Fatal Ransom (12 page)

Great! Nancy thought. Thanks for pointing that out, Amy!

“Don't worry, Amy,” said Hal. “They'll never do it.”

Sam was starting to get nervous again. Once more the gun in his hand was trembling. “Let's get out of here,” he said. “We've got some money to pick up.”

“What are we going to do with
them?”
Jed asked.

Quickly Sam checked the knots on the ropes. “They'll be all right until we get back.” And he and Jed walked out the door.

The four captives listened as Sam and Jed walked down the stairs. Out on the street, a car door slammed. Another one. And then a third—Dracula. The car started up and drove away.

When the sound of the engine couldn't be heard anymore, Nancy started struggling to free herself.

“Sorry about all this,” she muttered to George.

“You're
sorry! I was afraid I was going to get you killed last night at the mall.”

“Part of the deal,” Nancy said.

She glanced over at Hal. He was slumped over in his chair. His breathing was shallow, his
complexion pasty. “I'm going to kill Lance,” Hal sat up suddenly and mumbled.

He's just figured it out, Nancy thought. Too bad it took us so long.

Hal made another futile attempt to jerk free of the ropes. He fell back into his bloody chair and whispered, “Sam and Jed are fools.”

“Let them take the money,” Amy said soothingly.

“There won't be any,” Hal said. “Lance will probably be long gone. Maybe he's even out of the country by now.”

“That's probably what he was going to do with the extra four hundred thousand he added to the ransom note,” Nancy said.

“I bet he's headed for Saint-Tropez right now,” George added.

“And he'll get there, too, if we don't stop him!” Nancy said, pulling against the ropes again.

“Hey!” George shouted as she gave a quick lunge and stood up. The ropes fell limp around her.

“All right!” Nancy cheered. “Hurry up and untie me. We've got a plane to stop!”

Once Nancy was free, she and George untied Hal and Amy. “Let's get out of here,” Nancy said, leading the way to the door.

George and Amy supported Hal and helped him across the floor.

Once outside Nancy saw that they'd been held prisoner in a garage apartment, which was near a large two-story house. She glanced around the yard for a second and saw someone dart behind a tree.

“Come on out,” she shouted bravely.

“Nancy?” the voice from behind the tree called. “Is that you?”

“Bess!” George shrieked.

But who was that stepping out from behind Bess?

“Ned!” Nancy gasped and ran into his arms. “But how—when—”

Bess was looking a little shamefaced. “You told me to use my judgment,” she said nervously. “Well, I did. My judgment told me to call Ned before I did anything else. So I called him at three o'clock yesterday afternoon. He drove here to help. I didn't know if either of us would ever see you again, I-I'm sorry, Nancy.”

Nancy leaned back against Ned and sighed. “Well, let's talk about it later,” she said. “I'm awfully glad to see you—
both
of you. How did you find us anyway?”

“I got worried about you,” Bess said. “I went to the mall to look for you. It was after twelve by this time, and I just walked around to all the
different doors to see if I could find either of your cars in the parking lot. I saw yours there, Nancy, and then I really got scared.”

Bess pulled something from her purse. “I kept looking around for hours for signs of a fight—anything that might be a clue. I was desperate, but I finally found this by the door.” She handed a folded paper to Nancy.

It was the note George had tried to give Nancy at the mall—the note describing where the apartment was!

George shook her head in wonder. “Those guys must have dropped it during the scuffle with me and Amy. Just before you got clobbered, Nancy—remember?”

Nancy rubbed the back of her head. “How could I forget?”

“I went to Ned's house to meet him at six o'clock. I didn't want to come without him,” Bess said. “I parked down the road and we sneaked over.”

“We were just about to storm the place when we saw those two guys come walking out,” Ned said. “So
that's
the kind of people you hang out with when I'm not around!” he added teasingly.

“To tell the truth, I'm glad those two left,” Bess confessed. “Ned or no Ned, I'm not big on heroic rescue attempts.”

Nancy patted Bess on the arm. “Well, you
sure acted pretty heroically.” She looked around the yard. Bess's car was parked in the street, and a motorcycle was parked next to the garage. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

“Now let's get moving,” Nancy said. “Hal's losing a lot of blood, and we have to stop Lance.”

“Lance!” Bess exclaimed. “Stop Lance from what?”

“From stealing Hal's money,” Nancy said. “And running off to Saint-Tropez.”

“I don't believe it!” answered Bess. “He'd never do anything to hurt Hal.”

“It's true,” said Nancy. “I'm sorry, Bess, you'll just have to trust me on this one.”

She turned to George and Amy. Hal seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness. “Bess, you take Hal and Amy to the hospital in your car,” Nancy ordered.

“No! If you think Lance is involved in this, I want to go with you,” Bess said stubbornly.

“Bess—get the car! This kid needs help
now.”

Nancy couldn't remember when she had seen such anger in Bess's eyes. It hurt her to know that Bess didn't believe her. “I know it's hard to accept,” she said more gently. “But the important thing now is to get Hal to the hospital. You don't want to be around Lance. Trust me. Ned,
would you give Amy and George a hand with Hal?”

Ned stepped forward and carefully picked Hal up in his arms. “Come on,” he said. “Let's get you out of here.”

As they headed for the car, Nancy ran back into the garage apartment. It was time to let the police know what was going on.

Fortunately, the policeman who answered the phone was Sergeant Tom Robinson. Nancy had dealt with him a couple of times on previous cases, and he was a friend of her father's. She knew she wouldn't have to waste time getting him to take her seriously.

“Two guys, that's right,” she said into the receiver. “No, probably three guys. One has a Mohawk haircut, another is huge—a Goliath type—you can't miss any of them. Pick them up at the east end of the footbridge in Liberty Park. Thanks, Tom. I promise I'll explain this all later.”

She hung up the phone and rushed back outside in time to see Ned, George, and Amy loading Hal into Bess's car.

“Take Hal and Amy to the hospital,” Nancy told Ned and Bess.

“But where are you and George going?” asked Bess.

George had jumped on the motorcycle and
was firing it up. Nancy ran over to the bike and leaped on behind George.

“Nancy!” Ned yelled.

“We're going to the airport. There's no point in your coming with us, Ned,” Nancy shouted over the noise of the engine. “You wouldn't recognize Lance. Come on, George, let's get going. I hope we're not too late.”

I
T WAS ALMOST
nine o'clock as Nancy and George arrived at the small River Heights airport. Nancy brought the motorcycle to a screeching halt outside the main entrance. “Come on! We have to hurry!” she said as she and George jumped off.

They dashed inside the airport and then stopped, frantically glancing up and down the corridor. Lance didn't appear to be among the few people milling around.

“He's got to be here!” Nancy exclaimed. “I know I've got to be right on this one.”

“I know it too,” George said. “We'll find him.”

Nancy looked to her left. There were ticket counters spread out for about three airline carriers, and it looked as though there were a couple of more to her right.

“Let's split up,” Nancy said. “I'll go this way”—she nodded to the left—“and you go that way.”

“What do I do if I find him?” George asked.

“Just make some kind of commotion,” Nancy said. “I'll do the same. That'll be the signal to come running.”

Nancy hurried down the airport corridor, stopping at each ticket counter to check it out. All of the reservation clerks were maddeningly calm and unhurried, and none of them remembered Lance. Had she been wrong about all this?

She turned and headed back to where she and George had split up. George was walking back in her direction.

“I checked with everyone, but no one has seen him,” George said as Nancy approached. “How about you?”

“No luck either,” Nancy said. “Let me check the flight board for a second.”

She scanned it anxiously. One of the airlines that wasn't open yet did have a direct flight to New York though. “He could take that and then get a flight to France. Let's hang around for a while. Maybe he'll show up. It's the only
flight, since there's no way he can fly from here to France. This isn't an international airport.”

“What time does the flight leave?” George asked.

“In about an hour.”

“He could be planning to get on it at the last minute,” George said.

Nancy hated to admit it even to herself, but she was getting discouraged. “George,” she began—and just then the terminal's automatic doors opened. Lance was walking in. With Bess!

“Oh, no,” Nancy whispered, touching George's hand and nodding in Lance's direction.

“What's she doing here?” George muttered.

The girls stood up. “Do we tackle him, or what?” George said.

But Lance had already spotted them. He ushered Bess over to them and genially indicated to Bess that she should sit down. “Don't try anything,” he said calmly to Nancy and George, “or it'll be the end of your friend here.”

“Bess!” George said between clenched teeth. “I thought Nancy told you to go to the hospital with Hal and Amy and Ned. What happened?”

Bess looked down at the floor. “I dropped them off with Ned. Then I went over to Lance's to get his side of the story. When I asked him
about it, he”—she gave Nancy a pleading look—“he just said, ‘Good timing,' and pulled me into the car with him. He was all packed and ready to go to Saint-Tropez—just as you'd guessed, Nan.”

Nancy knew it was no use remonstrating with Bess then. They were all in it together, and she had to find a way out.

“I can't believe you're doing this,” she said to Lance. “What makes you think you're going to get away with it?”

Lance smiled. “I'll get away with it. It's going to be even easier now than I'd planned. I've got Bess here to help me.”

Bess looked up at him. “Don't do this, Lance,” she begged. “It's not worth it. You'll be ruining your whole life.”

Lance shook his head. “No, you're wrong. I
spent
my whole life working and doing the right thing, but I never had
real
money. That always belonged to Michael, my Midas brother. Everything he touched turned to gold.”

Lance chuckled to himself. “When Michael died, and I inherited control of Colson Enterprises, I realized how great it was to have money.
Lots
of money,” he added. “But unfortunately that money wasn't really mine. It was the corporation's.”

“But you had a successful business of your
own before you took over at Colson Enterprises,” Nancy said. “You told me so.”

“It was nothing compared to the money Michael had.” Lance moved up closer to Bess and smiled. “When I found that ransom note on the desk, it was the best day of my life. I realized that I could change it—and borrow a little of Hal's inheritance.”

“You're a slime,” George said.

“A
rich
slime,” answered Lance. “I have almost half a million dollars with me now, courtesy of Hal's trust fund. It's mine to use as I please.” He glanced over his shoulder at the ticket counter. “And in a few minutes, I'll board that plane for New York and then on to Saint-Tropez.”

Nancy looked around and wondered if there was any way to tip off the airport security as to what was going on. But at the moment she didn't see anyone. Maybe if she could stall Lance long enough, she would figure out what to do.

“I guess you had everything figured out from the start,” she said humbly. “I'm just sorry it took me so long to get wise to you. You must have thought I was pretty slow.”

“Don't feel bad,” Lance said. “You're good. You're very good. You just got outfoxed.” He stared into Nancy's eyes. “I knew you would be
trouble the minute your father mentioned your name. You have quite a reputation. I tried to scare you off the case by running you off the road that first night you came to see me.