Chapter two: Duct-taped skeletons in your closet. (Joe Hardy's POV)

"Did you hear what he said? Negligible error." Nancy glances up at me through the steam rising from her coffee mug, her palms pressed against her temples; her blue eyes looking like they're missing something. "Negligible error."

I nod slowly. "And hopefully you realize that's a bunch of baloney."

Nancy swirls the spoon around in her coffee. Not saying anything.

"C'mon, seriously. The dude is full of himself. Anyone standing ten feet away from him can feel the ego emission blasting off of him. I swear it hits me as soon as I step foot in Jake's car."

Nancy almost chokes on her coffee. In laughter. "Don't say those things while I'm swallowing. Please."

I smile and shake my head slowly. "Seriously, though. It's not like you messed up big time, like Tino's trying to make it out to be. It's not a federal case." I shrug, leaning one elbow on the counter, where we are seated, going over the case, and probably kind of annoying Frank, who is hunched over Charleena's laptop, a couple of inches away from the screen, like he's trying to puzzle out the theory of relativity.

In case you're wondering, yes. The train is now headed for Scratcherd Bend, and has been screaming along the tracks for a couple of hours now.

Nancy was getting her thoughts in order. In her room. In the sleeping car. And I was bored and impatient. When dusk finally came, all the creepy little yellowy lights turned themselves on in the mildewy-smelling hall of the sleeping car, (yes, apparently Lori got her super-rich Daddy to rig up some kind of advanced electric system in here. Don't ask me how that works.)

Frank always knows how to keep himself "employed" every minute, and I rarely get to catch him just staring off into space, day dreaming—he's not totally inhuman, though. He does it sometimes. But me? Yeah. I'm more of the wait around and fidget with the tassels on the ancient curtains hanging in the windows until they start to fall off kinda guy.

Frank can't stand that. So he virtually booted me out of our room, and ordered me to go work on something, somewhere. Anything. Just stop being bored. Ha, okay. I'm only stuck on a train barreling through the Colorado desert like there's no tomorrow, with absolutely nothing to even look out the window at, along with a handful of stuffy adults, each on their own power trip. I'll try to stop being bored.

So I sat on the floor. Underneath the QUIET sign. Really. Then thankfully, not too long afterwards, Nancy emerged from her room, tripping over me in the hallway. Finally. So it's coffee time. Even though coffee is totally gross.

"But still." Nancy looks down at the granite counter top, pulling me out of my daze. "I thought for sure I had it with Brimstone Canyon. And we were this close—" she pinches an inch of air between her fingertips. "—this close to finding out for real. And now.."

"What's with the said 'screwed-up filing system'?" I shove my fingers through my messy blonde hair. "I mean... even I could've thought up a better excuse."

"Yeah and we all know how great you are at lying." That was sarcasm, by the way. Sometimes, with Frank, I can't even tell. He's got his poker face down to a science, I swear.

"I know." I come back dryly, my gaze trailing over to Frank, who hasn't taken his eyes away from the ridiculously-bright computer screen.

"What're you doing?"

My brother glances up to me for a split second, straightens his black-rimmed glasses. "Charleena was having some issue with her computer... she left all flustered and begged me to fix it for her."

I nod. "Wow. I'm surprised she let you anywhere near that thing."

Frank gives me an unamused look. "Her word docs are password locked."

"How do you know?" I bite back a smile. "Were you trying to bust in to read her novel?"

He laughs dryly, not smiling. It's so weird how he can do that. "No. She told me so."

"Riiiight."

Frank ignores me at this point, and goes back to de-fragging.

I turn to Nancy, who is staring, dazed, with her head in her palm, at the sepia-toned photograph of Camille and Jake framed on the wall. Her mind is lost somewhere else. "Maybe the filing system really is screwed up."

"Yeah." I cough, leaning forward onto my elbows. "And maybe Balducci's the one that messed with it."

Nancy doesn't shift her gaze, letting out a sigh. "Or maybe I'm just... wrong." she pinches her eyelids closed for a second, like if that stung. "Dang it. I hate being proved wrong."

I bite my lower lip, waiting a few seconds before saying anything. "...Who says Tino is right?"

Nancy laughs, opening her eyes. "Tino."

"Yeah." Short pause. She looks at me. "..And what does your gut tell you?"

Nancy presses her lips into a thin white line, looking down at her coffee mug, which has stopped steaming at this point. "That I'm right and he's wrong." She glances back up to me, something glittering in her blue eyes. Suspicion. "...and I smell a rat."

I nod slowly. "Me too."

"Sounds like..." Frank distractedly looks away from the screen. "this world-famous police detective isn't quite as squeaky clean as he makes himself out to be."

Nancy nods. "Exactly." she turns to face me. "Someone's gotta prove him wrong."

"Yeah." I sigh, falling back in my chair. "Maybe John Gray will, if he ever takes his headphones off and stops listening to little blips of Camille singing."

Nancy rolls her eyes and smiles. "Come with me." she stands up, swallowing the rest of her coffee in one gulp (which is pretty amazing). "Frank?"

"You guys go ahead, I've gotta finish this for Charleena."

I roll my eyes. "Goody-goody."

"I'll catch up with you all later."

Nancy nods, grabbing my hand and pulling me out the door. Literally.

Do you have any idea how fast Nancy can drag somebody through all four cars of a moving train, when she's seriously determined to get something done? Do you have any idea how tight she keeps her grip on my hand? Not like I mind. At all.

"So... what exactly are we looking for."

Nancy glances up briefly at me, letting out a sigh, and flipping the century-old map of Brimstone Canyon over on the chest of drawers. "Something. Anything. That will prove Tino wrong about this," she smoothes her palms down on the backside of the crinkled paper.

We both scan the old, yellowing parchment for a few seconds in silence... save the screaming, grumbling gears and churning wheels of the train as it barrels onward.

Jake's machine car is empty, except for Nancy and I, and the spider-like legs and claws of the steel machinery hangs over us like something out of The War of The Worlds.

I don't really know if I'd be able to tell her this, but hanging out and sleuthing with Nancy feels so right, and I've missed it like crazy. We haven't done this in forever. For pretty much this whole time, I've been stuck in the dining car, researching stuff about Hurley and his friends, and his friends' friends, and his friends' friends' kids, and their kids, and their kids' kids, and please please please let there be a relative still living that maybe knows something about Jake's mine.

It's yawn-worthy after a while; how can Frank blame me for being bored to death?

Finally, something is worth being pulled through a moving train by Nancy, to investigate. Finally.

"There." Nancy stabs one finger into the corner of the map, pointing out a faintly-scrawled date. "It says..." she leans closer, squinting to make out the faded handwriting. "September 5, 1899."

I nod slowly. "1899... And did Jake date all his maps?"

Nancy laughs. "No, he dated Camille."

I break into smile. "C'mon you know what I mean."

"I have no idea if he did, but there's one way to find out, right?" she crosses the floor, reaching up to pull the map off its holder thingie—that is, the map that Balducci found.

"Right." I nod again, as Nancy spreads out the paper, which begs to roll up on us.

Both our eyes immediately dive into the same corner. Another date. Yes.

I feel Nancy smile, then she reads it aloud. "August 19, 1904. ...whoa."

"What?" I raise one eyebrow, confused already.

She looks up after a second, breaking her daze; smiles. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"
"Make your eyebrow go like that. I can't do that." She laughs softly, and proceeds to yanking off her backpack.

I shrug. "I uh.. never noticed."

Nancy pulls open the flap and takes out the tattered letter from Jake Hurley to his niece. "If I remember correctly..." she carefully unfolds the creases, running one fingertip along the letter's heading. "the third of November, 1901."

I feel both my eyebrows raise a little, as the broken pieces start to pull themselves together in my head. "So if Jake was referring to the winning map in 1901... and this map that Tino found was drawn in 1904..."

Nancy looks up, turning to face me. "Then that means Jake would have to be talking about a map that didn't even exist, yet."

"And that makes no sense."

She nods. "Exactly."

"Wow." I shake my head slowly. "Balducci could learn a thing or two about checking to make sure his system is bulletproof before flaunting the evidence in our faces like he did."

Nancy nods, side-smiling a little. She's still trying to sort it out in her head—seriously, I almost see the gears turning behind her blue eyes.

"Yeah. It's kind of lame," she adds, "especially for such a said "real detective" like him."

"What." I blink. "He called himself that? A real detective?"

Nancy rolls her eyes and closes them. Nods.

"Golly."

"I know right?" she laughs lightly, folding up the letter to Ruth and sliding it back into her bag.

"Well, I'd say we found enough evidence to bust him, what say you?" I reach for the maps, but Nancy plants her palm down on them first.

"Wait."

I raise an eyebrow. "What?"

She smiles. Probably at the eyebrow thing. "I don't want to screw this up."

I shrug one shoulder. "You're not going to—we just uncovered exactly what we need to throw in Tino's face and clear your name."

"I know," She looks down, biting her lower lip.

"...So what's the hold up?"

"I just don't want any drama. Y'know, looking like I'm trying to dig up dirt to throw back at Tino, because he hurt my feelings, or something." Nancy shrugs, pulling her hand away from the map.

I nod slowly. "Got it."

"Plus, if we find some more skeletons in his closet later on, it's just going to make us look sketchy if we keep busting him over and over."

"Right. So." I take a deep breath, leaning against the chest of drawers. "We just play it low-key for a while, and see what turns out?"

Nancy nods. "It's going to be irritating to keep our mouths shut, I know, but... yeah." She glances back up at me. "Do you think that's good idea?"

I smile a little. "Do you think I won't be able to keep my mouth shut?"

She laughs. "Oh, I have total faith in you." her blue eyes sparkling.

"You do?"

"Oh yeah." Nancy smiles, nodding again. "But. John Gray lent me some duct tape, just in case."