Choosing Sides by Carolyn Keene Page B

him lean his head back as he talked. “I’m not sure why I decided to stake out Gleason’s house,” he began, as Nancy pulled the car away from the curb. “I guess I just figured that it couldn’t hurt, since we hadn’t come up with any huge clues anywhere else.
    â€œAnyway, I’d been standing across the street from the house for a while, and I hadn’t seen anyone suspicious. I was just about to leave, when Steve Hill drove up.”
    â€œDid he see you?” Nancy asked, as she drove.
    â€œNot at first,” Kyle replied. “But when he came out five minutes later, instead of getting in his car, he crossed the street and walked toward me. He dropped a letter in the mailbox near me. I turned away, but he spotted me, anyway. I guess I’m a pretty crummy detective,” he said apologetically.
    Bess gently stroked his cheek. “That’s not true. Staking out Gleason’s house was a great idea, even if you didn’t find out anything.”
    â€œWhat was Steve Hill doing at Gleason’s house?” Nancy asked, looking at Kyle in the rearview mirror.
    â€œI didn’t exactly have a chance to find out,” Kyle told her. “Hill grabbed me and asked what I was doing spying on Gleason. When I told him it was none of his business, he pushed me forward, away from him, and I stumbled and fell against the mailbox—that’s how I bashed up my face. Pretty soon a squad car showed up. Mrs. Gleason had seen us fighting from her window, so she called the cops.
    â€œOf course Steve Hill told the cops that I was spying on Gleason and that I’d attacked him,” Kyle went on. “But I wasn’t trespassing, and it was obvious that I was the only one hurt, so he didn’t press charges. The police just brought me down to the station in a squad car to fill out a report.”
    Following Kyle’s directions, Nancy made her way to Patrick Gleason’s brick house and pulled up behind Kyle’s yellow hatchback across the street. “I’m sorry you had to go through all that, Kyle.”
    â€œEspecially since I didn’t even find out anything,” he said. “I guess I’d better go home, clean up, and get changed. What are you two up to?”
    Nancy and Bess filled him in on their interview with Mayor Filanowski. “I have a feeling he may be hiding something, but I have no idea what,” Nancy finished. “We haven’t come up with anything incriminating on Patrick Gleason yet.”
    â€œAnd even though we know that Anna Dimitros knew Bobby Rouse, we don’t have anything to prove that either she or Steve Hill is behind the frame-up,” Bess put in. “We don’t have any clues to what or who Greenwood is, either, or to who killed Bobby Rouse.”
    Nancy tapped the steering wheel thoughtfully. “We still haven’t had a chance to talk to Ralph Lemko—he’s the guy who posted bail for Bobby Rouse,” she said. “Chief McGinnis gave me his address. What do you say we head over there, Bess?”
    After saying goodbye to Kyle, the two girls drove to Lemko’s. It turned out to be a small shingled house near the industrial part of River Heights.
    â€œThis isn’t exactly a fancy neighborhood,” Bess said. “I wonder how this Ralph Lemko guy got thirty thousand dollars to pay for Rouse’s bail?”
    â€œThat’s one of the things I hope we can find out by talking to him,” Nancy said.
    A slight, pale woman who introduced herself as Ralph’s sister met Nancy and Bess at the door. “Ralph just left,” the woman said.“He was heading for Slim and Shorty’s to have lunch.”
    The two friends thanked Ralph’s sister and headed to the Mustang. “I guess it’s back to Slim and Shorty’s Good Eats Café,” Bess said as they got into the car. “We’re practically becoming regulars.”
    When they walked