Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys and am making no money off of this fic. Thanks to Candylou, angelicalkiss, Drumboy100, Guest, sm2003495, and Cherylann Rivers for the reviews. As always, any comments including constructive criticism continue to be welcome.

"Someone's spying on us?" Joe repeated.

Ingrid nodded, her eyes still wide.

"Where did you see them?" Frank asked.

Wordlessly, Ingrid raised her arm and pointed to a sand dune.

"We'll check it out, Ingrid. You should go back and join the others," Nancy said and she and the Hardys took off in the direction Ingrid had indicated.

The three teens spread out to cover more ground. Nancy climbed up one dune in order to see if she could spot the person that they were looking for but she couldn't see a trace of anyone who might be trying to conceal themselves.

"Nancy! Frank!" Joe's voice caught her attention. He was standing a few feet away from the dune where she was, alternately waving his arms and pointing to the ground.

Nancy clambered down the dune and rushed over to the spot where Joe stood, a satisfied gleam in his eyes. "Look what I found," he said.

Nancy looked where Joe was pointing and saw a large footprint, with the now familiar pattern of repeating hexagons, in the sand. "Look at how big that print is," she said, "the person who made it is probably pretty tall."

"Which rules out Arnold Smythe," Joe said, "in fact, the only one of our suspects who's tall enough to have made that print is Larry O'Keefe and he's got an alibi."

"That's assuming that whoever's behind the theft and the person who made this print are the same person," Frank pointed out, "for all we know, someone in league with one of our suspects could be watching us."

"Well, whoever it was, they're gone now," Nancy said.

###

When the three teens walked back out of the dunes, Joe saw Vanessa waiting for him. "Looks like Biff's found a date," she said, inclining her head towards where Biff and Bess were sitting together on a rainbow striped picnic blanket laid out on the sand. "They make a great couple, don't you think?" she continued.

"They do," Joe replied. He felt happy for both of them. Biff was a great guy and Bess was a great girl. Besides, he had Vanessa.

"It would be great if they had more opportunities to see each other," Vanessa commented.

"Are you suggesting that we double date?" Joe asked.

"I might be."

"That's a great idea. I can't think of a better thing to do with my favorite girl than matchmake two of my other favorite people."

Vanessa raised one eyebrow, "I didn't say anything about matchmaking."

"Call it what you want, it still sounds like something I want to do," Joe pulled Vanessa close to him before giving her a quick kiss. "Now let's get some of those burgers and dogs before the others finish them all off."

###

"Now, that was a picnic," Frank said, after they'd finished most of the food.

"It's not over yet," Chet said with a knowing gleam in his eyes. "I dropped by the store on my way here and picked up some cupcakes and cookies."

"And you didn't eat them all on the way here. That's a world first," Joe teased.

"If you'd like to take a look and see, I could use some help carrying them over from my car.

As Joe and Chet walked off towards the parking lot, Frank looked for Callie. She was sitting by herself at the edge of the gathering, looking out at the ocean.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting down beside her and putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I saw Nancy Drew checking you out when she first got here," Callie replied, "and then you ran off into the dunes with her."

"Yeah," Frank said, "and Joe came too. I would hardly have a private makeout session with any girl with my own brother watching."

"You and she could have sneaked off and found somewhere secluded," Callie said, pulling away from Frank.

"Ingrid thought she saw someone spying on us," Frank explained, "you can ask her about it."

"I will," Callie said, you can be sure of that. But right now, I'm in the mood for dessert."

Later, after dessert was finished, Vanessa, Nancy and Bess stayed behind to help clear up while Frank, Joe and Callie headed back to their car.

They had almost reached it when a glint of light on something shiny coming from the car caught Frank's eye. He stopped for a moment.

"What's up?" Joe asked.

"I just spotted something that wasn't there when we got out," Frank said, "I'm going to check it out."

"Do you want backup?" Joe asked.

"I think I can handle it," Frank said. He walked the last few feet towards the car but what he saw when he got there made him stop in disbelief.

A long- handled, thin bladed knife was stuck deep into the driver's seat. The knife passed through a piece of paper with something printed on it.

"Callie, I need you to unlock the car," Frank said. Callie got out her key and pressed a button on it, there was a click as the locks disengaged.

"What did you find?" Callie asked, walking up to the car as Frank opened the door. Her mouth dropped open as she saw the knife sticking out of the seat. "Who could have done this?"

"I don't know but I'm guessing our friend in the dunes was in on the plan," Frank said. "Did you leave your car keys in your purse?"

"I did but I only took my eyes off it for a few minutes at a time and I never noticed it missing."

"They wouldn't have needed to take your purse," Frank explained, "just your car keys. While we were looking for them, either they or an accomplice slipped the keys out of your purse, unlocked the car, planted the knife and note and then returned the keys without anyone suspecting a thing." He took the knife out of the seat and picked up the piece of paper to examine it, printed on it, in plain black type, were these words: WE KNOW YOU HAVE THE BEAR. WE'LL BE IN TOUCH.

###

The next morning, Nancy and Bess stopped by Bees' Knees Talent. After waving hello to Kerry Hunt, they sat down to wait for Tim Poulter.

Suddenly, the automatic doors slid open and Angela Sheridan made her entrance. She was carrying a large, slim, brown paper envelope. "I hear more than just your career took a tumble," she said to Nancy.

"It's funny you should mention that," Nancy said, "I thought I saw you at Albermarle's yesterday."

"You must have been mistaken because I wasn't anywhere near that store," Angela answered.

"What's in the envelope?" Bess asked.

"Only my brand new, professionally taken headshot."

Ralph Devall opened his office door, when he saw Nancy and Bess his face took on the expression of someone who has just smelt something unpleasant. Angela laid down the envelope on the reception desk and walked over to Ralph's office and joined him inside, closing the door behind her. After a while Tim Poulter appeared at his office door, Nancy and Bess walked over to join him. "What did you want to talk to me about?" he asked, once the three of them had entered his office and shut the door behind him.

"Do you know any women with long black hair?" Nancy asked.

"I don't know anyone like that, sorry. I've seen photos of Helen wearing a black wig but I don't know if she still has it. Is there anything else?"

"I need to see anything that you've got on Ralph, Angela and Helen."

"That should be-" Tim's reply was cut off by a half gasp, half scream.

Nancy raced out of the office, Bess and Tim right behind her. Angela was standing in the middle of the room, pointing at Helen who was stood at the empty reception desk holding the brown envelope. Beside her on the reception desk was a pile of torn-up shreds of a photo.

"She did it!" Angela screamed, " she ripped my headshot to pieces!"