Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Fan Fiction

Joe sat quietly, his long legs curled up beneath him, leaning back against the arm of one of Nancy's living room chairs. After dropping Nancy and Frank off to pick up Frank's car and retrieve Laurie from her grandparents, Joe and Vanessa had followed them back to Nancy's house. Still laying claim to the journal he'd pilfered, Joe had made a great show of snagging a corner chair and curling up in it to read. He'd watched out of the corner of his eye as his older brother paced impatiently back and forth across the floor, waiting to see if anything in the story might be useful.

Finally, Joe couldn't contain himself any longer. "Frank, you're not helping me concentrate. Sit down, please!"

Frank gave his little brother a mock glare. "Sit down? C'mon, Joe, you're killing us with the suspense here! The least you could do is read that thing aloud to us. It would certainly save time!"

Joe grinned over the top of the journal. "Yeah, but I hate reading aloud. You know that, Frank." He lowered his gaze back to the pages.

Frank threw his hands up in the air as he flopped down on the sofa. "Sometimes, Joe, you drive me crazy!"

Joe's only response was to stick his tongue out at Frank before going back to his reading.

Vanessa shook her head as Nancy came into the living room. "You know, Nan, someday those two will make wonderful adults. If they ever finish growing up, that is!"

Nancy laughed. "You're probably right," she said as she tossed a book into Frank's lap. "Here," she said, directing her statement at Frank. "Since you're wanting to read so badly, go read a story to your daughter. She's wide awake in there, waiting on you."

Frank looked up at Nancy. "You know, Nan, I'm really not very good at this. The last time I tried this, it didn't work."

Nancy cut him off with a smile. "Sorry. Excuses not accepted. Laurie requested her daddy, so get in there. You don't want to disappoint her, do you?"

Frank gave a longing look in the direction of Maggie's journal, still clutched protectively in Joe's hands. "No," he said at last, "I don't." He stood up and crossed over to where Joe was sitting and nudged him with his foot.

"What?" Joe asked, looking up from the journal.

"Don't start without me." He held up the storybook. "I'll be right back."

Joe grinned at Nancy and Vanessa as Frank

disappeared in the direction of Laurie's bedroom. "Sure he will," he said.

When Frank emerged from Laurie's room nearly a half hour later, he found that Joe, Nancy, and Vanessa had moved to the dining room table. Grabbing a chair, he joined them.

"You didn't start without me, did you?" he asked.

"Nope," Joe said. "But I did let the girls go ahead and take a peek at the notebook. You were taking longer than expected." He peered closely at his brother's face. "Did it go better this time?"

Frank nodded. "Yeah, it did. Only took two books this round. She's sound asleep in there."

Nancy glanced at Frank. "This time? What happened the last time you tried to put her to sleep?"

Frank's face reddened slightly. "Nothing, really. It's just that..." Frank gave Joe a dirty look for forcing him to spill his secret. "Well, when she spent the night with me, I couldn't get her to sleep. I read and read and read to her; but it got me nowhere. She finally passed out on the floor in front of the TV several hours after her bedtime." He waited for Nancy's temper to flare. Instead, he was granted a chuckle.

"Oh, so that's what you meant by you weren't any good at reading to her" she said.

"Uh, yeah, kind of," he answered. "I didn't tell you how late she was up because I didn't want to make you mad. Especially since I didn't get her to bed on time."

Nancy laughed again. "And you think I always get her to bed on time? She‘s late getting there tonight." She shook her head. "Frank, there's nights I put her to bed a half dozen times before she finally conks out on me. Just because I set a bedtime for her doesn't mean she's always ready to fall asleep then."

Joe joined her laughter as he patted his brother on the back. "You should have seen him, Nan. He was really worried that you were going to thing he was a bad parent."

"I was not!" Frank said, embarrassed. Seeing the look Joe was giving him, he altered his statement. "Ok, maybe I was a little worried." He let out a sigh. "But not anymore. After tonight, I know I'm doing ok. Can we change the subject please?" He reached out and picked up the notebook that lay on the table in front of Vanessa.

"Sure," Vanessa replied, grinning. "Want to talk about the weather?"

Frank groaned. "Vanessa, if you're not careful, Joe's going to bring you down to his level." He flipped through the pages of the college journal, then waved it at his brother. "Ok, guys, what have we got? Anything useful?"

"Define useful," Nancy said, winking at Vanessa.

"Ok you guys, give me a break here!" Frank started to rise from his chair. "Tell you what. You three sit here and chit chat and I'll go back into the living room and read it myself."

Nancy grabbed his hand. "Come back here. We're just having fun with you and you know it!" She tugged him back toward his chair.

Smiling, he sat back down next to her. "What?" he asked. "Do you three think you're the only ones who know how to tease?"

Nancy slapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Ok," she retorted. "You've got us. All kidding aside, do you really want to know what's in that story?"

He shook his head. "Yes, I do."

All business now, Joe took the notebook out of his brother's hands. "Then let me enlighten you." He thumbed through several pages and began to read aloud.

"Deanna's hands shook as she slowly dropped the sleeping pills into the bottle of wine. She corked the bottle, then swirled it slowly, watching the pills dissolve in the glistening ruby liquid. She wasn't sure if this would be enough to do the job. After all, she'd never killed anyone before tonight...."

Joe's voice trailed off as he skipped several pages. Running his finger down another page, he found the appropriate passage and continued.

"Janet laughed at her friend's joke and reached for the glass of wine. 'You know, Deanna, I don't think we've talked like this since David and I announced our engagement. I've missed this!'

Deanna offered a crooked smile to her friend and raised her glass. 'I know,' she said. 'Sometimes romance gets in the way of even the best of friendships, doesn't it?'

Janet nodded her head as she finished the glass of wine. 'It really does. But promise me something?'

'What's that?' Deanna asked.

'We'll never let anything come between us. If we find ourselves drifting apart, like we have been, one of us will make sure to point it out and fix whatever's wrong.'

Deanna nodded. Her hand faltered as she went to pour her friend a second glass of wine. 'It's not too late,' a little voice in her head repeated. 'You can stop this.' She glanced past her friend, at the framed engagement photograph of Janet and David sitting on the coffee table, and the hand became steady. 'Sorry, Janet,' she thought to herself. 'You shouldn't have taken the love of my life from me.'

"This is sounding pretty familiar," Frank told his brother.

Nancy and Vanessa concurred with him.

"Let me keep reading," Joe said. He flipped ahead another page and began again.

"Janet's head dipped slightly as the sleeping pills in the wine began to take effect. Deanna pushed aside her untouched glass of wine and moved to her friend's side. 'Janet, what's wrong?' she asked.

'So tired,' Janet murmured. 'Think I'm going to be sick.' She started to get up from the couch, but as her vision blurred and the room began to spin, she fell backwards. Deanna caught her. Putting her arm around her friend, she helped her off the couch.

'Let's get you to bed,' she said. 'Maybe I can find something to make you feel better.'

After dumping Janet on the bed in the bedroom she shared with David, Deanna went into the bathroom. Grabbing some toilet tissue, she opened the medicine cabinet and once again removed David's bottle of sleeping pills, using the toilet tissue to avoid leaving her fingerprints on the bottle. Carrying it to the bedroom, she propped Janet up.

'Janet,' she said. When Janet didn't respond, she shook her. 'Janet!'

Janet opened her eyes. 'What?' she slurred slightly.

'Take these. They'll help you.'

Janet eyed the pills her friend offered.

'Awful lot of them there,' she murmured.

'No, only one. Something's wrong with your vision.' Deanna held her breath, hoping that Janet was out of it enough to believe her.

'Yup, room's a'spinnin!' Janet replied. Deanna lifted the four pills in her hand to Janet's mouth and helped her take them. Offering her more of the wine, she tipped several more pills out into her hand.

'C'mon, stay with me,' she whispered. 'Bottle says you should take three. That was only one. Let's do two more tries.' Somehow, she managed to get two more small handfuls of the sleeping pills down Janet. Then, laying Janet back against the bed, she moved to the desk to write the notes. She'd been practicing Janet's handwriting for weeks and was positive she had it down pat. She'd write one for the kitchen, and one for the nightstand. When David came home, he'd be led to the bedroom where he'd find Janet's body and the suicide note.

Putting the notes in place, she switched the wine bottle that had the dissolved pills in it with another, half used clean bottle. She then placed the nearly empty pill bottle in Janet's hand. Using yet more tissue, she removed a CD of romantic music from David's collection and put in the bedroom stereo. Setting it too repeat, she surveyed her handiwork.

"Goodbye, Janet. I'm sorry it had to come to this." Quietly, she flipped off the bedroom light. She moved into the bathroom and flushed the tissue paper. Now all that was left was to go home and hang out until she got the bad news. Eventually, David would call. He'd need his friend to turn to for emotional support. And when that happened, she'd be waiting."

Joe turned to his brother, who'd been hanging on his every word. "So, Frank, what do you think?"

Frank shook his head. "I think you found a blueprint for what happened to Emma Lawson. There's no real need to look any further, is there?" He took the journal back from Joe and skimmed the last page Joe had read. "Now all we need is a confession from Maggie."

Vanessa smiled. "So it's solved then? You can take this to Chief Collig in the morning and he can have Maggie brought in for questioning. I'm sure he can get her to crack with this journal."

Nancy shook her head. "It's not going to be that easy. Joe didn't have a search warrant, so technically he shouldn't have taken it from her house. And they can't use the journal itself as evidence. Any lawyer that even halfway knows the law can get that thrown out with no trouble."

Joe nodded. "That's right. If I take this to Collig, all I’ll get for my trouble is a good chewing out from him. We'll have to get a confession out of her ourselves. If we can break her down, then we can get take her in and have her give a statement to the police. Right Frank?"

Frank merely grunted. He was now reading the story written in the journal for himself.

"Frank?" Joe asked.

Frank raised one finger in Joe's direction to indicate that he needed a minute. Everyone waited patiently while Frank read the rest of Maggie's creation.

"Well?" Joe asked again as Frank finished.

"I think we need to confront Maggie," he said.

"All right!" Joe grinned. "Now we're talking. When?"

"Now," Frank said grimly.

"Uh, Frank," Nancy said gently. "It's nearly one a.m."

He met her eyes. "So?" he asked.

"What if we're wrong? What if someone else read that story in college and carried it out? Like Steven, maybe? I bet he would have had access to her papers back in college. Or what if it's all one big coincidence? Emma gets depressed over something, but hides it really well. She kills herself. Steven is blamed because of what happened to his first wife."

"I don't believe in coincidences, Nan. Have you forgotten that?"

"No, I haven't," she said. "But stranger things have happened, Frank."

He shook his head. "I know you want her to be innocent, Nancy. She's a potential friend. But you need to stay objective here."

Nancy sat back in her chair. "I need to stay objective?" she asked, a hurt tone creeping into her voice. "Hello, aren't I the one that gave her the third degree at Callie's house? Didn't I set up a play date between Laurie and Shaun for the purpose of pumping Maggie for more information on her relationship? I am staying objective here. I agree that she's probably a murderer. I don't want to agree because, yes, I like her. She seems very nice. But all the facts point to her. However," she took a deep breath. "On the off chance that we're all wrong, we shouldn't storm over there at one in the morning."

Frank met Nancy's gaze, digesting what she'd said. Before he could reply, Joe chimed in.

"As much as I hate to admit it, she's got a point. If we're wrong, I know I'll feel like a jerk for waking her up and upsetting her at this time of night. And if we're right and we manage to get a confession right now, who's to say that her lawyer won't get it thrown out by saying that she was so tired that she didn't know what she was saying?"

Frank considered this, too. Finally, he spoke. "You're both right. Sorry, Nan. I didn't mean to insinuate that you weren't being objective." He covered a sudden yawn, and realized how tired he was. "I guess I've been up too long today."

Nancy shrugged. "That makes two of us," she said. "Why don't we meet in the morning? Around 10, maybe? Then we can go over and confront Maggie."

Frank nodded. "Sounds good to me. Joe?"

Joe was already out of his chair and searching for his car keys. "Works for me. I should get Vanessa home now, anyway. Are you ready, babe?"

Vanessa slipped out of her chair and followed Joe into the living room. Picking his keys off of the television set, she dangled them in front of him as she answered. "I'm ready when you are, hon."

He made a playful grab for the keys as she laughed.

"See why he needs me?" she said over her shoulder to Nancy and Frank as she headed out the door. “Catch you guys later.”

Frank glanced at Nancy. "So, see you at 10, then." She nodded. He hesitated momentarily; then leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Ok. And I really am sorry about what I said." With that, he left. Nancy heard the clicking of the lock as he closed and locked her front door behind him. She moved to the window and watched as both cars pulled out of her driveway and disappeared around the corner. Letting the curtains fall shut; she turned out the lights and went to bed. Fatigue from her day's activities finally overtook her. Nancy was asleep almost as fast as her head hit the pillow.