Free Very Deadly Yours by Carolyn Keene Page A

tonight.”
    â€œWant some company?” George asked. “You’d better say yes because this could be dangerous. It just doesn’t make sense for you to go alone.”
    â€œOkay,” Nancy said. “Well, I’ve got the rest of the day off—and I guess I can’t give you a tour of the place. So let’s go get something to eat.”
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    â€œUh, Nan?” said George later that night. “I don’t see a coffee shop on Fortieth and East. Are you sure that’s what that girl said?” George slowed down and pulled over to the curb.
    â€œAbsolutely. I wrote it down while she was talking.” Nancy peered out of George’s windshield. It was true. There wasn’t a coffee shop in sight. “She must have made a mistake! My first real break in this case, and it gets messed up like this!”
    â€œShould we head back home?” asked Bess hopefully.
    â€œNo. Absolutely not,” replied Nancy. “I’m going to wait here. She may still show up.”
    â€œUnless she gave you the wrong address, and now she’s waiting at a coffee shop somewhere else,” George pointed out.
    â€œOh, no. You may be right.” Nancy paused for a minute. “Well, look,” she said, undoing her seat belt. “I’ll wait here for half an hour. You guys drive around and see if you can find a coffee shop on any other corner around here. If you do—and especially if you see a blond girl dressed in white at one of them—come right back and get me.”
    It’s a little hard to believe there’s a coffee shop anywhere around here, she thought as she positioned herself in the middle of the sidewalk. Fortieth and East was squarely in the middle of the warehouse district. There was nothing around but empty, dark buildings and carsparked like silent spectators in rows along the curb.
    It was dark now. And Nancy was starting to feel conspicuous standing alone in the middle of a sidewalk at night. But after ten minutes she heard the welcome sound of a car driving toward her. She squinted toward its headlights. Then she heard footsteps behind her.
    Before Nancy could turn, something smashed into the back of her head.
    The blow knocked her out instantly. She didn’t even feel it as someone dragged her to the edge of the road and draped her, facedown, over the curb.

Chapter

Eleven
    B ESS , I’ M OKAY,” Nancy protested for the fifth time. “I had a good night’s sleep. I had breakfast and lunch in bed. The swelling’s down. I feel great!”
    â€œI still think you’re crazy,” said Bess. “Why don’t you just spend the rest of the day in bed?”
    It was Wednesday afternoon, the day after Bess and George had found Nancy in the street, and they were checking to see how she was doing. Although her face was still bruised, and the back of her head felt tender, Nancy had decided it was time to get out of bed. When her friends got to her house, she had just finished taking a shower.
    When Bess and George hadn’t found a coffeeshop in the near vicinity the night before, they had come back to see how Nancy was doing. When they’d reached her corner, she was just starting to struggle to her feet.
    Of course there’d been no sign of her assailant. There was no way of knowing whether it had been the girl in white or someone else. Nancy had insisted that she was well enough to go home. “ I don’t have a concussion,” she’d said, and after a horrified Hannah had checked Nancy’s eyes to verify she didn’t have a concussion, Nancy collapsed into bed. Now all she wanted to do was get back on the job.
    â€œIf I spend any more time ‘recovering,’ I’ll lose my mind,” she told her friends. “I just want to head back to the paper for a couple of hours. I want to go through the files again, and the morgue closes at six.”
    â€œWe’d