hardy boys fan fiction

MANSION MYSTERY
hardy boys nancy drew fan fiction
by
CQB
Chapter 4
hardy boys fan fiction

THE CHAPTERS

INTRO

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

The trio of small detectives watched from the woods behind the Hoffman House as old Mr. Parker drove away from the property in his green pick-up truck.  

“Let’s go,” Frank whispered and led the way to the fallen log they’d climbed on the night before.  All three boys hurried over the wrought iron fence and ran as fast as they could across the freshly mowed lawn to the shadow of the mansion.  

“Let’s just stay here a few minutes to catch our breath,” Frank suggested to the two younger boys.  Biff and Joe nodded in agreement and all three sank to the ground, leaning against the cold white wall.  

Frank carefully scanned the yard.  He’d never been this close to the mansion in the daylight.  There was a garage behind the house, slightly off to the right of where they were setting.  The only other out building was a gazebo that was practically falling down.  

He turned his gaze to the mansion itself.  In the dark, he’d had a hard time locating a way inside, but now in the light of day, Frank noticed that the ell wasn’t boarded up.  

He stood and walked over to the angled extension on the back of the house.  ‘Bet the police went in this way,’ he speculated.  There was a clasp attached where a lock could be secured, but in place of a lock, someone had wedged a large metal bolt, fastened with a nut.  

Joe and Biff moved from their places to see what Frank was doing.  They watched Frank remove the nut and bolt.  The dark-haired hardy boy then pulled the ell’s door open.  All three crept quietly inside.  

“It’s kinda like a little covered porch,” Joe ventured, looking around the small space.  

“It’s not burned here,” Biff noted.  

“The fire was at the front of the house, so most of the worse damage is up there,” Frank responded.  Joe frowned. How in the world did Frank know that?  He sometimes marveled at Frank’s ability to store facts.

The three boys stepped from the ell into what appeared to be a storage room with shelves.  The shelves were mostly empty, except for a few unmarked boxes.  

They started to go forward again, when Frank cried out, “Stop!”  

Biff, who was in the lead with Joe right behind him, froze.  Frank stepped around him and tentatively stuck out his foot.  He couldn’t feel anything but air.  

He turned to face Biff and Joe. “No floor in some places,” Frank stated. “We need to watch our step.”  He turned slightly and moved around the gaping hole in the floor.  Joe and Biff followed.  

“There!” Joe called out a minute later.  Frank looked to where his brother was pointing.  From the dappled sunlight coming in between the boards on the windows, you could see an open door with a staircase leading down to the basement of the house.  

“Let’s go,” the younger Hardy said enthusiastically.  

Frank stepped carefully.  While the old staircase groaned and squeaked under his weight, it felt solid.  He descended into the darkness.  

“Too dark to see anything,” Biff complained when they’d reached the bottom.  Darkness enveloped them.  Biff was right.  Frank wished they’d brought their bag of supplies from the other night with them.  

Joe was frustrated and he really didn’t like the dark.  Afraid to move, he sat down on the bottom step, waiting for Frank to decide what to do next.  He shifted his feet and felt the toe of his sneaker hit something.  

Curious, he reached down to find out what he hit.  It was fairly heavy for being small. He turned the cylinder around in his hand and suddenly light filled the area.  

“Joe!” Frank cried, turning to face his stunned brother, “where’d you find a flashlight?”  

* * *

Fenton Hardy arrived home and found a note from his wife on the kitchen table.  The note was actually addressed to the boys, but he read it anyway.         

Boys,

I had to run a quick errand.  I will be back by four o’clock .  I’m trusting you to stay in the house until I return.  There are cookies for a snack.  Do your homework.  

Love,

Mom  

Not hearing the boys, he assumed they were doing exactly as they’d been told in the note.  He went up to Frank’s room, expecting to find him working on his homework.  

Frank’s room was empty, however.  Mr. Hardy quickly went through the connecting bathroom to Joe’s room.  While not as tidy as Frank’s room, it was also empty.  The detective frowned.  

He was about to leave when he saw an open notebook on Joe’s bed.  Maybe the boys had left a note of their own, he thought. His eyes grew wide as he read the list that Joe had written a few days earlier.  

“That old mansion,” he pondered.  “It would be the perfect place to stash the stolen goods.  Who would think to look there?”  

As he left Joe’s room, he heard the kitchen door open.  He hoped it was his missing children, but when he arrived in the kitchen, Laura Hardy greeted him.  

Fenton quickly explained to his wife that the boys were not home.  

“Let’s not panic,” the detective stated calmly.  “It’s not all that late.  Perhaps they’re just playing and lost track of time.”  

Mrs. Hardy was about to agree when someone knocked at the back door.  She went to answer it.  

“Hi Mrs. Hardy,” Chet Morton’s stout face smiled up at the woman.  “Can Frank and Joe come out to play?”  

Laura quickly explained that the boys weren’t home from school yet.  Chet and two other boys that Laura recognized as Jerry Gilroy and Tony Prito said they would walk back toward the school and look for the missing Hardy boys.  

Mrs. Hardy thanked them and handed each boy a chocolate chip cookie from the cookie jar and instructed them to remind Frank and Joe that they were to check in at home before running off to play.  

Mr. Hardy retired to his office and studied Joe’s list again.  Deciding it was worth a look, he called Chief of Police, Ezra Collig.  

* * *

“This looks like a kitchen,” Biff commented as the three boys explored the basement room.   

Frank panned the beam of light around.  Most of the room was cluttered with debris from the house, but a large area was cleared in what looked to be a kitchen.   

There was a sink against the white washed wall and an old fashioned stove.  It was big and black, with a pipe that rose up the back and into the wall.   

“What kinda stove is that?” Joe questioned, looking at the strange appliance.  

“An old wood-burning stove,” Frank answered.  “Before we had electric stoves like ours, or gas stoves like the Mortons, people cooked on wood stoves like this.”  

“Oh!  I think I saw a movie about some pioneers once,” Biff said.  “They cooked on a stove like this one.”  

“It’s probably an antique,” Frank stated.  “It looks…”  

“Someone’s been here,” Joe interrupted.  “See?  Footprints!”  Frank flashed the beam of light to the floor.  Sure enough, there were several footprints in the dust that covered the basement floor.”  

“Hey guys,” Biff said from near the old sink.  “Check out this stuff.”  

Frank and Joe made their way to where Biff was standing.  In a sack behind a cupboard, was a set of silver candlesticks among some other expensive looking items.  

“We did it!” Joe exclaimed, hardly able to contain his exuberance.  “We found the robber’s hiding place!”  

“Sure looks like you might be right,” Frank grinned.  “We’d better get out of here and go tell Dad!”  

Joe nodded enthusiastically and Biff gave Frank a ‘high-five’.  They started for the stairs.  

Suddenly, above them in the ell footsteps soundly loudly on the floorboards.  All three boys froze.  

“Someone’s inside!” Biff whispered.  

“Let’s hide,” Frank quickly suggested.  “There’s space behind the old stove!”  

The three boys dashed across the room and squeezed behind the ancient stove.  Frank turned off the flashlight.  The darkness of the basement immediately plunged them into inky blackness.  

Joe Hardy hated the darkness. He bit his lip and closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to calm his galloping heart.

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