Danger at the Iron Dragon Read online

  Z’s head popped out from behind one of the tall shelves. “Oh, hey!” he said with a wide smile. “How goes the mystery solving, dude?”

  “It goes okay,” I said. “It’s been a rough couple of days.” Walking toward him, I saw that Z was standing by a table covered with old issues of the Bugle. After pulling up a chair, I sat down and caught him up on everything that had happened since we’d met on Wednesday night.

  Z’s eyebrows climbed farther and farther up his forehead as the story unfolded. “Dang, dude,” he said once I was done. “You want a Coke or something?”

  I grinned. “Actually, a Coke sounds great.”

  Z left the room and came back with two ice-cold cans of soda. He popped his open and took a swig. “So,” he said. “I pulled a bunch of those old papers you asked for. Check it out.”

  I took a closer look at the newspapers on the table and realized that each was turned to an article about the bank robberies. “All of these are for me?” I asked, amazed.

  “Well, yeah,” he replied. “When Nancy Drew asks you to help her with a case, you don’t do it halfway.”

  “Z, this is fantastic!” I said, beaming. Looks like your trust in him paid off, I thought.

  “Everything is in chronological order,” Z went on, pointing. “Articles about the first robbery are over here, and they go all the way to the arrests and jail sentences for the two bank robbers over there. I could have looked up the files on our computer network, but I thought you’d prefer being able to see them all laid out together. Like they do in cop movies. It’s easier to see everything at once, isn’t it?”

  “Absolutely,” I said.

  “So, what do these old robberies have to do with your Jiu-Jitsu crime?” Z asked.

  “That’s kind of what I’m trying to figure out. I’m wondering if the person who’s been threatening someone at Iron Dragon might be one of the escaped bank robbers from this case. When I was chasing a suspect out of the academy the other night, a matchbook fell out of their pocket—a matchbook from the same place that was used to break into a bank next door to it a few years ago. Iron Dragon is next to a bank too—could there be a connection? And then there’s this girl at Iron Dragon—Penny Forrester. We think she might actually be the target of the threats. She might even be hiding in River Heights under a false identity, but I don’t know why. I swear it’s all connected somehow.…”

  “Like, you have a bunch of pieces of the puzzle, but you can’t figure out how they fit together?” Z asked.

  “Exactly right,” I agreed.

  Z rubbed his chin. “I get it, Nancy. Well, hopefully all this stuff will help.”

  I nodded, and we settled in with our Cokes to read through all the articles one at a time.

  * * *

  The warm light of dusk streaming through the archive’s windows had faded to night by the time I’d made it through most of the newspapers. Z dug out a couple of old green-shaded lamps from some boxes and plugged them in, illuminating the tables where we sat reading.

  I felt like I had a better grasp on the story behind the robberies. The basic gist was this: one night, about four years before, a bank on the edge of River Heights was robbed. The strange thing was there were no visible signs of a break-in, just an empty vault. It seemed like an inside job, but the bank’s staff was very small, and all of them had alibis for that evening. Without any video evidence, the police had had no choice but to leave the case unsolved.

  That is, until six months later, when a slightly larger bank in south River Heights was also robbed. Just like the first robbery, the crime happened overnight, and there didn’t seem to be any obvious signs of a break-in there, either. But this time the bank had cameras, and they managed to catch a glimpse of three robbers cleaning out the vault. They were all masked, but after examining the tape, the police concluded that the thieves were two men and a woman.

  While investigating the crime scene thoroughly, the police discovered a passageway that had been dug between the bank and the basement of the café next door, and then hidden afterward. When the owner of the café was interviewed, she mentioned that one of her employees who worked the late shift and closed up for her—a blond girl named Olivia Woods—had stopped showing up for work right after the robbery. After that, the police saw a connection in the crimes; there had been a girl who’d worked at the fashion boutique next door to the first bank that had been robbed. She, too, stopped coming to work the day after the crime and couldn’t be reached for comment. And once they rechecked the first bank, they were able to find another hidden passageway dug between the fashion boutique and the bank vault.

  “So after the second robbery, the police were able to establish a pattern,” I said, thinking out loud. “The female robber would get a job at a business next door to a bank to stake it out and gain access. Slowly, over several months, the robbers would then dig a tunnel between one building and the other. Once they broke through, they’d take whatever they could carry from the vault and disappear overnight.”

  The third and final bank robbery, the one at Viana Bank in Rosedale, took place about three years ago. The two male robbers were caught at the scene, thanks to an anonymous tip the police received about the planned heist. But the woman somehow eluded capture.

  “Is that your dad?” Z asked, pointing to a picture in another paper of the robbers walking into the courthouse, surrounded by a bunch of lawyers.

  “That’s him,” I said. In the photo, Dad was wearing a smart navy suit, and his face was locked in a determined gaze. “This last article says he got the accused criminals, Max and Ollie Ladrao, sentenced to twenty years in prison for robbery and breaking and entering, as well as for some previous misdemeanors.”

  And now the robbers were free, and were possibly the same people making trouble at Iron Dragon MMA. Were they planning another robbery, this time from the Heights Bank? But if that was the case, why were they going out of their way to threaten Penny? What did she have to do with any of this?

  I drummed on the table with my fingers, thinking. “They got these two guys. But there were three robbers. What happened to the woman who worked in the shops next to the banks?”

  I scanned the last few articles again. The only reference I could find to the third robber was that she’d never been captured, and that a small portion of the money taken from the Viana Bank vault hadn’t been recovered. Max and Ollie refused to give up any information about their partner in crime and had insisted that even if they did, the police wouldn’t be able to find her. She was a ghost.

  And then a section of an article about the last robbery caught my eye. The headline read: COPS AND ROBBERS: BROTHERS’ CRIME SPREE FINALLY COMES TO AN END.

  Last night River Heights law enforcement apprehended the criminals responsible for a string of bank robberies throughout the River Heights area. Two brothers from out of state, Max and Ollie Ladrao, were captured by the RHPD in the middle of their third robbery attempt, at Viana Bank in Rosedale. All three crimes were perpetrated using a scheme that took advantage of businesses located next door to the banks.

  Although there were few leads after the first two robberies, the tide turned when the police received an anonymous tip yesterday afternoon, informing them of the planned heist at Viana Bank. The two robbers were caught at the scene at eleven p.m. last night emerging from the Crazy Eights pub next door.

  Police are still on the lookout for a third robber implicated in these crimes—thought to be a white woman in her early twenties. The woman is believed to be the individual who took jobs in the businesses next door to the banks to gain access to the bank vaults. However, detailed descriptions of the woman have been varied, as she is believed to be living under false identities. One of her former employers described her as “blond and blue-eyed,” while another said she was “one of those goth girls with black hair and a lot of eyeliner.” As for the two brothers in crime, their arraignment is set to begin this week.

  “ ‘False identities,’ ”
I murmured. The pieces were starting to fit together now. “I think,” I said slowly, “I think I’ve got it. But I have to be sure.”

  “Oh man,” Z said, rubbing his hands together. “This is getting good!”

  I pulled out my phone and looked up the number for the Crazy Eights pub. The phone rang a few times before someone picked up. “Crazy Eights,” said a gravelly male voice. “Whaddya need?”

  “Good evening, sir,” I said, trying to sound official. “Are you the owner of this establishment?”

  “Who wants to know?”

  “My name is Nancy Drew. I’m investigating the robbery of the Viana Bank and I was wondering if I could ask you a question.”

  “You a cop or somethin’?”

  I paused. “Something… like that,” I said, and cleared my throat. “So, about Viana Bank?”

  “That robbery? Pshh. That was years ago. Ancient history. Nothin’ more to say about it.”

  “I realize that, sir. Just one question, and I won’t bother you again.” When there was no response, I added, “It’s extremely important.”

  The man grunted. “Fine, make it quick. I’ve got drinks to pour and dinner to serve.”

  I took a deep breath. “There was a young woman who worked for you at the time, right? One who disappeared after the robbery?”

  “Yeah, same as those other robberies. Pretty girl—redhead with glasses, if I’m rememberin’ right. Can’t quite remember the name—”

  “No worries,” I said. “I’m just wondering… it’s a bit of a silly question, but did she have a habit of humming while she worked?”

  There was a pause. I could hear glasses clinking and people talking in the background. Then, “Actually, now that you mention it, she did. She always used to hum to herself when she was washing dishes and putting up the chairs at the end of the night. ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ I think it was. Why? What’s so important about that?”

  “Thank you, sir. Thank you very much!” I said before hanging up the phone. My heart was pounding. I turned to Z and grabbed him by the shoulders. “I had everything all wrong. Again. Penny isn’t just the target of this crime, she’s one of the criminals! That’s why she’s been hiding behind a false identity. Because Penny’s the missing third robber!”

  “Whoa!” Z said, his dark eyes wide. “So what are you going to do now?”

  My mind was racing. Three years ago, Penny Forrester—or whatever her name was—and Max and Ollie Ladrao were all partners in crime. Max and Ollie got caught at the Viana Bank heist because of an anonymous tip, but Penny got away. Then, a week ago, the brothers escaped and seemed to have been threatening Penny ever since. But why? What did they want?

  One thing was for sure: if Penny had joined Iron Dragon so she could rob the Heights Bank next door, following the pattern of the other robberies, tonight would be the perfect time to do it. With the academy closed for the day and the tournament in the morning, there’d be no one there for a long time—no one to see her stealing all that money before she disappeared again, tossing “Penny Forrester” aside to assume yet another new identity.

  Suddenly I remembered something else I’d overheard the night before at the academy. It had seemed so innocent at the time, but recalling it now made my blood run cold:

  You still good for our private lesson tomorrow night? Let’s say nine? Liam had asked.

  And Penny had replied, I’ll be there!

  I looked at my phone. The clock read 8:55 p.m.

  “Z, thank you so, so much for everything you did,” I said, running out the door. “I have to get to Iron Dragon right now—but I’ll be in touch!”

  “Nancy, wait!” Z called out.

  But there was no time. Liam was about to meet up with Penny at Iron Dragon—alone. She must have been using him to get into the building after hours. If she was planning to rob the bank tonight and Liam caught wind of it, who knew what she might do to him? He’d already been caught in the cross fire of this case once and gotten hurt in the process. I couldn’t let it happen again!

  CHAPTER TEN

  Caught in a Choke Hold

  C’MON, C’MON—I DON’T HAVE TIME to waste!

  I waited for the traffic light to change, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel in frustration. I must have hit every single red light between the River Heights Bugle office and Iron Dragon. After finally pulling into a parking spot in front of the academy, I picked up my phone to send a quick text to Bess and George.

  it’s Penny, I wrote, my thumbs flying across the screen. She’s the third bank robber! And she’s meeting Liam tonight. I hit send and was just starting to type out another one saying that I’d gone to Iron Dragon to warn him—when my phone went black.

  “No,” I whispered, tapping at the screen and pressing the power button over and over. “No-no-no-no! Not now!” But it was no use.

  My phone was dead.

  I should have realized I hadn’t charged it all day—that it would be dangerously low after the many hours of shopping and errands and sleuthing—but I had been so preoccupied with everything that I hadn’t even noticed the warnings or the red sliver on the battery bar. And now it was too late. I went to reach for my bag, which I thought had a charger inside, only to find that in my rush, I’d left it behind at the Bugle.

  Ugh!

  That must have been why Z was calling after me.… What else can possibly go wrong tonight?

  Had the text I’d sent to Bess and George even been delivered? I knew it was a bad idea to go into a potentially dangerous situation without backup on the way, but I had no charger, and every shop on the street was already closed for the night. I dropped the useless phone on the passenger seat. If my friends did get the message, they should be able to figure out where I was. And if they knew I was going to Iron Dragon, they’d send help.

  I bit my lip. It was a lot of ifs.

  I scanned the road, searching for Penny’s dingy white hatchback, but I didn’t see it parked anywhere nearby. She must not have arrived yet. I looked at my car’s clock: 9:02 p.m. I needed to get to Liam before she showed up and explain what was going on. If Penny tried anything, I’d feel a lot more confident with purple-belt Liam by my side.

  Maybe it was a little dangerous, but I had no choice. I needed to go in now, or I risked letting Penny get away. Again.

  I’d promised Coach Ethan that I’d solve this case, and that was exactly what I was going to do.

  I climbed out of the car and took a deep breath, observing the light shining from the Iron Dragon lobby through the picture window. Good. Liam must be here, I thought. I popped the trunk and reached for my trusty wrench—just in case. The heavy, cool weight was reassuring in my hand. I walked to the front door, which had been taped up with cardboard since I’d broken the glass during the fire. I carefully pushed the broken door open to slip inside. The lobby was empty, but sounds of movement seemed to be coming from the coach’s office.

  “Liam?” I called out as I approached. “It’s me, Nancy. Listen, I have to talk to you. It’s about Penny—”

  As I got to the door, I stopped dead. It wasn’t Liam I saw standing behind the desk.

  “Oh really?” said Penny. “What about me, Nancy?”

  “I thought—I—” My heart leaped into my throat, silencing the rest of my words.

  Penny watched me, her eyes narrowing. She was wearing black jeans, a gray Iron Dragon MMA T-shirt, and a pair of black leather gloves. “You thought what?” she asked. “You thought I wasn’t here, because you didn’t see my car out front? You thought that you’d sneak in and tell poor Liam that his student is really a criminal?” The warm friendliness of Jiu-Jitsu Penny, and even the guardedness of Construction Worker Penny, were gone—replaced by a cool, calculated confidence. This was the real Penny. Bank Robber Penny.

  “Who are you, really?” I asked.

  Penny shrugged. She picked up a red jelly bean from a dish on the desk and popped it into her mouth. “Does it matter?” she asked, chewing
. “I’ve been so many people by now, I can hardly remember who I was when I started.” She searched through the dish until she found another red jelly bean and ate that one too. “But I know who you are, Nancy Drew.” She snorted and shook her head in annoyance. “Ethan hit the lottery when you walked in. You’re not just a small-town girl who likes to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong. No… you’re one of River Heights’s best-kept secrets. No case left unsolved. You look like you’d need help opening a jam jar, but looks aren’t everything, are they? We both know that.” She chuckled.

  “So, what was it then? Your plan?” I asked, trying to match her casual tone. She was trying to rattle me, and I wasn’t going to let that happen. “You join the team here at Iron Dragon, and then once you’ve gained everyone’s trust, you use this place to rob the bank next door? Just like you did with Max and Ollie?”

  “Just like I did with Max and Ollie,” Penny repeated. She sighed. “Those two were useful. For a while. I found them in some little town, just barely scraping by, shoplifting and sleeping rough, and I told them how much better they’d have it teaming up with me. I was right, of course. They were living large after that first job, but during the second hit they started getting greedy. Stopped listening. I knew that if I kept working with them, eventually we’d get caught. So when it came time for the Viana Bank job—”

  “Wait,” I said, realization dawning on me. “You called in the anonymous tip to the police, didn’t you?”

  Penny smiled dangerously. “What is given can just as easily be taken away.”

  “The word on the wall,” I muttered. “ ‘Traitor’—that’s what it was about. That’s why they broke out of prison and came after you. Max and Ollie found out that you were the one who turned them in.”

  Finally it all made sense.

  “What a waste of energy,” Penny said. She started to walk around the desk toward me, and I gripped the wrench in my hand more tightly. She noticed and stopped a few feet away. “You’re right, of course. I thought the dead rat was overkill, but that’s just me.”