TAKING TO TASK

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

"Promises Made"

Frank held gently to his girlfriend's hand as Nancy sat back, hard, in one of the seats in the small office. Blue eyes wide with shock, she looked ready to do one of two things – keel over, or get up and punch out Ned Nickerson with one fury-fueled blow to his face. Fortunately for all of them, Ned and his partner stepped out of the small office to give them some time alone and Frank drew Nancy into his arms and held her.

"I hate him," Nancy whispered. "I hate him so much, Frank. How could he do this? I… used to dream of marrying him. From the first day I met him, I used to imagine being Mrs. Ned Nickerson. He led me to believe it was all my fault he wasn't marrying me. He… he nearly destroyed me."

"But he didn't," Frank soothed her gently as he stroked her soft hair. He always loved her hair. Outdoors, the sun glinted off the red in her hair, making it look as though she had a halo instead of hair, a beautiful halo that cascaded down her back in a beautiful blaze. There were times when they were outside he could barely keep his eyes off her, all the while feeling guilty because of his relationship with Callie.

Frank sent a mental 'forgive me, babe' to Callie and wished her well once more before he squared his shoulders to deal with the woman in his life now. For better or worse, richer or poorer – whether the vows had been spoken between them or not – Nancy Drew was his girlfriend.

"He didn't destroy you, love," Frank said softly as he continued to stroke her hair and she relaxed into his arms, angry tears wetting one of Frank's sleeves. "You're here and you're strong. Whatever he did – whatever happened between the both of you – it's in the past. All you can focus on now is the present and the future…"

Frank paused as he gently reached out and took a hand into his own, squeezing it as he looked into her eyes.

"We both messed up so much in the past, Nancy," Frank said softly. "We were… we flirted around with each other too much. We let feelings we shouldn't have interfere with our lives. And we were wrong, so wrong, with what we did back then.

"Now we can be together – anymore than we shouldn't have played on our emotions back then, we shouldn't let what's in the past interfere with our now, our present and what we will hopefully have in the future. That's important. Got it?"

Nancy nodded. "I've got it. I just realized too, we should tell them something. That boat… the steamboat… he should know about that, shouldn't he?"

Frank agreed. "Let's make sure he knows, then we'll go up and see Joe for a few minutes before he's completely out of it. And we'll have to deal with the police too."

Frank wasn't looking forward to dealing with the police in any form whatsoever. It was going to be really hard to explain everything that was going on to them and there was no way to determine whether they would believe him or not.

Nancy opened the door and found Ned and his partner out in the hallway. She called them both to come back for a minute.

"I remembered something," Nancy said. "I was doing a search through Ras-Alman's business mainframe – don't ask how – and I found out there's a shipment of some kind coming up from New Orleans via steamship. One of those old-fashioned riverboat kinds. The ship's name is the Dolly Mae. You might want to check that out."

We are, Frank thought with a sudden burst of an idea. We'll figure this out one way or another.

"You got this how?" Sinclair asked. "We've been looking for large shipments – something off the main books – but we were expecting it to come by freighter or even plane. He owns several boats which we've been checking out regularly but we found no hint of a steamer…"

"I broke into his mainframe," Nancy repeated. "He has great encryption on his systems – not quite good enough for the program I use but very good. He has ownership of the Dolly Mae carefully hidden – openly it's owned by the St. Louis Museum. At least, if you look at the public papers but if you go deep enough… there it is. It's on its way in from New Orleans with a 'package'… a large package."

Sinclair and Ned exchanged stunned looks.

"Another thing," Frank commented. "The doctor who's treating Joe called in the police…"

"We'll deal with them," Ned said. "This is our case, not theirs. Don't worry about it."

Frank nodded and, taking Nancy's hand, went to go find his brother.

HARDYBOYSNANCYDREWHARDYBOYSNANCYDREWHARDYBOYSNANCY

Joe blinked sleepily as he saw his brother and Nancy come into his room and he forced his eyes to open more widely so he could pay proper attention to them. He didn't want to be here, in the hospital, despite his injuries from the beating. He had more important things to deal with, like keeping his brother safe from Ras-Alman and laying here wasn't the cards.

"Whassup?" Joe managed in a sleepy, slurred kind of voice. He cleared his throat harshly so he could speak a little more clearly. "When d'get out of here?"

"When the doctor says and not before," Frank gently touched Joe's hand and Joe smiled at him. "You've got quite a number of injuries going on, little brother. You need some time to heal."

"Helpin' you take out… Rat-Man," Joe murmured insistently. They weren't about to leave him out of all the fun! He'd gotten beat up by the guy. Had his brother taken. He was gonna help take out Rat-Man!

Frank and Nancy exchanged amused expressions and Joe glared as best he could when he wanted to just go to sleep. Or at least a large part of him wanted to go to sleep. The fighter in him wanted to stay awake and kick some butt. Ras-Alman needed to pay big… time… his eyes began to close again and he forced them open.

"You can help later," Frank promised him and Joe eyed him suspiciously. "I won't leave you out of the action, Joe."

"Promise?" Joe demanded and he glared when Nancy laughed. "Promise!"

"I promise," Joe felt a gentle squeeze on his shoulder and he sighed. "We'll be good. You're part of the team."

Joe's suspicions died off a little.

"What… doin'?" he asked.

"Helping the F.B.I.," Frank sat down in the chair beside Joe's bed. "Guess who's an F.B.I. agent?"

Joe looked up at Frank. "Who?"

"That would be the one and only Ned Nickerson," Frank said. "Go figure that one, huh?"

"That's nuts," Joe said. "No way."

"Way," Nancy interrupted. "He just made the big confession. The jerk!"

Joe eyed her for a moment, suspiciously.

"What…doin'?" he asked again.

"Not sure yet," Frank said. "For tonight, probably going back to the hotel and sleeping. Tomorrow we'll see how you're doing and spring you if the doctor says it's okay. We need to find out more about the steamer…"

"Steam-er?" Joe whispered. He frowned. Those darned painkillers…

"Nancy found a connection between Ras-Alman and a steamer coming up from New Orleans," Frank said. "And so we might go check that out. It has a 'package' on board." Frank drew quotes around the word package. "Look, Joe, you should go to sleep. We'll tell you everything in the morning, okay? I doubt you'll even remember this."

"Will too," Joe exclaimed.

But, the next day, of course, he barely remembered the visit, much less anything that was said…