The parking lot of Ultimate Pizza was packed as usual, but Joe managed to find a spot nearby. The girls stepped out and promised to be back as quickly as they could. Joe, however, refused.

“Besides,” he said, “I know the manager. He ‘s more likely to talk to me.” The girls appeared a bit angry at this information, but agreed that they might need Joe’s help.

The girl behind the front counter barely looked at them when they approached the front. The smile on her face slowly vanished as she finished with the customer before them. It was immediately in place again when they stepped up however.

“Can we speak to the manager,” Joe asked, “Tell him that Joe Clark needs to talk to him.” The girl looked a bit annoyed, but went to the back. A minute later, she returned, a man following after her.

The man stood about five foot ten and looked to be in his mid-twenties. His brown hair was short, and blue eyes stared up at Joe curiously through wire-rimmed glasses, “Is something wrong Joe?”

“I’m Vicki Silver and this is C. J. Summers,” Vicki cut in, “We need to ask you a few questions.”

“What they said,” Joe said after a moment, “Girls, this is Daniel Edwards.”

“Well, what do you need to know,” Daniel asked.

“Can we talk privately,” C. J. suggested. Daniel nodded and led them to his office in the back. Joe closed the door, making sure that nobody else was listening.

“Now, what’s going on,” Daniel questioned.

The girls told him what had happened the previous night with the imposter in the Ultimate Pizza uniform. The man seemed surprised at this information, but not as surprised as he really should have been.

“Do you know anything about this,” Vicki asked, “Are any uniforms missing?”

“I think you’re onto something,” Daniel told them, “Yesterday, one of our employees, Caleb Thomas, came in early by about thirty minutes. Wanted to talk to me about something. He left his uniform in his car, so he could change when he needed to get to work.”

“And let me guess,” C. J. spoke up, “When he went back to get his uniform, it was gone.”

Daniel nodded, “I thought he was just making it up…for a lame excuse to get out of work. Or he had misplaced it or accidentally left it at home. He had to go all the way home and come back. I still wouldn’t have believed it until you two mentioned it. But I should have known better. Caleb’s a hard worker. He wouldn’t have done something like that.” 

“Does Caleb work tonight,” Joe asked, having stayed quiet for too long.

Daniel shook his head, “I gave him tonight off. But I can get you his address if you need to speak with him.” The girls agreed. Daniel looked the information up and wrote down Caleb’s phone number and home address. The three teens thanked Daniel for their time and left.

It wasn’t until they were halfway to their destination that C. J. remembered something, “The phone!”

“What about it,” Vicki asked, sounding uninterested.

“We never checked your phone for bugs,” C. J. said, explaining her outburst, “That’s how this guy knew that we’d ordered from Ultimate Pizza. He wasn’t listening in from the window. We might have seen him.” 

“How could we forget that,” Vicki asked, “He had tons of opportunities while we were at school.”

“It’s understandable,” Joe told them, “It just never occurred to you at first. You’ve been through some tough situations in the last couple of days.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing I called Joe on my cell phone,” Vicki said, “I don’t want these people to know where we are.”

Joe pulled into a subdivision, which the sign out front declared as ‘Hometown Estates’. All three of them paid close attention to the street names, to make sure they wouldn’t pass it up.

“There it is,” C. J. pointed at a green street sign coming up…’ Kingspin Court .’ Joe turned left and nearly passed the place where they were heading.

Caleb Thomas’ house was a small one-story with a garden out front. Two cars were in the driveway, so they parked by the curb. Everyone climbed out of the van and C. J. was the first to reach the front door.

After knocking failed to attract attention from inside, C. J. rang the doorbell. This action was greeted with ferocious barking from inside and the click of claws sounding on tile floor.

“I’m coming,” a voice called out, “Just a minute.” A little while later, the door opened. The man standing behind it looked to be around eighteen and was holding a small dog and the source of the barking, in one arm, “Can I help you?” His brown eyes looked at them, waiting for an answer and he ran a hand nervously through his brown hair.

“Are you Caleb Thomas,” Vicki asked and he nodded, “We need to ask you a few questions.”

He allowed them inside and gave them the information they needed. Apparently, whoever had stolen his uniform hadn’t broken a window. He brought them outside to look over his car. No sign of tampering was shown on the door locks.

“Then how did they get into your car,” C. J. asked, “Does anyone else have keys?”

“Well, my friend has one, but I don’t think he’d do something like this,” Caleb told them, “Unless he lost them, but who would know that they were mine?”

“That’s what we intend to find out,” Vicki said, “What’s his name?”

 

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.