Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin, The Hardys, New York, The Police Force, Any Cabs, Any sidewalks, any storefronts, or much of anything else… I do however own Lieutenant Mahoy and as far as I know the A Taste of France Café both of which are to the best of my knowledge my knowledge purely fictional.


Bess poked at her strawberry crepes with her fork, "I don't like this Nancy… I can't see Frank and Joe's dad shooting cops!" she said softly.

"I know Bess… I can't see it either. But according to Mahoy that's why I was called, since Mr. Hardy is a suspect they didn't want to call in his sons to investigate him. He said that they had heard good things about me and most of the private detectives in New York are too closely connected to the case for the cops to be comfortable using them. Apparently Fenton Hardy isn't the only private detective that's a suspect, but Lieutenant Mahoy said he'd fill me in more fully when we got here." Nancy said taking a bite of one her own banana crepes.

After they finished their largely silent breakfast Nancy and Bess headed out to hail a cab, they gave the driver the address that Lieutenant Mahoy had given Nancy when he had called her a few days before. Neither Bess nor Nancy spoke much during the drive, both were lost in their own thoughts and worries over the case they were about to start that was already showing itself to be difficult.


Author's Note: And you thought the last chapter was short. Just kidding, back to the story!
"Hello. My name is Nancy Drew, and this is my friend Bess Marvin. We're here to see Lieutenant Mahoy." Nancy said when they arrived at the police station. The officer at the desk remembered what Mahoy had said to them earlier about a Nancy Drew coming for a visit soon and gave the girls directions to the Lieutenant's office. "Thanks Officer." Bess said as she and Nancy started off.

They followed the directions the officer had given them and came to a small office with the door open, they looked inside and saw a short muscular man with a ruddy well lined face bent over a messy desk. Nancy knocked on the door frame, "Lieutenant Mahoy ?" she asked tentatively.

"Yes… May I help you?" Lieutenant Mahoy asked looking up from the paperwork on his desk, now that he was looking at them they could see he had very pretty dark green eyes.

"I'm Nancy Drew and this is my friend Bess, you said for us to come see you when we arrived in the city." Nancy said sounding more confident now. "I was hoping we could discuss the case."

"Of course, why don't you close the door and have a seat?" He said gesturing to the two fairly uncomfortable looking chairs in the cramped space. "I'm sorry about the mess but my caseload is rather full at the moment, I'm sure you understand."

"Of course, we'll try not to take up too much of your time." Nancy said as she closed the door behind her and Bess.

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"Did you hear that Frank?" Joe asked as they passed another closed office door, though Joe was pretty sure that one had just closed. He'd heard the click.

"The sound of a bull pen in the middle of the morning?" Frank asked rolling his eyes, he stopped when

he realized that Joe had stopped and was looking around. "What are you looking for Joe?"

"I heard Nancy's voice, I'm trying to see if I can spot her." Joe said craning his neck to look around, he was on the verge of walking between the cubicles when his brothers voice distracted him.

Frank watched Joe for a few moments waiting for the younger Hardy to remember why they were there, but when it looked like Joe was actually going to go looking for Nancy he decided he had better put a stop to it. "Joe! Nancy is probably in river heights, hanging out with Bess and George or something like that. Or possibly like us, running an errand for her father! Remember? We're supposed to be getting that information from Dad's friend in Missing Persons." he said to Joe.

"Right. So how do we get to Missing Persons anyway?" Joe asked, they had been looking for the last twenty minutes with no luck so far. Sometimes he wondered if they rearranged the departments whenever he and Frank went out of town or something because they could never seem to find the department they were supposed to be going to.

"I think we take the next left… Or maybe it's the next right. This place is built like a maze!" Frank said in annoyance as the brothers started walking again.

"Could it be upstairs?" Joe asked, earning a glare from his brother.

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"Alright now I assume you want to know why I said Fenton Hardy was a suspect." Lieutenant Mahoy said looking across the desk at the two young woman seated there.

"Yes, we would. We'd also like to hear about any other suspects you might have." Nancy said simply, she didn't want to mention knowing the Hardy family in case that connection got her thrown off the case.

"Well at the moment Hardy is our main suspect, mostly because he is the only one we can find with a connection to all of the victims." Mahoy said sounding serious.

"And what would that connection be?" Nancy asked, she noticed his eye brow raise slightly at her professional tone but he answered her none the less.

"They were all cops he was investigating. They were suspected of taking bribes." he said him frown deepening.

"So this guy is going after dirty cops?" Nancy asked then seeing Mahoy's eyes darken she quickly corrected herself, "Or suspected dirty cops?"

"That is what we thought but a one of the victims was cleared by the department the day before she was shot." Mahoy said.

"The shooter may not have known that though so that still may be the motive." Bess said, speaking for the first time since they came into the room.

"Or he may have thought that the department made a mistake and she was guilty." Nancy pointed out, "There is no way we can know until we catch this guy and ask him." she added.

Mahoy looked like he was about to respond when the phone on his desk rang, after speaking to someone for a few moments he hung up. "Look I have to go right now, but I have permission from the Chief to give you a copy of what we have so far on this case for you to read over." He said taking a handful of files from a drawer of his desk and handing them to Nancy, "If you can give me a number where I can reach you I'll call you later and we can give each other an update." he added as the girls stood up to leave.

Nancy wrote her cell phone number and her hotel and room number on a post-it from the pad on his desk and handed it to him, "That sounds good, I look forward to solving this case with you." she said before she and Bess left the small office. When they were safely outside Bess let out her breath loudly, "I don't trust him Nancy, I think he was hiding something." she said without preamble.

"I understand… There was something about him that didn't quite ring true. Especially when he mentioned the cop who'd been cleared the day before she died." Nancy responded. "Maybe these files he gave us will shed some light on it, why don't we head back to the hotel and start reading up on the case?" she suggested. Bess nodded and they caught a cab at the corner.

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Frank walked back out into the spring sunshine, "Finally, now all we have to do is get this file to Dad and then we can go home." he said as he started walking down the block towards where they had parked the van.

"I say we look for Nancy when we're done, I know I heard her." Joe said following his brother down the sidewalk without even glancing at the storefronts they were passing.

Frank rolled his eyes, Joe had been adamant that Nancy was in the city since that scene in the homicide department. "How about we call her when we're done instead? New York is too big a city to try to find one specific person when they may not even be in the city and even if they are you don't know where to start looking." He said trying to think of a compromise.

"Fine, we can call her cell and ask her where she is. Then when she says 'New York' you'll know I'm right!" Joe said smugly.

"The only way we can call her cell is if she told you her new number. She e-mailed us last month to tell us she was changing it remember? She said the last company she tried didn't have a good plan for when it was stolen." Frank pointed out to his brother, effectively wiping the smug look off Joe's face. "We'll have to call her home phone."

"I'm sure Hannah will tell us where Nancy is though." Joe said as they climbed into the van, though he sounded less certain now.

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Bess tossed down the file she had been reading, "Nancy we've been at this for nearly two hours! Can't we stop for lunch or something?" she pleaded looking over at one of her best friends.

Nancy looked at the expression on Bess's face then at the time, lunch did sound good right about now. "All right Bess, where do you want to go? I don't think this place has room service." she said closing the file that she had been studying and leaving lying on the desk as she stood up.

Bess leapt up from where she had been stretched out on the bed to read her share of the files, "Great! Lets go to that café again, it's not too far away and the food was pretty good." she said.

Nancy laughed at her friends reaction, "Sounds good to me." she said and she locked the door behind them as they started for the A Taste of France Café.


Author's Note: Ok, this is the real end of the chapter. But don't worry! The next chapter is already in the works. I'm sure it will be up before too long… Unless of course it's not. But that's a slim possibility. For those of you that are unhappy about the length of the chapters: I'm stopping the chapters when it feels right to me, deal with it. Anyway, please review.