Monday, September 25, 2000 (9:30 pm)

Connor took his time kissing Mandy goodnight. He relaxed for the first time all day and held her close for a few minutes before he said a reluctant farewell and started the walk from Eldridge Hall back to Tauhausen Hall. He walked at a fair clip, wrapping his letterman's jacket more tightly about him as he cut the distance between Eldridge and Tauhausen in half. He rather enjoyed this walk; it took him by the pond if he wanted to go that way and he often managed to spy out several other couples taking a walk along the shoreline. Connor never regretted his decision to come to Bayport University when he was a freshman. Bayport was a great University and he enjoyed his classes, professors and his Coach. His fellow football players all had good reputations and, even if some of them weren't as good as Connor would like, he was able to accept that. After all, Bayport University wasn't an Ivy League School.

Connor took the stairs up to the second floor two at a time, stopping just short of the door that led out to his door and avoiding an injury when the door flung open in his face. Maidlin came rushing past Connor, heading up the stairs to the third floor. Connor made a face at him but caught the door and went down the hall to his door. It wasn't locked, which he expected whenever Frank was at home.

Connor opened the door to find, instead, that Frank wasn't there. Instead, Connor saw Frank's laptop lying open on the bed. When he moved the trackball on the front of the computer, it lit up instantly and indicated Frank left it on. Frank never left his laptop on, unless he was going for a snack in the laundry room.

"Frank?" he called out as he turned to the bathroom. No, the bathroom door was open and the bathroom itself empty. Connor still didn't panic; maybe Frank went down to the snack machines in the laundry room down the hall. Connor turned to go pull some pajamas from his drawer and stopped when he saw Frank's cane leaning in the corner of the room, next to Frank's bed. That wasn't right! Frank always took that cane with him when going anywhere out of the room. Frank had no other way of finding obstacles in his way if he didn't bring it. Sure, Frank was new to using a cane but Frank was the most contentious person that Connor ever met!

"Frank?" he opened the door leading into his room again and looked out into the hall, just in case. Connor left the door ajar and sprinted down the hallway to the laundry room. Connor looked all through the room then turned around and went back to his own room. "Frank?"

Nothing. Nothing at all. Connor frowned as he ducked into the bathroom once again, to look behind the shower curtain. Still nothing. He finally went to the phone and dialed up Samantha.

"Sam?" Connor said when he had Frank's girlfriend on the phone. "Have you seen Frank tonight?"

"No," Samantha said and Connor heard the spike of worry in her voice. "I spoke to him earlier tonight but I haven't seen him at all. We weren't planning on getting together tonight. Why? What's wrong? Should I come over?"

"No, I don't know," Connor said. "It may be nothing. He may be in someone else's room. All I know is that he's not here. Let me make a couple more phone calls before we start to worry. He may have had someone drive him to the hospital to see Frank."

"I offered to bring him," Samantha sounded worried already. "Earlier tonight. He knew I had a test to study for but I could have studied at the hospital. He said he would wait until the morning, that he thought Joe should get some more rest. And it's too late now, isn't it? He wouldn't be able to get into the room now."

"I know, I know," Connor sat down on his bed. "That didn't stop Joe from going to see Frank after hours when Frank was in the hospital. I'll just call Joe and see if he's been to visit. Maybe Frank's on his way back already, if he went earlier. You know, Chet may have gone... Maybe that's how Frank got there."

"I just don't know that you should wake Joe up if he's sleeping," Samantha still sounded worried. "He's got to be totally out of it after what happened today. Maybe you should just let him sleep? I could come over and help you..."

"Joe would kill me if we didn't..." he murmured, thoughtfully. "You know what he'll do if he finds out Frank is missing and we didn't call him, hospital or no hospital."

"I know," Samantha said, slowly and she sighed. "I just... when I went to see him with Mandy earlier he looked so pale. He'll kill himself trying to leave the hospital because Frank is missing! We can't do that to him."

"You won't be doing it to him," Connor said. "I will. Maybe it's a guy thing, Sam, but I know how I would feel if I were him and it was my brother that was missing. I have to call him. We have to cover all the bases here, like they always tell us they do when they're on a case."

"That's more Frank than Joe," Sam attempted a weak bit of humor. It was true, but it was still somewhat funny.

"Still, you know what I mean," said Connor. "Let me make some more phone calls, I'll let you know if I find out anything, all right?"

"You'd better, Connor," Samantha warned him. "I'll be up worrying all night otherwise."

Connor hung up with her and immediately dialed the Hospital. He still thought it possible for Frank to have gone to the hospital. A large part of him doubted it but calling the hospital kept Connor from flying into a full-fledged panic. He wished, again, that living with a Hardy was just a little less adventuresome; he was going to have a heart attack before he reached twenty-two the way things were going now!

The nurse, after checking to see if Joe was awake or not, connected Connor with Joe's room, after a brief demand that Connor keep it short and never call this late again. Sure, hospital patients sometimes slept odd hours but that didn't mean one took advantage of such. Connor kept agreeing with everything the nurse said until she finally connected him with Joe. Connor stood up and started to pace the room as he ran a hand through his long hair.

"Hi, Connor," Joe spoke sleepily, his voice ragged and rough sounding. "What's up?"

"Oh, hi, Joe," Connor sat down on his bed again and studied his knees as he spoke to Joe and tried to figure out what to say? "How are you feeling? Frank told me what happened."

"I feel like a day-old baby but otherwise, I'm fine," Joe admitted, ruefully. "Was coach upset?"

"He had me stay another hour after practice to drill Coonby more. You know, maybe in the year 3000, Coonby might make a decent tight end. That's if he actually learns to tell right from left."

Joe laughed at that. "You may be asking the impossible, Connor. Coonby's never known right from left, even when he played in High School. He was the worst back-up tight end I ever had. My coach in high school was never very happy when I couldn't play, either."

"We're doomed, then," Connor said. "Unless a certain first string tight end gets his butt out of the hospital! Until then, we have to run plays that will keep Coonby from getting me killed when I'm passing the ball. Impossible."

"Tell Coonby not to get too comfortable in my spot, cause I'm taking it back," Joe coughed several times.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Connor demanded. "You wouldn't try to kid me, would you, Hardy?"

"And risk having you shove a football down my throat? No way," Joe said. "What's wrong, Connor?"

"Wrong?" Connor asked. "Why do you think something's wrong?"

"Deductive reasoning, my dear Watson," Joe said. "It's almost ten o'clock at night, any reasoning person wouldn't call the hospital that late for just general chit-chat, not and live when said patient gets out of the hospital. So spill. I figure the only thing that would make you call is that something's wrong. So what is it?"

Connor frowned as he sighed and shook his head. "Well, since you asked... you haven't seen Frank tonight, have you?"

There was a pause on the phone and Connor immediately regretted disturbing Joe. Joe definitely needed to be sleeping and/or relaxing, not worrying about his brother.

"No," Joe said. "I haven't seen anyone but Vanessa and my parents tonight. I haven't seen Frank at all and Vanessa said he would come to see me tomorrow. Why?"

"When I came home tonight he wasn't here. His laptop was still on and his notes recorder was still running. His cane is still here, too. Samantha hasn't seen him; I was hoping that someone might have brought him to visit you. I can't think where else he would be."

There was another long pause on the phone. Connor assumed that Joe was thinking through his options. Connor really wished he had not bothered Joe; Joe was irrational enough to do something unwise, like leave the hospital to go look for Frank. Connor had no desire whatever to be responsible for Joe's condition getting even worse.

"All right," Joe said. "I think the first thing you should do is call everyone, Chet, Eric, even Maidlin. See if anyone has seen Frank. Call me back when you've done that. I'll be awake. Take the dorm apart if you have to."

"You should get back to sleep, Joe," Connor warned him. "I can call you in the morning."

"Are you kidding?" Joe protested. "There's no way I'm going to go back to sleep until I know what's happened to Frank. Call Mandy and you guys look for him. I promise to stay put until I hear back from you."

Thank God your Corvette is here, Connor thought as he said good-bye to Joe and made his plans to search for Frank. He started with Michael, the RA and asked Michael to help him search the building for Frank. Michael went to the other floors to get the other RA's and Connor recruited Jase Aleman, Chet and Eric, Joe's roommate. All of the boys made a sweep of the entire Hall, searching places where Frank wouldn't even fit if someone stuffed him there, but making sure to cover all bases.

Connor, working with Chet, began to search along the floor that they lived on. He knocked on door after-door, asking each person he came into contact with about Frank. Each time, he was told, sometimes rudely, sometimes politely, that no, we haven't seen Frank at all. The boys who didn't know Frank asked for a description, in case they saw him later. A few came out to help with the search.

Connor continued up to the top floor and found the unused, fairly out of the way stairs that led up to the roof. When he came out he saw Jase looking around, peeking behind vents and looking over the edge of the room down toward the ground. Jase was holding a pair of binoculars.

"I thought I might be able to see something from up here," he handed the binoculars off to Connor. "I looked in all directions but I just didn't see him anywhere. I didn't see anyone that looks like him but I haven't looked south or west yet."

"Oh, good idea, Jase," Connor told him and he looked through the binoculars himself, zeroing on several students walking across the campus. None of them, of course, were Frank. The binoculars were really very good and quite powerful. Connor could see almost all the way to the Quad.

Connor followed Jase to the south side of the building and they continued their search. For a moment, Connor thought he saw someone that looked like Frank but once he had the binoculars focused, he found out it was only someone of Frank's general build and size but not Frank. Connor sighed out of frustration as he looked over at Jase and returned the binoculars. Jase led the way over to the west side that looked out over toward the neighboring Ricksman Hall, across the parking lot from Tauhausen. Ricksman was a co-ed dorm, one of four on campus.

"I just don't see him," Jase said, apologetically as he stepped back from the edge and rubbed briskly at his still bare arms. It was fairly cool out tonight, Connor felt the cold through his thin jacket he still wore. "I didn't really think I would but I was hoping. What now?"

Connor frowned. He was not Joe or Frank. He just didn't have a head for detective work like they did, though when he thought about cases in the terms of chemistry research he could often come up with ideas. Connor looked below him at the parking lot below and snapped his fingers.

"Let's check out the cars too," he suggested. "They stuffed him in the trunk of Maidlin's car one day. Let's see how many we can check."

"Let's do it," Jase said and he led the way down the many flights of stairs between the roof and the bottom floor of Tauhausen. Jase was in remarkably good shape for someone who didn't seem to play sports of any kind. Jase was what Connor thought of as a typical egghead. Into books, computers and whatever study group he could get involved in, totally adverse to anything resembling physical activity.

Connor started on one end of the parking lot and Jase started on the other end. They pushed on trunks, checking any that opened and peeking inside. Most were locked but by pushing, they could tell whether or not any of them were full or empty. The sticker in the corner gave them a number to check; Michael could compare those against a list. It took well over another hour for them to find students involved, including some that lived over in Ricksman. All of the searchers came back with bad news. Nobody had seen Frank, nobody knew where Frank was.

"A whole lot of nothing," Chet said, dejected as he scratched his head and rubbed at his eyes. "I searched all of third floor and part of fourth. I knocked on doors, looked in bathrooms, I even looked behind curtains. He's not anywhere.”

"Me either," Michael said. "I looked in all of the laundry rooms, the rec room, I even looked out back and I checked the storage areas. I didn't see anything there and I listened for anything that might be him. I just didn't see him."

Connor frowned in frustration and turned around for a minute, his eyes going to the forest behind Tauhausen, the forest where Joe had been taken days before. Connor rubbed at his head as he thought and decided he was going to have to call in better help. If he didn't want Joe leaving the hospital, he was going to have to talk to Mandy. She didn't always get involved in her brothers' cases but she did know something about detective work. Connor felt as though he was at the end of his know-how.

One thing he did know, if Frank got taken into the forest like Joe had, it would take them days to search it. Connor fretted about that possibility too, that Frank had been dragged into the forest. He would have to start searching there in the morning; it seemed the only possible place.

"He's not anywhere in the dorm," Eric said. "I'm sorry, man, but he's just gone. I have no idea where he could be."

Connor sighed. "Well, thanks, guys. I'll have to try something else."

"If you need more help, just ask," Jase said. "I don't mind."

"Thanks, Jase," Connor said, honestly. "I will if I can think of something else you can do."

Connor went back into his room and sat on his bed for a minute, then looked over at Frank's computer to read what Frank had typed into it. What was currently showing were the notes on his test in Law Enforcement Organization & Administration. (LEOA for short). They were typed in neatly, if with a major lack of paragraphs. He had, instead, double-spaced between paragraphs.

Connor clicked on the file menu in the corner and pulled up one called 'Case 473 - Phillips/Pankovic.' Connor, feeling guilty about snooping in his roommate's computer, read through all of the information that Frank had stored. There was nothing in there to help Connor figure out where Frank might be. He doubted Anna Phillips could have done it, though, in retrospect, she could have had Pankovic, if that's who the large man really was, do it. Connor sighed, frustrated as he paced the room.

Finally, he picked up the phone and dialed his girlfriend.

"Connor?" Mandy said as soon as she picked up the phone? "Anything?"

"He's not in the dorm," Connor said. "We took it apart. He's just not here. Mandy, what if he got taken out into the forest? It could take us days to find him if he's in there."

"Take a deep breath, Connor," Mandy instructed her boyfriend. "We're not licked yet. We'll just have to broaden our search pattern. I called my parents after Sam called me and Frank's not at home. My dad will be here in a couple of hours if we don't call him. He said he'd give us a chance to search first. If he comes, he's bringing the Bayport PD with him."

"Joe's waiting for me to call him back," Connor warned her. "He's going to want to come and look if I can't tell him where Frank is!"

"Oh no he's not," Mandy vowed. "He's staying right where he is if I have to tie him to his bed. He's not even nearly well enough to get out of the hospital tonight. Don't worry about him, I'll take care of him, Connor."

"I don't think we should leave him alone," Connor said, suddenly. "If someone tried to kill him, you know, that Anna Phillips, she may try to kill him again. I think we should have someone spend the night with him."

"Already ahead of you on that one," Mandy said to Connor's relief. "Vanessa went back about twenty minutes ago. We both had the same worry that someone might try to attack him again. She's going to convince one of the nurses to let her spend the night in his room."

Connor breathed a sigh of relief. Good, that meant one less worry. Now if he could just find Frank!

"What do we do now?" he asked Mandy. "Any ideas?"

"It's so dark out," Mandy said, slowly. "If he's out there, somewhere, we may not be able to find him till morning. And if he was taken..."

"We may not find him period," Connor said, sighing. "All right, so what does that mean? We search the campus tomorrow?"

"The police will," Mandy said. "My dad won't be very patient about this and even though Frank hasn't been missing 24 hours, the police will still look for him if dad asks. I think we should meet in the morning, at seven. We can search all of the places that the police won't think of."

"You're assuming he's on campus, Mandy!" Connor protested. "We don't know that! Why would they keep him anywhere on campus?"

"There are lots of places they could hide him on campus," Mandy said. "It would be convenient for them, at least. And we know they know the campus. They've been around long enough to find the good places to hide someone. You know, it may even be one of those places we followed that guy to, you know, Pankovic! Maybe he's not here, but we have to look."

Mandy sounded excited by that prospect but Connor couldn't quite work up that kind of encouragement.

Connor sighed. "Well, all right," he agreed. "We'll do it your way. You're the detective's daughter."

 

Connor was getting ready for bed when the phone rang again a few minutes later. Connor picked up the phone quickly, hoping to get good news for a change, instead of bad.

"Connor, this is Vanessa," Vanessa sounded frazzled and rushed. "I just got back to the hospital a few minutes ago. Connor, Joe's gone! There's a gurney missing and one of the ambulances that had been parked out in the bay is gone. I think... Connor, I think Joe was kidnapped!"

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).