Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

The Capture

Fritz said, "How many times do we have to tell you we are not ghosts?"

Craig threw up his hands and said, "Fine. You two aren't ghosts! What else doesn't age? Vampires?"

John broke out laughing. Fritz chuckled too.

Fritz lectured, "Drinking human blood won't increase your lifespan. Given the prevalence of blood-borne pathogens like hepatitis and others, drinking human blood could greatly lessen your lifespan."

John remarked, "Besides, the idea of drinking human blood is revolting!"

Fritz pointed to an ornate mirror at a far wall, then said, "Do our see our reflection?"

Craig looked, then replied, "Yes. All three of us are reflected."

Fritz said, "My brother and I are flesh-and-blood human beings."

Craig responded, "I can almost imagine some sort of genetic fluke that could make somebody apparently remain high school age for decades. There are some movie actors who convincingly play high school students even into their early thirties. What I cannot understand even with some genetic miracle like that is how come everybody else around doesn't figure it out! Including me. Until tonight, especially me!"

Fritz said, "Now that the veil had been ripped away from John and me, I realize we can teach you to do stay young too. Not just freeze your age either, but return it to eighteen."

Craig declared, "Absolutely not! You may find high school and late adolescence so much fun that you want to keep on repeating it, but the situation was very different for me!"

"How so?" Fritz asked.

"I'm surprised you have to ask!" Craig turned to the mirror and looked at his own reflection, "I'm still fat, but I was fatter in high school."

"Although large, you were fit," John said. "You were a great lineman on the high school football team."

"I've been to many college football games. Those high school games were really tame and trivial in comparison," Craig said. "There's no way on Earth I would make it on the varsity college team! My point is I've changed physically and mentally. I don’t want to go back to what I was."

Fritz said, "We've missed you since you left for college. Our cases have become, well, somewhat boring without you."

Craig wiped away a tear, genuinely moved, and momentarily tempted.

John added, "Life was more humorous when you were on our cases with us."

Craig stiffened as unpleasant memories flooded back. While he may have made things more humorous, he had felt back then like it was often humor at the expense of his many mistakes and, painful as it was to admit to himself, his general incompetence.

John pleaded, "Take our offer, Craig! We need you back the way you were."

Craig looked at his two friends, who certainly did not look like ghosts, but living human beings. He then looked at the mirror that showed all three of their reflections. In the reflection, he could see how he in just the last three years away at college had gotten noticeably older than his two amateur detective high school friends. The cashier at the pizza restaurant had noticed that. Looking at the difference in their appearances, Craig Peters thought about the various legends throughout history of people seeking some sort of fountain of youth or immortality.

Craig asked, "Will I remember what happened here tonight?"

"I'm sorry, but you won't whether you take the offer or not," Fritz said.

John consoling put in, "Even my brother and I won't remember! Most of the time, we aren't even aware we are staying the same age for year after year, decade after decade. I cannot tell you how it happens because I don't really know myself. We remain ignorant of it, just as the people around us are unaware of our repeating the same year in high school."

Fritz explained, "Sometimes, like tonight, something is such a glaring, irreconcilable violation of normal life that we then do remember what is really going on for a short time."

John declared, "If it weren't for this gift, then I would be ninety-two years old. Fritz would be ninety-three! If we were even still alive, we'd likely be in a nursing home somewhere. More likely dead of old age, so really ghosts!"

Craig spread his arms and said, "What you are describing may seem a gift to you, but to me, it would be a curse."

Fritz said, "Is it because you were fat and picked on in high school?"

"Partly, but there is a more to it than that. Have I already repeated some years of high school without knowing it before moving on?" Craig asked.

Fritz answered. “No, we had a buddy somewhat like you in appearance and personality. He stayed in high school with us many times, until thirty years ago.”

John said, “He’s the one I was thinking of back at the pizza restaurant. He almost dropped out of high school to join the Lobster Bend Gang, but we talked him out of it.”

Fritz said, “After many decades of staying young, he decided to started aging thirty years ago.”

Craig asked, “What happened to him?”

John recalled, “He went to college, but changed majors a dozen times. He finally dropped out and never graduated. Always lazy and eating back in high school, that sedentary lifestyle and heavy eating were not too funny for a middle-aged adult. He died at age forty-one of a heart attack.”

Fritz shook his head sadly and said, “I don’t know why he made the choice to start aging. He could have still been here, as young and healthy as John and I are.”

John remarked, “We don’t want the same thing to happen to you, Craig. Take the gift.”

Craig stated, “I do not want it. What about Christine and Vicky? Are they staying young?”

Before anybody could reply, a clattering sound of a falling can was heard.

John announced, “That was the trip wire from the tunnel!”

Craig demanded, “Hold it! We need to finish discussing the curse!”

Fritz said, “I thought we were discussing a magical gift.”

John ignored this as he took off at a run.

Fritz looked at Craig, then said, “We should go after John. I want to be able to tell the rest of the story of this place to my classmates when high school starts up again in a month. Don’t you want to tell it to your friends in college?”

Craig could not remember why his head hurt so much. However, something about the way Fritz had worded the question reassured him. Craig felt like he had dodged a bullet that could have destroyed what he wanted from life just as much as the bullets Viperly had shot at the Hardly boys could have damaged theirs.

Craig replied, “I feel like I fell asleep in the middle of a ghost story. I remember being really scared, but afterward could not recall what made the story was scary. All right, let’s go capture the bad guy!”

Fritz and Craig took off toward the basement. They were too late. John was holding an expensively attired bald man. Next to the captured was a big bag out of which spilled some gauze, a big rope noose, a skull, and various other Halloween-type devices.

John announced, “It’s Roy Smith. Just as we thought.”

“Unhand me! I’m the one who hired you!” Roy demanded.

Letting the man go, John said, “You’re not going to get away from all three of us.”

Fritz first explained to Roy that Craig Peters was a friend they had brought along. Fritz then went on to discuss finding the images on the film, giving Craig full credit for that. He continued by telling about the bags of ice and the chain in the attic.

“I see. I thought your reputation as amateur detectives was overrated, but it seems I was wrong. I figured I could fool a couple high school kids. Well, I better do this, then,” Roy Smith said, as he put his hand in his rear pocket.

John pounced on him again, trapping Roy ’s hand in his rear pocket.

John then checked the pocket, then sheepishly announced, “It’s not a gun. All he’s got is a wallet.”

Fritz came over and looked at Roy ’s fingers, then declared, “It was you all along, Roy . I’ve got your fingerprints.”

Roy said, “I admit I made it seem like there were ghosts here. However, I don’t know what your problem is, John Hardly. I don’t even own a gun. Never have.”

John said, “I thought you were going to murder us to keep your secret.”

Pulling his hands away from Fritz’s scrutiny, Roy replied, “Of course not! We have an agreement You did your jobs very well, so I’m going to pay you.”

Fritz retorted, “You can’t buy our silence this way!”

Roy said, “I don’t want your silence. Go tell what you found here tonight. Tell your family, friends, newspaper reporters, TV reporters, whoever you want. Any publicity, good or bad, will bring in more visitors to the Mansion on the Mound. I’m guilty of making it seem like there are ghosts here, but I own this place. You’ll find what I’ve done is technically not a crime.”

John asked incredulously, “You don’t care if we publicly expose your hoax?”

Roy replied, “Not a bit. I hope you do. It’d have been better if you’d been fooled, so would go out and announce the ghosts are real. This outcome is almost as good, though. I have this vague feeling that I cannot explain. Late at night, I sometimes think I know why I have that hunch, but I never seem able to remember in the morning. I trust my hunches, though. There is something about you Hardly Boys and this place. I think the more people you tell about my faking ghosts at the Mansion on the Mound, the more who will believe there really are ghosts here! I don’t think it matters how good your evidence is for my hoax.”

Fritz decided, “We cannot take your money.”

Roy said, “As you wish. I’m not a bad guy like that Viperly who shot up the ceiling on the top floor shooting at you two high school boys all those many decades ago. Just give me back my magnetic swipe card, then go in peace.”

John handed over the card.

Fritz said, “We have your bottle of blood, some film canisters, and a plastic bag that held ice. They all have your fingerprints on them. I suppose you want those back as your private property too.”

Roy dismissed this, “No, you can keep those if you think it’ll help expose my hoax.”

Roy then noticed the money left for the film. He gave that back. This, Fritz did accept. Roy asked about the cost of the developing.

Fritz dug a receipt for that out of his backpack. Roy covered the cost of that too, which Fritz accepted also. Fritz was shocked Roy Smith let him keep the pictures, including the negatives. Once more, Roy offered to pay the boys the agreed on fee for doing their job Once more, the Hardly boys declined. Craig wondered how much the sum would be and if he could get a share of that. It might let him vacation for the rest of the summer. He silently decided it was better to stick to principles, as his summer job would certainly satisfy his needs.

Roy Smith then escorted the three off the premises, but in a polite fashion.

Over the rest of the summer, Fritz and John Hardly told many people about the hoax. Besides getting the expose written up in the newspaper, they managed to get on both the local television news programs. Craig Peters decided to stay out of that publicity campaign to concentrate on working more hours to build up his cash for college. As the summer drew to a close, Craig happened to drove by the Mansion on the Mound around mid-day. He noticed that the large parking lot Roy Smith had built during the restoration was not large enough. Cars were parked alongside the road going all the way down the hill. Craig could see a long line of people waiting for their chance to go inside.

THE END