Ned picked up one of the torn pictures and peered at it. “Why would someone bother to systematically tear up the photos so that Hal and Marilyn are separated?”
“Maybe because he—or she—had more on her mind than just getting the tape,” Nancy said excitedly. She gathered up the torn photos of Hal and Marilyn. “I know of only one person with that kind of grudge . . . Marilyn herself.”
Ned looked startled. “Marilyn Morgan!” he exclaimed. “But why?”
“She’s made it perfectly clear that she’ll cross any line when it comes to getting revenge on Hal,” Nancy explained.
“Why would she be interested in the bribery tape, though?” Ned asked, still unconvinced.
Nancy reassembled the pieces of one of the pictures of Hal and Marilyn sitting at the anchor desk. In the picture, Hal and Marilyn looked happy—an illusion that was far from the truth, Nancy now realized only too well.
“I know from reading her files that Marilyn is on the verge of jumping ship to work for another network,” she explained. “And she has plenty of motivation to get back at Hal. She may be cooperating with Gilbert to remove Hal from the picture—permanently.”
“Wow,” Ned said. “It sounds like she definitely has a double motive for revenge—professional and romantic jealousy.”
Gathering the torn photos into a pile, Nancy said, “I’m going to confront Marilyn with these and remind her that I know about her meeting with Gilbert. Maybe I can startle a confession out of her.”
She reached for the phone on Hal’s desk. “But first I want to call Hal and tell him what happened. He’ll have to call the police, I’m afraid.”
“Tell him he’d better call a maid service, too,” Ned added, shaking his head in disgust at the destroyed office.
Hal was dismayed by Nancy’s news of the vandalizing of his home. “This is getting scary. I can feel this guy breathing down my neck wherever I go,” he said. “I can tell he’s not going to give up until I’m off the air—or dead.”
There was a new note of fear in Hal’s voice. For the moment, Nancy decided to withhold her renewed suspicions about Marilyn’s role in the attacks. She knew Hal wouldn’t believe her unless she had hard evidence. And at the moment, she doubted whether he could handle the information about the torn pictures.
“Hang in there, Hal,” she said gently. “I think we’re on the verge of solving this case.”
“That sounds good to me,” Hal said tiredly. “And when we do, I’m heading off for a long vacation.”
Nancy said goodbye to Hal and hung up the phone. She and Ned walked out the front door toward their cars.
“Can I see you later tonight?” Ned asked softly. “I have to go back to school to start studying for finals, so it’s our last chance until Christmas vacation.”
Nancy turned and looked at Ned. “I know I must sound like a nagging parent, but shouldn’t you be studying tonight if finals start so soon?” she asked.
“I’ll be studying my favorite course—Romancing Nancy one-oh-one,” Ned protested laughingly.
“Good try, Nickerson.” Looping her hands around his neck, she kissed him on the lips. “I don’t know if I can get away tonight, but call me just in case,” she added in a whisper. “If not, you’d better be prepared to warm up your biology notes.”
“Not exactly my idea of a romantic evening,” Ned grumbled, but his expression brightened as Nancy melted into his arms in a goodbye kiss.
• • •
Nancy’s thoughts turned back to the case as she drove back to the TV station. The first thing she wanted to do when she got back was make another copy of Hal’s tape for safekeeping. That way they’d be sure to have a tape to use for Hal’s upcoming broadcast.
Checking her watch, Nancy saw that it was almost four o’clock. She’d have to hurry in order to be able to talk to Hal before the afternoon news broadcast.
She decided to take a shortcut to save time. Turning off the main road, which skirted a big water reservoir, she headed over to a nearby hill. The local people called the hill Sleeping Giant because it looked like the profile of a man taking a nap on his back. A narrow two-lane road divided the Sleeping Giant between his “head” and “torso.”
Nancy climbed the twisting, winding road. It was a difficult road to negotiate, which was the main reason that most people avoided this particular shortcut. She felt almost lightheaded when she reached the top of the hill. The view overlooking the vast reservoir and rolling countryside was breathtaking.
On the other side of the hill’s crest, the twisting road suddenly straightened out into a long, steep descent. To the left, there was a flimsy guardrail, then a sheer drop-off that plunged hundreds of feet to the basin below. Several signs were posted near the top of the hill, warning drivers to use a low gear when coming down off the hill. Nancy knew that there had been fatal accidents in the past when a car’s brakes had failed, sending it plunging over the cliff.
She moved her Mustang into low gear and started the long drive down. She was still enjoying the scenic view when she was startled by the blast of a truck’s air horn directly behind her.
Nancy looked in her rearview mirror, but all she could see were the headlights of an enormous yellow truck. It seemed to have appeared out of thin air! The truck blasted its horn again. The driver seemed to be in a big hurry, Nancy noted nervously.
She shook her head. It was foolish of the driver to want to speed down the mountain. Sticking her hand out the window, Nancy signaled for the driver to pass her.
In the very next instant, she was jolted in her seat by a screaming clash of metal. The huge truck had rammed her bumper! The collision pushed her car into the opposite lane, as she struggled to control it.
Nancy’s knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel. She hit her horn to warn any oncoming cars, then wrenched the steering wheel to keep control of the car.
She held her breath as the truck’s headlights loomed in her rearview mirror again. Had the truck lost its brakes, or had it struck her car deliberately?
Suddenly the truck’s air horn blasted again. Then there was another sickening crunch of metal as the truck rammed her car again, harder this time.
The truck was trying to force her car over the edge of the cliff!
Chapter
Fourteen
GRITTING HER TEETH, Nancy tried to wrench the steering wheel away from the cliff edge. It was no use. The Mustang’s bumper was caught somehow on the truck’s metal grillwork. She was being pushed along helplessly toward a certain death!
In desperation, Nancy pushed her foot down on the accelerator. If she couldn’t outmaneuver the truck, maybe she could outrun it. She gunned the motor and felt the Mustang’s rear bumper jerk free of the truck. The steering wheel became responsive once again. With great effort, she managed to steer the car back onto the road.
Nancy raced headlong down the mountain. Even at this speed she was just inches ahead of the truck, and it was gathering momentum behind her. She lifted her eyes from the road for a few precious seconds to try to catch a glimpse of the driver in the rearview mirror. The only thing she could see was the truck’s front fender, which was decorated with some sort of fancy blue pinstriping.
As she shot down the long, straight hill, Nancy tried to recall what she knew about the road. There were no turnoffs for at least a mile, she knew. She was in a race for her life!
Even without checking the rearview mirror again, she could sense that the truck was gaining on her. Her Mustang’s engine surged as she floored the accelerator. In a burst of speed, the speedometer needle leapt forward to seventy, eighty-five, then ninety miles per hour as the two vehicles hurtled down the treacherous road. Nancy knew she was courting disaster by speeding, but the truck looming behind her gave her no choice.
Desperately she tried to remember the last time she had driven this road. She seemed to recall seeing a turnoff near the bottom of the hill. It was barely more than a dirt lane, but it might provide her
with a much-needed escape route. The challenge would be making the turn at high speed without losing control and tumbling into a dangerous rollover.
The truck’s air horn blasted again, and Nancy knew it was closing in for the third, and possibly fatal, impact. She searched the road ahead of her for signs of the turnoff—there it was!
Nancy eased her foot just slightly off the gas. If she braked too much, the truck would smash her into oblivion. Too little, and she would crash while trying to make the turn.
Her heart leapt into her throat as she felt a sharp jolt. The truck had caught up with her! Taking a deep breath, she wrenched the wheel powerfully to the right.
The Mustang’s back end swung out wildly as Nancy veered into the turn. She gasped as the car spun completely around before coming to a stop. She found herself staring at the road she had just left, feeling shaken but unhurt.
Nancy could hear the truck’s brakes squeal and gears grind as the driver tried to slow the truck, but it was already well past the turnoff. Then, with a roar of the engine, the truck took off again down the road. Nancy guessed that the driver didn’t want to risk her seeing him.
Now that the immediate danger was past, she let out a huge sigh of relief. She felt her hands on the steering wheel begin to tremble slightly.
“Steady, girl,” she told herself sternly. “This is no time to fall apart.”
Throwing caution to the winds, Nancy slammed her car into gear and peeled out onto the main road. She was determined to catch up with the truck and get its license plate number! She sped down the road for several miles until it fed into a major thoroughfare.
Nancy passed several intersections. The truck could have turned off at any one of the crossroads, but she kept traveling east, following a hunch. KSM Express was located in that direction.
Her pulse quickened as she spotted a yellow truck in the distance. She darted in and out of traffic to catch up with it. Pulling alongside, she saw that it was a moving van. Then she pulled ahead to look at the truck’s front bumper—but there was none of the fancy pinstriping she’d seen on the other truck.
“Rats,” Nancy muttered, then slowed down.
The truck’s driver noticed her staring at his truck. He smiled and gave her a friendly wave. Nancy waved halfheartedly in return. “He probably thinks I’m flirting with him.” She groaned and moved into the lane behind him.
She turned off the main road. Her next plan was to look for the truck at KSM Express, but first she wanted to let someone know where she was going in case something happened to her.
Nancy spotted a gas station that had a telephone and stopped to call Ned. She hoped he had gone straight home. He picked up on the fourth ring.
“This is a surprise,” he said when he heard her voice. “I was just walking in the door. Couldn’t stand being away from me, huh?” he teased. His warm tone quickly turned to concern when she told him what had just happened and that she wanted to search for the pin-striped truck.
“I want to come with you, Nancy,” he said.
“You don’t have to come,” she protested. “I’ll be all right.”
“I’m going to stick to you like glue for the rest of the day,” he said firmly. “Bess just called here looking for you. I’ll pick her up on the way, and we’ll both meet you. It’s too dangerous to go poking around KSM Express by yourself. Besides, you’ll need a lookout, won’t you?”
Ned had a point, Nancy had to admit. It would take him a while to make the drive from Mapleton, so she agreed to wait at the gas station for him and Bess to arrive.
After hanging up, she tried to call Otto Liski to tell him what had happened, but the receptionist was unable to locate him for her. He must have already left on his night off, Nancy realized. Hal wasn’t available, either, since he was anchoring the four o’clock news, so she wouldn’t be able to tell him about the latest incident.
About an hour later, Ned and Bess arrived in Ned’s car, which he parked on the street.
“Nancy, are you all right?” Bess asked anxiously, running up to Nancy’s Mustang. Ned didn’t say anything. He simply wrapped Nancy tightly in his arms.
“Don’t look so worried, you two,” Nancy said lightly. “I’m fine—see?” She twirled around for them to see.
“I wish I could say the same for your car,” Ned said. He pulled off Nancy’s smashed muffler pipe, which had been mangled by the encounter with the truck.
Nancy sighed. “This car saved my life today,” she said. “So what if it needs a little repair work.”
The three teenagers piled into Ned’s car for the trip to KSM Express. “Are you sure you want to go back there after what happened today?” Bess asked. “Maybe you should just report the incident to the police.”
“They can’t do much unless I give them something to go on,” Nancy pointed out. “I’m looking for evidence that could tie today’s assault to the attacks on Hal.”
“That bumper seems like pretty strong evidence to me,” Bess said. As she closed Ned’s passenger door, she glanced uneasily over her shoulder at Nancy’s ruined fender.
“Who do you think is behind this attack by the truck?” Ned asked Nancy. Following the directions she gave him, he headed toward KSM Express.
“It had to be someone who overheard my conversation with Hal, then relayed my whereabouts to Milhaus or whoever was driving the truck,” Nancy said. “Marilyn is certainly a possibility, or even Gary Krieger. I haven’t ruled him out yet. In any case, they must be aware somehow that I have the tape. That’s probably why they attacked me this time instead of Hal.”
They drove east until they reached the commercial-industrial section where KSM Express was located. From a distance, Nancy could see several trucks backed up to the KSM loading dock. The yellow truck with blue pinstriping wasn’t among them.
“I want to get behind the warehouse to see if the truck is parked back there,” she said.
Ned pointed to a large wire gate that stretched across the parking lot. “That may be difficult,” he said. “The driveway is blocked.”
Looking around, Nancy spotted a truck that was stopped on the street in front of KSM Express. It had been left parked with its motor idling.
“The docks in front are all taken up by the other trucks, so maybe they’re about to move this truck to the back for the moment,” Nancy guessed, thinking out loud. She looked at Ned and Bess. “You two keep an eye out. I’m going to ride the truck in,” she said. She hopped out of the car and started walking toward the truck.
“Be careful, Nancy!” Bess called after her.
“Wait, Nancy!” Ned called, running up to her. “Remember what happened last time you sneaked in there. It’s too risky!”
But Nancy had already reached the parked truck. The door at the rear of the truck pushed up, like a garage door. With Ned’s help, Nancy opened it just enough to wriggle under it. Once her eyes adjusted to the dark interior, she saw that it was loaded with crates of fruit.
Ned looked around, hesitating for a moment. Then he jumped in beside her, pulled down the door so that it was just open a crack, and then settled down between two boxes of pineapples.
“The things I find myself doing when we’re together,” he said, shaking his head.
They waited quietly for several minutes before they heard the driver return to the truck. The driver unlocked the door to the cab and put the truck into gear. Nancy, Ned, and the pineapples were jostled as the truck lumbered up the driveway to KSM Express.
“Ouch! Now I know how you get to be a bruised banana,” Ned joked, keeping his voice low.
A moment later the truck ground to a halt as the driver waited for a couple of workers to swing open the wire gate that blocked off the rear section of KSM. The truck started up again, and Nancy felt herself sway as they rounded a corner. Then the engine was switched off.
Evidently no one was in a hurry to offload the fruit crates, because Nancy and Ned heard the driver and workers’ voices fade away as they left for ano
ther part of the warehouse.
Nancy peeked under the door and cautiously looked around, then she and Ned slowly raised it and jumped down to the ground. At first she couldn’t see anything resembling the truck that had tried to run her down earlier that afternoon. The sun was beginning to go down as she and Ned poked around a stand of trees and bushes at the rear of the lot. There, tucked behind the KSM warehouse, was the pin-striped truck!
“That’s it!” she whispered excitedly.
Ned took a deep breath. “Great. Now we’re positive we’re in total danger,” he said nervously.
Nancy looked around to make sure that none of the workers inside the warehouse could see them watching. Then she darted to the far side of the pin-striped truck, followed by Ned. She pulled out her lock-picking tools and quickly got the truck’s door open.
“Do we really need to do this?” Ned asked. “Just the truck’s being here proves that Kurt Milhaus is tied to these attacks.”
“I just want to check it out,” Nancy said. She searched the truck’s compartments and ran her hands under the seats. “The truck looks pretty clean, though. We may not find anything—”
She paused as her hand hit something behind the seat cushion. “Hmm, what’s this?”
Nancy pulled out a faded pamphlet that had been wedged between the seats. It was an old brochure for KLM Express, with a picture of Kurt Milhaus on the cover. Using her penlight, Nancy peered at the caption that ran under Milhaus’s picture. She blinked and read the caption a second time.
“Look at this, Ned,” she whispered urgently. “The name under Milhaus’s picture is Kurt Steghorn Milhaus. I think he must be related to Bill Steghorn—the Channel Nine engineer!”
Chapter
Fifteen
NED WAS LOOKING at her as if she were speaking Swahili.
“The S in KSM Express stands for Steghorn,” Nancy explained. “Now I realize why Milhaus looks so familiar to me—he and Bill Steghorn both have the same kind of bushy eyebrows and heavy features. They must be related. Maybe they’re even father and son.”