly she knew where she had seen those strange amber eyes.
Peter Hancock was the name of an embezzler who had worked as an accountant at a bank in New York. It had been Nancy's careful detective work that had uncovered his fraudulent activities and sent him to prison.
Menacingly, Paula stepped closer. "Peter Hancock was my father. You sent him to prison, and now he's dead!" Paula's eyes were gleaming. "He escaped a few months ago. But he died—in this very wilderness. And you're going to die here, too!"
"So," Nancy said quickly, "you rigged this whole thing to get me here."
"That's right," Paula replied, brushing a strand of her matted hair out of her eyes. "There wasn't any contest—just like there wasn't any White Water Rafting, Incorporated. Both those tricks were part of a plan to get you on the river, where I could teach you a lesson, once and for all."
"So you picked your winners at random?"
"Yes," Paula bragged.
"Well, that was smart," Nancy said, stalling. If only the group on top of the tower could hear her above the wind! "People are always putting their names into a box for one contest or another. I guess you figured they'd think they'd just forgotten about entering this one."
"You got it, Nancy Drew." Paula sneered. "You're bright, all right. Too bad you're not bright enough to get yourself out of the mess you're in now."
Nancy ignored her. "And you sent the letter to George because you knew that she'd be enthusiastic about a white water rafting trip," Nancy prompted.
"Of course I knew it. I've been doing my homework. I know all about you and your friends. It was a sure thing that George Fayne would ask you to come on this trip with her."
"The map? The missing barricade?"
"They were easy," Paula said scornfully. "You know, you would have made a lot less trouble for me if you'd sailed off that cliff." She sighed. "But I'm glad those tricks didn't work. It's going to be a lot more fun to watch you die."
"What about the slipped mooring line?" Nancy asked before Paula could make a move. "Was that another one of your clever tricks?"
"I figured it would be interesting to watch the expressions on your friends' faces when we fished your body out from under the falls," Paula explained. She stepped up closer to Nancy. "But I'm getting tired of all this talk."
