Then the sound of a second set of footsteps clattered through the vault. These steps sounded energetic, younger than Larry’s more subdued gait. What was going on? Yet another strange emergency in the vault?
The footsteps stopped.
“Sorry I’m late.” Nancy recognized the breathless voice of Maurice Grun.
“I don’t know why you even bother to apologize anymore,” Larry said gruffly. “You’re late every day.”
“Did you check the vault yet?” Maurice asked.
“If you’d gotten here when you were supposed to, you would have known I did.”
“Cubicles too?”
“Yep.”
“I know it’s my fault I’m late,” Maurice said apologetically, “but I’m supposed to watch you check everything. Could you do it again?”
Check the cubicles again? Nancy’s heart almost stopped.
“Maurice,” Larry said, his voice tight with anger. “I’m sick and tired of you making me do everything twice.”
But when Nancy heard Larry’s footsteps crossing the vault again, she realized he wasn’t going to stand up to the head teller. She and her friends were sunk! She held her breath, knowing they would be discovered, as the far cubicle’s door was pulled open. They were next.
“Maurice!” Nancy heard another man call. Mr. Charles’s voice resounded against the steel walls. His tone revealed the same controlled fury she had seen in him the evening before. “Why hasn’t the vault been closed? And these gates are wide open. We’ve had enough trouble down here without you adding to it. Is Larry done inside?”
In the semidarkness, Nancy saw the doorknob of their cubicle start to turn. She exchanged an anxious look with Bess and George.
“Yes, Mr. Charles,” the girls heard Larry say. His voice was so close, they could practically hear him breathing.
“Well, then, get out here.” Mr. Charles sounded very annoyed. “I want this place locked up!”
The doorknob released back to its original position. A second later Nancy heaved a sigh of relief as she heard Larry’s footsteps moving away. The light in the main vault room clicked off and the girls were left in total darkness. In a moment they’d be locked in. In a moment they’d have accomplished the first part of their plan!
But even though she expected it, the next sound sent a cold chill through Nancy’s usually fearless heart. It was the heavy clang of the vault door shutting them in for the night.
There was a creaking sound as the metal wheel outside the door locked twenty-four steel tumblers into place. Then there was absolute silence.
There was no way anyone could hear them now. Not if they shouted in victory or if they screamed for help. Still, Nancy waited several more minutes before she spoke. When she did, it was barely more than a whisper. “Well, we did it,” she said to her friends, her voice quavering slightly. “What did I tell you? You’ve got to think creatively.”
She reached above, feeling for the light switch. Her hand slid along the smooth wooden wall until it hit the switch. Then she flicked it on. Overhead, a naked light bulb cast a harsh glow over the three of them. They found themselves in a tiny wood-paneled room. A wooden ledge projected from the wall like a desk, and a wooden chair was pushed up against it. Quickly, Bess dropped into the chair and stretched her legs out, leaving Nancy and George to make do with the floor. “Well, at least one of us ought to be comfortable,” she explained.
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Nancy planned for her friends and herself to stay in the cubicle, remaining hidden from the thieves. That way, they could learn the criminals’ identities without endangering themselves. At least, she hoped that was the way it would work.
“I hope we don’t starve in here.” Bess was grumbling again.
Nancy laughed. “We’ll be out of here when Larry comes into work tomorrow morning, exactly sixteen hours from now. That’s not long enough to starve. Human beings can go for day s without food.”
Bess looked horrified at the thought. “Well, we still could have planned it better. We should have picked up some sandwiches at Kathy’s to tide us over.”
“Here.” Nancy reached into her purse, feeling around for an extra candy bar she remembered stashing there. She pulled it out and handed it to Bess. “Chocolate almond. That should give you plenty of energy.”
“Actually, I’m less concerned with eating than I am with breathing,” said George. “Are you absolutely sure we won’t suffocate in here?”
“I checked that out thoroughly,” Nancy reassured them. “There’s an air vent in each cubicle and one in the main room. I guess the bank wanted a safeguard in case anyone ever got locked in by accident.”
“Thank goodness,” Bess said, inhaling deeply. “But Nancy, what are we going to do while we wait? If the hunger doesn’t get us, the boredom will!”
Bess was right, Nancy realized. She’d been so excited about the stakeout that she hadn’t even considered how long and tedious the evening might get. “Too bad there’s no VCR in here,” she said. “I still have the Jake and Jasmine video in my purse.”
“You mean, 'Watch the video, then see it live’?” Bess quipped. “Nancy, it’s going to be a long night.”
“I also have a pack of cards in my purse,” Nancy said. “That will help pass the time.”
For the next couple of hours the girls played Crazy Eights, Go Fish, and War, until even Nancy couldn’t face a rematch.
“Why don’t you both try to sleep,” Nancy finally suggested. “There’s no reason for all of us to sweat it out, as long as one of us stays awake. I’ll take the first shift.”
“I’ll take the next one,” George volunteered. “Wake me when you’re tired.” The cousins stretched out on the floor, using their bags for pillows. Bess draped her jacket around her as a blanket. Within a few minutes both of them lay fast asleep. Nancy couldn’t understand how they did it. Though she herself felt totally drained from the danger of the past two days, she was much too excited to sleep. She was getting too close to a solution.
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Without Bess and George’s company, the time passed slowly. Nancy could feel her own eyes beginning to droop, but she let her friends continue dreaming. She didn’t want to risk missing anything by taking a sleeping shift herself.
“Any minute now,” she kept repeating to herself. “Any minute...”
Only when a sound startled her out of her dreams did Nancy realize she’d allowed herself to fall asleep. She rubbed her eyes hastily. Something was happening, and she couldn’t afford to be groggy. Once again the creaking sound cut into the silent night. The wheel that kept the vault shut—someone was turning it!
Nancy checked her watch. The quartz crystal blinked 1:21 back at her. She smiled to herself ruefully; certainly long past normal banking hours. She wanted desperately to alert Bess and George, but she couldn’t risk them talking or asking questions out loud in the first few moments after she woke them.
Quickly, she reached up and flicked off the overhead light. In the dark silence Nancy realized her heart was pounding madly.
The creaking split the night for a third time. Nancy pushed the cubicle door ajar just a crack. Peering through, she watched breathlessly as the vault door began to open.
A Deadly Poison
The vault’s heavy door eased open on its silent hinges. Nancy shivered. She was about to learn the identity of the criminals!
From her post at the crack in the door, all she could see was a thin sliver of the larger room. Then a foot in a black leather sneaker stepped into view. The step made no sound on the marble floor. Part of the figure—but not the face—moved into her line of vision. It was a woman, Nancy realized from the body’s shape, and she was wearing a black trench coat and black gloves.
Come on, come on, Nancy urged silently. Just one more step and she’d see the face.
Then the figure did move, but the woman’s identity had been carefully concealed beneath a dark ski mask. Nancy felt like screaming in frustration.
Soon a second black-clad figure joined the first in the little slot of space that Nancy could see. This one was a man, and like his partner, he’d hidden his face with a ski mask. He carried a large black canvas bag under one arm.
Nancy scrutinized the pair, but she could make out no identifying traits. They did walk rather slowly. Were they just being careful or was it an indication of old age? It was hard to tell.
The couple headed straight for the corner of the vault where the video camera hung. Nancy could tell from their lack of hesitation that they’d done all this before. The man pulled a small folding stepladder out of the bag. Setting it beneath the camera, he climbed up and pulled a screwdriver from his pocket. In less than a minute the camera lay open before him.
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He wrenched the old video cassette from it while the woman pulled a second cassette from the nylon bag and handed it to him. The man quickly set it into place, shut the camera, and screwed the bolts back in.
All through the operation, neither thief had made so much as a peep. Real professionals, Nancy decided.
As the woman pulled an enormous key ring from her pocket, though, the jangling echoed through the vault. Nancy realized she’d seen keys like that before—in Alan Charles’s office safe. She’d been right when she’d figured the thieves had made copies of them.
Now the woman in black headed for the safe-deposit boxes on the same wall as the vault door. She searched through the keys on the ring until she found the one she wanted. Then she pushed it into the keyhole of one of the boxes. That took care of the box holder’s key, but what about the second key kept by the bank?
Almost before Nancy could complete her thought, the man pulled a single key out of his pocket, inserted it into the same box, and pulled the door open.
Quickly, silently, and methodically, the man and woman pulled out the steel drawer in the box and pawed through the contents. It didn’t take the couple more than a few moments to realize this wasn’t the box they were looking for. They closed it up and repeated the process with the next one.
Nancy bit her lip in frustration. Here she was, not more than ten feet from the criminals, watching them in action, and she hadn’t learned a single thing she didn’t already know. Who were they? What were they looking for? Those two questions echoed through her mind like the jangling of the key ring in the cavernous vault. The couple was just finishing their third box when suddenly the shrieking scream of an alarm slashed through the silence. It was the five-minute safeguard Mr. Charles had told her about—the alarm went off five minutes after the door was opened if anyone entered the vault after regular working hours. It was awful. The sound was so loud, Nancy felt as though a rocket were going off inside her brain. Instantly, Bess and George were up.
“Wha—” Bess yelped. Nancy clamped her hand down hard on Bess’s mouth. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw the woman look toward their cubicle. Had she heard Bess’s cry, or had the alarm drowned it out?
Meanwhile, the couple in black were panicking. Leaving the last safe-deposit box wide open, they threw their equipment back into the canvas bag. The door of the vault was slowly sliding closed on its mechanical hinges, and each instant they delayed brought them closer to being trapped.
Nancy watched as the man tossed the stepladder—the last piece of equipment—back into the bag, and the couple made a mad dash for the vault door. The ever-narrowing gap had shrunk to just about a foot. The man squeezed through, the door grazing his stomach.
In that final, desperate moment, the woman turned and stared straight at the cubicle where the girls were hiding. Had she heard Bess? Or was she just looking over her shoulder to make sure she hadn’t left anything behind? Nancy couldn’t tell, but she knew it seemed wrong that the woman had hesitated at such a crucial moment. With only seconds to spare, the woman slipped through.
The vault door was just inches from closing. On the other side of it the man grabbed the woman in a relieved, impassioned embrace. As the heavy door slammed shut, Nancy heard him utter a single word. That word was Jasmine.
The moment the door closed tight, the deafening alarm shut off. Nancy still couldn’t hear very clearly, though, because the ringing kept on going inside her ears.
“Oh, Nancy,” Bess wailed. “I’m really sorry. I should have kept my big mouth shut. What if they heard me? What if they saw us?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Nancy said. “I doubt she heard anything except that awful ringing. I still can hardly hear you.”
“I haven’t felt this deaf since the Brain Waves played the River Heights Arena,” said George. She pressed her ears with her fingers.
“Even if they did see us,” Nancy said soothingly, “they can’t come back for us now. They’ve already set off the alarm. The police and the night watchman should be here any minute.”
“Did you hear him call her Jasmine?” Bess asked excitedly. “It’s incredible, it was really them, Jake and Jasmine Sims!”
“But we still don’t know who they are,” Nancy said. “Obviously, they’re not working at the bank under their real names. So who are they posing as?”
George sneezed. “That is still a mystery,” she pronounced, then sneezed again. “Bess, are you wearing that new perfume again, the one I’m allergic to? What’s it called, Donder? Blitzen?”
“Vixen,” Bess said, annoyed. “And no, I’m not wearing it. Since I’m a nice cousin, I never wear it when I’m around you.”
“Oh.” George sniffed. “Well, something smells funny.”
“Maybe we’ve all been in this room too long,” Bess said. “Nancy is hearing alarms that have already shut off, and George is smelling perfume that isn’t there.”
Nancy pushed open the cubicle door to let in a little more air. “That should help,” she said.
“No! No, it won’t,” George cried. She pointed, horrified, to the ceiling of the main room. High above them a plume of gray smoke was wafting down from the air vent.
“What is it?” Bess asked. Her voice shook with fear as the smoke started to pour in faster and thicker.
“It’s coming from the vents in here too,” George cried, waving a finger toward the air vent in their cubicle.
“Oh, Nancy, what should we do?” Bess said, practically sobbing.
“Get into the main room and stay low,” Nancy shouted. “Pull your collars up over your mouths and breathe through the cloth.”
Staying near the ground, the girls crawled out of the cubicle.
“It’s even worse out here,” Bess said, starting to cough.
George was coughing too. “I take it back,” she said to her cousin. “This is even worse than Blitzen.”
“Vixen!” shouted Bess, gasping.
Nancy found herself choking. The unbearable smell seemed to fill her lungs. It was as if someone had wrapped a heavy elastic band around her ribs and was pulling it tighter. Beside her, Bess and George were gagging.
“What’s happening? What... is... it?” Bess asked weakly as she tried desperately to breathe.
The awful truth came to Nancy through a sickly haze. With her last bit of strength, Nancy tried to tell her friends the truth, but the words came out so quietly she was sure Bess and George didn’t hear.
“It’s poison gas,” she whispered.
Then the world went black around her.
A Revealing Brand
At first there was nothing but darkness and a steady pounding. Deep inside a heavy fog, Nancy wondered where she was and where the pounding was coming from.
Gradually, she realized the awful thudding was inside her own head. Then she felt the pain. Her skull was throbbing so hard and loud, she was sure it would split wide open.
She thought she heard voices, but the pounding was too distracting to concentrate. In another moment everything faded as Nancy lost consciousness again.
***
The pounding had stopped, but the voices were still there. They were louder this time, clear and familiar.
“Oh, Mr. Drew,” a woman’s voice said anxiously, “why doesn’t she wake up?”
Hannah! Nancy tried to open her eyes, but her lids felt too heavy. She tried to speak, but her lips seemed glued together.
“Nancy?” It was her father. “Can you hear me?”
Nancy felt a gentle pressure as her father placed his hand in hers. Using all her strength, she tried to squeeze his fingers. Once, twice, she wrapped her fingers around her father’s.
Carson Drew let out a joyful cry. “She’s awake!”
“Nancy!” Hannah moaned thankfully, “Oh, Nancy.”
Focusing all her energy on her eyes, Nancy managed to crack them open just a slit. The afternoon light hit her like a sledgehammer, it was so bright. She could make out a high institutional bed and a row of charts. She was lying in a hospital bed, she realized.
“Nancy, oh darling,” Carson said softly. “We’re all here. Hannah and myself and Mr. Charles. And Bess and George are going to be okay too. They’re right here in the other beds.”
“I’m so thankful you’re back,” cried Hannah, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “We were so worried about you! The Faynes and the Marvins were here all night. We finally sent them home this morning to get some sleep.”
“Dad,” Nancy moaned. “Hannah.”
Alan Charles stepped up to the bedside. “Nancy, that was a terrible stunt you pulled last night.” His voice was anxious and concerned. “You all could have been killed!”
“Don’t be so hard on her,” said Hannah.
“I’m just as concerned as you are,” Mr. Charles assured Hannah. “And I blame myself.”
But Nancy didn’t care about all that. “Did... you... catch... them?” Nancy managed to croak.
Carson Drew smiled. “She may be weak, but she hasn’t lost interest in the case.”
Mr. Charles leaned toward Nancy. “No, we didn’t. In fact, the police almost made a terrible mistake. They wanted to arrest—”
Carson Drew cut him off. “We can tell her about that later.”
Nancy wanted to ask Mr. Charles what he meant, but she felt too awful.
There was a knock on the door, which felt like a good hard rap on the head to Nancy. Hannah rose to get it. She opened the door just a crack. “Who is it?” she demanded, but Nancy couldn’t catch the visitor’s answer.
“Now, look here,” Nancy heard Hannah say to the person on the other side of the door, “they’re still too sick to talk to you. Why can’t you come back tomorrow?”
“I’m sorry,” said a woman’s voice, “but I insist on seeing them immediately.”
“Well, since you have that badge, I suppose I must!” Hannah replied heatedly. She stepped back and two police officers entered the room. The first was a short, commanding woman with bright red hair, which she’d tucked into her cap. The other Nancy recognized as Sergeant Ramirez, the friendly officer who had shown Nancy and her friends the computer at the police station. She managed a sickly smile, but the sergeant didn’t return it.
“I’m Captain Elizabeth Steiner,” the woman officer said, striding purposefully toward Nancy’s bed.
Summoning all her strength, Nancy nodded hello to the officer.
“That’s her!” exclaimed Sergeant Ramirez. “The one I told you about yesterday.”
Steiner looked grimly at Nancy. “Ms. Drew, I must inform you that you are under arrest! You have the right to remain silent...” she began.
So this was what her father and Mr. Charles had been talking about! The police thought she and George and Bess were the burglars! If she hadn’t been so sick, Nancy would have laughed. Here, the captain was telling her she had the right to remain silent when she was too weak even to talk:
“Anything you say—”
“Whoa, wait a minute,” Nancy’s father cut in. “I thought we cleared this up last night.”
Captain Steiner droned on, “Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law.”
“Stop!” cried Mr. Charles. “I told you already, I refuse to file any charges against these girls. They work for me and were doing an investigation by my request.”
Sergeant Ramirez looked questioningly at Mr. Charles, then frowned. “And we told you that if there was something illegal going on, you should have come to us.”
“It’s very complicated,” Mr. Charles told him. “But I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have, as will the girls, once they’re feeling a little stronger.”
Captain Steiner looked suspiciously from Nancy to Bess to George as they lay in their beds. “I guess that will have to do,” she agreed reluctantly. “But in the meantime, I’m going to station Sergeant Ramirez outside the door.” She threw Nancy a not very sympathetic frown. “As soon as you’re able, we must have your cooperation.” Then she strode from the room with Sergeant Ramirez right behind her.
Nancy shook her head, feeling annoyed. How could the police come up with the ridiculous conclusion that the girls were the crooks? Even though they were in the vault, they hardly would have poisoned themselves! “Tell... me... details,” Nancy croaked to Mr. Charles.
Mr. Charles let out a heavy sigh. “I’m still not sure exactly what happened,” he said, shaking his head. “Last night, around quarter after one, my beeper went off, telling me there was a break-in at the vault. I ran right over and got there at the same time as the police. I had to call Evelyn Sobel in order to get inside the vault. That’s when we found the three of you unconscious. I’m only glad we got you out of there in time.”
“Poison,” Nancy said.
“I know,” said Alan Charles. “We found the gas container inside the air vent in the basement. They must have set it off before they escaped. Well, they certainly came prepared. Whoever they are.”
“We... saw... them,” Nancy said hoarsely. “But... masked.”
A mixture of surprise and excitement, tingled with a desire for revenge, swept over Mr. Charles’s face as he leaned toward Nancy. “Who?” he demanded. “Who were they?”
“VCR,” Nancy said ambiguously. The effort to speak was exhausting her. “Must watch... movie.”
“But there’s nothing on the security videotape,” Mr. Charles replied, his excitement turning instantly to disappointment.
“No!” Nancy said with the last of her strength. It was Jake and Jasmine she wanted to see. If she knew a little more about the Simses’ younger lives, maybe it would give her the clue she needed to crack this case. She tried to prop herself up on one elbow, but she couldn’t manage it. Her head fell back into her pillow and she closed her eyes.
“Enough!” she heard her father say. “She needs her rest.”
Nancy heard their chairs scrape against the floor as they got up to go. She tried desperately to call out after them, to tell them that she had to see the rest of Jake and Jasmine.
“Dad…” Nancy called feebly, but it was too late. Her visitors had gone. She felt too weak even to open her eyes. I’ll just lie here a minute, she thought. Just for a minute...
In far less time, Nancy was sound asleep.
***
Nancy shook her reddish blond hair groggily and eased her eyes open. The poison was slowly working itself out of her system, and she felt much better now. She knew her blood was pumping more strongly in her veins. She stretched her arms up. Her muscles, too, were coming back to life.
Now she took a good look at her surroundings. The hospital room sparkled with cleanliness. A large vase with bright flowers stood on a table by the bed, probably a gift from her father. Near them lay a box of tissues, a paperback novel one of her visitors must have left behind, and her purse. Good. They must have found her bag when they’d pulled her and her friends out of the vault.
She reached for it, then fished around inside until she found her watch. The quartz read 9:04, and the darkness outside told her that meant p.m., not a.m. So she’d been asleep almost a day. Nancy suddenly realized she felt very hungry.
But there was something more pressing right now than food. She had to see the rest of Jake and Jasmine. It had provided her with a key clue before. She just hoped something even more conclusive would show up in the final hour of the film. She felt again in her purse. Yes, the cassette was still in there. She grasped its square corner and pulled it out.
With only a little effort Nancy pulled herself up to a sitting position. She felt slightly dizzy, but otherwise okay. Throwing back the covers, she placed her bare feet on the cold floor. So far so good.
“Ohhh,” came a groan directly in front of her. It was Bess, shifting painfully under the covers.
“Bess?” Nancy approached her friend’s bed. “Are you okay?”
“My stomach,” Bess moaned.
“Does it hurt?” Nancy asked, concerned.
“No, it’s empty!” Bess said. Then she blinked open her eyes. “Mom and Dad were here already,” she murmured, half to herself. “I guess I must have fallen asleep again.”
“Nancy?” came a weak call from across the room. “Bess?”
Nancy padded over to George’s bed. “Thank goodness we’re all awake at one time again,” she said, taking her friend’s hand reassuringly.
“Thank goodness we’re awake at all!” George exclaimed. “Wow. The Simses sure use strong ammunition.”
“I know,” Nancy agreed, nodding. “But I’m determined to crack the secret of their identity.”
“How?” Bess wanted to know. She ran a hand through her blond hair.
“I’m not sure,” Nancy replied. “But if we can find a VCR, maybe this movie will give us some clues.” She held up the cassette.
“And we’ll have a little safe entertainment,” Bess agreed, “instead of all this traipsing around bank vaults during robberies.”
“So... let’s go,” George said, sitting up in her bed.
Nancy stepped waveringly toward the door. Suddenly she stopped, remembering foggily the events that had occurred earlier in the hospital room. “There’s just one tiny little problem,” she informed her friends. She pointed to the door. “Sergeant Ramirez is sitting right outside. We’re being guarded.”
“From the crooks?” Bess asked. “That’s a very good idea.”
“No,” Nancy explained. “The police think we’re the crooks.”
“Us?” George cried. “That’s ridiculous!”
“Think about it,” Nancy said. “Whom did they find—illegally, I might add—in the vault when the alarm went off?”
Bess cut in. “But Mr. Charles could tell them—”
“He already did,” Nancy said. “If we’re lucky, they won’t arrest us. But they’re dying to question us. And that could take up valuable time. If Jake and Jasmine haven’t already left town, I’m sure they will any minute. We’ve got to find a VCR without Sergeant Ramirez seeing us.”
George pushed herself out of bed and tiptoed over to the door. Very quietly she opened it a few inches. The dark blue back of Sergeant Ramirez’s uniform was visible just outside the room. Hastily George pushed the door shut again. “Trapped!” she said glumly.
“Not necessarily,” Bess said. She picked up the phone.
“What are you doing?” Nancy asked.
Bess spoke into the phone. “Is this the operator? Yes, I’m calling from the Bentley police station. I’d like to page a Sergeant Ramirez, please. Very urgent police business.”
Bess held up the receiver and flashed a conspiratorial smile at her friends. “See, just like Nancy said, all you have to do is think creatively!”
Within seconds they heard a voice blast over a loudspeaker in the hall. “Sergeant Ramirez, pick up on extension seventy-seven. Sergeant Ramirez.”
The girls heard the chair shift outside their door, followed by the sound of footsteps receding down the hall. Opening the door again, George peeked out for a second time. “He’s gone!” she said in an excited whisper.
“Great thinking, Bess,” Nancy said. “Keep him on the phone. Tell him you’re calling for Captain Steiner and that she’s taking another phone call. Ask him to hold the line. Then come find us.”
Bess gave them the okay signal, and Nancy and George sped out into the hallway. To their right, a few yards down, Nancy spotted the nurses’ station. “This way,” she said, heading for it with George right behind her. A young nurse with a round face and long black hair was filling out some forms behind the desk. Her name tag read S. Sun.
“Excuse us,” Nancy said politely. The nurse looked up and smiled. “Is there a VCR on this floor?” Nancy asked.
“Patients’ lounge.” Nurse Sun pointed to the end of the corridor. “But I think someone’s using it right now.”
“Thank you,” Nancy said, and she and George started to walk away.
“Hey, wait a minute!” Nurse Sun called after them.
Nancy turned slowly. Had Sergeant Ramirez informed the hospital staff that the girls were under suspicion? Was Nurse Sun going to send her and George straight back to bed?
The nurse reached under the counter and pulled up two pairs of disposable slippers. “Put these on,” she advised. “You don’t want to catch pneumonia while you’re in the hospital!”
Nancy let out a laugh. Then, thanking the nurse, the girls put on the slippers and shuffled toward the end of the hall.