Free Stay Tuned for Danger by Carolyn Keene

spring air. The birds were singing, and the golden-green leaves on the trees swayed in the morning breeze. On this quiet Sunday morning, with church bells ringing in the distance, New York seemed like a small nineteenth-century town. Nancy loved it. As she walked, she imagined she was part of that older, simpler time.
    After a while she came to a tiny park tucked between two buildings. The morning sun was just beginning to warm the benches, and a few people were out with their children, pushing them on swings and watching as they ran and played. Nancy couldn’t help herself; she sat down on a bench and let the sun warm her face, relaxing for the first time in days.
    A minute later the touch of a hand on her shoulder made Nancy jump. Glancing around, she found herself looking into the dark eyes of Lillian Weiss.
    “Well, if it isn’t our fair rescuer,” Lillian smirked. “Fancy meeting you here.”
    Nancy was puzzled. New York was a huge city. The odds of running into someone that she knew were small, to say the least.
    “Mind if I sit down?” Lillian asked casually. “I’m dead tired. Haven’t slept all night.”
    Nancy moved over to make room for her. She felt uncomfortable in the company of such an unpleasant person, but she didn’t want to be impolite.
    “Are you still trying to save Rick Arlen’s life?” Lillian asked suddenly, looking right into Nancy’s eyes.
    She certainly is blunt, Nancy thought. Well, I might as well be blunt right back. Whoever was trying to kill Rick already knew that she was on the case. “Still trying,” she admitted.
    “You really shouldn’t bother,” Lillian said. She looked down at her feet, so Nancy couldn’t read her expression.
    “I don’t understand,” said Nancy, prompting her.
    Lillian looked at her curiously, as if she were sizing Nancy up. After what seemed an eternity, she fixed her eyes on Nancy. “Rick is going to die, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And I’ll tell you something else—whatever happens to him, he has coming. He got where he is by stepping on a lot of people, but he made one mistake. Along the way he stepped on the wrong person, and he’s going to pay for it.”
    Nancy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was this a confession? A warning? She wasn’t sure how to take Lillian’s statement.
    As suddenly as she had appeared, Lillian stood up to leave. “Well,” she said, fingering the hem of her purple lamb’s-wool sweater, “nice running into you.” She gazed at Nancy with a tight smile. “I’ll say one thing for you—you’ve got guts.”
    Nancy watched as the strange young woman walked, away. She was sure now that Lillian had deliberately arranged to run into her. But why? Nancy was more in the dark than ever.
     
    “The restaurant we’re going to isn’t far away, Nancy. We’ll just ring for Mattie on our way out.” Eloise was standing in front of the hall mirror, fussing with a teal blue silk scarf. “Is Bess ready yet?”
    “Bess!” Nancy called as she knocked on the door of the room where her friend lay sleeping. “Don’t you want to have brunch with us?”
    The answer was muffled, so Nancy opened the door. “Leave the address,” was all Bess could manage. “I’ll meet you there.” With that, she flopped over and buried her face in the pillow.
    Nancy closed the door. Eloise waited by the main door of the apartment while Nancy wrote down the address and left it on the telephone table. “Ah, youth,” Eloise said, smiling wistfully. “I used to be able to sleep like that on weekend mornings. Now I’m always up at the crack of dawn!”
    With a wink, Eloise tugged on Nancy’s arm. “Shall we? If I wait for my morning coffee much longer, I won’t be worth knowing.”
     
    As they sat in the restaurant eating eggs Benedict, Nancy couldn’t stop thinking of her conversation with Lillian Weiss. The look in her eyes had been so intense. Could it be that Lillian was the one who was trying to kill Rick?