Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Nancy looked up front to see that Frank and Joe were not moving. She silently prayed that they were all right. The force of the impact had been greater for them. She frantically tore off her seat belt and leaned forward in her seat to check on them. They were both breathing–they just appeared to be unconscious.

Nancy finally remembered she had her cell phone in her purse, that was sitting on her seat next to her. She grabbed it out of there and quickly dialed Sheriff Vaughn and explained what happened.

“You were run off the road?” Vaughn asked. “Are you sure it wasn’t an accident?”

“Someone hit us from behind and then rammed us on the side.” Nancy said, exasperated. “We are in the ditch right now.”

“Do you know who did it?” Vaughn asked.

“No.” Nancy said. “All I know is that it was a blue pick-up truck. I’m not even sure how many people were in the truck.”

“All right. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” Vaughn said. “Do you need an ambulance?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Nancy said. “Frank and Joe are out of it right now.”

“I’ll send one. Don’t do anything, Nancy . Stay right where you are.” Vaughn said.

“There’s not anywhere I can go.” Nancy said. She hung up the phone and checked on Frank and Joe again. They were still out of it, but at least they were still breathing.

Nancy froze when she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. She looked out the window to see that the blue pick-up was coming back. Nancy tried to steady her breathing. She was sure they weren’t coming back to make sure that they were okay. She heard the truck doors open and then approaching footsteps.

Nancy turned towards her door, getting ready to surprise the person that was coming. It would be hard with her leg, but she didn’t care. She would do whatever it took. The door opened and Nancy kicked out with her uninjured leg. The guy grunted in pain and grasped his stomach. Nancy ’s breath caught in her throat when she saw who she kicked.

“Luke!” Nancy said.

“Yeah. Are you okay?” Luke asked.

“I’m fine.” Nancy said. “What are you doing here? Why did you run us off the road?”

Luke just looked at her and then looked up. Before Nancy could turn around to see what he was looking at, the other door opened and someone grabbed her from behind. Before she had time to react, Nancy felt a damp, sweet smelling cloth clamp down over her mouth and nose. She tried to struggle, but it was no use.

She saw Luke’s face dissolve in front of her as she blacked out.

*****

When Frank finally came to, he could hear the distant sound of sirens. He looked over at the driver’s side to see that Joe was just starting to stir.

“Joe?” Frank said.

“Yeah.” Joe said. He shook his head as if to clear it.

“Are you all right?” Frank asked.

“As good as can be right now.” Joe said. “What about Nancy ?”

Frank turned to look in the backseat and didn’t see

anything. “Where is she?”

“What?” Joe turned around to look in the backseat. Then he noticed that both of the doors were open in the back. “Maybe she got out to look for help.”

Frank didn’t answer him. He knew Joe was trying to be optimistic, but he knew better. Something was wrong.

Frank got out of the car as the sirens got closer to them and started to look around. He didn’t see any sign of Nancy , but he did spot two different sets of footprints around the back of the car. He felt as if someone poured ice cold water down his back. Nancy wasn’t here because she had been taken.

The sheriff’s car pulled up beside them and Sheriff Vaughn stepped out. “What happened?” she asked.

“Someone ran us off the road.” Frank answered.

Sheriff Vaughn looked over Frank’s shoulder. “Where’s Nancy?”

“We don’t know.” Joe said, coming up to where they were standing.

“What do you mean you don’t know? She just called me not even fifteen minutes ago.” Sheriff Vaughn said.

“She did?” Frank asked.

“Yes.” Vaughn said.

“Frank and I were unconscious. When we woke up Nancy wasn’t here.” Joe explained.

“I found two different sets of footprints near the back of the car.” Frank said. He led Sheriff Vaughn to their car and she looked where Frank pointed out the footprints.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Vaughn said, shaking her head. “Why would someone run you off the road and then come back to take Nancy?”

“You’re right. It doesn’t make any sense. I thought that the case was over, that everything turned out to be some kind of prank.” Frank said.

“I don’t know. I’m putting out an APB for Eric Warren.” She called one of her officers over and told him what she wanted. He nodded his head and walked over to one of the squad cars.

Just then a paramedic came over to them and asked Frank and Joe to step over to the ambulance truck. Vaughn walked away and came back a couple of minutes later with a manila folder. She handed it to Joe. “This came for you about an hour ago.”

Joe took the folder from her and opened it. It contained all of the arrest reports for Eric from the detective up in Maine. Joe quickly skimmed over the papers and then handed them to Frank, who was finishing up with the paramedic. Joe was looking at a photograph when the paramedic turned to him. He held up his hand and put the picture in front of Frank.

“Frank, look at this picture. Tell me who this is, next to Eric.” Joe said.

Frank studied the picture and his eyes widened in recognition. “Where did this picture come from?”

“It was in the file.” Joe looked through the papers again and saw some note scribbled on a scrap of paper. “It says here that they were some undercover pictures. He was being followed when he was arrested on the suspicion of murder charge.”

“What’s going on?” Sheriff Vaughn asked, watching the two of them.

Frank and Joe looked up at her. “Sheriff, did you see any of this stuff in here when you received it?” Joe asked.

“I haven’t had time. Why?” Vaughn asked, frowning.

Joe handed her the picture. “Because the people in that picture with Eric are Luke Medina and Maddie Fields.”

*****

When Nancy came to, she felt a dull, throbbing pain in her head. She couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes just yet. As a wave of nausea passed over her, she tried to remember what had happened. She, Frank, and Joe had been forced off the road. She remembered that Frank and Joe had been knocked out by the force of the impact. Had she?

No.

Her eyes shot open as she remembered seeing Luke come to her car. He had gotten out of the blue pick-up that had run them off the road.

Nancy finally looked around at her surroundings to see that she was at Luke’s house, in his living room. She was sitting against a wooden pole with her hands tied behind her back. Nancy struggled with her bonds and found that they were too tight. She slumped against the pole, exhausted. The chloroform still hadn’t worn off and she was starting to feel sick again.

“I see that you’re awake.”

Nancy looked up to see Luke and Eric coming into the living room. Nancy struggled with her bonds again and they just smiled at her. She finally noticed that Luke was holding a small handgun.

“Luke, what are you doing?” Nancy asked, eyeing the gun warily.

He looked at Nancy and gave her a chilling smile. “I’m just tying up some loose ends.”

“What are you talking about?” Nancy asked. Could this really be the same Luke that she had met a few days ago?

“You ruined my plans, Nancy.” He said casually.

“What plans? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nancy said.

“You should have taken all of the warnings to heart, Nancy. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.” Luke said.

Luke was confusing her. Nancy had no idea what he meant. All that she did know was that he was different. It was almost as if he underwent an instantaneous change.

“Would you please tell me what it is that I have gotten into? How are you involved in this? I thought it was Eric all along.” Nancy said.

“Well, Eric was involved in it. Just not in the way you thought he was. Maddie was supposed to stay murdered, so to speak. That is, until you came along. You ruined everything by witnessing something that never really happened.” Luke said.

“So the murder was fake.” Nancy said.

“Of course it was. You didn’t honestly think that I would murder the woman that I love, did you?” Luke asked. He smiled at Nancy’s hurt expression. “We’ve been pulling this scam all over the country. Maddie would have a huge life insurance policy put on her, and then she would mysteriously turn up dead. Then the grieving husband–me–would collect the money and we would move on to the next place.”

“How many times have you done this little scam of yours?” Nancy asked.

“At least a dozen times now.” Luke said offhandedly.

“How did you keep pulling it off without the insurance companies getting suspicious?” Nancy asked.

“We had forged documents that looked so real it would fool even the experts. Every town we hit, we had a new identity.” Luke explained.

“So, how does Eric fit into all of this?” Nancy asked.

“Every time Maddie was ‘murdered’, Eric would be arrested for the crime. When the police didn’t have enough evidence to pin it on him, they had to drop the charges. We gave him thirty percent of the money that came in to us.” Luke said.

Nancy looked over at Eric. He wouldn’t look her in the face. He just kept staring at his feet.

“And now we have you to take care of. Huntingdon, our old stomping grounds, would have been our last scam. But then you had your little accident. I would have left you on the side of the road, but I figured that wasn’t such a good idea. So I brought you back here. Of course, I didn’t know how much trouble you would cause us.” Luke explained.

“So why did you take the chance on me?” Nancy asked.

“Call it a slip-up on my part. But I’m about to fix that.” Luke turned to Eric. “Get the gas can out of the garage.”

Eric gave him a terse nod and left the living room. Luke turned to Nancy and gave her a wicked grin. “If I can’t get the money on Maddie, I’ll get the insurance on this place. Unfortunately for you, you’ll be going down with it.”

*****

“Why would Luke and Maddie be in a picture with Eric?” Joe asked.

The paramedics had finished up with Joe and Frank and they were given a clean bill of health. Now they were desperately trying to figure out things in order to find Nancy.

“They were friends.” Frank said.

“Nancy said that Luke acted real surprised to see Eric when he showed up at the diner the other night.” Joe said. “But if they were in Maine together, why act like that?”

“Maybe I was right all along.” Frank said. “Maybe Luke was in on it all along.”

“Yeah, but ‘in on’ what?” Joe asked.

“I don’t know. If we knew that, then everything would be over and Nancy would be here right now.” Frank said. He sat down on the back bumper of their wrecked car and put his face in his hands. He was worried sick about Nancy and he partly blamed himself for her disappearance.

“Quit doing that, Frank.” Joe said, coming up to sit beside Frank.

“What?” Frank asked.

“It’s not your fault. We will find her.” Joe said.

“I know. I just feel like I should have done more.” Frank said, frustrated.

“You mean while you were unconscious?” Joe said, dryly.

Frank gave him a look.

“Frank!”

Frank looked up to see the sheriff approaching him with her phone. “Eric’s on the phone. He says he’ll only talk to you.”

Frank grabbed the phone from Vaughn. “Where is she?” he demanded.

“I can’t talk long.” Eric said. “If Luke finds out that I’m talking to you, he’ll kill me.”

“That really isn’t my problem.” Frank growled into the phone. “So you better start talking fast.”

“He has her at his house. Get here fast.” Eric said.

Before Frank could respond, he was met by the sound of the dial tone.

“Luke has Nancy.” Frank said. “We have to move now before he kills her.”

*****

Nancy couldn’t believe that she had actually fallen for Luke. Why hadn’t she listened to Frank? She should have trusted him. But instead she had to be stubborn and look where it landed her.

“Was it all an act?” Nancy asked.

Luke just looked at her.

“You never really liked me did you? It was all just an act.” Nancy said.

“Sorry.” Luke said with no remorse at all.

“You won’t get away with it, you know.” Nancy said.

“Of course I will. No one suspects me. If anyone goes down for your murder, it will be Eric. All the evidence will point towards him.” Luke said.

“What?”

Nancy looked up as Eric walked back into the room.

“You’re setting me up?” Eric asked. “I thought we were in this together.”

“We were.” Luke said, turning towards Eric. “But the more I thought about, the more I realized I don’t need you anymore. Besides, I can use that thirty percent cut that I give you.”

“I won’t let you do that to me, Luke.” Eric said.

“I’m afraid you won’t have much of a choice.” Luke said. He aimed his gun and shot Eric in the chest, causing Nancy to scream.

Luke turned his gun on Nancy. “Quiet, Nancy or I’ll do the same to you.”

Nancy looked at Luke with wide eyes and then looked at Eric. He didn’t appear to be breathing. She watched as Luke picked up the gas can and started to soak everything in the living room. He then stepped back near the door and smiled at Nancy.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I really should get going.” Luke pulled out a box of matched and struck one. Nancy watched in horror as he dropped it to the ground. As the room was engulfed in flames, she could hear him whistling as he shut the door.

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Disclaimer

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.