Hot Tracks by Carolyn Keene

town.”
    â€œWho’s ‘they’?” Nancy asked eagerly.
    Kitty raised her head, her dark eyes glistening. “I wish I knew. Everything was done over the phone. After we agreed to work for them, a guy would call me and request a certain make and year of car. My job was to locate it.”
    â€œAhhh,” Nancy said. “That’s why we saw you at the Scene.”
    â€œRight. And uh”—lowering her eyes, Kitty hesitated—“I was working that night at the restaurant, too.”
    â€œBess’s car?”
    â€œYeah. They were hot for a Camaro. It was the first one I’d seen all week. I mean, I had no idea it belonged to your friend,” Kitty quickly added.
    â€œSo you’d scout out the car, then call Jimmy.”
    Kitty nodded. “Jimmy would steal it, then drive it to an empty warehouse and leave it. He never saw anyone.”
    This was a very slick, professional operation, Nancy realized.
    â€œI want you to tell all of this to the police,” Kitty went on. Seeing Nancy’s look of surprise, she said bitterly, “Somebody’s framing me for Jimmy’s murder. Somebody from the chop shop must have killed him because he bungled the last two jobs and was identified. And now they want me out of the way, too.”
    â€œYou may be right,” Nancy said. She tried to think of some way to figure out who was behind the theft ring. “Where exactly did Jimmy leave the cars?” she asked.
    Kitty shook her head helplessly. “I was never there, and I never asked. The less I knew, the better.”
    Frustrated, Nancy sat down on the blankets. “There has to be some way we can track down these guys.”
    Kitty thought a minute. “Wait—we did briefly meet one man. He came to the track when Jimmy and I first came to town. He said he knew we’d been involved in a theft ring in Chicago and were we interested in working in River Heights. Of course we played dumb in case he was a cop. But we checked around and found out he was on the level.”
    â€œWhat did he look like?” Nancy asked.
    Kitty opened her mouth to answer, then froze as a scraping noise sounded from the outside of the trailer. She jumped to her feet, panicked.
    With a finger to his lips, Tiny started toward the tarp. At the same time, it was thrown back and Detectives Hawkins and Powderly stared into the trailer.
    Kitty grabbed Nancy’s arm. “That’s him!” she cried in a low voice. “That’s the guy!”

Chapter

Twelve
    R UN, KITTY !” Tiny boomed. He launched himself at the two detectives. Arms outstretched, he catapulted through the tarp, knocking Powderly and Hawkins flat onto the outside ramp.
    Nancy sprang to her feet, but Kitty already had a lead on her. The brunette ran to the end of the trailer and jumped to the ground. By the time Nancy reached the ramp, Kitty was nowhere in sight.
    A moment later Nancy heard the roar of a motor and the squeal of wheels. Kitty had escaped.
    With a sigh, Nancy turned back to Tiny and the two detectives, who were grappling on the ground outside the trailer. Even two againstone, they barely managed to subdue the big man.
    A shiver raced up Nancy’s spine as she watched the detectives.
    Hawkins. Powderly. One of them was the man who’d contacted Kitty and Jimmy about joining the theft ring. Whichever officer it was, he wasn’t just being paid off to sabotage the police investigation—he was a key player in the auto theft ring.
    â€œYou guys are cops?” Tiny was saying as B. D. Hawkins flashed his badge. The big man seemed to be surprised.
    â€œYeah. And you’d better cooperate,” Powderly snapped, “because we’ve got plenty of questions for you.”
    Hawkins noticed Nancy just then. “What are you doing here?”
    Nancy wondered how much she should tell them. It would be better to report to Detective Quinones, but she didn’t have much