Highway Robbery Read online

  "Lose the van," he said.

  A gunman got into the Hardys' van and started it, then drove into the undergrowth beside the road, where it would be hidden from anyone driving by.

  "Check the brakes," the second hood was told. Climbing into the cab of the truck, he got in the driver's seat and started the engine. He checked the readings on a couple of dials.

  "Pressure is all the way down to zero," he called.

  Joe had been watching their progress with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Suddenly he realized that with the boss's attention focused on the truck, there was only a single guard to contend with, the one he assumed was Turk. He flicked a glance at Frank, and his brother's slight nod showed that he agreed that this was their best chance to turn things around.

  Joe saw Frank barely shift his eyes. Frank was signaling that he would go for the gun. Joe lay three fingers flat on his leg - go in three seconds.

  Their sudden leap was perfectly coordinated. Joe hit the unsuspecting Turk just below the knees and drove him back and down. Frank wrenched the automatic pistol loose from his grasp. The maneuver worked perfectly.

  Before Frank could move with the gun, however, a snarling voice came at him from behind.

  "Turn around - slow, and hold it right there!"

  Frank saw that the hood who had been moving the van had finished his task and was now standing next to Pat Mulvaney, with his automatic pointed at her head.

  "Put the gun down, or she gets it first," he said, cocking the gun with a threatening click.

  There was nothing else to do. Frank dropped the gun and raised his hands. Joe did the same.

  Turk jumped to his feet and pulled Frank around roughly by the shoulder.

  "You asked for this, wise guy," he said in his raspy voice. He drew back his right fist, but before he could throw the punch, Turk's arm was seized in an iron grip by the leader.

  "Cut it out," said the bigger man. "You shouldn't have let them jump you. Now, let's get this over with, and try not to foul anything else up. And you," - he pointed a finger first at Frank, then at Joe - "any more dumb stunts and we'll shoot the four of you and leave you right here. Don't think we won't."

  "We know you would," replied Joe. "But you can't blame us for trying."

  The gang marched their four prisoners over to where the Lombard truck stood.

  "You and you," said the boss, pointing to Joe and Tony, "in the sleeping compartment. Come on, move it!"

  As in most long-distance trucks, the space behind the seats in Pat's rig was big enough to hold a small bed. A driver on a long haul could pull over and crawl in for a few hours' rest, or one of a team of drivers could catch some sleep while the other drove.

  Tony and Joe were a tight fit in the compartment. Handcuffs were used to fasten them securely to stanchions in the frame of the cab. Frank was forced into the right-hand seat and cuffed to the inside door handle. Finally, Pat was led at gunpoint to the driver's seat and shackled to the steering wheel.

  One of the gang climbed up on the driver's side and shoved into the seat beside Pat, keeping the door open. The head man got up on the right side. His automatic was trained on the four prisoners in the cab.

  The hood in the driver's seat started the truck. Slowly he drove it forward, climbing up a fairly steep grade. Eventually the road leveled off and made a bend. Frank saw that the road was beginning to descend the hill, twisting and turning, clinging to a sheer rise on the right side. To the left of the road was a steep drop. Some of the turns were very sharp.

  The masked driver revved up the engine to build up some momentum. But before the rig could build up much speed, he and the leader jumped clear.

  The truck had been left in neutral, and it began to roll faster, spurred ahead by the weight of a fully loaded trailer. From his passenger-side seat, Frank had a bird's-eye view of the steep hills and the rocky gorge that bordered the road. He fell against the door as the rig took a curve.

  He thought to himself, I could really enjoy this scenery - if we weren't riding through it in a runaway eighteen-wheeler - with no brakes!

  Chapter 12

  Pat, shackled to the wheel, put the rig in gear and tried to control the huge, heavy machine to keep them from flying into the gorge on their left. Despite her best efforts, the truck continued to build up speed.

  Frank strained at the door handle to which his handcuff was attached, but the handle held firm. He grabbed the chain with both hands and yanked, but he only succeeded in scraping some skin off his wrist. The door handle didn't give an inch.

  "How are you doing?" he yelled to Pat over the noise of the engine.

  She was staring grimly straight ahead. It was obvious that she was using all her strength and concentration, fighting to control the steering wheel and to keep the truck's speed down as much as she could with the transmission.

  "The trouble is the trailer!" she shouted back. "All that weight - either it's going to push us off the road, or it'll fishtail and drop and pull us down after it."

  "Can you unhitch the trailer?" Joe called from the sleeping compartment.

  "Not from inside," she replied. "There's a hand-operated backup system, a crank that you turn to retract the kingpin from the fifth wheel, but - "

  "Where is it?" Frank asked.

  "Behind the cab, just below the frame that holds the fifth wheel in place."

  "Could I get to it from here?"

  "From here? You mean while we're moving?" Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. "Frank, that's crazy! It'd be suicide to try something like that!"

  "It'd be suicide not to do anything at all!" Tony yelled. "When this truck goes over the edge, you know that's going to be bad for our health!"

  "I'm going for it," Frank called out. He opened the door. "At least this cuff ought to keep me from falling under the wheels!"

  As he swung his body out, the wind hit him in the face with powerful force. Close behind him was the steep rise of the hill. Trees and brush jutted out close to his body. A tree branch whipped across his back as he pressed his stomach flat against the body of the tractor. He hung on tight, feeling the harsh rumble and bumping of the huge vehicle, and made himself take slow, deep breaths to stay calm.

  With his left foot Frank groped for the first foothold on the side of the cab. He gripped the door frame and lowered himself cautiously, while stretching to get a look behind and beneath, where tractor and trailer joined.

  "I see a handle sticking out down there," he shouted, trying to make himself heard over the engine and the rushing wind. "That must be it."

  His right hand was anchored to the door handle by the handcuffs, but he reached his left hand back, extending himself as far as possible. He missed the crank by a couple of feet. It was obvious that he couldn't possibly reach it that way.

  The truck hurtled around a sharp turn, and Frank's door flew wide open. For a moment he dangled just above the onrushing asphalt road. Grabbing frantically for the door frame with his left hand, he pulled himself back against the side of the cab.

  "I'll never get to it this way," he gasped. "Unless - wait a second ..."

  "I can't hold us on the road much longer!" screamed Pat.

  Again Frank stretched himself out as far as he could, but this time, instead of reaching with his arm, he extended his left leg as far as it would go. His foot hit the crank handle! He gave it a push, but the handle wouldn't budge. He shoved harder, trying to get all his weight behind it. Branches flew by, some hitting him. Finally, he kicked at the stubborn handle in frustration.

  The crank turned! It moved an inch, and then, with Frank's next desperate lunge, it moved farther. When he had pushed it as far as his foot would reach, he hooked his toe around the crank near the pivot and pulled it around toward him again. Alternately pushing and pulling on the handle, he turned the crank around three times. It seemed to take forever, and his body was aching with the strain.

  All of a sudden there was a bump, and a slight gap appeared between
the tractor and trailer. They were unhitched! Frank hauled himself back up and into the seat.

  "Got it!" he cried triumphantly. "We're clear!"

  Pat gave the tractor a little gas, and a space widened between the two parts of the rig. As they swung around the next turn, Pat and Frank looked back just in time to see the trailer hurtle wildly off the road and crash down into the trees and bushes of the gully below.

  Frank craned his neck around to watch the trailer fall as Pat, free from the trailer's weight, was now able to shift down into the lowest gears and slow the tractor.

  "Frank! Brace yourself!" called Pat.

  He spun back around to face front, cushioning himself with his knees and free hand as the tractor bumped to a stop against an earth embankment. There was no serious damage to either vehicle or the four imprisoned passengers.

  For a moment they all sat, silent.

  "Oh, boy!" Tony whispered faintly.

  "You're some kind of driver," Joe told Pat.

  Pat pointed to the windshield, to where, not a hundred yards ahead of them, the road went into a hairpin turn.

  "We would've gone over, right there," she said. "No way could I have made that turn."

  No one had anything to say. Each of them just stared at the turn, until Pat spoke again.

  "Frank, just behind your seat, there's a toolbox with a hacksaw in it. Let's see if we can't cut loose from all this hardware. Then we'd better head back to Bayport and get someone out here to deal with this rig."

  ***

  An hour later they had freed themselves from the cab and made their way back uphill to where they had been ambushed. The van still sat in the bushes, and before long they were headed back to Bayport.

  "Okay," said Joe from the driver's seat. "Who could have tipped that bunch off that we were coming?"

  "How about Hal Brady?" suggested Frank.

  "Brady? He wasn't even around, was he?" Tony asked.

  "Sure he was," Frank answered. "Remember, Joe? He and Gerard came into Matt's office just when Matt was telling us about this special order for Ultratech. Who knows how long they were hanging out by the door, just listening?"

  "And another thing," Joe added. He quickly explained to Tony that Gerard's right-hand man, Turk, was probably the short, stocky thug in the gang. "Brady didn't have to waste much time letting the gang know what was going on."

  "Could the whole special order have been a setup?" Frank wondered. "Something that was organized just to get us to a place where we could be trapped?"

  "No way," Pat said. "There's too much paperwork involved. Unless there were Ultratech people in on it, too, and that's hard to believe."

  "The thing is," Joe said, "that gang wasn't interested in the electronic gear on the truck. They were willing to destroy it, just so long as Lombard wasn't able to make a shipment. Those guys aren't thieves - their job is to put Lombard Hauling out of business."

  "Right," said Frank. "And that's why I don't think Lou Gerard is part of the plot. I mean, he may have an argument with Matt, but he wants his people to stay employed."

  Pat nodded. "If he's honest, he does."

  "Pat, do you think Hal Brady could be the one passing inside information to this gang?" asked Frank.

  They drove in silence while Pat thought about the question. At length, she spoke.

  "I don't know. He's kind of wild. I could see Hal getting caught up with a bunch of thieves, maybe. But this crowd is worse than thieves - they wanted us dead back there, just now. I don't think Hal's that bad."

  "Maybe he didn't realize how rough they'd play when he hooked up with them," Joe suggested.

  "You're certain there's somebody who works at Lombard who's crooked?" Tony asked. He clearly wasn't happy with that idea.

  Frank turned to him and said, "Look at the facts, Tony. You can't get away from it. Nobody knew about today's shipment for Ultratech until this morning. And yet that gang knew not only that it was going out, but what route we'd take and also when we'd get to that spot.

  "Even allowing for their being prepared, with stolen trucks and traffic barriers, the hijackers had to have known not very long after Matt found out himself. It had to be someone who was able to get information right at the source."

  Tony looked glum. "Uncle Matt's really going to hate that. He's always said that he feels everybody who works for him is like family."

  "He didn't exactly feel brotherly toward Hal Brady," Joe reminded him.

  "Oh, that was just a temper thing," Tony insisted. "Matt blows up easy, but he cools down easy, too. I bet he'd have had Hal working again even without that union guy coming in."

  "Tony's probably right," agreed Pat. "Matt can sound tough, and goodness knows he can be stubborn, but he doesn't hold grudges."

  "Pat, do you know why there's been bad feelings between Matt and Brady lately?" Frank asked. "Felix Kinney says Matt wouldn't tell him, but you're his sister-in-law."

  She shook her head. "Sorry, Frank. I can't help you there. Seems like a while back, Hal suddenly got real feisty with Matt, started giving him a lot of lip. But I never heard why."

  "Well, we'll be back at Lombard in a few minutes," said Joe. "Then we're going to have a talk with Matt and get a few things straight, I hope."

  "And I have to get my rig hauled in for repairs," Pat added. "And check to see how much damage was done to the shipment."

  They arrived at Lombard and pulled into the parking area. Two patrol cars from the sheriff's office were parked nearby.

  "I wonder what's going on?" Tony said.

  "Let's find out," Joe said, getting out of the van.

  As they walked toward the office, the door to Matt's office opened. Teri Yarnell walked out, crying. Seeing the approaching group, she ran up to Joe and grabbed his hand.

  "Oh, I'm so glad you're back, it's terrible, terrible! You've got to do something."

  "Teri, slow down, take it easy," Joe urged gently. "What is it? What's happened?"

  More people came out of the office. Felix Kinney appeared, looking shaken, followed by a sheriff's deputy.

  Behind the deputy came Matt Simone, a look of helpless anger on his face.

  Directly behind Matt, his hand gripping Matt's shoulder and a hard expression on his face, came Chief Deputy Lamar MacReedy.

  Chapter 13

  Joe stared at Teri, then at the group coming out of the office, and then finally at Frank. What was going on? MacReedy seemed pleased with himself, but Matt Simone's jaw muscles were clenched tight with anger.

  When he caught sight of the Hardys, Tony, and Pat, MacReedy stopped short and stared. "Where'd you come from?"

  "What is this?" Tony demanded, running up to his uncle. He whirled around to MacReedy. "Where are you taking him? What's going on here?"

  "Tony, take it easy," urged Joe.

  "That's good advice," MacReedy said, sounding pompous and smug. "You don't want to interfere with a law officer doing his duty, or you'll find yourself in hot water, just like he is."

  Tony appeared ready to explode. Frank reached out to grab his arm, but Tony angrily shook him off.

  "Tony!" Matt said sharply. "Don't do anything stupid! You'll just make a bad situation worse."

  His words did what Frank and Joe hadn't been able to accomplish. They settled Tony down.

  "All right, Deputy," Frank said. "Where are you taking Mr. Simone, and why? Is he under arrest?"

  "Not yet. He's going in for questioning, not that it's any of your business." MacReedy gestured to the other officer, who took Matt's arm and led him toward one of the patrol cars.

  As he walked, Matt turned to the group and said, with a bitter smile on his face, "He thinks I'm trying to destroy my own company, that I'm working with a gang of thieves and killers! He thinks I had something to do with the murder of that guy Vane! Tony, call Mike and have him get my lawyer. This is crazy!" He uttered his last words as the officer helped him into the backseat of the cruiser.

  "Okay, Uncle Matt! Don't worry!"
/>   "Be calm, Matt!" called Joe as MacReedy opened the driver's door of the other cruiser. "He's got no grounds to charge you with anything! He's just blowing smoke!"

  MacReedy froze with his hand on the door and glared at Joe. "Just like your old man," he muttered angrily. Then he slid into the car.

  "That's a compliment, MacReedy!" shouted Joe as the two cars began to roll.

  Tony ran inside to call Mike. Frank and Joe stayed in the parking lot with Pat and Felix and Teri.

  "Can you guys handle this?" Pat asked. "I've got a rig to tow in."

  Frank nodded as she left. Then he turned to Felix. "Any idea why MacReedy took Matt in?"

  Felix was staring off into space and didn't seem to have heard the question. He was pale, and he nervously ran a hand through his sandy hair. Abruptly he stopped and turned to Frank. "Sorry, did you ask me something?" Felix asked.

  "Did you hear any of what MacReedy said to Matt? Why he suspects him?"

  "He - they searched this Mickey Vane's apartment and found notes in Matt's handwriting, giving times and routes of Ultratech shipments, including the ones that were hijacked. There was also a check from a Lombard account made out to Vane.

  "Deputy MacReedy says Matt was plotting with Mickey Vane to destroy Lombard Hauling and then collect the insurance. He thinks Matt and Vane were splitting the money from the sale of stolen Ultratech products. He all but accused Matt of having Vane killed to keep him quiet."

  "That doesn't make any sense at all," said Joe.

  Felix went on. "Deputy MacReedy says that Lombard was in trouble anyway, money trouble and union trouble, and that Matt panicked and was trying to salvage what he could from a bad situation."

  Tony came out of the building and joined them. "Mike is calling Matt's lawyer, and they're both going down to the sheriff's office right away. I'm going over there, too." He looked at Frank and Joe. "You guys coming?"

  "We'll follow you," Frank assured him. "This is all going to be straightened out, Tony. MacReedy is way off base, and we're going to prove it."

  Tony grinned at the Hardys. "I know you're in our corner, and I appreciate it. Now - let's get going!"