Hugging the shadows, Nancy slithered along the wall toward the car he’d just left. This was not the Buick he had driven the night before. In fact-
She tried the door on the driver’s side. It was unlocked. Opening it just long enough for the ceiling light to come on, Nancy checked the interior. This was the car Reston had driven when he had kidnapped her!
Maybe I should check the trunk, she thought, removing the lock pick from her wallet. In less than fifteen seconds she had it open. Using her penlight was chancy but worth the risk if she found something important.
As it was, the contents were certainly interesting-several boxes of blank hack licenses, and the kind of dated stickers that were glued on the windshield of taxis after they had passed inspection.
Wedged in the corner was an unopened box marked Fragile. Nancy’s curiosity got the best of her. She leaned in and played her penlight across the printing on its side: “Nature Under Glass. Fragile. This End Up.” Nancy tried to pull it toward her. It was surprisingly heavy.
You’re getting sidetracked, Drew, she told herself. Maybe it was a present for his wife or something. The important discoveries were the hack licenses and the inspection stickers.
Suddenly Nancy heard someone stepping from the sidewalk into the alley. She glanced up and realized with horror that it was Reston. Stooping quickly, she eased the trunk down, hoping she could duck-walk back into the shadows beside the building.
But at that moment a cab came around the corner and signaled for the turn into the car wash. Midway through that turn, its headlights would sweep over Reston’s car. Even if Nancy were lucky enough for Reston to miss seeing her crouching by his trunk, there was no way the cabbie could miss her. She was trapped.
Chapter Fourteen
There was only one thing for Nancy to do. She hadn’t closed the lid of Reston’s trunk because he might have heard it. Easing it up again, she hooked one leg over and folded herself inside, lowering the lid again. A few seconds later she heard Reston climb into the driver’s seat and start the car.
Nancy held the trunk open slightly so she could watch where Reston drove. He pulled out on McConnell, drove to the end of the block, and turned right. When he approached the next corner, he began to slow. There was a traffic signal at that intersection, and Nancy prayed it had caught him. Reston came to a complete stop-and Nancy didn’t wait to guess why. She raised the lid of the trunk.
Down the street, a pair of headlights cut a yellow path through the night as a car turned from McConnell and came toward them. The driver might be able to see her, but there was nothing she could do about it. Nancy scrambled out, keeping the trunk lid low, lowered it, and took off for the sidewalk. The light changed, and Reston disappeared around the corner. He hadn’t spotted her!
Nancy stepped into the shadow of the awning of a shoe-repair shop. The car approaching the intersection slowed. Was it following her? Nancy tensed, then sighed with relief when she saw Ned in the driver’s seat.
“Boy, am I glad to see you!” she said, hurrying around to the passenger side.
“Nancy Drew, have you flipped? What were you doing?”
“Looking to see what was in his trunk. Ned, that was Reston-the man who snatched me out of the Grand that day,” she said, climbing in beside him.
“One ride with him wasn’t enough?” Ned shook his head with exasperation. Then he reached over and pulled her close. “You drive me crazy sometimes. What did you find that was worth getting trapped for?”
“Cab inspection stickers, for one. That’s how Gold Star’s been able to keep such rattletraps on the road. They don’t go through inspection at all.”
“Which means someone in the Department of Licenses and Inspections is being paid off. That’s serious and worth going to a lot of trouble to hide.”
“Uh-huh,” Nancy said. “There were blank hack licenses in the trunk, too. Honest people have to fill out an application downtown, pay good money, and wait to get one. Brownley’s passing out the things as if they’re business cards. I know, I got one.”
“Then we’re talking about more than one person being on the receiving end of bribe money. When this gets out, it’s going to rip the city apart!”
Nancy set her jaw. “That’s just too bad. They’re trying to rip my dad apart, aren’t they?” Then Nancy’s good humor returned. “Say, how’d you get away from the car wash so fast? And weren’t you going to meet me at my car?”
“Nothing was happening, so I asked the boss if I could leave early. I was going to grab something to eat at the all-night deli before I met you to check out the courier service.”
“Oh.” Nancy winced. There was no way she could avoid telling him she had taken a short look without him. “I-I sort of strolled past it. Guess what? Reston runs Fleet’s,” she said as they drove toward the deli.
That bit of news was enough to make Ned forget she was supposed to have waited for him. “You’re kidding!”
“And couriers swarm all over Judiciary Square every day. There were two or three in and out of Ms. Hanson’s office while I was looking for a bug. I don’t know if any of them are from Fleet’s, but of course I’ll check it out.”
A sudden thought skittered around in Nancy’s mind, but it disappeared before she could capture it. She couldn’t even imagine what had triggered it. At last she decided she’d better just relax and let the thought come back in its own time.
Ned stopped at the deli and bought sandwiches for Nancy and himself. They gobbled them down on their way back.
As they turned onto McConnell, Nancy groaned. “Will you look at that? I thought Fleet’s was open around the clock! Now how can we check it out?”
Ned pulled up to the curb, and they climbed out, staying hidden behind the car so they could observe what was happening. Fleet’s Courier Service was dark and locked tight as a drum. But Gold Star’s garage appeared to be alive with activity. Nancy and Ned crept closer, using shadows for cover. Reston, Brownley, and a couple of drivers in white jackets with “Fleet’s” stenciled on the backs were busily jockeying taxis around inside, as if making room for something.
“Well, now we know where the couriers are. Those cabs are new,” Nancy whispered. “Maybe it’s part of the shipment Brownley was talking about.”
As they watched, a couple of cabs were driven next door to the car wash. As they drove through the bay doors, the lights went out. Anyone passing by would have thought the place was closed. “See?” Ned said.
“This is crazy,” Nancy said. “Those cabs looked perfectly clean.”
“Well, I warn you, this will go on for the next forty-five minutes. There’s nothing more we can do tonight. We’ll have to try tomorrow night, okay?”
Nancy hated to give up. She’d been primed to search for the route to the basement, but what Ned said made sense. They’d be risking discovery if they tried it with all those people around.
“Okay. Tomorrow night,” she said. “I guess it’s just as well.” Suddenly she was very tired.
Ned drove her around to her car. They spent a leisurely few minutes saying good night, and then they each drove home.
Nancy went in the back door as usual, but didn’t turn on the light in the kitchen. Her goal was bed, so she checked the lock, then walked straight through the darkened kitchen and up the stairs. That was why she didn’t see her father’s note on the refrigerator until the next morning.
It was the worst news she could have gotten. Carson Drew’s pretrial hearing had been moved up. It was now scheduled for that very afternoon!
“Can they do that, Dad?” Nancy asked, horrified. She’d just come down for breakfast and read the note.