Trial By Fire

Chapter Eight

Ann Granger called at seven the next morning.

“Where are you?” Nancy asked.

“Back home, over the strong objections of the River Heights Police Department.”

“Why?”

“They checked me out of the hospital and wanted me to hole up in an apartment they use for people under protective custody. It took a lot of yelling and screaming before I convinced them that I had to be free.”

“Ann, are you sure that’s smart?” Nancy asked.

“It may not be smart, but it’s the only way I’ll be able to help your father out of this mess. After all, it’s my fault he’s in it. By the way, I’m sorry about the judge. He didn’t deserve that.”

“No, he really didn’t.” Nancy was beginning to like Ann more and more. Ann was, in effect, risking her life to help Carson Drew. And it was very generous of her to express sympathy for Jonathan Renk.

“I’m also sorry the trip to the Grand didn’t pan out. Did you wait for the guy long?”

Nancy had stretched the truth the day before. She simply told Ann her source hadn’t shown. Evidently that part of the story had not made the news. Perhaps they hadn’t believed her. But Ann Granger would, and now that Ann was out of the hospital Nancy knew she would want the truth. She told Ann all about her harrowing half-hour in the kidnap car.

Ann was horrified. “Nancy, I’m sorry! First I get Carson into trouble, and now you. I had no idea-”

“I know you didn’t,” Nancy assured her. “Now, maybe you should change your mind about protective custody. It was you they were after.”

On the other end of the line, the reporter was very quiet. Finally, she cleared her throat. “No. I can’t. Don’t get me wrong, Nancy. I’m not all that brave. But I have a family tradition to uphold,” Ann said. “My parents risked their lives in the early sixties, marching for their civil rights. Now it’s my turn to risk mine to protect my First Amendment rights. End of speech. What can I do to help?”

Nancy and Ned had discussed this the night before, so Nancy was ready with an answer. “We need to know if Mid-City was the only scam those guys were running. Can you find out what else its parent corporation owns? They’re hiding something more, and we’ve got to find out what.”

“I’ll try. That’s all I can do.”

“Great. Since you don’t have a car, I’ll have Bess pick you up, okay?”

“That’s too risky,” Ann said. “Hanging out with me will put her in danger.”

“She’ll understand. I’ll phone her, then you can call her and let her know when you’ll be ready.”

“Will do. Luck to us. ’Bye.”

Nancy hung up. She knew they’d need more than luck to get through this. Then she made a quick call to Bess, who agreed to drive Ann wherever she needed to go.

Nancy ducked into the shower. Afterward she pulled a navy suit and a pale blue blouse from the closet. A single strand of pearls and her navy blue heels completed the ensemble.

Nancy considered this her “working woman” outfit. She wore it whenever she had to invade the nine-to-five world. For a few hours that day, she would be invading her father’s.

Ned called just as she was leaving. “Man Friday reporting in,” he said. “I’ve got George’s car. I figured I’d start with the cable company.”

“And tell them what?”

“I’m an insurance investigator trying to track a white van involved in a hit-and-run accident. They’ll swear it wasn’t one of theirs. Then they should give me a couple of leads to other companies that use white vans. And so on and so on.”

“Ned, that’s brilliant!”

“I thought so, too. Meet you for lunch at the Pizza Palace. One o’clock. I’ll tell Ann and Bess, too. That way if one of us doesn’t show up, we’ll know that person’s in trouble. Good luck.”

Luck seemed to be on everyone’s mind that day, Nancy thought as she locked the door behind her.

The law offices of Carson Drew and his associates always made Nancy feel as if she should whisper. With its solid mahogany desks, leather-upholstered chairs, and wood-paneled walls, there was a quiet, dignified aura about it. The tang of lemon oil scented the air, mixed with the smell of leather-bound law books.

Her father’s secretary, Ms. Hanson, welcomed Nancy and opened the door of Carson Drew’s office for her. “If there’s anything you need-if you have any questions-just ask. We’ll help in any way we can.” She slipped silently from the room.

Her back against the door, Nancy looked around. There were so many places a bug might be hidden-behind any of the hundreds of books that lined one wall, in the lamps or ceiling fixtures, under the furniture.

But she decided to eliminate the obvious first. Crossing to her father’s enormous desk, Nancy opened the top righthand drawer and removed a wooden box, a container for cassette tapes.

“I will only tape a client’s conversation with his permission,” her father had explained. “And only for important information that I need to remember word for word. It’s treated completely confidentially. When I’m not there, that box is locked.”

Nancy used the key Carson had given her and lifted the lid. There were slots for twenty-four cassettes, and all the slots were filled, just as her father had told her they would be.

But she wasn’t ready to accept that at face value. Someone might have removed a tape and replaced it with another to make sure the first one wouldn’t be missed.

She played them all on fast forward so that she could be certain those two dozen tapes were what they were supposed to be. They were.

That done, she began a thorough search of the office. There wasn’t much on her father’s desk: a blotter; the telephone; a pen set in an oiled walnut holder; a paperweight, a heavy glass dome with a black-eyed susan embedded in it. A ladybug was perched at the edge of one leaf, and the top of the dome had holes for pencils. Nancy pulled off her jacket, draped it over a chair, and went to work.

An hour later she sat down, discouraged and frustrated. She had been completely sure that either someone had swiped one of her dad’s tapes or that they had bugged his office and recorded his voice that way. But after going over his office with a fine-tooth comb, she hadn’t found a thing. Where was that luck everyone had wished her that morning?

At the sound of voices, Nancy looked up. There was a courier from a messenger service in the outer office, drinking coffee from a Styrofoam cup while Ms. Hanson prepared an envelope for him to take. From their conversation, Nancy could tell he was a regular visitor. Nancy waited impatiently in her father’s office until he finally left. Now she could check for bugs out there.

Ms. Hanson sat at her desk, her face taut with anxiety as Nancy examined the outer office. It took longer because there were filing cabinets to check, but in the end the result was the same-no bug.

“I’ve had it,” Nancy said finally. “I can’t find a bug.” She retrieved her jacket and tucked her purse under her arm. “Thanks for putting up with me,” she told the secretary.

“I’m almost sorry there was nothing here,” Ms. Hanson said. “It’s just so awful. If you think of any way that I can help, please call me.”

Nancy promised she would and said goodbye. As she walked through the halls, she was surprised at the amount of traffic in and out of the office-mail clerks, maintenance workers, couriers, clients. Any one of them could have slipped into her father’s office and-

And what? she asked herself. Would she be able to find out in time? For that matter, how much time did she have? Her father was sure he’d have a pretrial date by the end of the day. Then she’d know.

Her second chore for the day took Nancy to several different locations. Her goal was to learn whatever she could about the Gold Star Cab Company. Each place she went, she told them the same story.

“Hi. I’m a student at Emerson College. I’m writing a term paper on the growth of transportation in River Heights. I’ve researched the bus service. Can you help me with the cab companies?”

She always followed the question with a winning smile. It never failed to make things easier. Everyone she talked to was very cooperative, some telling her far more than she’d ever need to know.

After visits to the Office of Public Safety, the central headquarters of the River Heights Police Department, and the Hacks Bureau, Nancy was beginning to wonder if she was on the right track. There seemed to be nothing unusual about the Gold Star Cab Company.

Checking her watch, Nancy left the building that housed the Hacks Bureau. Unless she hurried, she’d be late for her lunch meeting with Ned, Bess, and Ann.

Nancy tucked her notes in her bag and started across the street to the lot where she had left her car.

She heard trouble coming before she could see it. It was the sound of a powerful engine being pushed to its maximum. Seconds later she saw it-a dark late-model car racing around the corner and heading directly for her at top speed!