Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Chapter Title: Fire

As Fritz reached the front door of the motel, he saw the yellow sedan pulling out of its spot. Jason drove while Joyce sat in the passenger seat and Ivana in back. Fritz waited so they couldn’t see him exit the building, then hurried out.

Fritz straddled the motorcycle. This was John’s, which was a different make from his own. He had to look for the key slot for some seconds. He found it and turned the key. He twisted the throttle and kicked the starter lever. The bike didn’t started. He kicked again. He looked up. He’d lost sight of the yellow car! He gave another kick. The engine sputtered, then frustratingly quit. Fritz pushed the electric starter button. As John had warned him, that didn’t work. He took a deep breath, then kicked again. This time, the engine roared to life.

Fritz hurried down the road. He passed several cars, but didn’t see the yellow one. He was about to give up when a full block ahead, he saw it turning left. Rather than wait to drive up to that block, Fritz turned in the same direction on his block.

He thought about how tricky it was doing this kind of trailing. He and John had been trained to use multiple nondescript cars when trailing somebody, switching continually the car doing the actual following. That made it very hard for the person being trailed to realize it was happening. Being a lone rider on a motorcycle was very much worse. At the next intersection, he glanced down the road. He saw the yellow car continuing on straight. He continued straight on his block. At the next block, he didn’t see them. He turned and came up toward their block. He saw the car at an auto parts store. As he watched, three figures returned to the car. They carried red gas cans. The figures got in the car. The car headed back in the road. Fritz stayed where he was. The car went only a short distance, then pulled into a gas station. Soon, Jason was filling the cans.

Fritz decided that since he was certain the yellow car was going to be torched, he’d call Dr. Ruby. Fritz reached to his belt and the cell phone wasn’t there. He suddenly remembered he’d left in such a hurry that it was still in the motel room!

Back in the hotel room, John had gingerly and slowly made his way out of bed. He noticed Fritz’s cell phone sitting on the closet shelf. He grabbed it and dialed Dr. Ruby.

After one ring, Dr. Ruby’s voice came on and, before John could say a word, said, "Fritz, your girlfriend is driving me crazy! She remembered I was supposed to have breakfast with her, you, and John. She tracked me down while I was meeting with Chief Clymer and Officer McCormick. They had to forcibly remove her from Clymer’s office! She was screaming that she had a right to stay."

John knew the fancy phone identified the caller and it was natural for Dr. Ruby to assume this number that he knew so well was Fritz, but Dr. Ruby wasn’t usually so rushed.

"It’s John, not Fritz."

"Where’s Fritz?"

"Jason, Joyce, and Ivana left and aren’t coming back. They heard the television news with a description and license number of their car. They’re going to torch it and go someplace else."

"Torching their car should wipe out their fingerprints," Dr. Ruby admitted. "That they are going to some other location is a big problem."

"Fritz followed them on my motorcycle, since I’m not in condition to ride today."

"A motorcycle is a terrible vehicle for tailing somebody. Besides, I ordered you two not to go out in public!"

"I know, but we can’t afford to lose them."

Dr. Ruby said, "We should have put a radio locator on their car."

John remembered seeing the yellow car in the lot when they came in as dawn had just started to break. Dr. Ruby, Fritz, and himself had spent hours with Officer McCormick and Chief Clymer arranging things at the Hardly house and discussing what would be deliberately leaked to the press. John’s head had been buzzing with so many details about that that he’d never thought of placing a radio locator. Then again, he didn’t have any.

"Our locators were destroyed with the van. Did you have any?"

"No. The point will be moot after the car gets torched anyway. I just hope Fritz manages to follow them without getting spotted. Under the circumstances, he’s doing the right thing. To be honest, I’m tired and upset. I just got a lab report on the gas in the canister from your house. It’s deadly!"

"How bad?"

"If the Obliterators have enough of this to fill one large canister, but still small enough for a strong man to carry, they could take out the entire population of Port City and then some! Hey, you’re on the cell phone. Did Fritz forget it?"

John sheepishly replied, "Yes."

Dr. Ruby was silent for a moment. John expected Dr. Ruby, who’d been relatively calm that Fritz had disobeyed about staying hidden in the room, to be highly critical of this.

Dr. Ruby’s tone of voice had its normal calm as he asked, "Does he know the name you registered under at the hotel?"

"Yes, he gave me a hard time about it."

"From any regular phone, he can reach you on the hotel phone and on his cell phone. He can also call my cell phone number. Leave both phones open. I might have to reach you at the same time as Fritz and I’ve got both numbers. I’ve got to go meet with representatives of another agency to try to get the convention moved from Port City. Now that I’ve got a sample of this gas and a report on what it is, they might do it. I want you to stay put. I’ll pick you up later, but this could take some time."

John gingerly touched his back and winced. He didn’t feel like going anywhere today.

"I’ll be here."

Dr. Ruby said goodbye and broke the connection.

John managed to get dressed, but it was a difficult undertaking getting his pants on. Once dressed, he flipped through the television stations. The news was over. He found nothing but soap operas and talk shows. He shut the set off.

He then decided to disobey Dr. Ruby. He pulled the wig, mustache, and glasses from the pocket of his cloth jacket. That’s where'd he'd stuck them last night. He realized Fritz had put on no disguise before his hurried departure. John thought if Fritz managed to do this trailing without being caught, it’d be a miracle. John clipped on the cell phone. He then got his fingerprint kit and went to the elevator. He was in no shape to use the stairs today. The elevator let him out on the third floor. The maid was two doors down from 304. John had thought that they might lose valuable evidence if she got to Jason and Joyce's room before he did. If he’d waited much longer, he’d have been too late.

He went up to her, "Excuse me. I locked my key in my room. My name is Jason."

"Which room?"

"Three-oh-four."

Without any request John prove he was who he said, she opened the door, then went back to the other room and resumed cleaning.

John muttered to himself, "With security like this, I wonder if I’ll still have Fritz’s laptop computer in my room when I get back."

John got busy fingerprinting and searching. He lifted nice sets of prints. Searching the room, he didn’t find anything of value. He checked the trash can. Nothing there told him anything. No maps were left behind in drawers. He found a tablet of paper and checked for impressions. Nothing. He grabbed the phone book and looked for torn out pages. All were there. He went to the rental car listings and skimmed quickly. Nothing was circled. He did the same for hotels. He’d hoped they'd marked where they might get a new car or room in the phone book, but they had not. He finally left and took the elevator back down to his own room.

He got out Fritz’s laptop and brought up the fingerprint program. Sure enough, he had Ivana’s prints again. Along with hers, he now also had Jason’s and Joyce’s. They were known Obliterator agents, with some impressive crimes including several murders to their credit. Jason was known to have expertise in explosives, but not in electronics, although he often claimed to be an electronics expert. The most sophisticated electronics Jason was reported as using to date was an electronic garage door opener modified to set off a fuse. John thought that sounded suspiciously like what was used at the house and easily disarmed by Dr. Ruby. Joyce was not reported to have any expertise in explosives or electronics, but was an expert in karate. She’d killed at least one man in unarmed combat.

John phoned Dr. Ruby, who was initially not happy to be disturbed during his meeting. John explained about getting the fingerprints from room 304 before the cleaning lady arrived. Dr. Ruby was glad John had done that when he found out whose dossiers the fingerprints led to. Dr. Ruby repeated this to some people in the meeting. John heard excited murmurs at that. Dr. Ruby then broke the phone connection.

With that task done, John lay on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. His back had a muscle twitch from the exertion of moving around the room. Each twitch hurt. He could hear various sounds in the hotel. Water ran in a pipe somewhere. He faintly heard a vacuum cleaner. He glanced where the stethoscope lay on the desk. No point in using it now. There was likely another stethoscope in Dr. Ruby’s room, but no point in going up to that room as John didn’t suspect him. Besides, Dr. Ruby would probably find out and get upset. John tried to sleep as he still felt tired, but sleep wouldn’t come return. He felt trapped and wanted to do something, anything. Yet, being forbidden to use either of the phones or to leave the room, even though he had already done that, he couldn't think of what he could do.

His mother had often complained about how hard it was to sit behind when her husband and two sons were out on a dangerous case. He could finally understand why. He wondered if his parents knew about their supposed demise yet. Since Grace knew already, he suspected they did by now. He also figured they’d be interviewed on the evening news. He dreaded watching that.

On his motorcycle, Fritz could see the yellow car far ahead. Tailing had become difficult, as this was a desolate part of town. The run down condition of the buildings made Fritz think of the possibility of all of Port City becoming a ghost city. This thought reminded him of his nightmare and he shuddered. He wished he could call Christine and tell her to get out of town immediately, so at least she would survive. This wish was so strong he would have succumbed to it, even though he was supposed to let her believe he was dead, if only he’d had the cell phone with him.

Few honest people came to this part of town. Fritz worried about that making him easy to spot, so he let the yellow car have an even longer lead. He saw the car pull into an alley. He pulled over some distance away and waited. He’d been here before on a previous case. He was sure that this alley dead ended against a chain link fence. He thought he might have been spotted and they were setting a trap for him. He waited some more, but neither the car nor pedestrians came out. He smelled smoke before he saw it pouring out from the alley. He pulled his motorcycle up. The yellow sedan was covered in flames at the alley’s far end, right up against the chain link fence. He didn’t see Jason, Joyce, or Ivana. He’d been overly cautious and lost them!