CHAPTER 9

"Who would have done such a thing? Why only your rooms?" Con asked Frank and Joe. He was making notes on the condition of the ransacked rooms. Frank sat on the chair in his room while Joe was pacing restlessly as the other police officers checked for evidence in their rooms.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Frank replied. "We don't have anything valuable here."

Con squatted down, leaving his men to finish the job. "Are you sure there's nothing missing?" he asked again.

"Yeah, my computer is still there, so is my stereo," Frank replied. "Nothing's taken."

"What about you, Joe?"

"Ditto for me," he replied simply.

"Do you think it must have something to do with the case that you're on?" Con asked curiously. "We checked the front door. Someone has jimmied it open."

"Maybe, the coincidence is too perfect. Somebody must have known we were out," Joe told him.

"Hmm, that doesn't help much," Con commented. "Anyway, did you hear the latest news on the robbery case?" he asked suddenly.

"No, we didn't," Joe said. "What about it?"

"We managed to arrest the two robbers that you two have met yesterday," Con told them.

"Hey, that's great! Does that mean the case is closed?" Frank said.

"Not really," Con replied seriously. "We might have a bigger problem. When I interrogated those robbers on who supplied those weapons, they all clammed up, as if they were afraid of something."

"What are they afraid of?" Joe asked curiously.

"I can guess the reason why. When I pressed them further, they finally came up with a name."

"Who?" Frank asked.

"Red Lewis, one of the most wanted criminals who has been eluding the authorities in six states. He's been operating his gun running operation for years. He likes to smuggle big guns. Even though the ATF managed to confiscate some of his guns, they couldn't figure out where he gets his income to order such a large amount of weapons – the price is higher than he makes from selling them. As far as we have found out, he did nothing in his life but smuggling weapons."

"He must have getting his source of income somewhere," Frank said thoughtfully.

"That's what we're trying to figure out. Those robbers didn't know anything more except for the name," Con said. "And if you happen to spot Lewis, contact us immediately," he told the boys and handed out a printout of Lewis's face. The criminal was in his late-forties and thin. He had red hair and a pair of gray shrewd eyes. There was something vaguely familiar about the criminal's face.

"Thanks for the info, Con," Joe told him.

Con got ready to go. "Well, I'm just glad you two weren't hurt. If you think of anything that could help us, just give me a call."

When the police had finally gone, Joe turned to Frank. "So, who do you think could have done this?" he asked. "Do you think Bauer could have done this? He was the one who took us to his home. So, he knew the house was empty."

"I guess so," Frank said. "I think the next step is to check who owns the PO Box in Riverside, and we also need to check if there's somebody with the name Wirth working in Datatronics or ElectroSoft, and I'll take the CD to Phil tomorrow. I have to give the hardware that I have collected for him anyway."

Frank was hit by a sudden realization. "Joe, what if the intruder was searching for this CD?" Frank asked, pulling out the CD from his jacket.

"Hey, that must be it!" Joe exclaimed. "But then someone must have seen that I've taken it from Duncan," he frowned.

"Or someone has seen Duncan coming to our place, and made a conclusion from his visit," Frank said. "Duncan did say he was being followed. But we're still not sure who was following him – it could have been Bauer, spying Duncan to locate his daughter."

Joe rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I need a break from all this. Let's get some dinner now."

***

The Hardys spent the whole morning of the next day searching for an employee with the name Wirth in Datatronics or ElectroSoft. Frank had managed to hack through the companies' databases using the hacking program that Phil had given him.

"Nothing, again!" Frank said in frustration, banging his fist on the table. They had tried a lot of searches for the name Wirth, but ended without any result.

Joe suppressed his yawn. "This is getting nowhere," he said. "Maybe it's someone who is not working in Datatronics or ElectroSoft."

"That would be like searching a needle in a haystack," Frank sighed wearily.

"Keep trying," Joe encouraged. "In the meantime, I'm going to make a phone call."

"Who are you calling?" Frank asked curiously.

"Just to make a little inquiry," Joe replied cryptically. With that, he dashed out of the room. He went downstairs and entered his father's study.

Joe grabbed the Yellow Pages and searched through it. When he found the number of the main post office in Riverside, he punched the numbers immediately on the phone.

After a few minutes talking to the clerk who was in charge of the post office box arrangements, Joe finally managed to find the name of the owner of the box. But for safety precautions, the clerk couldn't give out the address or the contact number of the owner. He would have to find that out the hard way.

"So, did you find anything?" Joe asked his brother as soon as he stepped into Frank's room.

"No, I'm ready to give up. I think I'll head to Phil's place now. He's free on Fridays," Frank replied in a strain voice, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, what were you doing just now?" he asked.

He told Frank about the phone call that he had made. "And I got the name of the owner of that PO Box," Joe said simply.

"Shoot."

"Hans Turner," Joe said simply.

"Who's that?" Frank asked quizzically.

"I don't know, but I think it's worth checking out," Joe replied with a shrug.

"Good work, Joe." He nodded in approval. "So, that means you're going to check out the box?" Frank asked.

"Yep," Joe said. "I'll take the van," he said, taking the keys on the table before Frank could react.

"Sneaky," Frank said.

"Or maybe you're getting old," Joe remarked with a grin. Frank didn't manage to retort when Joe was already out of the room in a flash.

Maybe I'm already getting old, Frank thought, getting up from his chair. Glancing at the mirror on the wall, he instinctively checked his head for gray hairs before heading out.

***

"Did you find anything wrong with the program?" Frank asked Phil. His black-haired friend had just installed the program into his computer. They were sitting in the basement of the Cohen's house. Phil had turned the basement into his own private electronics lab.

"Nope," Phil replied simply. "Where did you get this? This program hasn't come out in the market, yet."

Frank quickly told him about the case he was working on, and how he had obtained the CD.

Phil gave a low whistle as he listened to the details. "At least Blackwell and McGuire weren't trading companies' secrets," he said. "That would have been a serious crime."

"I doubt that," Frank replied, "The only thing that brought them together was a computer game."

"OK, back to this program. If I recall correctly, this thing needs a dongle to work," Phil told him. "If you don't have one, your program won't start," he explained.

"A dongle?" Frank asked.

Phil nodded. "I have one here, but this one is used for other application," he told his friend. He began searching through a white box that was filled with electronic components. When he found it, Phil handed the component to his friend. To Frank the dongle looked like a computer port adapter.

"I think I get it," Frank said, "This thing is some sort of a security protection for a software."

"You're catching on," Phil said.

"But why would McGuire gave Duncan the CD without the dongle if he knew it wasn't going to work?" Frank asked, almost to himself.

"Maybe the program in the CD is supposed to work without the dongle," Phil answered, with an interested look.

"Can you do that?" Frank asked in surprise.

"Sure, if you can make a program to bypass the use of the dongle," Phil told him. "Let me check first," he said as he scrolled through the contents of the CD using his computer. "Just as I thought, someone has made a crack file of the main program."

"That's the file to bypass the dongle, right?" Frank asked, suddenly realizing the significance of the CD.

"Right, and you have to overwrite the program file that you have installed with this crack file," Phil told him. "That way your program will work without the dongle."

"If you distribute this program for free, let say in the Internet, you can use the program easily – you don't have to worry of searching for the dongle," Frank said in amazement.

"I think that is called software piracy, Frank," Phil told him. "That's why some of the software nowadays uses dongle to prevent their product from getting copied illegally."

"Then McGuire must have known who made this pirated program and he died because of it!"