Hot Wheels - Arden William (читать книги онлайн txt) 📗

“Chance favors the prepared mind,” Jupiter pronounced. “You looked it up because all our years of detecting made you realize we might need to know.”

“Whatever,” Bob said. “Why do we need them out of town?”

“Because I’m gambling that the Mercedes wasn’t the only car Tiburon swiped on his own and sent to the bodega,” Jupiter said. “And other people besides the band seem to drop off cars at the bodega too. Torres gave a horn signal when he took that orange Caddy to the garage so they’d open the doors and let him in fast. Pete told me Torres gave the same signal with a second car. And I think what Ty was told to say at the bodega is a sort of password.”

Ty watched Jupiter. “What have you got in mind, Jupe?”

“Tiburon’s out of town. We get a car and drive it to the bodega. We turn it over to Torres. With any luck, he’ll drive it to the chop-shop!”

“How will that help Pete?” Kelly demanded.

“Two of us will be hidden in the car,” Jupiter said. “I had the idea earlier, but it seemed too risky. Now we have to take the risk.”

Bob asked the big question. “Who hides in the car?”

“You’re the only one Torres doesn’t know,” Jupiter said. “You’ll have to drive the car. Ty and I will hide in the back.”

“After I deliver it, then what do I do?” Bob wanted to know.

“Get in your own car and follow Torres.”

“How do I get my car if I’m driving the stolen car?”

“Kelly drives it behind us and waits out of sight.” They each thought it over.

“Where do we get a car, Jupe?” Ty said. “Ours aren’t worth stealing. You want us to really steal a car?”

Jupiter looked at Kelly. “I thought maybe Kelly could borrow her dad’s Jaguar. That’d be worth stealing.”

“Dad’s Jag?” Kelly gulped. “Well, I mean, okay. If it’ll get Pete out of there. Only you be careful with it.”

“We will,” Jupiter assured her. “Can you get it now?”

She nodded. “I guess.”

“I’ll take her,” Bob said. “Show her how to drive my car on the way.”

“When you get back,” Jupiter said, “we’ll set the details.”

“Tiburon would need time to steal a car,” Ty said.

Jupiter nodded. “We’ll wait until midnight.” He looked around at them. No one said anything more.

“That’s it, then. We go at midnight.”

*

It was five minutes before midnight when the elegant Jaguar glided up to the bodega. The store was still open.

Jupiter was in the trunk. Ty, the thinner of the two, was on the floor behind the front seat under a stadium blanket and some cushions. Bob wore a baseball cap and his old glasses. Kelly was behind them in Bob’s VW, out of sight.

Joe Torres and his two henchmen, Nacio and Carlos, came out of the bodega and stared at the glistening Jaguar. Bob leaned out the window.

“Guy named Tiburon paid me a hundred dollars to drive his brother’s car down from Malibu. You his brother?”

Torres nodded. “That’s me. You delivered the car, you can take off now.”

“I need a ride downtown.”

“Call a cab,” Torres said. “You got paid, now get lost.”

Bob climbed out of the Jaguar and walked away into the night. In the trunk and under the blanket in the rear seat, Ty and Jupiter waited. They heard the foot-steps of the three men approach the car.

“Hey, there’s a blanket and cushions in back.”

Joe Torres’s voice laughed. “Some guy up in Malibu ain’t just out a car, he’s freezin’, too!”

The front door opened on the driver’s side.

“I’ll take it over right now,” Torres’s voice said. “The shop’s workin’, and a Jag don’t look right around here. At least Tib got this one delivered okay. Not two days late like last time.”

The driver’s door closed and the car started. It pulled away in a squeal of rubber and drove fast, with Jupiter hanging on in the trunk and Ty silent under the blanket.

*

Bob jumped into his bug.

“Is everything okay?” Kelly asked, anxious.

“Torres bought it,” Bob told her. “It looks like Jupe had it figured. Torres wasn’t surprised at all. What I said seemed to be the right words.”

Kelly pointed ahead. “There it goes! Dad’s Jaguar!”

“Hang on,” Bob said.

He turned the little red bug into the cross street behind the already distant Jaguar. The sleek import gave no sign of looking for or seeing a tail.

“Don’t lose him, Bob!” Kelly pleaded.

“I’m doing the best I can,” Bob said as he floored the gas pedal in pursuit of the Jaguar.

But the silver sedan moved steadily farther ahead as Bob tried desperately to keep up.

*

In the trunk Jupiter held tight to keep from rolling and making noise as the Jaguar sped along. He was braced so tight that when the car suddenly screeched to a stop he almost slammed into the trunk wall. But he managed to make no noise. He heard Torres honk the signal: one long, two shorts, a long, and a short.

He heard a padlock being unlocked and heavy garage doors open. The Jaguar drove in.

“One of Tiburon’s little extras,” Torres’s voice said. “The boss ain’t gonna be happy. That Mercedes got us into enough trouble.”

It was the voice of Max the gunman! The passenger door opened and someone got in. The car started again. In the dark, Jupiter sensed the Jag moving and turning slowly. Then it hesitated, bumped over something raised, and stopped.

There was a rattling sound. The slatted wooden gates of the car elevator were closing! The elevator lurched upward. Jupiter tried to gauge how far up it went, but he couldn’t tell for sure.

The elevator stopped. Jupiter heard a faint rumbling sound. The Jaguar started, then drove slowly off — in the wrong direction!

*

“We’ve lost it, Bob!” Kelly wailed.

“It turned at that corner up there,” Bob said grimly. “Maybe we can pick it up again.”

Bob sped down the street in the commercial area, started to turn — and drove straight on past the cross street.

The Jaguar had been stopped in front of a three-story red-brick building a block up the street they just passed.

“You think he saw us?” Kelly asked. “We’re just another car. Torres never saw my bug.” Bob made a U-turn, drove back, and parked short of the corner. They ran to the corner and peered around. The Jaguar was gone. They moved along the dark and deserted street to the double doors where the Jag had gone in. There was a smaller door inside the large double doors.

Both doors were locked.

“What do we do?” Kelly whispered in despair. “Hope that nobody shot the deadbolt home after Jupe left earlier,” said Bob.

He reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a plastic ID card. He slid the card into the crack between the smaller door and its frame, next to the lock. After a moment, he managed to slip the latch. Seconds later they stood inside in the dimness of the Freeway Garage.

Bob and Kelly studied the rows and rows of parked cars.

“This must be where Jupe parked his Honda to watch,” Bob said. “Look for your dad’s Jag.”

They moved through the vast, dim, silent room of parked cars. Finally they stood near the caged shaft of an automobile elevator. Its platform was somewhere above in the gloom. They listened for any sound, but heard nothing. No sounds, and no Jaguar.

“It’s not here!” Kelly said, her voice rising.

“Shhhhh!” Bob hissed.

There was a sudden slamming noise, a rattle of wooden slats, and the car elevator began to descend!

“Quick!” Bob whispered.

He grabbed Kelly and dragged her behind the nearest row of cars. They crouched out of sight as the elevator reached the ground floor. Joe Torres stepped off alone and walked through the enormous room and out the front door.

Bob and Kelly stepped out to the elevator.

“My dad’s car has to be somewhere up there,” Kelly said, looking up the elevator shaft.

“Jupiter said he’s sure the chop-shop is hidden in the building,” Bob agreed. “Only where is it?” A voice spoke from behind them.