Into Thin Air Read Online Free PDF Page B

you didn’t!”
    â€œI’m afraid I did, Nancy,” Mark said weakly. “And I got caught. I’m in the Brewster City Jail!”

Chapter

Five
    N ANCY BLINKED, staring at the face of her alarm clock. “You what?” she cried into the phone.
    â€œI’m sorry, Nancy. I really am. Can you come over and get me out of here? Then I can fill you in on all the stupid, embarrassing details.”
    â€œI’ll be right over,” Nancy growled, hanging up. She tugged at her hair and mouthed a frustrated scream. In one short day Mark Rubin had definitely become more trouble than he was worth. Getting her up at four in the morning! The sun wasn’t even up yet!
    She went to her bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. Then she quickly dressed and scribbled a note to hang on the refrigeratorso her dad and Hannah wouldn’t be alarmed if they found her gone.
    Tiptoeing out of the house, Nancy walked out to the driveway and got in her car. During the drive to Brewster, the sun began peeping over the eastern horizon.
    It was just five when she pulled into the Brewster Police Station. Dawn was flooding the sky with rose-pink light.
    â€œHi. My friend Mark Rubin called to tell me he’d been arrested,” Nancy told the desk sergeant, who was sipping a cup of coffee and reading through a bunch of papers.
    The officer looked up. She was an attractive blond woman of about thirty-five. “Okay,” she said matter-of-factly, searching down a list on a clipboard in front of her. “Yup, he’s here all right. Now, what’s your name?”
    â€œNancy Drew.”
    The sergeant pulled out a long form and started filling it out. Without looking up, she asked, “Do you have some identification?”
    Nancy opened her handbag and took out her driver’s license. She laid it on the sergeant’s desk.
    The woman began to copy Nancy’s River Heights address from the license. Suddenly she stopped and scrutinized Nancy’s face. “Say, you aren’t the Nancy Drew who’s the amateur detective, are you?”
    Nancy smiled. “The same.”
    The desk sergeant was clearly impressed. “You’re younger than I thought you’d be,” she said. “So how did a smart girl like you get mixed up with a clown like this guy Rubin? He was breaking into a house in an expensive neighborhood, and he got stuck, half in and half out of a window. Apparently he’d been hanging there for half an hour before someone notified us.”
    Nancy covered her eyes with her hand in dismay. When she made eye contact with the sergeant again, she had to stifle an urge to laugh.
    â€œI guess Mark went a little overboard. He’s a private investigator, and he’s on a case,” she explained.
    â€œOh, I know all about it,” the desk sergeant said. “He told us the whole story. How he saw a dead man, and how he’s going to get back all the missing Anderson money. Good luck to him. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it was all burned to cinders two weeks ago.”
    â€œWhat do I have to do to get him out?” Nancy asked. “I know he broke the law, but he’s more a threat to himself than to society.”
    The sergeant pushed her chair back from the desk and laughed, long and loud. She attached the form to a second clipboard hanging on thewall beside the desk. “I guess you’ve done the police enough favors to earn one for yourself. Let me see what I can do for you.”
    She disappeared into an inner office and reappeared a minute later, a satisfied look on her face. “He’s on his way,” she told Nancy. “Why don’t you have a seat over there.” She motioned to a row of orange molded-plastic chairs in a waiting area.
    Forty minutes later another police officer appeared with Mark in tow. The young man glanced quickly at Nancy, shame and embarrassment clearly apparent in his