J.M.J.
Author's note: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you especially to Candylou, ErinJordan, and max2013 for your reviews on the last chapter! FanFiction continues to not give notifications of new chapters, so make sure you didn't miss any. The first chapter affected in my story was Chapter 18. Thank you again! Happy Thanksgiving and God bless!
Chapter XXIII
It was still early in the evening, but with the short winter days and everything that had happened that day, it seemed to Laura that it should have been later. This was the part she hated most about being one of the few people in the Hardy family who wasn't a detective. Whenever something went wrong, all she could do was sit and wait.
Chet and Iola were still there. After the storm, they had realized that they couldn't even get home, let alone get all the way to Baitesville to help look for Joe. Although they were worried themselves, they seemed to be good for Callie's morale. Laura was glad of that, at least. She didn't think she could be much use comforting anyone, so early though it was, she had gone upstairs to bed.
She didn't really go to sleep. She knew she wouldn't be able to. Instead, she had gotten down on her knees next to the bed and prayed. She could hear the windows rattling in the wind and she realized that perhaps the storm wasn't as over as she had assumed. If it was stirring up again…
Her phone rang and for a moment, she allowed herself a wild hope that it was good news. That Joe had been found and everything was going to be all right. The moment she heard her husband's voice on the other end of the line, those hopes were dashed. Whatever news he had, it wasn't good.
"Have you found anything?" Laura asked, more fearfully now than hopefully.
Fenton let out a long breath. "Not really. We found one possible clue, but it hasn't led anywhere yet. That's not the worst part. Frank wandered off and we can't find him."
"What?" Laura said in disbelief. "What happened?"
Fenton explained and added, "We took a bigger search party out once we got back to town, but we weren't searching long before another storm came up. The roads are completely impassable again, and the local sheriff called off all search and rescue efforts until it lets up again."
"You can't just leave Frank out there in a storm!" Laura protested.
"I know, but there's nothing we can do," Fenton told her. "If I try to go back out there, I'll just get lost, too. I don't know what else to do."
Laura took in a deep breath, telling herself to be strong and to look at it rationally. Of course Fenton would have done everything possible to try to find Frank. He couldn't do more than that.
"How…How can he survive the storm?" Laura asked in a quiet voice.
"He can find a way," Fenton told her. "He was dressed warmly enough. As long as he can find some shelter, he can make it."
They stayed on the phone awhile longer, each trying to reassure the other and themselves. Finally, Laura ended the call and then went downstairs to break the bad news. She was grateful that Callie, the Mortons, and Gertrude were all in the living room. The story wouldn't need to be repeated.
Chet, Iola, and Gertrude immediately began talking over one another in their surprise and horror. Only Callie was shocked into silence. She was already sitting down, or else she would have had to. She felt as if she had just received a death blow, and for several minutes, she was oblivious to anything anyone else in the room was saying.
She only began to pay attention again when Chet and Iola finally quieted down and Gertrude assumed her take-charge tone.
"I've had enough of this," Gertrude was declaring. "As soon as they get the roads plowed, I'm going to go and join in the search myself. You two were already planning on going." She looked directly at Chet and Iola as she said this. "We'll also get Biff Hooper to come. Every extra pair of eyes we can get will help. What about you, Laura?"
"Yes, of course, I'll come," Laura said at once.
Callie felt everyone looking at her. She wanted to go. Everything in her wanted to go, but she had promised Frank that she wouldn't get involved, no matter what.
"I…can't," she said finally. "I can't explain why. I'm not ready to. I just can't go."
HBHBHBHBHB
The next morning, the storm had blown over and Fenton and Jerry went out with the snowmobile again to take up the search once more. They went back to the spot where Frank had disappeared. In the daylight, it looked completely different than it had the night before, but the drifts were also higher and all tracks had been obliterated, so that might have been part of it. They weren't the only ones using a snowmobile to get around in view of the roads, but the area to search was big enough that Fenton and Jerry hadn't seen any of the other searchers since they had set out. It was still cold, too. The forecast had predicted that it wouldn't get above twenty-five degrees that day, and so far, that was a generous estimation.
Fenton was trying to force himself to be optimistic, but Jerry was beginning to be discouraged. He stopped the snowmobile and throttled it down so that he and Fenton could talk.
"It's a classic needle-in-the-haystack," he complained. "If Frank left the road, we don't even know where to start looking."
"There must be some indication," Fenton insisted. "Frank wouldn't have left the road for no reason."
"Anything he might have seen could be buried in a snowdrift now," Jerry said.
That wasn't all that could be buried in a snowdrift, Fenton thought, his chest restricting painfully at the possibility. If Frank hadn't found some kind of shelter…He closed his eyes and said a prayer. "We'd better start looking again. We're not going to do either Frank or Joe any good just sitting here."
Jerry was about to start the snowmobile again when he heard a sound that made him pause. "Did you hear that?"
"What?"
"It sounded like a dog barking…Listen! There it is again!"
This time, Fenton also heard the deep-throated barking of a dog. They waited a little longer and then Jerry started the snowmobile again and headed in the direction of the dog. It had occurred to him that the dog might be Axel. He wasn't sure how likely that was. The dog wouldn't have left Frank, and as smart as he was, would he really know to start barking to alert help if something had happened to Frank? Even so, he wasn't going to let the possibility slip away. It wasn't as if they had any other leads to follow.
After about a hundred yards, Jerry throttled the snowmobile down again to listen. They could hear the dog barking plainly now, and it sounded as if it was coming toward them. Jerry was reluctant to start the snowmobile up again in case they and the dog missed each other because of the noise, but he did and they proceeded another fifty yards or so.
Then Fenton gripped Jerry's shoulder and pointed while he shouted, "Look!"
A German shepherd was struggling through the snow banks ahead of them. Jerry throttled the snowmobile down once more and then got off to go to the dog's help. It wagged its tail and whined at him.
"Axel?" Fenton said, recognizing the dog. The German shepherd danced around him happily. He clearly hadn't had a pleasant night. Even his whiskers had frost on them. "Where's Frank?"
The dog, of course, made no response other than to tilt his head and look back over his shoulder.
"Are you trying to tell us something?" Jerry asked. "Do you know where Frank is? Or maybe even Joe?"
At the sound of his master's name, Axel pricked his ears forward and barked. Then he stood up, turned around, and ran a few paces before looking back over his shoulder, his eyes practically begging the humans to follow him.
"Do you want to try it?" Jerry asked.
"He's the only one who knows where Frank is," Fenton replied. "Let's try."
Jerry started the snowmobile up again and slowly followed Axel on it. The dog was clearly tired and was panting hard, but he kept going, following his own trail back to wherever he had come from.
"Do you think something happened to Frank?" Jerry asked over the sound of the snowmobile's engine. "If he did have Axel with him, I don't think Axel would leave him unless something had happened."
"I don't think so either."
They kept going. Axel was leading them into thicker and thicker trees and eventually, they had to leave the snowmobile and follow on snowshoes. Finally, they saw a cabin through the trees ahead of them.
"Hey, if Frank made it to this cabin, he should have been fine during that storm," Jerry said hopefully.
He started toward it, but Fenton held out a hand to stop him.
"There could be someone else there, too. We need to approach it carefully," Fenton said.
Axel didn't seem to share the opinion that caution was necessary. He ran right up to the cabin and then past it, and Fenton decided that there probably wasn't anyone there. Even so, he thought he told Jerry he would approach the cabin first, alone.
The cabin door was unlocked and Fenton peered inside. No one was there, so he called for Jerry to come. Silently, they both entered the cabin. Axel followed them inside. It was a one-room cabin with a gas-powered heater in the middle, which was currently turned off so that the cabin was freezing cold. There was also a table with two chairs. A vase with black roses was sitting on a countertop on one end of the room.
Then something else on the countertop Fenton's notice: two phones with their batteries removed and two pocketknives. He recognized them immediately. They belonged to his sons.
"Frank and Joe were here," Fenton reported, pointing out the items.
"They wouldn't have just left those things behind," Jerry observed.
"No," Fenton said. "It looks like this cabin was used by Black Rose. They must have been holding Joe here. Frank found them somehow, and they took him prisoner, too. I can't believe this," he added as he shook his head.
"Can't we figure out where they went?" Jerry asked.
"I don't see how. This cabin is too cold. They must not have been here last night. That means they left before the second storm and their trail would have been obliterated. Come on. Let's get into cell service and call for help."
HBHBHBHBHB
They had to get back to town before they had reception to place the call. When the police and search-and-rescue arrived, Fenton was surprised to see his wife and sister, as well as the Mortons and Biff Hooper there. Gertrude informed him in no uncertain terms that they were there to help.
"It's not really so surprising," Jerry commented after Fenton had finished explaining what they had found. "It figures that Frank would have been the first one to find Joe, and it figures that he wouldn't have waited for back-up if Joe was in danger."
"Well, in any case, there's no point in wasting any more time," Chet said. "If Axel could find the cabin where they were, he can probably follow their trail to wherever they went. Let's go and find them."
"Hold on," the sheriff cautioned him. His name was Dale Marley. "If they're both in the hands of these kidnappers, it's much too dangerous to have civilians helping to look for them. I'm going to have to ask all of you except Mr. Hardy to go home and wait."
"Nonsense," Gertrude protested. "I came out here to find my nephews and I'm not going home until we do."
"You may very well just get in the way," Marley pointed out. "We can handle this. Really."
"I have no doubt of that," Gertrude replied, "which is why I'm going to come along with you, but I will stay back out of the way. If either of the boys are hurt, I want to be there to help."
Marley turned a pleading gaze on Fenton. "Help me out here."
"Arguing with her will only cost us time," Fenton replied. "If she says she'll stay out of the way, she will."
"Oh, all right then," Marley reluctantly agreed.
"In that case, I want to come, too," Laura spoke up. "They're my sons."
When Marley begrudgingly agreed to that, Chet decided to make an attempt to plead his and his friends' case. "You know, sheriff, we could…"
"No. Absolutely not," Marley cut him off, more roughly than necessary, perhaps, since this was a situation he did have some control over. "You and the other kids are not coming. Go back to Bayport or stay in town and wait if you want. Just don't try to follow us."
HBHBHBHBHB
Joe woke up when he felt the SUV come to a stop. He raised his head slowly, while Frank also stirred. A glance at the car's clock told Joe that it was now very early morning and a glance out the window told him that they were still out in the countryside. The vehicle had stopped in the driveway of a large house, set well away from any main roads. Even in the dark, he could see from the lights in the windows that it was three stories high with pillars supporting the porch in the front. Six windows ran along each floor, most of them with the blinds pulled so that only a sliver of light was visible.
"Have a nice nap?" Alyssa asked mockingly.
Frank attempted to stretch his stiff neck muscles. "Not particularly. Is this your headquarters?"
Shun turned around to look at him from the front seat. "It is where the Great One resides for the moment. You could call it our headquarters."
Joe mumbled into his gag.
"Can't you take that off him?" Frank asked as they got out of the car.
"Not yet," Shun said. "He will have his chance to talk to the Great One when he summons you, as you also will have. But I warn you: you would do well to learn to speak respectfully before you see the Great One. Perhaps you are not in his estimation what you are in your own."
The Hardys were escorted up the front steps to the house. The interior was austere. The floor was tile and footsteps on it echoed. The front door led into a sitting room, which looked more like a reception area than anything that would be in a home. There was even a front desk with a young man seated behind it. He gave the Hardys a scrutinizing look before he pressed a button.
"That will alert the Great One that we have arrived," Shun explained.
As he looked around, Frank could imagine Joe making a crack about how they ought to fire their interior decorator. There were no pictures on the wall or plants or any other decoration of any kind, except for a vase of black roses sitting on the desk. There were several chairs, all of the uncomfortable waiting room variety, and there was nothing else. The place had strictly been furnished for functionality.
They were led through a door that took them into a long hallway, like there would be in an office building or a hotel. Midway down the hallway, there was a staircase. At Shun's direction, they climbed the staircase to the third floor. Then they were shown the way to another door. It was locked, but Shun opened it with a key from his pocket.
"Don't you think we'd better put them in separate rooms?" Alyssa asked.
"It makes no difference," Shun replied. "They can't escape in any case."
Alyssa shrugged. "If you say so, but don't forget who we're dealing with here."
"I am well aware," Shun said. "They are only human. They cannot work miracles."
Frank and Joe were then escorted into the room. It was something like a hotel room, but it had only two beds with no sheets or pillows and a desk with no chair. Before they were locked in, Shun untied their hands.
The first thing Joe did was rip the gag out of his mouth, but he waited until the door had been closed behind them before he said, "Definitely a one-star hotel."
For a moment, Frank was too surprised to respond. He slowly turned to look at Joe, wondering again whether his ears were right. Joe gave him the slightest hint of a smirk, and Frank almost grinned in reply. It was so much like how Joe would have talked…oh, ages ago. Before Tony and California and the jewelry store robbery and Ziyou and the time Joe had been shot and Iola being hurt. In spite of the situation, it was a relief.
"That's being generous," Frank replied finally. "I guess they didn't want to give us anything that could possibly be used to escape. We can't even try tearing the sheets up to make a rope."
"Then we'd break our necks before we could see Oz, the Great and Terrible."
Frank grinned again, but seriousness overtook it. "You'd better be careful. I think they take their Great One seriously. Or Faceless One or whatever."
"I think they're the same person," Joe said. He scoffed. "He must have realized how corny the 'Faceless One' is. I mean, thinking of a cool villain name would be tough. Most of the good ones are already taken. No offense to him, but I think he should keep looking."
"Are you okay, Joe?" Frank asked after a moment.
"Things really have gotten bad if me making wisecracks is making you think there's something wrong with me," Joe replied.
Frank wasn't convinced, but he decided to let it alone for the moment. "Tell me everything that's happened."
