-51-

The late afternoon sun brought an orange cast to the sky near the foothills where Frank and Tiffany had been settled in their campsite. Tiffany had been rooting through her purse, searching in vain for a random cigarette she had hoped she had missed when she had searched for one half an hour before.

She dropped her purse onto the ground between her legs and sighed deeply. "I could use a smoke. Been out for most of the day now. Not complaining, mind you." She said softly. Frank knew she wasn't. He understood that any addiction and the inability to feed it tended to result in an unpleasant feeling, to put it mildly. He knew it all too well.

He had a faraway look in his eyes as he reflected back upon a time. It had been two years ago, more or less. The Freemont case. Frank and his brother had been staking out an area by the docks in Baltimore and got a little too close to their quarry. The end result on that dark night was Frank had tried to stop a fast moving BMW with his sidearm and gotten brushed firmly in the hip for his trouble, sending him into a pile of freight crates. Also sending him into the hospital with a fracture.

At first the Fentanyl patch seemed harmless enough. It managed his pain after he was discharged. But it started a very ugly downhill slide that proved difficult to conceal. Especially after the doctors refused to prescribe him more after two months of recovery. Fortunately, after a short life in Hell and with proper intervention, Frank freed himself of that demon. But it had done its damage. To his life…. and others. Frank mused to himself how a simple turn of the cards had a way of dramatically changing one's life.

Tiffany had been waving her hand in front of Frank for several moments. Seemingly unnoticed. A moment later, Frank focused again and noticed the waving. He broke out of his trance and gave Tiffany a short smile.

"Well, if dad reports back with nothing then we will probably go back to town for the evening and you can get more." He said. He didn't really care for Tiffany smoking. But knew her addiction was more a chronic one that did its damage more slowly. When in a better place, he would of course go back to reminding her of the perils of inhaling carcinogenic smoke. But for today he would pick his battles. Tiffany nodded.

"Yeah, ok." She said calmly, apparently over her nicotine fit for the moment. She looked up as the sun began to set even more. "I hope he's alright." She said quietly. Frank raised an eyebrow and then smiled. For all of her detractors in their group of peers,he was a bit sad that they were seldom around to see her human side. Frank smiled, keeping his gaze upon her. She sat quietly, her arms resting on her parted knees with her head resting in her hands, looking out into the forest. The glowing sun flashing a hue against her blond hair and smooth skin. A moment later her eyes shifted to him.

She smiled slightly when she noticed his gaze."What are you looking at?" She asked, turning her head to see if there was something of interest behind her.

Frank cleared his throat and smiled at her. "Just you. You are quite pretty you know."

Tiffany raised her eyebrows at him. She cracked a doubtful looking smile and shook her head in an amused way. "Not sure who you are looking at, but I am not pretty." She said quietly. "I look like hell. My makeup is scary right now. Same clothes for three days." She paused and took a mirror from her purse and sighed as she gazed disapprovingly at herself. She fussed with her hair, then gave up. "No two ways about it. I look like forty miles of bad road." Then smiled back to him. "But it was nice of you to say. Thank you for that."

Frank smiled back. "I still like what I see." He said softly then paused, looking back up at her. "There is also this thing called inner beauty too."

Tiffany again raised her eyebrows. She then closed her eyes and tilted her head towards the ground. "Let me know if you find some of that. I'd like to borrow a cup."

Frank shook his head and looked down and made eye contact. "Tiffany…"

She closed her eyes slowly and left them shut. She sighed in a way that made her physical and mental distress clear. "I'm a spoiled bitch, Frank! I have made nothing out of my life. I am going to cosmetology school for God's sake. Connect the dots! If my father hadn't enabled this travesty of a life, maybe there would be more to it…." She continued. "No, scratch that! I can't blame my father, really. He just loves me and wanted me to have what I wanted. He had an enormous amount of guilt I am sure… for not being there that day." Her words were a sobering statement of oneself. Perhaps it had been the feeling of being isolated on the side of a mountain. Perhaps nicotine withdrawal allowing her some freedom for such a bitter and belittling introspection.

Whatever the case, Frank moved over and sat by Tiffany who was looking sadly into space. He put her arm around her. "I'm here, Tiff. Please don't be so hard on yourself."

She took another deep breath and released it slowly. "Sometimes you need to be, I think… Keeps you in check so one doesn't become so completely unmanageable that everyone abandons them." She tilted herself into Frank's body for comfort.

They sat together in silence for about fifteen minutes when a tall figure stealthily approached their camp. Frank had sensed a presence and felt for his sidearm.

"Relax, son." A voice came from a nearby stout pine tree. Frank sighed when he saw his father emerge from behind the tree.

A look of relief on his face. "Wow, dad. Glad you are back. I was starting to wonder." He said with relief as his father entered the campsite and took a seat. He reached for the coffee pot.

Tiffany sat up and smiled a bit at him. She took out a cup and the pot. "Here, let me get that for you." She said with a rasping voice, pouring a cup of coffee.

Fenton Hardy, taken slightly aback by the gesture managed a smile and nodded to Tiffany. "Thank you, dear." He said taking the cup and turned to Frank.

"I think we are on to something." He took out a protein bar and opened it. "We will need to go back in soon when it is completely dark and investigate."

Frank was intrigued. "What did you find?" He asked eagerly.

Mr. Hardy looked about for Frank's phone. "Well, as soon as I can bring up a map, I will show you." Fenton Hardy did not carry a smartphone. He preferred a regular cell phone and if he needed to look at something on the internet he typically resorted to his laptop, which was still in the SUV. Fenton still clung, in many ways, to the analog foundation of his generation that he was so familiar with.

Eager to make amends, Tiffany quickly took out her phone and brought up their location on Google maps. She offered the phone to Mr. Hardy. Fenton Hardy hesitated for a moment.

Tiffany reddened slightly and cleared her throat. "Just a map this time. I promise." Fenton Hardy couldn't help but crack a grin and accepted the phone.

"Thank you, Tiffany." He looked down and adjusted the zoom and gestured to show Frank. "Now, as I was surveying the area around this patch of woods here, I discovered evidence of a recent campsite. Small for sure, but someone was there and had a fire recently. From the location of this campsite, they were watching for activity at a nearby cabin I discovered."

"A cabin?" Frank inquired. "Sounds like we are getting somewhere. What are you thinking we should do?" Mr. Hardy nodded.

"Yes, a cabin that was most cleverly built in a location you can't see from the general direction of the road or lakeside. It was built into this patch of woods, here…" he again gestured to the map.

Frank nodded. "A pity we don't know the age of this satellite image. But being that there is no cabin here where you indicate, it would suggest the cabin is certainly more recent in its construction."

Fenton Hardy nodded. "Yes, that would indicate for sure that it was something built in recent times."

Tiffany looked up. "Mr. Hardy, if you exit out of the Google maps and open a map in the Google Earth app, the satellite image will have a date stamp on it. I am not sure why the maps app doesn't show the date stamp."

Both Frank and Fenton Hardy looked to her as they were unaware of this. "Really?" Fenton asked. "That is good information. I will try it." He went about reopening the map in the Google Earth app.

Frank raised an eyebrow to Tiffany. "Interesting bit of info there, Tiff. How did you know that?" He asked, impressed by her knowledge of something of this nature.

Tiffany turned slightly red then looked back up. "Well, I found out quite by accident. I used to simply think that Google satellite maps gave photos in real time. So, once I entered Chet's apartment address in it and saw this car I didn't recognize. Then called him up asking who was over at his place. Well, long story short I found out that what you see when you look the satellite map up is of course not real time. Chet informed me that the photos are often one to three years old. I didn't believe him at first. Then he showed me Google Earth which shows the date of the photo, and well, found out he was right." She offered a wry smile, somewhat embarrassed.

Frank gave a light chuckle. "Well, knowledge is power. You learned something and it helps us out as well."

Fenton Hardy smiled and pointed at the new map. "And indeed, she is correct. So, going by this data, the images are fourteen months old. This indicates that the cabin was built, of course, any time in those last fourteen months. This would, for my money, make it a very good place to investigate. I do not feel that Sharpton would ever keep any of his hideaways for more than a year at most. Probably less."

"This is good intel." He said looking at Tiffany. "Thanks, baby."

Fenton Hardy went about replenishing some supplies in his backpack. He looked over at Frank. "I put some food and drink in the sack. We may be out all night." He said offering his son warning he may want to prepare Tiffany.

Frank nodded then glanced at Tiffany. "Understood. But what about Tiff? Are we sending her to the hotel?"

Mr. Hardy shook his head. "I don't think it would be wise. Our vehicle is already well concealed and any activity on the road this far up could easily get seen. I think she should stay here and hold the fort. This camp is well hidden and she should be safe here."

Frank took a breath and then looked down at Tiffany. "Are you ok with that, Tiff?" He asked with a look of concern. She looked hesitant but knew there would be risk of discovery if they went and uncovered the SUV and someone saw them on the road. She was apprehensive.

"Uhm, yeah. I should be ok." She said slowly. Frank sighed and smiled kindly to her. He knew she was scared. He nodded then took out his pistol and checked to see that it was loaded. He turned it around and handed it to Tiffany.

"This should help keep the peace in the rare event something happens up here. Dad has his gun."

Tiffany looked at the gun dubiously and with a bit of fear. But nodded. Fenton Hardy was a bit apprehensive himself at seeing Frank arm Tiffany. She had no formal handgun training. But knew it might be better for her to have it, being alone overnight and all.

Just in case.