Dance Till You Die (13 page)

Authors: Carolyn Keene

BOOK: Dance Till You Die

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Fifteen

G
ET 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 friendsâlike 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.

â¢Â â¢Â â¢

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 Snellâand 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 meâI 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 âlittle 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.