Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

By the time that Con Riley left the Hardy household Sunday morning he had made two important decisions.

The first one was that he needed to find out more about William Doe/Hardy and his past; and the second was that he couldn’t tell Fenton…yet.

But as he had watched Joe and William that morning at breakfast he didn’t like what he was seeing.

It was mostly little things but when he put them together with what he had picked up on from last night, he decided he was either paranoid or his gut instinct was screaming at him.

He liked the second choice better.

* * *

It had first started during the movie; it wasn’t big things…more like oddities with the fidgeting, or rather lack of, being a major one.

Joe was notoriously fidgety and it had often got him trouble in school.

He couldn’t help it. He just had a lot of energy and found it very hard to sit still for very long without squirming or needing to get up for something. But last night he had sat still for over an hour and a half before Frank stopped the movie.

Now admittedly Con hadn’t seen Joe in over a month and it was possible that Joe had finally settled down…

But then when William came downstairs, the poor kid couldn’t sit for more then 10 minutes before he started to squirm.

To Con it should have been the other way around.

And then there was the voice.

Joe’s voice didn’t trigger familiarity…but Will’s did. Yet he had never met Will before and sure, they did sound alike but it was still ‘Will’s’ voice that caused his gut to clench.

If he didn’t know better he would have thought they were pretending to be each other. But why would they do that? It wouldn’t make any sense…

Unless…and Con really didn’t like that idea. So he had to do some checking up on things first.

Unless Joe was the kid who had called him that night…and Will was the psychopath that the caller had told him about. If so, then it would make sense. But that would also mean that Joe was in danger…a lot of danger.

The three boys had sat down for a breakfast that Con had made. He loved cooking and was happy to have someone to cook for instead of just for himself. So he went all out and made omelets, toast, sausage and fried onions and was pleased to see that the boys dug into it with fervor….with one exception.

It did not escape his notice that William dug into his while Joe hardly ate anything. After seeing how sick ‘Will’ had been last night, it made more sense if it was the other way around.

“Feeling better this morning?” Con asked watching the twins carefully and was rewarded when both boys started to nod before Will shot Joe a small look and the younger stopped nodding and put his fork down.

Was it is his imagination or did Con see Joe flinch when William looked at him?

“I’m going to Biff’s”, Joe said, “thanks for breakfast Con.” He started to get up from the table when Con stopped him, “Joe…is something wrong? You’re looking a bit off this morning. You’ve hardly eaten anything."

Frank glanced up from his plate and noticed for the first time that Con was right. Joe looked a bit flushed and his eyes had a dull look to them instead of the mischievous glint that seemed to permanently live there.

Will cut in, “He’s probably just coming down with what I’m getting over”, he fixed Frank with a knowing look, “we’re together quite frequently.”

The dark haired boy actually put his fork down in mid bite and glared at William. Con wasn’t sure what was going on but he sensed there was much more to this then met the eye.

Joe swallowed nervously as he repeated, “I…I’m fine…I gotta go…Sherlock needs his breakfast. Bye Con.”

Con watched him leave noticing the way his shoulders seemed to hunch as he hurried out of the room.

So when he left an hour later, Con didn’t bother to go home. He decided to drop by the station and see if Chief Collig was hanging out there today. He really needed to talk to him.

* * *

Joe took his bike. He needed to attend to the dog this one last time as Biff was going to be back after lunch and then he was going out to the Morton farm to see Iola. He had to make sure she was alright.

It was going to take him a while as the farm was on the outskirts of town, and although he had pedaled there before, he had never done so feeling like he did now. And after he left Biff’s house and pedaled for about 20 minutes he wondered if he’d ever make it there at all.

His back was in constant searing pain and the exertion of riding the bike was making him sweat which seemed to burn as it rolled down his neck and seemed to pool in the center of his back. His head swam as the world seemed to come in and out of focus.

But still he pedaled on, his mind set on one thing only.

He had to see Iola.

* * *

An hour after Joe left Tony Prito pulled up in front of the Hardy house. He was going to meet a couple of his cousins for a friendly game of football and stopped by to see if his friends wanted to go.

Frank answered the door, “Hey Tony come on in.”

Tony followed him in sniffing the air as he did, “Something smells good in here.”

“Con made us breakfast. Joe didn’t eat much of his, want some?” Frank offered already heading towards the kitchen.

“Sure, “Tony accepted and grinned, “it’s been at least an hour since I ate."

“Yeah I can see you’re withering away in front of me”, Frank teased his lanky friend.

“Joe didn’t want this?” Tony said in disbelief. It was awesome.

Frank watched him finish off a sausage before he said, “I don’t think he’s feeling very well. He looked a bit peaked this morning.”

“Well he did have a cold or something a little while ago… maybe its some sort of back lash, “Tony offered remembering when Will first came to the Hardy house that Joe had been sick.

“True”, Frank admitted and then frowned as it brought back the memories of the car accident.

“You okay?” Tony saw the look on his friend’s face and Frank offered him a weak smile, “I’ve been better but I’ll survive.”

“Good”, Tony quipped, “You wanna go and toss the ole pigskin around? Mateo and his brothers are meeting me and Angelo at the park in about half an hour.” Angelo was Tony’s older brother. At 20, he was an older more muscular version of Tony and the family resemblance was unmistakable.

“That’s pretty tempting”, Frank admitted. He liked Tony’s brother and cousins. They were a good bunch…a bit loud and rowdy at times, but very likeable, “but I promised Callie I would help her Dad move some stuff around this morning.”

“Oh poor you”, Tony laughed. Callie’s father was a bit eccentric and tended to rearrange the furniture in his upscale house at least once a month, “what about Joe or William?”

“What about Joe and William?” the door from the rec room opened and Will came into the kitchen to grab a soda. He had been downstairs watching the parts of ROTK that he had missed, after promising Con to drop it off at the video store later.

“There’s a bunch of us getting together to toss the football around. Frank can’t come so I thought maybe you and Joe might be interested, “Tony explained finishing the last of Joe’s left over breakfast.

“Joe’s at Biff’s”, Will said, “but I’ll go. Just give me a second to get changed.”

“I know what you mean, “Tony continued, “it looks warm outside but brrr….next thing you know the little trick or treaters will be coming around.”

A little while later Will left with Tony and Frank headed over to Callie’s. If he was lucky he’d be finished at her place and home by 2:00 . He still had lot of work to do on his term assignment.

* * *

It seemed to take Joe forever to ride to Iola’s place. He had thought about bringing Sherlock with him but decided against it because he thought the distance might be too far for the dog.

Far for the dog? He mused sarcastically as he stopped and took a long drink from the water bottle he had on his bike, what about far for me?

In truth if he were not so single minded in his concern for the pretty dark haired girl, he wouldn’t have made it at all. His head was really thudding now and he found he had to work very hard to even stay on the bike.

By the time he did reach the long gravel driveway, he was exhausted. Getting off the bike, he tried to walk to the house but found it was difficult as he couldn’t seem to walk in a straight line very well.

What’s wrong with me? He wondered as he stopped and had to wait for the world to stop spinning before he could try again. Joe knew it was cold out because he could see his breath but his body felt hot and sweat drenched. The pain in his back had somewhere on the trip become so bad he was actually numb and he was sure this wasn’t a good thing.

Then he saw Chet coming out of the smaller barn and tried to call out to him, “Ch-Chet,” but it didn’t’ come out very loud.

Glancing towards the driveway, Chet saw Joe standing about a hundred feet from the house and hurried towards him, his face a mask of complete disbelief.

Joe opened his mouth to tell him how happy he was to see him when Chet grabbed his arm and roughly began pulling him towards the barn.

“W-what’s…wrong?” Joe winced as Chet’s fingers dug into his arm. He couldn’t understand his friend’s behavior.

“We need to talk…privately”, Chet said brusquely and something in his tone raised the hair on the back of Joe’s neck.

“Chet…” Joe started to try and tell his friend about William masquerading as him but the sturdier boy never gave him a chance. Pulling Joe into the same stall that Iola had been attacked in, Chet flung him against the wall, hard.

Joe gasped as he slammed into the wall and he fought to keep on his feet but it was to no avail and he ended up sliding down onto the straw covered floor.

His back rubbed against the rough wood painfully and he was unable to keep the cry of pain from his lips.

He had no idea why Chet was doing this.

Chet had been Frank’s best friend since kindergarten and he had always treated Joe like a little brother. He had never done anything to hurt him…until now.

“Chet…what….” Joe stammered as he fought the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm him but Chet didn’t let him finish.

“SHUT UP…” Chet screamed enraged by what this person had done and tried to do to his sister…his baby sister…”YOU HAVE NOTHING THAT I WANT TO HEAR!!”

Iola had told him everything…everything.

Reacting to this visible anger, Joe curled himself into a small ball and scooted away from Chet as far as he could. His eyes were wide as he was in complete shock, unsure of what was happening as his fevered body shuddered violently betraying how terrified he was.

“I trusted you”, Chet lowered his voice and glared at the trembling form in front of him. His chest heaved with anger as he couldn’t erase the mental picture from his mind of what this person had done…in this very stall, “I trusted you.”

Joe tried again to say something but Chet raised his finger and pointed accusingly at him, driving the very voice from his throat with his tone, “don’t you dare say anything…I don’t want to hear it…NOTHING!”

“I-Iola”, Joe whispered despite the warning. He had to know…

The sound of his sister’s name being uttered by the filth at his feet was too much and Chet lost control, “YOU DON’T DARE SAY HER NAME…YOU DON’T EVER!”

And then he saw a piece of lumber just inside the stall door and he leaned down and picked it up. He was beyond control and shaking almost as badly as the boy in front of him but he had to do it…He had to for Iola.

Joe couldn’t get away with it…not with what he had done.

Raising the piece of 2x4 (2 by 4), he held it liked a batter and prepared to swing, “You are nothing…”

Chet didn’t’ intend to kill Joe…but he wanted to make sure he never forgot.

No one messes with his sister.