Disclaimer: Once again, I do not own The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew or the DJ Delilah. I still a fan of all three. This story is AU. The Hardy boys and Nancy Drew were not childhood friends. This is a version of their meeting.
Note: This is the last installment. I would like to thank ariandula for being a good sport. Thank you for reading.
The Discoveries.
Joe
I watch as Dad pushes back from the dining room table and laughs. His brown hair is thinning some and graying at his temples. I forget how much I miss him when I am away. "I'm glad you approve of her, Joe. Nothing seems to slow Nancy down for long. I knew that she wouldn't have any trouble with questioning Gates."
"I was there too, you know," I point out as I empty the last of the mashed potatoes onto my plate. Nothing beats Mom's cooking.
"For a short time," Frank qualifies from across the table. "Didn't Gates have you removed?"
I shoot Frank a glare. "It was all part of the plan. If I hadn't been ready to ask the tough questions, then Nancy would not have gotten as far as she did."
I had to admire that slick little trick of hers. One moment I was leading the charge in a promising line of questioning about Gates' financial woes, the next I was being led from the room by bodyguards—thugs more like it. Nancy took the opportunity to paint herself as the besieged employee forced to endure the boss' son. It struck a chord with Gates. "You would think they were besties by the end of the conversation. When they came out of the room we had access to all info on England's top people. Plus, if I had not gone to the security office, I would never have had the chance to make that copy of the visitor's log. We wouldn't have known that England's driver spends a lot of time just hanging around."
"So, you didn't hear what Drew and Gates were talking about?" Frank has his thinking face on. Uh-oh. Frank the distrusting his making is nightly appearance.
"Come on, Frank. She's on our side. You're just jealous because she got into UMD's Criminology and Criminal Justice program and you didn't." I can see the color coming into his face.
"Nancy is a charming girl, Frank." Mom moves in to break up the impending argument. Her pale blonde hair shines under the light. Dad may look older, but Mom always looks classy. She also likes keeping the peace. I smirk at Frank as he glares at me.
"She and I make a good team." Ho ho, big brother sure did not like that comment. Frank has never been a smooth one with women. I know I shouldn't poke at him so much so I toss him a bone. "You should work with her tomorrow, Frank. You could see her all up close and in person. Maybe you would learn something." I've got your back, bro!
Frank
I have been in Dad's office countless times over the years. I practically grew up here. But I feel like an intruder when I am standing at Ms. Drew's doorway. She hasn't noticed me yet, completely focused on her computer. Her long delicate fingers fly over the keyboard. Joe is right - she really is pretty.
Don't get me wrong. I know plenty of women in law enforcement and private security and many of them are stunning. But Ms. Drew does not fit the mold. She is stunning too, but my female co-workers have a jaded edge about them that clearly says they are always in control. When one of them makes a threat or levels an accusation, it carries an almost physical presence.
Ms. Drew looks like she just stepped into the room from an afternoon of charity work. Her smart little navy pen stripe suit and gold hoop earrings practically yell "old money." There is a fluid and soft grace in her movements. I think the word soft does it for me. She looks like she would be soft spoken and soft to touch. The kind of soft a guy wants to touch. The kind of soft a guy would want to protect.
"Ah-hem." I clear my throat to get her attention.
"Come on in, Joe." Her eyes are still fixed on the screen. "You had better have kept your word and brought me breakfast after that stunt you pulled yester-" She stops talking as she notices she has the wrong brother in her doorway.
"If Joe left the house with any additional food this morning, I'm afraid it's long gone." I move forward and sit in the client chair across from her desk. "But at least he promised you some sort of make-up gift. All I ever get is 'Next time, bro. It'll all work next time.'" She smiles a bit shyly at that. "I thought I would work with you today. Give you a little break from the reckless Hardy. What are you up to today, Ms. Drew?" I ask, because I really want to know.
"Please, call me Nancy. I think the first order of business is for me to eat a little crow for breakfast." I see her straighten her shoulders and look me in the eyes like a brave little sailor. "I want to apologize again for what happened the other night-"
I cut her off with a wave of my hand. "I should have known better than to sneak up on you. There was no harm done. You handled yourself very well." She did. My little socialite knows karate. I look into her big blue eyes. They are the color of spring sky.
"Call me Frank." I blurt out. The reason behind my lack of a social life is pretty obvious. I have faced down hardened criminals, but I still sound like I don't have two brain cells to rub together when I talk to a woman. "Please Nancy, call me Frank." I babble. It is ridiculously easy to call her by her first name. At least she is smiling again.
"Okay," she sighs and pauses for a moment. "I decided to have another look at those visitor logs Joe photocopied. It is pretty strange that Murphy Randall, England's driver, is spending more time just hanging around the office, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's our leak." She begins to lay the photocopied pages across her desk.
"Or even that he is the only possible member of the staff spending increased time at the hotel," I add. "I had the same idea last night. I created a spread sheet cross referencing the visitors to the time frame of missing information." I pull a jump drive out of my pocket and hand it to her. After a few minutes my night's work appears on the screen. "While Randall was there for some of the times, he was not there for others. That could mean we are dealing with more than one person or that he is not our guy. But we still need to account for the increased amount of time that he's been spending at the hotel." I didn't have enough information to rule out the accomplice bit. Nancy is looking at me like I just discovered gold.
"That is brilliant. This really sets us ahead." She is smiling at me now. It is a few moments before I can even swallow.
"Why, ah, why is England staying at the hotel? Doesn't he have a place here in town?" I can make it through the conversation without looking like a flake if I stay focused on the case.
"Everyone under the sun knocks on his doors. He thought the shift in location would help him control who visits and make the leak all the more obvious." She sighs and shakes her head. "For all the good it does. So far, he has made no attempt to limit the visitors and still has his regular staff coming in to serve him in his rooms." I cock a questioning eyebrow at her. "It turns out Mr. England has very delicate allergies and particular levels of cleanliness have to be observed at all times. He also follows a severely restricted diet. So his entire cooking staff has been running in and out of his penthouse suite." She shrugs.
"Let's start with what we have." I suggest. "We can talk to the driver and see why he's hanging around the rooms and who else is always present." I stand up and wait as she grabs my jump drive and shuts down her computer. I hold the door as she walks through.
She give me a smile over her shoulder as she declares, "I'm driving, Hardy."
Nancy
Frank Hardy may be the king of mixed signals, but he has a crack interrogation technique. I started questioning Mr. Randall with a few easy questions to put him at ease. Frank cut in with an austere demeanor that was almost chilling. Randall looked like he had been set before a firing squad. A few minutes later I had learned that Mr. Randall was sweet on Andrea Gates and was hoping to catch her eye. I also learned that I would probably crumble if Agent Frank Hardy questioned me as well. I can see how he and Joe make a good team. Joe would come off as the approachable friend while Frank would be all "just the facts."
Over lunch we decided to get a look in England's suite without any staff around. That's when we started having problems. Getting uniforms for the hotel's housekeeping staff had been easy. Thanks to dropping Fenton's name, I even managed to get a master key card from the manager. That brings us to our present situation. We are on the same floor as England's rooms. Unfortunately, England is using his personal housekeeping staff. They are heading down the hall before us and entering his rooms, so we turn down a side hall to observe them.
"It's not like we can ask to come in and borrow a cup of cleaner," Frank grumbles. He looks cute and slightly wrinkled in his uniform. His hair is too perfect for the look, making me want to run my fingers through it and rumple him a bit.
To keep my itchy palms busy, I rifle through the cleaning cart for something to cause a distraction to get us into the rooms. Bed sheets and toilet paper are not going to be much help here.
"They're leaving," Frank hisses and begins moving the cart down the hall to a room with a "housekeeping requested" sign hanging on the knob.
"That is way too soon," I whisper as I run after him. "They should have been in there for no less than 40 minutes for a light cleaning according to the list that Gates has. Unless …"
"They weren't in there to clean the room," Frank finishes for me. "We need to get a look at that cart before they get on the service elevator." In a precision move, Frank whirls the cart around and is barreling down the hallway in their direction.
"I told you to grab more bathroom cleaner before we came all the way up here," I huff at him in a loud and irritated voice. "Now we have to go all the way back."
"I wouldn't have forgotten if you had done what you were supposed to do instead of making eyes at that bellhop. I can't do my work and yours as well," He snaps back at me. As we near the elevator I see England's cleaning crew comprised of two men in black slacks and grey tunic coats with DE embroidered in gold thread the shoulders. One is about my age, with dark hair and pale skin. The other is an older fellow with sandy hair.
Frank and I continue to argue about my cow eyes and his inability to follow simple commands as we crash our cart into theirs. Towels are flying everywhere.
"I am so sorry!" I gasp as I gather towels. The sandy haired man jerks the towels out of my hands.
"We'll get them. Just get out of here," He snarls at me. I jump backwards and bump into the dark haired one. Frank ducks down for a minute and reappears beside me.
"No problem." Frank grabs the cart and my arm. We back down the hall. "We'll wait for the next one."
We round the corner when Frank motions to the stairwell exit at the end of the hall. We both run when the shouts start from behind us.
As we slam through the door, I yell to Frank, "What did you find?"
"Camera!" Frank shouts back to me. I hear the door slam open again as we duck onto another floor. I race down the hall ahead of Frank when I get an idea. I pull out the master key card and frantically begin to work on a door with a housekeeping sign hanging from it. I get it open just as I hear them coming through the stairwell door.
Frank and I duck inside and quietly close and lock the door after us. I am pressed between the door and Frank as we both listen for footsteps in the hall. I am trying to listen. Frank's cologne is spicy and distracting. He's trying to move me a bit to the side so that if the door was kicked in, he would take the brunt of the impact. I wiggle back to my original position and press my ear to the door. I can feel his chest against my back. Normally, I am not one for having my personal space invaded. Oddly, having Frank at my back doesn't bother me. I feel … safe. After a few minutes Frank slides around in front of me and gives me the thumbs up sign. We cautiously open the door and peek out.
"That was quick thinking. Teach you that at UMD, did they?" He smiles at me.
Frank
Joe and I put our bags in the trunk of his car and turn to hug Mom goodbye. "Drive safely." She commands, "Call us when you get home. Your father worries." She winks at Dad.
Dad moves in to hug us too. "Your mother worries" he mumbles. He closes the trunk of the car and turns back to us. "So did Nancy pass the test?" His grin is going to split his face into.
Joe scratches his chin like he is thinking. "I think Frank wants to keep her." He smirks at me. I can feel my face getting red.
Nancy and I found pictures of the insider info on the camera we snatched from the cleaners. This little victory has put Hardy Investigations in the cat-bird seat. I have to admit Drew handles herself well under pressure.
"Can I trade Joe in?" I ask. I fish the car keys out of my pocket. Dad laughs walks back to the house. He stops beside Mom to watch us from the front porch.
I climb into the driver's seat while Joe takes command of the radio. "I wonder if 'Love Songs and Dedications' is on." He grins.
My phone chimes telling me I have a text message. I pull it out and look: "C U nxt time Hrdy. We make a good team. Drive safe—ND."
"I don't need Delilah." I declare as I put the car in gear.
The End.