J.M.J.
A/N: Thank you for continuing to read this story! Thank you especially to max2013, BMSH, and Cherylann Rivers for your reviews on the last chapter!
Chapter IX
"The FBI doesn't think much of your idea," Sam Radley told Joe as he hung up the phone after talking to them. "They say it's just as possible for Frank and Nancy to be in Sackville as anywhere else, and they're not really convinced yet that they're not in or around River Heights."
Sam was in the Hardys' living room with Joe, his parents, Aunt Gertrude, Iola, Chet, and Callie. Between Clarissa's painting and George's discovery of Nancy's cell phone, Joe had had a hunch that perhaps Frank and Nancy were being taken to Sackville, Colorado. He had talked it over with his dad and Sam, and they had both agreed that there just might be something to it. After Clarissa had turned up during Nancy's case two years ago, they had all been assuming that she was a part of the conspiracy. If that was so, it would make sense that they would go to a place she was familiar with while they put the next stage of their plan into action. Fenton and Joe had elected Sam to report the theory to the FBI; since he was not a relative, the authorities might be less likely to dismiss the idea as a wild, over-hopeful fantasy if it came from him. Evidently, though, that hadn't quite done it.
"So, they're not even going to check it out?" Joe asked.
"No," Sam replied, "which isn't all bad, since it means that this one is all ours if we want to follow it up. What do you think, Fenton?"
"I'm not sure," Fenton said. "It seems like a plausible lead to me, but it's at least equally plausible that it's a coincidence. It would take a long time to check it out, too, and we might not have that time."
As he said the last few words, Joe's phone began to ring. "It's George," he said, swiping the screen to answer it. "I asked her to call me back. Hello, George? We've got a whole bunch of people here. I'm going to put you on speaker phone, if that's okay with you."
"Sure," George replied. "I've got Burt and Mr. Drew and Ned and Bess and Dave here with me, too, so I'll put you on speaker phone, too."
After making sure everything was working right so that everybody could hear on both end of the line, Joe explained his idea once again. "We told the FBI, but they think we're out of our heads, apparently. We've been talking about whether it's worthwhile to follow up on this big of a hunch. What do any of you think?" Joe concluded.
There was silence on the other end of the line as Nancy's friends contemplated. Finally, it was Carson who broke the silence.
"I don't know," he said. "I know Nancy plays hunches all the time. It's just such a big risk to take."
"Is it?" Sam asked. "I've worked with Joe a lot, and I've seen him play a lot of hunches. They've almost always got something to them. I'm more than half convinced he could be right on this one. Besides that, what else are we going to do? There's a fine line between helping and hindering when it comes to the FBI. In my experience, the safest and most effective thing to do is to go at it from a different angle from them. This is one they're not considering. We might as well look into it rather than sit around and twiddle our thumbs."
"Mr. Radley's right," Bess spoke up. She was never one to miss an opportunity to say what she was thinking. "We're certainly not going to do any good here in River Heights, and that goes double for all of you in Bayport. If this Clarissa person has some kind of connection to Sackville, it would make sense for them to take Nancy and Frank there."
"Unless they figure that that would be too obvious and would be the first place anybody'd look," Dave put in.
"But obviously no one's looking there," Burt said. "I think it sounds like a good plan."
"I think we should ask the people with some experience in this kind of thing what they think," Ned commented. "Mr. Radley says he's for it. What about you, Mr. Hardy?"
"It's possible there's something to this," Fenton said. "It's a big chance, but Sam does make a point. We don't really have any other leads. I'd be willing to try it, as long as we give ourselves some room for safety."
"What do you mean, Dad?" Joe asked.
"I think Sam and Joe and I should go to run down this clue," he replied. "I know that's not what I said before, but I've had some time to think it over now. Carson and Ned should come, too. Between having five people who know what we're doing there and the fact that, from the research we did earlier, Sackville looks like it's a small town, we could probably wrap up the investigation there fairly quickly if it turns out to be a dead end. It also leaves our bases here and in River Heights covered. Callie, Iola, Chet, and their friends can keep trying to learn what they can about Clarissa and Evan Donahue, as well as help Laura and Gertrude keep an eye out in case these people show back up here. Bess, George, Burt, and Dave can keep working on anything they've got going on there. We can take my plane, and that way if anything comes up, we can get back to either River Heights or Bayport quickly. What do you say, Carson?"
Carson took a few moments to think it over. Then he said, "Okay. Let's try it."
"We'll leave here first thing in the morning," Fenton went on. "We'll meet you and Ned at the River Heights airport at ten."
HBNDHBND
Fenton's plane, which was piloted by his old friend Jack Wayne, landed in River Heights right at ten. Ned's father had given him and Carson a ride to the airport, and so they lost no time getting in the air again.
Sitting still in the plane gave Joe time to think again. The fast-paced detective work of the last twenty-four hours had kept him pretty well occupied, but now that dark feeling was creeping up on him again. He dozed off once for only a few minutes, and he was immediately plunged into a dream where he saw Terry Shanth pointing a gun at him and firing, and Iola screamed. He woke up with a start, breathing heavily and sweat on his forehead.
The others were all busy talking over plans to make this trip as efficient as possible, and none of them seemed to notice him. That was good. He didn't need them to worry about him now.
HBNDHBND
"George, are you sure this is a good idea?" Bess asked.
It was early in the afternoon now. Bess and George were sitting in George's car in front of the state penitentiary about two hundred miles from River Heights. They had found out from Joe about Sam Radley's suspicions that Robert Worthing knew more about the case than he had led Nancy to think. George had been disappointed that she hadn't gotten to go to Sackville with Ned and the others, but she thought she'd make up for it by looking into Worthing. So, she and Bess had driven out to see if they could visit him.
"Oh, come on, Bess." George rolled her eyes. "There's nothing dangerous about visiting a guy who's in jail. They don't even let you see them without a glass partition and talking through a phone. What's he going to do?"
"Yeah, I know," Bess said. "It's just – what are we even going to say to him?"
That caught George off-guard. She didn't really have a plan. "We'll figure it out when we get in there."
"If they let us see him," Bess added.
That wasn't as much of a problem as Bess thought it might be. Nancy had tried to visit Worthing, whom she knew as Robin, numerous times over the last two years to try to apologize and explain what had happened, but he had refused to see her each time. He knew that Bess and George were friends of hers, but he agreed to see them anyway. When he appeared on the other side of the glass partition, George was glad to see that he hadn't changed much.
He greeted George coolly and then said, "I don't think I've met your friend."
"This is my cousin, Bess Marvin," George introduced the two. "I'm really glad you let us see you, Robin. There's a lot we need to clear up."
"Yeah, no kidding," Robin replied. "Like what the deal was with Nancy turning me in. She said she wouldn't."
"And she didn't," Bess told him. "That Moriare gang that you were helping her take down did."
"Mm-hmm." Robin looked unconvinced. "Look, I mostly just wanted to give you a message to tell Nancy. I've got another year in jail here. In the past two years, I've done a lot of thinking. She doesn't have to worry about me going back to that Robin Hood thing. It was wrong. But that doesn't mean I understand why she burned me."
"For the last time, she didn't," George said.
"Whatever," Robin cut her off. "That's not the whole message. I don't understand why she did it, but I want to prove to her that I'm not going to be petty about this."
"Well, that's very big of you," George replied. "We'll be sure to give her the message if we ever see her again."
"If you – what?" Robin looked taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"Nancy's been kidnapped by those same people," George explained. "We need you to tell us everything you know about them. Anything at all. You saw more of them than I did, even though they kidnapped me for a while. If there's anything you didn't say before, we need to hear it now. It will be a great chance for you to prove how not petty you are." She couldn't resist throwing in that last sarcastic remark.
Robin shook his head, still trying to comprehend what he had just heard. He dropped his injured attitude at once. "I'm really sorry. Really. I know how I sounded a minute ago, but I've never believed that Nancy turned me in just to be malicious. She probably felt like it was her duty to turn me in, since she's a detective and all. I'd never want anything like this to happen to her."
"That's great," George said, "but do you know anything?"
"Yeah," Robin replied. "That's what the rest of the message was. In fact, I was going to ask the warden to call Nancy and ask her to come here. I found out something about those people while I've been in jail here, and I thought Nancy might like to know it."
"How did you find out something here in jail?" Bess asked.
"Well, it shouldn't be too big a surprise that Nancy has a lot of enemies in this penitentiary. I overheard one of them – a guy named Trevor Sedge – saying that he'd had some gal named Margot offer him to be part of a deal to get revenge on Nancy for something."
"Is that all?" George pressed him.
"No. This girl mentioned the name Evangeline Moriare. Sedge thinks it was a mistake on her part. Said she acted like she hadn't meant to mention it. I recognized the last name and figured it probably has something to do with than Dan Moriare character. That's all I know."
"Okay," George said. "Thanks for telling us."
She and Bess stood up to go.
"Hey." Robin stopped them. "I wish there was something I could do to help."
"You maybe already did," Bess told him.
"Yeah, well. I wish I could do more. I'll say some prayers that you find her."
