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

Connor MacKenzie lost Mandy in the pursuit, but managed to catch the girl he was chasing just outside of the student union. He grabbed her arm and pulled her toward him, looking her in the eyes.

"Settle down!" Connor ordered as the girl beat on him with her fists, demanding that he let her go. "My name's Connor, Connor MacKenzie, from Bayport University . My girlfriend and I just wanted to talk to you, why'd you run away?"

"Why'd you chase me?" the girl countered. "And why are you holding my arm so tight? Let go of me, you jerk!"

The girl hit Connor's bicep again but he barely felt it. She glared at him, her face red with anger. Connor continued to smile, pleasantly, blue eyes alight with sincerity, but he kept a firm grip on her arm, trying not to hurt her in the process.

"I'm going to scream and get security here if you don't let go of me," the girl warned. "I swear I will!"

Connor nodded. "That's fine with me, then we can all sit down, together, and talk about what I want to talk about. Go ahead."

The girl faltered then, her bravado gone as she stopped struggling.

"What do you want?" she demanded. "I don't know anything!"

Connor raised an eyebrow at that, smiling amiably.

"How do you know what I'm going to ask, Lindsey?" he asked. "That is your name, right? Lindsey?"

The girl shrugged and nodded. "How'd you know that?" she asked.

"I know that, because we had pictures of you with Andrew Mathews," Connor said. "And it had your name on the back. We know you were dating him for a while, or at least going on dates with him."

Connor paused, continuing to smile, pleasantly.

"So, what is it that you don't know?" Connor asked. "You can tell me or the police."

He had no idea he was using the same tactics that Frank was using with Anna Phillips. "Or, better still," he continued to smile as though chatting with an old friend. "I can turn my girlfriend loose on you. Joe Hardy is her twin brother. If there is anyone in this world that Mandy cares about more than myself or her older brother Frank, it's her twin. So, if you don't want to become the latest victim of a wild hellcat, then I would suggest you tell me what it is you 'don't know' and now."

"I don't know where he has that boy," Lindsey spat. "And I never want to see him again as long as I live! He promised me that we were going to get married, that we'd be together forever, and suddenly he calls me and tells me he found someone better and was going to get him and that we were through! I didn't even know he was gay!"

Connor nodded, feeling slightly ill just thinking about it.

"What else don't you know?" he continued, calmly.

"I…I really don't know where they are," Lindsey said. "I heard that he was missing, though. Joe Hardy, I mean. And I put two and two together. He carries pictures of that person," and she spat the last word, "around in his wallet. He put my picture behind the picture of Joe! I should have known something fishy was up then, but I couldn’t do anything about it! And now he's gone and I gave him everything. EVERYTHING!"

The girl was getting quite agitated and she beat on Connor's arm again with a fist. "I've told you everything, now let me go!"

"Just a minute," Connor said. He turned to Mandy, who walked up beside them. The petite blonde stared at Lindsey for a moment, causing Lindsey to wilt even more.

"Where does he live when he's at school here?" Mandy asked. "Does he have any favorite hang outs?"

Lindsey glared, then shrugged. "He has a dorm on campus but he also has at least two houses around town that he uses for things like parties. He doesn't use them for much else. He wouldn't even let me stay in them overnight! He's weird!"

Mandy nodded in agreement. "And he has my brother. If you're hiding anything at all, Lindsey, we'll find out and you'll go to jail for accessory to kidnapping. That's a felony."

"I really don't know anything else," Lindsey said. "I swear! Andrew doesn't like to talk about his own life, you know. I know it was bad, he told me his dad was in jail and that his mom raised him. And he told me that he had this cousin that he liked a lot and wanted to spend more time with. I didn't know he was going to kidnap his cousin, though! I thought we were happy together. He always seemed happy and he was wonderful to dance with and a really good kisser…"

Mandy made a face. "Never mind that! You don't have any idea where he could be holding Joe?"

Lindsey shook her head. "I don't, promise. I hate him now, I am not going to lie for him!"

Mandy finally sighed and nodded to Connor. He slowly released Lindsey's arm, giving her time to regain her balance on her own before he let go fully. Lindsey stepped away, rubbing her arm before she started to walk away.

She turned back to them a moment later.

"I really do hope you find your brother, Mandy," she said to Mandy. "I'm sorry."

Lindsey reached into her backpack and pulled out a small pad of paper. She scribbled two addresses on one of the sheets before tearing it off and handing it to Mandy.

"These are the addresses of those houses," Lindsey offered.

Then she was gone again, leaving Connor and Mandy dumbfounded.

"That's one source of information down," Mandy sighed as she turned to Connor and buried her face in his chest. "Let's go find Frank and Sam and get going."

** **

Deanna and Audrey pulled up to the second of the houses owned by Andrew Mathews, and turned off the ignition to the agency-owned sedan Deanna was driving. Deanna waved to the on-site police officers that waited for their arrival.

"Did you get the warrant?" Deanna asked the police officers. She had one of her own, a blanket warrant by a federal judge, but she liked having the local warrant. It covered a whole plethora of problems that could creep up later in court, should they find any evidence that they needed to use against Andrew Mathews.

"Yes, ma'am," one of the officers said. "Sergeant Fellows, ma'am. "

He took a slip of paper from his front pocket and handed it over to Deanna and waited for her to read it before taking it back and slipping it back into his pocket.

"Good," she smiled. "Let's go."

They approached the front door of the house and Deanna knocked, yelling 'Federal Agents' as Sergeant Fellows yelled out "Police!" A moment later, Deanna tried the front door and found it locked, so Fellows motioned to a couple of men behind him who approached with a battering ram.

Two huge whacks later, the front door burst open and the men, along with Deanna and Audrey, swarmed the house.

"Search everything," Deanna said. "I want paperwork, weapons, photos, anything that can link Andrew Mathews to Joe Hardy or where Andrew may be hiding his captive. Let's get to work, gentlemen."

The searches were long and tedious and took far longer than Deanna liked, even with the number of people in the room. Everyone wore latex gloves to preserve any prints but they came away with very little evidence.

Deanna sighed as she looked over at her partner. Audrey had smudges of dirt on her face from digging through a pile of old books found in one of the bedrooms, and she looked thoroughly disgruntled about everything. Deanna hid the urge to smile at her partner; trust Audrey to get upset about those little things.

"Strike two, I think," Audrey said as she took a wet wipe from her bag and washed her face with it. "I'm wondering if we aren't following a really long trail of wild geese, Dea."

Deanna shrugged as she used another wet wipe to wash her hands and threw it into the trash. “Maybe," she said, "But as we don't have any other trails to follow, we're following this one."

Audrey nodded as she picked up her bag. "Ready to go hit the next one?"

Deanna nodded in agreement and took her own bag to walk back to the car. They climbed in and drove off for their next destination.

About halfway to another small town where Andrew Michaels owned property, Deanna glanced over at her auburn-haired partner.

"We've got a tail, can you believe it?" Deanna said with a smile.

"A tail?" Audrey didn't turn around to look but she did glance, casually, through the rearview mirror. "Are you sure it’s not one of the other team members?"

"Oh, I'm sure all right," Deanna said. "You ever see any of our team drive a Mercedes?"

"You mean, besides your husband?" Audrey grinned.

"Yeah, besides my husband, who is still in DC?"

Audrey shrugged and agreed. "Nobody on our team has one, not on this gig anyway."

"Then we're being tailed," Deanna reiterated. "Let's keep going."

They drove another half mile before the Mercedes turned off. Deanna raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"Well, maybe not," she said.

A moment later, however, the earth in front of them exploded with a resounding BOOM causing the car that Deanna and Audrey were in to skid, nearly upend as the pavement in front of them buckled and broke apart, and then sent the car sliding until it tipped up, over and onto its hood, sending both women into unconsciousness.

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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.