Con pulled up to his second perfect suburbia image that day. The Shaw's lived in a nice two storied house with a one car garage and a big open lawn. The house was a nice airy shade of blue with white trim and a garden. It too was in a nice neighborhood, with children playing and neighbors chatting away the Sunday. But this place lacked the cop cars and taint that the Hardy's neighborhood and house now had.
Before Con climbed out of his car he made a phone call to one of the detectives on his squad and his partner this time around who was back at the station.
"Hey Carry?"
"Hey Con, what's up?"
"I stopped by the crime scene and spoke to Larry, he had good news. We have trace evidence and possible DNA. He'll call when he has something. I have my own good news, I need you to run a licenses plate for me, 901X547, and do a search on a Josh Whelm; he was heard threatening Frank by one of the neighbors."
"That is good, and I have news to match. The Chief called, Joe Hardy's awake and the Chief got his statement. He'll be back at the station in about an hour and a half. He wants us to have a briefing together."
"That's good; I should be back there by then. Right now I'm at the home of Callie Shaw, and I'm going to interview her. I was going to interview Vanessa Bender too, but I guess that'll have to wait."
"No it won't, Chief said to tell you that Vanessa was staying with the Shaws."
"That's convenient," Con sad with a smile. "I'll see you in about an hour or so."
"Right and I'll give you a call when I hear from Larry. Take care Con."
"Take care," Con returned then hung up. He sighed and climbed out of his car and headed for the Shaw's front door.
Mrs. Shaw, a pretty woman with shoulder length blond hair and brown eyes greeted him on the second knock, "Hello, may I help you?"
"I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, but my Name is Con Riley, and I'm a detective with the Bayport Police Department," he answered, showing her his badge. "I was wondering if I could speak to your daughter, Callie and her friend Vanessa Bender if Vanessa is still here. They're not in trouble I assure you; I just need to ask them a few questions."
Mrs. Shaw studied the badge, the smile that was on her face wavering slightly, "Vanessa is here and they're in the living room. Please, follow me."
Con followed the woman through her neatly furnished home to the living room where two girls sat across from each other on the floor talking and laughing without a car in the world. He recognized the girls as soon as he saw them as Frank and Joe's girlfriends and here they were blind to the turmoil that their boyfriends were in. Now Con was going to destroy their clueless happiness, and it made him ill.
"Girls, this is detective Riley, he's needs to speak to you," Mrs. Shaw said from the entranceway. Booth girls looked up, a smile on their faces to hide their confusion as Con stepped in.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you ladies, but I need to ask a few questions," he said softly to them.
Callie and Vanessa booth stood, looking from Mrs. Shaw to Con, trying to figure out what was going on. It was Callie who spoke first, "You work with Mr. Hardy on cases, and Frank and Joe right?"
"Yes, that's right. I'm a friend of theirs. I know that you two are their girlfriends, right?"
"Yes," Callie confirmed.
"Girls, I'm not going to beat around the bush. Last night some people broke into the Hardy's house and they attacked Frank and Joe. They're booth hurt pretty bad and are in the hospital right now," Con had to stop speaking and look away from the two teenagers as he saw the anguish wash over their faces. He hated himself for that; he hated himself for taking these girls day, a good, ordinary day, and tearing it to pieces. He hated the look on their faces, the tears that were now falling freely from their eyes. He hated the people responsible and now more then ever wanted to find them. He hated this whole day.
Mrs. Shaw, who had remained in the entranceway, was quick to come to the girls sides. She pulled booth girls to her and did her best to sooth them. Her eyes met Con's and held a million questions to which he had no answer. It would take a minuet for the girls to get over their initial shock, but Con was willing to wait.
When they were finally calm enough to talk, Con started again, "I want to first assure you booth that the boys are stable, Joe's even awake and they expect Frank to wake up soon. I also want to assure you that you aren't suspected of anything and the only reason I want to talk to you is that you are the last known people to see the boys ok?"
The girls nodded and waited.
"Callie, Mrs. Hardy said that you took Frank home?"
"He was having a migraine…a really bad one. He couldn't even see straight. We left the Carnival around five thirty. I drove him home, and I stayed until about eight thirty. He got sick, he was throwing up and I didn't want to leave him like that…" she said softly.
Con gave her a smile, "I understand. What did the two of you do while you were there?"
"I made him go and take a shower while I cooked him some dinner after he was done throwing up. I know that his stomach was upset, but I wanted him to have something in him so I made soup. He ate it, called his mom while I made some tea. Then he drank the tea and took some Tylenol and went to bed. Then I came home."
Con nodded and turned to Vanessa, "Vanessa, can you tell me what happened at the Carnival?"
"After Frank and Callie left, we joined up with a few friends, Chet, and Biff and just walked around until the fireworks. After the fireworks Joe took me here, and then he went home. That's all that happened."
"Did any of you notice someone following you? Or maybe there was someone who came to the door while you were at the Hardy house, Callie? Somebody speak to the boys who you guys didn't know?"
The girls thought for a moment, but shock their heads. Vanessa answered for booth of them when she said, "I didn't notice anybody."
"What about a guy named Josh Whelm? Did any of you see him at the Carnival?"
"Josh was there, he was in the parking lot when Frank and I were heading out," Callie answered. "Is Josh a suspect?"
"We had a witness say that they heard him threaten Frank, do you know anything about that?" Con asked, deciding to take a chance telling the girls about their only lead as of now.
"Well yeah, but Josh does that a lot. He wouldn't hurt Frank; Frank's the only person who'd work with him…" Callie said confused.
"So you know about the threat?"
"Yeah, I was there. Finals are next week and Frank found out that Josh was going to cheat. The rules of the tutoring program are that if you find evidence of academic dishonesty you have to report it, and Frank had. Josh wasn't allowed to return to the tutoring program and he now has to take the finals with a teacher watching him. He was angry and he threatened Frank," Callie said.
"What did he say? Do you remember?"
"I think he said 'I'm going to beat you to death with my own two hands Hardy.'"
Con gave her a smile and nodded, "Thank you, thank you booth," Con turned to leave but a thought hit him. 'The Hardy's have a security system, how did the boys' attackers get in with out setting it off?'
"Callie, when you left, did you turn on the alarm?"
Callie looked at him blankly for a second and then a wash of anguish crossed her face, "I didn't know the combination and Frank was asleep…oh God, it was my fault that they got in…" she said as she slumped into her mother.
Con cursed silently, agree with himself all over again, "I doubt that the alarm would have posed much of a problem for the ones responsible. This is not your fault do you understand?" Con said as firmly as he could. "I don't want ether of you two to think that, alright?"
The girls nodded, Callie still leaning on her mother.
"You two have helped a lot, thank you. And I'm sure that the Hardy's would appreciate a visit from you girls…" Con added, looking up at Mrs. Shaw.
She nodded catching on to what he was suggesting, "Of course. Why don't you girls help me make some food to take over for them? Then we'll go see them."
"Thank you ladies," Con said again, "I'll show myself out."