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lagoon.”
    “Luckily mine’s got a water-resistant case,” Bess said. “They tried me next.”
    I nodded, glancing at the couple. Vic looked grim and pale, and Sydney had stopped crying but still appeared to be pretty worked up.
    “Okay,” I said briskly. “So does this mean we finally get to talk about that mess you guys found in your room when you got here? Or did you guys have any ideas about what happened with the pontoon boat?”
    “Sure, we can talk about that stuff if you want. But first …” Vic pulled out his cell phone and held it out to me. “This just came.”
    Once again, I felt a little slow as I remembered that a message had come in for him right before the shark thing—a message that had made Sydney gasp in alarm and get even more upset than she’d already been.
    “Oh, right,” I said, reaching for the phone. “What’s it say?”
    Glancing down, I saw an e-mail blinking on the screen. The text consisted of a single line: TELL YOUR BRIDE SHE CAN’T ESCAPE FROM HER SHADOW .
    But that wasn’t all. Below that message was a photo. It showed the lagoon right there at the resort under the moonlight—with the back view of a shiny bald head sticking up from the dark water!
    “Whoa,” I murmured, realizing what this meant.
    MrSilhouette was back. And he was right here at the resort.

SAFE HOUSE
     
    “It’s from MrSilhouette!” Sydney cried, sounding on the verge of hysteria. “I should have known it wasn’t over. He’s here! He has to be the one doing all this terrible stuff. What am I going to do?” She turned and buried her face in Vic’s chest. “I never should have agreed to marry you,” she sobbed, her words slightly muffled. “Now you’re in danger too.”
    “It’s okay, love,” he said, rubbing her head soothingly. “We’ll get through this.”
    Bess stepped over and patted Sydney on the back.
    “Yeah, try not to let it get to you so much, Syd,” she added. “Nancy’s on the case now—she’ll track this guy down. She always gets her man.”
    I barely heard her. This was an alarming new development. Of course I’d known all along that there was a pretty good chance that Sydney’s old stalker could be behind all the trouble. But this appeared to prove it. I stared at the message and photo, wishing George was there to try to track who’d sent it.
    Never mind, I told myself, realizing it probably wouldn’t do any good. This guy was a pro—even the NYPD hadn’t been able to trace his first batch of e-mails. Somehow I doubted he’d gotten any sloppier since then.
    Still, I punched a few buttons to forward the message to George’s phone, hoping it hadn’t been totally ruined by its saltwater bath. Just as I finished, the phone buzzed in my hand.
    “Incoming message,” I said.
    “Got it,” Vic said, grabbing the phone out of my hand before I could see who the message was from. He glanced at the screen, then immediately stuck the phone in his pocket. “Just my agent,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll call him back later.”
    He sounded kind of jumpy. And no wonder. We were all a little jumpy at this point.
    Sydney was still sobbing inconsolably against Vic’s chest, with Bess crooning into her ear to no apparent avail. Vic glanced around, still looking nervous.
    “I think I’d better take her somewhere moreprivate to get her settled down,” he said. “When Madge and the others notice we’re gone …”
    I nodded. The last thing Sydney needed right now was a camera shoved in her face. “How about our bungalow?” I suggested. “The TV people never bother to film the three of us unless we’re with one of you guys, so you should be safe there for a while.”
    Bess cleared her throat. “Right,” she said. “Except we don’t really know where it is. I mean, we can follow the little map on the key, but we haven’t been there ourselves yet, and so—”
    “Never mind,” Vic broke in. “Akinyi’s hut is the first one out on the walk, right out there