Frank and Joe were sitting in the living room watching the news with Laura and Aunt Gertrude. The tantalizing aroma of dinner wafted throughout the house. Every so often, Aunt Gertrude or Laura would check on its progress – Joe sometimes followed, trying to sneak in a taste. He was in the kitchen when the phone rang.

“I got it!” he yelled out. “Hello, Hardy residence – the cute and adorable Hardy speaking!”

“Actually I always thought your mother was the cute and adorable one,” chuckled Fenton over the phone.

“Dad! It’s good to hear you! I guess this means you landed safely in Chicago?”

“Yes I did. I need you and Frank to do something for me. My plane was late and I didn’t get a chance to go to Jefferson High. I’ve been trying to get hold of Mr. Tanner…found out the phone lines in his area are down. I’ve tried his cell but keep getting his voicemail. Would you and your brother go to his house – let him know I’ve arrived but won’t speak to the principal until tomorrow?”

“Sure thing, Dad!”

“I knew I could count on you boys. Now…let me speak to your mother.”

Taking the phone cord as far as he could, Joe called out to Laura. He gave her the phone then walked over to Frank.

“Dad wants us to go see Mr. Tanner,” Joe informed his brother.

“Okay, I think Mr. Tanner’s address is written down in Dad’s address book. It should be in his office.” Frank ran to Fenton’s office while Joe let his aunt know where they were going.

Joe was already in the van when Frank ran out the door carrying a piece of paper. Frank read the directions to Mr. Tanner’s house to his younger brother, and Joe didn’t have any trouble finding the street where the Tanners lived – they were close to Tony’s neighborhood. It only took them ten minutes to reach their destination.

Parking the van at the curb, the brothers got out and went up the sidewalk to the front door. Joe rang the doorbell while Frank peeked through the small window next to the door.

“Doesn’t look like anyone is home,” he commented quietly.

Something caught his eye; Frank pressed closer to the glass and could make out a bottle and a glass.

“You might try knocking on the door, Joe…I’m not positive but I think Mr. Tanner has been drinking.”

“How do you know, he’s been drinking?” asked Joe incredulously.

“Because…okay, I can’t really see all that well but – the shape of the bottle and glass…it reminds me of some of the bottles in the liquor cabinet.”

“Dad did say that Mr. Tanner was taking his wife’s death pretty hard.” Joe sighed sadly.

He turned and knocked on the door. He waited a few minutes then tried again, knocking harder. Joe turned to Frank, a concerned expression on his face.

“You keep knocking – I’m going to go around the back. Maybe the back door is open.” Frank gave his brother a hopeful look before he left.

Frank was walking past the garage door when he paused. He thought he heard the car motor. Something caught his attention; Frank wrinkled his nose in distaste. What was that smell?

Exhaust fumes!

“Joe, come over here…quick!”

Joe, his hand raised to knock, ran over to Frank when he heard the frightened tone in his brother’s voice. “What – what’s wrong?”

“Do you smell that?” asked Frank.

Joe took a few deep breaths. His eyes went wide as he recognized the stench. “Frank…that’s…”

“Exhaust fumes! It’s faint but you can hear the car motor!”

Joe was looking around; he breathed a small sigh of relief. “Frank…look, there’s an exhaust vent. We may still be able to—”

“I hope there’s a back door to the garage! There’s no way to pick the lock on the garage door!” exclaimed Frank as he ran towards the back with Joe following closely.

Frank found a back door with a window in the top half. Taking off his jacket and wrapping it around his fist, he smashed his fist into the window, breaking the glass. Frank and Joe started coughing as the fumes seeped out. Stepping away from the door, Frank took several lungful of air before sticking his hand inside the door to unlock it. He ran inside the garage. Joe raised his shirt to cover his nose and mouth and dashed after his brother. He saw that Frank had opened the driver’s side door and was pulling Mr. Tanner out.

Luckily for Frank and Joe, Mr. Tanner’s neighbor was pruning his hedges. He saw the boys run to the back of the garage and break the window. The elderly gentleman ran inside to call the police.

The brothers managed to get Mr. Tanner out of the garage. Frank felt as if his lungs were going to burst and was relieved when they went out the door. Carrying Mr. Tanner several feet away from the garage, they dropped to the ground. Frank coughed for several moments while Joe took in several deep breaths of fresh air. They then turned their attention to Mr. Tanner.

“I can feel a pulse but it’s really weak,” Frank said. “He’s not breathing though! Call 911!”

Frank tilted Mr. Tanner’s head back and started rescue breathing while Joe called for an ambulance.

“What’s going on – what did you do to Sean?!” asked an elderly woman who came over to them from next door.

“Yes, my brother is doing rescue breathing as I speak…” Joe turned his attention to the woman. “We didn’t do anything to him! Ma’am, the ambulance should be arriving soon – would you mind bringing them over here?”

“Martha, go do what the boy said!” An elderly man gently moved his wife towards the front yard as he gingerly knelt down. “Let me help you, son.”

Martha glanced worriedly at her husband before she walked as quickly as she could to the front lawn. Joe hoped that he and Frank had not been too late. A few minutes later he could hear the sirens –just as Mr. Tanner began to cough.

First the police then the paramedics came running to the backyard. Frank told the paramedics how they had found Mr. Tanner.

“His pulse is weak and he wasn’t breathing…I did some rescue breathing and he started to breathe on his own just as you arrived.”

“Who called in the break-in?” asked the burly officer.

“I did,” replied the elderly man. “My name is Josh Daniels. I saw these boys break the glass window and thought….I didn’t realize Sean was trying to kill himself!”

“What were you two kids doing here?” The officer glared at them suspiciously.

Frank glanced at the officer’s name tag before answering.

“Hello, Officer Williams – my name is Frank Hardy and this is my brother Joe. Our father is Fenton Hardy, he’s a private investigator. He asked us to check on Mr. Tanner.”

“My brother noticed a liquor bottle on the coffee table and we got worried about Mr. Tanner – his wife died not too long ago. Frank went to check to see if there was another way into the house when…” Joe paused for a second.

“I smelled exhaust fumes and thought I heard a car’s motor,” continued Frank. “That’s when we – my brother and I – ran to the back and broke the door window.”

Officer Williams didn’t look like he believed the brothers as he wrote down their statement. “I need you to two to come down the station…we’ll be searching the house. If we find anything missing…” Officer Williams let his implication hang in the air.

Frank could see that Joe was getting annoyed so he placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You won’t find anything missing, Officer.” Frank gently pushed Joe forward when another officer appeared.

“Hey Frank, Joe – what kind of trouble are you getting into now?” asked the tall muscular officer with dark curly hair and blue eyes.

“You know these two, Dave?” Officer Williams glared at the Hardy brothers.

“Relax, Wes – they’re the good guys!”

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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.