Free Running on Empty by Franklin W. Dixon

told you it was Davis."
    Emmy swallowed. "I had my suspicions about you two after the accident at the bridge. Cronkite told me your last name. Unlike you, Frank, Cronkite trusts me."
    Frank felt that Emmy was still hiding something.
    Emmy choked back a sob.
    "How did the accident happen?" Frank asked softly.
    "It wasn't an accident," Emmy replied. "My father was murdered!"

Chapter 12
    Frank felt about two inches tall. He had been ready to accuse Emmy of working with Smith. Instead, she had risked her own life to save him and Joe.
    Now she sat trembling before him, trying to control her pain as she recalled the murder of her father, Royce Sauter.
    "My father was murdered," Emmy repeated slowly. "A school bus driver said that he saw my father's car approaching the bus stop at high speed. Kids were unloading, crossing the road to the other side. The driver said my father had obviously lost control of the car.
    "My father had only two choices - the kids or an unfinished off ramp. He swerved off the road, away from the bus and the kids, hit the off ramp, flipped, and rolled one hundred fifty feet. He was dead at the scene."
    "I'm sorry," Frank said. He cleared his throat. "What happened?"
    "The papers said it was a heart attack." Emmy gulped in air and held her breath for a few moments. Frank could tell she was fighting back tears. "I found out after I transferred to Southport that the reason my father's car lost control was because it had been sabotaged."
    "The same guy who sabotaged Cronkite's car this morning?" Frank asked.
    "Maybe," Emmy said.
    "Why did the police keep the murder a secret?" Frank asked.
    "Cronkite wanted it that way. My father had been letting him use his shop as a front. Someone must have found out and killed him. I inherited the garage and went undercover."
    Frank reached over and gripped Emmy's trembling shoulder. "I'm sorry."
    They pulled up to Royce's Garage. The old cinder-block building took on a new and special meaning for Frank. He could imagine the many happy hours Emmy and her father had spent in the garage, all brought to a halt by his murder.
    Once they had found Chet, Frank vowed, he would help Emmy find the man who had killed her father.
    As the trio approached the office door, Cronkite stepped out, his temples pulsing rapidly from anger and the gum he was smacking.
    "Well, if it isn't the Bayport wrecking crew." Cronkite's smile was plastic, mocking.
    Emmy remained silent, pushed past Cronkite, and entered the inner office, slamming the door shut.
    Frank was about to follow when Cronkite cut him off.
    "You two yahoos want to explain yourselves this time?"
    Frank and Joe ignored the question.
    Cronkite pulled on his mustache. "You know what I just heard on my car radio? Some citizens reported a gun battle at the Skyway Parking Garage. They also saw a black van leaving the scene. By the time my officers arrived, all they found was a burning TransAm. No driver. No bodies. You two wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
    "We got a call from Smith," Joe said. "He wanted to meet us there."
    "Why?" Cronkite asked.
    "We never found out," Joe said. "Two gunmen showed up and tried to kill us."
    Cronkite seemed unconcerned. "Maybe you can ask him tomorrow morning," he said.
    "What do you mean?" Frank asked.
    "We're busting Smith's place, at dawn, just like the cavalry."
    "You can't do that," Joe protested.
    Cronkite snorted. "Oh, yeah? And why not?"
    "He's our only link to Chet," Frank replied.
    "That's not your problem any longer. You two are out as of this minute."
    "I thought we had forty-eight hours," Frank said.
    "Forget it. The captain's real anxious to close this case."
    "What about Max? Emmy thinks Smith may be using the salvage yard hotline to move the parts." Frank had the uneasy feeling that his hunch about Cronkite was right.
    "Max? That cornflake?" Cronkite laughed.
    "You've got to give us a little more time," Joe said sternly.
    "The only thing I got to do," Cronkite replied,