HDA - Classified Secrets by Cherylann Rivers Introduction

Joe Hardy pushed open the door to his room in frustration about fifteen minutes after he had left. He took a quick glance at his brother who was staring at him for some reason and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He looked at himself in the mirror and tried to calm himself. Splashing his face with some water, he rubbed his eyes and tried to refocus on the case. Joe had tried calling Vanessa several times, to no avail. He tried calling her mother’s cell phone, but she hadn’t answered, either. Then, worrying deeply, he had called any friends at home who he could think of—Biff, Tony, Phil, Chet, Liz, Jerry—no one had heard from Vanessa. Now, he was fighting the feelings of panic which were beginning to surface.

Joe felt his heart beating faster, and he went to bite his nails, a habit which he had long ago managed to stop. Realizing what he was about to do, he put his hand down and clenched and unclenched his fists. When he had spoken with Chet, Chet had managed to tell him all about baseball and school and everything else that was normal back in Bayport. He had wanted to know how his sister was doing, and Joe had exhaled deeply, realizing that he couldn’t answer that question. Where WAS Iola, anyhow? He’d check on her in a little while, but he did think it was strange that she didn’t look like she was around. More on his mind, though, was Vanessa. How could he have left her without an explanation? As much as he still blamed Callie for introducing Vanessa to this ridiculous idea, he was mad at himself as well. If Callie was to blame for Vanessa’s predicament, Joe had to admit that he was the catalyst for the whole thing.

Joe took out his wallet and looked at a picture of Vanessa taken only a month ago. He swallowed the lump beginning to form in his throat. She was so pretty, so alive and vivacious. He couldn’t believe the way he had treated her. She deserved much better. If, God forbid, anything happened to her, Joe didn’t think he could deal with it. As horrifically as he had felt after Iola’s disappearance, and as badly as he still felt about it, Vanessa’s harm would almost be worse, because he could have prevented it, if only he had done the right thing. Those thoughts, along with the idea that any one of his friends could be badly hurt or worse by being exposed somehow to Meningitis at the high school, were becoming unbearable to him, and weighted heavily on his mind.

With a heavy sigh and slightly trembling hands, Joe entered the room, determined now, more than ever, to crack this case and to save Vanessa. What he hadn’t expected was to see his brother, more pale than before, sitting on the bed with his arms crossed in a hostile manner, waiting for him to emerge.

"Yes?" Joe asked. He wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation. Frank had been fine when he left the room before. "Is there something the matter?"

Frank met his eye. "Yeah. You never answered my question from before."

Joe lifted his hands to the ceiling in a gesture of confusion. "What? I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I’m a little preoccupied right now. Vanessa’s in danger."

Frank was again trying to be calm, as he sympathized with his brother. However, he was concerned about his own girlfriend, too, and he needed to see her. Frank consciously tried to keep his voice even, although he wanted to strangle his brother. He said, non- antagonistically, "Let me re-phrase that, Joe. Okay. You told me before that you and Callie had a fight. I need to know what you fought about, and what was said. The reason I need to know this is because Callie is not here, and I know her well enough that she would be here knowing I was back. So, I’m a little worried."

There, Frank thought. That was more than fair.

Joe couldn’t believe his brother. Vanessa was in grave danger, and he was worried about Callie?! Joe felt his face get red, and he lashed out at his brother. "Frank! I can’t believe you’re worried about Callie. She’s a big girl, and she can handle herself. I thought you, of all people, would help me with Vanessa’s case. Okay? I need you right now to help me, and not to worry about that girlfriend of yours."

Joe felt a little better. He had gotten his point across without insulting Callie too badly- at all, really. He still had Frank’s words about his feelings for Callie somewhere in the back of his mind, so he had tried to be reasonable.

Frank bit back the reply he really wanted to say, and countered Joe. "Look, Joe, of course I’m going to help you find Vanessa. I know you’re worried. You should be. Callie, though, is not here, and although you think that I should ignore her right now, I simply can’t. You know how you’re always talking about gut instincts and all? Well. Mine is that something you said, or something she said, caused her not to be here, and I’m just not getting a good feeling about it, okay?"

Joe took a deep breath. Frank WAS being relatively calm, and he didn’t want a replay of how Frank had become so ill earlier. Joe hesitated. He knew Frank wouldn’t like the truth, but there was almost no way to back out of it now.

"Fine, Frank, but you won’t like this, okay?"

Frank tried to listen, ignoring his growing concern. "Go on."

"Callie told me about what she had told Vanessa, so I got angry, and I think it was justified. I did, um, fly off the handle maybe a bit too much, though."

"What did you say, exactly?" Frank was even- keeled, but Joe sensed his anger. Still, he told the truth.

"I told her that whatever happened to Vanessa would be her fault. I told her I never wanted to see her again, and that you wouldn’t, either, if I had anything to do with it. I mentioned that she wasn’t a good person, and that everyone had misjudged her because she was deceitful. In a nutshell, that’s it."

Frank’s jaw dropped open. It took him a minute to recover. "Joe?! How could you do that? How could you, of all people, tell Callie that she’s solely responsible for Vanessa? Do you know what a huge burden of guilt that places on someone? And how could you bring ME into it? AND, after everything Callie’s done for you, to tell her those things… that’s… HORRIBLE!" Frank was stunned.

Joe rubbed his temple. "Look, Frank, I told you I think what Callie did was wrong, and I stand by that. BUT, I didn’t know that she told you to tell me about it at the time, nor was I really thinking straight. I guess I owe her an apology, but that’s not on my top list of priorities right now."

Frank sat up quickly, and a wave of intense pain ripped through he side. He cried out in pain involuntarily. Joe stared in horror at his brother, and quickly sat next to him on the edge of the bed and put his arm around him to steady him. He was through asking Frank if he was all right. Clearly he wasn’t, and just as obvious was the fact that Frank wasn’t about to admit it. Joe just quietly rubbed his brother’s back for a few minutes, allowing Frank to get his bearings. As terrified as Joe was about Vanessa, he was growing just as concerned for Frank. Something was wrong, and he knew it. All Joe could do was keep Frank as comfortable as possible while working on this case, and when it was over, as Joe soon prayed it would be, he would INSIST that Frank get back to the hospital, and fast. One look at his brother’s glassy eyes, wan complexion and body language was more than enough to cause Joe a lot of concern.

Gently, he spoke to his brother. "Look, Frank, I’ll do anything you ask. I will find Callie, and I will apologize to her. I assume you went to find her, so I guess I can assume that Iola’s not there, either."

Frank, head in his hands, just nodded slowly.

"Just promise me you’ll take it easy, Frank. I’m not going to bother you about this, because if I were you, I’d probably do the same thing. I’m not used to you being so stubborn like me. I don’t know if I like it."

Frank weakly looked up, and managed a small smile. "Yeah, it is kind of annoying."

"Oh, Frank," Joe sighed. "Dad’ll be up in a minute. I want you to NOT move once you get comfortable. I’m not used to taking care of you- it’s normally the opposite."

"I’m fine," Frank muttered.

"Yeah, right." Joe replied. "I’m sorry if I got out of hand with Callie. As soon as we find Vanessa, I’ll help you find her. I’m sure she’s fine. Now, here." Joe moved back and helped Frank to get comfortable. Joe was again taken by how terrible Frank looked, and it was beginning to get to him.

"Thanks. I’ll be okay."

Joe sighed loudly. Then, instinctively, he hugged his brother tightly. "I’ll make sure of that."

At that moment, Fenton Hardy walked through the door. He was surprised not only by the rare display of affection he saw between his sons, but by Frank’s appearance.

"Son! Are you okay?"

"He’s okay," Joe answered. "How did things go with the phone calls?"

Fenton sat down. "Well, everyone is on the highest alert. I spoke with Chief Collig and Con Riley, and placed some phone calls to the higher ups who need to know. They’ll contact the high school. There is something I thought about, though."

"What’s that?" asked Frank, softly.

"Well, if Vanessa is somehow exposed to the Meningitis, then she’d have to return to spread it to the school. So, if she is involved, she’s either got to come back, or she’s some sort of variation to the theme, which I don’t know would make sense."

"That’s true," Joe said, feeling a bit more spirited. "Then she’d have to call me—I left her a ton of messages. Or, if she’s mad at me, she can call any one of our friends, who I also had leave messages. She’ll never make it to school. I hope that’s what will happen," he said, wistfully.

"She’ll make it," Frank said, comforting him.

Joe looked at his big brother, who always thought of him before his own health or being in general. "Thanks, bro."

"Well," Fenton continued, "I think we need to look at these ads again. What do you say? Are you boys up for it? There’s probably more information in them than we think."

"Absolutely!" Joe exclaimed. He took out the ads again, spreading them on the bed. They HAD to figure this one out.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation, The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow them without express permission of the authors.