Flirting with Danger (5 page)

“Some artists and musicians live down here,” Josh explained. “It used to be dangerous, but now it's mostly trendy.”

They met Rachel's friends in the club's parking lot, and Nancy took the lead. Her cases had taken her to worse places than this, she thought as she pushed open the heavy metal door.

The Snake Pit was full of smoke, and there were black leather jackets everywhere. The crowd—girls
and
guys—looked pretty tough.

Up on the stage a band hammered out earsplitting music. Nancy couldn't make out any of the words. Waitresses in vinyl miniskirts squeezed between packed tables, carrying trays of soft drinks.

“Does anybody see Dennis?” Nancy asked, raising her voice to be heard over the noise.

Jessica, Beth, and Mike shook their heads.
Peter was busy saying hello to someone he knew.

“It's early,” Josh said, scanning the crowd.

“Is there anybody here you'd recognize as a friend of Dennis's?” Nancy asked.

“We don't hang around with this crowd,” Jessica shouted just as the music died.

People at surrounding tables turned to stare at her, and the girl slipped down a little in her chair.

“Did my sister ever tell you she wanted to run off with this guy?” Josh asked Beth. “I mean, seeing this crowd he hung out with, I can't believe she would.”

“No,” Beth answered quickly, her eyes widening. “Of course not. I didn't even think she was all that serious about him.”

“She was serious enough to dump me for the guy,” Mike put in sadly.

“I don't know why you don't just forget her and start going out with somebody else,” Jessica said coldly. Everyone stared at her in stunned surprise.

“Should we ‘just forget' that Rachel is missing, too?” Mike demanded, his tone furious.

“If she's missing, it's her own choice!” Jessica spat out the words. “She and that boyfriend of hers are probably in Mexico somewhere, laughing at all of us!”

“Arguing won't get us anywhere,” Ned said, interceding quietly.

Beth was shifting around in her chair, her eyes moving anxiously over the crowd. Once again, she was fingering the little gold cat on her necklace. “I think we should get out of here,” she said with a shiver. “This place gives me the creeps.”

Just then Mike leapt out of his chair, nearly toppling the sodas off the table.

“What's got into you?” Jessica asked, moving out of his way.

“There's Dennis!” he shouted, pointing past the stage.

Nancy jumped up and looked in the direction Mike was pointing. Before she could catch a glimpse of Dennis, though, the lights went off and the whole club went black.

N
ANCY REACHED UNDER
the table for her purse. She rummaged inside, pulled out her penlight, and pointed it in the direction Dennis had taken.

Even in its dim light, though, Nancy could see that the boy had disappeared. Mike was standing by the edge of the stage, and Ned and Josh were next to her.

When the lights came back up again a few seconds later, Mike took off in the direction where Dennis had disappeared. Nancy, Ned, and Josh were right behind him. They pushed
their way through the crowd, back by the club's dressing rooms, and outside. Nancy's first instincts were right, though. Dennis appeared to be gone.

In the parking lot Mike shoved a hand through his hair and sighed.

“We've lost him.”

“Maybe he doubled back and is inside,” Nancy suggested.

“I don't think so. We all saw him take off this way,” Ned pointed out. “He's not here.”

Nancy didn't like giving up, especially when they'd come so close to finding Dennis.

“We can look around inside,” Mike agreed, “but I don't think we're going to find him.”

Back inside the club, Nancy and the others looked for any sign of Dennis. Ned went off in one direction while Mike and Josh checked out the dancers and people sitting at tables in another direction.

When they all met back at their table, Beth asked Mike if he'd found anyone who'd seen Dennis.

“Nope. We struck out,” Mike said with a frown.

Peter Henley came by just then. Nancy asked him if he'd spotted Dennis around the club.

Peter shook his head. “If he was here, I
didn't see him,” he said. With that, he went off to dance with a girl with bleached blond hair and spiked black boots.

“We might as well get out of here,” Mike told Jessica and Beth. “We're wasting our time.”

“It took you long enough to figure that out,” Jessica muttered. She and Beth both seemed relieved as they got to their feet.

“Coming?” Mike asked Nancy, Ned, and Josh.

“I think we'll stick around for a while,” Josh said.

Mike shrugged. “Good luck,” he replied. He, Jessica, and Beth hurried out of the club after asking Peter if he wanted a ride home. He shook his head no and continued dancing.

“What do you think Dennis was doing here?” Ned asked when the three of them were alone.

“My guess is he came to talk to someone,” Nancy offered, her eyes scanning the crowd. “From the way he took off when he saw Mike, it didn't seem like he was here to have a good time,”

“Should we start asking around to see if anyone here knows Dennis or Rachel?” Ned wanted to know when the three of them were alone at the table.

“Sounds good to me,” Josh answered. “Nancy, you'd better stick with one of us.”

Ned's eyes sparkled as he watched Nancy react to Josh's innocent remark.

“I'll be fine on my own,” she said pointedly.

Josh looked at her in surprise, then a grin broke out across his face. “Sure. Sorry, Nancy.”

She smiled. “No problem. How about if you guys take opposite sides of the room while I cover the middle?”

Ned gave her a salute. “Yes, ma'am,” he said.

Nancy drew a deep breath and approached a table where eight people were sitting. She looked as friendly as possible. “Hi, I'm looking for Dennis Harper, and I was wondering if any of you know him.”

Eight pairs of eyes turned up to her face. Eight pairs of suspicious eyes. None of them seemed to recognize Dennis's name.

“Why do you ask?” inquired one girl.

“I've got some questions to ask him.”

The girl's gaze took in Nancy's shorts and T-shirt with distaste. “You a cop?”

“Don't be an idiot, Marcy,” put in one of the guys at the table. “She's too young to be a cop.”

“Maybe,” said Marcy.

“I'm just a friend,” Nancy told them.

Marcy's eyebrows rose. “Of Dennis's?”

“Of Rachel Kline's, actually.”

The band launched into a throbbing beat, and most of the kids got up to dance, but Marcy and another guy stayed behind. Marcy appeared very curious. “Is Dennis in any trouble?”

“Maybe,” Nancy said, sitting down in an empty chair and ignoring the stare from the guy with Marcy. “Did you know Rachel's missing?”

Marcy wouldn't meet Nancy's eyes. “Rachel Kline.” She said the name with a touch of scorn. Nancy was sure that Marcy knew Rachel, whether she'd admit it or not. “Are her parents blaming Dennis?”

Nancy shrugged. “Nobody's blaming anybody. Rachel's family is really worried, of course. We're just trying to find her—and him.”

“Dennis was in here earlier,” Marcy confessed reluctantly. “But he's gone now.”

“Do you know what he was doing here?”

Marcy pulled back at the question. “No,” she said. She turned to start talking to the guy at the table.

“It could be important,” Nancy pressed gently.

At that moment the guy interrupted. “Let's dance,” he said to Marcy, wrenching her out of her chair. It was clear he thought she'd said too much as it was.

During the next half hour every person Nancy talked to denied knowing Rachel and claimed not to have seen Dennis that night.

Ned joined her as she left the last table. “No luck,” he said, spreading his hands. “I even tried the guys in the band, and Josh talked to the kitchen crew and the waitresses. If anybody here has ever heard of Harper, he's not admitting it.”

Nancy nodded. “I came up dry, too. What do you say we get out of here? I'm getting a headache.”

“Let's find Josh,” he agreed, taking Nancy's hand and pushing a path through the crowd.

As they were leaving Nancy noticed something scrawled on the wall beside the front door and stopped for a closer look. There, among the phone numbers, names, and other graffiti, was a drawing of a cat with white eyes.

It looked familiar, but Nancy didn't know why until they were outside, where it was quieter, and the evening air was pleasantly
cool. Beth Hanford came into her mind, and Nancy remembered the necklace she'd been wearing at the party earlier that evening—a gold cat with white opal eyes.

She caught Ned's arm and pulled him back inside. “Look at this,” she said, pointing at the cat. “Doesn't it look familiar to you?”

Ned thought for a moment, then nodded. “Beth was wearing a necklace like that,” he said.

Nancy frowned as they went back outside to catch up with Josh. “It probably doesn't mean anything,” she mused. “Still, it's an odd coincidence.”

Nobody said much on the way back to Beverly Hills—each was lost in his or her own thoughts. Where could Rachel be? Was she safe? If Dennis
had
kidnapped her, why hadn't he sent a ransom note? And what had he been doing in the club that night? It seemed like a pretty big risk for him to be seen in public if he had anything to do with Rachel's disappearance.

The house was all lit up when they arrived at the Klines', and there was a police car in the driveway. Nancy's heart started pounding. She hoped the police had brought good news. She hurried into the house behind Josh and Ned.

“Mom!” Josh yelled the moment they were through the front door. “Dad! Where is everybody?”

Karen Kline appeared at the top of the grand, curving stairway. “Up here, dear,” she said, her voice shaky.

“What's going on?” Josh demanded, racing up the stairs. “Did they find Rachel?”

Slowly Mrs. Kline shook her head. “No,” she said. Then, without saying anything more, she walked down the hallway, moving as if she was in a daze.

Josh followed her at top speed, and Nancy and Ned came behind him at a slightly slower pace. It was obvious that something shattering had happened, and they didn't want to intrude.

Ned took Nancy's hand and gave it a slight squeeze. The light was on in Rachel's room, and they could hear Mr. Kline speaking in an angry, agitated voice.

Mrs. Kline explained to Josh as Mr. Kline talked with a police officer. “When we got home, we checked to see if your sister was back. This is what we found.”

Pausing at Rachel's doorway just then, Nancy gasped.

Rachel's room had been ransacked!

E
VERY DRESSER DRAWER
had been emptied onto the floor, and the contents of the closet and bookcase were scattered everywhere. Even the mattress and box spring had been torn from the bed.

Nancy noticed a video camera lying on the floor in the corner. There were tapes scattered all around it.

“Take a look at this,” she said, heading for the camera and bending down to get a closer look. In that moment Nancy ruled out burglary—the rest of the house was apparently
untouched, and no thief would have left such an expensive camera behind.

Josh nodded. He was acting worried and distracted. “Rachel's interested in filmmaking, too,” he said absently.

“I don't think it was a burglary, Mr. Kline,” the police officer said as Rachel's father walked him out.

“Nothing's missing?” Nancy wanted to know as she went to stand at Mrs. Kline's side.

“Not as far as I can tell,” Karen Kline answered. “Not even my jewelry.” Nancy could see that she was on the verge of tears. “And I don't think we surprised whoever it was, either,” the woman went on. “I mean, we didn't see anyone leaving the house. It had to have happened while we were still at the party.”