A/n: Pretty sure you all will come after me with pitchforks by the end of the chapter. Maybe tar and feathers too.
Chapter Three
Joe blearily stumbled to the front door and cracked it open. "Mornin' Sunshine!" Bruce chirped gaily as he shouldered past the still half asleep blond.
"What is it with all the damn morning people?" Joe groused as he tried to close the door, only to be stopped as a stranger stuck his foot in the way. Slightly shorter than he was, the sandy brown hair framed a long thin face and amber eyes full of suppressed mischief. He was very slender although he obviously had some muscle as he looked to be effortlessly carrying a huge framed back pack that was stuffed to the gills.
"If it's any consolation, I'm not a morning person either." the young man dropped the backpack and stuck out a hand. Joe automatically reached for it and shook. "Name's Mitch. I'm with him." Mitch jerked his head the vague direction Bruce had wandered.
"My condolences." Joe grinned slightly less blearily as he stepped aside to let the newcomer in. By then, Frank had wandered out, fully dressed of course and looking wide awake. Joe mumbled something about getting decent and disappeared int the bedroom.
By the time he emerged about 15 minutes later, the coffee was done brewing and Frank and Mitch were laughing over something Bruce had said. "What's so funny?" Joe asked as he greedily reached for the steaming cup his brother handed him.
"Oh apparently Melody has quite the reputation. Rumor has it she swore Mitch here off girls permanently in high school." Frank laughed, Mitch following right behind.
"That so? Not surprised. She is a bit of a ball buster..." Joe grinned as he shooed Bruce away from the stove and began cracking eggs into a bowl in preparation for omelet making.
"Not really. I knew long before that but you know how it goes, gotta keep up appearances to keep the family peace. She just happened the be the last one I dated before deciding it was too much effort to hide who I really was." Mitch explained. "After that I stayed off the market until college. Had to wait til this yahoo got back from Afghanistan to find a permanent partner." he looked fondly at his husband who blushed a little at the compliment.
"Hey at least they repealed DADT." Joe commented as he dished up the first omelet and handed it to Bruce. "Always did think that was a dumb ass reg. Like that had anything to do with your ability to do the job." Joe shook his head as he handed the second omelet to Mitch.
"Yeah, but we aren't here to discuss the mating habits of Ex Corpsmen." Bruce sobered as he tucked in to his omelet. "There was another incident yesterday."
"Oh?" Frank asked.
"Couple of kids out by the river got shot at." Bruce's voice was grim.
"Thought the only weapon allowed on park grounds was a fishing pole?" Joe asked, placing Frank's omelet in front of him.
"Exactly." Mitch spoke up. "The kids did say that the shots were above them, so it appears as if they were just warning shots. But warning away from what?!"
"Feel like a morning hike, Big Brother?" Joe asked innocently as he finally got to sit down and eat his own omelet.
"You know, I kinda do, Little Brother." Frank grinned fondly at his sibling.
Breakfast finished and clean up completed, Bruce suggested that he and his husband lead the brothers to the area where the shooting had occurred. "Sounds like a plan" Joe agreed. He and his brother quickly assembled their own backpacks, not nearly as comprehensive as Mitch's, as they had been planning on returning to the cabin each night. Before too long, all four were traipsing along the barely defined paths inside the main Park. Mitch and Bruce kept up a steady stream of interesting facts about the the land which currently encompassed the Park and all the political maneuvering before and after it had been officially declared a Protected Area. Joe even gained a new insight on Halloran's Grandfather, who somehow or another managed to successfully keep the family cabin, which had been some long ago ancestor's first home upon emigrating to America 200 years earlier, intact, and autonomous within the boundaries of the park.
It was maybe an hour or so of hiking that took them to the clearing that Bruce said had been the location where the three teens had been shot at. Only a few minutes later, Frank pointed out the deep gashes in a pair of trees that were just above their heads. "Ten bucks says I find slugs." he said as he motioned his stockier sibling over to give him a boost up. He flicked open his Multi tool and stepped on Joe's broad back, wincing imperceptibly as he did so, still unable to rid himself of the image of the extensive scarring that was an all to visible reminder of the torture Joe had endured while in the clutches of the Mazzola brothers. He worked quickly, allowing Bruce to steady him with a strong hand on his back. The first bullet came out quickly and he dropped it into Mitch's hand. The second took a little longer and Joe began making pointed comments about diets and fitting into tuxes for upcoming weddings. Frank studiously ignored the jibes and continued to worry the slug out of the bark. Once it came free he jumped lightly to the ground.
The four men clustered in a group, peering at the 2 innocuous pieces of metal nestled in Mitch's hand. "Pah. Beat to hell. We'll never get ballistics info." Joe spat in disgust. Frank was forced to concur, but didn't let that stop him.
"Maybe we can figure out the direction they were fired from though." The ever logical elder brother suggested. Bruce immediately pointed in a direction.
"That way." He said smugly.
"And you know this exactly how, Doc?" Joe asked with a hint of a grin.
"Becky told me."
Frank rolled his eyes. "Let me guess. Becky is one of the kids that got shot at and she saw something."
Unable to control himself any longer, Bruce laughed lightly. "That's about covers it, yeah. She's the local paper target champ around here. After the first shot, she knew what to look for. She says there was one, maybe 2 firearms, she thinks rifles or shotguns by the sound. Knowing her, she would have rushed after the culprits but her companions were, shall we say, less enthusiastic." Mitch barely suppressed a snort. At Joe's questioning look, Bruce continued. "Valley Girls." a world of information was conveyed with those two simple words.
"That is so 80's, dude." Joe guffawed. "And probably sexist."
"Accurate though" Mitch said sotto voice. He exchanged conspiratorial grins with his partner. "What?" he asked all innocently at Frank's reproving look. "Trina and Cathy are vapid, air headed, shallow, narcissistic and annoyingly perky." he grumped.
"Now , Hon, you really shouldn't talk about your sister and her best friend that way..." Bruce chided for about three seconds before rolling his eyes and laughing out loud at the apt description.
"Anyway." Frank cleared his throat to get everyone back on track. "Shall we at least try to track them?"
"Why not? Neither one of us has to work this weekend." Bruce indicated a safe place to cross the river which flowed nearby. " Ordinarily, we couldn't do this. River's way low though. Been a very dry season. In some places it's nothing but a trickle. And this heat wave ain't helping." The four men made their way across and then scattered, keeping each other in their lines of sight, as they all looked for tell tale signs of the person or persons who had pulled the trigger.
A couple of hours of search revealed nothing, and Frank eventually called a halt. "There's nothing here, guys." he finally said in resignation. "I don't suppose we could talk to the kids ourselves?"
"Becky would be the best one to talk to, the other two probably fainted or cowered behind a tree." Mitch snorted derisively. "In fact I'll go so far as to guarantee she'd want to help. She idolizes Mel and wants to follow in her footsteps."
"I'll try not to hold that against her." Joe grinned. "So when can we meet Miss Becky?"
"At the tent campground." Bruce chimed in. "They were all supposed to stay the full weekend, but the other two bailed after the incident. It's another hour or so walk. Can you hack it?" he smirked.
"I may have been a Snipe but I did my fair share of ruck marches Mister High and Mighty Greenside!" Joe stuck a tongue out in mock offense. Frank just shook his head in resignation and said he was quite capable of keeping up. It was a far easier walk from their present location to the campsite as the trail was well marked and developed. Bruce explained that most years the clearing was the best spot for trout fishing which was why the path was so well kept.
It was a pleasant walk all around, a light breeze and the trees keeping the ambient temperature tolerable and luckily there was little humidity. Joe and Bruce entertained the other two with Sea Stories about their Navy days. Frank listened intently, as Joe had seldom really discussed his five years away from home in anything more than vague terms. It seemed to him that Joe was opening up a lot more about his past. He was confused as to the reasons why, but wasn't going to say anything that might cause his brother to clam up again. He found a common kinship with Mitch, who turned out to be a fellow computer nerd and long suffering companion. They had a few quiet chuckles between themselves over the antics of their brother and husband respectively, causing a few disconcerted looks from the pair of Sailors.
After maybe 45 minutes, they started seeing small wooden signs that marked trails and gave directions to the two campground areas as well as the Public access lake. Bruce led them over to the trail marked 'tent camping' and soon was introducing the Hardy brothers to a young woman maybe 17 or 18 years of age with short brown hair and sparkling brown eyes. As soon as she was told the boys were there unofficially to help determine what happened, she was eager to give them anything she could. She invited them to take a seat around the small fire pit that had been fitted with a wire rack and a small propane stove placed on top. "Melody issued a Fire Ban this morning, says its way too dry. I agree. Hasn't rained in weeks." She spoke in a no nonsense voice, her maturity and self confidence belying her young age. Frank thought her personality was remarkably like a certain strawberry blond he knew when he was Becky's age. She also proved to be a PI's Dream Witness. She was concise, not prone to dramatics and was able to pass along her observations.
"So, the three of us were just walking along the trail. The Bobbsey Twins aren't really into the Great outdoors," here her eyes rolled so far up into her head Frank was sure she broke her retinas. "But part of our graduation requirements is Community Service. One of the options was doing general clean up and repairs at the Park. Trina thought there'd be ample opportunity to watch Roger get shirtless." she was referring to the star of the football team who had also signed up to be a part of the Park group. "But Melody had him and the other boys help Alex fix the rope bridge." Alex was the new Park Ranger. "She sent us to walk along the two main trails and pick up garbage."
Becky shifted a little, warming to her tale after noticing the older men were listening to her like she was an adult and not some kid. "Anywho, we had just gotten to the clearing. There really wasn't that much junk strewn about along the trails. Most of it seems to be at the campsites." She shook herself, focusing on the task at hand. "Trina and Cathy were grousing about not getting to watch Roger and not really picking up the trash." she looked straight at Joe, who smiled at her encouragingly. "You've seen the clearing?" at Joe's nod, she continued. "Well I was over by the treeline, and the other two were at the bank, fooling around, trying to push each other into the mud. Cathy got pushed, but managed to jump over to the other side instead of falling. Trina jumped after her and they started chasing each other. They had begun heading away from me when the first shots rang out." She stopped then, a small frown on her face as she tried to organize her thoughts better.
"What" Frank asked her quietly, sensing she was remembering something.
"It's funny, I never thought about it 'til just now. But we were in that clearing a good 15 or 20 minutes. So why did they wait until that moment to start shooting?!"
Frank and Joe exchanged a look, each coming to the same conclusion. "Because the other girls were headed towards whatever or whoever is behind these incidents and they either panicked, or wanted to scare you off." Frank surmised. Joe nodded in agreement. "But we just spent two hours there and found nothing." the frown on the elder Hardy's face was imperceptible.
"Well it is possible that they covered their tracks, Bro." Joe commented. "We can't expect all the bad guys to be idiots." He stood up, stretching his arms above his head. "We can always go back tomorrow and expand our search." He turned to the other two men. "Wanna tag along? Could be fun."
Bruce shook his head regretfully. "Sorry, no can do. We already made plans." Joe sighed regretfully but was otherwise silent. In the meantime, Frank had turned to Becky and held out a hand.
"Thanks, you were a big help. If you remember anything else, just get in touch with Bruce or Mitch here and they'll pass it along." Becky frowned at this.
"Not Mel?!" she asked with a hint of challenge.
Bruce blushed. "Umm, she doesn't know I asked the guys to help." He shifted uncomfortably. "She may not take kindly to the insinuation that she can't handle this on her own, but I'm just worried this is bigger than she is prepared for. She's a great Park Ranger, Becky. But this is not something Rangers are trained for." his eyes pleaded for her understanding. Becky continued to frown but did not push the issue and finally gave a single nod.
The rest of the company stood up, slipping backpacks over shoulders in anticipation of another hike. "You guys need to be led back to the cabin?" Bruce asked with a mocking grin. Joe laughed and shook his head.
"Nahh, I think we can handle it. Why Frank here even knows North from South!" Joe teased. So the four took their leave of one another, one pair heading back to the clearing and beyond, and the other headed towards the parking lot and their truck. The brothers took their time, just enjoying the lovely weather and each other's company. They tossed around possible reasons for the goings on, with Joe coming up with more and more outlandish ones as they continued back to the clearing. When he mentioned alien invasion, Frank lost it and they had to stop, he was laughing so hard. By then they had returned to the clearing so they slipped off their backpacks and settled down to have a snack. Joe lightly tossed a bottle of water and an apple over to his brother before tucking into his own.
Frank had leaned up against the same tree he had earlier dug the slugs out of and had closed his eyes, just relaxing and enjoying the sounds of birds chirping. Even Joe had fallen silent and was stretched out on the ground, his head resting on his backpack. While neither man fell asleep, they were each lulled into a doze, so when the unmistakable sound of a buzz saw broke the silence, both of them jumped up at the sound, alert and wary.
"I thought you couldn't cut anything down?" Frank asked, confused.
"You can't" Joe replied grimly. "Every time we come up to the cabin we have to arrange to have deadfall delivered for firewood. Once in a blue moon Mel marks a few trees slated for removal due to disease or whatever, but by and large if Mother Nature doesn't provide, we have to rely on propane." Joe jumped to his feet, peering across the banks of the river towards the sound. "Let's go take a look!" and without waiting for an answer he nimbly leapt over the nearly dry river and sprinted toward the sound. Frank scrambled after him immediately, but was still a few hundred yards behind by the time he had jumped over the river.
Joe was still within sight, and had stopped just short of the treeline, displaying remarkable restraint, so Frank was unprepared for the next thing that happened. He was a good 200 yards away when the sharp, undeniable sound of a rifle burst through the trees. Frank watched in horror as his brother jerked back, spun around and fell out of his line of view.
A/n: *Ducks for cover.* Wonder how long I can go before posting the next chapter...Luckily for you it's already written. so I might not torture you too long. But then again...I live to be mean and rotten... Bwahahahaha
