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 new chapter was quite fun for me as a writer, and I think you'll understand why by the end of it. Plenty of sleuthing, with just a dash of suspicion and intrigue. . . let me present you with Chapter Nine!

Curiosity had killed, and would continue to kill, the cat.

The appearance of Joe Hardy at his house could only mean one thing to Howard Monroe: the Hardy Boys were investigating the death of Isaac Valdez.

"A damn shame," Howard muttered as he stalked back inside. While he couldn't care less for the younger one, Frank had begun to grow on him as they worked together. At first he'd been wary, given the boy's proficiency at detective work. And yet, he sort of had that irresistible charm about him that couldn't be ignored.

The actor walked through the living room, opening the closet door and then sliding open the secret panel hidden behind his sweatshirts and winter gear. He began to shuffle through the shelves. "No, not that. . . or those. . . where is it? I know it's in here. . ." His hand finally fell upon what he had been searching for. He pulled it out and closed up the panel as well as the closet.

"Alright, let's be done with all this," he said, heading for the door.


Upon his arrival at the police station, Joe was greeted by none other than Chief Collig himself.

"Joe, my boy!" The chief gave him a big handshake as he walked past the officer working at the front desk. "Here, come into my office." The bulky man led the way into a medium-sized room which seemed to have just the right amount of furniture and decorations to make it seem homey without feeling claustrophobic.

"So, you mentioned that you three have come up with a prime suspect," Chief Collig said, closing the door behind the detective. "Please, sit."

Joe accepted the invitation and sank into the comfy cushions of one of the two chairs across from the chief's desk. "So, as of right now, this is based on some things that we've noticed over the past couple of days. Nothing solid, but enough that we think it warrants a closer look."

"Go on."

"There's an actor by the name of Howard Monroe," Joe explained. "His temperament seems to have changed since the kidnapping and murder, and he's said some rather suspicious things."

Chief Collig eased himself into his chair. "Well, I'm not surprised he's acting a bit strangely. Keep in mind, it's easier for you and Frank to handle the emotions that come with these sorts of cases, but for those who aren't in the crime-solving business, these situations can make behavior erratic in strange ways."

"Well, he did threaten me," Joe argued. "I don't remember exactly what he said, but he warned me that if I continued to investigate I would become like a victim in this case. You can't tell me that so-called 'erratic behavior' could lead to that."

The chief shrugged. "It's a little suspicious, I agree, but you just said yourself that he warned you. Maybe it was just that – a warning. With two major crimes committed, people attached to these cases are bound to be a bit paranoid."

Joe shook his head vigorously. "No, no. It was in the tone of his voice. He definitely meant it as a threat. And even if you don't agree with me on that or on the strange behavior, you'll have to agree with me that it's well beyond 'the situation' that he happens to know the identity of our dead murder victim, who happens to be from nowhere close to here."

Joe felt a large degree of satisfaction when the chief's eyebrows shot up. "We haven't released the name Isaac Valdez yet since we've been struggling to find family to inform of his passing. And where do you think he's from?"

The detective realized they had never told Chief Collig about the license or the bike. He filled in the missing gaps for the policeman, explaining how they had stumbled upon the evidence.

"When were you going to tell me about all that?" Chief Collig asked after Joe had finished. "It's not like we've already seen each other once today. . . oh, wait. . ."

"We had bigger priorities this morning at the crime scene," Joe argued, "and everything's been happening so fast that none of us have really had the time to stop in. The case has only been going now for two days."

"And it's after we hit that 48-hour mark that the chances of us finding those kids begins to drop," the chief shot back.

"With all due respect, sir, we've yet to be informed of any leads that your officers have found and looked into for the kidnapping or murder." Joe regretted saying it the instant the words left his mouth, but he was relieved to watch concern flicker across the chief's face rather than anger.

"You have a point," Chief Collig grumbled. "My men didn't find much in the way of useful evidence at the crime scene of the murder. Everything they've pursued has been a dead end. As for the kids, well, it seemed up until Frank found that bike that they had disappeared without a trace."

Joe nodded. "Given the fact that we found Valdez's license with the bike of one of the boys, as well as the small bloody footprints, it seems reasonable to look at the murder and the kidnapping as connected. We don't have much to go on in our pursuit of finding the three boys, but if we can find out who might have the motive to murder our victim, wrapping up the case and getting those kids home will be easy."

The chief nodded back. "I'll get one of our researchers on it right away. Let me know if and when you find something else. And preferably don't wait, say, a day."

Joe grinned. "Hey, I try my best." With that, he left the station and met up with Frank at the car.

"Find out anything interesting from Sarah?" he asked as his brother approached.

"Not a ton of evidence she found that can easily locate our killer," Frank admitted, "but she did have a few good pieces of info. Like the fact that our culprit is likely left-handed, and at least five and a half feet tall."

Joe shrugged, hopping into the passenger seat. "We can rule out any of those kids, then. And lefties aren't as common as those of us not cursed by the devil."

"Oh, shut up," Frank said, giving Joe a light punch. His younger brother took every moment his left-handedness came up as an opportunity to remind him that he was the devil's spawn, according to myth.

The two brothers discussed their separate meetings as they drove, so Joe didn't realize that they weren't going home only when Frank pulled into the parking lot of a tanning salon. "Um, bro, I know you haven't got much of a tan going on this summer since you've been locked up in that auditorium or your room, but – "

"We are not here to tan, Joe." Frank sighed, shaking his head. "Sarah also mentioned that Valdez had some pretty good tan lines, but given how dreary the weather has been here in general this summer, he either just arrived recently, or went to a tanning salon."

Joe groaned. "Please don't tell me we're gonna hit up every place with a tanning bed in Bayport."

"And the surrounding places, too." Frank got out of the car, and Joe followed suit, whimpering. "Oh, stop. I'll buy you a late lunch while we make the rounds."

Lunch sounded like a great idea to Joe, and he was willing to do a little boring detective work if it was the only thing that stood between him and a nice big burger. "Alright, you have yourself a deal."

Two hours and two burgers later, the detectives finally rolled into their driveway, exhausted from all their work.

"Have you heard from Nancy at all?" Joe asked as he unbuckled.

Frank shook his head. "I'm hoping that means that she's super into her work, as opposed to she didn't find anything interesting or of use."

The brothers made their way inside, eager to find out what progress Nancy had made. They went straight to her room, saying hello to their aunt as she made dinner and dessert in the kitchen, and found Nancy sprawled out on the floor. She was typing furiously on her laptop, with pages and pages of various articles and images strewn around her, and Frank's computer sitting open but asleep on her bed.

"Well, it looks like someone's been busy," Joe commented.

Nancy jolted and whipped her head around. "Jeez, I didn't even hear you two come in." She indicated all of her research. "I've been pretty into my work."

Frank laughed. "Really? We couldn't tell. I hope you didn't use all three reams of paper in dad's office to print all this info."

"Whatever, drama queen," Nancy responded, rolling her eyes. She closed her laptop and began to gather all the papers around her, shuffling them as she went. "So what did you guys find out? Because we save the best for last, and nothing you guys have can top what I've found."

"My my, someone's confident," Joe remarked. "But looking at how much you've gathered, you're probably right."

The Hardy Boys explained to Nancy what they had discovered from their visits with the chief and the M.E.

"Well, Joe, you didn't really find out anything useful." Joe was about to give a snarky reply, but Nancy held up her hand. "Nothing on you, more on the police department. They don't seem to be much help." She turned to Frank. "At least with you, we now have a better idea of some physical features our culprit possesses."

"Quit dragging your tail and cut to the chase." Frank grinned. "Unless, of course, you don't have anything good."

That earned him what could only be called a cocky glare from Nancy. "Oh, get ready to find out everything you always wanted to know about Howard Monroe, including some things you probably don't need to know. So, first off, Howard Monroe is quite the traveler. Despite being in his 30s, he's lived in 21 states that I know of, including, you guessed it, Nevada."

Joe nodded. "So we've got a potential connection to Valdez."

"Sure, but we can't just say they're connected because they've been in the same state," Nancy replied. "So I focused on his life in Nevada, but got nowhere. He was in a few productions of various shows there, usually in a lead role, and then moved on. From what I've been able to find, he hasn't stayed in the same state for more than a year or so, with the exception of one: Ohio."

"But Ohio doesn't mean anything in connection to this case," Joe said, frowning.

"Joe, Nancy's got the look going on," Frank responded. "That means she's got something more about this Ohio business."

"You bet I do," Nancy said. "I went back through some of the other states where Howard Monroe has lived. In all of them, he makes some small cash while acting, but doesn't appear to ever pick up a full-time job."

"That begs the question, how is it he can afford to keep moving around the country without a steady cash flow?" Frank asked.

"Give the Hardy a cookie." Nancy grinned. "I couldn't figure out where our suspect was getting enough money to be hopping from state to state with relative financial ease. I decided that the only place he could've theoretically held down a long-term job was in Ohio. And while there wasn't any indication of him working there, either, I did find some interesting people Howard Monroe was connected to while in the state."

In dramatic fashion, Nancy slammed down a printed page in front of the two brothers, making them both jump.

"Mob Boss Faces Consecutive Life Sentences," Joe read. "Wait, what!? You were able to find a connection between Monroe and Jim Gray?"

Nancy nodded. "Howard Monroe was actually on the jury who originally tried the case. But in a different article. . . " The girl detective shifted through her papers and pulled out another news headline. "I discovered that he was being taken to court for feeding Gray and his lawyers information about how to sway the jury based on what he was seeing. Of course, all charges were dropped, but it did cause a mistrial. Gray ended up being convicted by the second jury."

The two brothers sat in stunned silence. "Well," Frank finally said, "if he pissed off the mob because he botched their leader's chance to mess with the system and get him found not guilty, that could explain why he's been bouncing from state to state ever since. He's on the run."

"Boys, Nancy, it's dinner time!" Aunt Trudy called from the kitchen.

"We can continue looking into this later," Frank said. "Good work, though, Nancy."

"Oh, just you wait," she declared, "I've got even more information that could help us after we eat."

The three detectives closed up shop in Nancy's room and headed to the dining room.


Maverick Lurie was hungry.

It had to have been at least 12 hours since they'd received food last. Every time he tried not to think about the gnawing pit in his stomach, it would growl, constantly reminding him of how much he wanted, no, needed food.

Luckily, it seemed as if his captor was somehow aware of his hunger.

"Cliff, I think someone's coming!" The two boys hopped up, running to the door and pounding with as much might as they could muster. "Help! Someone, help us! Please, we're locked in here!"

"Shut up!" they heard someone hiss through the door. The two boys backed up as the door slowly began to open.

Maverick wasn't quite sure who their kidnapper was. He had discussed it for hours with Cliff, since it was the only topic they could talk about without getting homesick and teary-eyed. For two ten-year-old boys, even ones who had been kidnapped, crying in front of each other was the height of embarrassment. It had been quite an embarrassing couple of days for both of them.

Henry had known the man, that they knew for sure. He wore baggy clothes and a ski mask whenever he interacted with them, but as soon as he had started talking to the boys, their friend's eyes shot wide open in recognition.

Maverick missed Henry.

"Alright, let me explain to you two how this is gonna go," the man said gruffly. The gun in his hand drew Maverick's attention, and he couldn't help but be transfixed by it. "We need each other's help, so we're gonna do a deal of you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

"Why should we help you?" Maverick twisted his head around, staring at his friend. How could Cliff be so bold as to stand up to their captor!? He had a gun!

"The police have no clue where you two are right now," the man sneered. "But, if one of you is willing to lend me a hand, I'll allow both of you to escape."

Maverick's heart leapt. Their kidnapper was going to let them go!?

Apparently, Cliff was suspicious. "Why would you do that?"

"So many 'why' questions from you, kid, it's really quite annoying," their captor muttered. He turned to Maverick and grabbed hold of his arm, squeezing until it was bordering on painful. "You're the one I need, though. You're the one who saw everything."

Maverick had tried so hard to block it all out. What he had seen – it just didn't make sense. It didn't process properly. He must have been overtired, or imagining things.

But he knew what he had seen was real. Being trapped in this hut proved it was real. That was the scary part. He couldn't even bear to think about it. Whenever Cliff brought it up, Maverick shut him down.

"So, you see this?" The man pulled let go of him and pulled something out of his pocket, but Maverick had no clue what it was. "This is a bomb. A bomb which can be remotely detonated, might I add. It's going to sit in here with your friend, and the detonator will go with me wherever I go."

Maverick's mouth went dry. He opened his mouth, not sure of what he was going to say, but what came out was little more than a squeak.

The man smiled at the boy's clear discomfort. "Good. Apparently I don't need to state what's going to happen if you don't follow my exact instructions."

Maverick just nodded. What was it that he could do for their kidnapper while still locked up in the middle of who knows where?

"I need you to be the first one to return to the city," their captor explained. "While your buddy will be stuck here, you will be miraculously found, then probably taken to the hospital to run some tests. At some point, the police will want to talk with you about everything that happened at the auditorium."

Maverick listened intently as the man continued on with his instructions, hanging on every word to know how not to screw up – and how to get himself and his friend out from under their kidnapper's thumb.

Some very interesting new perspectives in this chapter for sure. Clearly the kidnapper is playing at some sort of game, but what is he up to? Despite these new viewpoints, I'm sure you readers are left wondering about plenty of things. Don't worry, all will come to light in due time.