CHAPTER 11
Lynda looked up the street. It was dark and maybe walking wasn’t such a good idea. They were standing under the only light post. She looked at her watch. It was getting late, almost 9:30 pm, and they had about two blocks to walk.
“Lynda, there could be robbers everywhere,” sniffed Sinda, close to tears. “What if we get stuck somewhere. My candy bar is gone!”
“Yeah and we all know where it went, don’t we?” glared Cheri.
“Let’s go. We don’t have much time to fuss about candy bars and robbers. We’ll be fine if we just keep our heads and watch where we’re going,” remarked Lynda.
“Remember Dad always said that to panic in a crisis situation is the worst thing we can do for ourselves.”
Cheri and Sinda looked at each other at that remark and brightened. They would be all right. Lynda was right, as usual.
“Let’s go!” Cheri said and began to walk briskly up the street. She took out her mini tape-recorder from her backpack to check for damage.
Lynda grabbed Sinda’s hand and walked after Cheri. “Yuk! What is all over your hand? Oh, yeah, chocolate,” remarked Lynda.
She took a tissue from her pocket and attempted to wipe off some of the mess from Sinda’s hand. The girls walked a block up the street. For a business area, it was not that well lighted which caused Cheri and Lynda some concern. They had not walked very far when.....
“Do you hear that?” Sinda said to Lynda. “No, what do you hear?” Lynda asked her.
Sinda looked scared. “Footsteps behind us.”
Cheri looked doubtful. “I don’t hear anything. You probably got some of that chocolate in your ear, dopey!”
“Cheri, hush a minute. Let’s listen!” said Lynda.
The girls stopped walking and listened. The only sound they heard was a small breeze blowing a newspaper around the street.
Lynda took Sinda’s hand and began to walk again. “Let’s keep moving. We’re almost there and we don’t need to start scaring ourselves.”
Sinda’s fright had spooked Cheri, who began to glance backward over her shoulder as she walked. Sinda began to whimper. Their own footsteps echoed between the tall buildings. The sisters were filled with dread and anticipation.
And then they all heard it: footsteps behind them!
Cheri picked up the pace. “Let’s get out of here!” She began to run. Lynda ran, dragging Sinda by the hand. There was the muffled sound of running behind them.
Sinda tripped on the curb when they crossed a street and she fell down hard.
“Ow! Quit dragging me, Lynda! You’re hurting me!” Sinda started to cry. Lynda and Cheri stopped and looked back where Sinda had fallen. She was lying stomach down, spread out across the sidewalk.
“Get up, Sinda!” Lynda yelled at her.
Sinda started to get up, putting her hands on the sidewalk. She saw a pair of sneakers within touching range. Her eyes followed up the sneakers to a suit and then a face. The man’s eyes were not friendly, looking down at her.
“Let me help you up,” the man said to Sinda.
Lynda and Cheri ran back to Sinda and were helping her up.
Sinda grabbed Lynda’s arm, pulled her face close to hers and whispered, “Lynda, that’s Pablo who kidnapped me.”
Lynda looked at the man and also recognized him as being at Career Day at Mother’s office.
“You know me, don’t you?” said the man looking at Lynda and Cheri.
“Never seen you before,” remarked Cheri, “And it’s been really nice chatting with you but...”
The man reached out and grabbed Sinda by the straps of her jean overalls just as the girls were poised to run.
“”Hey!” shouted Lynda, “Let go of her!”
“What do you think you’re doing, you creep!” said Cheri. She had secretly pressed the record button on the mini tape-recorder and was hoping to get him to say something incriminating.
“The little one here will be fine if you girls start walking back to the bus stop,” sneered the man. He had let go of her overalls and was holding both her arms. She tried to stomp on his foot but he quickly moved.
“You older girls start walking with your eyes forward. If you don’t, well, something bad could happen to this brat,” said the man.
Terrified, Lynda and Cheri began to back away from him.
“What do we do now?” Lynda whispered.
“I don’t know but I’ve got it all on tape,” said Cheri.
They turned away from Sinda and the man while trying to formulate a plan. With Sinda in extreme danger, panic set in instead and both girls were scared stiff.
From behind them, Lynda and Cheri heard a terrifying scream. They turned back to see Sinda rushing toward them. Sinda threw her arms around Lynda and held on tight.
Lynda asked, “What’s going on?”
Sinda spoke in gasps, “I don’t know. ... One minute.. that man grabbed me....next minute....he fell backward. Then I ran.” She started to cry.
Cheri, after seeing that Sinda was all right, looked behind her to see two men now instead of one. They had been fighting. One man was on the ground and another was standing by him, looking down menacingly.
“Don’t even think about gettin’ up, I’ll knock you from here to Ft. Worth!” bellowed the second man.
Lynda switched on a flashlight and pointed it at the second man. She saw JT Nelson as the man who had come to their rescue.
“You little ladies feelin’ okay?” asked JT in his heavy Texas drawl.
“Yes, thanks,” replied Lynda, “but what are you doing here?”
“I could ask y’all the same thing,” he replied. “But to save us all some time...I’ve been investigatin’ the disappearance of your mother’s new equipment. It’s very valuable and the Dallas police asked me to go undercover for them.”
Lynda began to explain. “We’ve been investigating too. Ever since that day of the burglary, Mother has been very upset and we knew we’d have to help her.”
When Nelson’s bushy brows scrunched together, Lynda raised her chin defiantly. “We are experienced at this sort of thing and our father’s a P.I. in California,” she finished defensively.
“Let’s talk about it later. Right now I need to call the police and rope and tie this fella.”.
After handcuffing the man on the ground, Nelson used a small portable radio to call the police. He identified himself, gave them their location, and asked for backup.
“Look, Mr. Nelson, we don’t have much time and I think we could use your help,” Lynda began. She glanced at her sisters. Sinda was busy blotting the flow of blood from one of her scraped elbows with a tissue. Cheri nodded to Lynda.
In the time that it took for the police to pull up and put the handcuffed man in the police car, Lynda had reviewed the events to JT Nelson. She began with their trip to Fair Park to find out more about the couple Sinda had overheard. She explained about the kidnapping and the bus trip adventure which led them to where they were now. She looked at her watch.
“It’s 9:50, Mr. Nelson, and we’ve got to get over to the company if we’re going to catch the others who are meeting there tonight,” said Lynda. “What do you say? Will you come with us?”
Nelson’s eyes narrowed again as he looked at the girls. “You young ladies are as bright as new copper pennies and I’m a tad impressed with what ya’ll have done so far. So I guess I’ll come along--as long as ya’ll realize that I am now in charge. All right?”
“Fine,” Lynda beamed at him, relieved that there was a grownup finally to assume responsibility. She was tired of being in charge. This case was more than she could handle.
“Fine,” Cheri said reluctantly. She still didn’t trust him.
“My elbows hurt,” whined Sinda, “Can we go home now?”
Nelson wanted the policeman to take Sinda home.
“No,?
?? said Lynda, “We need her to wrap up this case. She’s very important.”
Cheri looked doubtful at that comment, but Sinda smiled broadly.
“That’s right! I’m the only one who heard their voices and can identify them.”
Both Cheri and J T grudgingly agreed. The police car left for the station as Nelson and the girls began to walk the final block to High Tech Electronics. It was black outside now with occasional bursts of light filtering from the neon lights in the store windows. The effect was much like a laser show the girls had once seen.