Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys though I wish I did. They belong to Stratemeyer Syndicate and Simon & Schuster. However, the King Twins, Lexi and Claire, do belong to me as do the unique details of this plot so don't sue me!

This chapter was BETA read by msnancydrew. Please thank her for her wonderful work!

The case refered to in this chapter is from the book, At All Costs.

The Hurricane is from Desperate Measures.

Ch.10 Sorting Things Out

Nancy sighed as she leaned against the door to her room. Her hand was still on the knob and she could hear Frank moving inside. She felt bile rise in her throat at the thought of what had just transpired between her and Frank. She had made a fool of herself. There was no reason for her to blow up like that; no reason for her to throw a fit, but all the same, what she had said had been honest and that was what scared her the most. She had been completely honest with Frank and the response wasn't what she had expected. She didn't know how she would face him again.

Nancy pushed off the door and padded down the silent hall intent on joining Joe and Claire in their investigation; the sooner they found the treasure the sooner they could be out of this place. Nancy couldn't wait to see Bess and George again and get several hours away from the Hardys, especially Frank.

Nancy tucked her strawberry blonde hair behind her ear and reached for the doorknob to the stairs just as it opened. Nancy stepped back, startled. "Nancy!" A familiar head of blonde and gray hair popped through the door with a broad smile. "I was just coming to look for you!"

Nancy smiled, "Oh, really and might I ask why?"

Max's smile grew and he stepped all the way through the door. "Someone set the coffee for midnight; I was going to stay up and see who would be awake that late and then I realized I'd be rather bored staying up so late and watching coffee mix so I figured I'd fetch my coffee buddy. So what do you say, want to watch some coffee?"

Nancy looked thoughtful, "I don't know. I was just heading down to meet Joe and Claire."

Max's grin quickly changed to a pleading one. His eyes grew large and his bottom lip stuck out, "Please, Nancy."

Nancy laughed, "You look like a sad hound dog but I suppose I could watch the coffee pot with you for a little while."

Max grinned again and stuck an arm out which Nancy took with a quick glance over her shoulder at her door which was still shut. Max reopened the door. "To the coffee pot, Milady," he said in a loud and overly pompous British accent. Nancy rolled her eyes before making her way into the stairwell.

Nancy snorted into her coffee mug. "Are you serious?" Her blue eyes were full of mirth. "Your mother thought the killer was a guest and gave him your bed to sleep in? Incredible! So, what did you do when you saw him?"

Max laughed, "Well, he told my mother he was waiting for me so while he was waiting he fell asleep. So I walked in, saw him, backed out, and called the police. My poor mother had no idea and when the cops arrived she was running around in her dressing gown and curlers with her hearing aids turned down. She started asking them if they were staying for dinner and no one could explain what was going on. Oh, the look on the chief's face was priceless when she asked him if he preferred chicken or roast; the man was utterly confused." Nancy laughed again. "So anything funny ever happen on one of your cases?"

Nancy looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, there was this time in Utah. I was hiding under a bed with my friend, Allison, in her boyfriend's apartment. We had been investigating and heard the door open. Anyways, these two guys walked in after I sneezed and we didn't know who they were so when they walked up to the bed I bit the guy's ankle and then grabbed him and yanked him down. He was so surprised! We fought each other until he pinned me down. I looked up and you'll never guess who it was."

Max leaned forward, "Who?"

Nancy laughed, "Frank Hardy!" Max gave an exaggerated laugh and Nancy frowned. "It was Frank Hardy," she finished quietly. Max stopped laughing.

"Nancy, is something wrong?" Max leaned further forward and grabbed her hand.

Nancy slid her hand away. "It's nothing, we just had a fight."

Max leaned back in his chair, "You like him don't you, but he likes someone else?"

Nancy glanced up from her cup startled. "Yes, but how did you know?"

Max gave a sad smile. "Call it a hunch." Nancy looked back down at her cup as Max reached for her hand again. "Frank is stupid not to want you."

Nancy slid her hand out from under his as she blushed. She suddenly felt very awkward. "Umm--," Nancy stood up, "I think I should go check on Joe and Claire now. It was really fun chatting, but I need to investigate." She set her cup in the sink before walking quickly to the cellar door.

Max stood up. "Do you guys need any help?"

"No!" Nancy replied quickly, "I mean, no thanks, we've got it under control."

Joe leaned back and wiped the sweat off his brow. He and Claire had been examining the tunnel for the last hour, hitting bricks, and pulling on them and the only thing they had discovered was that the tunnel was bloody hot!

Claire slid in front of Joe and handed him the flashlight. "Your turn to hold the light. I'll poke and prod, Dr. Joe."

Joe smiled and took the flashlight as Claire used her one arm to push and pull at the stones. "I can't believe how hot it is in here." Joe brushed the sweat off his brow again.

Claire looked over her shoulder. "Yeah, it is a little hot, but I'm used to it. The humidity in South Carolina is killer. This is just a dry heat and I can prefer that."

"Yeah, well I prefer no heat," Joe replied dryly.

Claire laughed, "You just need to come visit the south more often. Maybe you can come hit the beaches with Lexi and me when this is all over. Lord knows we'll need a vacation after chasing down a psycho and finding buried treasure. And our beaches are perfect unless there is a hurricane, of course."

Joe smiled. "Don't worry. Frank and I have braved a hurricane before."

Claire stood up at this and turned to face, Joe her one arm sliding neatly onto her hip. "Oh really, which one?"

"Joe," Joe answered smugly.

Claire looked skeptical. "Joe…Hurricane Joe…what was it? All talk and no action?" Claire smirked and her right brow rose.

Joe's jaw dropped. "Excuse me, but I'll have you know that the building Frank and I were in sustained substantial damage. All the siding came off the building and we were very lucky the building didn't go as well."

Claire's smirk faltered. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, every shingle came off—"

"Because Tercon industries made the glue wrong," a female voice interjected. "The wind caused hardly any damage in other places." Joe and Claire jumped at the sound of Nancy's voice and whipped their heads towards her.

"Hey, Nancy!" Claire said brightly before turning back to Joe. "Is that true, Joseph?"

"Way to kill a story Nan. You know Claire you've really got my mother down, the face, the whole "Joseph" thing, and the hand on the hip. The only difference is you're much hotter." He flashed a dazzling smile as Claire shoved him playfully.

"Are you saying your mother is ugly?"

"Of course not, she is very pretty in a mother kind of way, but I'll never think my mother is hot. That is just creepy."

Claire shook her head with a smile, "You are so strange, Joe, so, so strange."

Nancy laughed, "I've been telling him that for years." She moved closer to the two teens. "So what have you guys been up to?"

"Oh just poking and prodding at the wall. How about you? How are those bios coming along?" Claire inquired.

Nancy felt her heart plummet to her stomach. "Oh, well, I worked on them for a while, but the room became unbearable so I thought I would come visit you guys."

Joe cocked his head in confusion. "What do you mean the room was unbearable?"

Nancy fished for an answer, "It got a little hot." It sounded stupid, but things between her and Frank had become heated.

"So you came to a tunnel that is more than a little hot? Nancy, where's Fr- Yeaoow!" Joe's head snapped to face Claire, "What'd you do that for?"

Claire rolled her eyes as Joe rubbed his arm where she had twisted his skinbetween her nails. "You can help us for a while Nancy, but I think we were just getting ready to leave. It is stifling hot in here according to Joe and before you showed up I was going to suggest retrieving you to go over the facts of the case. Perhaps we could go join Lexi in the Library and discuss the facts?"

Nancy nodded as did Joe. "I'll go get Frank," Joe muttered still rubbing his sore arm. "Yeaaoow! Woman, are you mad? Why the heck do you keep pinching me?" Joe's face was twisted in a mixture of pain and anger.

"Because you are a complete idiot! Frank is probably sleeping," Claire snapped.

Joe guffawed. "Sleeping? It's only ten."

Nancy couldn't help but laugh at Claire's antics. "I think I'll go join Lexi," Nancy cut in as she slid by them. "And, Claire, it's ok, we're on a team. I can't avoid him forever," she added with a whisper.

"Joe, we're going to get Frank," she heard Claire snap behind her. Nancy smiled as Joe spluttered behind her.

"But you just pinched the crap out of my arm and told me he was sleeping!"

"Yes, well, I changed my mind. I'm allowed to do that you know; besides the trip to our room will give us plenty of time to talk and we need to talk." Their voices faded as Nancy made her way up the spiral stairs.

"Well, I searched the area around the body and I came up with this." Lexi pointed to a long piece of plastic covered in blood. "It was stuffed behind the chair. It seems the lady in red was right about how the killer moved the body. It is definitely a drycleaner's bag." Lexi was seated Indian style on the library floor boasting to gloves. "I also found this," her finger pointed to a print in the blood. "As you can see, it is a distinctive print which would be useful if we had some way to match it, but there are just way too many people in this house for us to do that without a computer. So this print needs to be saved for when we get out of here. The police can use it to build their case. Then I found this." She pointed to a small circle on the plastic where the blood was smeared. "I haven't the slightest idea what that could be."

Nancy bent over the plastic from where she sat between Joe and Lexi. "Did you check the room for anything with this shape?"

"Yeah, nothing. I also checked Ms. Wiyy-Fapp's room, but nothing. So I came to the obvious conclusion that this marking is unique to our killer." She crossed her arms and leaned back. "There are also a few drops of blood on the floor around the chair, probably from moving the body from the plastic to the chair. How did you guys do in the tunnel?"

"We only got about halfway. It was hot as hell and we didn't find anything," Joe replied grumpily.

Frank chuckled, "Couldn't take the heat, Joe?"

Joe crossed his arms, "I could say the same to you." He turned to face Nancy. "I know you didn't finish the bios, but how much did you get?"

"Well, I went down the list you gave me and I've got a page for everyone, but most just contain names and no details. I've got more on our victims and on the people we've actually talked one on one with. They still need a lot of work though."

Claire shifted in her seat. "So what next?"

Frank rested his head in his hands, "What do we know about the killer?"

"They're a poet and they know it," Joe deadpanned. Four sets of eyes rolled simultaneously. "What? It's true."

"Anyways, on a more serious note, they must be someone in the house and they can't get in or out," Claire supplied.

Lexi nodded, "Yeah, and that they have a gun. We haven't found the weapon yet so we'll have to assume they still have it."

"We also need to ask people if their roommates were in their rooms when the scream occurred. We still don't know who screamed and we need to narrow down our options."

"Nancy has a good point there," Frank replied, "Anything else you want add, Nancy?"

Nancy twisted her strawberry blonde hair feeling some of her earlier anger returning. There was a moment of silent tension. "Uh, no, if I had anything, I'd have said it." Frank was clearly trying to compliment away the fight they had had.

"Well, I have something to add," Claire interjected, "Hanc. W.D. Smith has worked on serial cases before. Perhaps we should have him look at the poems with us. He may find something we're missing."

Nancy nodded. "I agree. We really should get more people involved. Perhaps with more people on the lookout for foul play the killer will be afraid to strike."

"I'm surprised people aren't volunteering to help us investigate," Joe replied, a drop of irritation in his voice.

Lexi snorted angrily. "That would require them to take time out of their busy treasure hunting schedule to save lives. They've got priorities."

"Speaking of which, we need to take a little time out of our murder case to work on finding that treasure. We've hardly given it a thought."

"Nancy's right again," Frank inserted much to Nancy's annoyance. "We are focusing solely on one case and neglecting the other. Don't get me wrong, I realize murder is far more important than treasure, but that treasure is the whole reason we're locked in here. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can get out of here."

"I feel that. As much as I love a good mystery I will never be comfortable being locked in some old castle with a murderer. This whole thing is just plain freaky," Claire said.

"For once, Claire, I agree; there is no denying this situation is freaky." Frank said.

"So what do we do now?" Joe asked with a yawn.

Nancy supplied her own yawn. "First I say we catch some shut eye. We didn't get a whole lot last night and today wore me out. Then I say we investigate our murder scenes again and our victims' rooms. Hopefully we'll find something to go off of."

Beep! Beep! Beep! Joe groaned and stuffed his head into his pillow at the sound of the alarm. Beep! Beep! Beep! A frustrated sigh sounded from the other bed as someone slammed their hand on the snooze button. "Joe," Claire grumbled, "the alarm will only beep again unless you get yourself out of bed and turn it off. And no amount of plugging your ears will drown it out."

"IDUNWANNAGTUMP" Joe muttered into his pillow as he pulled the covers tighter.

"What was that?"

Joe pushed his head up from the pillow. "I don't want to get up." His head fell back.

"Yes, well, you're going to. I'm going to get a shower. You have twenty minutes to be up and ready before I get out. If you aren't ready I'll be forced to take pictures of your bed head and post them on the Internet when we get out of here."

Joe's head shot up again. "You wouldn't."

Claire smirked. "How would you know? We just met two days ago." Claire rummaged through her bag and removed some clothes before heading to the bathroom door. "I wouldn't test me if I were you," she called out evilly before shutting the door.

Joe rolled back over and snuggled into the pillow only to be elbowed in the side. "Hey, what was that for?"

"I think she was serious Joe. Besides, you did volunteer to go check out Mr. Bass's body."

"Only to retrieve my beeper," Joe grumbled before pushing himself off the bed. He cast a quick glare at Frank who's eyes were still closed.

"Oh, and don't forget to turn off the alarm."

"Yeah, gladly."

Joe munched on a doughnut as he and Claire headed through the woods. They had been going in circles for hours looking for their mud hole without any luck.

"I'm certain Nancy, Lexi, and I passed this tree on our way to the house. In fact, I think this is the one I--Lexi, tripped over." Claire's head was darting back and forth taking in trees. She had already tripped several times as she forgot to watch her feet.

"Yeah, that tree also looks like the one we passed five minutes ago. Are you sure you don't want a doughnut?" Joe asked his mouth full of food.

"I'm sure."

"Ok, more for me. That looks like the same tree too and so does that one. I think it's safe to say we're lost."

Claire growled. "We aren't lost. I don't get lost." She pushed through some bushes. "In fact, we're here." Claire stood at the edge of the clearing her arms crossed and a triumphant grin upon her face.

Joe stuck the last piece of doughnut in his mouth and brushed the crumbs off his hands before approaching the mud-hole. "Great! Claire, can you look for my beeper? It's somewhere in the bushes." Joe reached the edge of the pit, "Now, to examine Mr.—whoa!"

Claire cocked her head in confusion. "What is it, Joe?"

"Mr. Bass is gone! Our corpse is missing!"

So how is that for a cliffie? Flirty Max, Pinching Claire, and a missing Mr. Bass; oh my, things have gotten pretty freaky.

Well, I finished the final outline of this fic. (I've redone it a few times already) and it is now safe to say that this fic will be 20 chapters with an epilogue of sorts. We're halfway to the end.

Wow, I am on a Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys high from reading 15 super mysteries in 4 days. I only need 8 more titles and I'll have them all. Does Dance

Anyways, if you review please thank my BETA reader, msnancydrew, for her hard work.

Much luv,

Political Blonde