J.M.J.

Chapter X

Saturday, May 1

Day One

Callie's sleep hadn't come easily that night. The movie and a long talk with Frank had helped get Dr. Patricia Pearson out of her mind, but as soon as she lay down to sleep, the whole lecture had come rushing back to her. It didn't help that when she had finally dozed off, she had some kind of nightmare where Dr. Pearson figured in, although she couldn't remember the exact details after she woke up with an uncomfortable feeling.

Finally, around two-thirty in the morning, she grabbed her phone, put in a pair of earbuds, and started streaming another movie. Maybe she could fall asleep watching it and not be troubled with anymore nightmares. Her hopes of that were shattered when, only about a quarter of the way through the movie, her phone started to ring and the screen showed that it was Frank calling.

"That's weird," she murmured as she swiped to answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Callie." Frank's tone told her right away that something was wrong and she felt her pulse quicken.

"What is it?" Callie asked.

"Joe just called me. He, uh, says that Iola was kidnapped a couple hours ago."

"What?"

"He also says it's possible it was the serial killer from Southport."

"What!" Callie jumped out bed and rushed to her dresser to pull out some clothes.

"I know," Frank replied. "I'm heading back to Bayport right now."

"I'm coming with you."

"I thought you'd want to. I'll be there in a couple minutes."

Callie hung up the phone without even remembering to say good-bye. Then she began flinging on some clothes. By the time Frank arrived, she was dressed, although she hadn't bothered to even brush her hair. Right at the moment, she really didn't care. Her best friend, one of the people she cared about most in the entire world, was in the hands of a maniac right now, and that was only thing she could think about as she ran down the sidewalk to Frank's and jumped into the passenger side.

HBHBHBHBHB

"Let's just go over what happened one more time," Frank said.

Biff let out a long sigh. "We've been over it about a million times with the police already. I don't know what good any of this is doing."

It was only about nine o'clock in the morning now, but everyone in the Hardys' living room was half-dead from tiredness, except for Jerry Gilroy, who had missed out on the events of the night before and was the only one to have gotten a good night's sleep. Once the police had finished interviewing Chet, Biff, and Joe, Frank had taken over to try to get as complete a picture of what had happened as possible. Even Joe, who knew exactly how much good this could do, was starting to get annoyed.

"Look, Frank," he said. "We're all beat. Just give us a break for a little bit."

"Okay," Frank relented. He realized that he must have really been pushing them too far if even Joe was complaining.

He had been standing in the middle of the living room, but now he sat down on the floor since all the chairs were taken. Chet and Biff were sitting on each end of the couch and they both looked as if they could scarcely keep their eyes open. Callie was sitting in an armchair, with her elbow on one of the arm rests and her head resting against her hand. She wasn't sleepy, per se, but her eyes and head had long since started to ache. Joe was sprawled out on the floor. Now that he had finished speaking, he rested his head against his forearms and closed his eyes, although he didn't come anywhere close to dozing off. Jerry was in the other armchair with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"So, Chief Collig said you guys could help with the case, right?" he asked.

"That's right," Joe replied without raising his head.

"Did he say what he wanted you to do?" Jerry questioned.

"He said he wanted us to go home and get some rest and then tell him if we thought of any leads he and his men had missed," Joe said.

"Okay, so what leads do they have?"

"Dad said that they're looking into the possibility that Sally was involved," Frank said. Fenton had briefed him on what little was known so far. "They're going to question her some more. Then they have police detectives combing the area and talking to all the neighbors to see if anybody saw anything. And then Olaf called in some forensics experts from the State Police to come in and examine Biff's car for fingerprints and DNA and such. I think that's it."

"So they're not really looking at why this psycho picked Iola?" Jerry continued.

"Because she's my girlfriend and he wants to get back at us for trying to catch, which we weren't before," Joe replied. He was a little annoyed; the answer to that question was obvious.

"That's fair," Jerry admitted, "but how did this guy learn that? I mean, neither of you really do much social media, so he would have had to get that information from someone who knows you two."

"Sally," Joe, Biff, and Chet all said at the same time.

Callie rubbed her eyes. "Guys, I know you don't like Sally, and with good reason. I'm pretty mad at her myself right now, but she's not…She couldn't be in with a serial killer. It doesn't make any sense."

"You can't rule suspects out just because they used to be friends," Joe insisted.

"You also shouldn't make assumptions," Frank pointed out. "Sally could be involved, but she also might not be. We don't have any evidence either way. Trying to find out who could have tipped this psycho off about Joe and Iola might be a good idea. It's just going to take a lot of time. Practically anyone in Bayport and quite a few people beyond it could have given this guy that information."

Jerry nodded. "Yeah. That's true, but that's not exactly what I was getting at. Why was it Iola? Why not any of the rest of us?"

Frank gave him a scrutinizing look. "Hold on. You've got an idea, don't you?"

"I'm not sure, but maybe." Jerry bit his lip. "I looked up the other victims of this guy. They don't really have anything in common, so I'm not having any luck figuring out what the connection. But I think…I mean, what if there is a pattern of some kind? And the reason this guy picked Iola is because she fits in the pattern somehow? The guy's nuts, obviously, so it could be a ridiculously vague pattern, but it could be there. Since the chief didn't give you guys anything else to work on, what if we all tried to spot it?"

Frank hesitated. "I know Dad and Sam Radley tried the same thing and they couldn't find anything. I don't see how we could spot anything they missed."

Right in the middle of the discussion, someone knocked on the front door, which led into the living room. Joe pretended to have dozed off so he wouldn't have to answer it, and so Frank was forced to get up and go to the door. As soon as he saw who was on the other side, he took a step back in surprise.

"Jones!"

"Hi, Frank." Jones Nonam gave him a smile. She had been friends with Frank for a while now. In fact, they had even gone on a few dates well over a year ago. They had decided that they preferred to be just friends over being a couple, but after graduation and both of them going to separate colleges, even their friendship had fallen to the wayside a bit. In fact, Frank hadn't seen Jones since last Christmas break.

"I didn't know you were in town," Frank said.

"Just back for the weekend. I heard what happened. I was wondering if I could help."

"Sure. We're still working out exactly what we're going to do, but maybe you've got some ideas."

Frank ushered Jones inside, and the others greeted. At any rate, Jerry did. The other boys mumbled a greeting, being too tired to waste their time on unnecessary talking. Callie gave Jones a stiff nod and smile, momentarily forgetting how to talk. It surprised her, to be honest. She didn't have anything against Jones, and she didn't have any right to be jealous. Neither she nor Jones was dating Frank. For that matter, at that moment, Callie was furious with herself for even caring. It was Iola she should be concerned about, not her own feelings.

"You guys sure know how to make a girl feel welcome," Jones teased them, but she instantly sobered. "I guess you're not really in the mood for small talk. So, where are we? Does anyone have any ideas?"

Jerry repeated his idea about looking for a pattern in the victims. Jones agreed readily, insisting that serial killers always had a pattern. Frank was still reluctant, since it seemed like a waste of time to try something that hadn't worked for his dad, but since there was nothing else to do, he agreed in the end, too. The others were too tired to think of anything else, so they agreed by default.

HBHBHBHBHB

"Now, don't forget this is my case and I'm going to be conducting the interrogation," Olaf said as he and Fenton Hardy waited for Sally to be brought into a small room where she would be questioned.

Fortunately, Fenton had enough self-control not to show his annoyance. "Of course. Chief Collig simply thought it would be beneficial for me to be present and hear what Sally has to say."

The men's exchange was cut short by the arrival of Sally Marsh. Her eyes were red and her face was pale. Both were probably partly from lack of sleep and partly from being afraid. Fenton couldn't help feeling sorry for her. He knew her slightly from acquaintanceship with his sons, and right now all he could see in her was a kid like them who had gotten in way over her head.

"You all right, Sally?" he asked.

Olaf shot him an annoyed look, but Sally merely rubbed her hand across her face.

"I'm in jail," she replied dolefully, "so, no, I'm not okay."

Olaf gestured to a chair. "Well, how about we get started talking and maybe we can do something about that."

Sally took the chair, and the two men sat down opposite of her.

"Now, there's a few things I want you to remember, Sally," Olaf said. "First, you were advised of your rights when you were arrested. You voluntarily waived those rights, including the right to have an attorney present. You understand that, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. And you also realize that you're over eighteen, so you could be charged as an adult."

Sally's voice was weaker as she said, "Yeah."

"Good. So, why don't you tell us exactly what happened last night?"

Sally sighed. Fenton guessed she must be getting tired of this question. Nevertheless, she launched into the story once more. Her account didn't conflict with that of the other witnesses, except that she insisted she had only taken Chet's car because they had had a fight.

"I wasn't trying to steal it like everyone's saying," she insisted. "I just wanted to get out of there in a hurry. I wasn't going to keep it or anything. Honestly. I know it was wrong anyway, but it wasn't as wrong as what you're saying."

"Chet's not the only Morton you've had a fight with recently," Olaf went on. "As I understand it, you had quite the fight with Iola."

Sally's face twitched. "Uh, yeah. It was just a misunderstanding."

"Are you sure that's all it was? What was it about?"

"Nothing, really. I mean, Iola and Biff Hooper were being weird and following me around and we had a fight about it. It's not a big deal."

"It must have been on Thursday. You retaliated against Iola."

"Yeah, I mean, sort of. What are you trying to say? That I helped kidnap her or something? Okay, sure, I was still kind of mad at her, but I wouldn't hurt her."

"You hurt her by telling people about her attempts at riding a horse."

Sally swallowed hard. "In a way, maybe, but the way I see it, I kept her from getting hurt. At least, I would have if she hadn't been kidnapped. You don't really think a person like her should be riding a horse, do you?"

"I think it's beside the point. You didn't have any inhibitions about hurting her then, so why should I believe you would now?"

"It's just a silly little argument. I'd never hurt anyone like that, especially not over something so small."

Olaf paused and rubbed his chin. Fenton glanced at him. The private detective hadn't said anything more after asking Sally if she was all right, but he had been watching her closely. Now tried to get some idea of what Olaf was thinking. The officer may have not been the most subtle, but he had a good poker face. Fenton couldn't deduce anything from it.

"You said the argument was about Iola and Biff following you around," Olaf said. "Why were they doing that?"

"Ask the…" Sally began, but then she realized what she was saying. "Well, ask Biff anyway."

"I'm asking you. Do you know what it was about?"

Sally hesitated and then finally she sighed and let her shoulder stoop. "Okay, whatever. I had asked Chet out on a date, and Iola thought I was up to something sneaky about it. She wrangled Biff into helping her figure it out, I guess."

"Was she right?"

Sally sighed again. "Yeah. Chet's a total bore and really not cute. The only reason I asked him was because I wanted to ask him about Frank and Joe Hardy working on that Southport Slayer case. I was hoping to get a scoop for the school paper. He must figured it out. He's smarter than I thought, I guess. Anyway, that's what Chet and I fought about earlier. But I swear, I had nothing to do with Iola getting kidnapped."

This went on a while longer, and finally Olaf stood up and motioned for Fenton to step away a few paces with him.

"Well? What do you think?" he asked.

"You're asking me what I think?" Fenton countered, genuinely surprised.

Olaf rolled his eyes. "I'm being serious, Hardy. What are you here for if it's not to give your opinion?"

"I think she's telling the truth," Fenton said.

Olaf nodded. "Me, too. I think she's telling the truth about the car, too. I'll talk to the Mortons about that. They've got bigger things to worry about than that old jalopy, anyway."

HBHBHBHBHB

"Thanks for the ride, Tony," Mario Beretta said as he got out of Tony's car in the parking lot of his hotel. "You and Phil have really been helping us out."

Tony shrugged. "It's not that much. Just giving a couple rides now and then."

"We still appreciate it."

"So, how's Allison's brother doing? I haven't heard for a couple days."

"He woke up briefly yesterday. They're thinking he doesn't have any serious brain damage after all. Obviously, Allison's a lot happier about that."

"That's good. She's still here at the hotel?"

Mario nodded. "At least, when Belle's not dragging her around somewhere to buy clothes or food. I don't think Allison wants to be alone yet, but at the same time, I don't think she completely trusts Belle and me. I'm not exactly sure what to do. I don't want her to feel like we're forcing her to do anything or stay anywhere, but I don't think we should just abandon her."

"Yeah, it's a tricky situation. Hey, here she comes now."

He nodded toward Allison, who was walking down the sidewalk from the back of the hotel. She didn't seem to notice the others and never even looked toward them as she headed toward the street. The parking lot connected to the street via an alley, and so she passed out of their sight before she reached the street.

"Well, I guess…" Mario started to say to Tony, but he was cut off by a crash from the alley.

Without another word, he sprinted across the parking lot to see what had happened. Tony got out of his car and followed him.

They arrived to see Allison struggling with a man in a ski mask. He had his hand firmly clamped over her mouth so that she couldn't make a sound apart from a few whimpers, although she had managed to kick over a garbage can.

"Hey!" Mario shouted, barreling toward the man.

The attacker let go of Allison immediately and turned toward Mario, waving a knife in his hand. Undaunted, Mario tackled him anyway. Tony also willingly joined in the fray. Within moments, Allison's attacker realized that he was outnumbered, and he broke away as soon as he could. Tony and Mario chased him, but he ran down the alley and somehow disappeared. Disappointed that they hadn't captured him, the young men returned to Allison, who was leaning against a wall and half-crying.

"Are you okay?" Mario asked her.

Allison shook her head and then nodded. "I don't know. I'm lucky you guys were close by. Oh! You're hurt."

She pointed to a cut on Mario's forearm.

"That's nothing. I didn't even notice it." Mario grimaced. "Actually, now that you point it out, it does kind of hurt."

Tony looked at it. "You're probably going to need stitches. What about you, Allison? Did he hurt you at all?"

"No, just scared me. He…He came out of nowhere. I was just going for a walk. I…I don't understand it."

"Yeah." Tony frowned. "We'd better call the police and get Mario to a hospital. Is Belle around? We're going to need some help."

Allison nodded. "She's up in her room."

Tony took out his phone to call her, but before he could, he noticed that he had a lot of texts and missed calls, which he hadn't gotten because he had forgotten to take his phone off silent. He opened the most recent text, which happened to be from Chet. Instantly, he got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he read the news about Iola's kidnapping.

"Is something wrong?" Mario asked. "You just turned white as a sheet."

"Uh, yeah, there's something wrong. Um, just a second." Tony typed out a quick reply to Chet, telling him that he would call as soon as he could. He was tempted to call right then and there, but he realized that there was more he could do for Allison at the moment than Iola.

Author's note: As max2013 has put it, the game has now begun! And as just about everyone has mentioned, Iola is in big, big trouble. Thank you all so, so much for your reviews! I'm very grateful for each and every one. BMSH, I fixed that typo you pointed out. Thanks for catching that! I have had several inspirations regarding this story and the series in general since I posted the last chapter, and I think they really improve things overall. Most of it, you won't notice, since you don't know what I had previously planned, but there are a couple of things that I don't want to spring on you last minute. For one, I've mentioned in the past that this series would be in the range of 10-12 books total and would span pretty far into the future from the point we're at now. I'm scaling that back, so right now the plan is 7-8 books in the series proper. I do fully intend to write other books in this universe, but I think it would be better to tie up Black Rose and Eva Moriare a little sooner than I had planned. Between that and another change I've got planned, it's going to make more sense for those later stories to be separate from the White Roses series. The other thing is that when I finish this story, I'm going to take a little break from this series to work on a Nancy Drew series that's been begging for attention the last few months, though I've had the idea for it the better part of a year, at least. I know some of you care more about the Hardys than Nancy, so I wanted to let you know that there will be some time between this story and the next in the series. Until next time, thank you so much for reading and reviewing, if you feel like it! God bless!