J.M.J.

A/N: Thank you for continuing to read this story! Thank you especially to EvergreenDreamweaver, Candylou, BMSH, max2013, and Cherylann Rivers for your reviews on the last chapter!

Chapter XI

Suspicion

"What can you tell me about O'Rourke?" Frank asked. He was sitting in Olaf's office while they waited for Joe, Mario, and Kristy Lewis to arrive. Olaf, of course, had requested that Kristy come to the station to see whether Colby Justeson was really the young man who had been asking at her house about the Mustang. By chance, Joe and Mario had been at her place, asking her more questions about the fellow when he called, and so they were coming with her. In the meantime, Frank had decided to wait around, curious to see whether Olaf's suspicions were well-founded or not.

Olaf rolled his eyes and scoffed at the mention of his colleague. "O'Rourke. I could tell you more than you ever wanted to hear about him."

"Oh?" Frank was aware that there was contention between O'Rourke and Olaf, and of the two, O'Rourke had the better reputation for good police work. It was likely that anything that Olaf said about O'Rourke would be fueled mainly by rivalry, but there were two strange occurrences with O'Rourke now – his questions about Joe's case and Colby Justeson's reaction to seeing him in the hallway – and Frank wanted to find out anything he could about the officer.

However, Olaf wasn't as readily cooperative as his initial reaction to Frank's question would indicate. "Why do ask?" The look he gave Frank made it clear that it wasn't a merely casual question.

Frank shrugged, unsure whether to be straightforward about his vague suspicions or not. "Mostly just curious, I guess." He decided to go with being cagey.

The answer did seem to be satisfactory for Olaf. He grunted in annoyance as he settled himself farther into his chair. Then a sudden thought appeared to occur to him. "Did you notice how nervous that Justeson kid got when he saw O'Rourke hanging around? This could be…" He stopped himself, apparently thinking better of what he was going to say.

Frank was trying to decide how to continue asking questions when Joe arrived with Mario and Kristy. It was the first time Frank had met either of them, and he shook hands cordially with each of them.

"Now, Ms. Lewis," Olaf said, "I was told that there was a young man at your home yesterday asking about the car you sold to Biff Hooper, which is connected to the cold case that Joe Hardy is currently investigating. Is that correct?"

"Yes," Kristy affirmed.

"Would you be able to recognize this man if you saw him again?" Olaf continued.

"I think so," Kristy replied, "but I don't have the best memory for faces, you see."

The Hardys and Olaf all tried to restrain a collective groan. If when Kristy took a look at Colby Justeson, she couldn't say for sure whether he was the one or not, they'd be no farther along than they were already.

"All right." Olaf professionally brushed aside his disappointment. "We have a suspect in custody, and I would like you to identify him, if you can."

"I'll try," Kristy promised.

Olaf led her to the holding cell, allowing Frank, Joe, and Mario to trail along behind. Colby was still sitting with his back to the hallway.

"Justeson," Olaf told him, "stand up a minute. I've got someone who wants to take a look at you."

"What is this, a zoo?" Colby grumbled without moving. "Some kind of freak show, like 'come and take a look at the juvenile delinquent'? 'Cause that's all I am to you pigs."

"Clever, Justeson," Olaf replied. "I've got a witness here. If you're as innocent as you say, you've got nothing to lose by cooperating."

Colby begrudgingly stood up and turned around. Everyone watched Kristy's expression as she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"That's not him," she announced.

"Are you sure?" Olaf asked.

"Positive," Kristy replied. "He doesn't look anything like him."

"Finally, somebody around here who tells the truth," Colby said. "Now you'll have to let me go, right, Mr. Fuzz?"

"Not just yet," Olaf told him. He gestured for everyone else to follow him and went back to his office. "Thank you for coming down here, Ms. Lewis. You've been most helpful."

"Sorry I couldn't be more helpful," Kristy said. "If there's anything else I can do, just let me know."

The Hardys and Mario left the station with her. Kristy had brought her own car, and she took off. The others remained in front of the police headquarters for a minute longer.

Frank glanced at his watch. "Phil and Lisa and the kids should be getting into town any time now. Callie and I are going to have dinner with them. You guys are welcome to come if you want."

"Sure," Joe replied. "That is, if you want to, Mario."

"It's fine with me," Mario agreed, "if you're sure I'm not intruding."

"Not at all," Frank assured him. "Why don't you come over right away? That is, unless you've got something else to do on the case."

"We had one idea," Joe said. "We tracked down some names of some people who might have been involved in the robbery, but they moved away shortly afterwards. We were going to see if they have any old neighbors who might still be around and might possibly remember them. It's a long shot, but I'm out of other ideas. Anyway, that can wait until tomorrow, and maybe by then I'll think of something better."

HBHBHBHBHB

Callie had prepared a simple but delicious meal, and her and Frank's dining room was, of course, lovely. Phil Cohen, who was Frank's closest friend from high school, and his wife, Lisa, along with their two small children, were excited to see Frank and Callie again, since the last time they had was at Frank and Callie's wedding. Dinner was laid-back and relaxing, and afterwards, they all gathered in the living room to talk. Although the conversation started out with merely catching up with each other and a good many polite questions addressed to Mario, it wasn't long before it turned to the subject of detective work. Phil was very interested in Joe's case and more than a little curious about Frank's lack of involvement in it.

Even though they hadn't had a chance to see each other in person in a year and a half, Frank and Phil had kept in touch, and so Phil was aware of Frank's decision to abandon private investigation to study forensics. However, he hadn't realized how serious Frank was about it.

Callie was quiet through this part of the conversation. For over half a year, the question of whether Frank would continue as a detective or not had been hanging over her, coming up almost every day. She was so tired of it, although she knew that it was her own fault. If only she wouldn't have ever brought it up!

"It sounds like a tough problem," Phil observed when Joe had finished giving all the details of the case once again.

"I don't see what difference it makes whether you solve it or not," Lisa commented. "Whoever took the money must have spent it by now, and if the robber is even still alive, there's nothing you can do to him except let everyone know he robbed a bank once."

"True," Joe admitted. It was a little tough to explain why the case intrigued him so much.

"But then there's the car bomb," Frank pointed out. "We can't – Joe can't just let the person who planted it get away with something like that."

"Are you sure the kid that the police caught isn't the one who set the bomb?" asked Callie, who wished that the dangerous part of the case, at least, could be solved so easily, though she knew it wouldn't be.

"Well, of course, we can't be certain," Joe said. "He could have been lying about setting the bomb, and just because he wasn't the one asking Kristy questions doesn't mean he's not involved. It's just that the evidence against him is pretty scarce, and he doesn't have a motive. I've never even met him before."

Frank, who was sitting next to his wife, took hold of her hand. "Don't worry, honey. It'll be fine." He cast a glance at Joe, who immediately understood that his brother wanted to change the subject.

For a moment, Joe scrambled to find something to talk about that would sound natural and not forced. "Yeah, I mean, we've got a pretty great police force here in Bayport, so they're bound to get it cleared up. Of course, after Chief Collig retires, they're going to have a tough time finding anyone to replace him."

"Chief Collig is retiring?" Phil asked, taking the bait as Joe had hoped he would.

"Yeah," Joe replied. "At the end of the year. The paper said he's been with the Bayport PD for forty-one years. Crazy, huh? I mean, he'd already been a cop forever when I was born."

"Huh. That's hard to picture anyone else being chief," Phil said. "I mean, Collig's been chief as long as I can remember."

"We should have a retirement party for him," Joe went on. "Sure, the police department will anyway, but we should have one, too."

"Speaking of parties," Frank said, grateful to Joe for changing the subject so smoothly, "what about your party you had planned for tomorrow night? Is it still on?"

For a moment, all Joe did was stare at him in confusion. Then he remembered the plans he had laid out the other day. Truth be told, he hadn't given it another thought since he had talked about it with Frank. "Oh, right. Yeah, it's still on. I, uh, haven't found anyone with a volleyball net yet, though."

"My parents still have one, I think," Phil volunteered. "I can ask if we can use it."

Gradually, the conversation died down. Phil and Lisa had to go before it got too late, since their children needed to get to sleep. With the other guests gone, Mario was feeling out of place and hoped Joe would want to leave soon, as well. However, Callie, who was always a gracious hostess, began to talk to him about New York, since that was one of her favorite cities. Meanwhile, Frank signaled to Joe that he wanted to talk to him alone, and so the two of them excused themselves on the pretext that they were going to clean up the kitchen in order to save Callie the trouble.

As soon as the door was closed behind them, Frank turned to Joe. "I didn't want to say anything in front of anyone else because I could be wrong, but I really do think there's something going on with O'Rourke."

"Okay," Joe said. He had already said what he thought of any possibility of O'Rourke's involvement in the case, but he knew that Frank didn't get caught up on things like this without a reason. He was willing to hear him out on it. "Did he do anything more?"

"Well, it wasn't much," Frank admitted, "but the first time I talked to Colby Justeson, O'Rourke walked past. When Colby caught sight of him, I felt like he lost his train of thought for a minute."

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything," Joe pointed out.

"I know." Frank folded his arms. "I just think it would be worthwhile to look into O'Rourke a little more. We've both been in this business long enough to know that you can never be too careful about who you can trust."

"And also that where there's smoke, there isn't always fire. The kid's a cop-hater with a record. He could have had some run-in with O'Rourke where O'Rourke was completely on the level, but seeing him shook him anyway. There are probably quite a few people who'd have the same reaction to seeing one of us."

"Maybe." Frank wasn't convinced.

"You could be right," Joe relented. "I'll see what I can learn about him, although if he is up to something, he's not going to have a record."

"That's true," Frank agreed. "I think Olaf knows something about him, besides just their usual rivalry. You might want to start with him." He paused, biting his lip.

"What else is eating you?" Joe asked.

Frank swallowed. "Somebody tried to kill you. I should be helping track them down. If anything happens to you…"

"Nothing's going to happen," Joe cut him off. "The whole thing was probably meant as a warning, anyway. Even if it wasn't, I told Dad I'd have people around me all the time. What could happen to me?"

Frank sighed and shook his head. "You're seriously asking that? Anyway, it doesn't matter. I should be there when you need me. We've always been a team. It's not right, the way things have gone."

It was Joe's turn to sigh now. "It's different now. There's no denying that. But I don't think it's wrong. I think – Well, in a way, the way things have gone is sort of making it easier…" He stopped himself. Maybe right now wasn't the best time.

"What is it, Joe? Something's been on your mind a lot lately. What is it?"

"It's kind of hard to explain," Joe replied softly, "but I guess maybe it's about time I did. How about, since you feel like you should take a turn keeping an eye on me, how about we meet up for breakfast tomorrow and talk about it?"

"Just the two of us, or Callie, too?" Frank asked.

Joe tried to keep his expression neutral, but he wasn't sure that he succeeded. "Whichever way you guys want it."