As Frank drove hurriedly to the hospital, he tried to fight the panic in his heart as he vehemently concentrated on the road in front of him. For once, he wasn’t worried about staying in the parameters of the speed limit or obeying the laws of traffic. He had one goal only, and that was to get to his destination as fast as humanly possible. The fact that Officer Jacobs was leading him in a police escort was certainly helpful. He was finding it harder and harder to breathe correctly, and he tried to make himself take controlled breaths and to arrive at some sort of peace. It wasn’t working.

He had received the call from his father only twenty minutes earlier and he was still trying to process everything that had been said. From what he could gather in the rushed conversation, he knew only that there had been an attack on both Joe and Vanessa, and that Charlie Hughes, the lone suspect still at large, was apparently the perpetrator. Everything else was still a blur. Why Hughes returned, what happened, what the role of officer Daley had been… they were all important questions, but right now he didn’t care about the answers. All he knew was that he had to make sure that Joe and Vanessa were all right. Still, all he kept hearing in his mind was the undertone of panic in his father’s voice on the phone that he had tried valiantly, though unsuccessfully, to disguise.

Looking at the clock on the dashboard, he knew that he had less than five minutes to go until he’d arrive. But what will I find when I get there? He swallowed the lump in his throat that was beginning to form and tried to maintain a steady composure. Next to him, in the passenger seat, Callie was looking out the window, too, trying not to make eye contact with him. Taking a sidelong glance at her, he immediately noticed that her breathing was a little unsteady as well; she was trying not to cry; to be strong for him.

Reaching over, he covered her hand with his and gave it a gentle squeeze. He knew that he had to hold it together for her… for his father… for himself. Almost instantly she took his hand and squeezed it back. All the while they remained in silence, and Frank had a momentary sense of confusion as to who was actually comforting whom.

As they finally arrived in front of the hospital, officer Jacobs pulled aside and motioned for Frank to pull into the adjacent parking lot.

“I’ll do it. Give me the keys. Go.” It was Callie, answering a question that he knew he hadn’t even needed to ask.

“Thanks,” he replied, relieved. “I’ll… I’ll be in…” He tried to think of where he was headed; his mind was whirling.

“I’ll find you,” she cut him off. “Go with the officer now.” Getting out of the car, she and Frank were about to switch places when she paused briefly and met his eyes. “It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered, reaching up to touch his face. Motioning in the direction of the waiting officer, she motioned. “Go.”

Nodding, Frank followed the officer to the awaiting elevator and made his way onto it. Watching the numbers climb slowly to the top, he couldn’t help but to wonder if they were going excruciatingly slow or unbelievably fast… if he wanted to really know what could possibly change his life forever.

As soon as the doors opened, he saw a handful of people in the waiting room. There was Andrea, Vanessa’s mother, on a cell phone, several police officers, including a young looking, slightly familiar one, covered with some blood, Chief Collig, and, most importantly, his father. By instinct, he looked for his mother before realizing immediately that she had gone to visit her best friend in Vermont only days ago. Timing seemed to be very off lately.

“Dad!” Frank called, running over to him. “What happened? Is Joe…”

“He’s okay,” Fenton replied, giving Frank a quick hug in greeting and immediately ushering him to the corner of the room. In the same instant, he motioned for Chief Collig to follow him.

“What about Vanessa?” Frank asked again, hoping against hope that somehow everything would be all right.

“She’s okay, too,” Fenton replied, motioning for Frank to have a seat. Following suit, both he and Chief Collig gathered at the corner of the room. “As a matter of fact,” Fenton continued, “I just found out that Joe is out of surgery and he’s okay. The doctor is going to update us as soon as he can. Vanessa is in the process of being released. She’s already given her statement to the police officers; from what I understand, she’s been waiting in the room that they’re taking Joe into. Even though she’s signed the paperwork to leave, I don’t think she’s going anywhere.” He managed a small smile. “She’s quite a girl.”

Frank let out a breath he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding.

“I know,” Fenton replied, looking at his eldest son and momentarily feeling at a loss for words. “I know.”

He patted Frank’s arm gently, needing to know that he could ensure that both of his children would be okay. No matter how old they got, or how much he respected them as detectives and grown men, they were always his little boys.

Frank, who had always been in tune with his father, even more so than Joe had been, picked up on what his dad was thinking at once. “Maybe we should have listened when you told me to be an accountant and Joe to play pro baseball,” he managed to weakly joke. Leaning his head back, he stared at the ceiling, relief flooding over him for a moment. Finally, he sat back up.

“So what happened?” he asked.

“That’s why I’m here, Frank.” Chief Collig, who had been intentionally silent until this point, giving Frank and Fenton a moment, finally spoke. Frank noted at once that Collig’s tone was more gentle and considerably devoid of the anger that it had been just this morning. Has it been only today? Could all of this be happening in a span of hours? Suddenly, Frank felt very, very tired, but he leaned in, eager to know how his brother had ended up here, to try and figure out an ending to all that had happened.

“In a nutshell,” Collig recounted, looking first at Fenton and then at Frank, “Officer Daley was assigned to watch Vanessa and Joe, as officer Jacobs was assigned to watch you and Callie. Everything was going according to schedule when, for some inexplicable reason, officer Daley entered Joe and Vanessa’s apartment, apparently to procure some tea for a persistent cough he’s been having.”

Fenton raised his eyebrows.

“I know,” Collig replied. “Not exactly according to procedure. But…” he paused a brief moment to make his next point, “Let’s not attack him yet. He’s the reason Joe and Vanessa are here.”

“Go on,” Fenton encouraged.

“In any case, he also inexplicably left for approximately ten minutes. His story is corroborated by Vanessa.”

“Why?” Frank couldn’t help but to cut in. “If he was supposed to be there the whole time, why would he possibly leave?”

Color rose in Collig’s face. “To get doughnuts.”

Frank felt the anger he didn’t know he’d been feeling begin to surface. “You mean that my little brother is in the hospital, who knows how badly hurt, and his girlfriend was attacked, because he wanted… DOUGHNUTS?!” His voice was rising and he was eliciting a few stares from the opposite corner of the room.

“Frank… let Ezra finish, please.” Fenton spoke calmly, years of experience working on his side, but inside he understood, and agreed with, Frank’s reaction.

“Thank you,” Collig replied evenly. “When he returned, he found the door to the apartment opened and he heard a commotion inside. According to Vanessa, and I am sure you’ll ask her yourself, knowing you,” he went on pointedly, “she had exited the apartment to give the tea to John… officer Daley… when she was attacked. She states that as soon as she entered the hallway a man grabbed her and attempted what looked to be a sexual assault.”

Frank felt his face drain of color and started to speak when he was cut off by the Chief, who seemed to know what he was about to say.

“Thankfully,” Collig continued, “The assault attempt was unsuccessful. Vanessa was injured in the attack, though, and didn’t have a clear view of what was happening. She does remember that Hughes wanted to go INSIDE the apartment--- thank God, that was her saving grace. Apparently, at the noise they made at entry, Joe, who’d been sleeping, was instantly awakened. Obviously, he went to try and protect Vanessa. But Hughes had a gun, and was planning to use it. That’s what officer Daley saw at his return. He yelled for Hughes to drop the gun, but he didn’t… and he started shooting. Daley shot back. He’s over there in the corner—look—“ The Chief motioned—“And he’s the hero now who saved Joe and Vanessa’s lives. The paramedics were called via radio… and now we’re here,” he concluded.

“Well, why did Hughes start shooting?” Frank asked. Too much about this story wasn’t making any sense.

“Because a cop was in the room,” Collig replied in a slightly condescending tone, as though it was the most stupid question in the world.

Frank felt the heat rush to his face. He didn’t know if it was because he was exhausted from lack of sleep or because he was sick with worry, but he suddenly didn’t care what the Chief thought of him. The story – the whole scenario—didn’t make sense, and he knew it, even if no one acknowledged it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the expression on his dad’s face, though, and he KNEW that his dad saw it, too.

“Ezra,” Fenton cut in. “You know we go back a long time. I’ve worked with you professionally for a quarter of a century, and you’ve been a friend longer than that. Frank asked a valid question, and I have quite a few myself.” He met Collig’s eye with an unwavering stare. “This case is open; it is NOT closed. I plan on closing it. So—you can work with me or against me. What will it be?”

Frank was taken aback by this side to his father. There was “dad,” but there was also professional Fenton. With a small smile, he recognized that neither one of them was to be fooled with.

For several minutes, there was a tense, tension- filled silence as the two old friends, on opposite sides it seemed, stared at each other, neither one backing down.

Collig honestly saw that his officer, though he made a few mistakes, was a hero. The rape/ murder cases were now closed. They had a confession by Jimmy Dee, incontrovertible DNA evidence that he had been involved with all of the crimes. There were only two other suspects. Roger Timms was dead. John Daley, the rookie officer, had killed Charlie Hughes, the lone assailant still at large, in Joe and Vanessa’s apartment. In all his years of service, he’d learned one thing above all… 99.9% of the time, pieces of the puzzle came together and fit—even if some were a tighter squeeze than others. This, he reluctantly had to admit, was a very tight squeeze.

Looking at Fenton, though, he knew it was HIS job to deal with the .01% of the time when things didn’t fit. And he’d be damned if he couldn’t admit that Fenton… and later, his boys…. always seemed to find those needles in haystacks.

He could hear his supervisor’s voice… waste of taxpayer money. DNA evidence can’t be wrong. I thought you’d have become smarter in all of these years… Besides, did he REALLY want to get involved in a case that would probably end up at the same conclusion anyway?

Then he thought of his own daughter. What if something had happened to her? Could he live with himself if he didn’t check out all of the possibilities that he could be wrong, even if there didn’t seem to be any chance at all of that happening? Looking at Fenton, he allowed himself to be reminded that he was a former cop, an honorable man, and he wouldn’t lead the department on a wild goose chase for nothing. Plus, he knew that Fenton had just seen two important young women in his life become terrorized, had almost lost his son….

He knew what he had to do.

“Go see your boy,” he huffed, gruffly.

Some officers left the room, presumably to finish their paperwork and head back to the station, creating a temporary diversion from the standoff.

“I’ll meet you in his room in an hour.”

Pursing his lips, Fenton nodded in thanks, unable to find the words to express his gratitude to this man who was going against everything he believed in and putting his neck on the line, simply because he had faith in Fenton’s ability to do the right thing.

Collig turned away and left the room.

“I guess that’s the end, then,” Frank spoke up, seeing the doctor in the hallway, motioning for them to come forward. “He’s with us.”

“Son,” Fenton replied, putting an arm around Frank’s shoulders, “I think it’s just the beginning.”

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The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency 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 original characters without express permission of the authors.