Hardy Boys Fan Fiction at the HDA - Boardwalk Bust

I snapped my fingers and pulled out my wallet. It was still damp and the card I just remembered was wet but the print was still legible. “Mary Fleming.”

“Will she believe us?”

I held out my hand for the cell phone. “Only one way to find out.”

Joe gave it to me and I dialed the number for The Shore Thing. “Mary Fleming, please....This is Frank Hardy. I need your help. It involves your stolen jewelry...I need you to call the police the second I hang up and tell them to track down Bump Rankowski....Yes, I know he’s the mayor. He’s also the reason the thief could get into your store...Yes. Please. Just call...Thanks.”

I hit the ‘end’ button and nodded to the gypsy woman. “May I use it one more time?”

She nodded gravely and I called Jack. “Jack?...I need you to contact the police there in Atlantic City. The man behind the robberies here is Thad Freeman. He was looking for quick cash to pay back the casino he was in debt—”

The gypsy woman snatched the phone from my hand. “You must go.”

Joe got to his feet. “What—?”

She ducked out of the back of the tent just as the flap was opened and Bump Rankowski stepped inside. “This is my town. You think you can come in here and turn the town against me?”

He pointed the gun at us. “Let’s go.”

I took a deep breath and followed Bump out of the tent. The second we were out of there, his gun disappeared in his pocket but we both knew it was there. He steered us toward his office but instead of going inside the building, he pointed us in the direction of his car.

He ordered me to get behind the wheel, while Joe got in the back seat, directly behind me while Bump took the front passenger seat. “Now drive to the airport,” he said, aiming the gun at me, low enough that it couldn’t be seen by anyone passing by.

I drove the speed limit the entire way. I parked where he told me to and we got out and headed for his plane. It was already on the runway, ready to go. “Now get in.”

Joe went first and I followed him into the Cessna. Finally Bump climbed in and settled in the pilot’s seat. He locked the plane up and then taxied down the runway. Joe had claimed the co-pilot’s seat and I remembered that conversation we’d had on the flight to Atlantic City.

“Joe, don’t punch any buttons,” I said, hoping I sounded nervous.

Joe gave me a ‘do-what?’ look. I shrugged. “I’d hate for Bump to have a fainting spell or something.”

Joe’s eyes went wide and he smirked. “So would I. No health problems, Bump?”

Bump took off smoothly and gave Joe a disgruntled look. “What are you mumbling about? I’m in perfect health.”

“Okay, it’s just I can’t fly this thing, you know. All these dials and whatchamacallits freak me out.”

I bit back a grin at Joe’s dramatic tone. If my brother doesn’t go the rich lawyer route, he could always be an award-winning actor.

“I mean, what if I pushed this—” he said, demonstrating.

“Hey!” shouted Bump. “Stop, you’ll stall us out!”

I finally found what I was looking for. It was a piece of metal tubing, possibly a replacement strut or something. It was pretty heavy and would make the perfect bat. I didn’t have much room to pack any sort of real wallop but I managed to knock Bump out before he even knew what hit him. “Joe, take over.”

“Go on to Atlantic City?”

“Yeah. Jack’s there and so is the thief.”

I found some rope to tie Bump to his seat and relieved him of his gun. He roused himself right when we were about ten minutes out from Atlantic City. “What—?” He glared at Joe. “You little liar.”

“Name-calling is so tacky these days,” said Joe.

“Contact the tower. Request permission to land,” I told Bump, hefting the metal tubing where he could see it.

He gave me a glare but did it. A few minutes later, Joe was taxiing down the runway. Now that we were on the ground, I saw Jack running toward the plane. He yanked open the door. “Frank, Joe, you okay?”

“They’ve hijacked my plane,” said Bump. “They’ve kidnapped me.”

Jack shook his head. “Nice try. The police here have found Thaddeus Freeman. He told them the entire scheme.”

“I was framed,” snapped Bump, looking daggers at the two of us.

Jack smiled. “A Mary Fleming confirmed that you assisted Freeman in his robberies by supplying the security codes for their systems.”

I glanced at Bump and he seemed to deflate right there in the seat. “It’s over,” I told him.

He didn’t say anything else, just stared out the window. Joe got up from the co-pilot’s seat and then shook his head. “I had a captive audience, should’ve tried a few barrel rolls.”

I waited until he was halfway out of the plane and bopped him on the head with my palm. “Oh that would have been real smart, me trying to keep Bump contained and you doing rolls.”

“Hey, you challenged me, remember?”

I sighed. “You are definitely the brat, little bro.”

And he had the nerve to just grin at me.

** *** **

Jack flew us back to Ocean Point to get our stuff. Joe managed to talk him into staying for another day. We tracked down Naomi to buy her a late lunch and ran into Summer and Madison. They invited themselves.

After lunch, we spent the afternoon on the amusement pier. Jack seemed to hit it off with Naomi who was apparently a freshman at Princeton. She was attending on a full scholarship and worked a variety of jobs during the summer.

Joe and Summer spent most of their time on the coasters while Madison and I just wandered around the pier. She told me about her boyfriend who she hoped would pop the question once they’d graduated from high school. I told her about Callie and how I’d probably wait at least till college to propose.

Jack crashed on a cot in our hotel room that night and we flew out the next morning, ready to get home. We’d completed our mission and had a little fun doing it.

We did find out that Bump had been right. Freeman had yet to pay his markers, so the stolen jewelry was returned to the stores they were taken from. It was only the customized stuff that was considered lost but according to Mary, several people actually returned what they’d found on the beach.

Joe was sitting in the co-pilot’s seat and begging to take over for a few minutes. I leaned forward. “You know what he’s going to do, Jack.”

“Well, you started it.” Jack grinned at me. “You might want to tighten your seatbelt,” he added, transferring control to Joe.

I groaned. “Fine. Guess it’s a good thing I had a light breakfast,” I muttered.

Joe just laughed and did his first barrel roll. How many had I challenged him to again? Five? Just great....

The End

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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.