Hot Wheels by William Arden Read Free Book Online Page B

and no sign of Torres or anyone else.
    Nothing moved anywhere.
    “You think they’re all stolen?” Pete whispered as he looked at the rows of cars.
    Jupiter shook his head. “This seems to be a regular parking garage. See, the pillars and wall sections are all numbered.”
    “So where’s the parking attendant? And the service shop and body work?”
    “Good question.”
    In the dimness, among the rows of ghostly cars, they listened. After a moment, they heard small sounds somewhere above.
    “It doesn’t sound like much,” Pete said.
    “It’s an old building,” Jupiter replied. “The walls and floors are thick enough to absorb sounds. Someone is definitely upstairs.”
    “If we’re going up there,” Pete said, “I sure hope that elevator and the car ramp aren’t the only ways up.
    “There must be stairs. Let’s try that door at the foot of the ramp.”
    They walked over to the unmarked door and Pete pulled it open. Inside was a dusty stairway. The sounds from above were clearer in the dimly lit, echoing stairwell. But the guys couldn’t hear any footsteps or voices. Cautiously they crept up the steel stairs to the second floor. Jupe opened the door on the landing and the guys peered out.
    Here the cavernous space among the pillars was better lighted. The room contained cars in various stages of repair. Most of them were standing there like forgotten skeletons. Three had electronic instruments attached, to analyze cylinder compression, fuel injection, spark-plug operation, and other electrical functions. The instruments were bleeping and flashing, but no one was in sight.
    “The mechanics must have gone somewhere in a hurry,” Pete said. “They left those instruments still working.”
    “Well, they didn’t go down. No one passed us as we came in.”
    “So where did they go?” Pete said. “And where’s Torres and that orange Cadillac?”
    “Must be on the third floor.”
    They continued silently up the stairs.
    This time the large open area was even better lighted, with cars scattered all through the spaces between the pillars. There were more cars here than on the second floor, but still far fewer than on the first. Here the cars were having bodywork and painting done.
    But no one was in sight on this floor either!
    Sanders and buffers and other bodywork tools lay on the floor plugged in to electrical outlets. The painting booths were filled with cars and the air compressors were working. Exhaust blowers hummed. But no one was at work. And there was still no sign of Torres or the orange Caddy.
    “Weird!” said Jupe.
    “My dad always says no one works in garages except when a customer is watching,” Pete said.
    “Your dad may be right, but mechanics were working here very recently,” Jupiter said. “They’ve gone, and so has Torres. We’d better try to find out where.”
    “You mean go out there?”
    “There’s no one around.”
    “What if they come back?”
    “We have to take the risk,” Jupiter insisted. “Torres and that Cadillac must be somewhere in the building.
    Jupiter led the way around the large room. They stayed close to cars, using them as cover in case anyone came back suddenly. But no one did, and they were able to circle the whole room back to the stairwell. They found no doors and no other stairs. The elevator was up on this floor, but it hadn’t been used while they were in the building. Neither had the ramp.
    “No car came past us,” Pete said. “We must have missed the orange Caddy on one of the floors.”
    Jupiter was doubtful. “I don’t see how, but we’d better go back down and look again.”
    They tiptoed down the stairs to the second floor. They didn’t spot the orange Cadillac anywhere, but there was a mechanic at work now! “Where’d he come from?” Pete whispered “I don’t know,” Jupiter whispered back. “But we didn’t walk around this floor, remember? We’ll have to look here, too.”
    “You mean go out there on this floor? There’s a