Desperation
A Hardy Boys Fanfic
by Time Guardian
Summary: Desperation leads the Hardys into a showdown with a criminal who escaped federal custody - a criminal that Frank and Joe helped to put away.
It was a bright sunny day when seventeen year old Joe Hardy came home early from Bayport high school. Normally, he would be at school for an extra hour or so, going through the rigors of baseball practice, but after promising the coach that he would run twice the normal amount of laps during the next practice, he was granted time off.
Joe stepped inside his house, running a hand through his blond hair and welcoming the cooling effects of the air conditioning. He noted with a smile the red and blue streamers and large poster sign that hung in the living room that proclaimed 'Happy Birthday Frank'.
Ever since they had entered high school, Joe had been determined to find a way to get one over on Frank. For the past few years on Joe's birthday, Frank had found ways to surprise him, everything from dinner out with their girlfriends to scuba diving trips off the coast of flordia.
Well this year, he had a surprise party planned that Frank would never forget.
He heard a voice call out from the kitchen. "Joe is that you?"
Joe dumped the schoolbooks he had into a living room chair, then stepped into the kitchen. He saw that his father was prepping various cuts of meat to be placed on the grill.
"Hey dad, the food looks good. Frank call in yet?"
Fenton Hardy turned around, dressed in a red polo shirt and jeans along with an apron that proudly proclaimed 'Grillmatser'. "No, but Chet did. He talked Frank into coming home with him after school for the duration for a birthday celebration of their own, so we have plenty of time. Your mother is in town with Aunt Gertude picking up a cake now."
Joe grinned. "Great. This plan is going to go off like clockwork! All I need to do now is go pick up Frank's present from Mr. Moneyhan at the jewelry shop and we will be set."
As he walked out of the kitchen, his father called out. "Chet should be bringing Frank home in about two hours, so you better hurry."
Joe rushed upstairs, showered and quickly changed into a black shirt and jeans. He then headed out of the house.
Mr. Moneyhan's Jewelry and Engraving was located in an older part of Bayport's downtown district, where the city council had declared that the buildings were to be restored to their original condition from when the area was first constructed many years ago. There had been some rumbling to shrink the size of some of the buildings to allow emergency workers proper access to the backs of the stores, but so far all they had managed to do was plant various flowers and powerwash the sidewalks once a month.
Joe found a parking space a few yards away, and parked the van. He grabbed for a claim ticket that he had stashed under the drivers side visor, then quickly got out.
It had taken him the better part of a month, but Joe managed to track down the same style pocket watch that Frank had eyed during a case in England. It had reminded him of Victorian times, he had said.
Mr. Moneyhan was supposed to be adding an inscription hat he thought up personally. - Won't Frank be surprised.-
He walked inside the small shop, and looked around at the various offering of jewelry, watches and other things that could be engraved. Mr. Moneyhan always prided himself on a variety of offerings, and judging by the young couple oggling the rings in the front case, it looked like he would be selling a ring today.
Joe found the old man at the front counter. "Hi, Mr. Moneyhan. Got Frank's watch ready yet?"
The old man was in his sixties with snow white hair, and he wore a simple white shirt with black pants. He grinned at Joe. "I'm almost finished. Why don't you look around for a few minutes? Maybe your girlfriend needs a pretty new bauble, yes?"
He couldn't help but laugh. Mr. Moneyhan was a true romantic at heart. Joe walked around the shop, and chose to look at a small collection of swiss army knives that Mr. Money had in a locked glass case on the wall. Judging by the different designs, it looked like almost anything could be engraved on them.
As he stood there, Joe caught sight of a security guard in the reflection of the glass case. It was Mr. Moneyhan's normal procedure to have a security guard stand watch over his store since he was busy engraving most of the time.
Something didn't seem right about this security guard though.
He seemed to be tall, lean, and well tanned. The guard's red hair was close-cropped, but the scraggly beard totally rang alarm bells in his head. Something was familiar about this guy, he was sure of it.
The guard in turn glared at him like he was the lowest scum on Earth. Joe shuddered, then did his best to turn away. The look that guard had in his eyes, it was almost reminded him of soneone who was downright homicidal and - oh no -.
He remembered only one other time that someone had given him a look as unnerving as that. Joe put two and twotogether and slowly realized who the security guard really was. -Ansem Jamison-
He tamped down the urge to panic. By all rights, the man should be in Federal prison, awaiting trial. The man had been a stock trader who had lost his shirt in the recent wall street losses, and by all indications the event had caused him to go insane.
Ansem had tried to borrow money from his brother that lived in bayport, and when he refused, Ansem shot and killed him, then went and robbed a bank, kidnapping and killing a guard in the process. It had taken him and Frank nearly two months of undercover work to track Ansem down to a seedy apartment complex just outside of Bayport. The last time he had seen the man, two federal officals were escorting him out of the police station in a straight jacket.
Judging by the glance Ansem just gave him however, Joe knew that the man had recognized him.
He hated to leave Mr. Moneyhan with Ansem, but the quicker he could summon help, the better. The problem was, he left his cell phone in the van. "Hey, Mr. Moneyhan, can I use your phone?"
"Over in the corner, Joe," Mr. Moneyhan called out, "I'm almost finished engraving your brother's present."
Joe quietly nosed his way past an eager young couple checking out the engagement rings, and sought out the corner of the store that had a phone. The phone itself was on a small wooden bookshelf in the corner, but there seemed to be a bit of a gap inbetween the shelf and the corner itself, just big enough to allow him to be unseen by almost anyone else in the store.
After positioning himself in the niche, he dialed the police station and quickly reported the situation to the Sargeant on duty. After a promise of a quick reponse, Joe disconnected and quickly dialed home. When his father answered the phone he let out a pent up breath.
"Hey, dad, it's Joe. I'm still at the engravers and-"
A clicking noise interrupted him. Looking around, Joe realized his mistake. From his vantage, he saw that the couple that had been in the store was now outside and walking away. Standing in front of him was Ansem, and he was holding a revolver pointed directly at his head.