No Laughing Matter

by Carolyn Keene

  Nancy’s instincts told her to take the offensive with Bianca. Besides, chances were that her cover had been blown anyway. “I know all about the gambling and the money laundering,” she said, meeting Bianca’s gaze.

  “What?” Bianca appeared genuinely puzzled, so Nancy reopened the drawer and brought out the color-coded ledger.

  Bianca came over to the desk and examined the page Nancy showed her. The assistant manager was shocked as Nancy explained her interpretation of the various columns. When Nancy was done, Bianca sank down into her desk chair.

  “You’ve got to believe me,” she said slowly. “I had no idea about any of this. I never go near that desk. It’s Johnny’s.”

  Nancy was skeptical. “I thought he wasn’t involved with the business side of the club,” she said. “Are you trying to tell me that the box of papers you and Tony were looking at tonight weren’t fake receipts for the gambling profits? And that you didn’t listen in on my telephone conversation before?”

  “I’m sorry about the call,” Bianca said quickly. “I wanted to phone someone myself, and I hit the wrong button by mistake.”

  She sounded sincere, but Nancy still wasn’t convinced. “And the box of papers,” she prompted.

  Bianca picked up her phone and pressed a button. “Tony, can you come up to the office for a minute?”

  Nancy stifled the nervousness that rose up into her throat. They wouldn’t dare do anything to harm her, not when Bess and Rusty were still downstairs.

  Tony arrived almost instantly. “What’s up?” he asked. “This looks serious.”

  “Tell Nancy why we had that box of supplies from Gleason’s and why we’ve been acting secretive,” Bianca said, placing a hand on Tony’s arm.

  Tony seemed to be surprised by the request, but he just shrugged and said, “Bianca and I are throwing a surprise party for a good friend, Gregory, here at the Rainbow. We’re kind of doing it quietly, behind Johnny’s back—he won’t let anyone use the club for private activities. But we figured after he’d gone home he wouldn’t know. It’s the only place we know of that’s big enough.”

  Fixing Tony with a probing gaze, Nancy asked, “What about that box of things you got from Gleason’s this morning?”

  “When we saw you there, we had just picked up party supplies,” Tony explained. “I know I clammed up when I saw you, but I was afraid that word of the party might get back to Johnny. He’d fire us if he found out.”

  While Tony spoke, Bianca walked over to the closet and pulled out a box that had Gleason’s printed on the side. She opened it, pulling out noisemakers and party hats.

  “See? And as for the small box you saw me show Tony,” Bianca said, “it’s the invitation to the surprise party. I wanted to make sure Tony liked it before we made copies.”

  She reached into the Gleason’s carton and pulled out the smaller cardboard box Nancy had seen her with earlier. “We were talking about the wording of the invitation,” Bianca explained, plucking a paper from the box and handing it to Nancy.

  Sure enough, the paper had photocopied pictures of a guy on it and cut-out letters from magazines.

  When Nancy looked up, Tony was gazing at her curiously. “What’s going on here anyway?” he asked. “What’s with all the questions?”

  Nancy and Bianca showed him the ledger Nancy had found. His reaction was one of such shock that Nancy’s gut instincts were that neither he nor Bianca knew anything about the gambling or money laundering before.

  “You found this in Johnny’s desk?” Tony said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me that warm, funny Johnny is actually a crook?”

  “It looks that way, although I still haven’t found anything in this ledger that specifically links him to the gambling or the money laundering,” Nancy replied.

  “Now that I think of it, it does seem as if Johnny is always around on the days when the accounting book has to go to the accountant,” Bianca added, giving a distracted tug to one of her auburn curls. “He must come up here when I’m not around and add the phony receipts to the legitimate ones that I collect.”

  “We still don’t have proof, though.” Nancy pointed to the columns in black. “I have a feeling that the key lies somewhere in these initials. I wish I could make sense of them.”

  “Maybe if we just play with them a little,” Tony suggested. He took a pen and piece of paper from Bianca’s desk and began jotting the letters down in different combinations.

  “Good idea,” Nancy agreed, taking another pen. She tried reversing the letters, then moving up and down the alphabet one or two letters from the initials.

  “Look at this!” she said excitedly a few moments later. “If you move each of these letters forward one in the alphabet, ‘J.N.’ becomes ‘K.O.,’ and ‘I.R.’ becomes ‘J.S.’ ”

  Tony and Bianca exchanged a look. “Keith O’Brien and Johnny Spector!” Bianca said in a shocked whisper.

  “Exactly,” Nancy said. “I don’t recognize the other ones, but—”

  She broke off as the phone rang. Bianca stepped over to her desk and answered it.

  “Hello?” She listened for a moment, then held the receiver out to Nancy. “It’s for you.”

  “Yes?” Nancy said.

  “Nancy?”

  Nancy recognized Bess’s voice even though she sounded very upset and scared. “Bess! Where are you? What’s the matter?”

  Nancy heard a muffled noise. Then a harsh man’s voice came on the line. “Your friend is safe for the moment, Nancy.”

  With a start, Nancy realized that it was Keith O’Brien! “Where have you taken Bess?” she demanded.

  Keith didn’t answer. “Back off, Nancy,” he growled into the phone, “or you’ll never see Bess alive again!”

  Chapter

  Fifteen

  NANCY’S MOUTH went completely dry. Keith must have realized that Nancy had discovered his involvement in the gambling and money laundering. She had to try to convince him to let Bess go!

  “It’s no use, Keith,” Nancy said forcefully. “I’ve seen the casino, and I’ve got a ledger that connects both you and Johnny to the money laundering that’s going on here.”

  “It certainly would be a shame if you sacrificed your best friend just to show off your detective skills,” Keith said icily. “When Johnny saw you appear onstage, he contacted me right away.” He made a clucking noise over the phone. “I’m the one holding the gun, Nancy. It’s not your move to call.”

  “Keith—” Nancy had to work hard to keep her voice from quavering. “Carla Jones is willing to testify that Matt Goldin didn’t open that bank account. He was set up.” She hesitated, then decided to take a chance. “When she tells Matt’s lawyer that she lied on the stand, she’ll identify you as the one who opened the account.”

  There was silence at the other end of the line. She guessed right! It was Keith who had opened the account in Matt’s name.

  “You can’t prove my involvement without the accounting book,” Keith finally spoke up. “And if you don’t give me the book, Bess is history.”

  Nancy decided to change tactics. “Keith, I’m sure it wasn’t your idea to frame Matt,” she said calmly. “You were just protecting Johnny. If you help us get Johnny, I’m sure that the judge will go easier on you.”

  “The judge!” Keith roared. “There won’t be any judge. Tomorrow we’ll do an exchange—the book for Bess. I’ll call your house in the morning to tell you where and when. And, Nancy, if you value your friend’s life, you won’t call the police.”

  The line went dead.

  Nancy hung up, then slowly sat down behind Bianca’s desk.

  “Nancy? What happened?” Bianca asked, worried.

  Nancy told them about Bess’s kidnapping and Keith’s demand for the color-coded accounting book. “They’re calling tomorrow to fix a time and place for the exchange.”

  “It’s hard to believe that Johnny would do this,” Bianca said, shaking her head sadly.

&nb
sp; “There’s nothing we can do tonight,” Tony said, putting a hand on Nancy’s shoulder. “Tomorrow you’ll get the call and we’ll turn over the accounting book. The most important thing is to get Bess back safely.”

  Nancy wished that she could really believe that Bess would be safe, but there was no telling what Keith would do. Nancy’s stomach was doing flip-flops.

  “Bess must be terrified,” she said grimly. “She wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me.”

  “There has to be something we can do,” Bianca said, leveling a determined look at Nancy. “Even if we don’t have the ledger, we can testify to what we saw in it. Once the police see the casino next door, they’re bound to believe us.”

  “Speaking of the police, shouldn’t we call them?” Tony suggested.

  Nancy shook her head adamantly. “Keith said that if we involve the police, he’ll hurt Bess. I couldn’t live with that.”

  “Well, I’d like to help in any way I can,” Tony added.

  Nancy was suddenly exhausted. “Thanks, you two. Actually, I could use one favor.”

  “Name it.”

  “A ride home? Bess was coming to spend the night at my house and would have driven me home, but now . . .” Nancy’s voice trailed off.

  Bianca smiled at her. “Sure. My car’s right outside.”

  • • •

  Nancy was already awake when her alarm went off at seven the next morning. She hadn’t gone to bed until after three because she was too worried about Bess to sleep.

  She hoped Ned would arrive soon. As soon as she had gotten home the night before, she had called her boyfriend. After hearing that Bess had been kidnapped, he insisted on coming over in the morning to wait with Nancy for Keith’s phone call.

  Jumping out of bed, she took a quick shower, then dressed in jeans and an old sweatshirt. She had just finished drying her hair when she heard the doorbell. She practically flew down the stairs to answer it before her father could get it. Their housekeeper, Hannah Gruen, was out of town for a few days, so Nancy and Carson were on their own.

  “Hi,” Ned said softly. Stepping inside, he enveloped her in a warm hug. “How’re you holding up?” he asked.

  “I keep thinking about Bess,” Nancy said into his shoulder. “Keith hasn’t called yet.” She took a deep, calming breath, then smiled weakly. “How about some hot chocolate and toast?”

  Ned smiled down at her. “Good idea. We need to keep our energy up.”

  There was a note on the kitchen table from Carson—he had gone into the office at six to get caught up on a backlog of work. Nancy stared down at her buttered toast and couldn’t imagine eating it. Picking up her mug of hot chocolate, she wrapped her hands around it. The warmth, at least, was comforting. “Thanks for waiting with me, Ned—”

  Just then the phone rang. Nancy jumped to answer it, while Ned grabbed a paper and pen.

  “Oh—hi, Bianca,” Nancy said. “No, no word yet. We’ll let you know.”

  Nancy let out a deep sigh as she hung up. She was just about to sit down when the phone rang again.

  “Hello,” she said firmly, not wanting to betray any fear in her voice.

  It was Keith. He told her to meet him with the ledger at an abandoned café near the Muskoka River. Nancy knew exactly which place he was talking about. It had burned down a few years before.

  “The burned-down cafe at the Muskoka River at three P.M.,” she repeated to Ned after she hung up.

  She frowned, then burst out, “That’s not for hours. I’ll go crazy waiting around until then!”

  “Maybe we won’t have to,” Ned put in. “I was thinking about the casino you found at Caribou. Do you think we could sneak into it and take some pictures?” he suggested. “Then, even if we have to hand over the ledger, we’ll still have proof of the gambling.”

  “Bianca must have a key to Over the Rainbow, and we can get into the casino through the staircase I stumbled onto last night,” Nancy said, thinking out loud. “Ned, that’s a great idea!”

  She was already reaching for the phone. When she hung up a few minutes later, she was smiling. “Bianca said she’ll meet us there right away.”

  • • •

  When Nancy and Ned pulled into the parking lot at Over the Rainbow, Bianca was already waiting. She jumped out of her car and met them at the front door. “Hi. You’re Ned, right? I’m sorry I was curt with you the other day,” she said.

  Nancy made the introductions. As they went inside, Bianca said, “I left a message for Tony. I hope he meets us.”

  Nancy was struck by how different Over the Rainbow looked in the daylight. It was stripped of all its fun and glamour, and it smelled slightly of grease and fried food.

  She and Ned had the color-coded accounting book with them. Going behind the bar, she placed it on a shelf there. Then she strode to the stage and showed Ned and Bianca the door that she had stumbled through the previous night. She turned the knob, but the door didn’t budge.

  “It must have been nailed shut from the other side,” Nancy guessed.

  Bianca went backstage and reappeared a moment later with a hammer, a crowbar, and a flashlight. The three set to work prying open the door. After only a few minutes, the door swung open.

  “Old wood,” Ned muttered.

  “I’m going to check in the office for any receipts or papers Johnny may have left there,” Bianca said. “I’ll meet you guys up in the casino.”

  Ned and Nancy made their way quietly up the stairs, with Ned shining the flashlight beam so they could see. “This must have been an old fire-escape route,” Nancy whispered.

  When they got closer to the top of the stairs, she and Ned paused to listen for any sound. It was completely quiet. Holding her breath, Nancy turned the knob and the door swung open.

  The two teens stepped out into the dim hallway. Except for their flashlight, the only illumination came from an exit sign. Nancy didn’t see any light coming from the stairs, so she assumed the dance club was deserted, too. Gesturing to Ned to follow her, she crept up to the door that led into the casino.

  She was surprised when the knob turned easily. “It’s unlocked,” she whispered over her shoulder to Ned. She opened the door and took a few steps inside.

  Despair swept over Nancy as she shined her flashlight around the room. The place was entirely empty. The gambling casino had been cleared out!

  Chapter

  Sixteen

  NED!” NANCY GROANED. “Everything’s gone! We have no proof now.”

  Ned let out a low whistle. “These guys sure moved fast,” he said. “They changed this place from a casino to an empty room overnight!”

  “It looks like they did a thorough job, too,” Nancy added, gazing around the room. “All that’s left are a couple of folding chairs.”

  “Wait—what’s this?” Ned said. His flashlight beam shone on something red on the carpet. He bent down to pick it up, then held up the poker chip for Nancy to see. “Looks like one piece of evidence they forgot.”

  “It’s a start, anyway,” Nancy said. Leaning against the wall near the door, she wondered aloud, “What now?”

  “I think we should check out the rest of the building,” Ned said. “There’s a chance that we’ll turn up some other evidence of the gambling operation.”

  Staying close together, Ned and Nancy headed back into the hallway. Ned shone the light ahead of them as they slowly made their way down the front stairs.

  Suddenly Nancy grabbed Ned’s arm. “Did you hear that?” she whispered. They stopped a few stairs from the bottom.

  “The only thing I hear is my heart pounding,” Ned whispered back.

  “I’m so nervous, I guess I’m imagining things.” Nancy continued to the ground floor, then rounded the corner into the cavernous main room of the dance club.

  “I can’t believe how dark it is in here,” Ned said. He was sweeping the flashlight around in arcs so they could see where they were going.

  Just then Nancy heard a
door slam somewhere above them. She started to warn Ned, but he had obviously heard it, too. He switched off the flashlight and reached for Nancy’s hand.

  Nancy’s heart beat faster as footsteps crossed the ceiling above them. Slowly, someone began walking down the stairs.

  Ned repositioned the flashlight in his hand. Nancy knew what he was thinking—if he had to, he could use it as a weapon.

  A moment later the footsteps stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Nancy held her breath, keeping a tight grip on Ned’s free hand.

  “Nancy?”

  Both Ned and Nancy breathed a sigh of relief. “Bianca!” Nancy exclaimed. “We’re over here.”

  Ned turned on the flashlight so that Bianca could find her way across the dark dance floor. She was hugging the leather accounting book to her chest. “I didn’t want to leave this with no one around,” she said. “Did you find anything?”

  “They cleared everything out of the casino,” Ned explained, shaking his head.

  “That’s awful!” Bianca said.

  “Right now I’m too worried about Bess to care about anything else,” Nancy put in. “I wish we had some way of finding her before this afternoon.”

  “Have you searched the whole building?” asked Bianca. “Maybe there’s a clue we’re missing.”

  “We were thinking the same thing,” Nancy told her. “So far we’ve checked only the room where the casino was.”

  “Well, I think that—”

  Ned broke off and cocked his head to one side. He, Nancy, and Bianca all heard the clanking sound at the same time.

  “What was that?” Bianca asked nervously.

  The clanking started up again. This time Nancy noticed that a rhythm was being tapped out.

  “It sounds like a message of some kind!” she whispered. “You guys, it could be Bess trying to let us know where she is!”

  Nancy closed her eyes so that she could concentrate on where the sound was coming from. “It’s underneath us,” she decided.

  Even in the darkness she could see the frown on Bianca’s face. “This complex of buildings has a shared basement. The only thing down there is the boiler room, some electrical circuitry, and a storage room,” Bianca said.