Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers, and sorry for the long wait and the bad cliffie! Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Joe awoke to a dull throbbing in his head. Ow, he thought, wake up and smell the chloroform! After his eyes were properly focused, he glanced down to confirm that his wrists and ankles were tied. They were.
Trying to ignore the pain in his head, he took in his surroundings. He was in a dark, enclosed space, probably the back of a truck, he guessed. He could tell that it was moving, too, hearing the crunch of gravel under the tires.
As his eyes adjusted to the dark, he could make out other figures also bound and lying on the floor. Squinting at the faces, he could see that one was Bess. That surprised him. When had they gotten her? He supposed that Officer Sheffield was probably here too somewhere.
Impatiently, he searched for Frank or Nancy, realizing that they would better be able to help him than anyone else, but they didn't appear to be here. Sighing, he scooted over to the nearest figure- Bess- and elbowed her gently. "Bess? Bess, wake up!" He leaned over and put his ear near her mouth. She was breathing slowly and peacefully, still under the effect of the chloroform. "Come on, Bess!"
She didn't move. "Officer Sheffield?" Joe called. "Wake up! Bess? Lisa? Anyone?"
Nobody stirred. Joe groaned. He was going to have to do this on his own. If only he could get free of these ropes! He grinned suddenly as he remembered the lockpicking kit hidden in his shoe. There was a miniature saw in it that he could use to cut the ropes. Twisting around, he endeavored to reach it and failed. It would take someone else to get it. If only someone else were awake!
Scooting over to the next figure, Lisa, he first checked to make sure she was breathing. She was, and he reached for her belt as best he could with his hands bound. Hopefully there was something attached to the belt that would enable him to cut the ropes. He felt the holster, but her gun was gone. Of course, their assailants wouldn't let them keep their weapons. The other attachments were also missing.
Just then Joe spotted a third figure- a man's. "Frank?" A closer inspection revealed that it wasn't Frank, but Sam. Sam was also breathing, and stubbornly unconscious. "Sam!" Joe shook him urgently, and a blue light appeared beneath him. Joe was puzzled for a minute before he realized it was Sam's watch glowing.
Peering at it, he saw that he'd only been out for twenty or twenty-five minutes, not long for chloroform, he thought. He wondered if he was becoming immune to chloroform. That would explain why no one else would wake.
He checked Sam's belt the same way he'd checked Lisa's, finding nothing but Sam's retractable metal baton. That's weird, he thought. Did they just forget to take the baton?
Hearing wheezing from the corner, he followed the sound to another pile of bodies. The bomb technicians. Their belts had also been stripped of any useful instruments.
He heard a rustle in the back of the truck. A frightened voice echoed through the truck. "Nancy?"
"Bess!" Joe said in relief. "You're awake!"
"Joe? Is that you?" Bess asked in a small voice. "I'm over here. I'm tied up."
Joe started crawling over to Bess. "Don't worry, Bess. Just lie still; the headache will start to subside and your eyes will adjust." Finally reaching her, he said, "I have a miniature saw hidden in my shoe, and I need you to get it for me. Do you think you could turn around and reach it?"
Bess twisted around and, after several minutes of fumbling around in the darkness, she came up with Joe's lockpicking kit.
"I'll do you first." Joe said, and Bess gratefully agreed, sitting still while Joe carefully sawed through her bonds.
Nancy padded cautiously down the hall, more uncomfortable than she'd ever been in her own house. She could hear her heart pounding in her head. Just around any corner could be a homicidal maniac, and she felt anything but ready to face him.
"Miss Drew?" said a chilling voice from behind her. The voice that had haunted her nonstop for the past week.
Nancy whirled around to see a tall, dark-haired boy of about her age. His eyes were beady, and he was wielding a baseball bat.
She didn't even have time to scream as the bat came down on her head, knocking her to the floor, unconscious.
Bess heard her bonds snap, and she pulled her hands apart, massaging her sore wrists. "Okay, give me the saw." Joe handed her the saw and held up his wrists.
Bess began to saw through the bonds. Suddenly, the truck lurched as it rounded a corner, throwing Bess into Joe. Joe gritted his teeth as the sharp saw bit into his palm.
Bess righted herself. She gasped as she felt blood on his hand. "Joe!" she cried. "I am so sorry!"
"It's okay, Bess. You just keep sawing." Joe said calmly, ignoring the burning in his hand. He could tell that the cut was deep by the amount of blood he felt dripping off his fingers.
Bess tentatively started sawing again, more slowly and gentler this time. Joe fought back an impatient sigh. She was going to go slowly to avoid cutting him again. This would take forever.
Nancy let out a muffled groan. How her head hurt! She could feel ropes binding her hands and tape over her mouth. Opening her eyes, she jerked back as she saw the tall boy leaning over her.
He laughed. "I'm so glad you're awake. I didn't mean to hit you that hard!" His eyes twinkled, not merrily, but shiny and cold.
Nancy's stomach twisted. She was convinced of his insanity. Only a lunatic would club her with a bat and then apologize for hitting her so hard! Should she try to talk to him? Deciding it was worth a shot, she nodded her head to indicate that she wanted to say something.
The boy squatted to her level. She realized then that she was lying on her own living room couch. Grimacing, Nancy thought of what Hannah would do if her head bled on the white couch.
"If I take off the tape, do you promise not to scream for your boyfriend?" Nancy's eyes widened, but she nodded. Great, she thought. He knows that Frank's upstairs. He laughed again as he ripped the tape off roughly. "Yes, I know that Hardy's upstairs. As a matter of fact, I just sent someone up to deal with him."
Nancy paled visibly. "What did you do to him?" she whispered fearfully.
He shrugged, knowing that leaving her in doubt was the best way to hurt her. Then he smiled. "Forgive me. I forgot to introduce myself."
"I know who you are." Nancy said coldly. "You're Daniel Morgan. Mind if I call you Dan?" she snapped bitterly.
"Yes, I do." Daniel replied icily, "And you, Nancy Drew, have no reason to be bitter. I'm the only one here who has reason to be bitter!" He was getting angry now, nearly shouting. "I didn't deserve-" He stopped suddenly at a noise from upstairs.
Nancy's skin crawled at the familiar smack of a hard punch. Her lips tightened as she heard Frank's voice cry out, and then a thud. The sound of a body falling to the floor. Nancy started to tremble from a mixture of fear and anger.
Daniel was gauging her reaction. He smirked at her and said, "Would you like to know why?"
"Why what?" Nancy snapped angrily.
"Why I went to all this trouble to find you, torture you, and kill you?"
"I know why." Nancy said haughtily. "Because I got your mother sent to jail."
Daniel laughed harshly. "You don't know the half of it." he growled.
Nancy glared at him. "Fine. Explain."
Daniel raised his eyebrows. "It's almost like you forget who's in charge here." His expression changed to rage and he slapped Nancy's face. "You ruined my whole life."
Nancy's cheek stung, but she held back the tears. "Your mother was a criminal!" she retorted defensively. "She stole from her own husband's company!"
Daniel slapped her again. "Don't even talk about my mother! You ruined her, my father, and me!"
"Don't make this my fault!" Nancy said heatedly.
"You want the story?" Daniel spat. "It starts with a fifteen-year-old boy whose mother embezzled from his father's company. She got caught by some hotshot girl detective, and that's when all of my troubles started!"
He glared at Nancy before he went on. "My father loved my mother, and he paid the bail to keep her out of prison. But he was so ashamed of her that he couldn't stand having her around. He filed for a divorce, and they were both heartbroken. He went into a deep depression. He couldn't stand anything that reminded him of her. He donated our money to charities because he worried that it was stolen. He wouldn't even look at me because I was my mother's son!"
His voice turned bitter. "The day the divorce was finalized, my father committed suicide." His glittering eyes bored into Nancy.
"Oh." Nancy said, temporarily at a loss for words. "I'm sorry, but that doesn't make it my fault."
"It is your fault!" Daniel roared. "My father left all of his money to charity, leaving nothing to my mother and me! My mother overdosed on pills a few weeks later!" His voice quieted. "She's dead too."
Nancy was stunned by the anger in his words. She'd had no idea he'd been through so much.
Daniel turned to her. "I knew what I had to do. I had to avenge my parents! And who better to punish than the girl who sent this chain of events into motion?! You!"
"No!" Nancy cried. "All I did was keep an innocent man from being framed!"
"You ruined my mother! You hurt my father! You killed them both!"
"You're crazy!"
Daniel grabbed her by the throat, but his voice was calm. "Do you have any idea how long I've been watching you?"
"Two weeks?" Nancy choked out.
Daniel laughed and squeezed her throat, causing spots to swim in front of her eyes. "Try two years!"
Nancy was dizzy. She couldn't breathe. The world was spinning; getting darker and darker…
Daniel released his hold on her throat. She coughed and gasped, feeling the air rush into her lungs. Her eyes refocused, and the world stopped spinning. He continued to talk to her calmly. "After watching you for a while, I took the first part of my revenge. I found the thing that made you happiest, and I took it away."
Nancy's face reflected confusion. What had he taken away?
Daniel rolled his eyes. "More clues, then? Alright. Think about last summer. What happened then that made you unhappy?"
Nancy thought, but her brain was still fuzzy from the lack of oxygen. "Uh…"
Daniel was getting impatient. "Think about a certain Hardy boy."
"Frank!" Nancy exclaimed. "Wait, Frank?"
Daniel smiled. "He broke up with you, right?"
Nancy still didn't get it. "Wha- what?"
"Did you think he dumped you because he wanted to?" Daniel mocked.
"Alright," Bess said, "Pull."
Joe yanked and the rope broke. Thank God. He rubbed his wrists, which were stinging. The cut on his hand was still sore, but the blood had finally clotted and it was no longer bleeding. "We have to get out of here." he told Bess.
"But how?" Bess wanted to know. "And what about the police?"
Joe rubbed his chin. Trying to get four unconscious officers out of a moving truck could prove to be a problem. "Let's try to get the door open." he suggested.
He and Bess walked carefully toward the back of the truck. "It opens from the bottom." Joe told her.
They bent and tried to lift the metal shutter. "There's not enough leverage." Bess grunted. "We'll never be able to get it up without a crowbar or something!"
"You're right." Joe admitted. "Hey, wait a minute!" he ran into the front of the truck and knelt next to Sam. He groped around for Sam's baton. Finding it, he made his way back to Bess and extended it. "This close enough?"
Bess grinned at him. "Let's do it!" She poked the end into the crack of the door and pushed. Nothing happened.
"Jump on it." Joe advised.
Bess did, and the door lifted slightly. Joe grabbed the bottom of the door and started to pull up, grunting when he put pressure on his injured hand. "Help me, Bess!"
Bess grabbed the door, too, and pushed it upward with all her strength. Slowly, the crack grew wider and wider until the door latched into an open position above their heads. The two teens looked out the back of the truck, realizing that they were on a deserted dirt road; there were no other cars to be seen.
"Just great!" Bess exclaimed. "There's no one here to help- AAH!"
The truck had bounced, throwing Bess off balance. She was going to fall out of the truck!
"He…he didn't want to break up with me?" Nancy asked in confusion.
"Of course not!" Daniel scoffed. "I sent him anonymous messages threatening to kill you if he didn't leave you alone. He knew he couldn't keep an eye on you all the time, so he gave up and left. Smart boy, he is."
Nancy would have jumped him then and there if she hadn't been tied up. "That was your fault!?" she yelled.
"Yes." Daniel said smugly. "Brilliant, wasn't it?"
Joe reacted quickly. With one hand, he grabbed the side of the truck. With the other, he grabbed Bess's flailing arm and pulled her back into the truck.
"Thanks, Joe." She gasped.
"Anytime!" Joe said. Then he winced. "Sorry for bleeding on you."
Bess looked at the bloody smear on her elbow. "I'm fine. Let me see your hand."
Joe showed her. "It's fine."
Bess frowned. The cut was deep; it had reopened and was bleeding furiously. "I think it needs stitches." she told him worriedly.
Joe shrugged it off. "Nothing we can do now. Now we have to get off this truck and help Frank and Nancy!"
Bess nodded. "How are we going to get these guys out of here?" she asked, nodding at the four unconscious figures.
Joe bit his lip. "We could push them out, and then jump for it."
Bess shrugged. "What have we got to lose?"
A/N: This was a pretty long one. Hope you all liked it! Not to beg, but please, please, review?