Chapter 9
All very sleepy, Fenton, Frank, Steven and Bill met for breakfast early next morning.
"I'm not ready for this day yet," Steven said and rubbed his eyes.
Frank looked out the window and saw several people with cameras and dictaphones. "Me neither."
Bill looked at them too and mumbled: "Cannibals."
"We'll handle them," Fenton assured, then he looked at Frank, "We'll go and talk to the nearest hotel guests and the staff first, then we'll pay José a visit and then we go to the concert hall, okay?"
"Yeah, sure, " Frank finished his orange juice, which was all he had appetite for. He looked around. "Where's Maggie?" he asked Bill.
"Ah, she probably spent the night with Marco, they'll be at the concert hall, I'm sure," he answered.
Frank shrugged. "Well, can we get going then?" he asked his dad.
"Yes,we can," Fenton stood up, "We'll see you later today," he said to Bill and Steven.
The radio was turned on in the lobby and the news was being reported -a missing eurovision contestant. They didn't mention Joe and Fenton was thankful for that, although Ms. Arcens was under more time pressure, Fenton's prior conern was, naturally, Joe and he intended to find him as soon as possible. He and Frank went up to their floor and knocked on the door to their left.
A thin, young, hung over-looking woman came to the door. "Sim?"
Fenton swallowed. He didn't speak portugese. Damn. "Do you speak english?"
Though she seemed to understand the question she shook her head.
Fenton tried again. "¿Español?"
Then the woman smiled tiredly. "Sí."
Fenton sighed in relief, he introduced himself and then asked some questions.
The woman and her boyfriend had been out gallivanting last night and they came home at 3 a.m. No use in that.
Nobody aswered the door next to them nor those on the other side to Steven and Bill. They tried a few more. The floor seemed to be crawling with hung over out-goers.
Then they went to the lobby to find someone in the staff. After hour of questionings, Frank began to think Joe had been abducted by aliens or something. No one had noticed anything!
"This is so irritating! How can people be so blind?" he nagged.
"I have no idea," Fenton said, just as annoyed. He sighed, "Well, maybe the police has something."
"They'd better," Frank said.
As soon as they came out of the building the media hit them like a wave on rocks. But rocks don't give in to water so Fenton and Frank managed to get in the car and drive to the police station.
"Oh no," Fenton sighed when he saw there were also mass media outside the station. He parked the car and Frank took a deep breath before he got out of the car.
The media were of all nationalities in Europe and spoke, or shouted rather, in english, french and spanish, all in one and the volubility sounded like the world's biggest bee buzzing in Frank's ears.
Civera, Moneo, Miguel Quierra and a few other officers came out, threw one big: "No comment!" at the people and dragged Fenton and Frank inside.
"¡Maldición! This is crazy!" Quierra hissed once they were in Civera's office.
"Well, a eurovision competitor has never disappeared before...so they really have the right to go insane," Civera said.
"What about Joe?" Frank asked.
-"He has disappeared before," Fenton kidded to his own surprise. The situation wasn't very funny.
Frank rolled his eyes but the police were serious.
"No, he's right, Fenton," José said, "I think that if we find Joe we will find senorita Arcens and the other way around."
-"And not to mention that if we find them we'll find Salvatore Elina," Fenton pointed.
"Let's hope so," the chief said.
-"I mean it's got to be connected some way."
-"Sí, no doubt about that."
"We've questioned the guys who were hired to be Arcens bodyguards," José said.
Frank looked at him. "Yeah?"
-"Well, just before her rehearsal, she needed to go to the toilet. They didn't think it was needed to follow her there because it's in the building -obviously -but she never came back from there...if she even ever made it there."
"So someone in the building must have kidnapped her, the place is well guarded," Miguel said.
"Maybe but not necessarily, the guards could have been bribed," Fenton said.
"Good point," Miguel admitted, sheepish for not thinking of it himself.
"Did you talk to them all?" Fenton asked the sergeant.
"I'm not sure. They were about 50, I don't know how many they are in total," Moneo answered.
"All right, I was thinking me and Frank would go there and see whether Steven has the employees in a file and maybe look around the place -not that you didn't do your job or anything but -you know, just in case..." Fenton said apologetically because on some of his cases, the police had thought he was interfering with their business.
But Civera brushed him off. "Of course, you were hired for the job in the first place."
"Well, we'll let you know if we get something," with that Fenton and Frank left, breaking through the media again, to the car and drove to the concert hall.
Unsurprisingly the lawn was crowded with journalists.
"The news certainly spread." Fenton left the car in some distance from the place and he and Frank were let through one of the backdoors, unseen.
Inside the atmosphere was calmer but still tensed. Steven, Catrina and Martin Garcia stood close to the stage, talking to three gentlefolks, two men and a woman, all very formal and serious looking.
They spoke in english but all with different accents. One of the formal-people, the older looking man, was talking to Steven.
"I don't think the show will be pulled off or delayed even if Ms. Arcens won't be found," he said with a gravelly voice.
"Thattt ish crrrruel," the woman said.
"Maybe with a longer notice but there are two days to the semi-finals!" the man answered her.
"Then be glad that we have until friday or even saturday morning, Ms. Arcens participates for a Big 4 country," Garcia said dryly.
"So will I get more security team or not?" Steven asked impatiently, probably referring to the beginning of the conversations.
There were a few silent seconds, then the other man said: "It really depends on whether the appropriations committee will give us more money."
Steven stared at him in disgust. "For Christ's sakes, there are missing people here and all you people think of is money!"
"I'm sorry, Belson, really...but that's just how it works," the man said, he was probably british too.
Steven swallowed the vituperation he wanted to say to these people and just glared.
"Aren't you in charge of the appropriations committee, can't you order them to put more budget in this," Fenton said, he turned the words to the man who had last spoken.
The british man wetened his lips. "Mr. Hardy," he sighed, obviously knowing Fenton, "This is a very slow system, we would have to get a meeting with the president back in the headquarters in Switzerland, then he would have to bring in a meeting with the council and-"
-"What about those closed session-kinda-meetings?"
-"Slim chance, very slim."
"I see you know Mr. Carlton," Steven said to Fenton and then turned to Frank, "But Frank, this is Mr. Rupert Carlton, he's from BBC, and these are Mrs. Ivanova Czapinaska from TVP, the Polish puplic tv and señor Juan Valbuena, he's from TVE, he's a native. They're all vice-presidents of EBU, there are four of them in total." then he introduced Frank and Fenton.
"So now we have two people missing?" Carlton said.
"Three," Frank corrected.
-"Three?"
"Yes, my younger son, also," Fenton said.
"Four," Steven cut in.
"Excchuse me?" Mrs. Czapinaska looked at him quizzically like all the others.
"My..erm...boyfriend's daughter," Steven looked at Fenton, "She wasn't with Marco after all and she hasn't been here...Bill's somewhere looking for her now..."
"Please, be joking," Frank begged.
"Unbelievable," Fenton groaned.
"So, beside that, what's going on?" Steven asked him.
-"Oh-yeah. I was wondering if you have a list of all the people working on security here?"
-"Yes, it's in my...uh.."office," follow me," he turned to the vice-presidents and excused himself, then went out of the saloon to the lobby and from there up stairs to a narrow hallway.
"You think it's a security breach?" he asked.
"I think it's very possible," Fenton answered.
Steven nodded but he was clearly unhappy about it. He stopped at the end of the hallway, pulled up a key from his pocket and opened the door, which led to a small messy room. By the window was a small desk filled with papers and all kinds of trash.
He found a thick dossier in a self behind the desk and handed it to Fenton.
Fenton looked at it and sighed.
"You asked for it," Steven played with the keys in his hands.
Fenton sighed again.
"Let's make this easy," Frank said, "Has anyone not showed up for work today?"
"That's not 'making it easy', Frank. There are too many people working here and I don't always meet everybody," Steven replied.
"No, of course not, I just got a little impatient," Frank excused.
"I understand," Steven said, then he looked at his watch, "Look, I have to go downstairs and continue with the rehearsals. Take your time, and please lock after you leave," with that he left the room after throwing the keys onto the table.
Fenton shrugged. "Well, maybe we'll learn something from this." He sat down on a folding chair behind the desk and started flipping through the pages.
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Ouch! Headache. Darkness. Phooh! Yup, once again, Joe, you were knocked out and kidnapped. And... He tried to move. I'm bound too. Of course.
He blinked a few times. Then he noticed he wasn't alone in the dark dusty room, which probably was a basement or an attic somewhere, lit by nothing but a beam of light coming through a window, probably a streetlight. By his side on a wooden chair, sat a young woman, her arms bound behind her back and each ankle to the clubfeet and on her other side was a man bound the same way. A chubby bald man about fifty, with a black typical spanish mustache...Joe sighed. Well, I found them, he thought sarcasticly and looked back at Isabelle Arcens and Salvatore Elina.
Joe observed the woman more closely. She had long dark hair tied in a ponytail, hazel eyes and thick lips which reminded Joe, at first thought, of Angelina Jolie.
"Comment allez-vous?"
Joe shook his head, trying to clear it. "Hm? What did you say?"
"Pardon, je ne parle pas le anglais," she said.
"Excuse me, I don't speak French," Joe said.
"Isabelle asked how you were doing," Mr. Elina explained with a very spanish accented english.
"Oh...and what do I tell her...? Señor Elina...?" Joe asked unsure.
-"Well, how are you doing?"
-"Fine."
-"Then say 'ca va.'"
Joe did that and added one of few words he knew in french: "Merci."
"Quel est votre nom?" Ms. Arcens asked and both she and Joe looked at their 'co-captive' for translation.
"What's your name?" Elina said.
"Joe Hardy."
"Why are you here, Joe?" the man asked slowly.
"Because I was looking for you two," Joe replied.
"You were?" the director raised his eyebrows, "You're not a police officer, are you?"
"No, I guess I'd be assorted as an amateur detective, my father is a private investigator who was hired to find you, his name is Fenton Hardy," Joe said.
-"Ah, I've heard of him, american, yes?"
Joe nodded. Then he turned his attention to the nervous looking young woman. "Comment alle-va?"
"Comment allez-vous," Elina corrected and Joe repeated.
She smiled. "Comme ci, comme ca."
Joe took that as 'all right,' jugding on her smile and the way she shrugged her shoulders, "How about you?" he asked Salvatore.
"All right but¡Dios! This is getting tiresome," he answered.
-"How long have I been here?"
-"Some hours, I am not sure. I can't see my...clock," Salvatore tugged on the ropes behind his back -indicating his watch -and it really hurt him because he had been tied up for so long.
-"Seeing that you're alive- and having been here for a long time- I assume we get to eat?" Joe said, his stomach growled.
Salvatore nodded.
Joe had an idea. "Do they let us go while we eat?"
His interlocutor nodded again. "But they have guns so I would not try anything."
"No, not yet, not before I've gotten out of these ropes," Joe agreed.
Just then they heard a key being turned in the keyhole.
Joe locked his eyes on the door. Come on, you coward!
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Well, that's it for now. There are three chapters left of the story but I don't know when I'll be able to update again because I don't know when I get an internet connection in Reykjavik,hopefully next week. Thanks for reading (ifyou do, that is...)!