Hardy Detective Agency

Joe stared numbly at the note in his hands and then up at his brother's girlfriend. He found that his legs wouldn't hold him anymore - in fact, if he tried to stand anymore, he was going to end up falling down. He opened the sliding door of the van and sat there while he tried to face back the feelings of extreme fear for his brother.

Whomever took him wasn't going to get away with this.

Callie looked as washed out as Joe felt. The younger Hardy reached out and took Callie's hand for a minute, just to let her know that she wasn't alone - and to let himself know. He was trying to think about what to do next, then remembered he intended to call his father...

...only Fenton Hardy's phone was busy.

* * *

Fenton Hardy sat in his office, staring blankly at the computer screen in front of him while he tried to compose his thoughts. He'd learned, a long time ago, that sometimes investigation came easy - the words flowed, the juices revved and he was off and running - or somethings they came hard, like now. A file sat beside his keyboard on the desk and occasionally he looked at it.

It was pure tnt, at least for Abernathy.

His phone rang and he reached over and absently picked it up.

"Hardy."

"Mr. Hardy," Fenton didn't know the voice. "Do you know how long it takes a person to die of dehydration?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Fenton demanded.

"Your son, Mr. Hardy," the voice continued on the other end. "Your son. Or maybe you don't know yet."

The voice on the other end of the line chuckled knowingly.

"I have your oldest son," the man said. "And I made sure to put him away somewhere where you will never be able to find him, at least without my help you won't. The only problem is, where I put him, he's not going to be able to get any food or, more importantly water. So that leads me to my question. Do you know how long it takes a person to die of dehydration?"

Fenton felt his own mouth go dry. Was this man for real? Frank was out on a date with Callie - wasn't he?

"I'm sure you'll tell me," Fenton said as he mentally went through what to do. Call Frank's cell phone. Call Callie. Call Callie's parents. See if Joe knew where they were going. Get Sam Radley to come and help...

"3-14 days," the man said, supplying the information. "First, he'll just be really thirsty. Then he'll grow fatigued and suffer weakness. Then he'll just grow delirious - think of all the things he'll see when that happens. And, after that... there will be death. It won't necessarily be painful, Hardy, but it won't be pleasant."

The man chuckled again. Fenton wanted to reach through the phone and throttle him, to make him pay.

"You should probably think about how long you think your son can make it without water," the man said. "And weigh that against how long you want to delay in giving me what I want. I want the file, Hardy. You know the one I'm talking about. I want it and any copies you may have made of it. If I don't have it..."

His voice had gone continually higher but it dropped again.

"If I don't have it," the man said. "You won't ever see your son again."

Then he hung up.

The phone rang again a moment later.

"Dad!" it was Joe! "Dad, something's happened to Frank!"

"I know," Fenton said. "Get home right away, Joe."

"Don't you want me to phone the police?" Joe asked.

"No," Fenton said. "This is personal. Get home. Bring the van back so we can go over it with a fine tooth comb. Try not to touch anything..."

"Daaad," Joe said, slightly offended. "I'm not a complete amateur you know."

Fenton sighed. "Just come home, Joe."

What was he going to tell Laura?

****

Joe hung up the phone in Callie's parents' living room, and then Joe and Callie dashed out of the house. Just as they reached the driveway, they heard the loud, familiar approach of a certain old car coming down High Street in the direction of the Shaw residence.

A moment later, Chet Morton's big, funky, dark green 1974 Oldsmobile, a huge boat of a car that Chet had christened the "Queen," came rolling into view, and stopped at the end of Callie's driveway. Chet rolled the window down and grinningly yelled, "Wasssuppp!!!" in the direction of Joe and Callie, not knowing of the dire situation that was unfolding involving Frank's kidnapping.

Joe and Callie then saw that Joe's girlfriend, Chet's pretty dark-haired sister Iola Morton, was seated on the passenger side of the huge Oldsmobile, as they rushed down the driveway towards the car.

"What's wrong?" Chet asked with concern, as he and Iola noticed the overwhelmed expressions on Joe and Callie's faces as they came rushing up to the car. Joe quickly explained what was going on to a shocked Chet and Iola. Joe then gave Callie the keys to Laura's car, and he got into the boys' van. Then, the three vehicles drove the distance from Callie's house to the Hardy home in record time.

Iola and Chet piled out of the Queen, Callie got out of Laura's car, and Joe quickly got out of the boys' van. Then they all rushed into the Hardy residence. Upon arriving in the living room, they immediately saw that Fenton Hardy had obviously just broke the news about Frank's kidnapping to Laura, who was sitting on the sofa sobbing uncontrollably. Callie and Iola rushed over to console Laura, and Fenton spoke quickly to Chet and Joe.

"Boys, we need to go out now and check over the van again for any clues as to who might have done this, and where they may have taken Frank," Fenton said.

"But, what about this, Dad?" Joe asked, as he reached into his coat pocket and handed Fenton the note that Callie had found under the wiper on the boys' van earlier.

Fenton glanced at the note's grim warning about having the files at the Shore Road Pier at 9:00 that night, and then glanced at his wristwatch. He also thought about the threatening phone call that he had received earlier.
The detective looked nearly overcome with uncertainty as to what to do next, as he realized that it was now 8:35 , and that to reach the Shore Road Pier in time would be cutting it very close indeed.

Finally Fenton Hardy spoke, and said gravely, "The files they are after could potentially send several ruthless criminals to prison for a very long time. But, nothing is worth Frank's life, so I suppose we have no choice but to give them what they want!"

"Surely you're not really just going to do what those thugs asked you to, Dad?" Joe asked.

"They've given us so little time to act that I'm afraid we have no choice, son, for Frank's sake," Fenton replied.