HDA - Living in Darkness Trilogy - Pt 2 - The Search

“Have you been awake all night?” Audrey Simpson asked her partner, an accusing tone in her voice as she came to stand beside Deanna on the balcony of their hotel room. “Your bed doesn’t look slept in.”

“It wasn’t,” Deanna agreed. “And I’m never sleeping again.”

Audrey made a face at her but sighed and said nothing else. The fact Deanna was trying to function at all right now was a marvel, as far as Audrey was concerned. She didn’t mind at all letting Deanna have a few quirks right now. Besides, the other woman’s body would shut down in exactly three days, Deanna would sleep for 12 hours whether she wanted to or not, and they would get back on the trail again.

Audrey knew her partner very well. Even the great Deanna Merrill had to sleep, whether she thought so or not.

“It’s time to go down and let Fenton know who his new team is.” Deanna set her coffee cup on the table and stretched. “Where’s everyone else at?”

“Breakfast,” Audrey pointed at the floor. “Remember, F.B.I. agents have to be fed regularly or brains curdle, reflexes slow down and we become boorish. Who was it that said that the first time?”

“Heaven only knows,” Deanna laughed. “I think it’s an Audrey-ism. Yes, a true blue one at that. I think you should write a book filled with all your Audrey-isms…if you can remember all of them, of course."

Ooh, I even got a real laugh out of her. This is looking up, Audrey thought. "I might," she admitted. "Then again, I probably won't ever have time. I have to use all of mine pulling your fat out of the fire."

"Au contraire, mon amie," Deanna exclaimed. "I believe I'm the one who does all the pulling."

As it did whenever she spoke any French at all, Deanna's voice took on a hint of a French accent. Audrey wondered if Deanna was even aware it happened. Audrey doubted it.

"Speaking of breakfast," Deanna said. "I got bagels earlier. Want one?"

They were sitting on top of the dresser, still inside their little warmer. The bagel queen of the world had struck again, and Audrey made a face. "You know I hate those things. They're like cardboard."

'Touché!" Deanna laughed. "I think they're quite tasty, especially with veggie cream cheese. Mmm!"

Deanna downed one in about five minutes and checked her watch. "We'd better go meet up with Fenton and Sam. You ready to catch a bad guy, partner?"

"Ready!" Audrey agreed. "Let's do it."

Audrey and Deanna went down two flights of stairs and down four doors before they knocked on the door. There was a mumble of ‘who is it?’ from inside and Audrey called out, “F.B.I.”

“Just a minute,” the voice continued. Deanna and Audrey exchanged amused glances. They waited in proper stance, each wearing their dark suits with white shirts and matching black shoes, looking ready to take on the world.

The door opened a minute later and Fenton Hardy stared at the both of them, stunned.

"Good morning, Mr. Hardy," Deanna said in her most prim F.B.I. voice. "We're here for our briefing!"

“Deanna?” he said. “Audrey? I thought…”

“You thought wrong,” Deanna said briskly as she pushed past him to go into the room. “Ooops, sorry, Sam.”

Deanna turned around, blushing as Sam lunged for a towel discarded on the floor. She went back to the door and kept her back to the room itself as Fenton laughed.

“Thanks for the warning, there, Hardy,” Deanna glared at Fenton. “You could’ve told a girl.”

“You didn’t give me a chance!” Fenton protested. “Next time, wait a minute!”

“I did wait a minute,” Deanna reminded him. “Before you opened the door. Sorry, Sam!”

“Yeah, no problem,” Sam said. Sam sounded very embarrassed and Audrey put a hand over her mouth to hide the wide grin.

It took him another minute to get dressed enough that Deanna and Audrey could safely enter the room. Fenton stopped Deanna at the door.

“Are you sure about this, Deanna?” he asked her gently.

Deanna turned back to Fenton and nodded. “Yeah,” she smiled and looked away for a moment. “He’d want me to stick with it. We were never much for…for sloppy goodbyes.”

A tear tracked down her cheek though and Fenton wiped it away. He kissed her gently on the cheek.

“We’re here for you if you need a shoulder to cry on,” he promised. “Just ask.”

“I might take you up on that,” Deanna smiled whimsically. “After this case is over.”

“Good,” Fenton said. He went back into the room and sat down on his bed to put on some socks. “What are we doing first?”

“Back to that house you found,” Deanna said. “I got the report on it this morning. It looks like a solid place to start. And what was the information your daughter found?”

“A mental institution,” Fenton said. “I don’t know much more about it than that but it’s been long abandoned.”

“How suspense flick of him,” Audrey noted dryly. “So we have…four more places to search?”

“Yea, four,” Fenton corrected. “The house we already looked over, two other properties in Cambridge and a mental institution. The two other properties are side-by-side, though, so one team could do both of those.”

“Wow,” Audrey grinned. “The kid must have major bucks.”

“He does,” Fenton agreed. “Laura and Derak’s father had more money than any 100 people need to live comfortably their entire lives. Obviously Andrew has access to Derak’s half of it.”

“Obviously,” Deanna agreed.

Sam handed Deanna the deeds found by Mandy, Connor and Samantha and finished dressing.

“Looks like we can split these up,” Audrey looked over Deanna’s shoulder. “Bill and Kacey can check out one. Philip and Bobby can check out one, and you and I can check out one. Add in the local police, plus Sam and Fenton, we should have enough to cover all of them, thoroughly.”

“The kids aren’t going to be left out, you know,” Fenton warned Audrey.

“Frank’s not going to able to go,” Sam said. “That leg didn’t look good last night.”

Fenton nodded. “I know that and you know that. And I know my son. He won’t be left behind. He’ll use crutches. He’ll promise to sit in the car. But he won’t stay behind, not if there’s even the slightest chance we’ll find Joe today.”

“All right,” Deanna nodded. “I don’t have a problem with them helping out. Are they going to be ready soon?”

“The girls were up already,” Fenton said. “They knocked on our door on their way down to the restaurant. Frank might be awake but it usually takes a massive explosion to wake up Connor. The man knows how to sleep.”

“I have a secret for dealing with that,” Deanna grinned. “Come on, let’s rouse the troops. We have lots of work to do.”

Fenton led the way down to Frank and Connor’s room and used his extra key to their room to open the door.

“Everyone decent?” he asked.

“I’m covered up,” Frank said. “And that’s Connor’s snore.”

“We need to get going. It’s time for everyone to get up,” Fenton said.

Deanna grabbed an extra piece of ice from the ice bucket on the desk and walked around Frank’s bed to get to Connor. With a mischievous smile she placed the ice behind Connor’s right ear.

“One,” she counted. “Two…three…”

Connor sprang straight up in the bed with a shout and the ice cube went flying across the room, landing neatly in the middle of Frank’s lap.

“Hey!” Frank protested.

“What? What are you doing? What’s going on?” Connor demanded. “I was sleeping!”

“We’re done sleeping now, Mr. Mackenzie,” Deanna laughed. “Time to get up and get moving. Did you like your wake-up call?”

“No,” Connor grumbled. “Get out so I can get dressed.”

“Ooh, touchy,” Deanna laughed. “You have fifteen minutes, boys. See you outside.”

Audrey smirked as they stepped back out of the room. “That was mean,” she said to her partner.

“It worked. I got results. That’s what counts, right?” Deanna laughed. They went back to Fenton and Sam's room to await the arrival of the boys before going to meet up with the rest of their team.

Audrey saw Fenton watching Deanna during the interim, obviously confused by her behavior. Audrey said nothing, though, to abate Fenton's confusion – she knew her partner's reactions better than anyone but this one confused her.

Then again, Deanna had gone through this before. Audrey hoped it wasn't denial.

"We're here," Connor poked his head in the door. He pushed it open and helped Frank, who was using a single crutch, enter the room.

"Wheelchair," Deanna said suddenly.

"Huh? What?" Connor asked in confusion.

"He needs a wheelchair, not a crutch. Messed up leg, messed up arm. Wheelchair."

"No thanks," Frank muttered stubbornly. "I'm fine."

"I think it's a good idea, Frank," Fenton looked at his son. "You really could use a wheelchair. You have to stay off that leg."

"I'll stay off it after we find Joe," Frank glared. "And not before. Let's go, already."

"Whew," Fenton grinned at Audrey and Deanna. "And he's the patient one!"

Frank turned and walked back out the door, stopping out in the hallway. He limped slowly but steadily, obviously ignoring the pain in his knee as best he could. Audrey admired the young man for his tenacity if not his lack of brains. She was used to stubborn people, though – her whole team was stubborn.

"And we're off," Deanna announced. "The team know where we're meeting?"

"Yep," Audrey nodded. "And I told the girls before they went to breakfast."

The meeting didn't last very long. It consisted of handing out the addresses to the locations they were to search and dividing them up between three teams. Deanna took lead on one team, bringing with her Audrey, Fenton, Frank, Samantha and two police officers who would meet them at the scene. Bill took lead on the second team, bringing with him Kacey, Detective Noble, Mandy, Connor and two police officers from Noble's force. Bobby took lead on the third team, which had Philip, Sam Radley and two more police officers.

"We all have radios and cell phones, the numbers should be preprogrammed," Deanna continued. "Make sure you check in at hour intervals. As soon as anyone finds something, let the rest of us know. And make sure you look for hidden compartments; it seems our perp is fairly handy at making them. Any questions?"

There weren't any.

"Head out."

**** **** ****

TIME NOTE: THURSDAY OCTOBER 26, 2000 (9:30 a.m.)

"So you're sure we'll find something out at that house that the rest of us missed?" Fenton gazed thoughtfully at the blonde-haired agent as she drove with single-minded abandon down the street, zipping past anyone who got in the way despite the danger of oncoming cars. Talking to keep his mind off of her driving, Fenton considered his next words. "We searched it pretty thoroughly. I just didn't see anyplace that Joe could be held."

"Perhaps," Deanna agreed. "You're probably right but…let's just say I have a funny feeling and leave it at that, all right? After hearing what you reported about the place, well, maybe it's just that I have to see it for myself, to fix in my head exactly what Andrew is capable of doing. I got a hint of that in Bayport when I saw that staircase he created but I need more. There are a few connections that aren't quite hitting on all gears in my head, if I may be honest."

"Like that's a first?" Audrey smirked. She sat in the back seat with Frank and Samantha. The couple was lost in their own world, vague smiles on their faces as they ignored everyone about them.

"Hey!" Deanna protested. "I'll have you know my gears normally function just fine, thank you so very much."

"I'm not saying a word," Audrey murmured. "Not a word."

It was silent for exactly five seconds.

"Except you never hit on all gears," Audrey said half under her breath. Fenton heard it, however, and laughed.

"So what gear are you hoping to find at the house?" Fenton asked. "Anything I can help you with?"

"I honestly won't know until I see it," Deanna smiled at Fenton and made another hair-raising pass around another slow-moving vehicle. Fenton held on tightly to an overhead strap, positive none of them were going to live long enough to get back to the house, much less worry about finding any gears or missing tidbits of information.

"Does she always drive like this?" Fenton asked Audrey.

"Depends," Audrey shrugged. "Sometimes she's worse. Sometimes she's better."

"Worse?" Fenton protested. "How could this get any worse?"

"Hey!" Deanna interrupted them. "No dissing the driver. Unless, of course, you want to get out and walk the rest of the way?"

Frank laughed, startling everyone. So much for being lost in their own world.

"I've learned to live with it," Audrey said. "And, believe it or not but she's not the worst driver on the team."

"That's for sure," Deanna said. "You try driving somewhere with Bobby behind the wheel."

She shuddered violently.

"I gotta hear this," Fenton said. "What?"

"Bobby likes to talk," Audrey explained, allowing Deanna to partially concentrate on her otherwise erratic driving. "And when he talks he likes to use his hands and look at people. For some reason he still hasn't figured out that when he's driving, his hands have to stay on the wheel and he's more or less required to keep his eyes on the road. He can remember that for about two minutes but when he starts to warm to a subject he forgets where he is and suddenly we're shooting across four lanes of traffic."

"We don't let him drive anymore," Deanna grinned. "We can't insure him for another two or three years."

"It's safer that way," Audrey agreed. "Much, much, much safer."

"Who does that remind you of, Dad?" Frank asked. He still looked very amused.

"Phil Cohen?" Fenton asked. He laughed. "Yeah, I only rode with him once. That was enough to tell me that it was not something I cared to repeat. It must be a mark of brilliance."

"Nope, it's a mark of the scatter-brained," Audrey said. "They can be brilliant all they want but it's the scatter-brained ones who lose track of where they are."

Frank laughed. "That's for sure."

"Are we done commentating on driving yet?" Deanna asked. "And I'm not scatter-brained."

"That's true," Audrey agreed. "You're impatient."

"Am not," Deanna muttered.

"Are too."

"Brat."

"Cow."

They both laughed but Fenton had to admit it was effective. Any tension in the car was gone. He settled back in his seat, content to ride the rest of the way in silence.

They had traveled another mile when a large trailer-less semi hit Deanna's from behind, sending them swerving off the road!

Let the author know what you think of this story

Home Library Authors Rogue's Gallery Vehicles Chums Message Board Rap Sheet Links Contact

Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors 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.