Choosing Sides

by Carolyn Keene

  They reached Nancy’s Mustang, and Bess put Hector’s camera bag in the backseat before she and Nancy climbed in front. “There’s something else I don’t get. How could the mayor afford an expensive condo in Florida?” Bess asked. “Didn’t Hector tell us the mayor lost a lot of money a year ago?”

  “That’s right,” Nancy said. “But I still don’t see any connection between him and the frame-up. We’ll just have to keep looking for clues. Come on, let’s go to headquarters. I’m sure Caroline and Hector will want to know how things went.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Nancy parked in front of Caroline’s headquarters. They were just getting out of the car as Hector came to meet them, a concerned expression on his face.

  “Don’t worry, your camera’s fine,” Bess assured him, pointing to the bag on the backseat.

  Nancy started to tell Hector about their interview, but he cut her off. “You can tell me all about the mayor later,” he said tersely. “Right now you both have to go get Kyle.”

  “What are you talking about?” Bess asked, stopping on the sidewalk. “Where is he?”

  “He was picked up by the police for trespassing and assault,” he replied.

  “What!” Nancy and Bess both exclaimed.

  Hector held up a calming hand. “Apparently, he decided to stake out Patrick Gleason’s house this morning, and something went wrong.”

  “Nan, let’s get down there!” Bess said urgently.

  “There’s one other thing,” Hector added.

  Bess and Nancy turned to look at him.

  “I don’t mean to worry you,” he cautioned, “but I think Kyle’s been hurt.”

  Chapter

  Eleven

  HURT!” BESS CRIED. Her eyes widened in fear. “How badly? What happened?”

  “All Kyle told me was that he’d been banged up in a fight,” Hector replied.

  Nancy and Bess didn’t wait to hear anything more. They jumped back into Nancy’s Mustang and drove to the police station. When they walked into the precinct room, Nancy spotted Kyle sitting on a chair near the desk sergeant.

  Bess gasped as Kyle stood up and walked toward them. His shirt was torn, his left eye was swollen, and he had a gauze bandage on his forehead.

  “Kyle, what happened to you! Are you all right?” Bess cried, running over to him.

  Nancy stayed a few feet back as Kyle tipped Bess’s chin up so he could kiss her softly on the lips. “I got into a fight, sort of, with Steve Hill,” Kyle explained, looking sheepishly from Bess to Nancy.

  “Steve Hill?” Nancy repeated, confused. “But I thought you were at Patrick Gleason’s house.”

  Kyle let out a long breath. “I’ll explain everything, but let’s just get out of here, okay? No one pressed charges, so I can go, but my car is still parked by Gleason’s. Could you drop me off there?”

  Bess got in the backseat with Kyle and made him lean his head back as he talked. “I’m not sure why I decided to stake out Gleason’s house,” he began, as Nancy pulled the car away from the curb. “I guess I just figured that it couldn’t hurt, since we hadn’t come up with any huge clues anywhere else.

  “Anyway, I’d been standing across the street from the house for a while, and I hadn’t seen anyone suspicious. I was just about to leave, when Steve Hill drove up.”

  “Did he see you?” Nancy asked, as she drove.

  “Not at first,” Kyle replied. “But when he came out five minutes later, instead of getting in his car, he crossed the street and walked toward me. He dropped a letter in the mailbox near me. I turned away, but he spotted me, anyway. I guess I’m a pretty crummy detective,” he said apologetically.

  Bess gently stroked his cheek. “That’s not true. Staking out Gleason’s house was a great idea, even if you didn’t find out anything.”

  “What was Steve Hill doing at Gleason’s house?” Nancy asked, looking at Kyle in the rearview mirror.

  “I didn’t exactly have a chance to find out,” Kyle told her. “Hill grabbed me and asked what I was doing spying on Gleason. When I told him it was none of his business, he pushed me forward, away from him, and I stumbled and fell against the mailbox—that’s how I bashed up my face. Pretty soon a squad car showed up. Mrs. Gleason had seen us fighting from her window, so she called the cops.

  “Of course Steve Hill told the cops that I was spying on Gleason and that I’d attacked him,” Kyle went on. “But I wasn’t trespassing, and it was obvious that I was the only one hurt, so he didn’t press charges. The police just brought me down to the station in a squad car to fill out a report.”

  Following Kyle’s directions, Nancy made her way to Patrick Gleason’s brick house and pulled up behind Kyle’s yellow hatchback across the street. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that, Kyle.”

  “Especially since I didn’t even find out anything,” he said. “I guess I’d better go home, clean up, and get changed. What are you two up to?”

  Nancy and Bess filled him in on their interview with Mayor Filanowski. “I have a feeling he may be hiding something, but I have no idea what,” Nancy finished. “We haven’t come up with anything incriminating on Patrick Gleason yet.”

  “And even though we know that Anna Dimitros knew Bobby Rouse, we don’t have anything to prove that either she or Steve Hill is behind the frame-up,” Bess put in. “We don’t have any clues to what or who Greenwood is, either, or to who killed Bobby Rouse.”

  Nancy tapped the steering wheel thoughtfully. “We still haven’t had a chance to talk to Ralph Lemko—he’s the guy who posted bail for Bobby Rouse,” she said. “Chief McGinnis gave me his address. What do you say we head over there, Bess?”

  After saying goodbye to Kyle, the two girls drove to Lemko’s. It turned out to be a small shingled house near the industrial part of River Heights.

  “This isn’t exactly a fancy neighborhood,” Bess said. “I wonder how this Ralph Lemko guy got thirty thousand dollars to pay for Rouse’s bail?”

  “That’s one of the things I hope we can find out by talking to him,” Nancy said.

  A slight, pale woman who introduced herself as Ralph’s sister met Nancy and Bess at the door. “Ralph just left,” the woman said. “He was heading for Slim and Shorty’s to have lunch.”

  The two friends thanked Ralph’s sister and headed to the Mustang. “I guess it’s back to Slim and Shorty’s Good Eats Café,” Bess said as they got into the car. “We’re practically becoming regulars.”

  When they walked into the diner ten minutes later, Nancy immediately recognized the tall, wiry man she’d seen Bobby Rouse talking to the day he’d been killed. That had to be Ralph Lemko. He was sitting at a booth near the back, eating.

  “Excuse me,” Nancy asked as she and Bess slid into the booth. “Do you mind if my friend and I sit down?”

  Ralph Lemko paused with his hamburger in midair and looked at Nancy as if she were a Martian. “You girls lost?” he asked gruffly. “The high school’s back that way.” He motioned with his head and stuffed the burger in his mouth.

  “Thanks, but we’re here to see you. You’re Ralph Lemko, right?” Nancy asked. When he nodded, she added, “I’m trying to find out who killed your friend Bobby Rouse.”

  Lemko narrowed his eyes suspiciously and swallowed. “That’s what we got cops for, you know.”

  “And detectives, like Nancy,” Bess piped up. “We know that you posted Bobby Rouse’s bail for him.”

  Lemko shot Bess a quick look of surprise.

  “Thirty thousand dollars,” Nancy added. “That’s a lot of money.”

  The man lifted his glass to his mouth and eyed them over the rim. “So what?”

  “Did someone give you that money?” Nancy asked. “If so, there’s a chance that that person is the one who killed Rouse—he may have been afraid Bobby was going to talk about something.” She eyed him sternly over the table. “In fact, the police might think you were working with the murderer and charge you as an accessory.”

  “I ha
d nothing to do with Bobby’s murder!” Lemko blurted out. “We were like brothers. He gave me the phone number of the person with the money himself!”

  All right! Nancy thought. She was finally getting somewhere. “Was that Greenwood?” she asked, taking a shot in the dark.

  “How’d you know about Greenwood?” Lemko asked, obviously taken aback. “From Bobby?”

  Nancy shrugged nonchalantly. “Did you meet with Greenwood?”

  “Of course not,” Lemko replied, pushing a french fry around on his plate. “I never saw the guy.”

  “It was a guy?” Bess asked. “Did you talk to him over the phone?”

  Lemko eyed Nancy and Bess skeptically. “I’m not saying any more. Why should I risk my neck by helping you? My friend is already dead.”

  “Did Bobby Rouse ever mention Steve Hill, or being interviewed by Anna Dimitros a few months ago?” Nancy asked, changing the subject.

  Ralph Lemko broke into a grin for the first time. “Oh, her! What a ding-a-ling! I was with Bobby when she talked with him. All she asked him about were his feelings when he was on trial a few years ago. But that other guy, Hill, I never heard of him.”

  He shook his head. “You think that woman had something to do with Bobby getting killed?” he asked, pulling his wallet out of his back pocket. “I seriously doubt it. She was pretty ditzy.”

  With that, Ralph Lemko said goodbye, paid his bill, and left. Nancy and Bess looked at each other.

  “I can’t believe it,” Bess said. “We finally talked to someone who knows Greenwood. Do you think Greenwood is the person who gave Lemko the bail money for Bobby Rouse?”

  Nancy shrugged. “We still can’t be sure, but he might be. I just wish we could track Greenwood down.” She added, “The way Lemko talked, Anna Dimitros was so flaky it wouldn’t be possible for her to be involved with the frame-up.

  “That doesn’t mean Anna’s not involved, though.” Bess picked up the plastic menu in the booth and opened it. “Why don’t we get some lunch?”

  Nancy was hungry, too, and they ordered. Before long they were served burgers, fries, and soft drinks. “When I’m in love, I get hungry,” Bess said, biting into her cheeseburger.

  “So it is love?” Nancy asked, grinning at her friend. “You two are definitely cute together.”

  A slight blush colored Bess’s cheeks. “Well . . . it’s a little soon to really say love, but last night Kyle took me to the Mandarin Pagoda.”

  Nancy’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s the fanciest Chinese restaurant in town.”

  “Wasn’t that nice of him? Nancy, he’s the first guy I’ve met in a really long time who I feel totally relaxed with. But at the same time, I get all tingly every time I see him. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Mm-hmm,” Nancy said. “That’s how I feel around Ned most of the time—when we’re not fighting, that is.” She told Bess about the real fight and the fake one she and Ned had had at Gleason’s the day before.

  Bess almost choked on her soda from laughing. “So have you crossed Gleason off your list of suspects?”

  Nancy shrugged. “I think so, unless I happen to find something to connect him to the frame-up.” She glanced at her watch. “Gosh, it’s one-thirty. We’d better get back to Caroline’s headquarters. I want to tell her about our interview with the mayor.”

  • • •

  When Nancy and Bess walked into the campaign office, Caroline was rushing out of her office.

  “Nancy, Bess!” Caroline cried, stopping short. “I’m glad you’re here. I want to find out what Filanowski had to say, but I’m running late for my next speech.”

  “Well, he—” Nancy began.

  “Caroline!” Hector called out from her office. “There’s a phone call I think you should take.”

  “Can’t it wait?” Caroline asked impatiently.

  Looking through the office doorway, Nancy saw Hector hold out the receiver. “You’d better take it.”

  Caroline stepped back into her office. “Caroline Hill,” she said brusquely into the receiver.

  Her expression immediately softened, and she smiled. “Wayne, what a surprise!” As she listened, though, her smile faded, and her forehead creased. “I don’t understand, Wayne,” she said. “Why are you doing this to me? . . . I see.” After a short pause, she hung up.

  “That was my brother, Wayne Buckley,” Caroline said in a shaky voice. She leaned against her desk, her face white.

  “You have a brother?” Nancy asked, surprised. She had never heard Caroline mention him before.

  Caroline nodded. “No one knows about him,” she said. “Now he’s trying to blackmail me!”

  Chapter

  Twelve

  NANCY AND BESS looked at each other in shock.

  “Blackmail you? How? For what reason?” Hector asked. He looked as confused as Nancy felt.

  “Wayne wants me to drop out of the race,” Caroline said. “If I don’t, he said he’ll tell the papers that he and I have been running a fencing ring.”

  Bess laughed in disbelief. “But that’s a lie. How could he prove it?”

  “I’ve been sending him checks regularly for two years,” Caroline explained. “Wayne just told me that he’s been using the money to finance a fencing ring, and now he’s going to tell everyone that I knowingly bankrolled the operation.”

  Nancy felt as if she’d just had the wind knocked out of her. “This is awful.”

  “Tell me about it,” Caroline said.

  “That’s crazy,” Hector scoffed.

  Nancy wanted to agree, but a question nagged at her. “Why were you sending him money?”

  Caroline looked around at the shocked faces staring at her. “I owe you all an explanation,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I was adopted as an infant, when my parents died in a car crash. I always thought I was an only child, but a few years ago I found out that I had a brother eight years older than I.”

  “How did you find out about him?” Hector asked.

  “Wayne saw a television news clip about one of my cases,” Caroline said. “He was struck by my uncanny resemblance to our mother. He had always wondered what had happened to his baby sister, so he tracked me down.”

  “Why didn’t he try to contact you before?” Nancy asked, fascinated by the story.

  Caroline smiled wearily. “He said he figured he’d never be able to find me. I wonder now if he just didn’t care. Anyway, he was pretty sure I was his sister because I still had the name Caroline that my natural parents had given me. So he called me up and said he wanted to get together. Of course, I was floored at the news that I had a brother. At first, I was skeptical, but I got hold of my adoption files and realized that he really was my brother.”

  “Wow,” Bess breathed. “What a story!”

  “Yes, or so it seemed,” Caroline said. “I was thrilled. I pumped Wayne for everything he could remember about our parents. I think at first he was happy to see me, but then he decided that I made him feel bad.”

  “How’s that?” Hector asked.

  “He was ashamed of the way his life had turned out,” Caroline replied. “He lives in a tenement in Chicago. He has two kids he adores, but his wife ran out on them five years ago, and he’s been struggling just to keep food on the table. He’s had about six jobs in the two years I’ve known him, and his car was just repossessed. He feels like a big screw-up, he said, and having a baby sister who’s a successful lawyer just makes him feel worse. I told him that none of that mattered, but he said being around me made him feel worthless.”

  “So you left him alone, and that was that?” Nancy asked.

  “No, that’s the sticky part.” Caroline sighed. “Wayne wasn’t too proud to ask me to help out his kids financially. Of course I agreed. I saw how much Wayne’s kids mean to him, and I felt guilty that he’d gotten a tough break as a kid. I grew up in a wonderful family, but Wayne was bounced around from one foster home to the next. Nobody really cared about him. So I agreed to send him
a few hundred dollars every month to help out. That’s where the checks come in.”

  Nancy was trying to make sense of all she was hearing. “But why would you leave a trail of checks if you’re financing an illegal ring? Wouldn’t you pay him in cash? And what about the money you would have gotten back from the fencing ring? Where’s Wayne’s proof of that?”

  “I have no idea!” Caroline said, throwing up her hands. “Look, I know this must sound completely unbelievable to all of you. It does to me. But it just kills me that Wayne is doing this. What could he gain from my dropping out of the mayoral race?”

  “Maybe he’s jealous of your success,” Bess suggested.

  “You said he needs money,” Nancy said gently. “Could someone be paying him to do this?”

  “That’s possible,” Caroline replied, beginning to pace. “But who would that be? Nobody even knows I have a brother.”

  “Not even your husband, when you were married?” Nancy asked.

  “No, we were splitting up then,” Caroline said quietly. “I didn’t want to tell anyone about Wayne until I was sure he really was my brother. Then he decided that he didn’t want to get to know me. It hurt, you know. He’s my only sibling.”

  “That’s really sad,” Bess murmured.

  “Caroline, did Wayne give you any deadline for dropping out of the mayoral race?” Nancy asked.

  “Nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

  “That doesn’t give us a lot of time, but maybe it’s enough to find out more about this fencing ring. I’d like to take a shot at talking to him, if that’s okay with you.”

  “Sure.” Caroline pulled an address book from her purse, then wrote down a number and address on a slip of paper and handed it to Nancy.

  Hector pointed to his watch. “Caroline, we really have to get going to your next speaking engagement,” he reminded her.

  Caroline jumped. “My gosh, I forgot!” she exclaimed. “Nancy, let me know what you find out.” Then she ran out of the office after Hector.