The Case of the Photo Finish by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

9

Lights Out!

“Cheryl!” Willy was shouting in the suddenly blackened pool room. At first the only answer was more splashing sounds. Then the other athletes began calling out to one another, some in languages Nancy couldn’t understand.

Nancy knew she had to turn the lights back on—fast. She tried to visualize the layout of the room. The light switches were probably near the double doors that led to the locker rooms. She made her way carefully along the wall to the left, moved forward until she reached a corner, then turned right. All the while, frantic splashing echoed in the darkness.

Finally, Nancy saw a dim light filtering in from the corridor. Hurrying over to the doors, she ran her hands along the tiled wall. Nothing on the right side, but on the left—

She flipped the bank of switches up and narrowed her eyes against the sudden glare. A quick glance at the out-of-the-way location of the switches told Nancy that it would have been just about impossible to turn the lights off accidentally. Her gaze then flew to the pool, where Willy was kneeling by the edge. He was stretching out his hand to a shaken Cheryl, who was breathing in huge gulps of air. The other athletes were crowding around, but Willy motioned them back.

“Give me room,” he said. He helped Cheryl up onto the tiled edge of the pool. Eric, a few feet away, was snapping one photo after another.

“Where’s Steve when I need him?” someone near Nancy muttered. She glanced over and saw Barbara writing hastily in a little notebook. Helga and Marta were standing where they had been, not far from the pool’s edge, near the diving boards. Eric, with two cameras around his neck, stood off to one side, taking pictures. Annelise and some of the other athletes stood in a circle, talking in hushed voices.

“This didn’t look like an accident, Nancy,” Barbara said.

Nancy didn’t think so, either. But once again, there were almost too many suspects to choose from. Somehow she had to narrow down the list.

“Do you mind telling me where you were standing when the lights went out?” Nancy asked Barbara.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Barbara returned. “You don’t really think I had anything to do with this business, do you?”

“I was hoping you might have seen something, that’s all,” Nancy replied evenly.

“Sorry,” Barbara told her. “I’m afraid I didn’t see anything unusual.”

Cheryl was on her feet when Nancy went over to her. “Are you all right?” Nancy asked.

“More or less,” Cheryl said shakily. She rubbed a red mark on her left shoulder. “I must have hit the lane marker when I dived in. And I think I swallowed a couple of gallons of water. What happened, anyway?”

Nancy gave her a concerned glance. “Somebody flipped the switches,” she said. “I’m afraid this wasn’t an accident.”

Cheryl’s face tightened. She looked around the room and focused her gaze on Marta and Helga. Marta looked frightened, but Helga’s face was closed and stern.

Reassured that Cheryl was all right, Nancy made her way back to the spot where she had been standing when the lights went out.

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