Chapter 12.
"Frank?" Joe called out, getting extremely worried. Why wasn't Frank responding?
He tried to raise himself, but something heavy was hindering any upward movement. He thought, perhaps, that it was the upholstered roof pressing down on him. Then Joe realised the heavy mass was warm, and moving!
"Frank!" Joe yelled again. "Frank, can you hear me?"
"Joe..?"
Frank's weak reply brought a sigh of extreme relief from Joe. Frank had evidently thrown himself protectively over his brother just before the collision.
"Hey!" A new voice was calling out to the brothers. "Hey! Anybody in there? Hey!"
"Yeah! We're trapped under here!" Joe bellowed as loudly as he could, knowing the sound of his voice was probably barely audible. He was just beginning to understand how truly fortunate he and his brother were. They'd had so many countless 'close calls' in the past, and this one ranked right up there with the worst of them.
"Can you hear me?" the same voice called out again.
"Yes!" Joe cried out as loudly as he could. "We're stuck!"
"Okay, I'm going to try to get you out!" came the reply.
"Frank, bro, talk to me," Joe said worriedly. "Can you feel anything? Are you hurt?"
"Uhh…My back…Roof's pressing in on me…stuck…"
There was a face at what was left at the passenger-side window. The frame of the door was twisted and the window was in pieces. Their rescuer was holding a flashlight, and was crouching under the bed of the truck.
"You okay in there, mister?" the stranger asked Frank, whose head he could partially see butting up against the door.
"Umm…" Frank mumbled, trying to shake the cobwebs loose. "I think so…I'm just stuck…"
"Well shoot! What in the hell were you thinking, running the light? I coulda sworn I killed you."
"That…well…get us out, and we'll try to explain," Frank muttered to the man, whom he now realised had to be the driver of the truck. He was just starting to feel normal again after the shock of the crash, though his head was pounding.
"Okay," the driver said. "but you're gonna have to work with me. Can you pull yourself up a little? Try to squeeze through this broken window, maybe. This door ain't gonna open." Using the flashlight, the truck driver broke away the jagged edges of glass that still remained in the doorframe.
"Go ahead, Frank," Joe said, "use me as leverage!"
"I don't want to crush you," Frank said in a worried voice. "You're already pinned in there pretty tight."
"You won't! Go on, move!" came Joe's reassuring voice.
It took several painful moments of pushing, squirming and tugging, but Frank and Joe were eventually free of the wrecked automobile with the help of the truck driver. A few scrapes and bruises were amazingly the only evidence of their mishap.
Crawling out from under the truck, they were astonished at the sight of the rental car. Almost the entire upper half of the vehicle was squashed down. They were amazed they'd even been able to squeeze through the narrow opening that had been the window.
The driver was now flashing the torch under the car, and it showed that some brake fluid was slowly draining out onto the road.
"So that's why you boys couldn't stop," he said grimly. "You had some messed up brake lines."
The brothers looked at each other, and they knew the same thought was going through their minds: Sabotage.
"I really can't believe you, Bess," George admonished her cousin, after the Hardys had departed.
"Why not? I have every right to do everything I can to find out the truth about what happened to Nancy. I'm just glad that the Hardys were willing to listen, and that they're willing to help me! Finally, someone!"
"You hijacked the conversation is what you did," George said accusingly. "They came here to express their condolences, and you had to rant about how there's some conspiracy going on and that Nancy's still alive."
"And did you see the look on Frank's face when I asked him if he thought she was alive? You'd have to have been blind not to have seen it!"
"What are you talking about, Bess? I heard him say, just like you did, that he believes she's dead."
Bess scoffed. "Oh, I know what he said. But it was the expression in his eyes that gave him away! Not only did Frank Hardy lie about believing Nancy is dead, he's also madly in love with her."
George shot Bess a sceptical look. "'Madly' in love? A few years ago, it was just an innocent little crush between the two of them, and it's been years since he last saw her, anyway. What makes you think you know anything about what Frank Hardy is feeling – even if she was still alive?"
"Well, since you asked, I have a very strong feeling that Frank's long-time girlfriend, Callie Shaw, is very out of the picture! Isn't that convenient?"
"Have you called the police and emergency services?" Frank asked the driver, who only identified himself as 'Sam'.
"Uh, not yet…The crash happened, and I was just about to call when I heard someone yelling for a 'Frank'. Thought my ears were-"
"Good," Frank interrupted, "don't call it in."
"What are you, crazy?" Sam sputtered. "Why? You guys should see a doctor! You shouldn't even be walking away from this…"
"Look, we don't have time to explain," Joe said, understanding exactly why his brother did not want the police around. "Sam, just pretend you never saw us. Okay?"
"But – you can't leave…You can't leave the scene of an accident! Waitaminute! Where are you going!"
The Hardys were already on the move, running as quickly as they could on their unsteady feet. They were trying to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the accident. They hated breaking the law, but knew that leaving the scene would, for now, be the safest option for them.
The unspoken realization that had dawned on the pair was that it appeared someone was not eager for them to meet with Detective Thomas Morrison. Further, that someone was mostly likely a person within the Chicago Police Department - someone who would have known they were making inquiries about the 'death' of Nancy Drew. If they made themselves scarce now, it would be more difficult for those responsible to track them down.
"They tried - to kill us," Joe breathed, as he kept up a steady pace beside his brother.
"But who?" Frank gasped in mid-stride.
"Someone who knew… where we've been… and what we were driving," Joe responded.
Both brothers knew that amounted to any number of officers at the 19th District Station: most notably Sergeants Mahoney and MacMillan, as well as Detective Thomas Morrison. But Morrison had warned the Hardys about the higher-ranking officers, hadn't he? Was that why he had wanted to meet with them? Did he have incriminating evidence about them that he was hoping to share?
"I had a feeling… we couldn't trust any of them!" Frank said, wheezing from exertion, "Look," "there's a diner ahead…I'm going to call Morrison from there…for all we know…they're monitoring our cell phone activity…"
"How do we know…we can trust Morrison?" Joe asked.
"I don't!" Frank answered. "But so far…he's given us no reason…not to! For all we know…Nancy could have confided in him…Maybe…he feels like he can't trust anyone…in the CPD…either!"
They were within a block of the diner when the steady honk of a car made them turn about-face. A navy blue sedan drove past them and pulled onto the shoulder, blocking their progress.
Not knowing who it was, the Hardys made ready for another flight in the opposite direction.
The driver's side door opened, and a figure started to step out. Frank grabbed Joe's arm.
"Let's move!" he hissed, and they started to bolt.
"Wait!" a familiar voice called out. The voice belonged to Sergeant Joseph MacMillan. "Don't run!"
Not knowing whether or not the man was armed, the Hardys decided to obey. His next words shocked them.
"At the risk of sounding clichéd, come with me if you want to live!"
A/N: Of course I wouldn't kill Frank ! I may be cruel to other people's characters, but I very rarely fatally injure them.
More heart-felt thanks to you my reviewers! You've all been wonderful – even after that good-natured tongue-lashing I gave you. I still have quite a number of plot developments on the way. I hope you're ready. Here comes the deluge!