Thanks katie but, um, erm, eh...Branwen, d-did I forget to mention that I'm not good at spanish...that is spanish...? Right...? Am I supposed to say thanks or...? (gulp!)
Chapter 3
The Hardys were up early next morning. They started the day at the breakfast buffet in the hotel's dining room.
"What are we gonna do today?" Joe asked with his mouth full of cornflakes.
"Start question the crew. We can split up to enable the work. I might go and have a chat with the head of the eurovision department of the EBU," Fenton said.
"Hey, dad I was thinking," Frank began, "Have we checked Steven out, he sure has a motive, you know, getting to direct the whole thing because Elina isn't around..."
His father nodded. "I 've thought about that. He's been fined for driving drunk once but other than that he's still got a clean record."
"I don't think he would do something like that, it's not to his profit to take over this late," Joe said.
Frank shrugged. "You never know how desperate people can get."
"But I still don't think it's him, he's a nice guy," Joe defended.
"Got a crush on him, Joe?" Frank raised his eyebrows, grinning and Fenton burst out laughing.
Joe shook his head. "Screw you, Frank," he blushed. He blushed even more when he noticed that Steven, Bill and Maggie had just entered the dining room and hoped they hadn't heard that.
"Good morning, mates!" Steven called, strolling towards them with his tray, "You're up early!"
"Yeah, as you know we're in a hurry with the case," Fenton answered and smiled.
"What's your plans for the day?" Bill asked interested as the threesome took the table beside the Hardys.
"We were thinking we'd go to work with Steven and question his crew and associates, we may learn something from them," Fenton said.
"I hope so, all the pressure is starting to take it's toll," Steven yawned and poured his coffee over the cornflakes.
"It'll be fine, you're doing great!" Bill said reassuringly and slid his comforting hand up and down his boyfriend's back.
"Is that really good?" Joe wrinkled his nose, meaning the coffee soaked cornflakes.
"Yeah!" Steven crunched his cornflakes happily, "You should try it."
"No, thank you," the blond teen declined with a frown on his face and glanced at Maggie. She was quiet, also eating this british specailty, downing it with soda and burping every now and then.
Bill was clearly a little embarrassed by his daughter's behavior but he didn't say anything.
Joe and Maggie's eyes met but because they weren't really on the same wavelenght they were unable to have a conversation only with their eyes.
"Will you ride with us?" Steven asked when they were exiting the hotel.
"Nah, we can't be six in a five seated car," Fenton said.
"Very well then. Just follow us," Steven took the driverseat in the silver sedan while Joe drove the green one.
Close to the town centre there was a large building where the two dirvers parked at.
"Are you two part of the crew also?" Frank asked Bill and Maggie on their way into the building.
"Kind of, but not really, we help as we can though," Bill said.
Fenton was walking next to Steven. "Why would the EBU want you to direct instead of Elina?" he asked.
,Most probably because I directed it last year, things went smooth then," Steven replied.
"Did you know Elina personally?"
"Yes, he was my assistant when I directed and I was his assistant when he was supposed to direct."
"Why would the EBU want him to direct the contest in the first place?"
They were now entering the building. It was dark in the haliway but Steven went right through one door and into the enormous saloon.
"Wow!" Frank and Joe whistled.
"Because he's dedicated to his work and he does it with passion, he's imaginative and good with people, he's a great man," Steven answered Fenton's question.
There were plastic cloths all over, construction tools, giant ladders and fork lift trucks and all sorts of stuff everywhere, people in the ladders were doing something to either the lights or cameras in the ceiling above the stage in some distance, there were people fastening the settles and there were lots and lots of people doing their jobs. The 30 first settle rows or so were on the floor but from there the rows went upwards.
Fenton bit his lower lip, then lowered his voice. "And you two were only working together, right?"
Steven gazed at him, miffed, understanding the question. "Have you seen his picture?" he whispered.
"Yeah..."
"Well, that ougtha answer the question! I mean look at Bill, he's gorgeous!"
"I wouldn' t know," Fenton said looking down at the floor.
"Well, he is. Look, I have great respect for Mr. Elina and he's fun to work with, but beside the fact that he's no eye candy, he is not gay," Steven said.
"All right...one more question -and please don't be offended -where were you last saturday morning?"
Steven looked at him understandingly. "When Salvatore was kidnapped? I woke up at seven o'clock, ate breakfast at the hotel, then I came here at about eight where I spend the most of the day."
"And the hotel staff and the crew can confirm that?"
"I think so, yes."
"Good."
"And I called Mrs. Elina at half past ten when Salvatore still hadn't arrived."
"Even better."
"Hey, Steven, how many people can be here?" Joe asked.
"About 35,000 -and we're sold out!" Steven replied proudly.
"Are you kidding me?" Joe looked around impressed, "Wow! This really is huge!"
Steven waved his hand carelessly. "Oh, it's nothing, we're still outnumbered by the 2001 contest, it was held in Parken Stadium in Copenhagen and there were 38,000 in the audience."
"Awesome."
"What are those?" Frank asked and pointed towards many glass booths rearmost in the saloon.
"The commentator's cells...for the people that watches the contest on tv, they may not understand english or french -the hosts only speak them -so it's good to hear someone explain everything in their own language."
Frank nodded. "I see."
"This seems like a lot of fun," Joe said.
"Believe me, it is," Steven iterated.
"Well, we had better get started if we're ever going to finish," Fenton said. They decided Fenton would go backstage and the brothers would talk to the people working on the stage.
They walked through the settle rows down to the stage. It was a quite big, half-circle-shaped stage, made of metal and glass with lights in the floor. There were legdes here and there on the back of the stage floor, where e.g. backing vocals could stand. On the wall above the stage was a big screen where there would be close-ups of the contestants during the show. The eurovision logo -giant letters spelling the word: EuroVision but instead of the 'v' there was a heart filled with the colours of the spanish flag(because Spain was the host) -was above the screen, the letters were filled with blinking neonlamps. There were all kinds of lights everywhere -neon lights, blacklights, blinkers, laser beams -whatever, whereever -mostly in the ceiling above the stage, some beyond the saloon, some on the walls...none of them were turned on at the moment though but one would probably wonder wheather people wouldn't go blind on the contest...
There were some native young men on the stage working with a camera that came down from the ceiling, hanging in racks and stout vires. The camera was that high up in the air that one of the men was standing in a stepladder to reach it. When he was done with whatever it was he was doing he jumped down and waved into the saloon, shouting: "Está bien!"
The camera started lowering and spinning slowly around the man. "Garrafal!" he said. The others smiled and patted him on the back.
"Excuse me?" Frank said to them. They turned in his direction. "Hi, I'm Frank Hardy...do you have a moment?"
The camera guy shrugged. "I guess so."
"I want to ask you a few questions concerning your director?"
"Which one?"
"Both really."
"Okay."
"Where were you the morning Salvatore Elina was kidnapped?" Frank began.
"I was here," the man was in in earlier twenties, tall and slim but still muscular. His thick auburn hair matched his tanned skin and dark brown eyes.
"When did you arrive at work?"
"About 8:30."
"Doing what?" Joe asked.
He shrugged again. "What I usually do. You know, stucking stuff, fixing stuff..." He looked at the brothers, "I have no reason, whatsoever, to kidnap Salvatore. He was so much better than Belson."
"Why?" Frank asked.
"Well, he isn't a bad guy, really. But he's just so tight up all the time, I understand that, I mean I'd be freaking out too if I had to take over the direction two weeks before the contest."
"Naturally," Frank commented.
"Look, I'm just a zero here. I don't control anything, I just follow orders. Last Saturday, Belson came and told us Elina wouldn't be arriving today so he'd be in charge, then the head of the department said he'd take over the directing until Mr. Elina got back."
"And how's he been doing?"
"Belson? Just fine. Like I said, tight up, but he's got some of Mr. Elina's notes and he's done it before...it would have been much worse if it was the week of the contestants arrival."
"They're coming after less than a week, correct?"
"Yes, we are supposed to finnish up here today so the opening and interval acts can be rehearsed before they come. They will need the stage the entire week."
"Then I won't waste more of you're time, thank you."
"You're welcome," the man turned back to his work.
"Well, that didn't do so much," Joe said.
"The guy didn't know a thing about this," Frank said and shook his head.
"Something tells me no one here does," Joe murmured.
A small group of people were sitting in a circle on the floor, the 'E' of the eurovision logo in the middle. It was about 5 feet high. A redheaded girl, 18-20 years old, was screwing light bulbs into it.
Frank motioned for Joe he could do the questionings.
"Pardon me?"
A guy with the same haircolour as the girl, about the brothers age turned to look at them. "Yes?"
"I'm Joe and this is my brother Frank, we're investigating Salvatore Elina's disappearance. Do you mind if I asked a few questions?"
The guy watched them suspiciously. "You are investigating?"
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Joe said, sounding a bit more harsh than he meant to.
Frank sighed, thinking: Here goes...
"Just answer the questions you're given, Ramón," an unexpected stern voice came behind the brothers.
Ramón stared stubbornly at the green-eyed man. "Está bien, senor West," he broke the eye contact.
Frank looked thankfully at Bill who grinned back and blinked his right eye.
"Where was I?" Joe said, "Oh, yes -when's the last time you saw Mr. Elina?"
"Monday night, when we were going home from work," Ramón replied and glanced at Bill who was standing close enough to hear but watching the cameras in the ceiling move around.
"Did he seem distracted or nervous or anything?"
"Nope, just calm and cool as always," Ramón was still glaring hatredly at Bill.
"When was the last time you saw Steven Belson before Mr. Elina went missing?" Frank cut in.
"At the same time as senor Elina."
The girl had finnished her task and the people around her helped her carrying the 'E' towards the stage to put it in it's place.
"What is it with you and Bill?" Joe asked, noticing the provoking look Bill sent Ramón and it was starting to irratate him very much how Ramón's eyes could never be still, either glaring at Bill or at the girl who was now climbing up a huge ladder to fix the letter to the wall.
"What do you mean 'what's with us'?" Ramón hissed.
"You just don't seem to get along..."
"I hate him, he's a pain in the ass -I mean -not literally, of course!" Ramón quickly added, "But it's real disturbing the way the looks at you sometimes, makes me shiver," he whispered.
"I think I know where you're coming from," Joe said but not loud enough for the guy to hear.
"Well, we've got a lot to do, right now, but maybe we can talk later," Frank said pulling his brother away and whispering into his ear, "Let dad handle this one."
A woman's scream echoed through the saloon, followed by a terrible noise of metal crashing against metal and glass shattering all over.
The Hardy brothers and Bill sprinted towards the fallen ladder on the stage, Ramón was ahead of them, fearfully sceaming: "Claudia!"
You know what to do...I just hope there aren't many errors but, hey, give me a little break here...