"My brother Frank is in love with a girl who died 5 years ago. Five years ago next month, to be exact. He's loved her for years, although he wouldn't admit to it until they were both 20 years old, and halfway through college." Joe shifted slightly and Ashlee leaned into him.

"That's sad, but kind of sweet," she said. "Who was she?"

"Her name was Nancy Drew. Our father had a friend who was blamed for a crime he didn't do, and my dad convinced her father, Carson Drew, to defend him. Mr. Drew is an awesome lawyer. If there is any crack in an investigation, he'll find it. Anyway, he stayed with us in Bayport during the duration of the trial, and had brought his daughter with him since it was summer vacation. She was about 13, I think, the same age as Frank. And very pretty. Slender, with blue eyes and strawberry blond hair. A bit of a tomboy, too. Frank hit it off with her right away. I like her too, mind you, just not as much as Frank. For that entire month, everywhere we went, she went. We got to know her pretty well.

Over the years, we stayed in touch with us. At first, her dad would bring her to Bayport for an occasional visit. Or our Dad would have some case he'd want to run by Carson; to make sure whatever criminal he'd caught couldn't slip out of the prosecutor's grasp; so we'd visit River Heights. Two summers we ended up at camp together.

As we neared the end of our teenage years, the three of us found that we were increasingly becoming involved in solving mysteries. This gave us a reason to travel quite a bit more than your average 17 and 18 year olds. It gave us a freedom that most teens only dream of. And sometimes, those cases we were investigating caused us to cross paths. We'd run into each other in the strangest places - Paris, the Netherlands, Australia. Other times, Nancy would call us for extra help on a case, or Frank would call her. The three of us made a great team."

"I bet," Ashlee murmured. Joe grinned, then continued.

"Anyway, it was during those late teen years, that they began to fall in love with each other. It wasn't love at first sight. It was more of a mutual attraction that began to grow with each case we worked together. Both of them did their best to ignore it. Frank had a steady girlfriend, Callie Shaw, who he'd been devoted to for several years. Nancy had a boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, who she usually seemed completely tied to.

Then they both went off to College. Nancy to Wilder University near Chicago and Frank to NYU. From what Bess has told me, Nancy decided to spread her wings almost as soon as she got to college. She broke up with Ned within the first week of classes. Frank did manage to hold on to Callie until just after Christmas break that year.

She had met someone else in his absence and waited until after the New Year to break it to him. I thought he'd be heartbroken, but he wasn't. A little sad, yes. But heartbroken, hardly. He simply called it "the end of an era".

"So Nancy and Frank hooked up after that," Ashlee commented.

"No, not quite." Joe responded. "They stayed in touch, of course, but both made attempts at dating people on their own campuses for the next 6 months or so. We still crossed paths on the occasional case, and that's where things began to heat up, so to speak.

Nancy no longer had Ned to help her hold back her feelings for Frank. And Frank no longer had Callie to keep him in check, either. So with each case we worked together on, they managed to find time for just the two of them. I know of at least 2 passionate kisses that I interrupted, and our friends Bess and Chet managed to interrupt a couple also. It was getting to the point that the rest of us were ready to point out the obvious - they were head over heels for each other, just so we wouldn't have to pretend that we didn't know they were seeing each other behind our backs.

After awhile, they began sending each other emails. Sometimes 4 or 5 a day. And they began to call each other every day. Frank went through quite a few calling cards his the last semester of his sophomore year and the first semester of junior year. I'm sure she did too. And they started spending vacations with each other. It had finally happened. They were officially a couple."

"Wow," Ashlee said softly. "Took them long enough, didn't it?"

"Yeah," Joe said. "It did. But when they finally admitted their feelings too each other, it took off overnight. In March of their junior year at college, Frank bought an engagement ring. He happened across it at an antique store. He said it called to him. He wasn't planning on giving it to her until summer break. He thought that would give them senior year to plan the wedding, find a place to live, and get plans underway for the detective agency he and I had been talking about for years. I was supposed to join them at the agency a year later when I graduated from NYU."

"But she died before it could happen?" Ashlee queried.

"Yeah, she died. It happened over spring break of their junior year. Nancy had decided to spend spring break with our family in Bayport, rather than go with her friends Bess and George to Florida. Frank had broken his leg during a case a few weeks earlier and was doing well just to manage getting to class, much less taking off to Florida. So she came to us. Everything was going along so well until the night of the accident.

She had a fight that evening. With me. And she decided to go home in the middle of the night, during a storm. At one point outside of Bayport, there's a highway that winds along a cliff, overlooking the ocean. Apparently she was going to fast and hydroplaned. Her car smashed through the guard rail and plummeted into the ocean below. From all appearances, she wasn't wearing her seat belt and was thrown through the windshield. We never found her body. The investigator in charge of her case concluded that the tide caught her and carried her out to sea."

Joe paused for breath. The same weight that had settled in his chest that night five years ago was back. He closed his eyes and found himself standing along the twisted guard rail again, seeing the mangled remains of her car.

"Are you ok?" Ashlee asked, resting her hand on his cheek.

"Yeah," he said. "I was just reliving it for a minute there. I'll be fine.

"Frank took the news hard. He gathered up all of her photos, the ring, any little memento he could find, and took them back to college with him. He finished up his junior and senior years, but he was never exactly the same. It was like a part of him had died with her. I tried to draw him out, help him the way he had helped me when my girlfriend Iola had been killed in an explosion, but he wouldn't let me. He effectively shut me out. Any plans for an agency of our own were forgotten. He trained to be a police officer in New York instead. A year later, I followed him. But I couldn't stand watching him pour his heart into his work, but avoid any type of personal or social life. Finally, two years ago, I resigned and moved here. I keep in touch, but the connection we once had seems to be gone." Joe wiped away a tear that had slipped down his cheek. "I miss it."

"Oh, Joe," Ashlee said. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, well, you know what the worst part is?"

She shook her head.

"I think it's my fault."

"How?"

"I'm going to tell you something I've never told anyone. My parents, my friends, or Frank. I think I caused Nancy's accident."

Ashlee looked shocked. "How is that possible?"

"Nancy was upset that day. Something had been bothering her, I could tell. I convinced her to share. It seems that she and Frank had taken their relationship much farther than I thought. She was nearly 3 months pregnant."

"Oh, my!" Ashlee said.

"I flipped out. I couldn't believe they'd done something so irresponsible. I mean, I'm talking Frank Hardy and Nancy Drew! He is like the most cautious guy on the planet and she's little miss prim and proper. They'd never do something like that without at least taking precautions!"

"Those "precautions" don't always work Joe," Ashlee interrupted.

"I know that - or rather knew that. But all I could think of was that when Frank hears this, he's going to want to marry her immediately. Then neither one of them will ever finish college and all our dreams will be over. I blew up, yelled at her. Called her some really bad things. I told her that she was selfish and not to tell Frank. He wasn't to know about this. She should break up with him now. She looked so hurt. I realized immediately I was not being the friend she needed, but couldn't find the way then to apologize. I walked off and left her there, alone. She slipped into the house late. I tried knocking on her door, speaking to her, wanting to try to make it right. Through the door she told me to go away - give her some space to think. I never saw her again.

That night I killed two people - Nancy and Frank. Because Frank has closed himself off to love now that she's gone."

Joe fell silent. He realized that he was crying. Something he'd held pent up inside for so long had broken and he was crying. He wiped his cheeks with his hand and stared at the wetness for a moment.

"To this day I don't know what got into me. I've never spoken to anyone the way I spoke to her that night. It was like some other guy took over and I was unable to stop him."

Ashlee put her arms around him. "Oh, Joe," she said. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't help the way you reacted. What were you, like nineteen or twenty?"

"Twenty," he answered.

"Twenty," she replied. "You were young and you were afraid. Afraid for the futures of not only yourself, but for those of your brother and your friend. You simply reacted. So did she. By taking off like she did, she was reacting just as childishly as you did with your outburst. She never planned on getting killed. She just wanted to go home. It could've happened to anyone."

"I know you're right," Joe said sadly. "But there's still a little part of me that will always feel guilty."

"Well, you're not. You should sit down and tell this to Frank. I bet anything he wouldn't blame you."

"No, I can't do that. If I told me he lost a child along with Nancy that night, it would finish him off. I won't ever be able to tell Frank."

Ashlee sighed and pulled out of Joe's embrace. Men could be so stubborn. "Well, I didn't know her, but I'm going to speak for Nancy here. You're forgiven. You didn't do anything that any other brother would've done. And I'm sure she knew that once you cooled off, you would have apologized and helped her."

"May I say you are the greatest?" Joe whispered, pulling Ashlee back into his arms.

"You may," she said. "I have to be if I have actresses like Bess Marvin as the competition for your affection. Let's go to bed, Joe. I think you need some sleep."

"I, umm, well, I'm not really in the mood to..." Joe stammered.

"Silly old thing," she said with a smile. "Neither am I. Not after your story. But I'm not leaving you alone tonight. I think you need some company, and maybe some serious cuddling."

"Ok, you win. And Ashlee?"

"Hmm?" she responded as she turned of the cd player and the lights.

Joe took her hand. "Thank you."