"Kenyon, Kate - Junior High 14 - Junior High Private Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Kate)

"Riveaus?" Lucy raised a questioning eyebrow. "Those are running shoes, right?"
"Not just any running shoes," Jen whispered. "They're the most expensive athletic shoes you can buy. They're made in Europe and they cost almost a hundred dollars a pair."
"Who says crime doesn't pay?" Lucy responded with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Be serious, you two," Nora pleaded. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the tabletop, her brown eyes solemn. "What are we going to do?"
"What can we do?" Jen said softly. "We have to report them to the police." There were two bright pinpoints of color in her cheeks.
"But how?" Lucy looked nervously toward the next booth. "If we get up and leave now,
they might suspect that we overheard everything."
"Exactly." Nora paused and looked from one girl to the other. "We have to approach this very carefully." At that moment, a waitress dropped a tray a few feet away from them and Nora had an idea. She quickly ripped a piece of paper out of her notebook, scribbled a few words, and passed the note to Jen. "Give this to the waitress the first chance you get," she told her.
"What does it say?" Lucy asked. Jen glanced at the paper and showed it to her. " 'Call policeЧ robbers in next booth.' Do you think shell believe it? What if she thinks it's a joke?"
"She has to believe it," Nora said grimly. "When you give her the note, Jen, be sure to tell her to read it in the kitchen."
"Right." They were silent for the next couple of minutes, as Nora leaned back, straining to hear more conversation from the booth. Unfortunately the robbers had started a long discussion about cheeseburgers, and Nora rolled her eyes in despair as they debated the merits of charcoal broiling versus pan frying.
"Are you getting all this down?" Lucy asked, noticing that Nora had stopped writing on her
"They're not talking about the bank heist anymore." She had her left ear squished flat against the solid oak booth, and was talking out of the side of her mouth. 'They're talking about cheeseburgers."
"That's odd."
"Not really," Jen said practically. "Even criminals have to eat. And they probably need high-energy food. AH that running from the police, you know." Nora stared at her best friend and groaned.
"The note," Nora mouthed. She spotted a waitress hovering just a few feet behind Jen; it was the perfect time for her to make her move.
"Oh, sorry about that," Jen said brightly. "I completely forgot." While Nora waited, holding her breath, Jen passed the note to the waitress, and managed to whisper a few words. The waitress glanced quizzically at the piece of paper, which was folded into a tiny square the size of a postage stamp, then shrugged and headed for the kitchen.
"Thank goodness," Nora said. She leaned back against the booth, nearly limp with relief. She glanced at Jen and Lucy, proud of the way they had handled things. They had done everything they could. Any minute now the police
would burst into Temptations, just like a scene out of Miami Vice, the robbers would be taken into custody, and she and her friends could enjoy what was left of Friday.
A sudden scraping from the booth behind her made her stomach do a somersault, and the blood begin to pound in her ears. "Uh-oh," she heard Lucy whisper, "I think they're leaving. Now what do we do?"
"Duck your heads down, and act natural," Nora said in a raspy voice. "Don't let them suspect anything." She flipped open her algebra book and pretended to be fascinated by a page of quadratic equations.
"What next?" Jen asked. She had forced a glassy smile on her face and was mouthing the words like a ventriloquist.
"Now we wait until they get to the cashier," Nora said quietly, still staring at the page of equations. "Well have a dear view of them, and we can get a description to give the police. To be on the safe side, count to fifty, and then look up."
Jen frowned. "Count to fifty? You mean by fives, or... ."
"Just count to fifty!" Nora hissed. She counted silently, her heart hammering in her chest, and when she raised her head she realized she had made a terrible mistake. The robbers were gone!
"Darn!" Lucy wailed, swiveling around in her seat. "What happened? We missed them!"
Nora jumped to her feet and glanced at the empty booth, furious at her own stupidity. "They left the money on the table," she wailed. "They never even stopped at the cashier."
As if on cue, all three girls ran to the big bay window at the front of the restaurant, where they spotted a bright yellow BMW pulling away from the curb. "Can you see the license plates?" Jen asked as Nora threw open the door and stared after the disappearing car.
"No, they've already turned the corner," Nora answered, her voice heavy with disappointment. "It's all my fault," she said miserably. "I never should have let this happen."
"Don't be silly," Jen said loyally. "You did the best you could." She put her arm around her friend and steered her back inside Temptations. "Let's take another look inside. Maybe there are some clues we missed."
Ignoring the curious stares of the cashier, they hurried back to the empty booth and studied the table. "Not much to go on," Lucy said wryly.
"Maybe more than you think," Nora murmured. She pocketed a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie, and then carefully shielded Jen from the cashier's line of vision while she wrapped up a water glass and tucked it inside her jacket.
They started to return to their own booth when Lucy gave an excited yelp. "Hey, look at that. They left some kind of a foreign coin."
"Now that is a due!" Nora picked up the shiny penny and felt a rush of excitement. "Canadian," she said, turning the coin over in her hand. Suddenly, she felt more encouraged. The coin, the glass, the cookie . . . maybe there would be enough to track down the robbers after all One of the men had a French accent, she remembered, this she had all the scraps of dialogue carefully written down on her napkin. Surely the police could take this information and fit all the pieces of the puzzle together! There wasn't a moment to waste.
She glanced up to see that Jen and Lucy were already at the cashier's station, paying the bill. She pulled on her jacket, and was hurrying down the aisle when she nearly collided with a waitress. "Excuse me," she muttered automatically, and then she started in surprise. It was the same waitress who had disappeared into the kitchen with her note just moments
earlier! In all the excitement, Nora had completely forgotten about her. She was about to ask her if she'd called the police when the waitress popped her gum in her ear and handed her the tiny square paper.
"What happened to the police?" Nora demanded. "Did you do what the note said?"
The waitress looked at her as if she were crazy and began refilling a tray of pitchers with ice water. "How could I do what it said?" she asked blankly. "It's just a bunch of numbers."
With a sinking feeling, Nora smoothed out the paper, wondering why Jen had folded it so tightly. The four sides were tightly molded together, like a piece of origami, and when she finally unraveled it, she could have stamped her foot in sheer frustration. It wasn't the note she had written to the waitress, and it wasn't even in her handwriting.
She sighed and wadded the note into her pocket. No wonder the police hadn't arrived. Jen had given the waitress one of her old algebra tests!
Chapter 2.
"I can't believe you did that," Nora muttered moments later, as they hurried to the police station. It was a brisk day, and the pale afternoon sun had disappeared, turning the sky a dismal shade of gray.
"I was nervous!" Jen protested. "I had the note stuck inside my algebra book, and I pulled out the wrong piece of paper by mistake."
"Let's not worry about that now," Lucy said. She glanced at her friends as they hurried up the broad stone steps of the Cedar Groves Police Station. "We all need to calm down and figure out what we're going to say once we get inside."
"I know exactly what I'm going to say." Nora had already run through a mental checklist of the bits of information she was going to pre-
sent, and she thought it sounded impressive. Not only did she know what type of crime would be committed, but she knew the number of criminals, and she could reel off the color and model of the car they drove. Plus she could even tell them where the getaway car would be parked, she thought proudly. How was that for a bit of amateur detective work! There was really nothing to be nervous about, she decided, as she pushed through the heavy glass revolving doors. She idly wondered if they would be issued some sort of award for heroism. After all, they had put themselves into a dangerous situation Ч and she decided to work on her acceptance speech as soon as she got home. Something simple, yet appropriately humble, and naturally she would give credit to her two friends for their assistance. ,
The moment they stepped into the police station, Nora's knees turned to Jell-0, and her confidence evaporated. Her heart began beating a strange tattoo, and she wondered if she'd ever be able to push the words past the tennis ball that seemed to have lodged in her throat.
"Wow, this is just like Hill Street Blues," Lucy said, taking in the rows of battered wooden desks and ringing phones. The room was jammed with people, some waiting in line,
others rushing importantly back and forth with bulging files, and everywhere there were men and women in blue. The general impression was one of utter chaos, and the three girls hesitated, wondering what to do next.
"I think we should talk to that officer over at the front desk," Jen suggested. "I bet he's the sergeant. He's the one who screens all the visitors," she added a little smugly. She was glad that all her hours of television viewing had paid offЧ at least she knew the right procedure to follow.