They were up early the next morning, having promised their Aunt Gertrude they would rake the yard and do a few other chores for her. They finished about 10:00 and went to call Mr. Collins. Frank dialed the number he had given them. He listened for a moment, then hung up and dialed again. He hung up the second time almost immediately and turned to Joe. "That number's not in service."

Joe picked up the phone book and looked up attorneys. "No listing for a Collins here. I think we should go check out his office."

It took less than ten minutes to get to the address Collins had given them. It was a standard office building downtown. They went in, finding a building directory by the elevators.

"No one named Collins listed here," Joe said.

"It could be under a partner's name, although he didn't mention one. Let's go on up to the office," Frank replied. They took the elevator to the third floor and looked for 325.

"315...317...319," Joe stopped. He looked at the office at the end of the hallway in front of him. "...320. That's the last office." The office numbers stopped at 320.

"There is no 325," Frank said, stating the obvious.

"This is getting really weird. Did we or did we not have a visit from a Mr. Collins two nights ago?"

"Yea, and this is the address and phone number he gave us," Frank replied holding out the paper he'd written it on. "I think we've been had."

"Let's go over to the newspaper office and see what we can find out about Macklin Mills. With all the publicity they had, there should be a pretty good size file in the morgue," Joe suggested.

They arrived at the newspaper office and found their friend, Liz Webling, whose father owned the paper, working that morning. "Hi, Liz," Joe said.

"What can I do for you two this morning?" she asked.

"We need to see anything you have on Macklin Mills. Can we look through the morgue?"

"Sure, you know the way, don't you?" Liz replied.

"Yea, I think we spend more time down there than your reporters," Frank said.

"Okay, here's the key. There should be cross-references in the alphabetical listing for all the newspaper articles. Anything not published should be in the Macklin file."

They spent the next two hours reading all the articles on the fire and subsequent investigations of Macklin Mills. There was no mention of any law suits being brought against the mill. They jotted down the names of the owners and managers to talk to, then headed home for lunch.

"Hey, Dad's home," Joe exclaimed as he pulled in the drive behind their father's car. "I didn't think he'd be back until late tonight. Maybe he'll have an idea about what's going on."

They found the rest of the Hardy household in the kitchen, starting lunch. "You're just in time, boys," their Aunt Gertrude said. "Set yourselves a couple of places and I'll make you some sandwiches. I think the soup is still hot."

"Thanks, Aunt Gertrude," Joe said, giving his aunt a peck on the cheek as he reached around her to get a couple of plates and bowls. She was a stern looking spinster, but the boys knew her bark was worse than her bite and loved her dearly. Although always admonishing the boys about running off and getting into trouble, she was secretly proud of their accomplishments and sung their praises to her friends quite often.

Frank poured two glasses of milk and set them on the table, then sat down. "We're glad you're home, Dad. Something strange is going on that we'd like to talk to you about."

"Fine, but after we've finished eating. I'm famished. I skipped breakfast, so I could finish up my job and get home early. Your mother and I have plans for this evening."

"So you're finally finished with your case?" Joe asked.

"Yes. All I have to do is write up the report for my client. I can finish that this afternoon. Then I'm free until I meet with him Monday afternoon. How would you boys like to do something as a family tomorrow? I know I've been gone a lot the last couple of weeks and we haven't spent any time together."

"Great, Dad," they answered in unison. They spent the rest of lunch discussing what they would do the next day.

They were almost finished eating when the doorbell rang. Fenton went to answer it. Con Riley, one of Bayport's police officers and a friend of the Hardy's, stood at the door. There were three other officers behind him.

"Con, this is unexpected."

"Uh, Fenton. Uh...I'm sorry, Fenton. Is Frank home? We need to ask him some questions."

"Con, what's going on?" Fenton could see that Con was uncomfortable being there.

"Uh, why don't you get Frank, then we can talk about it."

"Okay. Frank, Joe, will you come out here please," Fenton called back into the kitchen.

The boys came out into the hallway followed by Mrs. Hardy and Aunt Gertrude. Their presence seemed to make Con even more nervous.

"I'm sorry, Frank, Fenton. But I have a warrant here for Frank's arrest."