Last Dance by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Chapter

Nine

NANCY GASPED, then started to cough as a billow of greasy black smoke rolled toward her. Eyes watering, she tried to peer around the kitchen. Was anyone else in there?

“Help!” came one of the cook’s voices. “I’m trapped back here!”

Nancy could see her, the head cook, the one she had talked to, huddled by the big range. Pulling off her apron, Nancy used it to shield her face as she ran past the steaming fryer. She grabbed the cook’s arm.

“Cover your face,” she yelled. “Let’s go—the whole thing may catch fire any second.”

Still clutching the cook’s arm, Nancy ducked past the fryer again. She bit off a cry of pain as the grease spattered her bare arm.

She dragged the cook from the kitchen. By this time, smoke detectors were madly screaming alarms throughout the club.

Ned pushed through the small crowd to stand beside Nancy. His face was grim.

“Are you hurt?” he gasped.

Before Nancy could answer, Pam Hastings rushed past them with a fire extinguisher. She stopped cold when she saw Nancy’s grease-covered apron.

Jon appeared then, too, his face pale. “What’s happening?” he cried, taking the extinguisher from Pam and tearing into the kitchen as fire sirens screamed outside.

After the fire was out, Jon joined the others in the hall.

“This does it,” the cook sputtered. “Mr. Villiers, I quit.” She threw down her apron.

“Wait a second, Carol,” Jon pleaded. “Can’t we please talk about this? Here, we can step into my office—” Still talking, he led the cook away, throwing an apologetic look over his shoulder.

In the crowd that had gathered behind them, Nancy spotted Laurie and Bess and George. But there was no sign of Adam.

“Maybe you’d better go home for the rest of the night,” Pam said, looking Nancy over with a frown.

Nancy shook her head. She wasn’t hurt; she would stay until the end of the shift because she meant to look into this “accident.”

“If there’s another apron I could use—”

Pam’s expression was disapproving, but she nodded and disappeared into a stock room. In a few moments, she returned with another apron and a new Moves T-shirt.

“You’re sure you want to stick around?” Ned pressed, looking worried.

Nancy nodded. “I’m sure,” she said, heading for the ladies’ room to change. George and Bess followed her to supervise.

“It looks like somebody deliberately tried to cook you,” George pointed out.

“But how would anyone know I was going into the kitchen just then?” Nancy countered logically. “And what happened to the person? How did he or she get out?”

Then Nancy thought of Adam again. Had he been angry enough to do something so risky and dangerous?

“Maybe it. was an accident,” she said, but somehow she doubted it. She washed her hands and face and then, with George and Bess following right behind her, she set out for the kitchen. Jon was there, talking to Pam and the head cook, whom he seemed to have persuaded to stay.

“Are you all right?” he demanded, when he saw Nancy.

“I don’t have any idea how this could have happened,” fussed the cook.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.