I won't get into all the reasons this is a week a late. Suffice it to say that certain aspects of my life imploded a little bit. Anyway... Continuing on. There have been a couple of self-described lurkers finally come out and say hello in the reviews - I'd love to get to know more of you!
A warm blanket straight from the dryer to the reviewers: leyapearl, JackieJacks, guest, heawee, Caranath, Stork Hardy, max2013, Jabba1, SnowPrincess88
Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. I do own enough fabric scraps to start a new quilt.
"Nancy... Nancy Drew..."
Nancy cracked an eye open to see Frank's face looming large in her vision. He looked scruffy and rumpled and she thought he'd never looked so attractive.
Pushing herself to open her other eye, she stretched her arms out against the mattress. "What time is it?"
Frank smiled and moved her messy hair away from her face. "Late. Hannah knocked about an hour ago about breakfast, but I guess she went away when no one answered."
"How long have you been awake?"
He'd had a hard time sleeping in. Partially because he'd been an early riser his entire life, and partially because he was still on New York time. "Not that long. Only a little over an hour."
"An hour? You should have woken me up!" Nancy said, sitting up and pulling the covers with her. It was then that she remembered that she was still naked underneath the heavy quilt and presumably Frank was too.
He shrugged. "I didn't mind just spending the time with you, even if you were sleeping."
Nancy laughed and shook her head. "I don't know if that's cute or creepy."
"Besides," Frank added, "I had a book. So it's not like I was just staring at you the whole time."
Nancy laughed again, but instead of answering she leaned down to press her lips to his. Before he could deepen the kiss she pulled away. Frank made a sound of disagreement, so she lightly kissed him once more before sitting back.
"You're not being distant because of last night, are you?" Frank asked in jest, though he couldn't completely keep the hint of worry out of his voice.
"Absolutely not. I can't tell you how glad I am that that finally happened," Nancy answered, unable to keep from smiling. She was barely able to stop herself from kissing him again, knowing what she would find under the blanket that covered his body. "But like you said, it's late."
"Ned," Frank said, a note of resignation in his voice.
Nancy kissed the corner of his mouth. "Yeah. The sooner we figure out what's going on with him the sooner we can enjoy our vacation. And believe me," she said, moving her lips over until they lined up with his, "I want to be enjoying my time with you."
Frank slid his hand to the back of her head to keep her from pulling away this time, taking control of the kiss. He knew that if he kept at it that she'd cave, but he also could feel a part of her not in the moment with him. He pulled back after pressing a final kiss to her nose.
"Then let's get going. I'm all about enjoying our vacation."
By the time that Nancy and Frank made it downstairs the entire bottom floor was vacant. Carson had long since gone to work and Hannah left a note saying that she'd had errands to run. She apologized for not leaving them her car.
"Well, that'll make things a little more complicated," Frank said as he poured himself a bowl of cereal.
"Only a little. I can always call Ned to have him pick us up to meet his friend."
"Yeah, I guess that works." Frank was mostly successful in sounded breezy about the entire situation. He knew that Nancy was with him, but he didn't think he'd ever be entirely comfortable with Ned.
"Oh, or Bess," Nancy said, now seemingly talking to herself. "Although I don't know how well it would go over with her to call her to ask for a favor when I never called her yesterday. She'd probably not like that very much."
"Probably not," Frank agreed, after swallowing a spoonful of his Cheerios. "But you should at least call her. Preferably when we're not engaged in some... other kind of activity."
"Hey," Nancy said pointing her spoon at him, "that was your fault. You could have stopped while I was on the phone."
"No," Frank said, shaking his head, "I really couldn't have. Nor did I want to."
Nancy felt her face redden at his insistence. "I'll go call her while you finish up."
Slipping out of the kitchen she headed for the front of the house. She'd had the habit when she was a teenager of pacing up and down the grand staircase when she was on the phone and apparently it was coming back to her.
"Nancy!" Bess answered. "To be honest, I didn't think you'd remember to call."
"Well, Frank helped," Nancy said sheepishly.
"I'm sure he did," Bess said suggestively. "And speaking of Frank, is he still as hot as I remember?"
"Bess!" Nancy said before laughing. "Um, yes. Probably more so."
"Ugh, it's not fair. You always end up with beautiful men. Tell me everything - I have to live vicariously through you."
"There's not much to tell," Nancy hedged. "We finally, um, hooked up again."
"First time since Europe, right?"
"Yes, and it was just as amazing as I remembered." She leaned back against the banister and let the previous night come back to her.
"Care to go into any more detail?" Bess said hopefully. "I've had a bit of a dry spell and that man of yours is smokin'."
Nancy couldn't help but laugh. "Probably not right now. He's just in the other room."
"Fine. But I will get more information out of you soon. And speaking of soon, when do George and I get to see you?"
"Today. Definitely today. Frank and I are supposed to meet up with Ned within an hour or so and I'm not sure exactly when we'll be done, but can I call you? Do you have plans?"
"For you, Nancy Drew, I can be available any time. Do you want back up on this whole experience?"
"You know, that's not a bad idea. I'll let you know after we work out a plan."
"Sure thing. You know you only have to call. And bring that beautiful man with you. But I'm guess he's probably going to be attached to your hip anyway."
Nancy laughed and started pacing again. "Maybe. But we'll definitely get some girl time, I promise. I've got to go, but I'll call you, okay?"
"You better. And not when you're in the middle of... the deed. That was squicky."
"You called me."
"Whatever," Bess said before hanging up.
Nancy completed her last set of stair-pacing and headed back into the kitchen where Frank was washing out his bowl and putting it in the dishwasher.
"So when are you going to get together?" he asked, looking up when she came in.
"Hopefully later today, depending on how things go with Ned." She leaned back against the table and pushed her phone into her pocket.
"Speaking of Ned, I gave him a call and asked him to get us. He'll be here within twenty minutes."
Nancy raised her eyebrows. "You called Ned?"
"I still had his number," Frank shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. As far as this case is concerned, we're colleagues."
She didn't exactly buy that, but she was grateful that he was making the effort. "If you say so. I guess we'd better get ready to go. Did he say where we're meeting his friend?"
"I think we're going to have to catch him on his lunch break, so probably somewhere near that office building."
Just as Nancy was about to say that that made sense, the doorbell rang. "He got here fast. Let's get this mystery solved."
Joe practically strutted into the Hardy & Sons office the next morning.
"What's got you looking like a peacock?" Fenton asked, barely looking up from the file he was pouring over.
"We had a late visitor last night," Joe said, plopping into the chair across from his father's desk.
"Should I be worried?" Fenton deadpanned.
"Not in the slightest. Guess who it was. Just guess."
"Vanessa," Fenton said, not even waiting for Joe to finish speaking.
"Well aren't you just Mr. Take-the-fun-out-of-everything this morning."
Fenton looked up at his son with a smirk. "You know, you'd make a terrible criminal. You're way too easy to predict."
"Thank you my kind, supportive father. I'm so grateful for your respect and love."
"Fine, Joe, fill me in. What did she want?"
"She found a magazine cut-out letter in one of the bouquets she was working on. She wants me to look into it."
"Need any help?"
"No, I think I've got this one, but thanks."
Fenton slid over a file. "I'm all about you wooing this girl with your investigative skills, but we've got to find a connection between these cases first. At least something that I can take back to the client."
Joe groaned but took the thick file. "I was at it until seven o'clock last night, Dad. I don't think it's going to happen."
"It is, son, I can feel it. There is something that we're missing. I know there are hundreds of pages to go through, so we may have passed right over something important without even realizing it."
"If you say so, Dad. I guess we don't really have much choice. This case is too big to renege on."
"You can say that again. Here, take one more file."
Joe sighed but nodded. "But if it's after noon and I'm still sitting at my desk, I will take a break to go get some lunch downtown."
"Some 'lunch', huh?" Fenton asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Shut it, Dad."
"What's your friend's name again?"
Frank felt a little awkward in the backseat of Ned's car while Nancy rode shotgun. It brought back way too many memories from when they were teenagers. But, it was probably better that than him sitting next to Ned.
"Steve Peterson," Ned answered as he exited off the highway. "He's the guy in HR that I mentioned, and he's always been a good friend. We have a standing poker game with a couple of other guys every week."
"You feel he's trustworthy?" Nancy asked.
"I'd trust the guy with my life."
"That's good, because you might have to. Not necessarily your life, but probably at least your livelihood. If we can't get in there than we don't have much hope of helping you," Frank said, trying not to get Ned's hopes up.
"And anyway," Nancy added, "What did your lawyer say?"
Ned sighed and made a left turn. "Nothing good. He said that a suspension during an investigation is completely warranted and legal. He also said that if they find evidence that I've done what they think I have that they are well within their rights to fire me without any compensation."
"Can't say I'm surprised," Frank said grimly. "Let's just hope that they do a fair investigation."
"I wouldn't count on it," Ned said. "They need a scapegoat, and they need it fast. I'm the easiest target."
"Well, then we'll just have to work faster," Nancy said confidently. "This will work out, I know it."
Ned smiled weakly as he found a parking space a block away from his office building. "I wish I had your confidence, Nan. That's always been something I've envied about you."
Nancy's answering smile was too bright - almost forced. "Well, hopefully some of it will rub off on you. Let's go meet Steve and figure this out."
Steve was a short, stocky man in his late twenties. His light hair was thinning on top, but he kept it short so it wasn't obvious. They all sat around a table in a Lebanese place a couple of blocks away from the office. Apparently most of the employees ate lunch at places in the other direction so it was relatively safe for them to be seen together.
"Like I was telling Ned," Steve said, "I'm so bummed that this is happening. There's no one kinder or better at his job than Ned Nickerson."
Nancy smiled. "Which is exactly why we're trying to help. We need to get into his lab and on his computer so we can figure out if there's actual evidence against him."
"I'm not sure exactly what I can do help. Ned's probably told you that the building we work in is very secure," Steve said uneasily.
"Yeah," Ned countered, "but you're one of the people responsible for giving visitors tours."
"They'd recognize you," Steve said, starting to get annoyed. "I love you, man, but I can't risk my job by making it seem like I'm working with you."
"But they wouldn't recognize us," Frank interjected before the conversation could escalate. "Nancy will play the part of an interested investor and I'll be part of her entourage."
"Both of you?" he asked. "Is that necessary?"
"Actually, yes," Nancy said. "Frank's the computer genius, and I'll be needed to distract any other people."
Steve had begun to visibly sweat. "I don't know, guys. I mean, I want Ned to keep his job as much as the next guy, but this sounds really risky."
"It might be," Frank said honestly. "But could you really live with yourself knowing that Ned got fired and you could have helped?"
Steve wiped his damp forehead and sighed. "No, I guess not. All right, what do you need from me?"
"All we need you to do is take us on a tour. When we get down to the lab Nancy will start asking a lot of questions, both to you and to the lab techs. While she's doing that I'll access his computer and see what I can find."
"What exactly are you looking for?"
"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure, but I'll know it when I see it - an outgoing email, a suspicious login time, things like that. I may just plant a way for me to access the computer remotely if I don't find anything fast enough."
"Sounds...risky."
"It's not, really," Nancy said, trying to reassure the skittish man. "Frank's kind of an expert on these things."
"If you say so," he said, though he didn't really look reassured.
"When can we do this? Today?" Ned asked, eager to clear his name.
"All tours need to be on the books. I can't get that done quickly enough to get you in today. Tomorrow, though, for sure," Steve said, downing the rest of his drink.
Ned sighed, trying not to feel let down. "Okay, thanks man. I'll drop them off tomorrow morning."
"What name should I put on the books?"
Frank and Nancy looked at each other. Matching smiles grew across their faces, though Nancy was the one that finally answered: "Cole and Rebecca Addison."
You are wonderful for reading and sticking with this story!
