by:
A/N: As always, much thanks to those who review the story.
Frank glanced out the window of Nancy's rental car at the scenery as they pair drove towards Denver. He, Nancy, and Joe had agreed to have he and Nancy go to Denver and check out the background on their suspects. Joe was going to remain with Elayne at the Fairchild Mansion.
"So, what's first on our agenda?" Nancy asked Frank.
"We should probably try to get as much stuff as we can without the Network's help." Frank advised, "The Gray Man has never been really anxious to give us lots of information. So, we can ask him about all of the stuff we can't find out."
Nancy nodded in agreement. "Good point. After we check out Greg Hales let's stop by police headquarters and see if they'll give us any information."
"Okay, we can ask about Elayne's mother. I think you have a valid idea that maybe she was murdered."
"Yes," Nancy said, "but if someone that wealthy was murdered it would have been all over the newspapers and tabloids. How would Elayne not know?"
"Fairchild is rich, he could probably silence the media," Frank suggested.
"I doubt it," Nancy said critically, "he would have to bribe so many people that he wouldn't even be able to keep track of it."
"Maybe that Webster guy was involved with the investigation or media," Frank said.
Nancy shrugged, "I don't know, we should probably check him out as well as Martha, Amanda, and Hertz. Is this the street where we're supposed to turn to get to Hale's house?"
Frank looked down at the directions Mr. Fairchild had given to them the night before. "Yes, turn right here, then left, and it should be the fifth house on the right."
Nancy nodded and followed the directions. "Okay we'll drive past, I'll park, and you go and check it out. I'll stay here in the get-away-car. Sound good?"
"That works," Frank said as they drove past the house.
Nancy stopped the car just around the next corner and turned off the engine. Frank hopped out and headed back down the street. "See you soon," he waved.
Joe sat at the dining room table in the Fairchild Mansion waiting for Elayne to finish eating her breakfast. Frank and Nancy had instructed him to try and get as much information as possible out from Elayne. Peoples' habits, family history, social relations, and other tidbits.
"So has anyone been acting strange lately?" Joe asked Elayne casually.
Elayne smiled as she sipped from a glass of orange juice. "No, no one has been acting oddly."
Just then Amanda walked into the room. "Elayne, have you seen my spare set of house keys?" she asked.
Elayne shook her head. "Did you lose them or something?"
"I don't know, I distinctly remember placing them in here somewhere earlier this morning. Maybe I'm mistaken though." Amanda replied.
"Who knows?" Elayne said, "I always lose stuff, I'm not very organized."
"Oh well, maybe they'll turn up." Amanda left the room.
"So tell me about Amanda," Joe prompted Elayne.
"What about her?" Elayne asked.
"Well, you know, background, where she came from, what she's like, all of that," Joe said.
Elayne thought for a second. "She's an orphan and was raised by her aunt, you know, Martha. She and Martha came here when I was about twelve. The old housekeeper, Amy Smith had died in a freak accident. Anyway, Martha of course had Amanda who was seventeen then, my father was the only person who would let Amanda stay with Martha despite the fact that she wasn't a real employee of him. My father is rather generous when it comes down to it. All of the servants have never lived in the old servants' quarters. They always live in the house."
"So Amanda isn't like a maid or housekeeper?" Joe questioned.
"No, she does do some things around the house because she does live here, but she isn't employed by my father. She actually considered moving out once she hit twenty one," Elayne explained.
"Why didn't she?" Joe inquired.
Elayne giggled. "Amanda by that time had become a good friend of mine, she always would spend time with me and we could share secrets with each other. She told me that she was planning to move out cause she didn't even do anything around here. So I went to my dad and asked him to tell Amanda that she was welcome to stay here as long as she wanted."
"Did you father tell her she could stay?"
"No, he told Martha to tell Amanda that she could stay."
"So Amanda stayed." Joe said.
"Of course, what with that offer, and the chance to spend time around my father. . ." Elayne began to laugh.
Joe smiled, "Are you still friends?"
"Of course!"
Joe frowned. It looked like his Amanda theory wasn't going to work out. She didn't really have much of a motive to kidnap anyone.
"So what shall we do this morning?" he asked.
Nancy spied Frank coming back from his stakeout. He didn't appear to be happy. Frank opened the car door and hopped in. "That was a total waste of an hour," he said.
"What did you find out?" Nancy asked.
"The reason that Mr. Hales has been late to work for the past week is because his wife is laid up with the flu and he has to get the kids to school before he can leave for work." Frank explained.
Nancy shrugged, "Well that narrows it down, we don't have to worry about Hales any longer."
"Yeah, but how did the kidnappers know to put that message in my room?" Frank asked, "Hales was the only logical link to that."
"I don't know," Nancy mused, "let's head downtown, maybe something will turn up."
Frank brightened a bit. "I hope so."
Nancy started the car and pulled out into the street. "Any new theories?"
"Maybe someone at the house knew that Fairchild was going to hire us." Frank suggested.
"That's a possibility," Nancy replied, "aside from Elayne who knew?"
"Probably everyone," Frank
Nancy paused for a second, "Well, I suppose that's why we're doing background checks."
The pair soon arrived at the Denver Police Headquarters. They parked in the lot and walked into the building.
"How are we going to do this?" Frank whispered to Nancy.
"Let's talk to that detective that showed up at the mall when they tried to kidnap Elayne," Nancy suggested.
Frank nodded, "Good idea." He walked up to the desk sergeant. "Um, excuse me, could we please see Bill Kimball?"
The burly sergeant looked at them suspiciously. "I suppose. . .down the hall and the seventh door to your right."
"Thank you," Frank said as he and Nancy headed down the hall.
They found the door the sergeant had directed them too. Nancy knocked on the door. She was answered with a, "Come in!"
Frank and Nancy walked in the detective's office. Bill Kimball looked up at them. "How can I help you?"
"Do you remember Elayne Fairchild's attempted kidnapping?" Frank asked him.
Kimball nodded impatiently. "Yes, yes, what do you want about it?"
"We've been asked by her father to look into it and possible motives. We were wondering if we could get some records and info from you." Nancy explained.
Kimball tilted his head and studied them. "I'll help you a little. . . what did you want to know."
Frank stole a glance at the little paper with the info that Elayne had given them. "Do you guys know anything about Elizabeth Fairchild?"
Kimball leaned forward and keyed the name into his computer. "Fairchild, Elizabeth P," he began, "she was murdered about ten years ago."
Nancy shot Frank a "I knew it!" glance and then turned towards the cop. "Did they ever catch the murderer, do you know what the motive was?"
Detective Kimball scanned the report on his computer. "Let's see, no, no motive was ever known. The murderer was killed in the act."
"Killed!" Nancy exclaimed.
Kimball nodded, "Apparently he killed Mrs. Fairchild at about ten o'clock, just the same time Mr. Fairchild arrived home from his work. Apparently the murderer was on his way to murder the daughter, Elayne, as well. Mr. Fairchild bumped into him on his way to Elayne's room. The perpetrator tried to kill Mr. Fairchild. In the end, Fairchild strangled the murderer with a garotte."
Nancy's mouth dropped open in shock. "A garotte! Where did he get a garotte?"
"I don't know," Kimball shrugged.
"What happened after that?" Frank inquired.
"It seems that the feds jumped in and kicked us off the case, silenced the media, and just took care of it." Kimball explained.
"Do you have anything on Fairchild himself in your database?" Nancy asked.
Kimball keyed in Fairchild's name, "Let's see, Fairchild, Andrew S- nope, he hasn't even been pulled over for speeding let alone anything else. He clean."
"What about his employees?" Nancy asked, "Martha Harper, William Hertz, Greg Hales, and Amanda Johnson?"
Kimball looked them all up. "Nope," he shook his head, "they're all clean."
Frank and Nancy thanked Detective Kimball and then left his office. "Well that was useless." Frank said.
"Not necessarily," Nancy replied, "we did find out that Elayne's mother was murdered, and that Elayne could have been murdered. Maybe it's the same person."
"In a stretch of ten years?" Frank scoffed, "What strikes me is the garotte. Was it the murder weapon or did Fairchild just happen to have it in his pocket?"
Nancy shrugged. "I think we're going to have to call the Network if we're going to get anything else."
Frank nodded. "Let's do it from that payphone right over there. No use in letting the Gray Man know where we are exactly."
Frank and Nancy walked over to the payphone. Frank lifted up the receiver and dropped several quarters in and dialed.
Someone answered the phone. "Connector Insurance, how may I help you."
"Yes, I'd like to speak with Mr. Gray please." Frank said.
"One moment please."
"Great," Frank said to Nancy, "they've put me on hold."
"Maybe they're trying to figure out what you're up to." Nancy laughed.
There was a click and the Gray Man's familiar voice and annoyed came over the phone. "What do you want Frank?"
"I want some background info on some people, and you know that you owe me a favor." Frank answered.
Mr. Gray sighed. "Who?"
"Let's see," Frank said, "first we want the goods on Andrew S. Fairchild."
There was a very pregnant pause on the line. "Andrew S. Fairchild of Denver?" came the Gray Man's masked voice.
"Yes." Frank replied.
"One second," there was a click, Frank was back on hold.
"I think I've struck a nerve," Frank told Nancy.
Nancy grinned, "I bet that means we'll get a lot of info on him."
After several minutes the Gray Man came back to the line, "Why are you asking about Fairchild?"
"He hired us to prevent the kidnapping of his daughter, so we looked up his history and it turns out his wife was murdered several years ago. We wanted to know what's going on." Frank answered.
There was another long pause. "I need to meet with you Frank, where can we meet in Denver?"
Frank was stunned. They Gray Man didn't ask them where he could meet them. Rather he told them where to meet him. "Why?" he managed to get out, "Why do you have to meet with me?"
"You're in extreme danger Frank, more danger than you have been in before," the Gray Man responded tersely.
"How?" Frank asked, "Is Fairchild dangerous?"
"Only to his enemies Frank," the Gray Man replied, "why would a man who has so many resources call upon you and your brother, mere amateurs? He's frightened Frank, he doesn't know who he can trust. It takes A LOT to frighten Andrew S. Fairchild. Where can I meet you Frank?"
Frank thought for a moment. "When can you be here then?"
"Four hours."
"Fine then, we can meet at two o'clock at the park outside the Denver Police Headquarters." Frank told the Gray Man.
"I'll be there." There was a click and the line was dead.
Frank turned to Nancy. "He's meeting us in four hours."
"Why?" Nancy asked.
Frank related the conversation to her as they left the police station. "I don't think Fairchild is dangerous, but being around him is," Frank finished up with.
Nancy nodded. "Let's go grab something to eat and then we can look up some more later."
The pair walked out to Nancy's rental car and climbed in. "So why do you think the Gray Man thinks Fairchild is frightened?" Frank asked her as she prepared to start the car.
Nancy shrugged. "Don't know." She turned the key to start the ignition but nothing happened.
"Maybe he did something to make some terrorists mad." Frank mused. Abruptly he noticed that as Nancy's car failed to start there was a clicking noise. He realized what it meant. "GET OUT!" he yelled.
Frank and Nancy leapt from the car and ran as a massive explosion ripped through the air.
A/N: Here's a cliffhanger! Please review and let me know whether or not people read this story! Thanks for reading!