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).
This story was originally written in the early 2000s. There are many technological differences from today's world. Co-written with RokiaHDA, who wrote back then under the name of Aspen.
Thank you, Cherylann and Max2013.
Ides of August
By EvergreenDreamweaver and RokiaHDA
Chapter 25
Thomas Streeter, apparently afraid that he had said too much, looked down at his lap, a worried expression on his face. When he looked back up, Joe caught the glint of the young man's eyes, and evidently his father did, too.
"Why are you telling us this now?" Mr. Hardy demanded. "Why didn't you say anything before?"
Thomas looked as nervous as he had before, and Joe stared at him suspiciously. It's like he can turn it off and on, like a light switch! Joe realized. What was Thomas holding back from them?
Thomas looked over at Megan, locking gazes with the girl, who was still regarding him steadily. She smiled encouragingly, and Thomas managed a faint smile in return.
"I was scared," he said in a low, unsteady voice. "I'm still scared. Mr. Jacobs probably killed my best friend….He'll kill to stay free, I'm sure of that. He'll kill to keep anyone from finding out…!" The low voice was tightening and rising in pitch and volume as Thomas spoke.
"Then why say something now?" Joe demanded. "Aren't you still scared he'll do something?"
Thomas looked up and met Joe's eyes. He gave a tiny shrug. "He might," he admitted. "But I can't keep hiding….it's – I just can't. He might kill again. He has to be stopped."
"Thomas, did Cameron Jacobs threaten you?" Fenton questioned him, but instead of answering, Thomas suddenly sprang to his feet and made a beeline for the door. He jerked it open, and hastily departed before anyone could stop him.
Joe made a half-hearted movement to go after him, but Fenton held up a detaining hand.
"He's either scared because he's lying, or he's scared because he fears for his life," Fenton said. "Either way, we aren't going to get anything more out of him without resorting to tactics I don't approve of. Let him go."
Joe sighed in dejection, but had to admit his father was probably right. "Do you believe him, Dad?"
"I don't know, Joe," his father admitted. "I suppose the same evidence – some of it, anyway – could point to Cameron Jacobs as well as Randall Claremont. Some of it – but not all. That knife is a pretty telling piece of evidence, and it's linked to Claremont. That's really why I started seriously considering him as a suspect. His wife's family is a notorious crime syndicate in Frisco – it all comes together."
"But why—" Megan raised that bothersome question once more. "why, if they're behind everything, did they save Frank and Joe, and take them to Reno to the hospital?"
Fenton chuckled grimly. "Honey, I wish I knew the answer to that." He leaned back in his chair, wincing.
Joe saw the grimace, and remembered suddenly that his father had been hurt himself, just a few days before. "Dad, are you all right? Do you want some aspirin?"
Fenton shook his head. "No, thanks, Joe. I'm okay; my back is just stiff, that's all."
"Could you go over the evidence again?" Joe requested, thoughtfully tracing designs on the back of Vanessa's hand with a forefinger as he spoke.
"Okay—" Mr. Hardy collected his thoughts for a moment. "There is the video tape, obviously. Whoever did the actual stabbing hasn't been identified. At the murder scene, I found a pair of prescription sunglasses with a letter 'C' on them. The C, of course, could be for Cameron as well as Claremont. The knife, you know about. And there's the fact that Randall Claremont was found in Frank's room in extremely suspicious circumstances!"
Joe sat up and gazed at Fenton – he had heard his father talking about Randall Claremont, but he hadn't heard much about this other guy, Cameron Jacobs. He only knew that Jacobs had been instrumental in getting his parents to Reno quickly, after the rental car had been vandalized. Joe knew what had happened at the hospital with Claremont, after all…the guy had been found standing over Frank's bed with a pillow clutched in his hands, and Frank had still been gasping for air when they got back to his room!
Frank hadn't been able to identify his attacker – but jeez, they didn't need to paint a picture, did they? And there was all this other evidence, too – the sunglasses with the letter "C"…the video tape…the specialized knife that had been Evan Reed's murder weapon – a knife which Claremont owned. And obviously, the guy had to have connections, to have goons working for him in Tahoe!
There was just one problem, Joe realized, with this whole neatly-tied-up bundle – the Claremonts had saved his and Frank's lives, by bringing them to the hospital. And they'd hung around afterwards, and checked on the boys' conditions, and they'd evidently been nice and friendly to his parents….They hadn't had to do that – they could have left them lying there, and God only knew what would have happened to them. That's the part that doesn't make sense, Joe mused. And that's the part that's been bothering Dad about it – that the Claremonts brought us to the hospital.
Joe settled back against Vanessa again, but she was too agitated to sit still. She wriggled upright, sitting cross-legged on the bed.
"Mr. Hardy," she asked in a quavering voice. "What about the tie tack with the crest? Have you found anything out about that yet?"
Mr. Hardy shook his head. "No – but I'll try again, right now." He got to his feet and strode out, to his own room to make the call, his expression grim.
"Joe…?" Vanessa rubbed the back of his hand gently to get his attention. "What are you thinking?"
He focused on her, attempting a smile. "Just trying to make sense of this, Sugar. Frank videoed a murder, and now someone's trying to kill him because he's a possible witness. We now have two suspects, both of whom have strong cases against them."
"If we can believe Thomas," Vanessa commented sagely. "Do you think we can?"
Joe shrugged. "I don't know why Thomas would go to the trouble of trying to make his boss look bad, if it wasn't true," he said. "Unless he was just trying to make trouble for the man because of what happened to this girl, Kayla. You said he was afraid to talk, before?"
Both Vanessa and Megan nodded.
"He ran away from your dad, Joe, the first time he tried to talk to him – no, I mean the second time—" Megan corrected herself. "counting when he dove into the lake. He's either scared of something, or he's hiding something."
"Maybe Thomas is hiding something," Joe speculated. "Maybe he's trying to frame his boss, this Cameron Jacobs. Or maybe part of his story is true, and Thomas is upset that Jacobs was responsible for Kayla committing suicide – and he wants Jacobs to take the rap for something he didn't do – namely, murdering Evan Reed!" He shook his head in bewilderment. "This is so screwy!"
"Joe, what motive could the Claremonts have had for killing Evan Reed?" Vanessa pursued the question from another angle.
Joe shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, Van. It could be anything – bad guys don't always need good reasons or clear motives. Maybe it was a mob thing – isn't that what Dad suspects? After all, even we had a run-in with them, with Bella's family on the other side…it happens."
"I don't think any of us is seeing things very clearly now," Vanessa said somberly. "There's too much to speculate on, and no clear information."
Again, Joe shrugged. "The one conclusive piece of evidence is that fancy knife that killed Reed. It belonged to Randall Claremont. Everything else might point to Cameron Jacobs – but not that."
"Do we know it's his, or do we know he has one similar to it?" Megan asked, frowning a little.
Joe shook his head. That one, he couldn't answer.
For a while, the three teens waited for Fenton's return, but as time passed, and he didn't appear, they finally decided to go back downstairs and sit by the indoor pool.
"He knows that's where we were originally heading," Joe said, "and when he finds out anything, he'll come and tell us."
###
Once beside the pool, Joe sought out a lounge chair that had a free one on each side, and eased himself into it. He leaned back, grateful – though he wouldn't have admitted it to the girls – to be off his feet. The big room smelled pleasantly of chlorine, and it wasn't too crowded. It's nice here…it feels good…feels good to relax. He grinned appreciatively as Vanessa took off her wrap and dived neatly into the pool, gliding underwater nearly half the length of the pool before she surfaced. Jeez, but she's pretty! Hardy, you're one lucky guy….
Megan, too, had slipped smoothly into the water, and was side-stroking across the pool. Vanessa climbed out and cut another dive, this time coming up just behind Megan. She tapped the redhead on the shoulder, and when Megan squeaked in startled surprise and turned, Vanessa dove underwater again to make her escape. This time Megan followed, and after some frantic paddling, caught Vanessa near the middle of the pool and promptly yanked her under the surface, only to have the blonde return the favor. Considerable shrieking and splashing ensued.
Joe watched them, smiling wistfully. He wanted very badly to join them in the water, but he knew he didn't have the energy for it. He would never have lived down the humiliation if he'd tried to play in the pool with the girls and ended up having to be rescued by them instead! Unable to stay completely away, he took off his shirt and shorts, and walked over to sit on the steps at the edge of the pool, half-submerged in the water. Immediately both Vanessa and Megan swam to join him.
"You weren't thinking of coming in, were you?" Vanessa demanded in a mock-threatening tone. Her eyes traveled over his body, noting with sympathy the half-healed scrapes and cuts, and the bruises now showing up with startling clarity against his fair skin.
"Just for a little while," Joe responded, moving down a step to slide further beneath the water. "I promise I won't do anything too vigorous," he assured them. "But it looks like too much fun to just sit there and watch." He drew in a long sigh. "The water feels good…" he murmured, and closed his eyes, relaxing.
"Well, don't get any bright ideas about diving in," Vanessa warned him. "You're our pet convalescent, remember?"
"Am I allowed to swim at all?" Joe inquired lazily, half-opening his eyes.
"Only in the shallow end, and only very slowly," Megan declared.
"Sheesh, you two are bossy!" Joe cupped a handful of water and tossed it in Megan's direction. He grinned at her response: she instinctively had begun to return the splash, but caught herself and refrained. "Go ahead and swim," he said docilely. "I'll behave – I promise!"
Deciding he wasn't going to do anything rash, the two girls resumed their activity; swimming pool lengths, diving, and conducting a few water fights. Despite the temptation, Joe managed to restrain himself from following the siren call of his two mermaids, and stayed put in the shallow end of the pool, stroking carefully across a time or two. His strained shoulder still ached, but the mild exercise in the water felt good.
###
An approaching figure caught Joe's eye: his father entered the pool area and sat down in one of the vacant lounge chairs. Fenton smiled to see his younger son enjoying himself in the pool, and chuckled as he saw Megan once again yank Vanessa beneath the water. Spotting the detective, the girls swam over to the pool edge and hauled themselves up, as Joe climbed up the steps.
"Found out anything?" Joe sat down in an adjoining lounge chair and dried off his wet hair with a towel. Megan and Vanessa seated themselves nearby, wrapped in their towels.
"I got hold of my contact who knows about crests," Fenton nodded. "That tie tack has the crest of the Doncaster family. After I talked to him, I called Lieutenant Hunt, and we compared notes. He'd gotten the same information, and he told me that there's a man named Lloyd Doncaster who works for the Tahoe Lakeside Resort and Spa, in South Lake Tahoe."
Joe whistled. "It sounds like Lloyd Doncaster visited us," he commented.
His father nodded. "There's more – Lloyd Doncaster has a record of petty larceny, theft, and served two years for assault. And—" he went on, not done yet with his revelations, "the Tahoe Lakeside resort is owned by a conglomerate, not an individual…a conglomerate based out of Sacramento!"
"Sacramento?" Megan whispered. She knew that the Claremonts were from there.
"Right," Fenton said grimly. "Lieutenant Hunt hasn't been able to find out yet who the head of the conglomerate is, but he's working on it." As if I didn't know! "When he finds out, I suspect we'll have some better answers to our questions. In the meantime, he sent someone to pick up Lloyd Doncaster for questioning. And I've called Sam Radley, to see if he can get me some information about it, from his end."
"What about Jacobs?" Joe asked. "Did you tell Hunt what Thomas Streeter told us?"
Fenton nodded. "I did, and he promised to look Thomas up and have a talk with him. Right now, that's the best he could do."
###
Deciding they'd had enough water sports for a while, the teens and Fenton went back to their rooms. Joe was instructed to take a nap, the girls settled in to shower and re-do their hair and makeup, and Fenton had a long conversation by phone with Sam Radley, then called Laura to find out how Frank was faring.
Later, for dinner, the four went to the little Italian restaurant where Frank, Joe and the girls had eaten previously. Afterwards, Joe joined Megan and Vanessa in their room to watch a movie, and Fenton immersed himself in a Tom Clancy novel, trying to escape his own problems by concentrating on someone else's!
#####
The next morning, Vanessa and Megan decided that they would finally essay the trek to Vikingsholm Castle, and Joe declared he wanted to at least try the hike.
"I feel a lot better today!" he insisted. "Spending a night in a real bed, in a place without hospital smells and constant noise, made all the difference. I slept like a rock!" He turned to his father. "Dad, it's okay if I go, isn't it?"
"Joe, why in the world are you so set on going there now?" Vanessa inquired. "Before, you didn't want to go at all! And now, when you have a perfect excuse not to go, you're determined to do it."
Joe gave her a sheepish smile. "Anything is better than sitting around the hotel by myself all day!" he admitted.
"You'd have to take it very slowly," Fenton warned him. "And Joe, it's the trip up that's going to be the killer, not the trip down! From what I understand, people who hike that thing say the return trip is twice as long as the initial one!"
"I'd still like to try," Joe persisted.
"You can go—" Fenton began, and held up a silencing finger as Joe started a celebratory whoop. "as long as I go too. You'll need someone to drag you back up the trail, and you can't expect Vanessa and Megan to do it!"
"Dad, I'm not going to need anyone dragging me anywhere!" Joe protested. "I'll take it easy, and I'll stop if I get tired. I'll even wait for the girls to come back, if I get too tired on the way down."
###
Eventually, they worked it out. Fenton let himself be persuaded to allow Joe to go, although he did insist on accompanying them, and they set out for Vikingsholm. Declining to let Joe walk the extra distance to the starting point, Fenton drove them to the resort nearest, and parked there. They started off, Megan snapping photos every so often, and occasionally lamenting that they hadn't gotten Frank's video camera out of the hotel safe, to bring along.
The trail was steep, but they made the descent easily. Fenton insisted that his son stop at the resting points along the trail, and although Joe averred he was having no problems at all, he was wise enough not to argue with his father. During the hike, Fenton was absorbed in making calls on his cell phone, attempting to get more information both on Randall Claremont, and Cameron Jacobs. The investigator was beginning to get very frustrated, especially when he couldn't reach Sam Radley!
The castle itself was impressive, with its hand-hewn timbers and sod roof with wildflowers growing on it; once inside they were fascinated with the Scandinavian decorations, and Joe admitted he loved the beams carved to resemble dragons. All in all, Megan proved her point in insisting that the castle be visited, and, she took a myriad of photographs to show Frank and Laura later. Fenton gazed out at tiny Fannette Island, remembering Laura's comments when they were aboard the Royal Tahoe, and smiled. Secluded, darling – secluded….
The walk back up the trail started easily enough, but the steepness of the path made the going slow. Joe no longer had any inclination to argue about stopping to rest; he was glad of the respites. He wasn't the only one; Fenton himself felt a few twinges in his back from the exertion of the climb, and the girls trudged along mostly in silence, saving their breath.
When they were about halfway up, Fenton's cell phone chirped, and he unclipped it from his belt and flipped it open. "Hello? Sam!" There followed a conversation consisting of a great deal of 'um-hmm' and 'I see…" from Fenton…and then he broke off with a gasp, his eyes going wide with shock. He looked at Joe and the girls with a startled expression on his face.
Shortly after, he ended the conversation, snapped the phone shut, and set off up the trail at a much faster pace. "Joe, I'm sorry, I really am, but we need to hurry!" he threw back over his shoulder.
"What's wrong, what did Sam say?" Joe asked, trying to hasten his steps to match his father's.
Fenton's voice was distraught and filled with agitation. "We've got to get back to Reno, right away! The wrong person was arrested for trying to kill Frank – and if we don't hurry, someone is going to try it again!"