J.M.J.

Chapter XV

Thursday, May 6

Day Six

"We've got a lot of random pieces of information and there's got to be some way that they fit together." Frank stood in front of the whiteboard he had bought that morning and began dividing it into columns with the dry erase marker that had come with it. He had set it up in the hotel room, and currently Joe, Phil, and Tony were sitting on one of the beds watching him work. "Let's start with these so-called 'clues' we've been getting."

Frank labeled one column "Clues" and began writing underneath that: December 12, 1993; August 28, 1975; May 15, 1998; April 16, 2004. Then he labeled the next column "How uncovered". "The December 12 date was given to me through a phone call using a voice distorter on the second. The caller used Iola's phone. August 28 was taped to our back door in an envelope on the third. May 15 was left in an envelope on Dad's car outside the Southport Chronicle office on the fourth, and April 16 was texted to Callie again from Iola's number on the fifth."

"I think we've all got that, Frank," Joe told him. He knew the importance of laying out information in logical sequence like this, but they had gone over everything so many times that he didn't see how they could have missed anything.

"Okay, then time for column three." Frank labeled that column "Where led" and began writing what had come of each clue, talking as he did so. "Sam Radley checked the December 12 date through the Southport Chronicle and discovered that that was the date a young named Tara Michaels disappeared, presumably murdered. That has led to a rabbit hole that we will go over in a little bit. For August 28, we've contacted the Southport Chronicle for a newspaper from that day and the state for a list of people who were born that day in Southport. We haven't heard from either yet. For May 15 and April 16, we have nothing. Okay, now let's look at some of the other clues we've uncovered."

"There was the first phone call to me," Joe said. "That one was also made from Iola's phone and he used a voice distorter. It was mostly just laying out the ground rules for this so-called 'game', but there were two things worth noticing. He didn't call Iola by name, at least at first. Instead, he identified her as my girlfriend. Secondly, he said that Frank and me were looking for him, so he obviously read that story in the Chronicle."

"Right." Frank nodded. "Then in the phone call to me, he seemed fixated on the idea that I couldn't possibly really care about Iola, and he compared Joe and me to Sir Galahad. Sir Galahad was, of course, the knight who was most pure of heart and so was able to find the Holy Grail."

"I don't know that that has anything to do with anything," Tony protested.

"I don't either," Frank admitted as he wrote it on the board anyway. "It's worth keeping in mind. So, let's hear your clue, Tony."

"You mean, the attack on Allison?" Tony asked. When Frank nodded, he went on, "Well, I mean, she was attacked and Mario and I chased the guy away. You don't want me to go over all the details again, do you?"

"I don't think that's necessary," Frank admitted. "That was on the first. You said the guy was slender and wearing a ski mask so you couldn't see his face. He cut Mario's arm with a knife."

"And then I possibly found the knife on the night of the third," Phil supplied. "At least, I saw a slender guy drop a bloody knife outside my dorm. I couldn't see his face, either, because he was wearing a hood."

"Right, and then don't forget the idea that the guy could have been Rhett, who's been missing, was a little too interested in Allison's business, and fits the very general description of being slender," Tony put in.

Frank was scrambling to write all this down. "So the question is whether the whole thing with Allison has anything to do with Iola or not. There's the coincidence about the days, but do we have any other evidence to show that they're connected?"

The boys thought that over, but in the end, they had to admit that they didn't.

"So there's a possibility that these are two separate cases that just happened to involve the first of the month." Frank frowned as he said it. "I don't know. I know Southport has a bad reputation, but I still don't like that big of coincidences."

"I don't either," Joe agreed. "We know that the killer is trying to get at us through someone who's important to us. He could have found out that we knew Allison." He suddenly sat up a bit straighter. "Say! What if the dates and phone calls and anonymous envelopes are all a distraction and the real clues are other things, like the attack on Allison and the knife."

"You just read my mind," Frank said.

"Which means that Tara Michaels might not have anything to do with this case at all," Joe went on.

"Not necessarily." Frank bit his lip. "That would be another coincidence that's just a little too big. On the hand, it might just be playing into the whole distraction thing."

Tony held up his hands. "Wait a minute, guys; am I understanding this right? That you're saying that there's a possibility that a guy who lives in the same building as Phil and me is actually a deranged serial killer? I really should have listened to my dad when he told me to just go to the community college in Bayport."

"It's not that different than what we've come up with ourselves," Phil reminded him. "But, guys, there's only been two 'alternate clues', I'll call them. I thought there was supposed to be a clue every day."

"I don't think a guy who kills people for the fun of it would have too many qualms about telling a lie," Frank commented. "Or we could not be realizing that the other clues are there."

There was a momentary silence as they all tried to think of anything that had happened in the past six days that could possibly be construed as a clue.

"Let's talk about Tara Michaels," Joe said when he could come up with nothing. "What do we know about her so far?"

"Not as much as I'd like," Frank admitted, turning back to the whiteboard. "She was a journalism student studying at the community college here and she was working a part-time job at a restaurant. She was going to write a big story that the editor of the local paper killed. Said editor has died and there's possibly no one else who knows what the content of the story was going to be and whether it had anything to do with her death."

"If she was killed by the serial killer, I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with the story," Phil said. "This guy probably picks people at random. And there's no shortage of other crazies in the world who could have picked her as a random victim. But if there was a personal motive for why she was killed, it had to have had something to do with the story."

Tony was studying the whiteboard while Phil was talking. "You know, I'm really starting to question my choice of colleges. Tara went to college here, and she's dead. Rhett goes to college here, and he's missing and possibly a serial killer. Do you think there's some connection with the college?"

"I doubt it," Frank said. "It's a small town, and so it's not too surprising that the college would come up in more than one case."

"Yeah, but what about those other victims of the current killer? Were any of them students?" Tony insisted.

"I don't know for sure," Frank said. "Probably, since they were all young. Hold on, let me check." He took out his phone and opened the notes app where he had been keeping track of any and all information on the case. He had to scroll for several seconds before he found his notes on the victims. "No, none of them were in college. Two were in high school, one was a dropout, and the last was graduated but not in college."

"There goes that theory," Tony grumbled, disappointed that his brilliant theory had disintegrated so easily.

For an instant, Joe felt a flicker of annoyance at Tony. As Frank had been reading off the academic records of the victims, a pattern had almost formed in his mind, but when Tony spoke, it broke his concentration, and he couldn't think now what that pattern could be. Obviously, none of them going to college was almost a pattern, but something clearer had almost occurred to him, but it disappeared before it could quite materialize.

In the midst of the discussion, Frank's phone rang. "It's Dad," he announced before he answered it. Fenton was down at police headquarters, and the boys were expecting to hear some new developments from him at any time. The phone conversation went on for several minutes with Frank saying very little, so Joe, Phil, and Tony were expecting that there were several pieces of news.

"Whew." Frank shook his head as he hung up. "This is not what I was expecting."

"Don't keep us in the dark, Frank," Joe said. "What happened? Did they learn anything?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what it means. They already got the DNA analysis back on that knife. There were two blood types and two different sets of DNA on it. One was a much smaller amount, so they're figuring that that person got cut with the knife earlier and then it was wiped off, but not completely. The second time, the person didn't make any particular effort to wipe it off."

"But they haven't identified either set of DNA yet?" Phil asked.

"No, they've identified both of them, actually, as well as a fingerprint that they found on the hilt."

"Is either of them…" Tony started, unsure whether he should finish the question of whether it was Iola's DNA that had been found on the knife.

"No, it's not," Frank said, much to the relief of everyone, since they all realized where Tony's question was going. "The first sample, the smaller one, belongs to Mario, so we're right that that was the knife that was used by Allison's attacker. The other sample and the fingerprint both belong to our missing college student, Rhett Gaint."

That revelation was followed by general looks of confusion from everyone.

"You mean, he attacked Allison and then he stabbed himself and then was carrying around a knife with own blood on it?" Tony asked. "This guy's really sick."

"How did they get samples of his DNA, anyway?" Joe asked.

"Pretty simple," Frank said. "And no, Tony, that's not what happened at all. Remember that dead body that Durant got called to investigate yesterday?"

"Rhett?" Joe guessed.

Frank nodded. "He was killed by a single stab wound that matches the knife perfectly. A passerby found his body in a ditch. The coroner thinks he was killed sometime on Sunday or Monday."

"Just when he went missing," Phil concluded. "So he's not the serial killer. But he must have handled the knife himself at some point for his fingerprint to be on it."

"So, he could have still been the person who attacked Allison," Joe suggested. "Then someone else killed with his own knife. But why?"

Frank thought for a few seconds. "I have one idea. I don't like it very much."

"What?" the others all asked at once.

"Well, suppose Rhett did attack Allison, and suppose Angelo is still hanging around town after all. Maybe he found out about the attack, confronted Rhett about it, and killed him."

"Angelo doesn't particularly seem chivalrous enough to defend the honor of the girl he dumped after trying to kill her brother," Joe pointed out.

"Murder's not particularly chivalrous, either," Frank said. "It could have been jealousy or who knows what. Anyway, maybe we'd better talk to Allison again."

HBHBHBHBHB

"So, how's your brother doing?" Joe asked, turning halfway around in the front seat. Allison and Belle were in the back, while Frank drove. Against both Frank and Joe's better judgment, they were on their way to Angelo's former apartment. They had called on Allison to talk to her, but she and Belle had persuaded them to give them a ride to the apartment so that Allison could pick up a few things she had left behind that she needed and wanted. She had finally gotten her confidence back enough that she felt she was up to the trip.

"Much better," Allison said. She looked a great deal happier than either Hardy had yet seen her. "He woke up and the doctor thinks there won't any permanent brain damage. In fact, they're going to release him from the hospital tomorrow."

"That's great," Joe replied. "What are you going to do after that?"

"I'm not sure," Allison admitted. "I think I'd better get Marshall away from this town. It wouldn't me to leave, either."

"We're trying to talk them into moving to Boston," Belle interjected. "Uncle John might even have found jobs for both of them."

"We'll see," Allison said. "I'll have to talk it over with Marshall."

By this time, Frank had stopped the car in front of the apartment. It was shabby and badly in need of paint. No blinds were drawn over the window in front and it stared at them like some blank, sightless eye over a tangle of dead flowers and weeds and a choked and barren rosebush. Allison shrank down in the seat, her courage leaving her.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" Frank asked her.

Allison nodded resolutely. "I think so. Just…could all of you come with me?"

"Of course," Belle assured her. "Come on."

Belle put her arm through Allison's and led her up to the door, with Frank walking in front and Joe in back. Allison had given the key to Frank, and he unlocked the door. The apartment was chilly, as if no heat had been on for the past couple days.

"Let's make this fast," Allison said, trembling in spite of herself. "Um, maybe you guys would go in the bedroom. I have some clothes and things in there."

"Right," Joe agreed, heading straight for the other room.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw why the apartment was so chilly. A window was hanging open. Someone had also rifled through all the dresser drawers and even torn the bed apart. Joe glanced at Frank, but neither said anything until they had closed the door behind them.

"What do you make of this?" Joe asked in an undertone.

"I have no idea. They must have been looking for something here in the bedroom. They didn't search the rest of the place."

Joe pointed at the closet door. "Funny they couldn't be bothered to close the dresser drawers, but they made sure to close up the closet all neat and tidy."

He went to the door and reached to open it. Before he could, it whipped open and slammed into his face, knocking him off his feet. Someone rushed out, but Frank almost instinctively tackled him. They struggled for a few moments before Joe recovered himself enough to join in. From there, it only took a few seconds for the Hardys to subdue their opponent.

"What the heck is going on in here?" Belle asked, appearing in the doorway. Her eyes grew wide as Frank and Joe pulled their prisoner to his feet. "Angelo!"

"Who the hell are you?" Angelo spat at her.

Belle put her hands on her hips. "Well, I like that! You don't even recognize me! It's not like seven years is all that long?"

"Belle?" Angelo said, looking completely confused. Then he noticed Allison standing behind her and dropped his eyes.

"I…I'll go wait in the car," Allison said. Her face was pale and she turned and practically ran away.

Belle glanced after her before glancing back at Angelo. "I've got a lot I want to say to you, but it'll have to wait," she said before following Allison.

"I guess that just leaves us," Joe said. "Think you can hold him, Frank, while I call the police?"

"The police?" Angelo repeated. "I was just trying to defend myself against home invaders. There's no law against that."

"Yeah, but there is a law against attempted murder and taking hostages," Joe pointed out.

"I should be calling the cops on you," Angelo retorted. "Breaking in here and wrecking my place."

"You didn't do this?" Frank asked, looking around at the mess of a room.

"Of course not. Why would I wreck my own home?"

"Well, then, who did?" Joe asked.

"We'll figure that out later," Frank told him. "You'd better get the police coming."

While Joe placed the call, Frank had Angelo sit on the bed. He asked him several questions, but Angelo had become sulky and wouldn't answer. Unfortunately, he wasn't so quiet once Lieutenant Durant arrived with another officer and Fenton.

"I'm glad you're here, officers," Angelo announced, standing up quickly. "I want you to arrest these two for breaking into my place."

"What?" Joe said in surprise.

"I think you're a little confused, Beretta," Durant told him. "You're the one with a warrant out for your arrest."

"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean I don't have rights," Angelo insisted. "These two came into my apartment without permission and I want them arrested for it."

"Allison gave us permission," Frank said.

Angelo shrugged. "So? She doesn't live here. She doesn't have any business inviting people here."

Durant glanced at Fenton, who looked like he was having a difficult time choking down his concern and anger as a parent to be a professional. Then he glanced back at the boys. "Um, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do here. Just because a person's been charged with a crime himself doesn't mean that he can't press charges against someone else, and there is evidence that what Beretta here says is true."

Frank's mouth was actually hanging open and Joe was spluttering in fury. "You can't be serious!" he finally managed to say.

"I'm afraid I am." Durant cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Before anyone else in this room says anything, I'm going to have to read you all your rights."

Author's note: Well, that didn't go quite how Frank and Joe might have expected, huh? This is definitely going to make investigating a lot more difficult…I'm not going to leave you on this cliffhanger for too long, if I can help it. Thank you for reading and thanks to everyone who reviewed! It always makes my day to read your reviews. BMSH, hopefully this chapter has helped clear up some of your confusion with the recap of everything they've learned so far. I've got to warn you all, though: Frank and Joe aren't completely right in their theories and they're not completely wrong. Oh, and I didn't forget to have the killer give a clue for this day. We'll find out about that in the next chapter, although I bet you can guess what the next clue will be. Thanks again and God bless!