Joe returned the phone to its receiver in the office of the mechanics shop. He had missed his mother, and it was good to talk to her, even if he had to rather unconvincingly tell her that he wasn't doing anything dangerous.
He was about to go downstairs when a slight noise caught his attention. A slight ticking sound ominously rang through the room. Joe would have thought it was a clock, but paranoia works quickly in the mind of a detective. He approached the sound of the ticking to determine its source.
Settled next to the pedals of Danny's car, which Ron had parked in the garage earlier that day, was a cluster of pipes and wire. The ticking became deafening as the small stopwatch read 10 seconds. Joe had little time to weigh his options. The safe distance from a pipe bomb was about 60 feet, and yet, right below his feet were Ron and Randy, who lay peacefully in the basement.
There was no time left to think. Joe seized the bomb and turned to run out of the shop. Paul was walking out of the bathroom rubbing his hands on his trouser legs. Joe screamed, "Out of the way!"
He pushed Paul to one side, ripped open the door, and with as much force as he could muster hurled the device into the field behind the shop. It exploded on impact, and Joe dropped to the ground and covered his head and neck.
He felt heat and the force of the explosion behind him, but felt no shrapnel. He sighed with relief.
Rising up to his knees and panting, Joe surveyed the damage. A small fire had caught some of the dry grass and the field certainly looked worse for wear, but other than that, no damage had been done.
Paul stumbled out of the back door of the garage and walked to Joe.
"Wha-"
Before Paul could finish, Joe stood up and stood face to face with Paul. "Who had access to the shop today?"
The urgency in Joe's voice seemed to shake Paul from his stupor. He talked quickly. "Er, the boys have one key that they share, Danny has one, and I have one. The shop was closed today. It doesn't make sense-"
Joe was already running back to the shop. "Put out that fire!" He called to Paul behind him.
Ron and Randy were groggily walking up the stairs. "Joe," Randy started, "What happened, are you okay?"
Joe brushed the question aside. "Who has the key, the third key to the shop?"
Ron pulled it out of his pocket. "I do. The shop was closed today, we all have too many school absences to miss any more days-"
Joe explained how he found the bomb and what he had done. Not pausing to revel in his comrades' impressed expressions, Joe said "So we have to figure out who had access to the shop today that could have planted it-"
Ron scowled. "You're not thinking it's any of us, are you, Hardy?"
"Of course not," Joe said impatiently, "what I think is that Danny's key was stolen, probably when he was assaulted, which means the attacker has access to this place."
"How do you know Paul's key wasn't stolen?" Randy piped up.
"Paul unlocked the door when we got here, remember?"
"Oh yeah."