Club Dread by Carolyn Keene Page A

Katlyn yelled in my face. Her breath stank of onions and garlic. Then again, so did everything else in the kitchen. They were two of the main ingredients on tonight’s menu.
    I didn’t blame her for yelling—the kitchen was a pretty loud place, with everyone running back and forth, the industrial-size dish dryers, and all the cooking noises—but she didn’t have to do it in my face.
    Joe had been missing for nearly an hour, though, so I could see why she was upset. It probably hadn’t helped that Joe had tried to hit on her earlier.
    â€œUh, well, he was here a minute ago. I think he’s out getting more dishes?” I put my head down and kept scrubbing, hoping she would leave me alone.
    She waited for a moment, then threw her hands up in the air.
    â€œIf he’s not back here in ten minutes, he is out of a job!”
    â€œBut our shift is done in five minutes,” I pointed out.
    Katlyn looked at the clock, muttered something under her breath, and walked away. Looked like Joe would be keeping his job. I was sure he’d be overjoyed to hear it. I just hoped he’d found something so that this wasn’t all for nothing.
    I never wanted to wash another dish again for the rest of my life. For seven hours, every time I looked up, another pile of plates was being poured into the soap-filled sink in front of me. My hands became wrinkled and waterlogged, even inside my rubber gloves. And once Joe was gone, I had to cover for him too, running out to the dining room, carrying the plates back, and then washing them. It was like spending a day doing chores for Mom. Only worse, because there weren’t even any doughnuts.
    To make things worse, Matthias showed up to give us our work schedule for the rest of the week. We’d still barely talked about the case—all he seemed interested in was giving Joe and me more chores to do.
    â€œWhere’s Joe?” Matthias asked. It seemed to be the only question anyone was interested in asking. “Is heoff investigating on his own? I believe we discussed this, did we not? ATAC rules explicitly state that the superior agent must be notified at any time if—”
    â€œHe’s not investigating. He felt sick and had to go back to the room.” I felt bad lying to Matthias, but he was such a stickler for the rules. And if we did it his way, we’d never get anything done. Plus, I was beginning to dislike him. Ugh, I thought, now Joe’s got me thinking like him.
    Matthias seemed almost pleased to hear Joe was sick.
    â€œTomorrow,” he said, “we’ll have a check-in to see how the case is going. Until then, remember to report anything you see or hear to me.”
    â€œWill do.” Yeah, right, I thought.
    â€œOh, and, Frank?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œYou missed a spot on that dish right there. Remember, a good agent pays attention to detail and gets the job done right.”
    I wanted to take my sponge and wipe that smile right off his face. Instead, I scrubbed the dish as hard as I could and pretended it was Matthias’s face.
    When my shift finally ended, Joe still hadn’t returned. I thought about calling him, but if his phone rang at the wrong moment, it would give him away. I couldn’t risk that. With no way of contacting Joe and no idea wherehe was, I wasn’t sure what to do. Joe can get himself into trouble at times. But two people sneaking around Nikitin’s office were more likely to be noticed than one, so I couldn’t go looking for him. Besides, Joe was just as good at getting out of trouble as he was at getting into it. Or, at least, nearly as good. Most of the time.
    I decided not to think about it and to go check out Nancy’s old room. If Joe didn’t find anything in Nikitin’s office, then the break-in would be our only lead. By tomorrow, the hotel would have cleaned up the suite—and any evidence the thief might have left behind. If we were going