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 in 2006, so technology was not as advanced as it is today. Co-written with RokiaHDA, who wrote back then under the name of Aspen.

Thank you, Cherylann, Candylou, Sarai and Max2013, for leaving feedback.

A Fiery December

By EvergreenDreamweaver and RokiaHDA

Chapter 21

Joe awoke early, finding himself abruptly blinking up at the dimly visible ceiling. One moment sound asleep, the next wide awake. He rolled his head on the pillow and located the red LED numbers on the bedside clock radio. 6:45. Fifteen minutes until the seven a.m. meeting started.

Good thing I woke up!

He hadn't thought he would sleep – too concerned about Frank's absence, too aware of the passage of time – a sort of Doomsday Clock ticking away in the back of his mind. Somehow, he knew there wasn't a whole lot of time left to spare – he knew that they needed to find Frank. Soon. Today.

He threw back the blankets and swung himself out of bed, heading into the bathroom for a fast shower. A few minutes later he emerged, toweling off his hair. Clean underwear and socks – okay, the jeans from yesterday were fine – and a clean blue t-shirt. Hiking boots – because, damn it, they needed to search Volcanoes National Park, and he wasn't going to be left behind for lack of suitable footwear!

Six-fifty-eight. Stuffing wallet and key card into his pocket, Joe exited the hotel room. He traversed the short distance to his parents' room and knocked for admittance.

"Good morning, honey, come in." Laura swung the door wider and stepped back. "There's coffee and some rolls..." She waved vaguely towards the table as Joe walked past, already drawn towards the seductive aroma of coffee.

Chief Pauahi was already there, leaning over the table and scanning a map. Sitting beside it were a cup of coffee and a Danish pastry on a paper napkin. Fenton was there too, looking very tired. To Joe's surprise, his father was wearing his shoulder holster – he hadn't even been aware that Fenton had brought the weapon to Hawaii! I'll bet Dad didn't sleep at all – even though he could've grabbed four hours or so, between last night's meeting and now. Oh heck, Dad's gone without sleep before, during cases – probably for days, Joe told himself. It isn't likely he'll lose any efficiency from lack of sleep now!

Another knock on the door heralded the arrival of Megan and Vanessa, neither wearing much makeup, both looking pale and heavy-eyed. They were each dressed for action, Vanessa in jeans and a t-shirt, Megan in black slacks and a long-sleeved denim button-down shirt. Vanessa's hair was pulled back into a severe ponytail. She moved across the room to give Joe a brief good-morning kiss; Megan stopped to accept a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll from Laura, then settled down on the sofa to listen to the conversation.

"I have a team already at the park," Pauahi mentioned casually, as he continued to trace lines on his map. "And the park rangers have been alerted. They'll set up search sectors for the park, of course – but that will take too long to search, with the amount of personnel we have at our disposal. Lieutenant McCullough is going to arrange for some more 5-0 officers, though..."

Joe frowned slightly at this mention of the liaison officer from Honolulu. He actually liked and admired McCullough, and had from the time they met – but he wasn't at all happy with the police lieutenant's cavalier attitude towards himself...and Frank. Just because I'm young, is that any reason to doubt what I'm saying? I'm not a newbie by any stretch of the imagination – damn it, I've got credibility! Ask Chief Collig! Ask Con Riley! Ask DAD, for Pete's sake! He sighed and nibbled moodily on a blueberry-swirl pastry. Still, I suppose I just have to earn his respect just like anyone else would. And I will earn it...one way or another.

As if thinking about Dylan McCullough had conjured up the man, he knocked on the door of the suite scarcely two minutes later. He was accompanied by Captain Masukoko, and both men were carrying small white paper bags and cups with Starbucks logos. Masukoko was neatly dressed in slacks and a Hawaiian-print shirt; for once Dylan looked more like a police officer than a beach bum, as he was wearing jeans and a shirt with the '5-O' insignia on the front, plus sturdy low boots.

"Didn't we just leave this place?" McCullough yawned, then grinned self-deprecatingly. "I can't function well without a caramel macchiato in the morning!" he admitted, holding up his cup, and settled down at the table with Fenton and Chief Pauahi. He began looking over the map, frowning thoughtfully. "Still pushing that idea that Frank might be in the national park, then?"

Joe bit his tongue, valiantly resisting the urge to snap the man's head off. Chewing out Lt. McCullough wouldn't do any good, after all. They needed him on their side, and if Joe came off as a whiny brat it wouldn't help matters. But why couldn't Dylan just believe him?! He couldn't quite restrain his rebellious glance, although he made it as brief as possible. McCullough looked rested...evidently he'd slept – it just didn't seem fair. Oh come on, Hardy, you slept. Quit your complaining!

Dylan leaned back and took a gulp of his macchiato. "Five-O's sending out five teams – ten more people – to help with the search. Both at Volcanoes Park and anywhere else we consider a possibility. I'd like to keep at least one team with me when I search that warehouse you mentioned, Joe." He gave Joe a stern look, as the boy sighed, and added, "And I AM going to search the warehouse. It won't hurt anything – there are lots of people searching at the Park. And we don't want to leave any possibilities unchecked. It's entirely possible we'll find something at the warehouse, something concrete – which would be a lot more productive than all of us running around trying to search a monstrosity like Volcanoes National Park!"

Joe nodded reluctant agreement. He had to admit Dylan was making some valid points. He settled back in his chair, and let his eyes drift half-closed for a moment, fighting an almost-irresistible urge to yawn. "What are we going to do next, then? Do first, I mean. The warehouse or the park?"

Before any of the police officers could reply, Fenton stated his opinion firmly: "We need to get a definite plan of action laid down and start doing it!" Although he didn't say the actual words, the implication 'and quit wasting time' wasn't lost on the others.

"Megan and I have been talking," Vanessa leaned forward to enter the conversation. "We think that we'll go down to the beach this morning and try to find some of the kids we were at the luau with the other night." She glanced at Joe from the corner of her eye, a guarded look which told him she was being very careful with her words. "Maybe they'd have some ideas where we might look for Frank." Desperation tinged her words. "Maybe one of them has seen him...maybe he's not kidnapped..."

Joe knew she was thinking of Quint and the others who had taken them to the secret party on the beach, and that she didn't dare speak of that, not in front of the police. They'd sworn to keep Quint's name a secret – but she was going to try to find some of the others who had been at that beach party. Not necessarily the ones who had been at the luau.

"Well, you could try," he said dubiously. "Kinda grasping at straws, though." He continued to look uncomfortable. "I don't much like the idea of you two going off alone, though...what if something happened?"

The disparaging noise Megan made was decidedly unladylike. "Joe, we don't really care if 'something happens!' Everyone needs to do their part in trying to find Frank, and this is something we can do – since I already know that you aren't going to let us go search the volcano – ARE you? No, I didn't think so!" as Joe shook his head vehemently. "And we're not helpless, or stupid, either – we'll be careful. But we're going."

"Okay, Red, okay. You made your point." Joe glanced at the other men, receiving some commiserating smiles in return.

Fenton nodded agreement. "It's a valid idea," he conceded, "but Joe's right about being careful, girls. I want you two to check in with someone every half hour or so, got it? That way you won't be far from help if you need it." He eyed both girls soberly. "Promise me?"

"Promise," Vanessa murmured, and Megan nodded.

Chief Pauahi pulled a card from his pocket and scribbled something on the back, then handed it to Vanessa. "Here – that's a number for one of my younger officers – name's Tambo. You check in with him – I'll tell him to expect your calls. Oh – and don't bother going to the beach until this afternoon. You won't catch any locals there in the morning; those kids are night owls. You might as well take a nap too; for certain they will be."

"In the meantime," Dylan put in briskly, "the rest of us should head over to that warehouse!"

"I have a few more calls to make," Captain Masukoko muttered with considerable irritation. "I don't think anyone in Kona is up yet! Supposedly I have a team checking out the cult activity, but I can't raise anyone!"

Another knock on the door surprised them; Fenton got up to answer it, a wary expression on his face. He put one hand on his gun as he approached the door; the gesture clearly demonstrated just how edgy he was. He peered through the peephole, then opened the door. To the surprise of everyone in the room, Detective Meka Ekela stood on the threshold.

"Detective Ekela! I thought you'd left town," Fenton said, and stepped back to admit the big police officer. "Please, come in."

"I took a shuttle flight back to Hana," Ekela said, "talked to my captain, and came back to see if there was any help I could offer. It's not like there's a major crime spree going on over on Maui, after all," he added with a wry grin, "so I feel pretty safe coming here to help look for the missing boy!" He gave Megan and Vanessa a charming smile, then sobered. "I'm sorry about what's happened. It casts a very bad light on Hawaii. And I'll do anything I can to help find Frank before anything happens to him."

"Well, we certainly aren't going to turn down any offers of help!" Chief Pauahi said. He briefly listed the different searches planned and underway, for his large colleague, but when he got to the part about a cult possibly being responsible for Frank's disappearance, Ekela's eyes narrowed, and he scowled in disdain.

"That's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard!" he boomed. "CULT kidnapping, in this day and age? I haven't heard of anything like that in – well, in decades! And I'm a full-blooded Hawaiian, going back generations!"

Dylan McCullough broke into a broad grin at this show of support for his opinion, then manfully tried to subdue it. "That's what I said," he offered, "but we have to check it out, all the same. Joe's information can't be ignored just because we think it's unlikely!"

Joe gave a nod of acknowledgement to the lieutenant, but glared surreptitiously at Ekela. Great, just great – someone else to remind me of Chief Collig back in Bayport! What is it with these guys? Can't they open their minds to something just a little far-fetched – off the wall? Don't they ever think outside the box? Then again...they probably hadn't had to deal with a ghost last month, like he and Frank had...Wonder how Emily's doing now...? With considerable determination, Joe wrenched his wandering mind back to the present and the ongoing conversation in the hotel suite.

"...would make sense if Frank is being held somewhere on the docks," Detective Ekela was saying. "Or even somewhere else on the island – depending on who took him and why."

"It doesn't matter why Frank was taken," Joe reminded them curtly, reining in his temper, "it only matters that we find him. And that means searching everywhere – including Volcanoes National Park!" Which is where he is, you bat-blind people!

"All right, let's get started." Chief Pauahi got to his feet and clapped his hands together decisively. "Come on!"

###

As they drove in several different cars towards the warehouse district, Joe eased himself sideways in the front passenger seat of the police car Dylan McCullough was driving, and then turned to survey his father, in the back seat. He noted that Fenton looked both worried and annoyed.

"Dad? What's wrong?" he asked softly.

"I just feel like this is a bad idea," Fenton admitted. "I feel like we're getting further away from finding Frank, not closer! But I suppose it won't hurt to look over the warehouse," he conceded, "as long as there are other teams already searching the park!"

Detective Ekela spoke up from his seat beside Fenton: "I find it very commendable that you were able to talk to someone about Frank's disappearance, young Joe – even if it does seem to be a wild goose chase! I hope your informant wasn't just playing games with you – what sort of person would do that, after all?"

"I don't think it's a wild goose chase!" Joe gritted, and twisted further about in his seat to address the big Hawaiian. "The person I talked to had no reason to make something like this up – and I don't think he was the sort of person to pull a prank like that. In fact, he was dead scared of someone finding out – and he went to great pains to ensure his own safety!" Incensed, he turned around and stared out the front windshield, pointedly ignoring the police detective in the back seat.

"I'm sorry if I upset you, young Joe..." Ekela attempted to apologize, but the younger Hardy didn't bother to respond. "Joe, I apologize for casting doubts about your information ," Ekela tried again. "Let's hope that in a few days we can all sit around laughing about this, after Frank is found safe and sound."

McCullough pulled the cruiser into a parking space near the warehouse Joe indicated, and the four of them got out. Joe made a point of walking beside his father, still ignoring both Dylan and Detective Ekela. I know Quint was right about the volcano! he seethed inwardly, I know it! And all their scoffing isn't going to make me change my mind!

Two more police cruisers with uniformed teams had parked next to Dylan's car, and the officers now joined them, all the police drawing their service weapons as they approached the warehouse. One of them pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Dylan – the search warrant.

The door was padlocked shut. McCullough looked at the lock, looked at his pistol, and then looked at the detective from Hana. "Detective Ekela, maybe you could do something about this?" he invited.

Grinning, Ekela backed up a few steps, prepared himself, and then broke the door open with a couple of massive kicks. They spilled through the doorway – and pulled up short in a jumbled mass of confusion. The place was empty – stripped clean. There was nothing – and no one – inside.

Dylan spat out a string of curses and kicked furiously at the floor with one booted foot. "Too late!" he exclaimed. "We took too long! We should have come here last night! DAMN it, I was so sure..." He snapped his fingers at the nearest uniformed officer. "Silva, you and Kâne search this place from top to bottom – and make sure you don't overlook anything!" he ordered angrily. He whirled around and stormed outside.

Joe, watching through the broken door, saw the lieutenant pause on the sidewalk and pull in several deep breaths, obviously trying to regain some semblance of control. He followed McCullough outside, waited a moment for him to calm down, and then asked quietly "What now?"

"We keep on," Dylan replied grimly. "We have people searching the park, we just need to find other clues to narrow the search." He looked around, gathering in his personnel with his eyes as the rest of their group joined him and Joe on the sidewalk. "Bishop, you and Kaleo canvass the area – find me some witnesses. I want to know when this place was emptied, and anything about the truck – or trucks – that were used to do it!"

The officers quickly departed, leaving McCullough, Fenton, Ekela and Joe standing in front of the warehouse. Dylan stared out at the nearby ocean for a moment, studying the early-morning sparkle of the waves with a grave face.

"I just had a disturbing thought," he said. "What if Frank's been taken off somewhere in a boat? Maybe a private boat? Somewhere off-island"