Read Online Update On Crime by Carolyn Keene - Free Book Online Page B

trucks.
    Bess held her nose as one of the huge trucks pulled past them, belching out a cloud of thick black exhaust from its smokestack. “Yuck!” she cried. “This definitely isn’t the most glamorous assignment we’ve ever been on.”
    â€œI’m afraid trucking companies tend to be short on glamour, as a rule,” Nancy said with a laugh.
    She pulled her Mustang into the parking lot, and she and Bess got out and went to the double glass doors of KSM Express. A receptionist looked up from her desk.
    â€œMay I help you?” she asked pleasantly.
    â€œYes,” Nancy said, thinking fast. She glanced at a stack of business cards in a holder on the desk. The top card read: KSM Express. Kurt Milhaus, President. “I have an appointment to see Kurt Milhaus,” Nancy finished smoothly.
    The receptionist looked confused as she checked a calendar on her desk. “I’m afraid Mr. Milhaus just stepped out of the office for a minute. I don’t seem to have a record of an appointment for him. You said your name was . . . ?”
    â€œNancy Drew and Bess Marvin,” Nancy supplied.
    â€œI’m so sorry,” the receptionist told her. “I can set up an appointment with him for Monday, if you like.”
    Nancy shot Bess a quick look, then said, “We’ll just wait for him, if you don’t mind.”
    â€œWell . . .” The receptionist seemed as if she were about to object, but Bess spoke up before she could.
    â€œDo you have a ladies’ room we could use while we’re waiting?” Bess asked.
    The receptionist looked annoyed, but she pointed to a doorway at the end of the hall. “It’s through that door and down to your right,” she said.
    â€œGood job, Bess,” Nancy whispered as they hurried down the corridor. Looking ahead, she spotted a door at the end of the long hallway. “Let’s try that door,” she said. “Maybe it leads toKurt Milhaus’s office. He’s the president of the company.”
    The two girls stepped through the door and were surprised to find themselves outside on a vast loading dock. At the far end of the dock, they could see a crew of workers loading crates into the back of a tractor-trailer truck. The entire warehouse seemed to vibrate with the rumbling of heavy machinery and the shouts of the workers. No one seemed to notice Nancy and Bess. They stood in the doorway and quickly surveyed the scene.
    â€œThe trucking business seems like such a plain-Jane kind of operation,” Bess whispered. “Why would a company like this want to bribe a politician?”
    Nancy pointed to the truck that the workers were loading. “Hal told me that Milhaus wants to avoid complying with safety laws and pollution controls,” she said. “So he bribed Gilbert to write exemptions into the legislation.”
    â€œSo that’s why I got a lungful of black smoke as we drove in here!” Bess said indignantly.
    Nancy nodded. “I still want to find Milhaus’s office,” she said. “Let’s see if we can locate it before the receptionist realizes we’ve disappeared.”
    Nancy and Bess skirted around some huge packing barrels, heading back toward the door to the main office. Suddenly, Nancy heard a low rumbling behind her, followed by a screech of brakes.
    She whirled around and looked up in horror. A forklift, loaded with heavy wooden boxes, was bearing down on her and Bess. In the next instant, the forklift slammed to a halt.
    Nancy gasped as the crates tumbled from the forklift, heading straight for her and Bess!

Chapter

Nine
    L OOK OUT , Bess!” Nancy cried, shoving her away from the wall of falling boxes.
    Nancy barely managed to leap aside herself and fell hard on the concrete floor. A split second later one of the crates crashed onto the spot where she had just been standing. The heavy wooden crate splintered apart with a sickening