Free 004 Smile and Say Murder by Carolyn Keene Page A

beginning to have compassion for all the criminals she’d helped to arrest over the years. The public embarrassment of being led off by the cops was horrible! Ned and Sondra hailed a cab and headed toward the police station. Nancy and Mick got into the back of the patrol car while Bellows and O’Hara settled into the front. After a short, miserable ride, they arrived at the precinct.
    Officer Bellows had confiscated the revolver as evidence before she’d left Flash. As soon as Nancy and Mick had been fingerprinted, she sent the gun to the police lab to be tested against the bullet that Detective Graham had taken out of Yvonne’s office wall. Then she let Nancy and Mick make one phone call each.
    Luckily, Nancy’s father and her attorney were one and the same. It just so happened that Carson Drew was one of the state’s finest criminal lawyers. When he heard that Nancy was being held at the police precinct, he promised to be there as fast as he could.
    Once Mick had called his lawyer, Officer Bellows and Detective Graham sat down to interrogate their two suspects. The questioning was grueling. The police went over every aspect of the afternoon repeatedly.
    The ordeal was made even worse by Ned and Sondra standing around watching the whole thing. Since neither Nancy nor Mick had been accused of a crime yet, they weren’t interrogated in private. That meant that Nancy had to watch Ned consoling Sondra, comforting her, trying to calm her fears.
    Nancy struggled to keep her mind on Detective Graham’s and Officer Bellows’s questions, in spite of Ned and Sondra. She had to. If she seemed unsure of her answers, the police would be less likely to believe her side of the story.
    When the two officers had finished questioning Nancy, they turned to Mick. To her surprise, he didn’t deny anything that had happened. He admitted that the gun had been in his desk, that Nancy hadn’t been trying to kill him, that it had all been a crazy mistake. But over and over again he repeated adamantly that the gun had been planted in his desk. “For once,” he said, “the joke’s on me. And it’s not very funny.”
    Nancy actually felt sorry for Mick. How could he expect the police to accept his silly story when all the evidence was against him? He had no alibi for the afternoon, and any number of motives for wanting to knock off Yvonne.
    Nancy wasn’t too worried about herself. What could the police accuse her of? Nothing illegal. However, she greeted her father with great relief. He looked so sure of himself and so in control. “Nancy,” he said, coming over tokiss his daughter. “Honey, are you all right? I know this isn’t pleasant, but just hang on for a little while longer. We’ll have you out of here in no time.”
    Nancy gave her father a huge hug. He’d made it from River Heights in under forty-five minutes. He must have sped all the way here, Nancy thought to herself. Probably the only time he’s ever gone above the speed limit in his entire life!
    Moments later, the results came back from the lab. The gun and bullet matched.
    Officer Bellows turned to Nancy. “Ms. Drew, you’re free to leave.” Then she faced Mick. “Mr. Swanson,” she said solemnly, “you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Yvonne Verdi.” Quickly she read him his rights. “Would you come with me? We’re going to have to put you in a cell.” For the second time that day, the policewoman pulled out her handcuffs.
    At first Mick didn’t move from his seat. He just blinked uncomprehendingly. Then he jumped up, knocking over his chair. “You think I’m a murderer? Me?” he cried. “But I didn’t do it, I swear. That gun isn’t mine! Someone planted it!”
    “You’ll have to explain that to the judge and jury,” Officer Bellows said calmly.
    “And how long will that take?” Mick asked. “A month? Two months? More?”
    Suddenly Mick’s face turned bright red. Nancy had seen his expression change in thesame way on the first