Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Chapter 7- Vanessa

Joe always says that there’s a moment in every case when you are faced with a blank wall, every avenue you explore seems to come up empty. The re’s nowhere to go. And then something will happen. The phone rings, or you notice something you wrote on a piece of paper three days previously and forgot about, and suddenly the whole case begins to make sense.

He likes telling me about his cases, not the details obviously; he can’t, but more about how they got the breakthrough, what piece of vital information Frank found after trawling through newspaper reels for hours on end, or what Joe suddenly remembered seeing in some guy’s living room; it was always something small, something that you think is nothing, and it turns out to be vital.

That was kind of how it was that day too, when Frank and Phil were sitting looking at information on the computer, and I had just gotten out of bed, because I hadn’t been able to sleep. It was 6 a.m ; Joe would soon have been missing for 24 hours.

Frank looked up as his father entered the living room.

“Frank, I think, I think that I might have something here. This list that you gave me, the list of people that had access to the keys of that stolen cop car, I recognise one of the names. It might be a long shot, but it’s about all we have at the moment.”

So they went off, the two of them, to track down this guy. His name was Jimmy Harris, and it turns out that he was a small time thief and occasional pimp from New York . Mr Hardy arrested him a couple of times, back when he was a street cop.

And the rest of us sat around and waited. As usual.

That’s the worst part I think, the sitting and the waiting. I wish that there was some way of fast forwarding time in these situations. I know that it’s hard on everyone, but at least Frank and Fenton are actually doing something; I hate just sitting around and waiting, I really do.

Of course this isn’t the first time that this has happened, either to Frank or to Joe. In fact it’s almost getting ridiculous. No, it IS ridiculous.

The re are very few people for whom I would willingly do this, for whom I would willingly spend half my life worrying about, sitting here on this couch in his apartment, or sitting at home in Bayport with his Mom. It’s always the same, waiting, waiting for some good news, waiting for a breakthrough, almost giving up hope, and then, finally, relief.

I know I sound like I’m moaning. But I’m not. Really I’m not. I love Joe Hardy. It’s as simple as that; I have from the first time that I met him. It’s kind of hard to explain, but he just has this effect on me, it’s like there’s electricity in the air every time that he’s around.

Which also means that when he’s not around the spark is so evidently missing, missing from me, from Frank, from everything.

Joe, he’s a pain sometimes, he’s always plunging headlong into trouble without a second’s regard for his own safety and he ALWAYS, always insists on trying to help everyone else and ignores his own problems, and even though he has the most wonderful smile and the bluest eyes that I’ve ever seen before, there are times when I want to kill him!

But they are few and far between, I’ll admit that! Joe is just…well………he’s amazing. I think he feels like he is obliged to try and save the world, and I know that he’ll always be that way, but it’s so endearing. Joe always looks on the positive side, he keeps trying, even when everyone else gives up, and no matter how much pain, or how many evil, twisted people he comes across, they never dampen his spirit, he never, ever talks about giving up; as far as Joe is concerned, there is always hope.

I knew from the beginning that life with Joe Hardy wasn’t going to be that easy, and I’ve been proved correct on more than one occasion. But I don’t think I’d have it any other way, because when it’s good, it’s very, very good. I just hope it continues that way.

So anyhow we just sat around waiting…and waiting. Me, Callie, Tony, Phil, Chet…Biff. No one could sleep or look at TV, no one even spoke much, everyone was too wrapped up in their own thoughts I guess.

It was more than five hours before we heard anything, and then Frank called me on my cell phone.

“ Ness ?”

“Hey Frank, we were starting to worry about the two of you, did you find out anything?”

“Well, yes and no.” Frank was hesitant, and sounded anxious. “Jimmy Harris, the guy that Dad recognised from the photos, he seems to have disappeared into thin air.”

Frank sighed heavily before continuing. “We did get to talk to his girlfriend though; it turns out that he ran out on her a couple of days ago, and she’s seven months pregnant, so she was more than willing to help us find him.”

Vanessa waited for Frank to continue, but there was silence down the phone line.

“Frank?”

Another sigh, and then Frank spoke again. “Well it would seem that Jimmy has been spending a lot of time travelling lately; he made friends with a guy from the East Coast, some kind of small time drug dealer. His girlfriend reckons that Jimmy owes this guy some money, and that’s why he vanished, but I think that he might have something to do with Joe; because he disappeared himself around the same time. It’s just too much of a coincidence, Ness .”

“And what does your Dad think?” Vanessa asked, once Frank had finished speaking.

“I don’t know, really. He doesn’t seem convinced; I think he believes that it’s just a coincidence. The thing is, we have absolutely no idea who this ‘contact on the East Coast’ is. No address, no name, nothing. So now we’re at yet another dead end….”

“….And almost a day and half have passed…..” Vanessa didn’t say it out loud, but she knew that the same thoughts were running through Frank’s head.

“So what are you going to do?” she asked.