Chapter 2 – So now you think you’re brave? 

“After Joe left to collect Vanessa from the airport, I started thinking about the smashed water pipe. I thought at the time that it seemed a little strange, why would someone smash a pipe for a prank? It’s almost like they were trying to get him out of the shower in a hurry, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.” 

“About a half an hour later, Callie and I were both in the living room; I was trying to find someone to fix our water pipe, and having little success, and Callie was lying on the sofa, reading. I remember thinking how quiet it seemed.”  

“I guess I’ve gotten used to being constantly surrounded by noise, most of it Joe Hardy related, be it the sound of him singing or whistling, or the radio which he always seems to have full blast, or just the sound of him chattering endlessly about everything. It was so silent once he left for the airport that the sound of Callie’s cell-phone ringing made both of us jump.” 

…” Ness , how are you? God, I haven’t spoken to you in a……” she was interrupted, and after a couple of minutes spoke again.  “You’re still at the airport? But Joe left over a half hour ago to collect you; I was sure he’d be there by now.” 

A half hour ago… Alarm bells started clanging loudly in Frank Hardy’s head. ‘Where are you Joe, you never keep Vanessa waiting’  

Callie was still talking to Vanessa and as she spoke, Frank could hear her tone of voice changing from worried to reassuring.  

‘ Ness is panicking,’ Frank thought to himself. ‘Tell her everything’s okay, Callie.’ 

“Yeah, Ness , of course, I’ll come and collect you now. No, I’m sure nothing’s wrong. You know Joe, probably stopped to look at some tricked-out car somewhere along the way.” 

“I’ll leave now and see you in about twenty minutes, and don’t worry Ness , I’m sure Joe will be sitting here waiting for you when you we get back.” 

Callie hung up the receiver slowly, and then picked up her keys and walked towards the door. She paused on the way, however, to give me a kiss on the cheek. 

”I’m going to the airport to collect Ness, I guess you should go looking for that brother of yours; probably sitting on the side of the road with a flat tire or something.”  

“Even as she spoke however, I could see the worry reflected in her eyes as she passed me, and I knew that she didn’t believe it. Neither did I, for that matter. I was worried, and as Callie pulled out and headed towards the airport I sat in the car for a few moments, trying to fight the rising panic.” 

“Of course Joe didn’t have a cell-phone, because he kept dropping, smashing or losing them. No matter how many times I warned him to be careful; they never lasted more than two weeks. Just like Joe.”  

“Sitting in the car brooding was getting me nowhere, so I decided to retrace what I figured would have been Joe’s path to the airport. Maybe he was sitting on the side of the road with a flat tire, just like Callie had said. I was about to pull out when my phone rang…” 

…”Hello?” 

“Frank!” 

Relief washed over Frank Hardy’s face as he heard his younger brother’s voice at the other end of the phone. 

“Joseph Hardy, where in God’s name are you?” 

There was a pause, and then Joe could be heard sighing loudly before he spoke. “Um….well…some guy in a blue Explorer ran a red light and kind of smashed into the side of the van, and to make things worse he didn’t stick around to see what damage he had done.” 

“Damn. Joe, are you okay? Where are you, I’ll come and pick you up.” 

“I’m fine Frank, but the van is a little less than healthy; some guys helped to push it over to the curb, and I’m waiting for the cops and a tow truck to arrive. [“]There’s no need to come down here, but can you or Callie go pick up Ness , otherwise she’ll start to worry.” 

“She already is, she rang ten minutes ago. Callie’s on her way to collect her now.” 

“Which means I’m in trouble.” Joe sighed. “I’ll be home later so, can you pacify Ness until I get there, pretty please?” 

Frank smiled, “Yeah, don’t worry about it. Where are you, as a matter of interest?” 

“Um, corner of….Beech Street and….Elm. See you in a while Frank, thanks.”… 

“I was so relieved. It’s silly, but so much stuff has happened to Joe that I think we have become ridiculously paranoid and over-protective of each other. Dad reckons it comes with the territory; I just think we have more bad luck than most.” 

“However, the longer I sat there in the car outside our apartment, the more I started to worry, and the more irrational my worry became. It had been an accident. I decided to go down to Joe and wait with him for the police to arrive.”  

“The journey to Beech Street only took about 10 minutes and I could see our Black GMC Envoy on the side of the road with a large dent in one side. There was also a police car parked behind it and two officers were circling the van, notebooks in hand, but there was no sign of Joe.” 

”Can I help you officers?” 

“Is this your vehicle sir?” the smaller of the two men asked.  

“Well, yes,” Frank replied. “I share it with my brother, Joe. He’s the one who was in the accident; he should be around here somewhere.” 

Frank looked all around, half expecting to see his brother emerge from the nearest coffee shop, doughnut in hand and a guilty expression on his face.  

But there was no sign of his brother anywhere.  

“So your brother is the one who reported the accident?” asked the other man. 

“Yes, he called you guys and then called me; I was just coming over to give him a lift home. I don’t understand why he’s not here. 

The smaller of the two officers sighed. “Well, we’ve been here for more than ten minutes, and there is no sign of your brother. Are you sure he hasn’t simply run off, and left you to face the music?” 

Frank spun around and glared at the police officer. “My brother…” he began, anger rising inside him “..is 22, not 16; I hardly think he would call the police and then run off, would he? Besides, from what he told me, this accident wasn’t even his fault; some guy broke a red and ran straight into him.” 

The other officer put a hand on Frank’s arm. “Okay, okay, calm down son, we’re just doing our job; but if your brother’s not here, then where is he?”… 

“And then I knew that he was gone. And you know what my initial reaction was? Anger. Anger that this should be happening to us again. And what’s worse, I was angry with Joe, anger which I could neither rationalize nor explain but which I still felt.” 

“What could I do? I had no leads, no idea who might have taken him, nothing. I told the officers what I knew, but I honestly don’t think they even believed that Joe was driving the van, or that he even existed! However they took a statement and promised to have the van towed for me”.… 

… Frank thanked the police officers, who looked at him with a mixture of incredulity and pity, then he made his way back to his car, and slumped heavily in the driver’s seat, resting his forehead against the steering wheel, as images of Joe flashed through his mind. 

He had to ring Callie, and Ness , to go home and try and figure out what the hell had happened, to talk to his Dad. But he just felt tired, tired and worn out from constantly worrying. A tap on the car’s side window brought him back to reality.  

“Hey, mister.” A young boy with a baseball cap on his head and a mitt in one hand was standing at the side of the car. 

Frank rolled down the window, and managed a smile at the boy. “Hey, you all right, did your ball go under the car?” 

The boy shook his head. He then turned and pointed at the van. 

Frank sat up, taking notice now. “Did you see something?” he asked, trying to remain calm. 

The boy nodded. 

“You can tell me, you know. What’s your name?” 

“Tommy.” 

Frank dug into his pockets and produced a ten-dollar bill. “Look, Tommy, if you tell me what you saw, I’ll give you this.”  He proffered the money at the young boy, whose eyes widened in anticipation.  

“You could buy yourself another baseball mitt; that one looks kind of old.” 

He could see the little boy taking the bait. “I saw the policeman earlier on and he was looking at the van for AGES, and then the man got out of the van and the policeman, he went over and talked to him, and then the man must have hurt himself, ’cause he fell over, and the policeman brought him away in his car.” 

Frank thrust the money into the young boy’s hand and kissed him on the top of the head. “Tommy, you should think about taking up detective work when you’re older”.… 

“I knew then for sure that Joe wasn’t going to emerge from any coffee shop, he was gone, taken by someone masquerading as a police officer.”  

“So, I turned my car towards home, not knowing where to begin; obviously I would have to ring the police and Dad.  I’d have to tell Vanessa yet again that this wasn’t going to be the weekend she had planned, that Joe was in trouble. I knew I was going to have to be the strong one, the brave one, but I didn’t feel very brave at that moment.” 

“Because I was afraid that this time I wouldn’t find you, that this time would be too late.”

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.