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

Deanna stared blankly at Agent Farber, her dark blue eyes blinking and blinking, as she tried to absorb the information he had just given her. This…this just wasn’t right. There was no way she could accept the fact that Joe Hardy was dead. No way. The game had already been tried before – trying to convince everyone he was dead when the Hardys’ house blew up. This was just another take on that, not quite as grandiose as blowing up a house, and probably at the cost of two innocent lives.

“I want DNA on the two victims, right away. An autopsy to prove that they died in the crash and not beforehand and a full forensics panel run – everything from skid marks to any fingerprints picked up from the vehicle. I want our people to run this, Farber, not the local cops; I want everything. Send all the data to the main office in DC, my husband will get it turned over to my team there and get it sorted. Let’s get this going now; I don’t want to have to tell the Hardys that their son might be dead. They've already gone through this once, I don't want to go through it again unless it's true.”

Deanna turned back to Audrey, who sorted through a pile of pictures on the floor, sorting them into buckets brought in from one of the forensic vans out in the driveway. Any papers found, including news clippings, were set aside into a small stack on the floor beside where Audrey sat cross-legged, waiting for a more thorough sort.

“The kid saved everything.” Audrey brushed back her hair, then pulled it back into a ponytail and wrapped it with a scrunchy from her pocket. “You can see the hint of brilliance mixed in with the insanity in everything he saved. The smallest mention of anything to do with Joe, even implied, where Joe’s name wasn’t actually mentioned. We should get a profiler out here, but…if I were to guess, I’d say he was living Joe’s life with him, as best he could.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” Deanna said. “Maybe I should see if Kacey is available? No, she's on another case, working with Eric. I'll trust your instincts on this one, Audrey. What does this mean for our search? Does Andrew living Joe's life with him give us anything else to go on?"

On another day, Deanna would know the answer to that question herself, but her head hurt and she hadn't gotten much sleep lately. She was tired and while she knew she should get some sleep, she felt driven; she had to figure out where Joe Hardy was.

"It might," Audrey said. "But he doesn't do it consistently. It's like he veers off at a whim. I mean, I don't see any signs that he joined sports teams, for instance, but he was in the cheer club at his high school, where he took an active interest in the sports team. Maybe he saw Joe on the field when he watched the games, whatever they were. You know…"

Audrey's voice trailed off and Deanna studied her partner[,] intently, blue eyes asking 'what, what?'

"I think we're missing something more here," Audrey said. "I just don't know what it is."

"That's been the problem all along." Deanna stretched and went in search of a cup of coffee. She poured some into her cup and went back to Audrey, finding her partner bent over a notepad she had on her lap.

"Okay, he's living Joe's life vicariously," Deanna repeated. "He does things he imagines that Joe would do, just to be closer to him. He dates girls because why? Joe dated girls? Wait! Audrey, give me the stack of photos of the girls, would you?"

Audrey reached to her other side, where she had a careful stack of photos sitting, and handed them up to Deanna, who took them to the dining room table. Deanna pulled up a chair, carefully set the items in the chair onto the floor and went through the pictures, using the dates on the back.

"Do you have those pictures that the Hardys gave us of Joe?" Deanna asked. They'd requested a variety of pictures of Joe earlier, from different stages in his life, to compare to the ones Andrew had. The Hardys explained they lost over half their pictures in the fire, but had saved quite a few and had given them everything they had, with the understanding they would get them back.

Deanna found a picture of Joe with a petite, pretty, dark-haired girl and held it up, looking at the back. "Joe and Iola, 11^th grade prom."

Deanna went through the Andrew stack and nearly choked. She found another picture, this one reading, "Andrew and Jessica, 11^th grade prom."

Jessica…the girl labeled Jessica was also a petite, pretty, dark-haired girl.

Deanna cursed under her breath and handed the pictures over to Audrey, then went through the stack again. The next picture of Joe with a girl was with a blonde-haired girl with smoky blue-gray eyes. The back said "Joe and Vanessa, Senior Prom."

And similarly in Andrew's stack was a picture of Andrew with a blonde-haired young woman with smoky blue-gray eyes, that read, on the back: "Andrew and Alexis, Senior Prom."

All of the rest of the pictures were of Joe with a girl, either his twin sister or Vanessa. There were two pictures of Joe and Vanessa along with Frank and a red-head standing next to Frank. Andrew had several other pictures of himself with a variety of girls, all of them with blonde hair and bluish eyes.

Deanna cursed again, this time much more vehemently than she had before and handed the pictures to Audrey.

"Dear God," Audrey breathed, softly. "This…"

"That's what I thought," Deanna said. She got up and yelled into the hall, gathering a couple more of her agents into the room.

"This room is now our priority," she said. "I want each of you to take a section. I want all articles in this room put into chronological order, no matter what it is. Don't skip anything. We're onto something here and it's important we figure it out. Get to work, people."

** ** **

Mandy Hardy chewed on a section of her hair as she stared out the window, then turned to Connor and asked him, not for the first time, how much farther it was. Every time Connor answered patiently with the distance and a bright smile on his broad features. The young man reached over and took Mandy's hand for a moment, squeezing it before he let go to concentrate on his driving. His job – to get them there in one piece.

"What's our first order of business?" Connor asked Mandy, and she turned back to him. Mandy saw Samantha sit up in the back seat and take an interest in the conversation, but Frank's attention remained out the window.

"Getting to Cambridge , big guy," Mandy laughed, and then touched his arm affectionately. "After that, we, uh, look into things. You know, talk to people who might have known Andrew. Visit his teachers. Try to get an idea about how Andrew thinks and where he might take someone he doesn't want people to see."

"Sounds hard." Samantha shifted and leaned over to lay her head on Frank's shoulder, readjusting her lap belt to get comfortable again. "Do you think we'll be able to find out anything that will help?"

"You betcha," Mandy said. "One way or another, we're going to figure out what's going on and we're going to find Joe."

Mandy peered in the back but Frank wasn't paying attention. She sighed and wished she knew what he was thinking.

“You all right, Frank?” Mandy asked her brother again as she turned backward in her seat to stare at him in the backseat of Connor’s Blazer. He was sitting staring out the window – or acting like he was staring out the window – his attention on something other than the conversation going on in the SUV while they made the journey from New York to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Even attempts by Samantha, who sat next to Frank holding his hand, had not been able to get much out of Frank, and that alarmed Mandy to no end.

"Fine," Frank said in his standard answer to the question; whether he was fine or not. Mandy wondered if she should reach into the back seat and slap her older brother silly. She didn't like the quiet from him and knew he felt guilty, that he was still taking everything too personally.

"You're not fine," Mandy declared, turning as much as the seatbelt allowed. She exchanged a look with Sam who nodded, encouraging Mandy to continue. "You've been like a ghost since we left Bayport, like you really don't want to be out here or like something else is wrong. Now spill, or I'll have Connor pull over and beat it out of you."

Connor looked sideways at Mandy and she winked at him. He smiled back, but Mandy knew Connor would never, in a thousand years, hurt Frank. Connor returned the wink and then turned his attention back to the road as Mandy looked back at Frank again.

"Come on, Frank, talk to us," Mandy said. "If you can't tell your sister, your best friend and your girlfriend, who can you tell?"

"I'm feeling selfish, all right?" Frank sighed and turned back to Mandy. She could see the concern etched in the lines on his face and the worry that marked his otherwise normally calm expression. He wore sunglasses so she couldn't see his deep brown eyes but she knew the same expression was there as well.

"What do you mean, you're feeling selfish?" Samantha took up the questioning as she stroked the back of Frank's hand. "You're out here, aren't you? Doing everything you can to help find him? Why would that be selfish?"

"Because," Frank sighed and Mandy saw something else flash across what she could see of his face. The lines around his mouth tightened to a frustrated grimace. "I spend half my time thinking about finding Joe and half my time about what that doctor said at the hospital – about how I might be able to get that operation and get my sight back – and I should be spending all my time working on the best strategy for finding Joe."

Mandy let out an exasperated puff of air that sent a lock of her blonde hair flying upward.

"Frank Richard Hardy," she said in a low, curt voice. "I can't believe you're upset about that! What rulebook says you can't worry about two things at once? And where are you instead of at the hospital getting that operation? You're here, with us, looking for Joe. I swear, you act like you’re Atlas with the world on your shoulders sometimes, big brother. Get over it. You will help us find Joe; we all know that. I wouldn't have fought so hard to have you along if I didn't think you were important to this – you are, Frank. And that brilliant mind of yours will, no doubt, come up with the very best plan ever to help us find our brother and bring him home. Got it?"

Frank smiled, wanly, and nodded. "Got it."

"Good," Mandy turned back around in her seat and looked at her boyfriend. "How far do you think it is?"

"18 more miles," Connor said. "Then we'll be there. Just be patient, hon."

Mandy grumbled under her breath about 'patience' but settled back in her seat and watched the increasing traffic in the Boston area of Massachusetts . They would skirt by, more or less, before they got to the Cambridge , Massachusetts area, home of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – where their quest would begin again. Mandy still felt far away from her twin, like they moved in the wrong direction, but another part of her felt like it was right, like this was where they should be if they wanted to find Joe. This was Andrew's home turf; the place where Mandy thought Andrew felt most comfortable, and the only place any of them knew where to start their search.

"We should check out any clubs Andrew was a member of," Frank said, suddenly breaking the silence in the car. "I just had a thought that maybe he's getting help; you know, from his friends or something. They could be helping him without even knowing what they were really helping with, if that makes sense."

"Brilliant," Mandy declared. "Sounds like your brain is still at a hundred percent, Frank. What else?"

Frank shrugged as he considered. "Yearbooks, then student directories; we find out where Andrew lived while he was here – on campus or off – and search the place if we can. We should probably split up and each of us take different parts of the search."

"Two groups, I assume?" Mandy asked. "You and Sam, Connor and I?"

Frank nodded and Mandy nodded. "Cool, we can get twice the work done, then. Which task do you and Sam want?"

"We should probably take on the paperwork," Frank said. "People will be too distracted staring at me to really talk to me. So, put on your best smile, baby sister, and charm the socks off them, all right?"

Mandy grinned and nodded. "Sure thing, big brother." Too bad Frank couldn't see the grin; she would love to have his dream come true. To find Joe and to get Frank’s sight back would make their family whole again.

A short while later, Connor parked his Blazer in [a parking place in] front of the student union at MIT and everyone climbed out, stretching and looking around the rather pleasant-looking campus. They approached the building, slowly, Frank's hand around Samantha's upper arm while they walked.

They got inside and were startled when a voice from behind them said, "Frank and Mandy Hardy? Come with me."

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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.