The Joker's Revenge by Carolyn Keene

Author:Carolyn Keene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

8

Trapped!

The gigantic cart hurtled faster and faster toward her. Nancy knew that unless she did something, it would only be a matter of seconds before her body was smashed into the wall.

She jumped up and grabbed one of the low-hanging pipes. Using all her strength, Nancy pulled her body up and over the pipes until she was almost flat against the ceiling. She breathed deeply and held on tight.

The iron dolly whizzed by, only inches below her. It crashed into the wall Nancy had been standing against with such force that all of the pipes shook. The corridor rang with a loud metallic sound.

Shaking with relief, Nancy slowly exhaled. Although she had only been holding on to the pipe for a few seconds, her arms ached from the intensity of her grip. She slowly began to let herself down from the ceiling.

“Nancy!” George’s voice sounded far away, echoing against the walls of the basement.

“I’m over here, George,” Nancy yelled back. She was both surprised and glad to hear that her friend was nearby.

“I heard that crash.” George’s voice was getting closer. “Are you all right?”

George appeared at the corner as she finished speaking. She stared in disbelief at the smashed dolly and wall. George could see how great the force of the crash must have been to have caused so much damage.

“Oh, Nancy,” George cried.

“It’s okay, George,” Nancy said, landing on the ground and starting to dust herself off. “I’m all in one piece. But I’m thinking about wearing a crash helmet from now on.” She managed to grin at her friend. Then she said, “How did you know I was down here?”

“I saw you talking on the phone. Then you disappeared into the elevator. I saw the floor indicator read “B” for basement, so I figured that’s where you’d gone.”

“Come on,” Nancy said. “Let’s get out of here and go find Bess.”

Upstairs the girls found their friend in a quiet corner of the shoe department stockroom, taking a break.

Bess’s blue eyes opened wide in shock when she heard about Nancy’s latest near disaster.

“That’s it,” Bess sputtered. “I think it’s time we got out of this store. It’s too dangerous here. Let’s just get out and leave this practical joker to the police.”

“We can’t just leave now, Bess,” Nancy said patiently. “We’re too close to solving this thing.”

“Close?” Bess demanded. “Closer to being killed, maybe.”

“Don’t worry, Bess,” Nancy said. “I’ve got some ideas. I think we’ll be able to wrap up this case soon.”

“What kind of ideas?” George asked.

“I’m starting to wonder about Lindy Dixon, for one thing,” Nancy said. “Two of the pranks have taken place in the shoe department. She would have had plenty of opportunity to pull them off.”

“That’s true,” George said slowly. “There was the falling display case and the itching powder.”

“Right,” Nancy agreed. “But some of the pranks are too complex for Lindy to have carried out. The falling light fixture in the cafeteria and the escalator—that’s pretty fancy tampering. If Lindy is the prankster, she isn’t working alone.

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.