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Here is my next chapter hope you like it? Please review Thank you :)


Iola s Treasure 9

Later that night at the Hardy home, after Laura and Gertrude had gone to bed, the three Hardy men were relaxing in Fenton's office. Frank lay on the leather sofa, his hands clasped behind his neck lost in his thoughts.

"Dad, does Mrs. Granger have any family?" He asked out of the blue. "I don't think I've ever heard you, Mom or Aunt Gertrude mention her family."

'Well, to be honest son I don't really know much about her family." Fenton answered while sitting comfortably at his desk," Aunt Gertrude would probably be the one to ask." Then he added stroking his chin in thought. "I do know her husband, Harold died in a car accident about four years ago. They never had any children."

"That's a shame." Frank put in. "It must be lonesome for her living in that big house."

"Don't have to worry about Mrs. Granger being lonely." Joe spoke bitterly from the recliner he'd been sitting in with his feet up. "I'll be there tomorrow morning bright and early to start my community service."

"Joe, I promise you it won't be so bad." Fenton sympathized.

"Yeah, look on the bright side little brother." Frank encouraged. "It's better than jail."

"I know. I just want to forget all about Mr. Douglas and that stupid resort. That is, once I get my community service done and over with." Joe frowned and stood up from his recliner. "Guess I better turn in."

"Good night guys."

"Good night, Joe." Fenton and Frank said in unison.

Frank got up from the sofa as soon as Joe left the room and sat in the chair across from his father, "Dad, I need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"What do you think of Mr. Douglas?"

"I think he's arrogant and pushy." Fenton bluntly stated.

It was evident his father had ill feelings towards the guy. Frank could hear the anger in his father's voice at the mention of the billionaire.

"I wonder what it was Mr. Douglas needed our help with." Frank said curiously. He began thinking out loud, "There are so many questions I have about Mr. Douglas …with no answers."

"What kind of questions?"

"Why haven't we heard of Mr. Douglas until recently? I mean, who is this guy?" Frank began firing off questions one by one. "Maybe Joe is on to something?" Paraphrasing his brother's comment from the party, "What if Douglas and Underwood Real Estate Company aren't who they say they are?"

"This is going to sound far fetched, But… What if this whole Barmet Island project is just a scam to line their pockets with our money? After all, a lot of people in this town have money invested into this resort."

Fenton raised an eyebrow at this.

"What about this?" Frank took the invitation out of his back pocket and placed it on the desk in front of his father. "Does this mean anything to you?" He pointed to the round gold emblem with two swords crossing each other. "I noticed Mr. Douglas was wearing a gold ring with that exact emblem."

"Yes, I did too." Fenton responded, picking up the invitation studying the emblem closely. "I've seen this emblem before and not just on the ring."

"You have, where?"

"I just can't remember." Fenton shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh, then placed the invitation back down on the desk. Frank watched as his father suddenly stood up and walked over to shut the door, "Son what I'm about to tell you goes no further than this room." He said in all seriousness and sat back down at his desk.

"Dad? What is it?"

There was a look on his father's face that told Frank something was going on. It suddenly dawned on him, "You're investigating Mr. Douglas aren't you?" He asked, almost a whisper.

"Yes". Fenton admitted.

"I know, I've told you we need to keep our distance from Mr. Douglas. But, after meeting him yesterday... I feel that it's important to find out everything about this guy. Until then, Joe is not to go anywhere near Mr. Douglas or Barmet Island."

"What are you going to do?" Frank inquired.

"I'm going to New York first thing in the morning to check out Douglas and Underwood Real Estate Company."

"What about Mr. Douglas? What's to keep him from coming near us again?" Frank pointed out. "He practically ran out of the courthouse yesterday, so adamant about talking to you. Whatever it was he needed our help with, it must be important for him to cause Joe to violate the restraining order."

"That's what worries me." Fenton nodded in agreement.

"Frank, I need you to keep an eye on things here while I'm in New York. You will be taking your brother to Mrs. Granger's every morning. Joe must focus on his community service and nothing else. I have a feeling we haven't seen or heard the last of Mr. Douglas."

"I understand what you're saying Dad." Frank said immediately slipping into big brother mode. "Mr. Douglas won't get near Joe as long as I'm around."


Early the next morning, Frank pulled the black van into the driveway of the Granger home. It was a beautiful two-story colonial style home that was only a mile outside of Bayport, along the ocean front on Shore Road.

The property had a unique detail that carried out from an early English architecture with a wrap around covered porch in front and pillars that went from the ground to the gable roof in need of repairs. It had white vinyl siding on the outer walls along with a rock wall that went upwards towards the front steps. There was even a stone walkway that led to the front steps.

There was a beautiful display of crimson rose bushes lining the perimeter of the relatively large estate, along with a variety of other plants all around the home. Frank noted that the rose bushes were badly in need of pruning and the lawn needed mowing. An asphalt shutter on one of the second story windows was hanging off its hinges plus several other things that needed to be done on the outside. He could only imagine the amount of work needed on the inside of the house.

Frank had to agree with his Aunt Gertrude, "Why would an eighty-two year old woman want to live in such a big house? It's too big for someone of her age to keep it going." He was glad in a way that Joe would be here to help with repairs and anything the kind woman needed done to the house, his presence here would also offer a sense of security for her safety as well.

Aunt Gertrude had called Mrs. Granger last night to explain to her about Joe's community service and that he would be coming over every morning at seven to help her out around the house.

"Guess I better wake up sleeping beauty." Frank glanced over at his little brother hunched down sound asleep in the passenger side of the van. He rubbed his tired eyes. Determined to follow his father's instructions Frank had been up since five thirty this morning all showered, dressed and had Joe up and ready to go to Mrs. Granger by six thirty.

"Wake up, little brother," Frank said, nudging Joe's arm.

"Mmmm … go away Frank…. It's not a school day…" Joe mumbled in his sleep.

"Joe, you have to wake up."

"Five more minutes..."

"Joe." Frank threaten. "Don't make me drag you out of this van."

"Okay, Okay, I'm up, I'm up!" Joe opened his eyes blinking at the sunlight that assaulted his eyes. "What time is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

"It's a quarter till seven."

"What does my community service have to be so early?" Joe said, yawning and then stretched realizing where they were.

"Would you like to call Dad, and ask him?" Frank snapped.

"No, that's okay." Joe shook his head. "Geez, Frank, why are you so grumpy this morning? It's not like you did anything wrong".

"Yes, I did."

Joe just looked at his brother. "What?"

"I could've stopped you, you know. It was a mistake letting you go to that party. "

"Frank…"

"...Let me finish," Frank put his hand up to stop Joe from interrupting him, "I need to get this off my chest."

Joe nodded for Frank to continue on.

"I didn't understand your feelings on Barmet Island at first. But I do now. It's the place where you and Iola fell in love. You've had so much to deal with, like the gift from Iola and the ordeal with Mr. Douglas. Barmet Island becoming a resort, on top of that dealing with Iola's death."

"...You were in trouble Joe... I failed to help you... I-I'm sorry." He began to tear up. "It's my fault you... Watching you get arrested... It scares the hell out of me at the thought you in jail. I don't want to lose you… little brother." Frank quickly wiped a tear away before running a hand through his hair. He took a moment to calm down. "I'm sorry Joe."

It broke Joe's heart to see his big brother tear up like this. "None of this is your fault. I did this Frank, not you." He pointed at his chest. "I got myself into this mess. I have to take full responsibility after what I did to Mr. Douglas. You and Mom were right". He said softly. "It's been a year since Iola died. It's time for me to move on. I need to let Barmet Island go".

"You've been there for me every step of the way. I couldn't have gotten through Iola's death without you".

"Iola's not really gone, Joe." Frank pointed out. "She's in your heart."

"I know." Joe let out a slight chuckle. "Iola would've killed me, if she saw what I've done."

Frank smiled. "Yes, she would've."

For a moment the brothers sat in silence.

"Frank, Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," Frank nodded.

Joe paused for a moment with his hand on the door handle. "What were you and Dad talking about after I left the room?" He asked, curiosity marring his handsome features."Dad left home early this morning. He told me something came up and that he'd be home later tonight. He wouldn't tell me where he was going."

Frank said nothing and turns his head forward and stared out of the window shield.

"I know something's up, what is it?" Joe demanded folding his arms to his chest. He saw the hesitation in Frank's eyes. "Frank, we don't keep secrets from each other, remember?"

When Frank didn't answer Joe was starting to lose his patience. "Frank?"

"Alright Joe I'll tell you," Frank said taking a deep breath giving Joe his attention." Before I do, promise me you won't get excited."

Joe could see Frank was serious, and he began to feel a bit nervous. "Okay," he said, "I promise."

Frank sighed, took a deep breath, and just spit it out. "Dad went to New York."

"He went to New York, why?" Joe repeated.

"He went to check out Douglas and Underwood Real Estate Company." Frank said in one breath. "One, two, three..." he counted, bracing himself for the explosion he knew was about to come.

"What!" Joe gasped in response, just as Frank had predicted. "Dad is investigating Mr. Albert Douglas!"

"Yes."

"I knew it!" Joe exclaimed slamming his fist on the dashboard.

"I told you not to get excited." Frank reprimanded.

"Oh, Frank come on!" Joe expressed breathlessly. "We both knew something was there! Why aren't we investigating Mr. Douglas?"

"We are not, Dad is." Frank argued.

"You've got to be kidding!"

"Joe, we have to stay out of this one."

"Why?

"You know why?"

"Screw the restraining order!" Joe blew up his face turning pale, then brick-red.

"Joe, calm down." Frank ordered forcing his voice to stay calm and steady, "I can't talk to you, when you're like this."

Joe took a breath to calm down and looked out the window. "So is this, how it's going to be now?"

"What do you mean by that?" Frank looked at him.

"I saw the paper this morning Frank." Joe countered. "My arrest made the front page. It's not the kind of publicity Dad wants. Who's going to want to hire the famous Detective Fenton Hardy now?"

"Who's going to want to hire the Hardy boys for that matter? I tarnished our good name. It makes sense that you and Dad, would leave me out of this."

"Joe that is not it at all."

"Are you investigating Mr Douglas, without me?" Frank felt as if a knife pierced his heart hearing Joe's words. "Tell me, big brother, am I still your partner or are you flying solo now?"

"Joe listen to me." Finally finding the words Frank spoke up, "First off little brother you are and, will always be my partner, that will never change. And second, it was never our intention to keep this investigation a secret from you. You know how overly protective Dad gets when it comes to his family." Frank continued to explain. "He wanted to make sure that Mr. Douglas isn't a threat to us".

"We're trying to protect you. Dad asked me to keep an eye on things while he's away."

"When you say keep an eye on things, you really mean me, right?" Joe cut in.

"Yes." Frank nodded. "I'll be bringing you here every morning and picking you up at the end of the day". He added making his final point. "Joe, you have to stay focused on your community service. While you're doing that, I'll keep an eye out for Mr. Douglas. Since we don't know what he wants from us, Dad believes we haven't heard the last of him."

"I can't let you go to jail, Joe".

After a smothering silence in the van Neither brother spoke a word. "Okay, I understand that." Joe said, breaking the silence. "However, you didn't answer my first question. I know you Frank; I know you're not going to let this go. Look at me straight in the eye and answer me. Are you investigating Mr. Douglas?"

Frank looked Joe in the eye without hesitation and answered, "Yes."

"Okay, fine. But, if you do this without me, big brother." Joe replied with a warning, "I'll never forgive you." With that, he climbed out of the van, slamming the door behind him, storming off towards Mrs. Granger's house.