Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or any of the canon book characters, and am making no monies from this story. Any Original Characters belong to the author(s).

Note: This story was written around the year 2003, so technology is not as advanced as it is today. People still used landlines! Also it was originally co-written with another person, to whom I give much credit for the plot, and unending thanks. Many thanks to those of you who have left reviews [Cherylann Rivers, Max2013, Sparkling Soul and a mysterious guest]; you're greatly appreciated! I know it's difficult trying to follow a story when the updates don't get announced consistently. And thank you to any and all who are reading and enjoying the story but not necessarily leaving comments.

APRIL SHOWERS

By EvergreenDreamweaver and Sparks JSH

Chapter 13

Joe Hardy made sure April Wayne was seated comfortably in the passenger seat of the boys' van, slammed the door, and walked around the back of the vehicle, to climb into the driver's seat. He buckled his seat belt and started the engine, then drove toward the parking lot's exit.

"Tired?" he asked, after a few moments, glancing over at April. She had been staring out the side window, apparently lost in thought.

"Not really," she replied. "Jittery, maybe, about what happened this morning." April scowled. "And I'm mad, of course."

Joe sighed. "April, you're not still mad at Jack, are you?"

"No, I'm not mad at Jack." The girl smiled a little. "I'm worried about Jack, but I'm not mad at him anymore. I'm mad about what happened to my car!"

"Oh." Joe nodded his understanding. "Yeah, I guess you have a right to be mad about that."

The two teens fell silent once more, but Joe's brain had clicked into high gear. April's car…now why would there have been a bomb in April's car this morning? Deke and Ernie didn't plant it the other day, when I ran into them in the parking lot…someone could have unlocked it any time since then; why was it suddenly there today?

"How could Deke and Ernie have known you were picking up your car today?" he mused aloud. "They had to plant that bomb some time in the last 24 hours or so…but no one knew you were picking it up this morning, except our families."

"Vanessa knew," April said, hesitantly. She didn't wish to sound as if she was accusing Vanessa of anything.

"Not until this morning," Joe responded, shaking his head. "I didn't call her until after nine o'clock. By that time, people were here, and no one could have messed with your car; it would have been noticed." He broke off. "April, Vanessa wouldn't have put a bomb in your car!"

"I know that!" she snapped. After a moment's thought, she spoke again. "Joe – don't think I'm down on Jack again, please…but Frank called him last night, and told him what we planned for today, remember? If Jack hadn't been so great to me today, and I didn't know why he was doing this, I might think he'd told Deke and Ernie himself."

"April!" Joe sounded scandalized. "Jack wouldn't ever do something like that, to put you in danger." Oh no? What about loosening that oil line in the plane? Ahhh, stop thinking like that, you idiot; Jack thought he was endangering himself, not April!

"Well, he's the only one that could have let them know," April insisted unhappily.

"No!" Joe cried, as a sudden thought struck him. "He and Frank must have told them without even knowing it! Your house must be bugged!"

"Bugged?" April giggled. "You make it sound like we need an exterminator."

"You just might, at that." Joe slowed the van and turned into a driveway; brought the vehicle to a halt and prepared to back out and return the way they had come. "April, do you feel up to doing a little exterminating?"

"What? Sure, I guess so…but what do you—"

"Let's go over to your house and see if we can find some bugs to exterminate, shall we?"

#####

Back at Wayne's World, Jason and Frank finished checking off the cargo manifests, made sure everything was secure aboard the pretty blue-and-white plane, and pushed it out of the hangar onto the tarmac.

"She's all ready, Frank," Jason grinned. "And you're due to leave, if you're going to be on schedule."

Frank nodded in affirmation. "I'm just going to check with Jack before I go," he told Jason, and walked towards Jack's office cubicle. He tapped on the half-open door and popped his head inside. "Jack? I'm ready to take off."

Jack, head bent over paperwork on his desk, looked up. "Okay, Frank. Have a safe flight. And get back as soon as you can." His dark eyes were very sober. "I'm counting on you and Joe to take care of April, you know."

"I will," Frank promised. "And we'll take care of April. But Jack – what are you going to do?" The young pilot had been evasive about his plans for disposing of Ernie and Deke, and Frank was concerned.

"Well, first I'm going to have a meeting with your dad and Roger," Jack assured the elder Hardy boy. "Don't worry, Frank, I'm not going off half-cocked with this. But I am going to finish it…one way or another."

"Jack – be careful, huh?" Frank stepped into the office and held out his hand to Jack, who clasped it warmly.

"Always, Frank – always. Now, scram, get outta here; go fly that run." Jack gave him a little push, and Frank headed for his plane, laughing.

#####

"I figure Deke and Ernie had time and opportunity to plant one or more bugging devices when they were here – after they'd half-drowned Jack; he was unconscious, and you were shut up in the closet," Joe explained. April handed him her key, letting Joe unlock the front door rather than struggling with her left hand. "They must have decided that Jack either couldn't or wouldn't tell them anything, and they hoped to pick up some information by monitoring the house and the phones."

"How can I help look?" April asked, watching as Joe scanned the walls, ceiling and floor of the entry hall with alert blue eyes.

"Try in the living room," Joe instructed, "and I'll start in Jack's den. Look behind furniture, under things, behind pictures, look everywhere for something that doesn't look like it belongs."

The two separated, and for a few minutes there were only the soft sounds of drawers being opened and closed, books being shifted, items being moved about. Joe, scowling with concentration, went from the den into the kitchen….and there he struck pay dirt.

"April! I've found one!" The younger Hardy had pried open the receiver of the phone in the kitchen, and discovered a tiny device he recognized. April hurriedly limped into the kitchen to inspect it.

"Okay, now I know what I'm looking for," she nodded. "Will they all look like that one?"

"Mmmm…more or less." Joe sounded uncertain. "Let's keep looking."

#####

At three-thirty, Jack Wayne's small office held three sober-faced men: Fenton Hardy, the DEA agent Roger Taylor, and Jack himself. Jack was speaking rapidly and earnestly to the others, as he outlined his plan.

"…so I'm going to contact Deke and Ernie again. I'll arrange to meet them and deliver the kilos of cocaine. And this time, I'll do it. I won't have them hurting April."

"Jack, you can't do something like that by yourself," Roger objected. "Those two would just as soon kill you as deal with you, after everything that's gone on in the past few days. You're going to need backup. If Fenton and I can be there too, then maybe – just maybe we can pull it off. Do you think they'd agree to meet you here? We can make the arrest right here, tonight."

"Jack—" Fenton spoke at almost the same time as the other man. "I'm not happy about this idea. It's too dangerous for you. And nothing is going to happen to April. Frank and Joe will see to that."

"Yeah, right." Jack's lip curled. "She was almost killed today, she and Joe both! I know it was my fault that she almost died in the plane accident, but Deke and Ernie came too close to finishing the job with that bomb in her car. I trust the boys with her, Fenton; you know I do. But I don't trust Deke and Ernie. They play for keeps and now they have their sights set on April. I have to give them what they want."

Roger looked up at this, slightly surprised. "But Jack, you said you didn't know what had happened to the drugs. How can you give them what you don't have?"

Fenton frowned at his former pilot. "Jack…?" There was more than a tinge of doubt in his voice, in his unspoken question.

Jack gave the detective a sharp look. "Fenton, I thought you above anyone else would know me better than that. I don't have the drugs. I don't know what happened to the stash that was in my plane, but I didn't do anything with it!"

"Jack, I wasn't accusing you of anything—" Fenton began, but Jack was rushing on.

"But whatever it takes, I have to turn over bricks of cocaine to Deke and Ernie. I need your help…both of you. But if you won't help me, I'll do it alone. I'll manage it somehow."

Roger Taylor and Mr. Hardy exchanged glances, and there was silence for a moment or two. Finally, Roger spoke.

"I think I can get you some, Jack. There should be some in the evidence room at headquarters, over in Westport. But it'll take me a few hours to do it; there are lots of hoops to jump through to obtain something like that, even for a sting operation."

"Thanks, Roger," Jack said gratefully. "I won't let you down."

"Jack, this isn't a good idea…" Fenton tried again to dissuade the young man from his proposed course of action. "You're risking yourself badly."

"I'm hoping you'll be here for backup, Fenton," Jack said with a wry grin. "I don't want to face Deke and Ernie by myself, although I'll do it if I have to."

"I'll be there, of course," the detective assured him. "And with Roger…and perhaps one of the boys…?"

"No!" Jack cut in sharply. "I don't want them involved in this. I want them guarding April. She'll be safe with them," he repeated again, rubbing his hand across his eyes distractedly.

"Jack—" Fenton said gently. "What good will it do April to be guarded within an inch of her life if something happens to you?"

#####

Joe and April had found two more "bugs," one in the telephone in Jack's bedroom, and the other in a light fixture in the upstairs hallway. "I think we'd better call Jack about this," Joe commented to April as they left the house, carefully locking the door behind them. "Jack definitely needs to know Deke and Ernie were keeping him under surveillance." He stopped as a sudden thought struck him. "Let me check one more thing." He looked up, tracing the path of the telephone wires attached to the house, then went around the side of the house and knelt down.

"What are you doing?" April inquired, following him.

"Just making sure they didn't put an overall tap on the phone lines, although that would really be overkill, with the devices in the phones." Joe grinned over his shoulder at her. "I did this a couple of months ago, on our house!" he admitted.

"Why, for pity's sake?"

"Mmmm, well, I needed to find out if somebody called Frank…" Joe let his voice trail off as he rose to his feet. "There's nothing here," he went on, brushing dirt from his jeans. "Let's go."

April shivered. "It's a gruesome thought; knowing those two slimes were listening in to everything that went on here."

"Well, not that much went on, because you were over at our house," Joe reminded her. "If Frank hadn't happened to call Jack last night, they wouldn't have planted that bomb in your car, I'll bet." Although who knows what else they might have tried…. The teens went down the sidewalk and got into the van, and Joe reached for his cell phone. "What's Jack's number at the airfield, April?"

She told him the numbers, and he dialed swiftly. "Jack? It's Joe Hardy – no, everything's fine! April and I just had an idea, on our way home, and we checked it out. We found out how Deke and Ernie managed to plant the bomb in April's car at just the right time….listen to this…."

When Joe ended the call, he was grinning ruefully. "Your brother has an extensive vocabulary," he commented. "And he's not very happy that his phone was tapped and the house bugged."

April flushed. "Is he blaming me for that too?" she asked defensively.

"Hey, now…" Joe started the van's engine and prepared to drive back to his home. "Of course he's not blaming you for it. He's kicking himself for not thinking of it – although why he should have thought of it, I don't know." Joe glanced at April as he maneuvered the van through the afternoon traffic. "Let's just go home and stop worrying about it for awhile, okay? You're supposed to be resting, remember?"

April nodded reluctantly. "All right, Joe. I suppose you're right." She shot him an arch look. "And I think that 'resting' part applies to you, too…and if you don't do it, I'll tell Frank on you!"

Joe opened his mouth to argue – and then shut it. He resolutely focused his attention on the road, and managed to ignore April's teasing laughter beside him.