DISCLAIMER: If I owned Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys then I wouldn't be posting fanfiction on the internet. Trust me.

Author's Note: I'm really sorry about the time between chapters, I really am! School is pretty tough but I have a 2 week break now so I'll try my hardest to get onto as many chapters as possible to tide you over :)

Enjoy xx

Chapter 4

"Wow, I didn't expect you to find me…"

A very shocked looking Joe opened the door all the way and sure enough, there was Lori, lounging on an old fashioned couch reading a book.

"I… uh… we… uh…" Joe spluttered

"What he means to say is that WE found you" Frank stepped past Joe and into view.

"And you're welcome" Nancy added while stepping forward also.

"Yeah, thanks for the encouragement" Joe muttered under his breath after recovering from his shock.

Finally, Lori began to talk, appearing to have gotten over her shock as well.

"Oh my gosh, I never thought you'd be the ones to find me. No offence… uh Nadine?" Lori guessed

"Nancy, Nancy drew." Nancy corrected "Whatever" Lori looked away

Joe cleared his throat loudly and everyone looked at him.

"Oh sorry, and you two… Fred and Joe Harvey wasn't it?" Lori asked, not really interested

Joe was about to retort when Frank cut in "Yeah that's close enough. So, do you mind telling us why you're here?"

"Right, well as you can see, I wasn't really spirited away by ghosts or anything…" Lori started

"Well there goes that theory that we never had." Joe muttered sarcastically. Lori glared at him and continued.

"… You know that bookshelf in the dining car? Well there's a lever attached to the table leg in there, if you push it down then it slides right open. I practised disappearing for weeks."

Joe opened his mouth as if to say something witty again but snapped it shut once he saw the glare he was getting from Frank.

"So it was all just for show?" Nancy asked with a hint of disappointment

"Well not entirely… See, here's the deal. My dad wound up with this train when he bought out NorAm Shipping. They'd been storing it in this old warehouse outside St. Louis for so long, that everyone had just forgotten about it. Anyway, after like mass begging on my part, dad had the train restored to working condition and got me an engineer and track permits and all that other stuff until finally – here we are. On our way to find out what happened to Jake Hurley." Lori finished and exhaled loudly.

"Uh… I think you missed out the part where you told us why you kidnapped yourself…" Joe commented

"Oh… right. Well, see, I was one of the first people in like a hundred years to set foot on this train, okay? Everything was just the way it was when Jake disappeared. Except I also found this…" Lori pulled out a sheet of paper from her coat pocket and unfolded it.

It's a letter that Jake wrote in 1901 to his niece back east. He was really paranoid about claim jumpers, which is why he never told anyone where his mine was, but he was also afraid that something would happen to him and no one would ever know where it was . So he wrote this letter to his only living relative, Ruth Kensington. Here, take it." Lori handed the letter over to Nancy who skimmed through it and handed it to Frank.

While Frank was reading the letter Nancy looked at Joe and then Lori suspiciously. "You want us to have it, but why?" Nancy asked sceptically

"Because you found me!" Lori exclaimed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world "Look, everything that is mentioned in that letter is through that golden door behind you. Good luck!" Lori dismissed them.

The trio turned around and just as Lori said, there was a magnificent golden door at the end of the car.

Frank walked forward, opened the door and waved his hand to allow Nancy through first. She smiled gratefully and walked quickly for. One by one they jumped over to the next car and walk through another golden door.

As Joe walked into the new car the door shut and there was a loud click. "Uh oh" Joe quickly turned back to the door and wrenched at it but it wouldn't budge.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading, please read and review :) Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon!

Love Shubabi