Helen made her way down the stairs with her heavy suitcase. She stopped at the bottom and set it down next to Joe’s and Frank’s. Looking up she noticed lights that were mysteriously flashing on and off continually under the phone table. Moving closer, she ducked her head beneath and saw it was two emergency lamps.

"Oh no," she muttered, "where’s the cone?" Turning about, she noticed the curtain was not lying flat against the wall so pulled it to one side. Behind, she found the object she was seeking.

She could hear the merry voices of her friends in the kitchen, recounting tales of the night before. Rob chose that moment to wander out, having finished his breakfast and saw her hiding the cone again with the drape. He was moving slowly and deliberately, favoring his rib.

"So, who woke up with the cone in bed with them this time?" she asked.

"Mark."

"Again? Stupid question really."

"Sorry about the mess," he said.

"Doesn’t matter," she responded quietly. "Just put it into the shed with the others."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes. Are you okay?"

He rubbed his side and winced. "Overdid it a little last night - feeling the effects this morning." He spotted her bag, "when are you off?"

"In a little while…" she paused in thought, turned and swept up the car keys from the table. "Have these. You might as well use Barney while I’m gone." She took his hand, dropped the keys in and closed his fingers around them.

"Won’t you be needing the car?" he asked surprised, jiggling the keys.

"No, I’m taking a taxi."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. I won’t be needing it."

***

Joe and Frank deposited their bags into the boot of the BMW, exactly the same way as they had on the first day they’d arrived in England. Only this time, Rob, Kiwi and Mark were dropping them off.

A black taxicab trespassed onto the driveway, it’s wheels crunching on the sharp gravel, grabbing their combined attentions.

Mark immediately went into the house and yelled to Helen that her ‘chariot awaited’. He came back out a second later with her case and carried it to the black cab. Following closely behind was Helen with her handbag in hand. She approached the driver and asked him to wait for a couple of minutes before turning and walking hesitantly towards her friends.

"Well, this is it," she said awkwardly, positioning her bag on the hood of the car.

"Yep," Joe replied. Frank nodded feeling out of place and looked over her head at the rose bushes that were framing the taxi.

She reached out and took both their hands. "I really do appreciate what you did you know, and I’m sorry things have been so uncomfortable of late."

Frank looked down and finally focused on her face. For the first time in days she was actually looking back up at him. She let go of Joe’s hand and reached up around the older Hardy brother’s neck and clung to him. He tensed, surprised, for just a second and then put his arm about her waist and hugged her back. Finally letting go, she turned her attention to Joe and gave him a cuddle too - he practically bear hugged her off her feet.

She moved on to Kiwi and repeated the exercise, but stood back afterwards and said, "behave yourself," and poked him playfully in the chest.

"Do I ever misbehave?" he responded with his arms outstretched in mock innocence.

"Let me think…"

"Come on Helen, your taxi’s waiting and the clocks ticking," Mark urged gently.

"Oh shut it, big brother and give me a hug," she snapped and flung herself at him. They stood locked together for a little while and eventually parted so she could say her good-byes to Rob who was leaning gingerly up against the BMW with his face heavily frowned. He was confused about the display of affection Helen was dishing out.

"What’s all this about? You’re only going for a few days," he said, after she’d given him a peck on the cheek and let him go.

"Oh, I don’t know, just feeling a little melancholy I suppose," she said and picked up her handbag. They watched as she climbed into the cab, and with a simple, "bye everyone," and a wave, was gone.

***

They arrived at Birmingham International Airport in plenty of time and the Hardy brothers immediately checked their bags in. They were able to reserve a window seat, so Joe was very happy when they returned to their friends.

Frank looked around at the faces of his three solemn friends. "We’ve got an hour to kill, what do you want to do?"

"Coffee?" Mark suggested.

"Coffee it is."

They made their way to the cafeteria where Kiwi and Frank indicated for the others to grab a table while they went to satisfy their orders.

Finally they were all sitting, fighting over the sugar and tipping cream or milk into their beverages.

"I’m telling you maties, things are not going to be the same around here without the Hardy brothers," Kiwi pointed out for the umpteenth time. He tutted as he ripped open a sachet of sugar and managed to spill most of it across the table.

Mark sat back in his seat and placed his cup down. "Let’s face it, things are never going to be the same full stop. Alex is gone, Joe and Frank are going and you’ll be gone within a month Kiwi - everything’s changing."

"We’ll survive," Rob assured his brother, shifting his large frame into a more comfortable position.

Everyone went quiet and somber and sat sipping their drinks.

"Do you know what’s just occurred to me Frank?" Joe suddenly piped up, "this is the first case we’ve failed to completely solve."

"I hadn’t thought of that."

This seemed to have the effect of tipping the Hardy’s into an even deeper funk and all five of them seemed to shrink and sink lower into their seats.

Eventually Mark seemed to mentally shake himself. "Sorry to drag the mood down," he apologized, laughing hollowly.

"Let’s not dwell on it. This is the last time we’re probably ever going to see Frank and Joe - let’s see them off with a smile on our faces," Rob ordered.

"I second that Mate," said Kiwi, grinning broadly with a twinkle in his eye. He pulled the cover back on his individual serving of milk and it all jumped straight down his front. "I don’t believe it!" he shouted, jumping up. "Why am I being so clumsy today?"

They all laughed and Joe handed him a paper napkin from the dispenser to mop up the worse of the liquid.

"I’m going to smell like sour milk now."

"No change there then!" Mark announced.

Everyone burst out laughing, except the New Zealand teenager who swatted Mark across the back of the head lightly.

A sudden announcement over the loudspeakers sent Joe shushing and waving his hands to shut everyone up. They fell silent to listen.

Frank frowned, puzzled, "I wonder what that’s all about?" He and Joe arose and made their way out of the cafeteria, "back in a sec guys."

Joe reached the desk first and was directed to the phone. He lifted the receiver and then had second thoughts and handed it across to Frank instead. His brother raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Throat," Joe answered.

Frank nodded and placed the receiver to his ear, holding it slightly away from his head so his brother could listen in and said, "this is Frank Hardy speaking?" The voice lifted as though he was asking a question rather than making a statement - he was unsure anyone was on the other end as there were no sounds of breathing or background noise.

Joe’s eyes danced across his brother’s in surprise.

"Yeah, all our luggage has been checked in and we leave for the departure terminal in an hour."

"You could say that…listen Inspector, I’m sure you didn’t phone to wish us all the best…"

Morgan cut him off with a chuckle. "Astute boy! Ever considered a career in the police force?"

Frank forced himself not to sigh and watched Joe as he bit down on his knuckles in an exaggerated show of frustration. There was a long drawn out pause, while Morgan waited for the American to respond, but Frank remained silent.

"You’re quite right my boy," he finally continued, "I’ve some good news that I’m sure you’ll want to hear before you leave."

"Good news? What’s that?" Frank prompted eagerly.

"We lifted some finger and palm prints from the Jaguar car. Most of them belong to our two hefty chums, but there was a third set. We fed the information in our computer database and got a positive match." He stopped and the sound of shuffling paper was heard. He came back, obvious from his voice that he was reading from a piece of paper "William Forester, AKA ‘Billy’. We’ve been after this fellow for quite some time, but kept hitting brick walls. We were starting to think he was made of Teflon."

"Really?"

"Blond hair?"

"What’s the history on this guy?"

"Nice play on words Inspector."

"Have you enough evidence to make an arrest this time?"

"A-ha!"

"What did he tell you?"

"ALRIGHT!" Joe croaked as loudly as his voice would allow and high-fived his brother.

Morgan started belly laughing, "thought that would make you happy," he said, "your bother’s got a nice accent by the way,"

Frank looked over at Joe and beamed. "You’ve made us very happy Inspector. We were a little depressed at having to leave a case unsolved."

"Have you chaps been involved in other investigations?" asked the Detective Chief Inspector surprised.

"Just a few."

***

Joe and Frank strolled back into the cafeteria glowing all over their faces - their smiles proving so contagious the other three were Cheshire-cat grinning even before the bothers were within talking distance.

"What are we smiling at?" asked Kiwi, eventually, "my jaw muscles are starting to ache." He stood up to allow Frank to sit down between himself and Rob.

"That was Morgan on the phone, they’ve had a breakthrough in the case and are about to make an arrest." Frank explained.

"Who? The big-time-boss-man?" queried Mark.

"The very same," said Joe, slithering back into the seat next to him.

"How did that happen?" asked Rob.

"They lifted fingerprints from the car that matched some guy’s they’ve got on file. They also found Joe’s hair in the trunk and to top it all, one of Mike’s gang has named names."

Kiwi lightly punched Frank’s upper arm. "This is indeed good news Matey, and calls for a celebration. I think…hot chocolate – you sexy thing?"

"Eh?" asked Frank.

"You know, Hot Chocolate…the band?"

Mark groaned. "That was a terrible joke," he grumbled.

"Hey, I never claimed to be a comedian."

Kiwi got up, dragging Frank by the elbow to help him fetch the drinks at the same time.

"Who is this scary bloke then?" Rob asked.

"He’s called William Forester and apparently has his hand in many illegal pies. He’s made enough money to be able to afford to live in some huge fancy mansion, apparently," Joe explained.

Mark who’d been sitting with his elbow leaning on the table frowned and sat up straighter. As he turned to Joe, his mouth was open slightly in contemplation. Rob’s eyes swiveled in their sockets and looked straight at his brother, an unasked question playing across his features, his pupils expanding.

"Yeah, according to Morgan they’ve been trying to get the goods on this guy for years, but he’s one slippery customer." Frank finished.

"William Forester?" asked Mark, looking between his American friends, a small circle of red appearing on each cheek. Rob’s upper lip twitched and he turned his attention to them as well.

"Yeah, William Forester."

There was a pause and Mark placed one hand against the back of his chair, gripping the backrest tightly. "Not…Billy Forester then?"

"Yeah! But how on earth did you kn…" before Frank could get any further Mark was literally fighting his way out of his chair.

"I KNEW there was something funny going on – just knew it!," he cried out, panicked. He was sandwiched between a glass partition and Joe, so was practically using the younger Hardy brother as a climbing frame in his frenzy to get out from the chair, which was bolted in place to the table.

Joe was being forced down underneath the table by Mark’s weight against his shoulder. "Mark? What is it?" Joe croaked loudly, but his friend was already planting a foot on the edge of the backrest and leaping down to the tiled floor. He hit the ground running and shot straight through the middle of Kiwi and Frank like a cannon ball, knocking them both aside.

While this was happening, Rob was also trying to get up out of his seat, but was not able to move quickly with a cracked and sore rib. "Mark, wait!" he bellowed, "WAIT!" he pushed himself up jerkily, tripped over his own feet and collided with the edge of the table, digging it firmly into his side. He gave out a grunt of pain and frustration.

Grabbed his arm to steady him, Frank shouted into Rob’s face, "what’s happening?"

Confused, but worried, Kiwi turned and took off after the younger Randall brother.

"Go after him…take the car…" Rob gasped through the pain, thrusting the BMW keys into his hand.

Frank hesitated for just a second and looked to Joe for guidance. Just as mystified by this turn of events as his brother was, Joe could only shrug his shoulders.

"DON’T JUST STAND THERE - GO! LEAVE ME AND GO!" Rob bellowed, pushing him away.

Needing no further encouragement Frank turned on his heels and sprinted away leaving his younger brother to deal with his distraught friend.

***

The black taxicab pulled into the half-mile driveway, passing the dilapidated gatehouse. Helen looked out of the front window and watched as the huge house grew in size as they approached. She could see a figure of a man walk out through the huge double fronted front doors and stand waiting on the steps.

As it pulled alongside, he tripped down the well-worn steps and opened the door for her with gusto.

"Hello Ginger Snaps." he greeted.

She smiled back at him, "Hello Uncle Billy." She took his hand and allowed him to help her from the car.