Free Blood Money by Franklin W. Dixon

to look scared. "Please," Frank said. "Don't - "
    When the man was just a foot away, Frank sprang into action. Backing up, Frank grabbed the stair railing with both hands. He kicked at the man approaching him, slamming both feet into his chest. The man tumbled back, stunned.
    Frank turned and tore down the stairway.
    "Hey! Stop that guy!"
    At the next landing another man was standing, blocking the stairs going down. He made a snatch at Frank, arms wide. Frank ducked and caught the man in the side with his elbow as the man lunged past. Frank bolted down the next flight of stairs, to the next landing - the one closest to the club floor.
    This landing was packed with people, talking and staring down at the dance floor below. The stairs leading down were so crowded that it would take him a full five minutes to travel that one flight, and his pursuers would be all over him by then.
    As he was figuring out how to negotiate his way down, a man forced his way up through the crowd on the stairs to the landing. It was the bouncer from the front door. When he caught sight of Frank, he did a double take.
    Clearly the man remembered Frank from earlier. Anger darkened his face, and he began heading straight for Frank, parting the crowd between them with no more effort than he would have expended wading through a creek.
    Frank looked up and behind him. The two men he'd fought with earlier were down the stairs, closing on him.
    He pushed his way to the edge of the landing and looked out over the railing and down the scaffolding to the dance floor a good twenty feet below him.
    It was too far to jump, so he swung over the railing and began climbing down the scaffolding, hand over hand, toward the floor.
    It was actually an easy climb - there were plenty of handholds and joints in the scaffolding where he could rest his feet. He got about halfway down before he looked up to check on his pursuers.
    Carew's men were leaning over the railing, yelling. But the music was so loud, no one on the dance floor could hear them. One of them drew a gun, but the bouncer grabbed his arm, and shook his head. Then Frank couldn't see them anymore - they had disappeared from the railing.
    He guessed they were going to try to beat him down the stairs to the dance floor.
    Redoubling his efforts to reach bottom quickly, Frank noticed that a lot of people were now aware of him. Several had even stopped what they were doing to look up at him. As he swung to the floor, many of them started applauding.
    So much for trying to be inconspicuous, Frank thought.
    "Cool, man," one dancer said. "I never saw anybody climb up that high before."
    "Or down," the girl with him said. "That was really neat."
    Frank nodded, breathing heavily. The crowd blocked his view of the staircase, but he was certain he'd beaten Carew's men down. Now to get out of there . . .
    He began threading his way through the crowded dance floor. But it was jam-packed with people, and it was impossible to move very fast. By the time he reached its edge, he knew that whatever time he'd picked up on Carew's men was lost. His only hope was that he'd lost them in the crowd.
    He broke through - and suddenly, right in front of him, was the entrance to the club.
    The bouncer was standing directly in front of it, looking right at him.
    Frank scanned the room desperately. The double doors he'd entered from the kitchen -
    One of the men he'd fought on the stairs was standing there, blocking that exit, too. Frank was trapped.
    There was no way out. No way at all.

Chapter 12
    Frank decided to head for the front door. It was closest to him, and if he was lucky, the bouncer wasn't on Carew's payroll. . . .
    The bouncer saw him coming and grinned.
    Then Frank broke into a grin of his own.
    Detective Mike Lewis was standing at the door, just behind the bouncer. Joe was just behind Lewis. Frank didn't know what either of them was doing there, and at the moment he didn't care.
    Frank walked straight toward the front door as