Hardy Boys Fan Fiction at the HDA - Brain Child

Days later, arriving at the police station once again, Frank paused before entering the building. He motioned for his father and Joe to go ahead and meet Chief Collig, and watched as they made their way inside and headed towards the conference room. They still had another fifteen minutes before the meeting was going to begin, and he had just watched as a taxi pulled into the parking lot with Nancy inside. Before he could go into the meeting, he needed to clear the air, even temporarily.

He raised his hand in a slow wave and watched as Nancy nodded her head in silent acknowledgement. As she walked up to him, he noticed at once that she was… different. It was okay with him. He was different, too.

"Hey," he said to her. For the first time he could remember in all the years of knowing her, neither one of them exchanged a hug or quick kiss in greeting. It was awkward. Then again, he knew it would be.

"Hey yourself," she responded neutrally, meeting his eyes.

Sighing, Frank decided finally to say what he knew he had to. "Nan? Can we talk for a minute?"

"Yeah. Sure." She remained pretty quiet. "I think we NEED to talk; the both of us."

Shifting his footing, he realized he was nervous. Still, he had to be upfront. "Nan," he began, choosing his words carefully. "I've… I've basically been a jerk, and I want to apologize."

Nancy looked up, surprised. Then, unable to help herself, she responded. "I agree. BUT—" She hesitated, before continuing, "I've been one, too. I guess it takes one to know one, huh?" Her attempt at humor, even momentarily, fell flat to her own ears.

Frank smiled sympathetically, appreciating Nancy's willingness to admit her own fault in the matter. Even so, it didn't make things any easier for him. "I know. I'm… I'm sorry. I realize I haven't treated you very nicely over the past week or so, and there's no excuse for that. You know I'm… basically a good guy." He smiled slightly, hating even to be having this conversation. "But it was wrong of me not to call you, even with everything happening."

Nancy sighed. Despite everything, she still cared about Frank Hardy. Still, she'd had time to calm down, to talk to Ned, to THINK… and that distance helped to keep her emotions in check.

"Frank," she replied evenly. "IF you recall, YOU asked ME to come and help you with this case. I flew out here from River Heights. I tried to help you in any way I could. I'm so sorry about what happened to Joe… to Vanessa… and I WOULD have come to see either of them, if I thought I'd be welcome. But I'm not… and I know why." She had to stop when she felt her lower lip tremble. Stop it, Drew, she silently scolded herself. You've had distance. You can DO this. Slowly, she went on. "Listen," she sighed. "I... I guess I can't blame anyone for feeling the way that they do about me. I honestly didn't mean to come here and start any trouble. I guess given the… feelings…" she stumbled over her words, but then forced herself to carry on, "that we've had in the past about each other, that I should have realized that we're better off friends—at a distance."

Frank felt terrible. "Well, you may be right," he conceded. "But," he went on, "You are welcome. Joe got the flowers, by the way. He liked them."

Nancy gave a short laugh. "I tried. He probably thought they were poison or something, though. You don't have to lie."

Frank laughed despite himself. "No, I'm not lying. Vanessa, on the other hand…"

Slowly, Nancy smiled back before continuing. "I guess I understand why everyone hates me," she said, sadly. "I can only hope that Vanessa and Joe and especially Callie can see that I'm not…a bad girl, either." She gave a small smile, having echoed Frank's phrase. She really DID want the best for Frank, and for herself as well. And she knew, deep down, that perhaps distance was the only way to ensure the best for everyone.

Sighing, Frank answered her. "I guess you and Ned must have had a talk." He knew he didn't have to even ask if they did; it was as clear as day

"You could call it that," she responded, more bitterly than she had intended to. Then, she got herself together. "But, in the end, we communicated—and that's more than we've done, I guess, in a while. I think we'll be all right. I have a lot to prove to him, but he's worth it to me to do that. I … I assume that you came to the same decision, huh?" Looking at him, she knew he had.

"I did," he acknowledged. "I was stupid."

"Me, too."

They paused in a silence that was beginning to once again get comfortable.

Finally, Frank broke the moment. Gently touching her arm, he said, "Before you leave, Nancy… and obviously, at this point, I don't even expect you to stay any longer… I want to talk to you—really talk to you—about everything. The past; well, it is what it is. But as for our future, as FRIENDS… I think we need to decide what to do about that. I think if we both talked to each other, about why we made our decisions, then we'll put a period on..." He fumbled for the right word. "On uncertainty. On having this---weird vibe-- between us. I don't want that. And I don’t want Callie, or Ned, to have any uncertainty either." There. That had been hard, but it needed to be said.

Finally, she answered, relieved. "Deal, Hardy. But let's not—seal it with a kiss, huh?" She had to joke about it. It was too hard to think about the reality.

Laughing, Frank was about to sling an arm around her, an old habit, when he stopped himself. Instead, he gave a small smile and offered her his arm. "Let's solve this case, my friend."

"Buddy, Pal," she answered, satisfied. "Let's do it."

They entered the building.

*****

Inside, everyone gathered in much the same fashion as they had earlier. Fenton looked around, assessing the situation. Nancy and Frank looked eager to begin. Ezra looked… somewhere between bitter and curious. Joe, though—he had fire in his eyes, and he meant business. Fenton knew that look and it worried him. He'd seen it once before…

Deciding to take the lead, Fenton began to speak. "Okay, all. We all know why we're here, but to reiterate… It looks like this case is solved, but many of us have a feeling that there's something more to it. I think what we need to do is to lay out all of the facts that we THINK we know, and then discuss why we believe there are flaws in those facts. IF we still feel uncomfortable with the outcome, then we'll have to decide what course of action to take. If not, we need to thank Chief Collig here for his patience and leave well enough alone, being grateful that… that everyone is okay." He choked up a bit, unexpectedly, on the last word as he looked at Joe who, seeing his dad's reaction, gave him a small nod back in understanding.

"Ezra?" Fenton looked at his friend. "Tell us, once again, what we know."

"Okay," Collig replied, standing up. He placed a load of files on the table at which everyone was seated. Fenton could guess at once what was in those files, and that those files had not been easy to get. Again, he was amazed by his friend's quiet support and confidence in him. Mouthing a silent "thank you," at him, Collig simply nodded back in acknowledgement.

"Let's start with the victims," he began.

"First, there's Leslie Smith. She was the first known victim in Bayport. We know she was killed, via stabbing, after being raped. DNA suggests that there were three attackers, a story corroborated by Vanessa, Callie, Charlotte, and Mandy—but we’ll get to those reports later.

Then, the remaining girls who witnessed the crimes were threatened by one man who remained behind. These girls then apparently became the targets.

Of the remaining women, Mandy was killed and also raped, only weeks after Leslie Smith was killed. She was shot. No DNA evidence was left at the scene; the guy used protection. It seems like there was only one attacker, however, after the autopsy report came back.

Two weeks later, Charlotte is attacked. The killer actually comes into her place of work—where Vanessa works as well--- and gets her to come down to the garage, promising some sort of delivery. He must then have KNOWN that it was Charlotte's anniversary with her boyfriend, which…"

"Suggests that the killer wanted this to be personal and became familiar with the victims," Fenton finished.

"Yes," Ezra acknowledged. "To add to that, conveniently the security tapes were missing from that day, which means the attack was planned in advance and that the guy had access to the garage. In any case, Charlotte was kidnapped in a van, raped at gunpoint, and left for dead."

"But he didn't KILL her!" Joe interjected, forcefully. "And that means that he seemed to want more than… death. It's like he WANTED her to suffer... and live with that suffering. And it worked!" He knew he was getting loud, but images of Vanessa, especially, but also of Charlotte, flashed through his mind.

"Yes, again," Collig acknowledged. "His method of operation seems to have changed. Charlotte was raped, though, again by ONE MAN…and again he used protection.

Then, we get to Vanessa's attack. Charlie Hughes—we'll get to him in a minute, as I'm trying to keep the victims to themselves, first—attacked her. Again, it looks like an attempted rape. Again, he was vigilant about security; tapes are missing as well from the apartment building security files. This attempt, though, was foiled when John Daley came in and shot and killed Hughes, effectively ending the attacks. And sparing Callie Shaw, thankfully."

Frank shuddered at the thought. Joe saw it, and was thankful, again, that his brother would never have to go through what he had been through with Iola… and now Vanessa.

"Okay," Frank cut in, trying to erase the image of Callie that Collig had just created in his mind. "So there are the victims. What do we know about the three guys? Let's review that… then we can start shooting holes in this 'rock solid' case."

"You're damned right," Joe added, agreeing with his brother.

"Boys," Fenton cut in, exasperated, "Stop jumping to conclusions! Ideally, we're wrong and this case is closed. I WANT everyone who has done this to be either dead or in jail, so let's hope that's exactly what happened. Honestly, do I think that's the case? No—or I wouldn’t be here right now. Still, let's make some sense of this, and then maybe we can all move on, and we'll all feel better that justice has been done and that both Vanessa, and Callie, are still safe. Got it?"

Realizing that they'd gotten so caught up in everything, Frank and Joe admitted that their father was right. "Go on." Frank spoke for both of them.

"All right," the Chief continued. " So now we get to why you're all so disturbed. We have three attackers.

First, and perhaps most importantly, is Jimmy Dee. He admitted to the attack on Leslie Smith. His DNA was collected and processed from the scene, from the rape. He confessed to the crime, saying it was random. He also admits to the rape and murder of Mandy, as well as the attack on Charlotte. There is no DNA evidence here, but he CONFESSED to it. He has no alibi for any of the times of the attacks. And he had a minor record as a juvenile. Plus, he fits the description that the girls related, down to the ice blue eyes.

Then, there's Roger Timms. He was linked to Leslie Smith's rape as well from DNA. In a weird twist, he was found dead on Dee's property. And Dee admitted to killing HIM! He said in his confession that Timms was getting cold feet about participating in the rape and murder, and he was about to come to the police. So he killed him—blunt force trauma to the head. He and Dee apparently knew each other as kids

Finally, there's Charlie Hughes. Again, a DNA match to the Smith rape. He was killed last week by Officer Daley after attacking Vanessa... and Joe, seemingly by accident. There seems to have been a relationship with the other two men while they were in high school.

And THAT…" Collig finished, "Is why I don't understand why you're pursuing this. Three suspects; two deaths; one confession. It adds up."

"We'll see about that," Fenton replied. "It SEEMS to add up. I'll tell you what." He addressed the group. "I want everyone here, myself included, to sit quietly for ten minutes. Think about what Chief Collig said. Write down anything that you think you'd like to pursue, anything that doesn't seem to make sense, no matter how minute it seems. Then, we'll put our cards on the table, go through methodically; review the files that the Chief has been kind enough to obtain. Deal?"

They all agreed, starting to write down their thoughts.

After the agreed upon time period, an hour long, heated discussion followed. Nancy was surprised to see how the Hardys, all of them, seemed to work so well together, seemingly all different parts to one finely tuned engine. She began to wonder if she had a place here, after all. Still, determined to do her best to help them, even if to make amends for her poor decision with Frank, she concentrated on the task at hand. Finally, a list emerged.

"Okay—let's see what we have then," Fenton said, trying to tie everything together. "Joe, read what we've all come up with, things that don't seem to make sense to us, and we'll make a list. Go ahead."

Doing as his father indicated, Joe held up the list.

Missing Pieces

1. The first attack involved three men; the others involved one. Why?

2. The attack on Vanessa was perpetrated by Charlie Hughes, who had BROWN eyes. The attacks on Leslie, Charlotte and Mandy involved someone with BLUE eyes (Dee?). Why would are there seemingly two different men involved?

3. Why did Charlie Hughes suddenly reappear if he was not the man involved in the attacks on Mandy and Charlotte?

4. The methods of attack changed. Gang rape w/ DNA evidence & murder; rape #2 (protection- no DNA) & murder; rape #3 (protection-no DNA)- no murder; attack #4 (attempted rape). Appears to be getting more personal—why?

5. How did the security tapes from both the garage at Charlotte's work and Vanessa's apartment go missing? Where are they? (Inside job?!)

6. HOW could Dee, who is only 5'4", kill Timms, who is over 6 feet, with blunt force trauma to the HEAD?

7. Why would Dee leave Timms' body on his own property?

8. IF there were two men involved (Dee and Hughes) HOW did Dee communicate with Hughes?

9. Why did Dee drive in a direction where he knew he'd get caught by the cops? He seemed to go right to them.

10. Why would Dee CONFESS to two rapes, when he went out of his way to use protection in order NOT to get caught?

11.It's a large leap from a small juvenile record that could have been expunged to a major, violent criminal (Dee and Timms). Why the leap?

"I guess that's about it," Joe finished. "Do you SEE why there's a problem here?" Joe directed his growing frustration towards Chief Collig.

"I admit, Joe—it IS strange," Collig replied. "But we may never be able to explain some things. I'm going to play Devil's advocate for a moment here. Let's consider some possibilities—although I do see your points. Dee doesn't appear to have communicated with anyone from the outside—but I'll check on that. It IS possible that Dee was telling the truth that he killed Timms, even though he is shorter than him; height isn't necessarily a factor. Hughes may have been afraid of getting caught, or ratted out, by Dee, and so he returned to try and get rid of the only witnesses. Criminals, especially desperate ones, change their minds about their method of attack all the time. Dee would have known he had a small criminal history and DNA could prove his guilt. Therefore, if he was desperate, he would have worked in a hurry and wouldn't have thought about where he left the body, or where he was heading to."

"No!" Joe interjected, furious. "You're rationalizing something that isn't rational. This guy was so careful—why would he mess up all of a sudden?"

Collig raised a hand to his temple and sighed, deeply. "I don't know, Joe. I'm as frustrated as you are. Well.,. almost…" he added when he realized again what Joe had been through. "What I do know is THIS- there is NO EVIDENCE that anyone other than Dee was involved in the first three attacks. The other two guys are DEAD—and he's in JAIL—and I honestly can't explain it. I'm willing to go out on a limb for you now, so we need to plan some type of strategy to fill in these holes. But calm down, Joe. I know it's hard, but I'm on your side… even though someone could have my head for this, okay?"

"Joe…" Frank warned, standing and reaching for his brother's arm.

"No, Frank! Enough!" Joe shook his brother's hand off violently and whirled around, facing him. "CALLIE wasn't attacked; VANESSA was. Maybe you'd care a little bit more if the situation was reversed!"

Stung, Frank glared at him and Joe knew he'd just crossed the line with his brother again. Still, Frank remained calm. "Listen, Joe. I know you're upset, but please--- lay off, okay? Obviously, I'm incredibly grateful that Callie was spared. But don't you think, for an instant, that I wouldn't have done everything in my power to prevent Vanessa from getting hurt as well? And that being said---I'm giving you my word that, IF there's something to be found, we'll find it." From the look in his eyes, Joe was instantly reassured that Frank was on his side, as he always had been.

Sheepishly, he looked down and, unable to meet his brother's eyes, he mumbled, "I apologize. You didn't deserve that." He was momentarily at a loss for words. Fortunately, he didn't have to speak, because the next thing he knew, his dad was at his side.

"Son," Fenton spoke, gently. "You have nothing to apologize for. You've been through an incredibly trying ordeal. You're still weak, you're stumped; we all are." He put an arm around his younger son in an affectionate hug, but the change in his voice suggested that he meant business. "Still, this case is personal now. And Frank's right; if there's something to be found, we'll find it. Because no one—and I mean no one—attacks my kids. Any of them." His choice of words made Joe look up, and he understood his dad's phrase perfectly.

Touched deeply, Joe took a moment to look around the room. His dad, world famous private investigator was there, but right now he was just…Dad. Frank held no bitterness in his eyes for Joe's earlier outburst, only concern and determination. Chief Collig, for all of his gruffness, was looking at him with kindness; with sympathy. Even Nancy, for all the undertone of acrimony, seemed genuinely concerned for his well-being.

If there was any way in the world that a seemingly impossible case could be analyzed, that a rabbit could be pulled out of a hat and his gut instinct that something was wrong could be proved correct, then he knew he couldn't be working with a better team. No—they weren't just a team; they were his family and friends, and he knew that they'd do anything—everything—to help him.

Blinking back tears of thanks, he spoke shakily. "So…" He cleared his throat. "So what now?" was all he could manage.

Fenton, answered in understanding. "We're going to divide and conquer, investigate what we can, interview people, review files, and basically turn everything inside out. Son, if there's an answer, we'll find it.

"Thanks, Dad," he managed in gratitude. "I... I just couldn't stand around, waiting for the possibility that there would be some other attack."

He did not know then that the wait would not be long.

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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.