Chapter Title: John's Realization

John lay on his stomach on the hospital bed.  A doctor bent over him, then peeled off a bloody bandage.  The doctor spread something liquid and cold with a sharp antiseptic smell on John's back.  This room was an ordinary hospital emergency room, not an operating room.

A uniformed police officer popped his head in, "Is John Hardly conscious?  I need to get a statement in case he dies!"

The doctor snorted, "He's in no danger of that."

The officer said, "Chief Clymer and I have been talking to his girlfriend, his brother, and his brother’s girlfriend out in the waiting room.  They report John was strapped down to a board before being put in the ambulance."

"That’s standard procedure," the doctor lectured.  "We play it safe with the back.  We already ran John through the MRI.  His injury was minor."

John turned his eyes toward the door and said, "Hello, McCormick."

The doctor said, "My patient only needs two stitches.  Can't this wait?"

John put in, "I wasn't even knocked out."

The doctor ordered John, "Don't talk when I’m putting in stitches."

McCormick said before departing, "Not knocked out?  For you, that's highly unusual.  I sometimes think you and your brother can’t get through a case without one of you being knocked out at least once.  I'll be in the waiting room with your brother, Vicky, Christine, and the Chief."

The stitches, just as they were supposed to, stopped the bleeding.  After they were in, the doctor applied a fresh new bandage.  It was much smaller than the bloody one he had removed.  The doctor gave John a prescription to be filled later at a drugstore.  After giving detailed instructions on the medication, the doctor warned John that he was likely to be stiff and sore for several days.  This would be from bruising and strained muscles, not an indication of undetected serious injury.  The doctor then let John leave.

John walked into the waiting room just in time to hear Vicky calling Officer McCormick a monster.  As soon as she saw John, she forgot McCormick.  She ran over gave John a kiss.  He could taste the saltiness from her tears.

John warmly smiled at her and announced, "I’m fine.  Just two stitches.  The back board was just a precaution."

Vicky glared over at McCormick, "This police officer told us that much.  I thought that made him a good guy, but then he asked me nasty questions.  He believes you and Fritz blew up your own van!"

McCormick shrugged and said "Nothing personal, ma’am."

John directed a response to Vicky, "It's McCormick's job to ask these types of questions, whether he believes I'm guilty or not."

Vicky gave John a quizzical expression and remembered, "You usually have a short temper."

"I'm not angry at McCormick.  Fritz and I have done similar accusatory questioning of people we were confident were innocent in some of our cases.  It’s part of the job.  I am furious at the man who planted the bomb.  I’m sorry about Gordon Snuff dying, just like Ivana did."

McCormick said, "He’s not dead."

John asked, "Really?"

McCormick responded, "Gordon Snuff will be in surgery for a while yet, but he’s expected to live."

John declared, "I'm glad he’s not dead, even if he is an incompetent fool."

McCormick agreed, "I have a good idea how foolish Gordon Snuff can be."

John asked, "Where’s my brother and Christine?"

McCormick replied, “They were here until a few minutes ago.  I told them what the doctor said about your injury being so minor, so they left.  They’re heading back to the crime scene.  Chief Clymer himself is escorting them.”

John asked, “Why is Chief Clymer doing that?”

Officer McCormick said, “Since your Dad quit the private detective business and retired to Florida , Chief Clymer decided to hire you and Fritz as consultants on this case instead.  Same terms your Dad used to get, adjusted a bit for inflation.  The Chief and I are aware Christine has been assisting you and your brother on recent cases, so she’s included in the deal.”

James asserted, "If Fritz accepted, so do I."

McCormick grinned widely, "It'll be interesting working with you two rather than as competitors."

Vicky protested, "Nobody told me why Fritz and Christine left with that other officer.  They had talked out of my hearing.  Officer, you asked me all those nasty questions as though you thought John had committed the crime when all along you knew you were going to hire him?"

McCormick nodded, then pulled out a notepad and said, "Well, John, let’s have your statement."

John went over the whole thing, including giving McCormick the license number still written on his hand.  McCormick wrote that down.  John continued, describing seeing Gordon fly through the air.  John stopped abruptly.  His face took on a thoughtful expression.  His face began twitching, then tears flowed.

Vicky said, "John, should I get your doctor?"

John held up a hand and said in a quivering voice, "McCormick, you said Gordon was alive despite being tossed around like that?"

"Yes, although injured badly enough to require surgery," McCormick affirmed.

John then asked, "How's our van?"

McCormick replied, "Totaled.  With it ripped apart like that, I could see how it was armored.  That might have limited the blast enough to save Gordon’s life.  Even with that armoring, your van is in about a thousand pieces.  Sorry to bear the bad news."

Vicky, who had not even lived in Port City when the Hardly Boys’ first car blew up, asked a question that proved she knew what her boyfriend was thinking, “Officer, how torn apart was the van compared to the other car?”

McCormick said, “The van’s worse.  If this was also done by the Obliterators, they’ve gotten access to more powerful explosives.”

John shouted, “Ivana Morrow couldn’t have been in our car when it exploded!”

McCormick impassively said, "You've got to have been in denial or have repressed memories or something.  You're too good a detective not to have figured out some trace of her body must be left after a normal car bomb.  Even in the intense firebombing in Dresden , Germany during World War Two where intense heat melted bodies, something of the body remained.  It takes something like a nuclear explosion to completely vaporize a body so there is no trace of it.  Port City is still here, so it obviously wasn’t that kind of explosion.”

“That makes sense to me,” Vicky said.

John responded, "I don’t understand.  I saw her get in the car.  I saw her get in!”

McCormick argued, “Ivana may be alive or dead, but she certainly wasn't in that car when the bomb went off.  If you saw her get in, she must have gotten out again."

John recalled, “The newspapers and TV news reported her death in the explosion.”

McCormick informed John, "The Port City Police Department had orders to play it to the media that way.  From the federal government.  National security stuff, with orders given from a big wig named Dr. Ruby."

 

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.