“Let’s go, pretty boy,” the man said, pulling the weapon back a few inches and motioning for Joe to precede him around to the front of the house.

With a heavy sigh, Joe bowed his head and went where directed. Inside he was grabbed in a vice like grip and shoved roughly against the far wall. Joe hit it with a loud “Huumph!” and sank to the floor with his back against the wall.

“Who..who are you?” Joe gasped as he caught his breath and looked up to see the faces of three of his captors.

“We’ll ask the questions,” Joe was told as he was backhanded. Joe’s head crashed into the side of the wall and he felt a trickle of blood seep out of the left side of his mouth. Joe lifted a hand to his mouth and wiped at the blood, his eyes glaring at the man who had just hit him.

“Where is it?” Joe was asked.

Joe took in the red face of the tall heavyset man before him. His green eyes bulged and his brown hair was more than a little unruly as he glared at Joe. “Where’s what?” Joe asked.

The man smashed his fist into Joe’s face and Joe felt blood pour from his nose. “Don’t get coy with us boy,” the man snarled. “That biddy gave you his clothes to wear and it wasn’t in them. So where is it?”

“That why you took my clothes off?” Joe asked, realizing too late he should have kept his mouth shut.

The man to Joe’s right stepped forward and lifted his foot. It connected with Joe’s jaw and he passed out. “What the hell did you do that for?” demanded the man with the bulging green eyes. “You’re the reason that other bloke is of no use to us. If you give this one amnesia as well we’ll never find it!”

“Sorry Kent,” apologized the brown-eyed man in his early twenties whose long blond hair was put back in a ponytail.

Kent grunted. “Just be a bit more careful Ralph,” he said.

“Right,” agreed the third man who had stood by and waited silently for the men to finish. “Kent, you were a bit rough as well. What say we limit our interrogation to the neck down?”

Kent glared at the tall, slender red head for a long moment then nodded his agreement. “Good idea,” he said. “Ralph, you and Jerry take him down and put him with the other one. Make sure he can’t get away. I‘ve got a little job for Tobin and Randy.”

***

“I don’t need to stay overnight,” Frank said for the umpteenth time. “I want to go home.”

“You will do no such thing,” declared blond and petite Laura Hardy entering the room where her eldest son was sitting in a hospital gown. “The doctor wants you to stay overnight for observation and that is exactly what you are going to do,” she ended sternly.

“You have a concussion,” said Fenton Hardy a man who looked like Frank knew he would in about twenty years or so.

“But dad, they took Joe!” Frank objected. Surely his father would understand why he couldn’t stay in the hospital for something so simple. After all Fenton had started out as an officer with the New York City Police Department and since resigning fifteen years previously he had become the world’s foremost private investigator. There was no way he could be as good at what he did if he had let a little concussion stand in his way.

“I know, Son,” Fenton said gently. “Con filled me in when he got here. He let me read the statements made by the two boys who saw it happen.”

“Any ...” Frank began but quit when his father shook his head.

“I’m not working on a case right now,” Fenton said. “I am going to see if anyone has been released recently. As for the phones at home, Con is arranging for a tracer for each line in case the kidnappers call.”

“Dad...” Frank started again.

“You can’t come home tonight,” Fenton said, his voice stern. “Don’t worry. Dr. Daniels promised that if you did well through the night that he would release you first thing in the morning. Your mother is going to stay with you and she will drive you home in the morning.”

“No more arguing,” Laura told Frank as he opened his mouth yet again. “Let your father leave in case your brother gets a chance to call home,” she ended, her voice breaking.

Frank nodded. His mother was right. His dad shouldn’t even have come to the hospital. He should be at home waiting for Joe to call...or the kidnappers.

***

At ten to eight the next morning Frank and Laura walked into the house. “Dad?” Frank called out as he entered the foyer. Fenton was there in an instant.

“How are you?” Fenton asked, looking at Frank worriedly.

“I’m fine,” Frank answered. “No dizziness and no nausea. I don’t even have to go back. Any word from Joe or the kidnappers?” he asked hopefully.

Fenton shook his head. “I did speak with Chief Collig just before you got here. The van the kidnappers used was stolen. It was found at four o’clock this morning two miles this side of Southport.”

“Any leads?” Frank demanded as his father finished speaking.

“The forensics team is working on it,” Fenton said. “We should know something by lunchtime.”

“Why don’t you two go on into the living room and I’ll fix us some breakfast,” Fenton offered seeing how tired his wife looked.

“Thanks, honey,” Laura agreed, leaning up and kissing Fenton’s cheek as the phone started to ring.

“Hello,” Fenton said, picking up the receiver after starting the machine to trace the call.

“Mr. Hardy?” Callie’s voice came through the line. Fenton hit stop on the machine.

“Hello, Callie,” Fenton greeted her. “I guess you want to talk to Frank?”

“Please?” she begged and Fenton handed the receiver to Frank with a frown. She had sounded upset.

“Frank, can you come over?” Callie asked as soon as she heard his breathing and before he could speak.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, not wanting to leave until he knew something about Joe.

“Someone was in the house last night,” she said. “Mom has already called the police.”

“Are you and your mom okay?” Frank asked at once.

“We’re both fine but...” Callie began.

“But?” Frank pushed.

“Someone came in and moved stuff around,” she explained her agitation. “The entire first floor has been ransacked but nothing is missing.”

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.