“Wait a minute! I didn’t know anything about it!” Brownley’s ruddy complexion had turned ashen.

“Maybe not. But you will know about ours,” Nancy pointed out. “If he kills us, you might as well have pulled the trigger. He tried to kill us once before.”

“No, I didn’t, girlie. If you mean that car bomb, that was a mistake. The bozo I hired did it all wrong. Why would I kill her when I needed information from her.”

Brownley backed out of the wire enclosure. “I don’t want anything to do with murder, Reston. You kill them and you’re on your own.”

For the first time, Nancy saw uncertainty in Reston’s icy gray eyes. “Maybe you’re right.” He backed out of the cage and slammed the door. “You come up with me. We’ll talk.”

Brownley looked worried as he secured the padlock.

As soon as they were out of sight, Nancy began looking around for a means of escape.

“I’m so sorry, Nancy,” Ann said. “They fooled me. I thought it was you driving that cab. I opened the door to get in, felt a stinging in my arm-and that’s all I remember.”

“Forget it. My dad’s hearing is this afternoon. If we don’t get out of here, we’ll probably wind up in the nearest river and my dad’ll wind up in jail.” She peered out of the enclosure. “And it doesn’t look like Jim will be able to help us.”

Scooting over to the wall, Nancy leaned her back against it and pushed herself to a standing position. She then reached into the trash barrel for one of the oil cans and tilted it toward her wrists. There wasn’t much left in it, but what little there was oozed over her hands, coating them with the thick fluid.

It took draining the dregs from two more cans before her wrists were slippery enough for her to work the cord off. She then untied her feet and freed Ann.

But their problems were far from over. The enclosure was locked, and Nancy had no idea what happened to the pick she had been using when she was caught.

“Pssst!”

Nancy’s head snapped up. Bess, on all fours, scuttled over to the wire cage. Her eyes were twice their usual size. She looked heavier than usual, too.

“Nancy! Ann! You’re okay!” She looked at the lock with alarm.

“My pick set may be out there on the floor somewhere,” Nancy said. “See if you can find it.”

Bess pawed through the trash outside the door. “Here it is. Now what?”

“The weave of the wire is too small for me to get my hands through,” Nancy said. “You’ll have to get it open for us.”

“Me?” Bess swallowed and squared her shoulders. “Okay. Tell me what to do.”

Nancy prompted her, forcing patience and encouragement into her tone. It seemed to take forever, but after a struggle, the lock clicked open and the door came ajar.

“Quick! This way,” Nancy said and started for the row of boxes.

“Uh, I think I’m going to need help.” Ann’s voice was weak. Her legs seemed to be even weaker. “It’s that stuff they gave me.”

Nancy and Bess looked at each other in dismay, then moved back to her side. Awkwardly, they maneuvered her between the cars and pushed and shoved her through the space at the end of the boxes.

At the bottom of the conveyor, Bess shook her head. “No way she can make it up this thing, Nancy. You go on. I’ll stay with her.”

Ann shook her head. “No! Leave me. You’ve got what you need to help Carson. Get out of here. Go to him.”

Nancy would have loved to do just that, but she felt responsible for her two friends and Jim. It was certain that if they didn’t get away, Reston would be glad to shoot them.

She looked at the door to the courier service. “Let me check and see if we can slip out from Fleet’s side. If we can make it to the street level, we can hide in one of the vans until the coast is clear.”

“No.” Bess’s voice was firm. “I’ll do that. You go on. Here.” She yanked the tail of her blouse from her jeans and pulled a bulky envelope from under it.

“I thought you looked awfully lumpy,” Nancy said. “What is it?”

“Cassettes of your dad’s and the judge’s voices. The dummies had everything marked plain as day.”

Nancy shook her head in amazement. “Bess, you’ve been super. I’ll get help for you all as soon as I can.”

“Wait,” Bess said. “I’ve got something else for you. It-” She stopped. “What was that?”

The conveyor swayed and began to quiver. Someone was coming down!

Nancy thought fast. Maybe it was Ned-but she couldn’t count on that.

“Come on!” she whispered. She grabbed Ann’s right arm, Bess took the left, and they crossed to the door of Fleet’s. Nancy yanked it open-and ran smack into Brownley.

Chapter Seventeen

“Get in here!” Brownley hissed and yanked them into the electronics workshop. He eased the door closed quickly, then cracked it just enough to see who was climbing down the conveyor.

While he was occupied, Bess snatched the envelope of evidence from Nancy’s hand and crammed it back under her blouse. By the time Brownley said, “Mac’s come back. Wonder why,” the envelope was safely out of sight.

He closed the door and turned to face them. His skin was flushed, his eyes wide and staring. “Thought you were home free, didn’t you? Well, you aren’t!”

“You aren’t, either, are you?” Nancy moved from beside Ann and walked slowly around the workshop. “What were you doing in here? Trying to remove incriminating evidence connecting you with the judge?”

Papers were strewn all over the floor. File drawers hung open. Tapes had been pulled from the shelves and lay at all angles. Bess would have been too smart to leave such a mess.

But the batch of papers Brownley was clutching really gave him away. Like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he dropped them. “Shut up! You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he growled.

“I think she does,” Bess said, picking up Nancy’s lead. “What she said over there sank in. They can get you for the judge’s murder, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Who’s going to believe you didn’t know Reston killed him?”

“But I didn’t know!”

“Then why were you going to cut and run?” Ann asked. She was looking a little better.

Brownley ground his teeth. “I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do. Grand theft auto, that’s one thing. I deal in stolen cars. I’m good at it. But I’m no killer, and I’m not taking the rap for Reston. I’m clearing out of here.”

“What about us?” Nancy asked. “If you leave us here, that’s four more murders they can get you for. Help us get out of here, and-”

“And what?” The door flew open-and Reston stepped in. “Mac told me you left as soon as I turned my back. Where’d you come from?” he asked, noticing Bess. Then he turned to his partner, his eyes like steel. “You were going to run out on me, weren’t you, Brownley?”

Nancy snorted. The dispatcher was a possible ally, and against Reston they’d need all the help they could get. “He’s not smart enough to run out on you,” she said.

Brownley eyed her sharply. “I caught them trying to escape.”

“Why make matters worse than they already are?” Nancy asked Brownley. “My boyfriend was hiding when you caught us the first time. He got us out of that cage and went up the conveyor to get the police. They’re probably swarming all over the place by now.”

Reston gave his nasty grin again. “Good try, little girl. But it won’t work.” He snatched the door open and shoved her back to the Gold Star side. Someone had moved one stack of boxes. Reston stepped through, then waited, gun drawn, for the rest of them to join him.

“Sit!” he ordered. “Until I decide what to do with you.”

They sat down gingerly on the hard concrete, their backs against the unpainted cars. As Reston kept the gun trained on them, they waited. And waited. They were in a war of nerves.

Nancy knew they had to get away! Where was Ned? Suppose he hadn’t been home after all!