I posted two chapters the first day, skipped a day, and here I am writing another chapter today! :)
I feel as though this story is going to be more fun and easier to write than "Mysteries Make Everything Okay".
And since nobody else has told me that they like "Mysteries Make Everything Okay" nor has anybody else given me constructive criticism for the story, I'm guessing that people don't like the story. So, if you do like it please favorite it, follow it, or give me a review or PM me and tell me that you like it or give me constructive criticism. If nobody wants to do that I'm going to assume that people still aren't interested in it anymore and I'll give it an indefinite break.
Now, before I write the story, I usually answer any reviews for this story so nothing is going to stop me from doing that right now.
Stork Hardy: Thank you so much! I'm glad that you're looking forward to this chapter and plenty more and I'm also glad that you think it's "rather intriguing". :) That's so sweet of you!
If you don't get the reference Joe was making, that's alright. It's an episode name of this show called "Psych" that I love so much! It's a TV show with murder, mystery, suspense, comedy, romance, drama, crime, etc. Since Joe is a sleuth/detective I thought that it would fit right for him. Plus I feel like Joe is a guy who makes references to things that he loves, whether anybody else understands them or not, and I feel like he really likes to watch TV shows.
If you're wondering why I put "HB+ND=ND+HB" in the story, let me explain it. I'm using that to say that they're at a new scene or a new place in the story, rather than using that "horizontal line". That "horizontal line" is the one that I use between the parts that don't have to do with the story. For example, this (before that "horizontal line") is not part of the story, but the next part after the "horizontal line" is part of the story. So I hope that clears that up a bit for you.
"What the?" Joe asked, opening one of the back seat's doors. "Where are the files?"
"The man that was running must have taken them," Nancy contemplated. "I saw that he had papers in one of his hands, but I assumed... Well, I don't know what I assumed because I wasn't thinking correctly, but oh well. He must have gotten the papers, but he was on foot. We can still catch him if we drive now!"
Nancy jumped in the passenger seat, Joe sat on one of the backseats, and Frank started driving the car. Driving toward where they saw the man run to.
"Look, there he is!" Nancy called, pointing to him. But it was too late. The man had gotten into a car and it sped off.
"Dang it," Joe muttered to himself.
"Let's go over to your house to think the case over, Nancy," Frank suggested. "If you let me use your laptop I can access my e-mail and open up the pictures so you can look at them. And all of the words in the case file are in the e-mail. I just printed all of them out for a hard-copy."
Frank had a gleam in his eye and his brother knew that something was up. "What is it, Frank? What are you hiding from us?"
"Oh... Maybe it's just the fact that those hard copies didn't have any of the bigger ideas because I purposely didn't want anybody to steal them and get all of the information we have... Just maybe," Frank replied.
Nancy slugged Frank in the arm, lightly. She never knew how hard to punch a guy in the shoulder if they weren't a criminal. She was so used to punching criminals and never to joke around and punch a friend so she didn't know how hard, or how soft, she was supposed to do it. She decided to do it softly. "I can't believe that you kept that from us for almost three minutes! That is vital information that Joe and I are going to need if you want us to help you on the case," Nancy told Frank with a huge grin on big grin on her face.
Instead of looking at her, Frank stared at the road, concentrating on getting home in one piece. He knew that he couldn't risk anything, with his brother being on the tattle-tale side and with Callie on the edge and ready to leave him.
HB+ND=ND+HB
Frank had just logged onto the laptop and his e-mail when the phone rang.
"Just open your e-mail, I'll be right back," Nancy concluded as she walked over to the telephone.
"Hello?" she asked.
"Hello, Nancy Drew," the voice on the other side said. His voice was low and raspy and it sounded somewhat perverted.
"Who is this?"
The voice on the other end laughed mechanically (sounding like some sort of machine). "That, my dear Drew, does not need to be known. What needs to be known is that I know what's going on between you and The Hardy's. You're working on a case together and you're getting closer to them than you're going to wish you ever have in a while. So either get away from your little boyfriend and best friend or watch them die their slow and painful death, just as the man in the photograph did."
"What? How did you know about that? You're the one who stole it!" Nancy blamed, still thinking everything through.
"You're smarter than most people give you credit for. So, if you want to be extremely smarter than most people give you credit for, you will back off this case. We'll meet again and hopefully it will be face to face next time, not you trying to chase after me," the man said right before he hung up.
Nancy let the phone ring in her ear for a minute, still processing what just happened in her mind. Usually she would just try to catch the culprit even faster and be more determined, but now she wasn't thinking that way. The man had just threatened her friend's safety and murder them. It would be done just like it was to that poor man.
Distraught over it all, Nancy didn't notice Frank walk into the kitchen. When he came up behind her and massaged her shoulders she jumped out of her skin.
"I didn't hear you come in," Nancy explained, sheepishly. She turned around and looked Frank in the eyes. "I'm really worried for your safety, along with Joe's. I think that it would be best if we just quit working on this case."
"What has gotten in to you, Nan? You're usually ecstatic about cases, especially ones involving murder. You want to give the bad guy justice. Why don't you want to do that anymore?" Frank questioned.
"It's not that I don't want to give the guy justice. He's a bad guy and he deserves to be severely punished, but maybe we're over thinking this. The two men could have gotten into a fight and the guy either shot his friend or his friend accidentally shot himself. Worrying, the man dug the bullet out of his friend with a knife and ran away. Maybe he won't be able to live much longer, with the guilt eating at him and all. So maybe it was an accident. Nobody deserves to be severely punished for an accident," Nancy reasoned.
"Look," Frank said, putting his hands on her shoulders to make sure that she stayed sturdy. He looked her in the eyes and tried to put some sense into her. "Whatever was said on the phone and whoever it was must have been the criminal. You know that you want to catch him and put him to justice, Nan. And that's what Joe and I are going to do, with or without you. I know that you're hiding something so why don't we go on in to your living room and you can tell Joe and I about your conversation on the phone."
Nancy agreed, still a bit shaken up about the conversation and with her behavior.
Frank led her into the living room, his hand on her lower back. Knowing that he couldn't get too close to Nancy, he sat her down next to his brother and he sat on the other couch.
Soon Nancy had gained her composure and had told the Hardy Boys everything that had happened. She expressed that she was really worried.
She leaned into Joe, trying to hold herself together, so Joe started patting her back awkwardly.
"So are you still going to work on the case with us?" Frank asked hopefully.
"Yeah, I guess so. But it's to protect you guys and to put a bad guy to justice, it's not because I really want to," she said, giving a look to both of the guys. "Now, I'm going to go up to my room. You guys can talk about guy stuff. When I come back down, we'll talk about the case." And with that, Nancy was off.
When she was out of the hearing range, Joe asked Frank what was up. "I mean, I know you have a crush on Nancy and all, but it almost seemed as if you wanted Callie to leave you."
"I don't want Callie to leave me. I love Callie and you know it. I was just thinking outside the box and stuff. If Nancy asked me to date her then maybe I'd leave Callie or let her leave me or something, but... I just don't know right now. I need to set out my priorities. Let's talk about this later, okay?"
Not even a minute later, when Frank and Joe were in complete silence and thinking of stuff to say, Nancy came fleeting down the stairs.
When the boys saw her they realized that she had a piece of paper in her hand.
"Okay, let's talk about the case," Nancy suggested, unfolding the piece of paper and setting it on her lap. "I'm sure that this can help."
Okay, I admit, this isn't my finest cliffhanger, but it is a cliffhanger and it will do.
Please review because, as I've said before, the more reviews I get the faster I'm going to post the next chapter. This story will seem really worthwhile if I get a lot of reviews. Not only will it be worth my time and effort to write each chapter, but it may also seem great enough to intrigue more people. The more people reading mean more reviews, more reviews mean more chapters, more chapters mean a longer story, and a longer story will mean more people (I know that I, for one, sometimes won't read long stories, but it won't really matter because I'll know that I have dedicated and special readers).