No Laughing Matter (13 page)

The line went dead.

Nancy hung up, then slowly sat down behind Bianca's desk.

“Nancy? What happened?” Bianca asked, worried.

Nancy told them about Bess's kidnapping and
Keith's demand for the color-coded accounting book. “They're calling tomorrow to fix a time and place for the exchange.”

“It's hard to believe that Johnny would do this,” Bianca said, shaking her head sadly.

“There's nothing we can do tonight,” Tony said, putting a hand on Nancy's shoulder. “Tomorrow you'll get the call and we'll turn over the accounting book. The most important thing is to get Bess back safely.”

Nancy wished that she could really believe that Bess would be safe, but there was no telling what Keith would do. Nancy's stomach was doing flip-flops.

“Bess must be terrified,” she said grimly. “She wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for me.”

“There has to be something we can do,” Bianca said, leveling a determined look at Nancy. “Even if we don't have the ledger, we can testify to what we saw in it. Once the police see the casino next door, they're bound to believe us.”

“Speaking of the police, shouldn't we call them?” Tony suggested.

Nancy shook her head adamantly. “Keith said that if we involve the police, he'll hurt Bess. I couldn't live with that.”

“Well, I'd like to help in any way I can,” Tony added.

Nancy was suddenly exhausted. “Thanks, you two. Actually, I could use one favor.”

“Name it.”

“A ride home? Bess was coming to spend the night at my house and would have driven me home, but now . . .” Nancy's voice trailed off.

Bianca smiled at her. “Sure. My car's right outside.”

• • •

Nancy was already awake when her alarm went off at seven the next morning. She hadn't gone to bed until after three because she was too worried about Bess to sleep.

She hoped Ned would arrive soon. As soon as she had gotten home the night before, she had called her boyfriend. After hearing that Bess had been kidnapped, he insisted on coming over in the morning to wait with Nancy for Keith's phone call.

Jumping out of bed, she took a quick shower, then dressed in jeans and an old sweatshirt. She had just finished drying her hair when she heard the doorbell. She practically flew down the stairs to answer it before her father could get it. Their housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, was out of town for a few days, so Nancy and Carson were on their own.

“Hi,” Ned said softly. Stepping inside, he enveloped her in a warm hug. “How're you holding up?” he asked.

“I keep thinking about Bess,” Nancy said into his shoulder. “Keith hasn't called yet.” She took
a deep, calming breath, then smiled weakly. “How about some hot chocolate and toast?”

Ned smiled down at her. “Good idea. We need to keep our energy up.”

There was a note on the kitchen table from Carson—he had gone into the office at six to get caught up on a backlog of work. Nancy stared down at her buttered toast and couldn't imagine eating it. Picking up her mug of hot chocolate, she wrapped her hands around it. The warmth, at least, was comforting. “Thanks for waiting with me, Ned—”

Just then the phone rang. Nancy jumped to answer it, while Ned grabbed a paper and pen.

“Oh—hi, Bianca,” Nancy said. “No, no word yet. We'll let you know.”

Nancy let out a deep sigh as she hung up. She was just about to sit down when the phone rang again.

“Hello,” she said firmly, not wanting to betray any fear in her voice.

It was Keith. He told her to meet him with the ledger at an abandoned café near the Muskoka River. Nancy knew exactly which place he was talking about. It had burned down a few years before.

“The burned-down cafe at the Muskoka River at three
P.M
.,” she repeated to Ned after she hung up.

She frowned, then burst out, “That's not for hours. I'll go crazy waiting around until then!”

“Maybe we won't have to,” Ned put in. “I was thinking about the casino you found at Caribou. Do you think we could sneak into it and take some pictures?” he suggested. “Then, even if we have to hand over the ledger, we'll still have proof of the gambling.”

“Bianca must have a key to Over the Rainbow, and we can get into the casino through the staircase I stumbled onto last night,” Nancy said, thinking out loud. “Ned, that's a great idea!”

She was already reaching for the phone. When she hung up a few minutes later, she was smiling. “Bianca said she'll meet us there right away.”

• • •

When Nancy and Ned pulled into the parking lot at Over the Rainbow, Bianca was already waiting. She jumped out of her car and met them at the front door. “Hi. You're Ned, right? I'm sorry I was curt with you the other day,” she said.

Nancy made the introductions. As they went inside, Bianca said, “I left a message for Tony. I hope he meets us.”

Nancy was struck by how different Over the Rainbow looked in the daylight. It was stripped of all its fun and glamour, and it smelled slightly of grease and fried food.

She and Ned had the color-coded accounting book with them. Going behind the bar, she placed it on a shelf there. Then she strode to the stage and showed Ned and Bianca the door that
she had stumbled through the previous night. She turned the knob, but the door didn't budge.

“It must have been nailed shut from the other side,” Nancy guessed.

Bianca went backstage and reappeared a moment later with a hammer, a crowbar, and a flashlight. The three set to work prying open the door. After only a few minutes, the door swung open.

“Old wood,” Ned muttered.

“I'm going to check in the office for any receipts or papers Johnny may have left there,” Bianca said. “I'll meet you guys up in the casino.”

Ned and Nancy made their way quietly up the stairs, with Ned shining the flashlight beam so they could see. “This must have been an old fire-escape route,” Nancy whispered.

When they got closer to the top of the stairs, she and Ned paused to listen for any sound. It was completely quiet. Holding her breath, Nancy turned the knob and the door swung open.

The two teens stepped out into the dim hallway. Except for their flashlight, the only illumination came from an exit sign. Nancy didn't see any light coming from the stairs, so she assumed the dance club was deserted, too. Gesturing to Ned to follow her, she crept up to the door that led into the casino.

She was surprised when the knob turned easily. “It's unlocked,” she whispered over her shoulder
to Ned. She opened the door and took a few steps inside.

Despair swept over Nancy as she shined her flashlight around the room. The place was entirely empty. The gambling casino had been cleared out!

N
ED
!” N
ANCY GROANED
. “Everything's gone! We have no proof now.”

Ned let out a low whistle. “These guys sure moved fast,” he said. “They changed this place from a casino to an empty room overnight!”

“It looks like they did a thorough job, too,” Nancy added, gazing around the room. “All that's left are a couple of folding chairs.”

“Wait—what's this?” Ned said. His flashlight beam shone on something red on the carpet. He bent down to pick it up, then held up the poker chip for Nancy to see. “Looks like one piece of evidence they forgot.”

“It's a start, anyway,” Nancy said. Leaning against the wall near the door, she wondered aloud, “What now?”

“I think we should check out the rest of the building,” Ned said. “There's a chance that we'll turn up some other evidence of the gambling operation.”

Staying close together, Ned and Nancy headed back into the hallway. Ned shone the light ahead of them as they slowly made their way down the front stairs.

Suddenly Nancy grabbed Ned's arm. “Did you hear that?” she whispered. They stopped a few stairs from the bottom.

“The only thing I hear is my heart pounding,” Ned whispered back.

“I'm so nervous, I guess I'm imagining things.” Nancy continued to the ground floor, then rounded the corner into the cavernous main room of the dance club.

“I can't believe how dark it is in here,” Ned said. He was sweeping the flashlight around in arcs so they could see where they were going.

Just then Nancy heard a door slam somewhere above them. She started to warn Ned, but he had obviously heard it, too. He switched off the flashlight and reached for Nancy's hand.

Nancy's heart beat faster as footsteps crossed the ceiling above them. Slowly, someone began walking down the stairs.

Ned repositioned the flashlight in his hand. Nancy knew what he was thinking—if he had to, he could use it as a weapon.

A moment later the footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Nancy held her breath, keeping a tight grip on Ned's free hand.

“Nancy?”

Both Ned and Nancy breathed a sigh of relief. “Bianca!” Nancy exclaimed. “We're over here.”

Ned turned on the flashlight so that Bianca could find her way across the dark dance floor. She was hugging the leather accounting book to her chest. “I didn't want to leave this with no one around,” she said. “Did you find anything?”

“They cleared everything out of the casino,” Ned explained, shaking his head.

“That's awful!” Bianca said.

“Right now I'm too worried about Bess to care about anything else,” Nancy put in. “I wish we had some way of finding her before this afternoon.”

“Have you searched the whole building?” asked Bianca. “Maybe there's a clue we're missing.”

“We were thinking the same thing,” Nancy told her. “So far we've checked only the room where the casino was.”

“Well, I think that—”

Ned broke off and cocked his head to one side. He, Nancy, and Bianca all heard the clanking sound at the same time.

“What was that?” Bianca asked nervously.

The clanking started up again. This time Nancy noticed that a rhythm was being tapped out.

“It sounds like a message of some kind!” she whispered. “You guys, it could be Bess trying to let us know where she is!”

Nancy closed her eyes so that she could concentrate on where the sound was coming from. “It's underneath us,” she decided.

Even in the darkness she could see the frown on Bianca's face. “This complex of buildings has a shared basement. The only thing down there is the boiler room, some electrical circuitry, and a storage room,” Bianca said.

The clanking sound repeated again. “Three shorts, three longs, three shorts,” Nancy murmured. “That's Morse code for SOS!”

“It must be Bess,” Ned whispered. “She must be alone, too, or she wouldn't have taken the chance of signaling. We've got to get downstairs.”

He shone the light on the four corners of the dance-club floor. At the far end of the room, the flashlight picked up the glint of a doorknob.

Please let her be okay, Nancy begged silently. She could just imagine how terrified Bess must be. If she was hurt, Nancy didn't think she could ever forgive herself.

Nancy reached for the doorknob, willing it to open. It did. Taking the flashlight from Ned, she shone it down the stairs. Unlike the fire stairway that connected the dance club to Over the Rainbow, this stairway was made of concrete.

Once more they heard the clanking sound. It was louder now, which made Nancy think they
were getting closer. “Way to go, Bess,” she whispered as if Bess could hear her. “Keep signaling, and we'll find you.”

Nancy, Ned, and Bianca made their way quickly and silently down the stairs. In the basement it was cold and dank. Exposed pipes dripped occasionally onto the concrete floor. When she shone the flashlight around, she saw that the area was partitioned by cinder-block walls. There appeared to be three directions they could take.

“Bess, where are you?” Nancy whispered.

As if on cue, the clanking sound resumed.

“This way,” Ned whispered, pointing to the passageway on the right.

The three of them crept along, waiting for the next message to tell them that they were heading in the right direction. They didn't have to wait long.

“Mamphh!”

The muffled sound came from just up ahead. Her heart pounding, Nancy shone the flashlight into the darkness.

“Bess!” Nancy felt a huge rush of relief as the beam illuminated Bess's scared face. Bess had a bandanna tied around her mouth, and her clothes were dirty and disheveled.

Nancy rushed over to where her friend sat on the concrete floor, tied to a post that supported one of the pipes overhead. When Nancy bent down to hug her, Bess started crying.

“Don't worry, Bess. We're here now.” Nancy comforted her friend. She untied the bandanna, while Ned and Bianca worked on the ropes that bound Bess's wrists and ankles.