Nightmare in Angel City by Franklin W. Dixon Page A

you?"
    Callie smiled gratefully. "He was working up to it. Thanks."
    Joe joined them. "You sure took a chance, Frank. What if one of those lasers had hit Callie?"
    "They weren't lasers," Frank said. "Why would they be? This place is just tricks, remember? I bet some explosive in the wall was set off when the light touched it. Neither of them were in real danger."
    Joe looked up at the catwalks. "We've got Patch cornered in here. Let's get him."
    Frank nodded and started for the catwalk.
    "Hold it!" a new voice shouted. The workman appeared at the door, joined by two security guards, and a tall, good-looking man in an expensive-looking business suit. "That's them."
    Despite Callie and the Hardys' protests, the security guards collected them and shoved them back to the door. "We'll throw them off the lot."
    "No," said the well-dressed man. He studied them coolly for a moment. Frank and Joe exchanged glances. Who was he?
    "Take them to my office," the man said. "And keep them there."
    "Yes, sir," the security guard replied. He took Joe roughly by the arm. "Whatever you say— Mr. Bates."

Chapter 14
    THE OFFICE WAS enormous, decorated all in leather and mahogany. At one end was a large desk. A painting of Stuart Bates hung on the wall behind it. Two black leather couches faced the desk. Frank and Callie were shoved onto one couch and Joe on the other.
    "Sit there and don't touch anything," said one of the guards. They left the brothers and Callie alone.
    The office door clicked shut. Instantly, Frank and Joe were on their feet. Joe pressed at the edges of the window, which overlooked all of Meteoric Studios. "No openings here, and we're twelve stories up in any case," he said. "Any luck there?"
    Frank wiggled the doorknob. "Locked." He walked around the room, tapping at the wood paneling on the walls, while Joe slid the painting to one side. "No secret passages in the wall."
    "No safe," Joe replied. He let the painting slip back into place. "Anything he's got here must be in his desk."
    "What's with you guys?" Callie said. "So we get scolded for trespassing. It's no big deal."
    Frank rolled his eyes. "We never told her." He fished the photograph from his pocket. "See that painting on the wall?"
    Callie studied it. "Sure."
    "Recognize him?" he asked, and handed her the photograph.
    Callie paled. "You mean Stuart Bates is — ?"
    "Looks that way. Whatever you do when he gets here, don't let on that we know," said Joe, who pried uselessly at a desk drawer. "Frank, you still have your credit card?"
    Frank handed it to Joe, who bent over and slipped it between a drawer and the desk frame. He wiggled the card until there was a loud click, and the center drawer popped open. With a look of triumph Joe passed the card back.
    "Nothing," Joe said as he rifled the desk. The triumphant look faded. "Paper clips, a pen, blank paper." He found a manila file, took it out, and flipped through it. "Company financial records. Nothing out of the ordinary. From his desk you'd think this guy was squeaky clean."
    He returned the file and shut the drawer. Keys, jingled on the other side of the door. Frank and Joe dove for the couches, and when Stuart Bates came in, they were waiting meekly in their seats.
    "We try to run a safe tour here," Bates said in a flat voice as he sat behind his desk. "We can't have people running off on their own no matter how much fun it looks like." He gazed at them impersonally, and for all Frank or Joe could tell, Bates had never seen them before in his life. He had the relaxed, suntanned appearance of a typical Hollywood executive. "I am as much in favor of young people having a good time as anyone else," he said, "but there is simply no excuse for what you did. None."
    "You're right," Frank began apologetically.
    "Don't blame them," Callie interrupted. "They were saving me."
    "From what?" Still the casual but fiat, distant tone.
    "I was being threatened by a man wearing an eyepatch," Callie said, watching Bates's face. He