“Dave, I am going down to the dock. We’ll be pulling anchor in twenty minutes, record albums or no record albums. The police will be looking for their men as soon as they discover they’re missing. If you want to stay around and visit the prison wards, fine. If you want passage on my ship for yourself and your girlfriend,” he looked at Vivian, “you’d better do as I say.” James Li turned on his heel. But heading out the door, he was intercepted by Petey, the guard Nancy had asked for the light.
“Hey, boss?” Petey said. “We got a problem. It’s that kid. We looked everywhere for him. I don’t know how he got away so quick. It’s like he just vanished or something.”
Li tapped his pistol nervously against his palm. “Well then, you’d better hurry with those albums. He might get to the cops.”
Petey nodded.
“You too, Dave,” Li commanded. “Get to work.”
“But—”
“That’s the end of the discussion.” Li headed out.
Dave looked around at Nancy and the others. “Viv, what do you think?”
“You mean about them? I think we better do what Li says,” Vivian told him. “I don’t have any intention of winding up in jail.”
“I guess.” Dave handed her his gun (with some reluctance, Nancy thought), and went into the next room to move the crates of albums.
“Vivian, you’re not really going to listen to James Li, are you?” With her hands tied behind her back, Nancy had no option other than to try to talk Vivian out of the drastic plan. She suspected that Vivian was the person to convince. Dave was clearly shaken up at the thought of being responsible for so much bloodshed. If Vivian changed her mind, Nancy was certain that Dave would go along with her. “You wouldn’t really set that fire,” Nancy said.
“A lot you know,” Vivian replied roughly. “Before Dave introduced me to Jimmy Li, every nickel I earned from my lousy job went toward the rent on a one-room dump. I never had fancy clothes or went to nice restaurants or owned real jewelry.”
“And now you have it all?”
“These aren’t rhinestones on my finger, sweetheart.” Vivian flashed a sparkling ring of gold and diamonds.
“But are all those luxuries worth having murder on your conscience for the rest of your life? Think about it. We’re talking about human lives.”
“I know what we’re talking about.” Vivian’s voice was deadly cold.
“Look, it’s no longer just a question of stealing masters or illegally copying albums or even knocking me out backstage at the Music Hall,” Nancy said desperately. “You must be pretty loyal to James Li to kill for him.”
“He takes good care of Dave and me.”
“Vivian, how long have you known him?”
“Dave introduced me to him a few months ago, when he needed to get on the inside at World Communications. But I don’t see what difference that makes.”
“And Dave hasn’t worked for him very long, either.”
“They started doing business when Dave worked at Emerson Record World.”
“That was less than a year ago,” Ned put in.
“And you’re ready to put yourself entirely in the hands of someone you’ve known for such a short time?” Nancy asked. “A man who makes deals and then ‘changes’ them as it suits him? Vivian, you and Dave are planning on escaping to a country where you don’t know a soul except Mr. Li. You don’t speak the language, you don’t know any of the customs. Without that man, you’re lost. And he’s ready to let you carry out murder, so that he isn’t responsible for it.”
Vivian seemed to be considering Nancy’s words. But then her face hardened. “You don’t really care what happens to Dave and me. You’re just pleading for your own lives. Well, you all deserve exactly what you get. We had a great thing going, and you came along and messed it up.
Dave poked his head into the room. “We’re about to bring the last load down.”
Nancy drew in a sharp, frightened breath. This was it.
“Good,” Vivian said. “The sooner we get this over with, the better.”
“Vivian, please,” Nancy begged as Dave headed down the stairs with the crate. “Please . . .”
“Save it for the guy at the pearly gates.” Vivian waved her gun menacingly.
“I guess this is goodbye,” George managed to choke out. Nancy had never seen steely-nerved George shed a tear. She dropped her head, expecting the gunshot. But instead, she heard an ear-shattering scream!
Chapter
Fifteen
NANCY JERKED HER head up to see Vivian drenched in a steaming liquid. And wrestling the gun from her hand was . . .
“Alan!” Nancy cried out. “How on earth?”
Alan stood behind Vivian, holding her gun in one hand and a huge bowl in the other. “Hot egg drop soup,” he grinned. Working swiftly, he untied his friends. “I figured the last place those muscle-brains would look for me was in their own building. I sneaked back in through the restaurant side and came up the dumbwaiter. You were right, Nancy. It was not the most comfortable ride.” Alan unknotted the last bonds.
“Alan,” Nancy said gratefully, “without you, we’d—”
“—never have gotten into this mess in the first place. The least I could do was save your skin.”
Before Nancy could reply, footsteps on the stairs signaled Dave’s return. “Okay, guys,” she whispered. “You’re going to have to take Li’s henchmen on your own. I’m afraid my shoulder’s given out on me.”
“I thought you said it was fine,” George scolded her.
“So I lied. I don’t think I’m up for any fancy karate moves.”
“It’s all right, Nancy,” said Roger Gold. “Even without you, it’s nine of us against four of them.”
Suddenly, Dave appeared in the room along with Li’s other bullies. “Hey, what’s going on? Viv, what are you doing on the fl—”
Dave caught a right to his jaw before the word was out of his mouth. The small room reverberated with sounds of punches, kicks, and heated exclamations.
It didn’t take long for Nancy’s friends to overpower Li’s cohorts. “Good job,” Nancy said breathlessly. “Alan, go down and see about those policemen. Take Vivian’s gun, just in case.”
Alan left the room and a few seconds later reappeared with four men in blue uniforms.
“Sergeant Wald,” Nancy said, pointing to Dave, Vivian, and the other three men, “we have a little present for you. But there’s one more. The boss, James Li. He’s trying to escape on a ship that’s about to pull anchor. Li told his boys he’d leave without the merchandise if he had to. Do you think we can stop him?”
“That should be easy.” Sergeant Wald stepped forward. “Just tell us what dock he’s leaving from, and we can radio headquarters. They’ll have cars and a special navy unit over there in no time.”
Nancy turned toward Li’s little gang, now securely tied with the ropes that had held her and her friends just moments earlier. “Okay, which one of you wants to tell me where your boss is leaving from?”
Dave and the others remained silent.
“Do you think he’d do the same for you?” Nancy asked. “No way. He wouldn’t stick his neck out one fraction of an inch. In fact, he’s getting ready to leave without you right this second.”
No answer.
“Dave, think about what James Li left you to do. He didn’t want to do it himself, so who did he stick with it?”
Dave scowled. “Yeah, that bum.”
“Come on, tell us,” Nancy urged. She’d learned in karate class that a chain was most easily broken at its weakest link. “Maybe if you cooperate, they’ll let you off with a lighter sentence.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Vivian commanded.
Dave looked from his girlfriend to Nancy, and back to his girlfriend.
“You know, your mother would be heartbroken to see her son locked away forever,” Nancy said, trying a different tack.
“How do you know what my mother would think?” Da
ve shouted.
“Ned had a little chat with her,” Nancy replied calmly. “We were trying to track you down.”
Dave’s face went from furious to panicked. The chain snapped. “All right, you win. I’ll tell you where he is.”
Nancy allowed herself a long overdue sigh of relief.
She was safe. Bess and Barton were fine. And Li’s gang was about to be put away. It was true that her shoulder ached, that her wrists and ankles were sore where Dave had tied them, and that her head was still bruised from where he had hit her the first night. But she had never in her life felt happier or more alive!
• • •
That happy feeling was still with Nancy the next morning as she flounced down on the edge of Bess’s bed. She steadied herself with her left arm, since her right one was still sore from the previous night. “Come on, lazybones! Do you want to sleep through your last day in New York?”
Bess groaned and pulled the covers over her head.
“Bess!” Nancy jostled her friend’s leg through the blanket. “It’s almost eleven o’clock.”
Bess peeked one half-open eye out from her cocoon. “Nan, don’t you know that people who’ve been through traumas need lots of rest?” She rolled over on her stomach.
“You seemed just fine at our midnight celebration supper. Remember putting away all those spare ribs?”
George came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped like a turban around her wet hair. “Don’t even mention spare ribs. I ate enough last night for the rest of the week.”
“And you’re going to eat even more this afternoon at that luncheon the Chinatown Neighborhood Association is giving for us,” Nancy reminded her. “Mrs. Chen, she’s president of the association, told me that the community is incredibly grateful to all of us for helping to put James Li behind bars. What a bully! It wasn’t enough for him to pirate records and run all those other big-time illegal operations the police told us he had going. No, he had to muscle in on the small businesses in Chinatown, too.”
“Yeah, I can certainly understand why the community is so glad to see him go,” George said. “And it’s really nice of them to give us an honorary luncheon. But I don’t know if I’m going to be able to touch it.” She patted her lean, flat stomach.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you out.” Bess finally sat up in bed and stretched her arms over her head.
George rolled her eyes. “Well, look who finally rises at the mention of her favorite sport—eating.”
“Oh, come on, give me a break. How often do you get some of the best Chinese chefs this side of the Pacific to make a special meal just for you?”
“Not too often,” George answered. “And speaking of not too often, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, Bess.”
“Yeah?”
“Alan said he went down to World Communications yesterday while you were out jogging. Since when have you turned into a jock?”
Bess made a face. “We-e-ell . . . I sort of ended up doing more shopping than jogging . . .”
“Figures,” George said. “So how much did that little jog cost you?”
Bess cringed. “I don’t think I should say.”
“Come on, spill it. What’d you blow?”
Bess pouted. “George, don’t tell me you’ve never gone out on a spur-of-the-moment shopping spree. How about that time you bought all those weights from the sports shop to use at home, and then you joined the gym, so you don’t even need your own weights?”
George frowned. “Well, at least I don’t go out running with a shopping bag and my wallet.”
Nancy sighed. “Okay, you two. No more arguing. From now on, this vacation’s going to be fun, fun, fun.”
“Famous last words,” George said.
Nancy shot George a mock glare. “Don’t even think it,” she said. “It is going to be a vacation. Even if it’s for just one more day.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind some fun today either,” Bess agreed. “I think I deserve it after yesterday. Now I know where the expression ‘scared to death’ comes from. I honestly believed I was going to die of fright before those thugs even did anything to me.”
Nancy leaned over and tugged on Bess’s blond hair. “I know. It was a nightmare. But it’s all over.”
“Is it?” Bess punched her pillow, her expression sober. “Maybe for you, but I’ve got some serious thinking to do.”
“Alan?” Nancy asked softly.
Bess nodded. “He told lies to get what he wanted. I didn’t realize the boy I fell in love with would do something like that.”
George pulled a chair up next to the bed. “But he also saved our lives. Bess, your boyfriend’s a hero.”
“Maybe.”
“Barton and Roger sure seem to think so,” Nancy put in. “They wouldn’t have offered to help him out otherwise.”
“Yeah, just think of it, Bess. He might get his dream one day, after all,” George remarked.
“I’m thinking of it. But I’m also thinking that I want to take it more slowly with him. What happened made me realize that there’s a lot about Alan Wales I don’t know.”
“But you still feel something for him, don’t you?” Nancy asked.
“Well, when the chemistry’s right . . .” Bess’s round face grew pink.
“Good. Because I told Mrs. Chen to seat you two next to each other,” Nancy said with a laugh. “Oh, did I tell you that my dad’s bringing Ann Nordquist to the luncheon?”
George’s brown eyes opened wide. “Talk about chemistry!”
“Yeah. Dad’s really enjoying her company.” Nancy sighed. “I can’t tell you how glad I am to have a suspect turn out innocent.”
“And speaking of couples,” George said, giving Nancy a poke, “how are you and Ned doing?”
“I think we’re going to be all right.” Nancy smiled brightly. “As a matter of fact, this afternoon he’s taking me on a very special boat ride to a tiny island!” She raised her eyebrows suggestively. “It’s a start.”
“Sounds romantic,” Bess sighed.
Nancy giggled. “Yeah, it’s called the ferry to the Statue of Liberty! Now how about getting up, Bess, or the guests of honor are going to miss their own luncheon.”
“And don’t take too long putting on your makeup,” George added.
“Okay, okay.” Bess climbed out of bed. “Are Barton and Roger and all the Fenders going to be there?”
“Absolutely,” Nancy replied. “Hey, did you know that Barton told me he’s going to write a song about us and the whole mystery? He’s going to call it ‘Scared to Death.’ ”
“Wow! You mean every time we turn on our radios in River Heights we’re going to hear about ourselves?” Bess asked.
“An instant souvenir,” Nancy answered.
“Maybe they’ll even make it into a video,” George said hopefully.
“That would be neat,” Nancy agreed. “And I know just the threesome to play the detective and her two friends. . . .”
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Carolyn Keene, 002 Deadly Intent
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