Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

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Thursday, 10.00am

AJ took a deep drag of his cigarette as he sat on his front step, waiting for the Hardy brothers to pick him up. He’d had a great time at the get-together the night before. Well used to the territorial nature of his own school and neighborhood, he had expected Joe’s friends to be a bit cool towards him. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Everyone had been friendly, as if AJ had always been part of the group. It was as though Joe’s stamp of approval was more than enough for them. Chet, clearly the clown of the group, had had a perpetual smile on his face and had kept everyone entertained. Chet had even invited AJ out to the Morton farm sometime – and the offer had been genuine.

Looking at his watch, AJ realized the boys were half an hour late. He lit another cigarette. Hey, they might have just forgotten about picking me up, he thought to himself. No big deal. I’ll give them five more minutes and then I’ll just head off to the mall. But then their van appeared and came to an abrupt halt outside his place.

‘Hey! Put that filthy thing out or I’ll ring my aunt and tell her!’ shouted Joe from the passenger seat. Grinning, AJ butted it out and jumped into the front beside Joe, sandwiching the young Hardy between him and his brother.

‘We were going to ring you to say we were running late,’ said Frank, as he pulled away from the kerb. ‘But Einstein here forgot your mobile number.’

‘Alright, alright,’ muttered Joe, good-naturedly. ‘No need to rub it in.’

‘Sleep in?’ asked AJ.

Frank shook his head.

‘Miraculously, no,’ he told him, recalling the numerous times he’d had to drag Joe out of bed. ‘We had some business to clear up at the police station.’

Frank quickly filled in the wide-eyed AJ about the events of the previous evening.

‘Geez! Is Chet okay?’

‘Fine,’ replied Joe, ‘but the same can’t be said about the W.’

‘But who’d pull such a stunt on Chet?’ asked AJ incredulously. Joe and Frank exchanged sideways glances.

‘Well, Officer Riley wanted to question whoever left our house before Chet last night,’ Joe told AJ. ‘The only two people were you and Winston.’

‘Well, I haven’t heard from the cops yet today,’ remarked AJ without blinking an eye lid.

‘Well you won’t,’ replied Frank. ‘Junior Hardy beside you there went ballistic. Last night he went off his nut telling Con Riley that it was as ridiculous to suspect you as it would be to suggest Aunt Gertrude took her scissors to Chet’s brake cable. This morning, his more articulate brother satisfied Chief Collig that you don’t need to be questioned.’

AJ looked at Joe and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

‘How do you know I didn’t do it?’ he asked Joe.

‘Did you?’ asked Joe, grinning slightly.

‘No,’ replied AJ. ‘What would I have against Chet?’

‘Well that’s good enough for me,’ said Joe, reaching for the road atlas in the glove box.

‘And it’s good enough for me too,’ added Frank. ‘It was probably just some fool with nothing better to do. Give me some directions Joe! You always leave looking at the map until the last possible moment. How am I supposed to know where I’m going?’

AJ sat back while Frank and Joe argued good-naturedly about which route to take to Paul Williams’ house. According to Joe, Frank was a terrible driver with no sense of direction, while Frank expressed his view that Joe had always been a pathetic navigator. AJ was simply stunned that his new friends had such trust in him, and he wondered just what he’d done to deserve it.

…

Thursday 10.45am

Frank knocked on the door of the house Paul Williams lived in with his parents. A young man answered it. He was of medium height with a lean build. The boys recognized him as an older version of the teenager in the photograph reproduced in the newspaper.

‘Yes?’ he asked them.

‘My name is Frank Hardy. We’d like to speak to Paul Williams.’

‘That’s me,’ he said, smiling. ‘How can I help you?’

‘My brother and I are amateur detectives. We’ve been asked to take another look at the disappearance of Ms. Angelica Smith,’ explained Frank. Paul’s smile disappeared and was replaced by a haunted expression. AJ half expected the door to be shut in their faces. He wouldn’t have blamed the guy!

‘Please, come inside,’ said Paul quietly.

He led the trio into a modestly furnished lounge room where he invited them to sit down.

‘I know you’ve probably gone over this many times with the police,’ said Frank apologetically, ‘but can you please tell us what happened the last day you saw Angelica?’

Paul sat forward on the edge of the couch. He looked older than twenty. He had too many lines on his face for a young man his age.

‘You have no idea how many times I’ve replayed that afternoon in my mind,’ Paul began in a somber voice. ‘I’d nagged Angelica to go out with me heaps of times. I suspected she liked me, but she was so shy. We’d spoken on the phone a lot and shared a pizza after school, but that was about it. When I got my driver’s license, I was looking forward to doing something special. And, well, I suppose I wanted to impress her. You know – take her out in my dad’s car and all.’

Paul paused and looked down at his hands.

‘Angelica was keen about going for a drive, but she seemed a bit moody when I first picked her up. Her mum had given her a whole lot of warnings about young men and cars I guess! But we ended up having a great time. We drove to Black’s Forest . It was Angelica’s idea. We’d both heard about those young hikers going missing there, but I think that’s why Angelica wanted to go. She sort of wanted to do something a bit risky – something her mother wouldn’t approve of.’

‘Did you get out of the car once you got there?’ Joe wanted to know. Paul nodded.

‘We went for a bit of a walk and came across this little cabin, deep in the forest. It was locked, but we looked around for a bit and sat and talked. It was really peaceful.’

‘Did she say anything about wanting to leave home?’ asked Frank.

‘No. She wouldn’t have done that to her mum. She wasn’t, isn’t, that sort of girl. Never wagged class in her life or broke any rules. I still can’t quite believe she agreed to go out with me.’

‘What happened when you drove her home?’ asked Joe.

‘Nothing,’ was Paul’s reply. ‘We got to her place, and she said she’d call me. Then I went home.’

‘You didn’t wait to see her go inside?’ asked Frank.

‘She stood at her gate and waved as I drove off. We’d stayed out a bit longer than we intended to. I think she was putting off facing her mother. Mrs. Smith rang me about an hour after I got home. She was already frantic. After that, I had police and reporters all wanting to speak to me at once.’

Paul ran his hand through his hair and rubbed the back of his neck.

‘It got real ugly after that. Mrs. Smith said some pretty nasty things to my folks and to me. I guess I understand how Angelica’s family felt, but a lot of people ended up pointing their fingers at me for a long time after Angelica went missing. Once the police gave me the all clear, my parents took me on a kind of holiday just so we could get away.’

Frank regarded Paul sympathetically. It had never been so apparent to him how fortunate the Hardys were that the Mortons had never treated Joe with hostility after Iola’s death. Bad enough for your girlfriend to go missing, without having her family and your friends turn on you as well!

‘Have Angelica’s parents asked you to investigate because of those bodies found recently?’ asked Paul curiously.

‘Actually, her uncle Winston approached us,’ Joe told him.

‘Never met him,’ confessed Paul, ‘but then again, the family never did welcome me with open arms.’

‘What do you think happened to Angelica?’ asked AJ, speaking up for the first time. Paul shook his head and shrugged.

‘Beats me. All I know is, I dropped her off at her house and waved goodbye. After that, it’s as though she ceased to exist.’

The boys thanked Paul for his time and left. In the van, on their way to Angelica’s old address, all three reflected on their visit to Paul Williams.

‘He has as much idea about what happened to her as we do,’ Joe said softly.

‘Poor guy,’ added AJ. ‘Talk about a date with disaster.’

‘It sure doesn’t sound like she ran away,’ said Frank, expressing his thoughts out aloud. ‘Unless Paul helped her get away and has been covering for her ever since.’

‘There’s no way he’s covering anything up,’ said Joe quietly. ‘He’s still hurting.’

The three traveled in silence for a while, each caught up in their own thoughts. AJ wondered what conclusions the police would draw if one of his girlfriends went missing. Frank remembered the way Iola’s mother had embraced Joe at her daughter’s funeral. Joe thought about how awful it must have been for Paul to be ostracized by the community after Angelica disappeared.

Angelica Smith’s old house turned out to be an impressive one on a huge block of land. From there, Frank drove to Black’s forest along the same route Paul had described in the police report. Paul had taken the longer, scenic route. Frank imagined Paul’s excitement about having his license and finally taking Angelica out on a proper date.

It felt strange, thought Joe, to be heading back to the cabin Callie had rescued Frank and Vanessa from some months earlier. The smell of the damp soil and native plants brought the memories flooding back.

As soon as Frank had parked the van, the three boys got out to take a look around. Frank felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand on end as he neared the cabin which was now boarded up. Joe stood with his arms folded across his chest. The canopy blocked out most of the sunlight. He felt cold despite the warm day.

‘How long did it take us to get here?’ he asked.

‘About an hour,’ Frank replied. ‘Just as Paul said it took them. According to the police report, they stayed here for about an hour and a half and then left.’

‘Why would they come here if they knew people had gone missing?’ asked AJ, perching himself on a log and lighting a cigarette.

‘Morbid curiosity? Thrill seeking?’ suggested Frank. ‘Ironic that we came to this same place three years later and had some so-called thrills we weren’t exactly looking for!’

‘Chills more like it,’ retorted Joe, shuddering.

‘I still can’t believe you guys managed to get away from Winter,’ remarked AJ. ‘I mean, he’d killed three people, but all four of you escaped. It must have been pure guts for you to actually lead him away from the cabin, Joe.’

‘Well, firstly, I had no idea we were dealing with a serial killer,’ said Joe. ‘Secondly, when you find yourself in that kind of situation, you just do what you have to do. You don’t have time to think about being gutsy or brave, or foolish even. You would have done exactly the same thing. Cal and I couldn’t just leave Ness and Frank there. Thirdly, I guess luck played a big part too.’

‘Paul said the cabin was locked while he and Angelica were here,’ said Frank, frowning. ‘I wonder where Winter was and whether he overheard them talking.’

‘Well, if Paul did drive her home, there’s no way Angelica would have made it back here on foot,’ said AJ. ‘So if she was killed after he dropped her off, that leaves the question of where her body is now.’

‘Who knows,’ responded Joe. ‘All I know is that the police searched this whole area and found nothing besides the remains of those three hikers. I also know that just being here is starting to give me the creeps! Let’s go.’

AJ, happy to comply, put out his cigarette and followed Frank and Joe into the van. Once again, the cabin was left alone with its secrets intact.

As the trio made their way out of the forest, something AJ had said kept playing itself over and over in Frank’s mind. Winter had killed three hikers and successfully kept their bodies hidden for three years, yet four teenagers on a camping trip had all managed to escape his clutches. Had it been a matter of luck, or was there a more sinister explanation?