Saturday, September 23, 2000 (11:15 pm)

       “Anna?  Anna!” Connor said the girl’s name over and over as he tried to rouse her from her faint.  Mandy knelt beside his boyfriend and quickly checked Anna over.  Except for the busted lip and her torn clothing, Anna looked unharmed.  Mandy didn’t probe too deeply but Anna didn’t seem to have any other bruises. 

       Samantha led Frank over to them and he knelt beside Anna as well.  Frank reached down until he found one of Anna’s arms and slid his fingers down to Anna’s wrist.  Mandy saw his lips move silently; he seemed to be counting.  Mandy felt her face; it felt normal, not too cold, and not too hot.  Mandy ran a hand through her long, blonde hair and frowned down at the girl on the ground.

       “Her pulse is steady,” Frank announced a moment later.  He sat back again and seemed to gaze down at Anna for a moment but he said nothing.  “She should come around soon.”

       Anna stirred just as Frank put her arm down and opened her eyes, looking up at Connor.  Her gaze flickered between them all, finally ending up on Frank, though he, of course, was not looking at her.  It was easy to focus on his sunglasses, at least.  She gave a start and took several deep breaths.

       “Are you all right, Anna?” Mandy asked her, softly.  “You fainted.”

       “I… I think so,” Anna said, softly as she rubbed at her slightly swollen lip.  The bleeding had stopped.  “My head hurts a little.”

       “What happened, Anna?” Mandy asked, softly as she took Anna’s hand again and held it, lightly.

       “I was attacked,” Anna said again and she looked up at Frank, as if Frank could see her.  He didn’t seem to be aware of her scrutiny, or even that she was looking at him.

       “That’s what you said,” Vanessa said a little curtly.  She really did not like Anna and Mandy wasn’t sure she blamed Vanessa at all.  There was something funny about Anna, something that Mandy couldn’t figure out about her.  She seemed a total ditz; like she spoke first and then thought came around about a year later. 

       “What happened, Anna?” Frank asked in his soft voice.  “Can you tell us?”

       Anna closed her eyes for a minute and shivered, wrapping her arms about herself before she began to speak,

       “I was walking back to my dorm after stopping off at Jordan’s dorm to say good-bye to him.  I wanted to take a slow walk across the campus, you know, so I could remember the day.  I got to that spot where the path branches off to go from Kalumny Hall to Arlington Hall and these boys grabbed me and dragged me off the path.  They tore my clothes and one of them pushed me and I hit the ground and split my lip.  They… they told me they would kill me if my boyfriend ever got in their way again!”

       She looked around again, as if judging what she saw on their faces.  Mandy thought, in that moment, that there was something more going on.  Her boyfriend?  What boyfriend was that?  And why was Mandy having such a hard time believing this whole tale of woe?

       “Your boyfriend?”  Vanessa asked, voicing what Mandy had been thinking.  “Jordan?  What would Jordan have to do with anything?”

       Anna shook her head, then, causing strands of blonde hair to fly over her face and to hit Connor in the face as well.  She smiled, coquettishly and then just as quickly sighed and shook her head.  Mandy frowned at that and then forced herself to smile again.  There was no way she had a chance with Connor.  No sense in being jealous just because the girl was turning catty.

       “I think…” she started and stopped to lick her lips, wincing when her tongue came into contact with the injured part of her lip.  “I think they thought Joe was my boyfriend.  They mentioned him by name.  They said… they said something about Joe not cooperating with them, that his friends were causing even more trouble and that they had to stop.”

       “Why would they think that you’re Joe’s girlfriend?” Vanessa asked, archly.  Mandy thought Vanessa was being a little more hostile than she needed to be, though she knew if it was Connor Anna was flirting with all the time, Mandy would feel the same way. “It’s not like you spend that much time with him.”

       “Well, I think they were the same boys who attacked me before,” Anna explained.  “And I think they thought I was his girlfriend because of that.  They may have seen me with him at the football game or something.  I don’t know, Vanessa, I really don’t know!”

       Mandy and Vanessa exchanged a look and Frank looked serious and contemplative.  Samantha knelt beside Anna and took one of her hands, trying to soothe the frightened girl.  Mandy took her other hand and patted it, as Anna sat, rigidly, on the floor between Mandy and Samantha.  Mandy sighed and tried to compose her thoughts, to at least try to be neutral in her feelings toward Anna.  And try as she might, Mandy could not imagine Anna injuring herself just to get some sympathy. 

       “Anna?” Frank asked a moment later.  “Do you think you could recognize your attackers if you saw them again?  That might help us figure out who’s trying to hurt you.”

       Anna shook her head and Samantha whispered something in Frank’s ear. 

       “I didn’t see their faces,” Anna said.  “They had masks on.  But they were the same build as those creeps from before.  And the jackets… I think they had the same markings.  But I didn’t see their faces at all.”

       Frank rested his head on his bent knees for a moment and Samantha touched his shoulder.  Mandy knew this was hard on him that there was so much he wanted to do to help the case that he didn’t think he could do.  Mandy was positive that her brother could do anything he really wanted to do, if he tried hard enough.  Still, Samantha had told her that, sometimes, the happy face was just a façade and that Frank was hiding how he really felt.  Frank still felt that he had to protect everyone around him, to be the big brother.  In a way, she was glad he was trying to be who he had been before he was blinded but Mandy knew it was only a matter of time before her big brother exploded.  She almost expected him to do that now but he didn’t.  He wouldn’t, not in front of anyone that wasn’t a close friend or family.  Too much decorum in her brother.

       “That’s too bad,” Frank said, softly.  “Tell us about how they were built, if you can remember that much.  Were they tall or short?  Medium?  Stocky?  Small?”

       Anna frowned and made a face at Frank which Mandy caught before it left again.  Anna sighed and made a huge show of trying to remember her attackers.

       “One of them was tall,” she said, finally.  “And built sort of like Connor, only I think he had black hair.  I saw that much anyway.  The other two had black hair as well, but one was only about two inches taller than me and the other was about the height of… of Chet is as close as I can come.  The short one was very stocky, fatter than muscle.  The other one was average, I guess.  Not buff, not fat, just medium.  That’s all I remember.”

       That was a lot for a night attack that didn’t last too long, Mandy thought.  That was a lot for any attack.  Mandy had been attacked in a similar fashion before and she was always lucky if she remembered how many people attacked her, much less what they looked like. 

       “Tell me how the attack worked again,” Frank requested. 

       “Why?” Anna demanded.  “I don’t want to remember it, it was too frightening!”

       Frank tried to look patient, though Mandy knew he wasn’t. 

       “Anna, anything you tell us now will help us to figure out just who attacked you and who’s been attacking Joe.  So, please, just tell me what happened again.”

       “It’s like I said,” Anna said, finally.  “I was at the turn-off between Kalumny and Arlington Hall and these boys grabbed me and dragged me off the path.  One of them threw me toward the ground and I bit my lip, that’s how I hurt myself.  They tore my clothes and told me that if Joe bothered them anymore, they would kill me.  That if his friends bothered them anymore, they would kill me.  That’s all they did.  I ran from them and ran back here.  I was too scared, I didn’t know where I was going at first!”

       Mandy patted Anna’s hand when Anna started to sound more hysterical.  The girl was either sincere or one very good actress.  Mandy wanted to take her at face value but something in her eyes just wasn’t right.  It was as if she did play a part and could school every part of herself but her eyes.  Anna’s eyes never rested, except for the occasional lingering glance at Frank.  

       “And they had the same symbol on their jackets that the boys who attacked you before did?  The same colors?”  Frank asked again.

       “I didn’t really see colors,” Anna said.  “It was really too dark.”

       “Well, thank you for that much, Anna,” Frank said.  “I know it was scary.  Why don’t we have someone walk you back to your dorm, Anna, so you get there safe this time.”

       He looked in the direction he thought Mandy was sitting.

       “We’ll do it, Frank,” Mandy agreed.  She thought it safer for she and Connor to walk Anna to her dorm; at least she thought it less hostile if Vanessa did not come with them.  “Sam and Vanessa can walk you back to Tauhausen.”

       Frank nodded in agreement.  Mandy and Connor helped Anna to her feet and helped her straighten her clothing.  She seemed shaky; at least her legs trembled just as she stood up.  Mandy offered her an arm to lean on as they left the Student Union.  If she was faking, she was the consummate faker.  It took people years to learn to do it to this level.  Mandy flashed Connor a warning look as they crossed the sidewalks that led eventually to Arlington Hall.  Don’t trust her, Mandy’s look said.  She’s not telling us everything.

 

       Frank sighed as Samantha took his arm to lead him back to his dorm and he listened to Vanessa haranguing about Anna Phillips.  He thought Vanessa might be just a little hard on Anna, though he thought there was something funny about it all, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on yet.  He only paid half-attention to Samantha as his girlfriend led him along the sidewalk from the Student Union to his dorm.

       “I still think Anna’s full of it,” Vanessa said, finally, though she sounded considerably more calm than she had a few minutes ago.  “These people have known who were are and pretty much what we’re doing all along and there is no way they would think she is Joe’s girlfriend.”

       “Do you really think she’s the one behind it all?” Frank asked, pointedly.  “I mean, do you really think she’s the one who’s been trying to… put a scare into us?  Why would she bother?  It’s not like we’ve ever had much to do with her.”

       Vanessa was silent for a moment.  “I guess not,” she said a moment later.  “But I do think she needs help.  What I do think is that she’s trying to get attention, you know, by pretending to be attacked, maybe so Joe will pay attention to her.  She doesn’t know how annoyed he gets with her!”

       “That’s a point, though, Van,” Samantha said.  “She could just be overplaying her need for attention.  I’ve heard of stories of people who do that.  I know of a couple of girls who tried something similar in High School and I remember how pathetic we thought they were.  It backfired on them, it’ll backfire on her too.  But, well, I’m not the queen of detection or anything and I don’t claim to know a lot, but I do believe she was attacked.  She seems a little mousy to attack herself.”

       “You might be right,” Vanessa said.  “I guess she just annoys me so much I want to think the worst about her.  I used to like her; last year she maybe said hello and asked you about your day but she didn’t spend her time trying to pony up to other people’s boyfriends.”

       “She’s just a lonely girl, Van,” Sam told her.  “I doubt she has that many friends.  Besides, now that she has Jordan, maybe she’ll leave Joe alone.”

       “I wouldn’t bet money on that,” Vanessa said.  “That Jordan was a cat if Anna’s a mouse.  I don’t think he had any honest interest in Anna.  He seemed to think she’s from just the right family or something.  He’s one of those guys who will only date a girl whose parents have millions of dollars and are the cream of society’s crop.  He was eyeing every single girl in the place.”

       “That’s not really anything new,” Frank protested.  “It’s just a guy thing.  We can’t help admiring the scenery.”

       Samantha thwapped him on the arm and chuckled.  “Just so long as it’s only looking, Hardy!”

       “Trust me,” Frank said.  “But go on, Van.”

       “I know guys ogle girls, Frank,” Van sounded annoyed again.  “I’ve dated Joe long enough to know that but Joe’s like you.  A casual looker.  He gazes just long enough to rate a girl on his mental ‘girl-watching’ scale and a split second he looks back at me.  Jordan did more than that.  He not only looked at a girl for a long time, he probably mentally sized up their worth in his mind, whether they would be worth more as a date than Anna and whether they would look good draped on his arm.  I didn’t like him at all.”

       “He sounds like a creep,” Samantha commented as she snuggled up against Frank’s arm.  “People will figure that out soon enough and he’ll spend most of his time alone.  But what about Anna?  Didn’t she seem to like Jordan?” 

“She seemed to, but Sam, you didn’t see what she was like at the party.  And if I find she did have anything to do with Joe getting poisoned… well, let’s just say she’s not going to like the results.  She acted like she didn’t have a date so maybe Jordan got what he deserved there.”

       “Perhaps,” Samantha sighed.  “But it’s sad to see two such lonely people stuck together.  Of course it saves everyone else from having to put up with them.  But I still don’t think it was Anna.  She is a mouse and I don’t think she would, you know, poison someone.”

       “That leads us back to who is behind this,” Frank interrupted.  “I keep beating my head up against that one point.  Who and why?”

       “Connor and Mandy will go check out the mug sheets at the police station,” Samantha reminded him.  “If they can figure out who that man is that keeps attacking you, then maybe you can start getting some answers.  That’ll be a start, anyway, won’t it?”

       A start, Frank thought as he nodded his agreement.  Normally, this far into a case, he had a clear-cut idea of just who they were after and sometimes why.  This one made no sense.  So Joe had stopped some boys from attacking a girl, so what?  The thing he kept coming back to was why did they care so much?  If this man hadn’t gone to so much trouble to make himself known, they would probably not have done any more investigation than they had and wracked up the attack on Anna to a gang.  He doubted they would have looked into it anymore, unless the gang had attacked someone else.  It didn’t make sense for this guy to keep warning them off.  Was he even really willing to kill them or were they just trying to scare them?

       Frank sighed and decided to turn it all off till the next day, after Mandy and Connor had visited the police station.  Samantha and Vanessa brought him up to his door and waited till he opened it and he kissed Samantha good night, before Vanessa and Sam went back to their own dorm. 

       Frank sat down on his bed and pulled out his laptop.  He fumbled for several minutes for the plug that went into the wall that was just by his bed and finally succeeded in plugging it in.  It took him several minutes to get his computer up to where he could use it and he touch-typed in the details of the case and the events of the day, along with potential suspects, into his computer, then he sat back as his vox box replayed everything he’d just said. 

       No sense, he thought again, sighing.  At least they had a hard copy of all of the events of the case, even if they didn’t have the factor that tied them in together.  Frank decided to close-up his computer and to pull out his study notes from his latest classes.  He turned on his cassette player and pulled on his earphones. 

       A few minutes later, he pulled off his earphones to head into the bathroom and to get a soda out of the small refrigerator his parents had gotten him last year.  He and Connor stocked bottled water and soda as well as a few refrigerated snacks and some veggies and fruit.  Frank dug through the fruit drawer, found something that felt like an apple and he bit into it cautiously.  It was, to his relief, an apple.  He brought his snacks back to his bed and settled back, ready to chow down.

       A moment later he froze in place when he heard the very distinct sound of a gun being cocked.  Shots, muffled by a silencer or maybe just a soda bottle, fired a moment later and Frank fell to the ground.

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. I've only borrowed them to play with for a while but I promise to return them whenever I've finished with them.  (I make no promises as to condition, that's entirely up to them).  I promise, I'm only writing for fun and I'm not making a single dime off of this (unless you count personal fulfillment).