While Fenton was in Chicago driving to Thomas Jefferson high school, Joe and Frank were putting their breakfast dishes in the dishwasher and each giving their mother a kiss on the cheek before they left for school.

Frank managed to grab the keys to the van before Joe did. With a grin on his face, he teasingly dangled the keys at Joe who rolled his eyes. They gathered their book bags and were heading for the front door when the phone rang. Aunt Gertrude answered the call.

“Yes, they’re still here, just a moment please.” She caught her nephew’s attention. “It’s Officer Paulson,” she told Frank as she gave him the phone.

“Hi Dave, this is Frank.”

“Hi Frank – you said that your dad is out of town doing some work for Mr. Tanner, right?”

“Yeah that’s right. If he gets the information he’s looking for he’ll be returning late this evening. He usually calls to let us know if there are any changes.”

“I found out something interesting from the lab boys yesterday and I think your dad should know about it.”

“Oh – what did you find out?”

“Mr. Tanner didn’t try and commit suicide…he was drugged. I haven’t told the doctors – Mr. Tanner is still under observation with the psychiatrist. I thought he’d be safer there for now.”

“Why would someone want to kill Mr. Tanner?!” asked a stunned Frank.

Joe had been standing next to his brother trying to listen in; he let out a gasp when he heard Frank’s last question.

“You tell me, Frank! Why did Mr. Tanner hire your dad?”

Frank wasn’t sure if he should answer, not wanting to break a client’s confidentiality. But someone had tried to murder Mr. Tanner!

“All I know Dave, is that Mr. Tanner didn’t think his wife’s death was an accident. Neither did our school principal. Apparently she was supposed to meet Mrs. Tanner – Principal Hayden said that Mrs. Tanner wanted to talk to her about a former student she had taught in Chicago.”

“That doesn’t sound like anything dangerous. I’m going over to the hospital to question Mr. Tanner…that is if he’s regained consciousness. If I find out anything I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Dave! Joe and I have to go or we’ll be late for school. Bye”

Frank slowly hung up the phone and stared at Joe. He turned him around and pushed him out of the house, not wanting to discuss the phone call in front of their mother and aunt.

Joe wanted to ask Frank several questions but with one look at his face, he knew not to say anything. He let himself be dragged out of the house.

Once inside the van Joe turned to Frank. “What was that about? What do you mean, someone tried to kill Mr. Tanner?” he asked as Frank started the van.

“Dave didn’t say why – I guess the doctors must have done a drug test on Mr. Tanner and found something, then Dave had the alcohol tested. They found an unknown substance in Mr. Tanner’s blood and found the same substance in the glass. Mr. Tanner was drugged.”

“What?! But…but why would someone want to kill him?! Unless…”

“Unless Mrs. Hayden’s suspicions were correct – Mrs. Tanner’s death wasn’t an accident,” Frank said with some dread.

“Oh man, that means that Lydia could be in danger! Should we tell Phil?”

“No…not yet anyway.”

Joe stared at Frank; there was something in his brother’s expression that bothered him.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, big brother? I can practically hear the wheels turning.”

“I don’t know. Something’s been bothering me – how is it that the janitor saw Lydia walking the school hallways but she never saw anyone? Plus, Lydia said that she was on the other side of the building heading towards the library but that would be impossible! If she was…”

“Then Mr. Jered wouldn’t have seen her!” said Joe.

“Exactly.”

*****

Lydia hadn’t liked how the Hardy brothers kept staring at her. She had two classes with Frank. The first was Advanced Chemistry – normally her lab partner was Liz Webling, but she was absent that day. Frank’s lab partner was out sick also so he became her lab partner for the day. Although always polite, today Frank seemed a little reserved.

“Phil told me that your father had to go out of town.”

“Yes, Mr. Tanner wanted him to search for someone,” Frank replied calmly. He was watching Lydia out of the corner of his eye.

“Oh…where’d did he go? I bet he travels to a lot of interesting places.”

“Sometimes he does – not this time, he’s just in Chicago.”

Frank let out a yelp of pain as the mixture they were cooking spilled onto his hand.

“Oh Frank! I’m sooo sorry!”

Mr. Fox hurried over; Lydia had gotten some paper towels and wet a few. She put them over Frank’s hand, pressing the cool towels firmly onto the burned area. Frank hissed in pain as she was pressing a little hard on the burn.

“Good thing you just started,” said Mr. Fox as he examined Frank’s hand. “Otherwise you’d have burned your skin off. I’ll give you a pass so you can see the nurse.”

Frank followed Mr. Fox over to his desk and waited for him to write out the hall pass.

“So how did that happen?” asked Mr. Fox as he gave Frank the pass.

“It was an accident…we both reached out for the container at the same time,” Frank said.

As Frank walked down the hallway to the nurse’s station, he thought about Lydia’s reaction upon hearing that his father was in Chicago. The deliberate way she pressed hard on the wet paper towel on his hand.

Lydia skipped her next class. She went down to the basement, she needed to be alone…she needed to think…she needed a cigarette.

Frank wasn’t surprised when he didn’t see Lydia in their Calculus class. He could tell that Phil was worried about her though.

“Frank,” whispered Phil. “You have Lydia for chemistry, right?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Did she look sick to you? She was awfully quiet at lunch and now she’s not in class.” Phil glanced over to see if Ms. Macy was watching them.

“She looked okay to me,” shrugged Frank.

“Hey, what happened to your hand?” Phil noticed the bandage.

“Oh…nothing, just a little accident.” Lydia ‘accidentally’ spilled our experiment on me! Frank thought to himself. Then he wondered – where was Lydia Barlow?

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Disclaimer

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.