J.M.J.

Author's note: Thanks for reading! God bless!

Chapter XIII

Captain Gomez lay down the note after he had finished reading it and eyed the two young men sitting across his desk with interest. He'd been hearing a lot about this case recently, but he hadn't been working on it personally until the suicide attempt was called in, even though he had been one of the responding officers at the attack on the younger Hardy. He had had one of his lieutenants heading it up, but now Gomez decided that he had better take charge of it himself.

He had done some research on the Hardys, and now he was gauging how well what he had read matched up with what he saw. He had learned that their father was a former NYPD detective who had taken up a private practice following a case that had gone sour, which was apparently connected to this current one, at least loosely. Evidently, while in New York, Fenton Hardy had had a run-in with Black Rose, an organization whose activities were mostly unknown. What was known was that they had made some sort of alliance with a mobster named Gregorio Moretti. Moretti had had a couple named Beretta killed because they knew about his dealings and he wanted to silence them. That had involved the Berettas' three young children in the case. Now it appeared that the oldest of those children, Angelo, was involved with Black Rose himself.

That information had come through the younger Hardy brother, Joe, the one sitting on the right. He'd had a rough time of it lately, from what Gomez heard. In the immediate past, he had been stabbed, undergone a long confinement for the sake of keeping him out of further danger, and had now been threatened anew with this note asking him to meet Angelo Beretta on the pier in the middle of the night. Then there had also been this Darcy and her suicide attempt, which Gomez knew had dredged up some distress for him personally. From the look of him, perhaps it had been more than just "some." The circles under his eyes and the dull look in them told Gomez that he had slept well the night before. He hadn't shaved in a day or two, and he had a certain gaunt look to him, the sort that someone who is in good physical shape would have when they first begin to let themselves go. From Gomez's information, that could be partially from the fact that Joe hadn't had a good job since moving out to California and leaving his father's detective agency.

Now, the young man on the left, Frank, was an entirely different story. He had a certain intensity about him, and Gomez could read in his face that he'd been under an anxious strain for a longish period. Yet he retained his professional posture and manner. Gomez wouldn't have needed to be briefed on the fact that this was a fellow police officer sitting in front of him. He also might have guessed without reading it beforehand that he was a third generation officer from a well-respected family, but still a probationer. He was cool and confident, but there was a touch of stiffness in dealing with a captain that Gomez had only seen in new recruits who were still overawed by the brass.

There was also something else he saw between these two. It would be exaggerating to call it animosity, but he seemed to sense some kind of barrier between them. He thought, too, that this appeared to be a recent development. All his research told him that these two were very close and had worked together as amateur detectives and as semi-professionals for a long time. Yet they barely glanced at each other now and they each tensed slightly when the other spoke.

"Well?" Joe said, and Gomez suddenly realized that he had been thinking for longer than he realized, and not necessarily about the note that the Hardys had shown him.

He looked down at the written message and read it over again:

Looking for this? You'll end up in the same shape if you contact your family again. Now that they're finally gone, we can work out the details of our arrangement. Meet me at two tomorrow morning at pier 7. If you don't come alone, I'll make sure you leave alone. Cooperate, and everyone benefits. Angelo

"You say it was with your smashed cell phone, Mr. Hardy?" he asked.

"That's right," Joe said. "And it was left on my bed in my apartment."

Gomez nodded. "This Angelo is the one who stabbed you, you say. You also said he wanted you to do something for him and in return, he would give you information about someone else who has a contract to kill you."

"That's right," Joe confirmed.

Frank looked at his watch. "Two o'clock in the morning is in less than eight hours. It gives us some time to make some plans, but we need to start making decisions."

"Angelo wants Joe to come alone," Gomez noted. "That will make it difficult."

"If you put your people in position well before that, I can come on my own later and it might fool Angelo," Joe said. "I don't think we need some big, elaborate plot."

"I agree," Gomez replied. "Your plan there is the only thing we can do, with a few additions. For instance, I wouldn't send anyone in there without being wired so the rest of us know what's going on and we can record everything."

"Right," Joe agreed. "I don't have any objections to that."

Gomez picked up a pen and clicked it a couple of times. "To put it bluntly, Mr. Hardy, it wouldn't matter whether you do or not. You won't be the one who goes in there."

Surprise was mirrored on both Hardys' faces and they glanced at each other as if to ascertain whether the other had heard the same thing. That glance confirmed for Gomez that whatever argument they had had between them was of recent vintage. In spite of it, their first instinct was still to turn to each other.

"What do you mean?" Joe objected. "You've got to send me in. Angelo knows me. If you send anyone else, he'll know before he gets anywhere close to them that it's some kind of trap."

"There might be one person who could pull it off." Gomez looked at Frank. "My people tell that it didn't take much to make you into a reasonable double for your brother."

Joe shook his head. "No, it won't work. I thought it was a stupid idea the first time, and it's even worse now. I already said, Angelo knows me. He's not going to be fooled by Frank."

"I have to agree with Joe on this," Frank added. "Before, it was to fool someone who might not know Joe very well and would only see me from a distance. I'd have to go up to Angelo and talk to him. He'd never be fooled."

"It would be dark and all you need to do is lure him out. Once he's in the open, my people will arrest him," Gomez said. "Besides that, since this is a one-time venture and we do have eight hours, we can do a much more elaborate make-up job. It should be enough for our purposes."

"But why?" Joe asked. "Why take that risk? If you just let me go, there won't be any worries about him realizing it's a set-up."

"In any case, we can't eliminate all chance of that," Gomez told him. "All we can do is minimize risks. That's exactly what I'm doing here."

"How exactly is it minimizing risks to send in a double when you could use the original?" Joe insisted.

"Because your brother is a police officer, and before that, he worked several years as a licensed private detective," Gomez said. "You are not an officer or a licensed private detective. That makes you a liability."

Joe opened and closed his mouth a couple of times as if he had forgotten how to speak.

It was Frank who filled in the void. "With all due respect, Captain, Joe was a licensed detective in the past. He's been trained in this kind of thing. He's done it before. With police officers backing him up, I'm sure he'd be fine."

"I'm aware of that, but the fact remains that he is a civilian and I don't put civilians at risk in police operations," Gomez replied. He kept his voice firm, but not harsh. "Besides that, his record in the last year isn't especially reassuring. I'm told that he actively disrupted an attempt by police officers to end a hostage situation, despite the fact that both of you and your mother were hostages in the incident and he was therefore putting all your lives at risk. So, to be honest, I don't believe I can trust him to cooperate."

Joe sank into his chair and closed his eyes with a defeated expression. Frank rubbed his temple and seemed to be thinking.

"You've done a lot of research into us, Captain," Frank said finally.

"It's my job. Now, Hardy, you need to start getting ready," Gomez replied. "Joe, I would ask you to model for it, but we'll use pictures. I want you to go home and get some rest and make sure that your sister-in-law and your four friends don't interfere."

"What four friends?" Frank asked. "He's only got three roommates."

"Them, and Mario Beretta, the suspect's brother. I understand you're acquainted. I had him brought in for questioning, but I'm convinced he doesn't know anything."

"I could have told you that," Joe muttered.

"You'll understand if I need to learn these things for myself," Gomez said. "Mr. Beretta has already agreed to drive you home and remain at the apartment, where I'll trust you all to hold each other accountable for not interfering."

HBHBHBHBHB

"The hits just keep coming today," Joe commented as he walked out of Gomez's office with his hands in his pockets. "I'm starting to remember now why I gave up detective work."

"Yeah, well, if you hadn't thrown in the towel so easily, we wouldn't be in this mess right now," Frank replied. He didn't even try to disguise the bitterness in his voice, but he instantly regretted it.

"What do you mean by that?" Joe asked defensively, coming to a halt.

"Nothing," Frank said, looking down at the floor. "I just don't understand."

Joe resumed walking. "If you don't by now, I don't think there's anything I can do to make you."

They rounded a corner then and found Mario sitting in a chair in the hallway and waiting. He stood up when he saw them.

"Hi, guys. Captain Gomez said I was supposed to give Joe a ride back to his apartment," he said.

"Yeah." Joe paused for a second. Then he looked up at Frank. "Good luck, anyway."

"Thanks."

Then Joe motioned for Mario to follow him out of the precinct. Mario had a rental car in the parking lot that he had been using to get around.

"Pretty nice ride, isn't it?" he asked as he got into the driver's seat and Joe into the passenger's.

Joe nodded briefly.

Mario scratched his chin. "So what exactly happened in there?"

"Nothing important."

Mario was about to take his word for it and switch on the ignition, but then he stopped himself. "Look, since I've been here, I haven't found out anything and nobody's told me anything. It's frustrating, to say the least. If you can't tell me anything, then I guess I'll have to accept that, but if you can, please. Obviously, your brother isn't ever going to put you through something like this, but you can imagine what it's like."

Joe stared ahead for a second or two and then said, "Yeah. I don't have to imagine what it's like not being told anything about something that really is your business. I'll tell you everything we know on the way."

It didn't take that long to tell him what they knew about Angelo. Explaining the undercover operation that Frank and the local police were about to undertake was more difficult. Joe realized that lying wasn't going to get him anywhere. Mario was smart enough to figure out when he was being lied to, so Joe simply didn't say why he wasn't to be included in the operation.

At least, he didn't say until they reached the apartment and Joe had to reiterate the whole conversation to his roommates and Callie.

"I don't get it," Shaun spoke up. "I thought you were some kind of detective, too. Why don't they just let you play you?"

Joe let out a long breath. "Because Gomez thinks I'm an untrustworthy idiot." He started toward the door to his bedroom to escape the curious glances from the others. Just as he was opening the door, he paused for a second. "And he's right." Then he slammed the door shut behind him.

HBHBHBHBHB

Frank didn't like other people being in his space, so sitting in a chair, having a couple of detectives apply elaborate makeup was well beyond his comfort zone. Besides that, he couldn't stop thinking about Joe and wishing he would have handled the situation better.

When Gomez came into the room to check on the progress, Frank couldn't help commenting, "You know, it would have saved a lot of time to let my brother do this, sir."

Gomez sat down so that he had a clear view of Frank's face. "You look satisfactory to me."

"It's not just that, sir," Frank insisted. "I can't explain what happened with that hostage situation, but Joe really does know what he's doing in this kind of thing. It would probably be good for him." The second the words were out of his mouth, he realized how weak that argument was. It came as no surprise that Gomez immediately seized upon it.

The captain nodded briefly. "Good for him. Maybe it would be, or maybe it would get him killed. Do you really want to take that chance, Hardy? Even if your brother's life is expendable if it means a chance at getting him to live the way you think he should, my officers' lives aren't. I'm not taking the chance."

There were a dozen different things Frank could have said in reply. Gomez was right, of course. Frank knew that. Yet at the same time, the thought demanded to be heard: Was how Joe was living really living at all? Taking chances was part of living, and in the past, when Frank and Joe were solving mysteries together, Joe had never gotten like this. Oh, he'd gotten quieter and more thoughtful after some of the cases they'd worked on, especially when he had been shot, but it wasn't like this. Frank wasn't sure how to describe it to himself, and so he couldn't possibly make Gomez understand, but maybe…No, Gomez was right. It would be a foolish risk to have Joe meet Angelo in his present state.

"I just don't understand why he did it," Frank found himself saying. It caught him by surprise. He thought he'd moved past that hostage situation and Joe's actions that day.

Gomez gave him a kind smile, understanding exactly what Frank met. "How long have you been a cop, Hardy?"

"About six months."

"And Bayport's a quiet place, isn't it?"

"Yes and no. It's been a quiet year, but it isn't always that way."

"Have you ever had to make the decision whether to kill someone or not?"

Frank shook his head.

"When you do, you'll understand why your brother did what he did," Gomez said. "It's not something everyone can live with, taking another person's life or even being a party to it. This city isn't so quiet. I remember one very promising probationer. She'd done excellent in the academy, training, everything. Three months into the job, her partner gets a gun pulled on him. She freezes. Thankfully, her partner was able to deescalate the situation so no one got hurt, but she knew it was no thanks to her. She turned in her resignation the next day. Then there was another one. Nice young kid. About eight months into the job, a suspect shot at him, he shot back, and the suspect was killed. A couple weeks later, he shot himself." Gomez shook his head. "I don't blame your brother at all. I can't use him on this operation, but I do understand him."