Dance Till You Die

by Carolyn Keene

  “Are you sure, Nan?” George asked anxiously. “I don’t like the idea of leaving you here by yourself.”

  Nancy looked through the window crack again. Lucas had disappeared. “I’ll be fine,” she said swiftly. “Hurry now, before Lonnie comes out. And watch out for Lucas. He’s skulking somewhere around here.” George and Bess slipped silently from the dressing room.

  Lonnie was absorbed in putting the finishing touches on the valve work. Those finishing touches, Nancy knew, would soon spark a massive explosion that would destroy the building they were standing in.

  Nancy knew she didn’t have much time. Worried that Bess and George might not locate the patrol car, she decided to risk leaving the dressing room to call B. D. Hawkins from Lonnie’s office. She crept from the dressing room and tiptoed down the hall toward the lobby. She strode across the carpeted floor to Lonnie’s office.

  Nancy picked up the phone and dialed 911. When the police dispatcher answered, Nancy opened her mouth to report an emergency. Before she could utter a word, she felt a sharp blow across the back of her neck. Then everything went black!

  • • •

  When Nancy woke up, she felt rough ropes cutting into her wrists and ankles. She was lying on the floor of the dressing room next to Bess and George, who were also tied up.

  “Nancy, I’m so glad to see you wake up.” George sounded relieved. “Bess and I were afraid they’d really injured you.”

  Nancy shook her head to clear the bright spots that were swimming in front of her eyes. “What happened, George?” she asked weakly.

  “Bess and I got delayed when we tried to get out of the club because there was a chain fastened to the front door,” George explained. “When we tried to sneak out the back exit, Lucas heard us.”

  “Yeah, that big oaf.” Bess spat out the words. “When he brought us back to the dressing room, we saw you lying on the floor.”

  “I was trying to get through to the police,” Nancy said, rubbing her head. “But I didn’t get a chance to tell them what was going on.”

  Lonnie Cavello, flanked by Lucas, entered the dressing room. “I see you’re finally awake, Nancy,” he observed. Then he sighed. “It probably would have been easier if you had just stayed unconscious, when you consider what’s in store for you.”

  “What’s in store for us, Lonnie?” Nancy asked boldly. “Blowing up your club?”

  “With you in it, my dear.” Lonnie’s words sent a chill creeping up Nancy’s spine. She had no doubt that he meant what he said. There was an unsettling deadness of expression in his eyes.

  Nancy knew she had to stall for time. “Are you blowing it up for the insurance money?” she asked. She cast covert glances about the room, looking for anything she might use to escape.

  Lonnie caught her glance. “Forget it, Nancy. There’s no way you’re going to escape. You and your meddling friends will be the unfortunate victims of a tragic commercial accident. I’d be surprised if they even manage to identify your bodies.”

  Nancy could hear Bess moan softly in the corner of the room. “How about Etienne?” she asked. “Was he an ‘unfortunate victim’ as well?”

  Lonnie’s face twisted into a ghastly smile. “Etienne was not entirely innocent, as you might have guessed. He helped me devise this plan to blow up the club in a way that insurance investigators would not suspect as sabotage. He was pretty hard up for money, and he thought this would be an easy way to score some major cash.”

  “Was he in on the plot to kidnap Bess, as well?” Nancy asked.

  Lonnie nodded. “Bess stumbled into the room with the water heater and caught me talking with Lucas about our plot, so I ordered Etienne to cut the power and Lucas to knock her out with some ether and take her to my house.”

  “I had no idea what you were doing,” Bess said, shocked. “There was no need for anything like that.”

  “I didn’t want to take any chances, Bess,” Lonnie said. “But I realize now that I panicked unnecessarily on that one. While I was debating how to get rid of you, Etienne came over to my house and argued that you couldn’t have seen anything and should be let go. I guess he had a change of heart when he realized someone might get hurt. I refused, but he came back and sneaked you out and let you go on his own.”

  “So Etienne must have released Bess after he left George and me at the amusement park,” Nancy said. “That’s why he was in such a hurry. He knew that George and I were heading back to the Razor’s Edge, and he wanted to get there first, with Bess.”

  “Exactly,” Lonnie said. “After that, Etienne started having second thoughts about our entire plan to blow up the club.”

  “So you killed him.” George’s voice rose with anger.

  “I’m afraid so,” Lonnie said. “I took care of him myself. Just like I’m going to get rid of the three of you.”

  Nancy interrupted him. “What about after Bess was released,” she asked. “Was that you who tried to break into her house?”

  “No, that was me!” Lucas admitted.

  Lonnie nodded. “My loyal doorman felt so bad about letting Bess get away that he tried to fetch her back. Once again, however, you thwarted our plans, Nancy.”

  Lonnie chuckled. “I admire your courage. It’s truly a pity you have to die.”

  Lonnie turned and left the dressing room, with Lucas dogging his heels. Nancy heard them get to work in the room next door. Then Lonnie stuck his head through the access window. “And in case you’re wondering, Nancy, we’ve turned up the water pressure to maximum capacity. Enjoy your last thirty minutes.”

  Half an hour! That didn’t give them much time. Nancy heard Lonnie and Lucas leave. She wriggled and flopped her way across the floor until she reached the spot where George was lying. “George, do you still carry around your penknife key chain?” she asked.

  “Sure do,” George replied. “It’s in the back pocket of my jeans.”

  “Swing around until your back is pressed against mine, George,” Nancy directed her. “I’m going to try to get the knife out.”

  George twisted around until she and Nancy were sitting awkwardly back to back. Nancy put her hands into George’s pocket, grasped the penknife, and gradually slid it out. She had to move slowly to avoid dropping the knife. Finally she pulled it free. “I’m going to put the knife in your hand and open it, George,” she explained. “Then I’ll rub the rope against the blade until it breaks.”

  George caught the knife in her hand and held it while Nancy pried it open with her fingernail. Then she put the knotted rope against the blade and started rubbing it back and forth. The rope began to fray.

  “How much time do you think has passed?” Bess asked anxiously. “Lonnie said we had only thirty minutes.”

  “Too much time, I’m afraid,” Nancy replied tensely. They could hear a gurgling sound coming from the room next door, followed by an even more ominous rumbling. Nancy doubled her efforts to cut the rope. She winced as the blade slipped at one point, cutting into her skin.

  With a final push against the knife, the rope suddenly fell apart. Nancy hurriedly untied her feet, then freed George and Bess.

  The rumbling sound from the room next door had become a frightening, high-pitched squeal, as if thousands of pounds of water pressure were straining to rip loose.

  “No time to try to stop it. Let’s get out of here,” Nancy shouted. She, George, and Bess scrambled down the hall, through the lobby, across the dance floor and out the rear exit into the alley. Bess stumbled, skinning her knee. Nancy and George helped her to her feet, then they continued running to the end of the alley.

  Now the rumbling sound could be heard outside too. Nancy glanced over her shoulder just in time to see a huge fireball rip through the building. The Edge was exploding!

  Chapter

  Fifteen

  GET DOWN!” Nancy shouted. The three dove for cover behind a Dumpster as a shower of debris, including shards of glass, rained down on them. Nancy glanced at her friends—like her, they
were frightened, but unhurt.

  Smoke from the fireball rose into an oily cloud above the site of the explosion. Sirens were already wailing in the distance as they rose slowly to their feet.

  “Here come the squad cars and fire engines,” Nancy cried. “Stay here and wait for them,” she called back to the other two. “I’m going after Lonnie.”

  Nancy raced around the block to her car. She opened the door and rummaged in her glove compartment until she found the paper where she’d written down Lonnie’s address.

  In an expensive residential neighborhood in a newer part of town, Nancy found Lonnie’s house. She parked at the curb outside it and spent a few minutes observing. All appeared quiet. Nancy couldn’t see Lonnie, though. She hopped out of her car to move up to the house to make sure he was inside before she went to call the police.

  Moving slowly from window to window, she peered inside for even a glimpse of him. Nothing.

  At the back door, which had been left ajar, she decided to enter and risk confronting him. At least she could use the phone to call 911. Nancy picked up the wall phone and made a whispered emergency call to the police.

  She winced as she heard a sound behind her in the kitchen. “So we meet again, Nancy,” Lonnie announced. Nancy turned around. The club owner held a gun in his hand, and he was pointing it right at Nancy! “I don’t know how you escaped that explosion, but you were stupid to come here,” he said. “Now you’re going to die on the spot.” He leveled the gun directly at her chest.

  Using the telephone wire like a tether, Nancy hurled the receiver at Lonnie’s head. The phone glanced off his brow, stunning him for a moment. Nancy followed this up with a powerful karate chop to his neck. Lonnie sunk to the floor like a stone, out cold.

  Nancy could hear patrol cars pulling up to the curb outside Lonnie’s home. She calmly walked out the front door to greet them.

  “Nancy!” Bess, who had ridden in B. D. Hawkins’s car with George, ran up to Nancy and threw her arms around her. “We were talking to B.D. in his cruiser when the dispatcher relayed your call. I was afraid Lonnie had done something awful to you.”

  “It looks like Lonnie got his lights knocked out,” B.D. called out from the kitchen. The girls joined him there. “It’s only fitting, considering what he’s been dishing out recently,” he finished.

  “What about Lucas?” Nancy asked. “Is he still at large?”

  George walked Nancy back into the living room and pointed out the window to the third in the line of squad cars parked outside Lonnie’s home under a streetlight. The bearded doorman was handcuffed in the backseat. “They caught him a few blocks away from the explosion,” George explained.

  “Yeah, he suddenly doesn’t look so scary when he’s locked in a squad car!” Bess chimed in.

  • • •

  The next evening Nancy invited Bess and George to have dinner at her house. “B.D. called me a little while ago,” Nancy told them as she served salad. “It turns out that Lonnie Cavello’s name isn’t even Lonnie Cavello. It’s Howard Snell—and he’s wanted in three states for insurance fraud.”

  “Well, one thing is certain. This Howard-turned-Lonnie’s criminal career has come to an end,” George said, popping a crouton into her mouth.

  From his spot at the head of the table, Carson Drew smiled at his daughter. “And Gaetan has been released, thank goodness,” he said. “I hate more than anything to see an innocent man put in jail for something he didn’t do.”

  “Did I tell you that Tom Kragen called me to apologize for coming on so strong?” Bess asked Nancy. “He said he was sorry.”

  “Yes, Bess, I heard about that from George,” Nancy said with a grin. “I guess he was just struck with an innocent case of puppy love.”

  “Yeah, Bess, it must be tough to be so admired,” George said wryly.

  “And it goes to show that the landslide at the quarry really was an accident. I had my doubts at the time,” Nancy commented.

  Just then Nancy’s front doorbell rang. She rose to answer it. Gaetan and Charity were standing on the front porch. They broke into broad smiles when they spotted Nancy.

  “Gaetan! I’m glad to see you,” Nancy said, welcoming them. “I understand they released you as soon as it was clear that Lonnie and Lucas were the real culprits in Etienne’s murder and Bess’s kidnapping.”

  Gaetan was pleased. “Yes, and your father is representing me in my immigration case. It seems as if there will be no problem about my staying in this country, after all.”

  “And Gaetan already has a couple of musician’s jobs lined up,” Charity said happily.

  “Are you and your family back together?” Nancy asked.

  Charity nodded. “We made a deal. They’ll welcome Gaetan into our family if we agree to put off getting married for a few more years.” Nancy thought that for the first time since she’d met her, Charity seemed relaxed and happy, completely different from the hotheaded teen she’d first encountered.

  “Putting off marriage awhile doesn’t sound unfair,” Nancy commented. “There’s plenty of time for that in the future.”

  Charity positively glowed. “Yes, and thanks to you, Nancy, Gaetan and I have a future,” she said. “We just wanted to come by and thank you in person. And to apologize for my horrible behavior at the amusement park. I don’t know what came over me—I was so choked up with anger at my father’s attitude toward Gaetan. I hope I can make it up to you by inviting you, Bess, and George to a little get-together at my house later tonight. Kind of a welcome-home party I’m throwing for myself.”

  “By ‘little get-together,’ Charity means at least one hundred people,” Gaetan joked. “And that’s not including our friends from the dance parties.”

  Nancy was ecstatic that things had worked out so well for Charity and Gaetan. “We’ll be the first ones to arrive,” she promised happily.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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