“Sorry.” Nancy laughed. “It’s so unlike me to have my mind wander like this.”
“I think I understand,” said Sam, taking a hard turn that made Nancy lean into him. Both of Sam’s hands remained steady on the steering wheel, but Nancy could remember what it felt like to be touched by him. “Everything will work out,” Sam reassured her. “Maybe this is one situation you can’t think your way through. Maybe you’ll just have to let your heart lead you.”
“Telling me not to think is like telling me not to breathe,” Nancy said, laughing. “Look out. Pia’s taking that left.”
The light went from green to yellow as Sam swung through it, his tires squealing and his shocks bouncing. “You know where we’re going, don’t you?” Sam asked.
Nancy nodded. “I have a pretty good idea.” The sun had set and the streetlights were on as they headed from Pia’s neighborhood toward downtown. Nancy looked at her watch. “It’s six o’clock. Esme’s ball should be starting any minute.”
“True,” said Sam. “So what’s her plan?”
Nancy shivered, her eyes riveted to Pia’s late-model sedan a few cars ahead of them. “I hate to think. Whatever it is, I’m sure Esme’s in danger.”
Pia led them through the busy downtown streets, until they were just a few blocks from the Barrington. In fact, the hotel was in sight when Pia went through a light as it changed from yellow to red. Sam had to screech to a stop at the light, while Pia cruised through.
“Rats!” Sam said, pounding the steering wheel. “Now she’s got a head-start on us. What if we lose her?”
“We won’t,” said Nancy. She knew Pia would head for Esme’s room. From there, she didn’t know exactly what to expect. As she waited for the light to turn green again, Nancy bit on a fingernail, trying not to imagine the worst.
Sam inched out into traffic. The crosstown light was just turning yellow, and Nancy could see Sam resisting the urge to go through the red light.
“Go!” Nancy shouted as soon as the light turned green.
Pia was long gone. Sam raced toward the Barrington’s front entrance and threw the keys at the valet.
Inside, they raced for the elevators and caught a glimpse of Pia as the doors to one elevator closed.
“There she is!” Nancy cried out. “I knew it. She’s headed for Esme’s room. Come on!”
Another elevator appeared, and Nancy pushed her way onto it. To her dismay, the elevator proceeded to stop at every floor to let someone either on or off, and it felt like forever before she and Sam reached Esme’s floor.
“Talk about impatient,” Sam whispered, his eyes on Nancy’s tapping foot.
“We could have walked faster,” Nancy whispered back.
Finally they were getting off on the sixth floor. Nancy raced down the hall toward Esme’s suite. What she saw there made her stop dead.
Pia had Esme in her grip. The romance writer was dressed in a full-length red gown, ready for her ball. The expression in her green eyes was one of pure terror. In a flash, Nancy realized why: Pia had a silver-barreled gun and was holding it at Esme’s side.
“Nancy!” Esme cried when she spotted her. “Help me, please!”
Pia’s face contorted into an expression of anger and frustration. “No one’s going to help you this time,” she spat at Esme. “Can’t you see that you’re going to have to come clean, finally?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Esme said. She struggled to break free of Pia’s grip, but the woman was strong. She held Esme more tightly, sticking the gun deeper into Esme’s side. “What are you planning to do?”
“You’ll see,” said Pia. “Nothing more than you deserve—Black Widow.”
Pia’s voice as she pronounced Esme’s nickname dropped to a mean whisper that sent shivers down Nancy’s spine. It was obvious that Pia’s desire for revenge was enough to make her take desperate measures. They had to stop her!
Giving Sam a meaningful look, Nancy took a small step forward. At the same time Sam called out, “Pia, let’s talk. Let’s be reasonable. If you harm Esme, you’ll be in serious trouble. Why don’t you reconsider?”
Slowly, while Sam distracted Pia, Nancy tried moving forward. The expression in Esme’s eyes was desperate, yet hopeful. But Nancy hadn’t taken more than three steps before she heard an explosion and saw a flash.
“Nancy!” Sam cried. “Get down! Pia’s shooting!”
Nancy fell to the carpet, face first, her heart pounding. That was too close, she thought. She didn’t look up until Sam was by her side.
“That woman is nuts,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Where’d she go?” Nancy asked, getting to her knees.
“As soon as she shot at you, Pia dragged Esme to the fire stairs,” Sam told her.
A second later Nancy was racing toward the fire exit with Sam by her side. Once they were in the stairwell, Nancy could hear the sound of Pia and Esme, a few flights down. Nancy flew down the stairs, taking them three at a time. But as soon as Pia realized Nancy and Sam were after her, she started shooting up the stairwell.
Nancy pressed herself against the wall. “I guess she wants us to keep our distance,” she joked, panting.
“I think you’re right,” Sam told her. “Let’s stay close enough to follow her. As soon as we get downstairs, I’ll call for backup. It looks like we’ll be needing some.”
After reaching the bottom of the stairwell, Pia led them down a series of corridors. Soon they were passing by the Barrington’s enormous kitchen, heading for the banquet rooms. Keeping a safe distance behind, Nancy and Sam trailed Pia and a still-struggling Esme all the way to the ballroom.
“She knows these hallways like the back of her hand,” Sam said, running beside Nancy.
“I have a feeling that Pia must have worked here,” Nancy replied, catching her breath. “She probably stole a pass key at some point.”
“I bet you’re right. That must be how she got into Esme’s suite,” Sam said.
Now, Pia was pushing Esme through a door. “Hurry!” Nancy cried, following them. Nancy yanked the door open to discover that they were standing in the backstage area of the Barrington’s ornate ballroom. From behind the stage, Nancy could hear the crowd murmuring and the strains of the orchestra as it played the evening’s first songs.
Sam was beside Nancy. They both hung back in the shadows, while Pia dragged Esme to the front of the stage.
“What’s she doing?” Sam asked.
“I’m afraid to find out,” said Nancy.
With one hand, Pia was pawing at the curtains to pull them open. With the other, she held the gun pointed at Esme’s side. Nancy knew that if they were going to disarm Pia, now was the time. Quickly, Nancy assessed the situation. She’d need to sneak up on the woman, and the only way to do that would be from the side. Or, Nancy thought, noticing a catwalk above the stage, from above. A ladder went from the catwalk to the floor. Beside the ladder was a long rope. Nancy could climb the ladder, haul herself onto the catwalk, tie the rope to the catwalk, and use it to swing onto Pia from above.
Nancy whispered the plan to Sam. “That sounds dangerous,” Sam said.
“We don’t have any choice,” said Nancy. “If we try to tackle Pia from both sides, she might shoot Esme.”
“You’re right,” said Sam. “I’ll cover her on the ground. Be careful.”
Hitching the rope over her shoulder, Nancy began her ascent. Below, she saw that Pia had the curtains open. From the crowd came a murmur of surprise, and Nancy spotted Bess in the audience. When Bess saw Nancy, she put a hand to her mouth and clutched the arm of the man standing next to her. Other members of the audience spotted Nancy, too.
No! Nancy thought. By now, she was on the catwalk, frantically tying the rope to the railing. If Pia noticed the audience staring up at Nancy, then the plan was foiled. Keep your eyes off me! Nancy thought, shaking her head slowly at the crowd.
Bess and the others must have gotten the message, because an
instant later the whole group had turned their attention to Pia and Esme.
“Can I have your attention,” Pia was saying. “My dear old friend Esme Moore has an important announcement to make.”
While Pia pushed Esme closer to the crowd, Nancy grabbed the loose end of the rope and quickly fashioned a loop to give her a handhold. She moved as fast as she could, but her fingers were jittery.
Now is not the time for nerves, Drew. Just do it!
“She wants to tell you all about her very first novel,” Pia went on, her tone mean and spiteful. “The one she supposedly wrote all by herself.”
Nancy had lowered herself to the catwalk’s floor and was about to slip over the edge. Below, she caught a last glimpse of Sam’s encouraging gaze. Then she shifted her gaze to Pia. What she saw made her stomach turn in fear.
The woman was staring up at Nancy. “Stop right there!” Pia cried. “Or else I’ll shoot.”
Chapter
Fifteen
UNFORTUNATELY IT WAS TOO late for Nancy to change her mind. She was already balanced to fall off the catwalk, and that’s exactly what she did, closing her eyes and swinging off it, praying that Pia wouldn’t be able to focus on her.
“Nancy!” Bess shouted.
“Look out!” Sam cried.
Daring to open her eyes, Nancy saw she was flying right toward Pia’s arm. She readied herself to kick out. If her timing was right, maybe she could jar the gun from Pia’s hand.
“Esme!” Nancy cried. “Duck!”
As she swung toward Pia, Nancy lashed out with her leg. Pia pulled Esme to the floor with her, and while Nancy was looping out over the stage, Pia used the opportunity to drag Esme off toward an exit.
“Stop them!” Nancy called to Sam. “They’re getting away!”
Sam was already in motion. Nancy let herself drop from the rope onto the stage. She joined Sam, who had taken three long strides across the stage and was hot on Pia’s trail. They were on the opposite side of the stage from where they’d come in, and Pia seemed to know another escape route through a different set of hallways.
“Where’s she going now?” Sam asked.
Nancy panted. “I have no idea. But we’re about to find out.”
After trailing Pia down dark corridors, Nancy and Sam came to a bank of elevators. Pia was already in one, and the doors shut on her and a very frightened Esme just as Nancy and Sam approached. From the lights displayed above the elevators, Nancy saw that this bank was an express to the hotel’s penthouse.
Nancy pushed the call button. “Ready for another ride?” she asked as another elevator descended for them. “Looks like we’re headed for the roof this time.”
Just as the elevator doors were closing, a group of security guards arrived. “Reinforcements,” Sam said to them. “See you at the top!”
When the elevator reached the top floor, Nancy spotted Pia tearing down the hallway. “We’ve got her trapped,” Sam said through gritted teeth.
At the end of the hall, Nancy and Sam came to a staircase that led to the roof. From the bottom of the stairwell, Sam called up, “Pia, it’s useless. We have you trapped.”
“I don’t think she’s going to listen to reason,” Nancy said. With that, she took the stairs, two at a time.
On the roof a cold blast of wintry air hit Nancy. Against the backdrop of River Heights’ nighttime lights, Nancy saw Pia, backed up against a low wall at the roof’s edge, with Esme pressed against her.
“Don’t come any closer,” Pia warned. “Or else I’ll take us both over.”
“We won’t hurt you,” Nancy assured the woman. “Why don’t you tell us what you want?”
From behind Esme, Pia’s face was a pale shadow, but her eyes flashed madly as she focused on Nancy and Sam. “I want her to admit that she lied,” Pia asserted.
“About what?” Sam asked.
“Please let me go,” Esme wailed. “I never lied about anything.”
“That’s not the point,” Pia said viciously. “You lied about our book. You stole the manuscript of Black Widow. You told me you couldn’t get it published, but you did. I was watching, I saw exactly what you did. You waited, but after a while, when you thought I wouldn’t remember, you went ahead and published it under a different title. That was my work, too, and you stole it from me. And then you took all the credit. Admit it. Admit you lied to me.”
“I never stole Black Widow,” Esme protested. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Pia.” Nancy took a step forward. “I’m sure we can work this out. It sounds like you and Esme had a misunderstanding.”
“Don’t come any closer,” Pia warned. She held the gun to Esme’s side. “I just want her to admit she lied, then I’ll let her go. I wanted to hear her say it in front of all those people, I wanted her adoring fans to hear it. Just like I wanted them to know that Telling All was a pack of lies, too.”
“Were you the one calling Brenda Carlton?” Nancy asked.
Pia nodded. “That was me, all right. And I phoned in on the ‘Emily Wells Show,’ too. For years I’ve kept the truth about Esme to myself, but the time has come for all her adoring fans to know. If that meant ruining her career, then so be it.”
“We were partners,” Esme wailed. “How could you do this to me?”
“If you had come clean and admitted the truth, then I wouldn’t have gone to such lengths,” said Pia. “I wouldn’t have had to steal your manuscript and scare you with that poisoning stunt. Didn’t you see that if you’d just admitted to your lies, it all would have stopped?”
Somehow, Nancy didn’t believe that Pia would have stopped—not until she had crushed Esme completely. “You’re the liar!” Esme cried, turning on her former partner with a burst of strength and freeing herself from Pia’s grasp. “Black Widow wasn’t publishable. The next book that came out was my own work, and only my work. You had nothing to do with it!”
“That book stole every good idea from Black Widow, and you know it!”
Pia raised her arm to strike Esme, who rushed to defend herself. Nancy and Sam both saw the opening at the same time. In a flash, they were across the roof and at Pia’s side.
Nancy came at Pia with her hands poised. Sam had his fists raised. When Pia saw that they were both coming at her, she backed away from Esme, who dropped to the ground. Pia prepared to defend herself.
“Good luck,” Sam said through gritted teeth. “You’ll need it.”
Nancy lashed out with a kick to Pia’s knee. The woman crumpled to the ground. Nancy approached, on guard against any fast moves. Pia lunged at Nancy, the gun poised, but Nancy was ready. With a swift jab from her right hand, Nancy chopped Pia’s arm at the wrist. The woman fell back with a moan.
Sam grabbed at Pia’s wrist, wrestling the gun out of her grasp. In the next move Sam wrapped Pia’s arms behind her back. “Don’t move if you know what’s good for you,” he commanded.
Seeing that Pia was disarmed, Nancy gently took Esme’s arm and asked, “Are you okay? Did she hurt you?”
Esme’s green eyes were full of fear and dismay. “I’m fine,” she said. She took a deep breath. “You know something?” she continued with a fluttery smile, “I’m glad.” She looked up at the clear night sky, and her breath came out in noticeable gasps.
“You are?” Nancy asked.
“Yes,” said Esme. Her eyes trailed to Pia, standing now by Sam’s side. “Finally this ordeal has ended. Thanks to you two, my life has been returned to me—safely.”
• • •
An hour later Esme, Todd, Janine, Kim, Bess, Nancy, and Sam were standing by the refreshment table at the back of the ballroom. Esme had come back to her audience and explained to everyone the incident with Pia. Sam had called his backup, who had come to take Pia away. Soon, Esme would go down to the station to press charges against Pia. Now, Esme shivered at the memory of what she had been through.
“From the moment Pia learned about my autobiography,” Esme explained, “she
began to relive her animosity toward me.”
“Especially since it reminded her of how far you’d come and where she was,” Nancy said.
Bess’s blue eyes went from Nancy’s to Sam’s to Esme’s in wonder. “I can’t believe Pia let her jealousy of Esme take over her life like that. She must have realized she’d get caught eventually.”
“I don’t think she cared,” Sam put in.
Giancarlo took Nancy aside for a moment. “I want you to know,” he said in his softly accented voice, “that after all this has quieted down, I plan to leave Esme.”
Nancy pretended to be surprised. “But you love each other so much.”
Giancarlo put his finger to his mouth. “That is how it appears. In truth, Kim and I love each other. That note was meant for her, and I have been trying to find a way to tell Esme. Now, I think I will be able.”
“Esme will miss you very much,” Nancy said. She and Giancarlo looked back to the group and saw that Todd had his arm around Esme’s shoulders.
“Perhaps,” said Giancarlo. “Perhaps she has found that she, too, loves someone else.”
“You may be right,” said Nancy, returning to the group.
Esme put her hand on Todd’s arm. “I’d appreciate it if you’d come with me to the police station,” she told him. “This won’t be very pleasant, and it would feel good to have an old friend there.”
Bess shot Nancy a meaningful look. Somehow, it all made sense. Nancy had seen firsthand that Esme still had a soft spot in her heart for Todd. Maybe the fact that she and Sam had found out about Giancarlo had made Esme think twice about her arrangement with her Italian leading man. Or maybe it was the clear evidence, so obvious to all by now, that Giancarlo really did like Kim and was trying his best to find a way to tell Esme.
“Romance is most definitely in the air,” Nancy said to Bess.
The strains of music came drifting over. On the floor, carefree couples danced. Sam came to stand by Nancy and Bess and put his hand on Nancy’s arm. “You’re telling me,” Bess said, edging away.
“That was great teamwork,” Sam said, staring deeply into Nancy’s eyes.
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