Read Danger in Dallas! A Floyd Sisters Mystery Page 12
CHAPTER 12
They arrived at High Tech Electronics within minutes. Moving around to the back of the building, Nelson pulled out his security card to gain entrance. Lynda wondered how the burglars had gotten inside. Did they have a security card too?
When JT opened the door, a ray of light from the back door shined brightly against an inside wall as if it were an intrusion.
“I think we need to split up to search,” Lynda commented. “We’re not sure which part of the building they may be in.”
“Hold your horses!” Nelson remarked, “I need to keep y’all together in case there’s trouble.”
Cheri scowled at him, “Look, Mr. Nelson, we can do this and we have to.” She noted the time on her watch. “It’s already 10:05 and the burglars could be leaving. We have to split up to make sure they don’t sneak out.”
These girls were right on the button, JT thought glumly.
“Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. Lynda and Sinda, go around by your mother’s office and check out that area. Cheri and I will go the other way by the cafeteria. We’ll meet by the copy room where the lockers are.”
The girls nodded their heads in agreement.
“And if there’s any trouble at all, scream your heads off! Got that?”
“I’m really good at screaming, JT!” Sinda smiled at him.
Nelson shrugged his shoulders and turned into the corridor on his left. Cheri went with him.
As they moved down the corridor, any little sound was exaggerated. Lynda thought anyone close by could hear her heart pounding. Lynda pulled out two flashlights and gave one to Sinda. The flashlights moved down the darkened hallway as if they were little white polka dots on dark cloth.
“My elbows really hurt, Lynda,” whined Sinda. “I’m scared and I want to go home now.”
“Listen, sweetie, I’m scared too,” Lynda smoothed the hair on her sister’s head.
“You are?”
Sinda’s wide-eyed expression of surprise revealed to her that even her big sisters sometimes got scared. Lynda took Sinda’s hand and they moved down the hallway. The farther they went, the creepier the sounds became. They passed an office where Lynda could swear she heard the ticking of a clock. It reminded her of a bomb she heard in a recent Clint Eastwood movie. Sinda heard little squeaking noises like their backyard gate when she forgot to close it tight.
“Did you hear that, sis?” Sinda stopped dead in her tracks. Lynda bumped into her and had to hold on tight to her flashlight so she wouldn’t drop it. As they stood there and listened, they heard a banging sound.
“It’s the burglars!” said Sinda a bit too loudly.
“Shh!” ordered Lynda. “Get behind me!” Sinda obeyed and they stood together listening to the sound.
“Let’s find out what it is and where it’s coming from.”
“I wonder where we are,” whispered Lynda, “Come on!”
“No way!” breathed Sinda, “What if it’s the burglars just ahead?”
“You have to stay with me.” Lynda grabbed her sister’s arm and moved her farther down the corridor. The banging got louder and the girls became more frightened.
“Look, Sinda, we’re at the copy room. We missed Mother’s office.”
Sinda shined her flashlight on the wall across from the copy room. They were by the lockers. What was making the banging noise? A locker had been opened and its door was swinging, being pushed by a breeze created by a nearby air conditioning duct.
“Oh boy! This must be where they had the virtual reality stuff! Look at all the papers scattered around. Someone was in a big hurry to get it out and leave!” said Lynda excitedly. She had run up to the locker and checked its contents.
“It’s not here. But the thief must be close by. Let’s wait for Cheri and Mr. Nelson.”
Meanwhile, Cheri and JT Nelson had been quietly searching the hallways and offices on the other side of the building. Cheri had turned on her mini tape-recorder every time Nelson grunted something to her--which wasn’t often. This was a man of action and few words. Cheri had heard from Carlena, the gossipy receptionist, that J T owned a horse ranch in Celina, about fifty miles northwest of Dallas. She wondered if he grunted at the horses too.
Mostly, Nelson told Cheri to keep quiet or to stop bumping into him. But that was hard when it was very dark and Cheri couldn’t get her flashlight to work any more. She was definitely having battery problems with her equipment on this case. She wondered if Dad ever had this problem on his cases!
Just as she reached into her backpack for fresh batteries...
“Freeze!” commanded Nelson. How in the world could he see her? She couldn’t see a thing.
Then Cheri sensed a form moving in the corridor not far from them. She felt her hair standing up on the back of her neck!
Nelson waited until the form was within two or three feet of them and then he started to move toward it.
At that very moment, a police siren was heard outside the building and Sinda and Lynda came around the corner. In the dark, everyone froze, aware that many people were now present and no one knew who was who. Lynda beamed her flashlight at the form who took off running.
“Yow!” screamed Sinda, “Hey, quit that!”
Someone slammed Sinda up against the wall.
JT took off running after the form with Cheri in hot pursuit. She held up her mini tape-recorder determined to record the entire event.
‘Lynda, Lynda where are you?” Sinda groped around in the dark for her sister.
Someone was trying to catch her breath and was breathing in air with huge gasps.
“I’m here.....I.....think,” gasped Lynda. After knocking Sinda down, the retreating figure had roughly pushed Lynda aside to get away.
There were sounds of several people running down the hallway. Just then, all the lights in the building came on and Nelson tackled the would-be escapee. Four policeman came in from various directions as JT Nelson and the girls looked with shock at the person Nelson had brought down.