Hot Tracks (9 page)

“I wish I could be sure about how involved he is in this whole thing,” Nancy commented in a low voice, watching him go.

“Oh, come on, Nan,” Bess scoffed. “So what if he bought a part from Jimmy Sandia. He probably didn't know it was from a stolen car.”

Nancy wasn't convinced of that. She turned as Quinones and Powderly stepped out of the garage. At the same time, Detective Hawkins's blue sedan drove up.

“Where were you?” Quinones asked as the younger man got out of the car. “Why didn't you answer the dispatcher's call?”

Hawkins's face turned red. “I stopped for dinner, all right?” he said. “I mean, aren't we allowed to eat anymore?”

“Not when there's a murder,” Powderly put in.

“A murder? Who?” Hawkins asked.

“Jimmy Sandia,” Quinones told him. “The kid we
almost
caught at the nightclub.”

“Any suspects?” Hawkins wanted to know.

Detective Quinones pointed to Nancy. “Ms. Drew saw a woman leave with a wrench. We'll know more after the crime technicians get through.”

He dismissed Nancy and Bess with a terse “Thank you.”

“What now?” Bess asked Nancy as the two girls slowly wandered away. “We're obviously not wanted here. I don't think Dirk cares if he ever sees our faces again.” She shook her head. “I feel awful.”

Nancy touched Bess on the arm. “Don't give up on him. He may be completely innocent,” she said.

“At least you can't accuse him of murder. He was with me the whole time,” Bess added.

Nancy nodded. “That's true. I do think he knows more than he's telling, though.” She moved to the outskirts of the crowd to a spot where she could watch Dirk. He was leaning over the motor of his car. Just then, Jake and Kitty strode up to him.

“I think we should eat,” Bess said from behind Nancy. “It's six-thirty and my stomach's reading empty.”

“Mmm,” Nancy said distractedly. She wasn't really listening. Her attention was focused on the group by Dirk's car. She kept thinking about Jimmy Sandia's murder. Kitty Lambert was an obvious suspect, but what would her motive be? Why would she kill a car thief? Was she in on the ring?

“Why do you keep spying on Dirk?” Bess asked indignantly, breaking into Nancy's thoughts.

“I think he may have tipped Jimmy Sandia off that I recognized him,” Nancy replied.
“Now I bet he's warning Kitty.” Sprinting forward, she started toward the group.

“Where are you going?” Bess called after her.

“To see what Dirk and Jake are up to,” Nancy said over her shoulder. “I know you think Dirk's innocent, but someone killed Jimmy Sandia, and I'm going to find out who.”

“I'm coming, too,” Bess insisted.

Without waiting, Nancy hurried over to the pit area and wove through the many cars, trying to think of a plan of action. She was still about fifty yards away from the group, when Dirk caught sight of her. Frowning, he gestured toward her with an accusing finger. Kitty whirled around to focus right on Nancy. As Nancy got closer, she could see that the brunette's eyes were wide with fear. Before Nancy could even call her name, Kitty had taken off at a run.

N
ANCY RACED
after Kitty, who had sped ahead. With a quick backward glance at Nancy, she whipped around a van and out of sight.

Her heart pounding, Nancy sprinted the distance to the van—then stopped abruptly. Kitty was nowhere to be seen. Nancy spun her head in every direction, but it was useless. Kitty had disappeared in the maze of cars.

Nancy walked back to Dirk's Big D. Dirk started to brush right past her when he saw her coming.

“Dirk, wait.” Nancy caught his arm. “You need to help me out. If you're innocent, I need you to prove it to me.”

Dirk shrugged off her arm. “Why bother,” he scoffed. “You've already convicted us in your mind.”

“That's not true,” Nancy protested. “Kitty's only wanted for questioning. If she doesn't have anything to hide, she should go to the police.”

Dirk stared down at her with probing green eyes. Jake stood behind him, his arms crossed against his chest.

“Hey!” Bess ran up, puffing and holding her side. “You guys are hard to keep up with.” Seeing the sober expressions on everyone's faces, she asked, “Where did Kitty go? What's going on?”

Nancy kept her eyes on the Walters brothers. “I was just about to tell Dirk and Jake that they could be arrested for obstructing justice,” she said firmly.

Finally Dirk let out a long breath. “Kitty's too scared to talk to the police,” he said.

“Scared of what?” Bess asked.

“You don't have to say anything,” Jake cut in angrily.

“What's she scared of, Dirk?” Nancy pressed, ignoring Jake's angry glare.

Dirk shrugged. “She wouldn't say.”

“Then tell me where she is. If she runs, it will only be worse for her—and you.”

“No way!” Jake said. He grabbed Dirk's arm and started to walk away, but Dirk shook him off.

“Look, maybe Nancy can help Kitty,” he told Jake. Turning back to Nancy, Dirk said, “I'll try to find her. Be here tomorrow morning, and I'll see if I can get her to talk to you.”

He smiled ruefully and added, “Besides, with Kitty on the run, I may need you guys to crew for me in tomorrow's race.”

Dirk turned to Bess. For a second he just stared at her with a sad smile, then he bent down, kissed her lightly on the lips, and strode off with his brother. It was time for him to race.

For once Bess was speechless. “Whoa,” she finally managed to say. “That was not the kiss of a car thief.”

Nancy laughed. “Bess, you are a complete romantic.”

“True,” Bess agreed, grinning.

• • •

On Saturday morning Nancy called the police station before she had even had breakfast.

“Jimmy Sandia, alias Johnny Smithson, alias Jeremy Saunders, has quite a record for auto theft,” Raul Quinones told her. “Amazing, considering he was only nineteen.

“Seems he's wanted in Chicago, where they're also looking for his female partner. She was described as an attractive woman in her midtwenties with bleached blond hair.”

“Kitty Lambert?” Nancy suggested.

“Could be,” Quinones said. “She could have dyed her hair brown. Unfortunately, there aren't any prints on her. It seems she's a little more cautious than Jimmy and has never been arrested.”

“If she was his partner, that might give her a
motive for killing him,” Nancy said. “She might have worried that he'd implicate her.”

“I'll say. Jimmy was about to get nailed. She was probably afraid he'd tell us who he was working with in order to get a lighter sentence.”

“What about the murder weapon?” Nancy asked.

She heard a brief shuffle of papers before Quinones answered. “Autopsy shows it was a heavy, metal tool—could've been a wrench. He was hit from behind when he was standing on the far side of the shed by the tractor. The murderer was probably hiding there, then dragged him over to hide the body.”

Nancy looped the phone cord around her fingers as she thought. “Mmm. Any problem with ruined evidence this time?”

“No. That's strange, too,” Quinones told her. “Our inside man let the investigation go through without a hitch. It's almost as if he wants the murderer to be caught.”

“Or at least he wants
a
murderer caught,” Nancy added. She told the detective about Dirk's belief that Kitty wouldn't hurt anyone, but that she was too scared to turn herself in for questioning.

“She should be scared,” Quinones said. “She's our prime suspect. Hawkins and Powderly are tracking her down right now. I'm counting on you, too,” he added in a serious voice. “Try to convince Dirk to lead you to Kitty.”

“Bess and I are going to spend the day with him at the track,” Nancy said. “Maybe he'll trust us enough to let us know what's going on.”

“Good. Call me the second you have any news.”

• • •

“Hi, Bess,” Nancy said brightly as she climbed into the silver rental convertible a little later. “I guess you're feeling pretty optimistic about the weather, if you're leaving the top down.”

Bess glanced up at the sky. Dark clouds had already hidden the sun. Two neon yellow rain slickers were draped across the back seat of the car. “Actually, I couldn't get the top up.”

Nancy laughed as Bess backed the rental car from the Drews' driveway. This time the car lurched only once before Bess smoothly shifted into first.

They'd driven for about five minutes before the first raindrop splashed on Nancy's nose.

“Pull over, Bess. Let's see if we can get this top up,” Nancy said. When the car stopped, she scrambled into the back seat and began to unsnap the top.

“I'm telling you, it doesn't work,” Bess called from the front. She pressed the button, but nothing happened.

The raindrops were falling harder now. They splattered on Nancy's face as she grabbed hold of the vinyl and tugged. The top
wouldn't budge. With a sigh, she sat back on her heels. “We'll get soaked.”

Bess reached back and held up the two rain slickers. “Not if we drive fast.”

“Oh, great.” Nancy rolled her eyes as she climbed into the front seat and she and Bess slipped on the slickers. Nancy barely had a chance to fasten her seat belt before Bess hit the gas pedal. The car shot forward, throwing Nancy back against the seat.

“Maybe we can outrun the storm,” Bess said.

As they sped along, huge drops of rain pelted the girls' faces and soaked their hair, while the windshield wipers whipped back and forth with an irregular
clunk, clunk.
Nancy was thankful that the slickers kept the rest of them fairly dry. The whole thing was so ridiculous that Nancy had to laugh.

“I think the rental company should refund your money!” she shouted across the seat.

Bess laughed. “I think they should give us hazard pay!”

They reached the drag strip in record time. “I guess everyone else knew it was going to rain,” Nancy said as Bess pulled into the nearly empty lot.

Nancy looked at herself in the sideview mirror. Her mascara had formed black smudges under her eyes, and her hair was a tangle of wet, matted strands. “Boy, I'm a mess.”

By then the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Bess got out, opened the trunk, and pulled out a folded sheet of plastic. “We can cover the seats with this. Maybe then the car won't turn into a swimming pool while it's sitting here.”

“You're really prepared,” Nancy commented.

Bess nodded. “Thanks to good old Dad. The rental company won't exchange the car until Monday, so I'm stuck until then.”

“It's a good thing my car will be ready late this afternoon,” Nancy said, grinning at Bess.

After the girls covered the car, they walked to the pit area and stepped through the gate.

In the gray, misty light, the pit seemed almost menacing. The field was still dotted with an assortment of vehicles, but it looked more like a battlefield after the fight. A dozen or so people were there, checking out tires and tinkering with motors. Except for the pitter-patter of rain, it was quiet.

Nancy spotted Dirk and Jake next to Big D's Dynomite. Jake was drinking from a Styrofoam coffee cup while he watched Dirk tinker with the engine. Both were fairly dry. Nancy guessed they'd sat out the heaviest rain in one of the nearby buildings.

When the guys looked up, Nancy noticed they had dark circles under their eyes, as if they hadn't slept.

“Morning.” Dirk nodded at the girls, then gave Bess a smile. “You girls ready to work?
It's tough to scare up a crew on such short notice.”

“I take it that means Kitty's still in hiding?” Nancy asked gently.

Dirk traded glances with Jake. “Yeah. We had a long talk with her last night,” he told Nancy. “She did say she'd talk to you—later.”

Nancy wanted to press him for more information, but she held back. Dirk might decide not to help her at all if she pushed too hard.

All she said was, “I hope it's soon. The police are looking for Kitty, and we can't withhold information from them. It seems Jimmy Sandia had a prior record for auto theft. He worked with a female partner who could have been Kitty.”

Dirk and Jake didn't act surprised. “She's laying low because she doesn't want to get nailed for killing Jimmy,” Jake explained. “Dirk will take you to her later, when it gets dark.” There wasn't a bit of flirtation in his voice now, Nancy noticed. Jake's feelings for Kitty were obviously deeper than Nancy had guessed.

“In the meantime, how about some elbow grease?” Dirk said, clapping his hands together. He handed Nancy and Bess a can of car wax and two clean rags. “I had a good race last night, but the Big D got a little smudged. She'd love a good polishing before my race late this afternoon.”