"When I heard a call had come in from your place, I pulled rank and came myself." Detective Sergeant Con Riley grunted. "What’s this about a body, Fenton?"

"Come in out of this heat." Fenton urged the officers into the entry, and closed the door hastily. Both Con and his companion, a tall, dark-haired woman in her early thirties, breathed sighs of relief as the cooler air inside washed over them.

"This is Detective Susan O’Grady," Con indicated the woman. "Sue, meet Fenton Hardy – and his sons, Frank and Joe." he added, as the boys came into the hallway. As the others exchanged nods, Con again asked the pertinent question: "What’s going on? The medical examiner is on his way." he added.

"Come with me," Mr. Hardy led the way toward the kitchen. Con and Detective O’Grady followed, with Joe and Frank on their heels.

"My God!" Con took one look at the body and leaned against the kitchen table, his face going white beneath its tan. "Laura?"

"No – no, Con; no, it’s not Laura!" the investigator hastened to reassure his friend. "It’s her twin sister, Linda."

"Her twin sister?" the policeman said in disbelief. "I didn’t know your wife had a twin sister!"

"We haven’t kept in touch for years," Mr. Hardy admitted. "This is a considerable shock for all of us."

"Yes, I should think so." Riley muttered. "Is Laura here?"

"Yes, she’s in the family room. You don’t need her, do you, Con? Seeing Linda…she’s pretty upset."

"I don’t need to see her right now, no." Riley straightened up. "But you’re sure of the identity, right?"

Fenton fished in the pocket of his slacks and brought out Linda’s slim wallet. "This was in her jacket pocket."

The policeman glanced at the driver’s license and nodded shortly. "Sue, you got things underway? Good, let’s start with statements."

* * * *

The four teenagers were questioned by Con and Detective O’Grady. Megan, having found the body, received the most attention, but O’Grady allowed her to have Frank with her during questioning; with her hand secure in his, the little redhead quietly recited the events that had occurred when she had walked into the kitchen and discovered a body she thought was Laura Hardy’s.

Fenton and Laura, having arrived on the scene later, were asked a minimum of questions and then excused. They walked into Fenton’s study and sat down, staring at each other somewhat blankly.

"Fenton, what can this mean?" Laura whispered. "Linda – appearing out of nowhere after all these years…and not just appearing, but – but – dying."

"I don’t know, honey. But we’ll get to the bottom of it, I promise you that." Fenton pulled Linda’s wallet out once again. "I’ll have to be sure to give this to Con before he leaves, but he left it with me for the time being." He opened it up once again and stared down at the photo ID for a moment, then began examining the contents more thoroughly. "Credit cards….organ donor card…money – hmmm, over one hundred dollars in cash! – a photo – no, more than one." He held out the wallet to Laura, who took it in trembling fingers. "It’s got to be a picture of Marco – he looks the same, only twenty years older….And look at this one!" He indicated a snapshot of a young girl, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She looked to be 14 or 15 years old. "That’s not Linda when she was young, is it? Or – you?"

"No, that’s a recent photo." Laura replied. "Do you suppose…Fenton, do you think Linda and Marco had children?" Tears began trickling down her cheeks again. "To think that the boys might have a cousin they don’t know about…."

Mr. Hardy’s mouth quirked in a half-smile. "They’re still reeling from the shock of an aunt they didn’t know about! Let’s not startle them with speculations just yet. We don’t know who this might be."

* * * * *

Finally, the police and the coroner departed, and the body of Linda Scarpetti was taken to the morgue. The Hardys, Megan and Vanessa gathered once more in the family room, huddling together in shared shock and dismay. Outside, there was heat and firecrackers and a joyful celebration of a nation’s birthday. Inside was the chilling knowledge that a family member, albeit an unfamiliar one, had entered the Hardys’ home and died there. It was an unsettling thought.

"Mom, could you go on now?" Frank was settling back onto the couch between his mother and Megan. "It sounds like you and your sister were close. I still don’t understand why we never heard about her."

"Yeah," Joe chimed in, sitting down in one of the recliners. Vanessa again chose the floor, leaning back against Joe’s knees, and stretching her long legs out in front of her.

"I suppose I need to finish the story." Laura acknowledged, with a sad smile. "Feel free to add anything you think of." she added to Fenton, as he handed around glasses of ice water and then sat down in his favorite chair once more.

"Where did I leave off? Oh yes, the symphony…."

"And two weeks later, it was Christmas…" Laura said. She gave her husband a long, smiling look. "Christmas Eve. It started snowing about 6:00 that evening…."

Laura paused, and then laughed softly as two identical long sighs followed her last words.

"Ohhhh….!" Megan whispered. "On Christmas Eve, in Central Park? How romantic!"

"Ohhhh, that’s so sweet!" Vanessa said, at the same time.

Fenton and the boys looked slightly embarrassed, although Frank caught himself wondering just where he might choose – that is, of course, if a situation ever arose where he wanted to do something like that!

"That night, Linda broached the subject to our parents. We both knew what was likely to happen – and it did. Our father simply refused to even consider the matter. He said there was no way he would ever consent to Linda marrying Marco Scarpetti. She reminded him that she was 21, and could do as she pleased; she didn’t need his consent, but she was asking for his approval and blessing." Laura shook her head sadly. "Things got very, very bitter then. Daddy said: ‘Over my dead body!’ when Linda announced that she and Marco wanted to share a double wedding with Fenton and me. She came right back at him with this: ‘If Marco was as bad as you seem to think he is, that could be arranged!’"

"Wow!" Joe whistled softly. "What happened then?"

"That rocked our father back on his heels for a moment or two." his mother replied. "We didn’t often see him speechless, but he was then. It didn’t last long, though – and then he made the final, irrevocable decision. He told Linda that she was of age, and he couldn’t stop her from marrying Marco. He said: ‘But if you leave this house with that man, you’re no longer our daughter. And when his true colors come out, and he hurts you, don’t think you can come crawling back to me. Once out that door – it’s closed to you forever.’"

"Oh, no!" Megan exclaimed. Tears slipped down her cheeks. "How could he?"

"He was a very proud and stubborn man." Fenton said. "And although he loved his daughters, he was so sure he was right about Marco Scarpetti and the rest of his clan, that nothing would change his viewpoint."

"Linda left that night," Laura went on sadly. "She was angry with our parents, and she was angry with me, for not supporting her strongly enough, and insisting that Marco and she share our wedding." She blinked back tears. "It was bad enough that she left…and then things got worse."

"What happened then?" Frank demanded.

Laura shook her head briefly, and pressed her lips together, unable to speak. From his seat across the room, Fenton took up the tale once again.

"We decided to hold off on the wedding plans after all, since things were so terribly upset. We changed the date to the middle of May—"

Frank frowned thoughtfully. He knew his parents’ anniversary was in June.

"—but in April, tragedy struck. Judge Whittier and his wife went sailing – it was beautiful, warm weather. A sudden squall arose, and the boat capsized. For some unknown reason, neither of them was wearing a life jacket…" He paused and cleared his throat. "…neither one survived."

The boys nodded. This much, they had heard, before; that their grandparents had perished in a boating accident, and they knew that it had taken a great deal of persuasion on their parts, when they were younger, to convince Laura that they should be allowed to have the Sleuth. She had hated the idea of her sons having a boat; only the fact that it was a power boat and not a sailboat had made it palatable to her.

"After Mother and Daddy were killed, I tried to contact Linda, to tell her. Even though I knew she was hurt and angry, I thought she would want to come to the funeral. We had talked on the phone a few times – Marco was still a chef at Romano’s, of course – but she was very cool and distant. Of course she read about our parents’ accident in the newspapers, I’m sure. But when I tried to call her, all I could get was the answering machine at their apartment. I tried the restaurant, but never seemed to call when Marco was able to come to the telephone." Laura shook her head sadly, remembering. "After the funeral – when Linda didn’t come, and didn’t send a message…I knew it was no use."

"And you never saw her again?" Frank choked out the words. He tried to imagine what it would have been like for his mother to lose her sister in this fashion; what it would feel like for him to lose Joe in a way like that.

"No," his mother said. "Dad and I postponed the wedding another month – and then had a very small ceremony. Sam Peterson and his wife were there – as our witnesses – and that was all. I would dearly have loved Linda to be there – Linda and Marco both! – but it just wasn’t to be."

"No contact at all?" Joe sounded incredulous.

"Not until today." Laura replied. "I suppose she’s been living in New York City, but then again, she and Marco may not have been – perhaps they aren’t even still married—Oh!—" she broke off, stunned. "Marco! Fenton – we have to try and find him; tell him Linda’s…."

"I know." her husband nodded heavily. "I’m sure the police will try to contact him, honey. And I’ll try – tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow we’ll know something more, from the autopsy."

"So why would she show up now?" Vanessa inquired. "After so many years, why did she show up out of the blue – just in time to die in your kitchen?"

Mr. Hardy looked at her with a smile of approval. "That’s a very good question, Vanessa. Why did she suddenly turn up, after so many years."

"I have another question," Megan interposed. "How did your sister get into the house today, Mrs. Hardy? Weren’t the doors locked?"

"She had a key in her pocket," Joe began, and Frank spoke at nearly the same time:

"She got the key from the hiding place in the back yard." The elder boy frowned. "How would she have known where to look, anyway?"

Laura turned pink. "I think I can explain that." she said. Fenton gave her a look – a long, steady look, and his dark eyes twinkled. "We keep the key in that fake rock in the flowerbed, you know…."

"That’s the most ridiculous place to keep a house key!" her husband put in. "That’s one of the first places they teach you to look in Burglary 101."

"Well, it’s the same place we had one at home when Linda and I were growing up." Laura continued. She began to laugh. "Listen – Linda was always forgetting her house key, so she depended on the key in that rock. One night when we were in high school, we had an argument – all right, we had a fight – before she went out. I knew she intended to stay out past curfew and sneak back in."

"I think you and Linda are soul mates," Frank observed quietly to his brother. Joe growled softly under his breath.

"When I saw that she hadn’t taken her key, I sneaked outside and took the key out of the rock. When she got home – at whatever time it was – she found that she was locked out. She knew that she would either have to wake everyone up, and take her punishment for being out late…or she would have to sleep outside, and risk getting in trouble if Mother and Daddy found out that she’d not slept in her bed."

"What happened?" Vanessa demanded, her gray-blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

"She slept outside. When Mother discovered Linda asleep in the hammock I was sure Linda was in for it…." Laura sighed and laughed ruefully. "I didn’t count on Linda’s sneakiness. She began to cry, and explained that she had gotten home at 11:00 only to discover that someone had removed the key from the rock. Everyone was already asleep, she said, so rather than wake everyone up, she slept in the hammock. So I ended up getting in trouble for taking the key, and Linda got off scott-free."

Laughter erupted from all the listeners. Joe looked at Frank.

"Don’t get any ideas." he warned.

"So Linda knew where to look for a key." Laura concluded.

"I’ve always fussed at you not to leave that key there," Fenton commented now. "But I’m very glad that you didn’t listen to me." He frowned thoughtfully. "But Vanessa’s question still stands. Why now? No letters, no telephone calls—"

Frank slapped his forehead. "Telephone calls? What if she did call? Nobody’s thought to check the answering machine!" He leaped to his feet and hurried to the desk at the side of the room, where the answering machine sat. "There are some messages!" he announced triumphantly, and hit the playback button. A few moments of quiet, then the first message began.

The listeners stared at each other, shocked.

"Get away from him?" Megan whispered, but before anyone could answer her, another message began.

Fenton rose to his feet and strode over to join his eldest son by the desk. He was listening intently, all detective now, rather than a worried brother-in-law. A third message was beginning.

"Laura…I don’t know if I’m going to make it there…I’m going to die soon, I know that. If I don’t get to you – oh Twin, I missed you so much, all these years! I’m sorry for everything. Please take care of Tinkerbelle, she’ll be in so much danger when I’m gone. Protect her from…."

With a soft click, the message tape ended.