DISCLAIMER: None of the Hardy Family, Drew Household, or any other characters featured in the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew books belong to me. All other suspects and characters are of my own creation.

Author's Note: This mystery is starting to heat up, given that one of our detectives put herself in the path of danger. Who broke in? And what was the whole point? You might find some of those answers here. Let me present you with Chapter Six!

Moments after Nancy stepped back into the garage, she heard footsteps clomping through the house in her direction. Within seconds, both Frank and Joe were in the garage, followed closely by their parents. Aunt Trudy lagged behind.

"What happened!?" Joe blurted.

"Are you okay, Nancy?" Frank asked.

Nancy brushed herself off. "I'm okay. A little shaken up though." She proceeded to explain about the sound of someone breaking and entering, her hunt for them throughout the house, and her discovery of an intruder in the garage.

"Whoever it was, they shoved me when I tried to block the way out," Nancy concluded. "I didn't manage to get a good look at who it was, but they were pretty strong. I'm no pushover. Literally."

"Nancy, that was an incredibly risky move," Mr. Hardy cautioned. "If the intruder had a gun or some other sort of weapon, things could've ended in more than just you getting some bruises or scratches."

"Whoever did this must've had a reason for it," Nancy pointed out, eager to push Mr. Hardy's comment to the back of her mind. She knew he was right, just like Ryan had been right when he had told her off for wanting to execute her plan. The detective looked down at her phone, which had gone to sleep. Apparently her boyfriend had hung up. "I'm wondering if it's related to the case somehow."

"Well, that means you kids found something that made someone nervous," Aunt Trudy spoke up. Everyone turned to her in surprise at her comment. "What? This isn't the first break-in we've had at our house, and as much as I hope and pray, I doubt it'll be the last."

"I'll be honest," Joe admitted, "I don't really feel like we've made all that much progress on either case so far."

"I'd say we only have one case, now that the license with the bike connects the missing boys to Valdez," Frank countered. "Plus, the lack of progress might actually be good for us. You're right, we haven't found a lot of evidence. And yet, someone was worried enough about what we did find that they were willing to risk breaking and entering. With a short list of evidence, we won't have to work hard to figure out what they were after."

"Wait, did you just say a bike?" Mr. Hardy asked. "That's a reasonable object to keep in the garage instead of in the house. Maybe they wanted whatever bike you found. I hope you didn't store it in here."

Frank shook his head. "Nah, our garage is so cluttered, and I wanted to keep it separate. It's still locked up in the trunk. But good thinking; the bike was probably the target."

"Well, feel free to keep talking about this, but I'm heading back to bed," Mrs. Hardy said. "I've got one of my accounting clients coming by the house at 8 tomorrow morning, so I've got to be up on the earlier side." She gave Nancy a strong hug before departing from the group.

Aunt Trudy led everyone else into the kitchen. "Is there anything I can get you to calm your nerves, Nancy? Tea, perhaps?"

"I'll just have some water, thanks," Nancy replied. She still had her phone in hand, and as she stared at it, she realized that no one had called the police in the chaos of the break-in.

"Let me call this in to the police," she said, dialing the emergency number. She sat herself in the dining room and spent the next few minutes speaking with the operator and filling him in on the emergency and what had transpired, and was promised that the Bayport police would be dispatching a vehicle.

"They should be here in the next few minutes," Nancy announced after hanging up. Aunt Trudy had gone off to bed while she'd been on the phone, but Frank, Joe, and Mr. Hardy had joined her in the dining room. "Frank, you really should get to bed. You have to be up on the earlier side tomorrow. Or today, I guess."

"She's right, Frank," Mr. Hardy told his son. "You'd best be getting some sleep. It looks like your case is only just heating up, and you need to be at 100% to balance both Waiting for Godot and the detective work."

Frank looked like he was about to protest, but eventually sighed. "You're right. I guess there's nothing more to do here." He gave Nancy, his brother, and his father quick hugs before going to bed for the second time that night.

Nancy was scrolling through her phone in silence while Joe and Mr. Hardy discussed the case when Ryan texted her. His message was simple: Call me.

"Oh boy, this isn't gonna go well," she muttered before picking up. "Hello?"

"Nancy, put Frank or Joe on the phone," Ryan instructed. "I tried calling both of them on their cells but they didn't pick up."

The detective was caught off guard. "No 'how are you' or 'I'm glad you're okay?'"

"I already knew you were okay, I watched the person escape from you without doing more than shove you," Ryan replied shortly. "Now put one of the boys on the phone."

Nancy was a bit incredulous, but did as he asked, handing her phone to Joe. "It's Ryan. Apparently he wants to talk to you but not me."

Joe gave Nancy his best I'll-try-not-to-get-in-the-middle-of-your-drama look before taking the phone. "Hey, Ryan. How are you? I mean, how are you besides probably mad at Nancy for her poor decision making skills?" He listened for about a minute or two, nodding at various points. "I see. Well, feel free to send it to Nancy whenever you finish, we're working the case together anyway." Another pause. "Alright, I'll catch up with you again at some point. Bye." He hung up and turned to Nancy.

"So obviously Ryan is mad at you," he started.

"Yeah, I got that, but he didn't need to be so rude about it," Nancy grumbled. "I can handle myself just fine."

Joe shook his head. "Nobody said you can't handle yourself, but part of what makes you a good detective is your effective use of those super-powered brain cells of yours. Apparently those weren't really functioning tonight. Ryan was worried for your safety, because the intruder might have been armed, and you had no way of knowing."

Nancy thought back on Ryan's traumatic experience with a gun at Harrison Boarding School and shrugged. "I guess. I know he's paranoid about those sorts of things."

"Now, because you were apparently on FaceTime with him when you went into the garage, we have some pretty good evidence." Joe tapped Nancy's phone. "Even if you weren't thinking everything through, Ryan was, and he began recording his screen. He's going to get a buddy at his college to break down the footage of when you ran into the garage with the flashlight to see if he can isolate a picture of the intruder."

"That's a good idea," Nancy agreed. "Hopefully it'll tell us who's so interested in that bike."

"I think I might already have an idea of who it was," Joe remarked just as blue and white flashes filled the window.

"Looks like the police are here," Mr. Hardy commented. "Hold that thought, Joe." The three people in the house who were still awake went out to meet with the officer. About an hour later, after all three had been given statements and the crime scene had been examined, they bid the policeman farewell and collapsed back at the dining room table.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm exhausted," Mr. Hardy said with a yawn. "I'm going back to bed, and I suggest the two of you do the same if you want to get a good night's sleep."

Nancy and Joe smiled and bid him goodnight, leaving just the two teen detectives sitting in the dining room.

"You aren't going back to sleep yet, are you?" Joe asked. Nancy shook her head.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm still a bit shaken up with that whole thing," Nancy admitted. "I should've listened to Ryan. Though I guess hindsight is 20-20, right?"

Joe nodded. "I'm glad you realized that." He paused. "I have to ask, just given how the past day or so has played out. You seemed so hyper-focused during the day, but clearly some of that brain power just wasn't working tonight. Are you doing okay health-wise? Stress-wise?"

"Yeah, definitely," Nancy responded. "It's just. . . I don't know. I think since I've been working without much break in between cases I've started to lose my edge sometimes. Like today, my brain was firing on all cylinders, but apparently that wasn't the case tonight."

"Well, it sounds to me like you should be taking it easy." Joe stood up and offered Nancy a hand so that she could pull herself up. "That starts with getting good sleep." The two friends hugged, and Nancy went to her bedroom. She curled up in bed, though sleep did not come easily. After an hour of tossing and turning, Nancy finally drifted off.

Several hours later, Frank was grabbing a muffin and on his way out the door to rehearsal. Upon his arrival, he was greeted by his director, who was foaming at the mouth.

"What happened to being here at 7:30!?" he asked, dotting Frank's face with flecks of spit.

"Sorry, I had to take a detour because of the construction work they're starting this morning," Frank explained. "Plus, it's literally 7:34, I'm not really that late."

"Well, every minute counts right now," Craig snarled. "I've got enough to worry about with getting the new kid up to speed whenever he shows up to rehearsal, I don't need to be babysitting you."

Frank clenched his jaw, preventing himself from making a nasty comment or two. As his boss stalked away, he couldn't help but think that perhaps Craig Marston's lack of sympathy regarding the kidnapping and murder that took place in the theater was a bit on the shady side. Could there be any connection between him and the murder victim? After all, he was already connected to the kids through Henry.

The detective's train of thought was broken by someone calling his name from the back of the auditorium. He squinted and hid his face from the stage lights Craig had just turned on in order to see Nigel Hughes and Leila Thibodeau, who played the roles of Estragon and Pozzo, respectively.

"Will you be with us for our rehearsal today?" Leila called. "It was a shame not to have you around yesterday. Craig was running around like a madman to get everything done." Leila was perhaps the only member of the cast with whom Craig got along fairly well. Frank had always intended to ask her how she worked her magic, but something else would always come up that would draw his attention away.

"Yep, I'll be here for the whole time," he responded, hopping down off the stage. "And then I've got to go to the store and get supplies to make a fake moon to hang from the rafters."

The actor and actress met Frank next to the stage. "Yeah, we've all got a lot on our plates with everything that's been happening," Nigel said. "And our minds."

"Yeah, no kidding," Frank said. He was about to tell them that he had taken on a consulting job with the police for the case, but decided to hold his tongue. He knew that even though everyone in the cast had become so used to him as Frank the college student who likes working behind the scenes instead of Frank the well-known detective who had a knack for solving mysteries with his brother, the people in the cast and crew would be more likely to keep their lips loose if they didn't know he was investigating.

"So have you heard who our new kid actor is gonna be?" Leila asked excitedly. "It's Nigel's son, George."

"Oh, really? That's cool," Frank told the actor, who blushed.

"I happened to mention it last night when we were eating dinner and he spoke up and said he wanted the part," Nigel replied. "I texted Craig, and boom, my son had the role. He won't be around today because he has a soccer tournament, but starting on Monday he'll be here and working hard."

Frank nodded as the two cast members sauntered away, talking about George. Frank was happy for the kid that he got to be in the show, but he couldn't shake the bitter taste in his mouth from knowing that the only reason Nigel's son had the role was because someone had taken Henry.

How convenient.

"Could he have really done it to get his son the role?" Frank wondered aloud, careful to keep his voice down. "But then, if the missing kids are connected to the murder, he doesn't have any motive for that. At least, no apparent motive." The detective added Nigel Hughes to the bottom of his mental suspect list, and realized that there weren't many suspects at all that he had begun to consider.

"Well, he's one. After that encounter with Joe yesterday, I'd say Howard is another," he mused. "And Craig has a nasty disposition in general. But is that it?" Frank thought hard, but nothing really jumped out to him as a piece of evidence that could add anyone else to the list.

The door at the back of the auditorium opened again, and the remaining two adult cast members entered.

"Hey, Lily. Hey, Howard." Frank waved to them as he began setting up the fake tree in the middle of the stage. "How are you guys today?"

"I mean, aside from the fact that a kid we've all grown to adore is missing!? Fine," Lily said, clearly not fine. It at least made Frank feel a little better inside that he wasn't the only one in the cast and crew who was hit hard by Henry's disappearance.

"But, at the end of the day, the police have their job, and we have ours," Howard replied evenly. Frank looked for any hint of the strange encounter he had had with the actor the previous day, but either Howard didn't want to deal with it or had put it in the past.

"Well, Craig's wandering around here somewhere," Frank told them. He checked his watch. "Everyone's a little early today. Rehearsal doesn't get going for another 15 minutes or so."

"Of course," Howard said, nodding. "The screws are being put to this production in the final stages. I must say, I've worked with theater groups all over the country, but this is a first in terms of the pressure to pull everything together."

"It's also a first in terms of the fact that a freaking child has been abducted, probably by some creep who's keeping him in some rundown location!" Lily took a deep breath. "Sorry. It's just been a little stressful for me, especially with Chrissie and everything." So that was why Lily was so worked up. Frank hadn't necessarily forgotten about the actress' three-year-old daughter, but he didn't make the connection between Lily's relatively new role as a mother and the kidnapping of another child with whom she was close.

Howard and Lily helped Frank finish setting out the scenery on the stage and carried the flimsy table they now had to use for props just behind the curtain.

"It was nice of the police to let us still have access to the props room to get what we need for the play," Howard commented. "Otherwise we'd been even more screwed than we are as things stand."

Frank just nodded, keeping to himself the fact that if he weren't a consultant on the case, he wouldn't have been allowed access to the crime scene at all.

"Okay, everyone! Let's meet out on stage!" Craig's voice boomed. The four remaining cast members and Frank sat on the lip of the stage to listen to Craig's rant about how it was crunch time and how much focus he needed from everybody. Frank just tuned him out until the director yelled, "Places! We'll start with Act Two, Scene One."

Frank hopped backstage. A few minutes into the scene, his phone began to buzz. He checked his script, but didn't see any directions for him within the next page or two, so he pulled out his cell to see who was calling him. He was expecting it to be Nancy or one of his family members, so he was a bit surprised when the caller ID showed up as Valerie Burke.

Frank stepped out a door on the side of the stage into a small hallway to talk in private. "Hello?"

"Frank, it's Valerie." The detective was taken aback by her abruptness. "I've just called the police, but I'm hoping you could come over immediately."

Frank's heart dropped. "Why? What happened? Does it have to do with Henry?"

"I'm not sure, but I think someone just tried to blow up my house."

Whoot whoot! We're officially halfway through the story, with lots of questions and very few answers. With the number of crimes ramping up (between the murder, the kidnapping, the break-in, and now a house nearly blowing up), it's pretty clear that whoever is behind all this is causing quite a lot of havoc. 'Til next time.

EDIT 7/26: So upon the completion of this chapter, I wrote in my original closing note (above) how excited I was to be at the halfway point in the story, and how things would only continue to escalate. I am well ahead of this point in the writing of the story, and as I close in on Chapter 12, I'm beginning to realize I may need an extra couple chapters to truly do the story justice without rushing everything to fit it into the final chapters. Because of this, I'm going to extend the original 12-chapter plan to a full 15 chapters, just like my previous story. I leave for college in approximately a month, but I have full confidence I will be able to complete the story before then so I can continue my weekly posting.