Escort Accomplices

Almost at once the door swung open, but no one was immediately visible in the plainly furnished room. Bess and George stepped inside, calling, “Nancy? ”

“Maybe we’re in the wrong—” George started to say when several hands grabbed her and Bess from behind and pushed them toward the opposite wall. Each had a hand clasped over their eyes, so they could not see their attackers.

“Help! ” the cousins shrieked as they were shoved into a closet. A moment later, a key turned in the lock.

“Let us out of here! ” Bess cried.

“They must have jumped Frank and Woody, too, ” George said, pressing her ear against the closet door. “I don’t hear anything.”

Bess listened also, but the room seemed vacant. Had their attackers subdued the two young men and taken them away, leaving the girls trapped in the stuffy closet?

“I think I’m going to faint, ” Bess murmured, swaying back against George.

“You can’t pass out now! ” the other girl exclaimed. She was ready to hurl herself full force into the door, but stopped as footsteps echoed outside.

Were their captors returning?

The cousins remained quiet, feeling a sudden fierce shiver pulse up their spines. George quickly squatted to the keyhole. It afforded only a partial view of the room, but enough to establish the identity of those in it.

Woody and Frank! She gasped.

Was it possible that she and Bess had been tricked by the young men? Had they used their charm to imprison the girls?

“What do you see? ” Bess whispered.

“Sh—” her cousin said, pressing her ear under the knob to listen to the conversation.

“We’ll keep them here until we get rid of the third one, ” George heard Woody say.

“Where is she? ” Frank asked.

“In the van, ” Woody replied. Apparently, she found it parked out front and walked right in. They caught her hiding behind the dresses.”

Bess tapped on George’s shoulder, begging to be told something, but George shook her head. She didn’t want to miss anything that was being said.

“Rozzie wants us to meet her at the pier in an hour or so, ” Frank spoke up again, but the rest of his sentence became unintelligible as he pulled a cellophane wrapper off a cigar and crumpled it.

George was positive that “the third one” referred to Nancy, and that Rozzie was Rosalind, the stylist at Reese Associates. Had she reconciled herself to the designer merely because she needed continuing access to him? That seemed to be the case.

“Reese never should’ve fired Paula Jenner, ” Frank said, puffing on the cigar. “Those two sisters are real soul mates.”

Now there was a lull as Frank strode toward the closet, letting the pungent smoke clog the keyhole.

“You alive in there? ” he called out sarcastically. “Sorry we had to do this, girls.”

The cousins did not answer, and George confirmed to Bess that the speaker had been her escort, Frank. The blond girl felt like crying, but George gripped her arm and motioned for her to listen.

The men, however, made only one other vague reference to the last pier at the West Side docks.

“On second thought, ” Woody’s voice came again, “let’s take a ride up there now. These two aren’t going anywhere.”

“They’re leaving! ” George whispered.

She waited until she was sure the men were out of the building, then leaned her weight against the door and flung herself back and forth several times, hoping to force the lock. It held firm, though, and the searing pain that drove through George’s shoulder brought her to a halt.

“I’ll do it, ” Bess said.

With determination, she plunged ahead, hitting the door hard. It didn’t open, but it had weakened.

“I knew these few extra pounds would come in handy someday, ” Bess quipped, crashing forward again.

This time the tumblers snapped.

“You’re fabulous! ” George complimented her cousin as they raced down the stairs and out into the moistening air.

They dashed to a corner where passing cars were visible and quickly hailed a taxi.

“Where to? ” the driver asked.

“The last pier at the West Side docks, ” George said.

“The what? ” the man gulped. “It’s a little late to go swimming, isn’t it? ”

The cousins were not in the mood for small talk, but listened courteously as the driver continued.

“No boats leaving now, either, ” he said. “You girls ought to go home.”

“I wish we could, ” Bess murmured, as a chilling breeze swept through the window crack.

“Just be glad we’re out of that closet, ” George whispered.

“And into a frying pan? ” her cousin said.

By now, the driver had guided the cab around the park and was heading across town. He kept his pace moderate, giving his passengers time to plot their moves.

“What do we do if one of us gets caught? ” Bess asked her cousin.

“You mean by Frank or Woody? ”

“Or by anybody else, ” Bess replied.

“Then the other one hops in this cab and takes off for the police station.”

“Maybe we should do that now, ” Bess said.

“I considered it, ” George said, “but I really doubt we’d be able to convince an officer to come with us. He’d probably think we’re just a couple of kooky teenagers.”

“How could he? ” Bess said, glancing at the taffeta dress that showed through her coat. “I think we look rather sophisticated.”

“Well, that may be so, but New York isn’t River Heights where everybody including Chief McGinnis knows us.”

George’s remark only reinforced her cousin’s anxiety as the taxi looped in the direction of the Hudson River.

“It’s pitch black out there! ” Bess exclaimed.

“Sure you gals really want me to drop you at the pier? ” the driver said shortly.

“If you don’t mind, ” George replied, “we’d like you to wait.”

“How long? ” he asked.

“It depends, ” Bess put in.

“On what? ”

“On what we find, of course.”

“Hmm. Maybe you ought to tell me what you’re looking for first.”

“We’re looking for our friend, ” George revealed. “She was kidnapped and we think she’s been taken to this pier.”

The man glanced at her sharply for a moment. “And you’re going to play big shots and rescue her, eh? If what you tell me is true, why didn’t you call the cops? ”

“I’m afraid they wouldn’t have believed us, ” George said lamely.

“Right. They wouldn‘t, and neither do I.”

George and Bess did not comment, and again the driver took his eyes off the street to stare at them. “Where are you from? ” he inquired.

“River Heights.”

“Just arrived? ”

“No. We were at the Crystal Party and that’s where our friend disappeared, ” Bess said.

The driver mumbled something as he drew up closer to the last pier building. It had a bleak, eerie atmosphere. An ice floe rocked against the dock, and except for the hazy glow of the moon, the area lay in frigid darkness.

“I guess I can’t really drop you off here and leave you alone, ” the driver relented finally. “But it’ll cost you to keep the meter running.”

“That’s all right. And thanks, ” George said, as a chugging sound from the river caused Bess to roll down her window all the way.

“Who’d be out on the river at this time of night? ” she asked. The cab moved forward slowly.

“Maybe they’re transporting stolen dresses somewhere, ” George suggested excitedly, and asked the driver to turn off his headlights.

“Oh, now we’re playing cops and robbers in the dark! ” he grumbled, but complied with the request.

For a moment, everyone listened as the chugging sound of the boat diminished to a low, even hum.

“It’s gone, ” Bess declared at last. “We’ll probably never know what it was here for. Maybe we ought to go back to Aunt Eloise’s.”

“Good idea, ” the driver agreed, glancing at the number on his meter. “I can think of better ways to make money! ”

He pressed the accelerator lightly and switched on the headlights again. As he swung the cab away from the building, the cousins caught sight of a van parked by a wire fence alongside the pier. A blue car stood behind it.

“Oh, please pull up farther, ” George begged.

“By that van? ” the driver asked.

“Just before it.”

He did, and the young detective quickly climbed out of the taxi. Leaving Bess to wait, George raced to the vehicle.

I wonder if this is the one Woody and Frank mentioned, she said to herself, the one in which Nancy was discovered?

Cautiously, George pulled down the handle on the rear door and opened it. A lump formed in her throat as she gazed inside. In the gleam of the taxi’s headlights, she saw a heap of black wool. It was Nancy’s evening cloak!

She signaled to Bess, then motioned toward the pier building. The entrance bore a sign reading: CLOSED. But a sliver of light was visible underneath the door.

Bess got out of the cab and hurried to join her cousin. “We’ve got to call the police! ” she urged.

“But we don’t have time! ” George argued.

Bess’s heels sank in a layer of gravel and a shiver of fear shot down her spine. “If we go in, ” she said, “they’ll take all of us! ”