“You always smell food,” George said.
“I’m not imagining it,” Bess said. “I smell french fries.”
“Will you come off it?” George snapped. She was getting a little annoyed with Bess’s one-track mind. How could her cousin think about food at a time like this?
“No, wait,” Nancy said. “I smell it too.”
They’d arrived at the bottom of the stairs. There was another emergency exit door. Nancy searched with the beam along the floor. She caught a glint of something lying on the floor by the door.
Moving closer, Nancy saw that the glint was the reflection of light in a foil wrapper. Next to the wrapper were two paper cups and a small white paper bag with a grease stain. The smell of french fries was stronger than ever.
Nancy leaned down to pick up the white paper bag. Sure enough, it was half-filled with french fries—and the french fries were still warm!
“Somebody else has been here,” Nancy whispered. “And judging from the heat of these fries, they were here very recently. In fact, they’re probably still here!”
At that very moment footsteps pounded on the floor above them.
“Let’s go!” Nancy cried, rushing back up the stairs.
The four of them raced up the stairs to the top. The footsteps were louder and seemed to be coming from the direction of the stage. A woman’s voice was shouting something, but Nancy couldn’t make out the words.
“Where are they?” Ellingsen asked. “I wish we could find a light switch!”
Using her flashlight, Nancy led the others to the velvet curtains in the wings. Then she aimed the beam onto the stage. She could just make out two struggling figures.
“Sally!” Denise Ellingsen called. “Is that you?”
“Denise?” cried a woman’s voice. “Help me!”
“It’s her!” Ellingsen cried. “Where are they?”
Nancy tried to find the figures again with her flashlight beam, but the light suddenly flickered and died. The battery had been used up. Nancy was in the dark again.
Suddenly there was a burst of light as the backstage door opened. For a split second Nancy could see two figures silhouetted in the doorway, a man and a woman.
Nancy’s eyes, unaccustomed to light, couldn’t make out their features, but there was no mistaking Sally Belmont’s long mane of glossy black hair. All Nancy could tell about the man was that he was tall and broad-shouldered. He was grabbing Sally roughly around the waist.
“Denise!” Sally called again. “Help me!”
The door closed again, plunging them once more in darkness.
“Hurry!” Ellingsen cried. “We’ve got to get outside.”
Nancy ran toward the door. It took her several seconds to find the handle. She got the door open just in time to hear a screech of brakes.
Looking up, Nancy saw a car speed around the back of the theater and disappear down an alleyway.
“Where did they go?” Ellingsen asked as she, Bess, and George joined Nancy in the parking lot.
“We just missed them,” Nancy said. “We were so close to finding Sally and Will, and now we’ve lost them!”
“But where was Will?” Denise asked anxiously. “The kidnapper had just Sally.”
“My guess is the kidnapper has already moved Will someplace else—maybe to avoid suspicion, since he knows we’re on his trail. We found him as he was coming back for Sally,” replied Nancy. “The two questions are, where did he move them, and is he going to bring them back here?”
“This is terrible,” George said. “We may never find Sally and Will now!”
“It’s more terrible than you think,” Nancy said.
“Why?” Denise Ellingsen asked. “How much worse could it be?”
“Because now that the kidnapper knows we’re this close,” said Nancy, “he might not wait any longer to keep his promise.”
“You mean . . . what he said in his note?” Bess asked fearfully.
Nancy nodded grimly. “The Sands of Time may have just run out.”
13
The Sands of Time
“Did you at least catch the make of the car or the license plate number?” Denise Ellingsen asked.
Nancy shook her head. “It was already halfway around the corner. I didn’t even see what color the car was.”
“I can’t believe it!” Bess cried. “After all that, we didn’t get a single clue.”
“Wrong,” said Nancy. “We actually got quite a few. Remember, even though we didn’t see the kidnapper’s face, we now know he’s a tall man with broad shoulders.”
