J.M.J.

Chapter IX

Saturday, May 1

Biff caught up with Sally just as she reached her front porch. There they both ran into a dead end as Sally had evidently forgotten her key. Since she couldn't open the door, she whirled around on Biff.

"What are you trying to do?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

Biff backed up a step, holding out his hands in a gesture to try to placate her. "I'm not really sure what's going on. All I know for sure is that Chet says…"

"You stole my car!" Chet shouted as he came panting up behind Biff.

"I did no such thing!" Sally shouted back. When she saw the expressions on the boys' faces, she must have realized that tack was useless. "I just borrowed it."

"Without permission, which is stealing!" Chet insisted.

A light turned on in the Marsh home, and as Chet and Sally continued shouting at each other, Sally's father came out and demanded to know what was happening. Unfortunately, he was just as angry as any of the teenagers and his shouting did little to help matters. A few minutes later, a police car stopped in front of the house and two officers got out.

Biff was acquainted with many of the Bayport police officers from his adventures with Frank and Joe, and he recognized one immediately as Officer Roscoe Burns, a tall, brawny African American man who had been in the department for about six years. The other was a younger man whom Biff didn't recognize, although there was something vaguely familiar about him.

"Okay, okay. Everyone quiet down." Officer Burns waded right into the middle of the argument, which was fortunately still only at the shouting stage. "You've already woken some of your neighbors up. You realize it's after midnight, right?"

"I want these boys arrested!" Mr. Marsh declared, not listening to Burns' request that he quiet down.

"For what?" Biff, Chet, and Burns all asked at once.

"For disturbing the peace," Mr. Marsh blustered.

"If we arrest them for that, I'm afraid we're going to have to arrest all four of you," Burns pointed out.

"They were harassing me," Sally interjected. "They chased me all across town."

"Only because you stole my car!" Chet said.

Burns held out a hand. "Hold on, everybody. I don't want any more shouting, okay? The next person to shout is getting arrested for disturbing the peace. Do you understand?" He turned to his partner. "Tom, why don't you get a statement from the boys."

The younger officer nodded and gestured for Biff and Chet to follow him a few paces away. "Can I get your names?" he requested.

"Biff…I mean, Allan Hooper," Biff replied.

"Chester Morton."

"Now tell me exactly what happened."

"Well, it's kind of a long story." Chet scratched the back of his neck. "See, earlier this week, that girl over there, Sally Marsh, asked me out on a date. Obviously, I agreed to go. But then, yesterday, she pulled a really dirty trick on my sister. I wasn't going to keep the date, but then…Well, long story short, I did go out with her after all. We went to that all night pizza place, Louie's. I was figuring by then that Sally was probably up to something, and it didn't take me too long to figure it out. All she wanted to talk about were my friends, the Hardys, and this case they're supposedly—they're detectives, you know."

"Yeah, I know," the officer replied. "Which case is this?"

"The Southport Slayer, like the newspapers are calling it. Anyway, Frank and Joe swear they're not working on it and some reporter up in Southport just her facts all mixed up. Sally didn't buy that. I think she wanted a story for the school paper. She's on the editing staff, you see. Anyway, when I confronted her about it and about what she did to my sister, she grabbed my keys, went running out and got in my car and drove off. Biff here was in the parking lot already with Iola—my sister—and they gave me a ride to chase her."

"Where are the cars now?" the officer asked.

Chet pointed down the street. "The Queen died—my car, that is. Then Sally ran the rest of the way here on foot. I think she might have just run out of gas. The gas gauge is broken. Say! Iola's probably wondering what's going on. She's still back there in the car."

"Okay, we'll go take a look," the officer said. He turned to Burns and told him where they were going and then they started walking back toward where the cars were parked. As they walked, they passed under a streetlight and Biff happened to get a glimpse of the officer's name tag, which read "Collig."

"Are you related to Chief Collig?" Biff asked in some confusion.

"Oh, yeah," the officer replied. "My name's Tom Collig. Chief Collig is my uncle. I actually just transferred here from the Baltimore police department a couple weeks ago."

"I guess you won't be getting in too much trouble with the boss," Biff commented.

Tom shook his head. "Just the opposite. He's tougher on me than the other officers. I've got four years experience and he's still treating me like a rookie."

By this time, they had reached the cars. Everything was just as they had left it, except the passenger door of Biff's car was open and everything was silent. Biff and Chet glanced at each other, the exact same bad feeling occurring to them both at once.

"Uh, Iola?" Chet called as he trotted forward and looked inside. The car was empty. He turned back to Biff. "She's gone."

"That's impossible." Biff looked for himself as if he couldn't believe Chet. "Where could she go?"

"Maybe she just went looking for you two," Tom suggested.

Chet shook his head. "She couldn't. She can't walk."

Tom bit his lip. "Okay. There's no need to panic. Maybe one of the neighbors let her go inside."

Biff and Chet looked around, but they didn't see anything to convince them of Tom's theory. None of the nearby houses had lights on. Wordlessly, Biff went around to the trunk and opened it. Iola's wheelchair was still inside.

"I don't think she would have gone anywhere without this," he commented.

"How old is she?" Tom asked.

"Seventeen," Chet replied.

"Okay," Tom said. He took his radio off his belt and spoke into it. "Burns, we've got a possible missing juvenile."

HBHBHBHBHB

Joe was sound asleep when something he couldn't quite put his finger on roused him. For a moment or two, he tried to ignore it, but then he realized it was his phone ringing. He groggily reached for the phone on his nightstand and noted that it was Iola's number calling as he put it up to his ear and said a sleepy, "Hello?"

"Joe Hardy?" a voice replied. Joe sat up straight when he heard it. It was definitely not Iola's voice. In fact, it was hard to tell whose voice it might be. The speaker was using some kind of scrambler to disguise it and Joe couldn't even tell whether it was a man or a woman.

"Who is this?" Joe asked.

"It shouldn't be too hard for you to figure out," the voice replied. "Considering how determined you and your brother are to catch me."

Joe felt a chill race down his spine as he glanced at the clock beside his bed. It read half-past midnight, May 1. "Look, that's all a mistake. My brother and I aren't looking for you at all."

"Your lies mean nothing to me. I have your girlfriend."

"Have you hurt her?" Joe couldn't quite keep the tension out of his voice.

"No, and I'm not going to. Not unless you fail."

"What do you mean? What are you talking about?"

"You want to catch me. I'll give you thirteen days to do it, and I'll give you a clue each day. If you find Iola by the thirteenth of May, I'll let her go. If you don't, she'll die."

"Okay, what's the clue?"

The voice chuckled, an eerie sound with the voice scrambler. "I think that's enough of a clue for today, Joe. You shouldn't get greedy. If I make this easy for you, how are you going to prove to Iola that you really love her?"

There was a click as the phone was hung up. For a second or two, all Joe could do was take in several long, deep breaths. Then he leaped out of bed and shouted as loudly as he could, "Dad! Dad!"

It only took a moment to awaken the rest of the Hardy family. Fenton and Laura came running from the direction of their bedroom, while Aunt Gertrude came from her own, rubbing her eyes.

"What on earth is the matter, Joe?" she asked, speaking first. "Is the house on fire?"

"Worse than that." Joe never took his eyes off his father. "Dad, the serial killer has Iola."

"What?" Fenton asked. "How do you know?"

"He just called me. He said he had and he'd give me and Frank thirteen days to find her before he…kills her."

"Did he give you any proof that that's true?" Fenton asked without missing a beat.

"He called from her cell phone."

"Fenton, do something!" Laura told him.

"I will," Fenton told her. "Joe, call Iola's number again and see if anyone answers."

Joe placed the call, but he only held it to his ear for a moment. "It goes straight to voicemail. Either he turned it off or he broke it."

"If his story is true, I hope he just turned it off," Fenton said. "It might not be. It's possible to spoof a number on caller ID or he might have just stolen Iola's phone. I'll call the Mortons and see if Iola's there."

"This is terrible!" Aunt Gertrude said. "It's like I've always said…"

"Please, not now, Gertrude," Laura broke in.

Gertrude glanced at Joe's white face and realized that "I told you so" wasn't what he needed to hear right now. She put an arm around her nephew's shoulders and said, "Maybe you'd better sit down, Joe."

"I'm okay," Joe said, but his trembling hands did nothing to convince the others of that.

It took a few minutes for one of the Mortons to answer the phone, but it didn't take long after that for them to confirm that Iola wasn't there. However, they did tell Fenton that Iola had left earlier that evening with Biff and hadn't come back yet.

Joe groaned when he heard that news. "I totally forgot that tonight was that night. That means if that monster really has her…" He let his voice trail off as he fumbled with his phone to call Biff. He left unspoken that if he had gone along with Iola and Biff like he should have, none of this would have happened. For that matter, the killer might not have just captured Iola; he might have also…That fear was cut short when Biff answered. "Biff!" Joe said. "Where's Iola?"

"I don't know…Wait, how do you know she's missing?"

HBHBHBHBHB

The Bayport Police Department didn't delay in starting a search for Iola. Officers Burns and Collig quickly made some phone calls to their superior officers, and within an hour, Chief Collig, Lieutenant Olaf, and Captain O'Rourke had been woken up and were at police headquarters. Fenton also called Sam Radley and they went to police headquarters, along with Joe, to brief the police on everything they knew concerning the Southport Slayer and the phone call to Joe. Chet, Biff, and Chet's parents were also there.

"Wait. Shouldn't Sally be here?" Joe asked after Chet and Biff had told their side of the story. "It sounds to me like she might have something to do with all this."

Chief Collig looked over at Burns and Tom Collig as he replied, "I believe she's in custody on the charge of grand theft auto, at the moment."

"That's right, Chief," Tom said, nodding.

"What do you mean she might something to do with this, Joe?" Chester Morton, Sr. asked. "Are you saying she's working with this maniac?"

"No," Joe replied, but just quickly, Olaf spoke up, "We have absolutely no evidence of anything of the sort. Of course, she's a person of interest and she will be interviewed since she may have some information that your son and his friend haven't given us."

"We've told you everything that's happened," Biff insisted. "For that matter, this is the second time we've told it to you. We told Officers Burns and Collig, too."

"I know," Collig said. "I'm sorry about that, but we have to be sure you haven't forgotten anything and repeating the story is a good way to do that. For that matter, we're going to have to ask each of you to tell everything you know about what happened tonight a couple of times."

"We knew that Chet was going out on a date and Iola was going somewhere with Biff," Molly Morton explained, "but we didn't know anything else until Fenton called us. We had no idea anything had happened." She was clearly trying to be strong about this, but her hands were shaking and her face was pale.

"There's a possibility that you know more than you realize, Mrs. Morton," Olaf said. "There could be some details that you don't even realize are connected to the case. It's the same thing with the boys here. That's why I'd like each of you to talk to one of my detectives. I've got two coming in any minute and I was able pull two others who were here anyway off what they were working on, so if it's all right with you, I'd like to get all that started."

"Yes, of course," Chester Morton agreed.

He followed Olaf out of the office, along with his wife, Chet, and Biff.

"Burns, Tom, you two go with O'Rourke," Collig instructed the two patrol officers, nodding to his captain who was nearby. "I want you both to also thoroughly go over what happened with him."

"Yes, sir," Burns agreed, and Tom echoed him.

"All right," Collig said after they had gone, turning to the Hardys and Sam. "I know you'll just have to go over it again when Olaf gets back. I'm putting him in charge of this case. O'Rourke already has a big case he's working on and unfortunately, I can't devote myself to one case anymore. Still, I would like to hear what you two know about this potential serial killer. I understand you're working with the Southport police on this case."

"That's right," Fenton confirmed. "In fact, I also already called Lieutenant Durant, who is their detective in charge of the case. He'll be in contact with you shortly, no doubt, although he's skeptical that this is the same guy."

"Why's that?" Collig asked.

"Well, the date fits," Fenton said. "It's the first of the month today, which is when the disappearances in Southport have been happening, but that's the only thing that fits. It's the wrong town and their guy has never contacted anyone before. Durant thinks this could simply be prank of some kind."

"A prank?" Joe protested. "But somebody really kidnapped Iola. She wouldn't be part of a dumb prank like this."

"I know that," Fenton assured him. "I told Lieutenant Durant the same thing. He's still not convinced, but it sounds like he's not going to dismiss the possibility."

"If it is the same guy, he works fast," Sam commented thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Collig asked.

"Well, today's Friday—Saturday, I guess, but Iola's kidnapping was obviously in motion on Friday," Sam explained. "That story in the paper about Frank and Joe was on Sunday. Before then, this person wouldn't have had any reason to learn anything about them. That means that in only six days or less, this person learned enough about the boys to know who their friends are and follow them around. He must have just seized the opportunity when Iola was left alone."

"Unless Sally led him to her," Joe said. "That's what I meant that Sally could have something to do with it all. You've got to admit, she was acting pretty weird. Why would you run out on a date and steal someone's car?"

"She'd have to have known that Biff and Iola were in the parking lot and would follow her," Sam pointed out. "I gathered that they were trying to be covert about that."

"Yeah, but they were doing a terrible job," Joe explained. "Just yesterday—Thursday, I mean—Sally busted them watching her at school. We all got called into the principal's office over it. It wouldn't be too hard for Sally to guess that they might have followed her and Chet."

"'Guessed'. 'Might have,'" Collig replied. "It sounds like long shots to me. I doubt's Sally's involved in this, but we'll take the possibility into consideration."

"What about Frank and me?" Joe asked.

"What about you?" Collig countered.

Joe looked up at his dad. "Remember what you said, Dad? That you couldn't tell us which cases to work on and which not to anymore? Even if you hadn't said that, there's nothing you could do to keep us from working on this one."

"That's right," Fenton admitted. "You're both adults now, so you have to make your own decisions. But whether you help with a police investigation or not is Chief Collig's decision."

All eyes turned on the chief and he looked from one to another. Sam's eyes were merely curious; here was a man who wasn't sure what decision he'd make in the same situation and was interested to see what Collig would say. Joe's blue eyes held a pleading but determined expression; he wanted Collig to give his permission, but Collig also knew that nothing he said would make any difference to what Joe would do. Fenton's brown eyes, usually so stoic, also held almost a pleading look; he didn't want his sons involved in this, that much was clear. For his part, Collig didn't either. It wasn't that he doubted their abilities as detectives. No, they'd proven themselves more than capable of taking on any case. It wasn't even that the case would probably be dangerous. Collig and his men could keep them safe to a reasonable degree of certainty. It was that he was thinking back on the first time he had encountered a case like this. No matter what happened, all dangers aside, there would be a certain amount of innocence lost if the Hardy boys involved themselves in this, and they were terribly young for that. Yet, at the same time, Collig knew that what he had read in Joe's eyes was true. No matter what he said, there was no force on earth that would keep Joe—and probably Frank, too—from investigating this case. Their loyalty to their friends ran too deep for that. In addition to that, they had to be involved, whether anyone liked it or not. It looked like the kidnapper/killer would be delivering clues to them, and that was too tantalizing a prospect for the boys to turn down in any case. At least if Collig gave his approval for them to help, he could keep an eye on them, maybe even hold a bit of a rein on them, and he had to admit, they would be helpful. They might even make the difference to rescue Iola Morton alive.

"Okay," he said finally. "You and Frank can help."

Author's note: All right, so once again, this chapter's a little later than I hoped it would be. I went to a wedding yesterday and had some other unexpected obligations, so I didn't have as much time to work on it as I had hoped. I hope it was worth a little extra wait. Thank you for your patience and for reading! I so appreciate it! Thank you especially to everyone who has been reviewing! Reviews are such a big help to keep me pumped up to write. Of course, now that things are really starting to heat up, I'm getting more excited to keep writing! I also think that I'm at a point where I can give a rough estimate of how many chapters there are going to be. I'm thinking around twenty, possible up to twenty-five, but I doubt it. I had been thinking that I'd give each of the thirteen days here its own chapter and then a couple of chapters to wrap things up, which would be approximately twenty-four or twenty-five chapters, but I don't think there will be enough developments in each individual day to merit its own chapter. On the other hand, I could just write shorter chapters for those days with fewer developments, and then I'd be able to get them out faster. Hmm, I'll have to see how it works out. Thanks again! God bless!