So I decided with this chapter to only write third person perspectives from O.C.'s. It was different, but I still had fun getting to develop a couple of my characters a bit more and then inventing a random character out of the idea of what an average person would think if they overheard the Nancy Drew characters talking. I really like this kind of perspectives, because even if you know more than what the character does you still only see the scene from the character's eyes and it forces you to close those gaps yourself.
KDesai: Thank you!
Corky: hahahaha I'm glad you liked it. I had a lot of fun with that Nancy & Frank scene. No worries, there will be more fun with them in the future. I hope!
April 16th Guest: LOL! Well here it is. Hope you enjoy!
A big thank you to reviews and my new story followers/favorites Ks972, blushing pixie, bt6c2c, Librana, Itarille Celebrindal, winksterand Frogi!
Sorry if I missed anyone! I really do appreciate everyone's support! Hope you enjoy!
INT. MOTEL ROOM- CLINTON MO- 10:00AM
Quinn woke up groggily. The smell of smoke registered in her nose. The room stunk of it. The bed was heaven though. At least compared to the hard ground they had been sleeping on the last couple of days. Only her head turned to look at Joe beside her. His back was to her, but by the way he breathed she assumed he was still asleep. Still careful, she looked over to the other bed and realized Colby Mahner was not in bed. She looked towards the room's little bathroom, but the door was open and the lights off.
Quinn smiled. Well, since she was free again, she might as well get out of here and into some fresh air. She started to rise gingerly as to not wake the sleeping bear when she felt a tight tug on her wrist. Quinn glared at the source. One wrist was handcuffed that to the metal bars of the headrest. This put Colby Mahner on the same level as Earl Bache in her eyes. Why wouldn't anyone just let her go as she pleased?!
Quinn nudged Joe. Joe stirred, but didn't acknowledge her past that.
"Hey!" Was he ignoring her? After she had helped him strip out of his blood and puke covered clothes and helped him into the shower? After she had to sit in the car with his puke for hours?!
"Wake up!" She kicked him this time.
Still nothing. She started poking his back. "Helllooooo."
"Stop," He said groggily. He shoved a hand towards her without looking, a half hearted attempt to try to deflect her poking.
If she hadn't been so annoyed at her predicament she may have laughed. "Oh good. You're awake. Are you handcuffed?"
"Quinn," He shuffled further away from her. "Shut up."
She jerked his pillow out from under his head. That got his attention. He spun towards her in sleepy bear rage, and she smacked his face with the pillow before he had a chance to attack.
A hurt sound escaped him and she remembered that his nose was broken. Whoops. But since he had that much freedom to move around.
"Can you find something to pick this?" She gestured to her predicament.
Joe grabbed his pillow back. "Why? So you can run off again?"
Her jaw dropped open, but no words came out.
Joe made a sound that conveyed "that's what I thought" and started settling back into bed.
Quinn shoved him with her both her feet and he landed on the floor in an oomph.
INT. HQ- KANSAS CITY- 1:00PM
Max Miller barely paid attention as Fox addressed all the department teams he had called in for the failed search and rescue attempt for Quinn Holmes and Joe Hardy, as well as the city's local PD who had failed to find Colby or any trace to where he may be. Fox had chewed Max out for that. Well, for not bringing his suspicions about Colby to Fox's attention earlier anyway.
Max saw Nancy's pen drop to the floor. Nancy and Frank reached down at the same time to retrieve it. Their hands touched, they both jumped away from each other, reddened, stuttered apologies, reached for the pen again, touched again, more stuttering. This had been happening all day.
At first Max had been disgusted, well maybe jealous, but now he watched in a kind of awe. He wasn't sure he had ever seen two people stumble over each other as embarrassingly as these two did. It was almost entertaining.
Frank had the pen in his hand now, and it looked like he was scared of the thing he held.
And it wasn't even their first kiss either. At least that what's Nancy had told him. Or at least what he gathered from her apologies on the way home. If you could count them as apologies. She didn't say sorry exactly. More of a things are different than before and she didn't know how she felt about it.
Well Max knew how he felt about it. He snagged the pen from Frank and slapped it down on Nancy's desk. "There's more important things going on right now," He hissed at both of them.
Not quietly enough though, because Fox called him out for it. Max bet Fox was still angry with him from before.
"Miller!" Fox snapped. "Pay attention or get out. I don't have time for you to decide when and when not you're going to play at being an agent."
That stung. Max felt like flipping his desk over and stalking out. He glowered, but before he could figure out a more mature way to respond, he didn't have to. Nancy came to his rescue.
"Fox, we had a realization," She announced. Well maybe. Holding information back was what had gotten him into trouble in the first place. He just liked to be 100 percent sure. That was all.
Frank frowned at her. Fox looked impatient.
"We think we know," Nancy looked at Frank, who smiled encouraging at her, and she blushed looking down at her feet.
Max rolled his eyes. "We think Mahner has Quinn," He finished for her. Then added, "And Joe."
Nancy and Max had came up with that last night, and by the lack of surprise on Frank's face she had told him.
"That would be convenient," Fox allowed. "But that doesn't give us much to go off of. We know he isn't traveling in his car. And his car was not at the warehouse."
"But his cousin's was," Max countered, trying not to flinch at Fox's look.
"I wrote down each of the cars information at the warehouse, and when I described them to Max, he recognized it," Nancy was proud of this.
Max had been following Colby so much he was aware of the family Colby kept close and the vehicles they drove.
"Since his cousin's car was at the warehouse, it meant he had to take someone else's car," Frank jumped in like he knew the info all along.
Max chose to ignore that. Kind of. "So I took a list of all the men and women we brought in and I ran them through the DMV to see who was registered with what car and compared that to Nancy's list and found out three vehicles were not there."
"A chevy truck, and two ford cars," Nancy announced.
"Well, the tracks in the mud, where we think Joe and Quinn jumped into the car to escape, definitely didn't belong to truck," Frank put in.
"So maybe, Sir," Max said, hoping he wasn't putting himself in more hot water. "We focus on those two cars."
INT. SHRIMP DADDY'S - SUNRISE BEACH MO - 4:00PM
Colby finally gave in to Quinn's persistence of stopping at a good restaurant to eat in. She had been whining that she hadn't had anything filling since the day she was kidnapped. That wasn't why he gave in though. He could use a good meal himself before he did what he had to do. Plus, he had to get Quinn on his side and if she kept whining he was going to end up gagging her and throwing her in the trunk! That wouldn't help him at all.
He watched Joe stare at his hamburger without touching it. "Are you waiting 'til it gets cold? You gotta eat something, Man."
"Yeah, Joe, don't waste it," Quinn chided, she was already halfway through her steak and shrimp meal.
Joe looked up and met Colby's eyes for a moment. Colby kept his face smooth, but he saw a knowingness in Joe's eyes, a knowingness that he knew he was going to have to deal with.
Joe nodded like he was confirming Colby's thoughts, but all he did was pick up the burger and take a bite out of it. A look of satisfaction crossed over Joe's face and the kid started to eat.
Man, what was he going to do about Joe? He liked the guy, but he was only going to get in the way in the end. He could ruin everything. They weren't playing on the same team.
Leaving the motel, Joe had realized they were heading further and further away from Kansas City. He had asked where they were going and Colby had said the first thing that had come to his mind. Colby was taking them into witness protection and even he didn't know where they would end up when they got to the drop off point.
Joe had wanted to call his dad. Colby had countered that too with a "You know why you can't do that."
Colby found himself scanning the restaurant. His eyes landed on two girls who were looking at them. One had short curly hair and looked ready to run a marathon and the other was blonde and looked ready to walk down the red carpet. The blonde was pointing at them.
Joe must have been curious of what Colby was looking so intently at, because he turned and looked behind him.
"Joe Hardy!" The blonde squealed when she saw Joe's face and Joe jerked back around like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
Well, at least he had the decently to look guilty, Colby found himself mentally defending Joe even though Joe's presence was already making a mess of things.
"Joe!" The girl said again she was approaching the table now. Joe looked torn in what to do.
"I can't believe we ran into you-"
"Bess!" The curly-haired girl hissed, grabbing her arm.
The one called Bess looked back at her friend. The friend gave her a pointed look and pressed her lips together.
Bess's eyes widened and her mouth faltered. She looked back at Colby and Quinn.
"Oh!" She suddenly reddened. "Are you on a-"
She looked at Joe who was staring at his lap now and her tone softened. "Are you okay?"
Joe looked up at her then and his face was stone. "I'm sorry miss, I don't kn-"
"Hi! How do you know Joe?" Quinn was all smiles, she leaned over Joe to grasp Bess's hand with her own.
"We used to go to the same summer camp," Joe answered before Bess could say anything. By Bess and her friends reaction Colby knew it was a lie.
"Yeah, camp." The friend said. "So much fun."
Quinn may have known it was a lie too, but she didn't lead on. "I want to hear all about it! It's a battle getting Joe to talk about anything sometimes! Scoot over Francis!"
Colby glared at Quinn for an instant then he was all smiles too. At least she hadn't used his real name. "There's plenty of room," He scooted over and patted the booth. Bess and her friend scooted in.
Joe frowned at Colby like this was his fault.
"So what are you guys doing down here at the lake?" Bess wanted to know.
Joe, Colby, and Quinn all opened up their mouths to answer, but Quinn got words out first and the two men snapped their jaws shut cutting off whatever they were about to say.
"Well Joe wanted to see where I grew up at when I was a kid, so my big brother here is letting us stay with him."
"It's been a blast. I haven't gotten to see my sister in forever. Joe's not that bad either," Colby winked at Joe. Joe reddened.
"Oh," Bess said quietly; she was trying to piece something together and she didn't seem to like how the puzzle was forming.
"What happened to your face?" The friend asked. "Your nose looks broken."
"I think it is," Joe said. "I really need to get it looked at."
"Yeah, you should."
There was a long silence. Colby paid the waiter in cash. He let her keep the change as a tip.
"Well, it was nice to meet you Bess and," Colby paused looking at the friend.
"George," She said with a nice smile.
"George," he repeated just as pleasantly.
The two shook hands.
Quinn leaned over giving each of the girls a hug saying she was happy to meet friends of Joe's.
Colby figured she really did mean it, but part of him couldn't help but wonder if Quinn was using the hugs as a cover for pickpocketing or something.
Joe gave Bess and George hugs like it was the last time he was going to see them. He looked a little better, but it was only for a moment.
Bess opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't find the words.
"What is it?" Joe reluctantly asked her. Quinn intertwined her fingers with Joe's.
Joe let Quinn hold his hand, but Colby thought he saw him stiffen.
"Do you know what Frank is working on?"
Joe was definitely frozen now. "What do you mean?" He managed warily.
Colby thought Joe went out of his way not to look at him.
If Joe messed this up, things were not going to end well for his two camp friends.
"Well he called.." Bess trailed off.
"Our camp counselor," George put in and Joe nodded.
Colby's mind raced. Who were they talking about? When was this call. This was dangerous.
Bess continued, "She was really worried. He was saying a bunch of stuff on the phone to her and he said she couldn't tell anyone she was meeting him, but with how the call ended she felt like she needed someone to know so she told us.."
Joe looked like he was physically bracing himself. "How did it end?" He whispered.
"She heard something that sounded like an explosion and the line cut off," George had adopted Joe's quiet tone.
Joe nodded slowly. He closed his eyes. Colby felt bad for him. He had liked Frank too.
"Frank's dead," Joe told them flatly.
George's eyes widened, she looked stunned. Then confused.
Bess gasped. "Oh Joe!" She hugged him again. "I'm so sorry."
Joe hugged Bess back just tightly and pulled free of Quinn in the process. Quinn frowned at them.
"Nancy would have told us." George said. "She told us everything was fine."
Nancy. The name slip up meant a lot to Colby. He knew who these two girls were now. "Did she tell you about the case?" Colby asked them.
"No, just that she arrived and everything was fine," George muttered.
Bess was crying now and Joe was comforting her.
"She did seem pretty agitated," George said thoughtfully. "But that doesn't make since. I'm sorry Joe. Nancy said that Frank said no one could know where he was.. he told her.." Now George's eyes were watery.
"Let us go back to our cruise ship. We'll get our stuff, and we'll go back with you. You're heading home right?"
Colby's eyes narrowed dangerously and Joe saw it.
"No." Joe snapped, and George took a step back. Bess froze in his arms.
He took a deep breath. "I'm not going back home."
"Joe, your family needs-" Bess started, but he cut her off again.
"Don't! I can't go home right now!"
"Joe! Don't yell at her! It's not her fault!" Quinn jumped in.
Joe froze, emotions rolling across his face too fast to pin down. "I'm sorry," He whispered letting Bess go.
Bess nodded and George grabbed her hand. George gave Joe a look that said she didn't know what to say to him.
Joe held his tears back very well, Colby thought.
"We need to go," Colby told them.
"I'm sorry," Joe repeated as Quinn wrapped a hand around his arm and pulled him past them.
"It was nice to meet you," Quinn said hurriedly, basically pulling Joe along.
As Colby unlocked the car he panned out the possibilities. How long would it take for them to call Nancy Drew? How long before Nancy would tell someone that those two girls had seen Joe? How long would it take for someone to match the description of "Francis" to good ol' Colby Mahner.
Should he turn around and kill them? They wouldn't have made the call yet. Man, he hated killing. He found no joy in taking life, unlike so many people he knew. Bodies leave trails, he told himself as he started the car.
He didn't look to see if the girls were watching them leave, but he felt like their eyes were on him. He didn't have to kill them, Colby repeated in his head. Just switch cars and get out of Missouri. He had been planning on switching cars anyway. He could still faintly smell puke despite the cleaning he had gotten done that morning.
They wouldn't be in this mess if Joe wasn't with him. That clawed at Colby. He looked into the rearview mirror to see Joe's eyes were locked on his own.
Joe's eyes were so cold. He knows, Colby thought again. He tried to tell himself he was paranoid. Joe didn't run when he had the chance too, he told himself. What game is Joe playing?
Colby did his best to look earnest. "I'm sorry about your brother." He just had a few more days of this.
INT. CRUISE SHIP LOBBY - 5:00PM
Kyle Andrews didn't mind working the front desk on the cruise line. Granted, working on cruises were not his passion, but he was trying to save up some money for a new camera he had his eyes on. Stories were his passion. He thought he saw the world better when it was through a lens.
He wished he had his camera now when two striking girls came up to the counter. One had short curly hair and looked like she had just ran a marathon. The other was short of breath too, but she was blonde and was dressed like she was ready for a fashion show.
He smiled at them, and started to ask how he could help, but the blonde spoke right over him. "Can we use the phone. It's an emergency!"
The urgency in her voice made Kyle forgive the rudeness. "Sure thing."
Kyle set up the call for her, and made an effort to appear like he was not eavesdropping on the girls' conversation.
"Nancy! I'm so glad I got a hold of you! Why didn't you tell us!"
The blonde tangled the phone cord around her arm and held the phone out so she and her friend could both listen in.
"Listen we're going to leave the cruise early and head your way. I'm so sorry!" The blonde started tearing up as she spoke.
Kyle thought that was a shame. The two girls leaving early anyway. He hoped they wouldn't try to get refunds.
"What do you mean you don't know what I'm talking about?" The blonde sniffled.
"You must have heard about Frank," The curly-haired one said quietly.
Another pause. Both girls eyed each other hesitantly. "Frank's… Frank he's… He passed away Nancy."
"I'm so sorry, Nancy."
A longer pause. Disbelief and wonder passed across the girls eyes.
"Frank?!"
"Is that really you?!"
Kyle didn't bother to pretend to be working any longer. He watched the girls openingly now. What was going on? Some practical joke, he wondered.
"Joe looked so heartbroken," the curly-haired one said. "I think he really, I knew it didn't make any since."
After a moment. "Yeah, at Shrimp Daddy's." The blond said like it wasn't a big deal. Then she frowned. "He was with his..you know, his…girlfriend and her brother."
