Hot Wheels by William Arden

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