Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Tony

It was all a total mess, really. The re was no other way to describe it. I mean, we knew, or at least we were pretty sure, that Fenton Radley was the one, who had taken Joe, or at least he was the one behind it all, but we didn’t know where he was; and Jimmy Harris, who was the only other possible suspect, was missing too.

Frank and his Dad looked like they were ready to collapse, and Fenton R.’s dad, Sam, was on his way to help find Joe, and maybe put his only son behind bars for a long time. It was definitely not a typical day, even for the Hardys.

I liked Sam Radley. I’d met him plenty of times previously at the Hardy home in Bayport; he was a quiet-spoken, rather serious man, and he seemed to be the kind of person that you could always rely on in a crisis.

We were all back at the house and had been filled in on the possible, or maybe even probable involvement of Fenton Radley in Joe’s disappearance.

Chet, Callie and Vanessa were in the kitchen cooking up a storm, mainly for Frank and his Dad, as they probably hadn’t slept or eaten in over 24 hours. The y were muttering quietly to each other as well; I could see their lips moving from where I sat on the edge of an armchair in the sitting room. I guess they were as shocked as I by Fenton Hardy’s revelations and the realisation that he had been betrayed by his own godson.

Biff, Phil and I were in the living room. Biff hadn’t really said much, but I could see the confusion, and anger in his eyes. He was having a hard time accepting the fact the Sam Radley only realised now that his son might be involved, and to be honest, I was kind of feeling the same way myself.

Sure, Fenton is his son, and no one wants to think that their own flesh and blood is capable of kidnapping, or of harming anyone in any way, but at some stage detective instincts, and especially those of one as good as Sam Radley, had to kick in, didn’t they?

Or maybe not.

I guess everyone has their weak points. Joe Hardy is especially good at finding people’s weak points; he seems to know instinctively when someone is upset or when a subject is starting to touch a little close to home.

I remember a conversation we had about five or six years ago. It was one Saturday night, Bayport High had just won a pretty important football game, and everyone was heading down to the school to celebrate; but I had promised my Dad that I’d work for him. I was pretty annoyed about missing out on the night’s celebrations, and when Joe came by to collect the pizzas for the party I was pretty grumpy and short with him.

Joe knew that I wanted to be at the party instead of working, but instead of agreeing with me as I moaned about the injustice of the Prito family making me work on the night of a party, all Joe said was:

“Well I know you don’t really want to hear this, Tony, but you did volunteer to work last week, didn’t you?”

That was the truth, but I didn’t want to hear it at that point, and I told Joe as much. Most guys would have left it so, and left me to my sulk, but not Joe Hardy.

“Look Tony, I know it’s pretty annoying for you to have to work all the time when the rest of us are off, but at the end of the day, it’s just a couple of nights out, there’ll be plenty more; and besides, I’m sure if you’d told your Dad that we won the game and that you really, really wanted to go out, he would have worked for you, but you didn’t, ‘cause you knew that he wanted the night off.

“You’re doing a good thing working tonight, Tony; don’t spoil it by going into a huff, huh? It doesn’t suit you.”

What could I say? As usual, Joe Hardy had left me unable to defend myself, knowing that what he said was totally right, but somehow still trying to fight it. But in the end, I reckoned that what he said was right, and I finished my shift; and as luck would have it, we were quiet and I got to finish early, and made it down to the end of the party after all.

Anyhow, what I’m trying to say is that Joe Hardy can see both sides; yeah, sure he’s a hothead, but he is also the best judge of circumstances that I know; well, maybe after Frank, that is!

So okay, we had to do something, no one wanted to wait around for Sam Radley to arrive; but it was a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack, otherwise. I could see that Frank was getting angrier and angrier by the minute. He started pacing the living room, around and around, and I could see that it was taking all his self control not to start throwing the furniture around in frustration.

Eventually he stormed out of the house. Fenton started after him, but Biff and I were at the door first, and we said that we’d go with him. I think we both knew that Frank and his father needed to talk, but this certainly wasn’t the time.

Frank was just sitting into the driver’s seat of his car, so I got into the passenger seat and Biff into the back. I wanted to offer to drive, but I didn’t really feel like testing Frank’s patience any further at the time.

After a couple of minutes of silent driving, however, I decided that someone needed to say something.

“So, where are we going, Frank?”

“Back to the bar, the one where I looked at the video.” Frank’s reply was terse, and his eyes never left the road.

“Okay.” Tony was silent for another moment before adding “Why?”

Frank slammed his fist against the steering wheel. “Because I don’t know what else to do, Tony, and I can’t sit there looking at my Dad…and….” His voice trailed off at this point.

“….and you don’t want to face Sam either, do you Frank?”

Again there was silence. Tony half expected Frank to smack him, but he didn’t. Instead, he slowed down just a little, as he came to some heavy traffic. Eventually he spoke again.

“I don’t know what to think, Tony, I just don’t. I mean I’ve known Sam all my life, and I know that he would do anything for Joe and me, but…I don’t know, I just don’t understand how he never saw this coming. And I know that Dad somehow feels guilty, and I want to tell him that it’s not his fault, but at the end of the day, how can I make him feel better when I’m having such a hard time understanding all this myself?

“Joe is important to me, you guys know that only too well; I would choose him over anyone, including Dad.”

“I know that, Frank, but your Dad would choose both of you over anyone, including Sam, remember that.”

I don’t know if that helped, or if he was even listening, but I do know that by the time we reached the bar, Frank had calmed considerably.

This was possibly a good thing, because as we walked in the door of the bar I could see the bar man looking at us, a worried expression on his face. The n there was a sudden movement from the other end of the room and a man went rushing out the back door. It took only a second for it to register with us….It could only be…Jimmy Harris!