RARA-AVIS: WHAT IF Don Pendleton wrote a Nancy Drew Story

From: jumblejim ( jumblejim@prodigy.net)
Date: 14 Nov 2002


Saw this on the pulps newsgroup and couldn't resist passing it on.

Jim Beaver

> THE SECRET OF THE THIRD BUTTON
>
> Stepping away from her sporty red roadster with its running boards
> and rumble seat, Nancy felt the breeze stir her golden hair. Yeah, it
> was a good day to be sixteen and a little princess. It was just too darn
> bad that for Carmine it would be his last day on God`s earth.
>
> She had parked high on the hill overlooking Makeout Point, where
> teenagers had been parking under the summer moon for years. Nancy
> remembered that moon and her face flushed red as she gazed coldly down
> at the figure waiting for her below.
>
> How had she ever thought that Carmine Salvucci could help her in
> her solving of mysteries? And what was an Italian family doing in
> Bayport anyway? Nancy`s lovely eyes narrowed into slits as she saw
> Carmine leaning against the fender of his own jalopy, cigarette hanging
> from the corner of his mouth. Enjoy it, she thought, you darned little
> ruffian.
>
> For a second, she touched the tiny hole where a button was missing
> from her pure white blouse with the blue collar, and her adorable mouth
> tightened. Then she turned and from the rumble seat she drew the thing
> she had taken from the closet of her father, noted detective Carson
> Drew. The Scheissekopf 374 (with the folding stock and chrome lined
> barrel) was a heavy weapon, and it took all her strength to lift it,
> much less hold it steady. But a girl had to do what was right in a world
> that was going to heck, no matter what the consquences. Yeah, she was
> determined to live large and stay firm. Soft but firm.
>
> Carmine seemed to sense his danger for he suddenly flicked his butt
> to the ground and jerked his head up to look right at her. His eyes
> bugged out with raw terror and his jaw dropped so hard she heard the
> thump it made. Then she gently squeezed the trigger and a huge copper
> jacketed slug sizzled through the summer air to plow through Carmine`s
> face as it it wasn`t there. And in fact, it wasn`t there any longer.
>
> Her shoulder ached from the recoil of the massive Scheissekopf but she
> didn`t even feel it. She looked down grimly at the cold clay that a
> minute ago had been a high school student. "No one cops a feel off
> Nancy Drew," she whispered.
>
> http://community.webtv.net/drhermes/ForbiddenKnowledge
>

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