J.M.J.
Chapter II
Friday, April 23
"Yes, I understand. I'll have to talk to my operative about it. It's an unusual case, you have to admit."
Those were the only words that Laura Hardy heard of her husband's phone conversation as she passed by the door of his home office. It wasn't such a strange conversation to hear in the Hardy household; many a conversation had revolved around a case of some kind, and many of them could easily be classified as "unusual". That was why Laura didn't pay any particular attention as she passed by. It was only when she heard Fenton call her name a few seconds later that she stepped back to the door of the office. He must have just hung up the phone and his face had a serious expression.
"What is it?" Laura asked. "Is something wrong?"
"Not exactly," Fenton said. He bit his lip thoughtfully. "I've just been offered a new case, but I haven't made up my mind whether I'm going to take it. I wanted to see what you think."
"I thought you said you were going to talk to 'your operative' about it," Laura teased him. "Since when is that me?"
"Were you eavesdropping on me?" Fenton teased back.
"Hardly. That's all I heard. But seriously, why do you want to talk to me about it? You know I support you no matter what kind of case you take on."
"I know that, and I'm grateful for it. This one is pretty serious, and I'll probably have to be gone for a few weeks."
Laura let out a little sigh, but all she said was: "It won't be the first time you've had to be. What is the case about?"
"That was the chief of police in Southport who contacted me. They don't know for sure, but there's a very good possibility that they have a serial killer on their hands."
Laura's eyebrows rose and she took in a long breath. "That's…not good. That's terrible. Doesn't the FBI usually investigate things like that?"
"They can, but only if they're called in by the local authorities. Chief Osmund says that that situation is complicated in Southport, to say the least. He claims that there's a lot of incompetency if not outright corruption in the city council, and so his department underfunded, undermanned, and undertrained. He's requested for federal help to be brought in, but the city council won't agree because, so Chief Osmund suspects, federal investigators might also discover the city council's corruption."
"So why would they agree to ask you to help?" Laura asked.
"That was my first question, too. Osmund says that he would pay my fees personally, out of his own pocket. The city council wouldn't know about my involvement. Obviously, I'm not enthusiastic about that situation, especially since I only have Osmund's word for it that the city council are the incompetent-possibly-corrupt ones and not him."
Laura scratched her ear as she considered the situation further. "Besides that, how would the city council get away without calling in federal help? If there's suspected to be a serial killer, they can't possibly be keeping that quiet, and so people will be demanding that federal help be brought in. They'd have to have some kind of explanation for why that's not happening."
"That is a very good point," Fenton agreed. "I'm going to have to look into that before I make a decision here. And I will talk this over with Sam, too." Sam Radley was an operative working for Fenton, although at the moment, he was Fenton's only operative and more of a partner than an employee.
Fortunately, the discussion was basically at an end by this point, because they heard the front door slam and Joe shout, "Mom! Dad! Are you home?"
Fenton and Laura cast knowing glances at one another. There wasn't much that could get Joe as excited as that besides a mystery.
"We're up in the office, Joe," Fenton called back to him.
A moment later, they heard Joe bounding up the steps two at a time and then he burst into the room. "Guess what happened!"
"You ran into a mystery," Fenton said.
"More like one ran into Frank. You remember Mario Beretta, right? And you remember him talking about his brother, Angelo? Mario came up with a lead that Angelo might be in Southport, and he wants Frank and me to check it out, so I'm going to go up there and meet Frank. Um, if it's okay, of course."
Once again, Fenton and Laura glanced at each other. Southport again. In view of the case that Fenton was considering taking, Southport didn't seem like the safest place for the boys to go. On the other hand, telling them that would probably only make them want to work on the case more.
"Well," Fenton said after a moment, "you and Frank are both over eighteen now, so I don't think you have to ask permission to work on cases anymore."
"Really? I mean, yeah, that makes sense." That news came as a surprise to Joe since this was the first case he'd run into since his birthday last month, but he was pleased with it.
"But," Fenton added, "that doesn't mean that you shouldn't keep us updated on what you're working on. Don't forget the first rule of responsible detective work."
"Don't go anywhere without telling someone where you're going and when you expect to get back," Joe said. "Right. But that's what I'm doing right now."
"Yeah," Fenton agreed. "So, if you want to help Mario, that's up to you. I'd like to give you one piece of unsolicited advice, though."
"Sure, Dad. I'm always happy to get your advice."
"When you get to Southport, you're probably going to encounter some other people who need help or other crimes that need solved. You can't help all of them and you can't solve every mystery. If you try, you'll wind up stretching yourself so thin that you won't be able to help anybody or solve any mystery. You've got to stay focused on the case you're working on and be willing to let others solve the rest."
Joe glanced from one parent to the other, one eyebrow raised in a questioning expression. "Uh, okay, Dad. Sure. I can see that. But is there something going on in Southport that you know about and I don't?"
"Possibly."
"Come on, Dad! You've got to tell me now."
Fenton smiled slightly. "You just worry about your case. You're not going to be able to help Mario if you're trying to solve something else."
"Maybe, but now I'm going to die of curiosity."
"That's better than dying of anything else," Laura pointed out. "You be careful up in Southport."
HBHBHBHBHB
Saturday, April 24
Frank was no late sleeper, but he was scarcely awake by the time he heard someone pounding on the door to his apartment. He let out a confused groan as he reached blindly for his phone to check the time. It was barely half past six.
"Come on, Frank! What's taking so long?" he heard Joe shout from the other side of his front door.
Frank yawned and got up, swiftly throwing on a t-shirt as he did. He stumbled to the front door and threw it open. "What are you doing here this early?"
"That's a fine how-do-you-do," Joe said in mock indignation as he came in. "We've got a mystery to solve and just two days to solve it in. There's no point in wasting a bunch of time by sleeping." He chuckled. "This is probably about the first time ever that I woke up this much earlier than you."
"Yeah, well, I just figured I'd have plenty of time to sleep in since I didn't think you'd wake up till eight, at least, on a Saturday."
"A normal Saturday, maybe, but not this one. Say, do you have anything to eat around here? I skipped breakfast to get on the road earlier."
"I'm a college student. Of course, I don't have any food. We can get breakfast on the road. Just let me shower and put some better clothes on."
"Okay, but don't take all day about it," Joe warned him.
Frank headed back into his bedroom to gather up his clothes, which reminded him of why he wanted to wear a little nicer clothes today. "Oh, and could you call Callie and tell her you're here?" he asked Joe, successfully managing to sound very casual about it. "She wanted to come along. And you might want to text Tony and Phil and tell them we'll be earlier than what I told them."
"Sure thing." Joe flopped onto one of the two armchairs that Frank had in the tiny living room of his apartment. He sent the texts first and then called Callie. He didn't think anything of it that Callie had asked to come along—who wouldn't want to come on a detective mission?—but he was a little surprised at just how eager she seemed to be. She even promised to be ready to go in fifteen minutes. Joe was a little skeptical that that would happen, but as long as he and Frank didn't get held up, he wasn't too concerned.
He had finished the phone call before Frank was done in the shower, so he went in the kitchen and did a little scrounging about in search of food. He found some bread and some sliced ham and made himself a sandwich.
When Frank got out of the shower, he raised his eyebrows at his brother. "You know that was supposed to be my lunch for about the next week."
"Aw, come on," Joe said, his mouth full. "You can't be that broke that you can't afford to eat."
"Yeah, well, just wait till you get to college. Then you'll see how it is. Let's get going."
Joe crammed the last couple bites of the sandwich into his mouth as they headed out the door. It was closer to twenty minutes from the time Joe had called her when they picked Callie up and she was actually ready to go. Joe insisted on going through the drive-through of a fast food place that had a breakfast menu, and Frank and Callie humored him. He did pay for their breakfast, though, citing their "broke college student" status, so they hadn't much room to be displeased with the situation.
They met Phil and Tony outside the dorms of Southport Community College.
"So, where to first?" Phil asked. "You know, taking some time out to solve a mystery sounds like a great break from college right now."
"Yeah, but what's the big idea?" Tony added.
"Big idea?" Joe repeated, looking out the driver's window of his car at his friends. "What are you talking about?"
Tony gestured at the car, which was a typical four-door sedan. "This. Are you planning on having three of us squish in the back seat?"
"I'll sit in the back. I'll even sit in the middle of the back," Frank offered, picturing his two friends squeezed into the back seat along with Callie. Of course, none of them would think anything of it—Callie was just one of their friends—but Frank wasn't too comfortable with the idea. "Maybe you'd rather sit in the front, Callie."
Callie shot him a grateful smile. "That's very gentlemanly of you, Frank, but it makes more sense for one of you guys to sit up front. You're all quite a bit taller than I am."
"She's right," Tony said. "You're the tallest of all of us, Frank, so you should keep on sitting in front."
Frank scratched his neck to buy himself a few moments to think up a reasonable counter to that. "It's our detective mission. By all rights, both Joe and I should surrender front seat privileges, but I doubt Joe would let either one of you drive. The least I can do is let one of you sit in the front."
"Seriously, who cares where anybody sits?" Joe said. "If you guys can't make up your minds, I'll just assign seating: Phil, front passenger seat; Frank, rear driver seat; Tony, rear passenger seat; Callie, middle rear seat. Okay?"
"Sounds fine to me," Phil said, reaching for the front passenger door. He thought the whole discussion silly, too.
"Hold on," Frank said. "You've got your seat way back, Joe. Callie and I will switch seats."
"At this point, you can ride on the bumper for all I care," Joe said. "Just get in already."
Once they were all finally settled, Phil said, "Okay. I repeat, where to first?"
"The post office," Frank said. "It's the only place we can count on being able to find a phone book these days."
Tony raised an eyebrow in confusion. "A phone book? What do we need a phone book for?"
"To get the address for Susan Ferris," Frank explained. "You know, the woman whose son might know Angelo. The other reason for the post office is that if it turns out that Mrs. Ferris doesn't have a landline, the postmaster might be willing to give us her address or at least her phone number."
Southport was a bit smaller than Bayport, although it was immediately clear even to the three teenagers who hadn't been there before that it was far more run-down. The post office was on Main Street, just across from the police station, which Frank and Joe both made a note of. Given Angelo's penchant for getting into trouble, depending on what they learned from Susan Ferris, the police station just might make sense for a next stop after the Ferris house.
It turned out there was no need to ask the postmaster for help in locating Susan Ferris, as her name, address, and phone number were all listed in the phone book in the lobby of the post office.
It only took a few minutes to drive to the Ferris house. It was in a particularly shabby part of town and the house itself was greatly in need of a fresh coat of paint. The '83 Chevy Impala with one of its back windows completely missing added to the picture.
The Hardys and their friends went up to the front door and Frank pressed the doorbell. They waited for a few moments, but nobody answered.
"Maybe the bell's broken," Callie suggested. "I didn't hear it ring."
Joe rapped on the door with his knuckles. Again there was a pause, but then the door opened a few inches. A woman with several streaks of gray in her brown hair peeked out at them. She let her gaze rest on each for a moment or two in turn, sizing them up, before she said, "Well? What do you want?"
"Are you Susan Ferris?" Frank asked.
"What business is it of yours if I am?"
Frank glanced first at Joe and then at Callie. "Well, if you are, we understand you have a son. We'd like to talk to him, if we could."
"No!" The woman's sharp answer surprised them all. "No, you're mistaken. I don't have a son."
Frank looked around him and noticed a pair of men's shoes sitting next to the door. "Is your husband home? Maybe we could talk to him."
"My husband died two years ago."
"Then whose shoes are these?" Frank pointed them out.
The woman looked down at them and bit her lip. "All right. I do have a son, but you can't see him. He's not the one you're looking for. And he's not here. I won't let you hurt him!" With that startling statement, she slammed the door.
Author's note: Thanks for reading! I'm trying out author's notes at the end of chapters this time. This way, if I want to comment on something in the chapter, I won't be giving any spoilers! Thank you so much to everyone who left reviews on the last chapter! I really appreciate that! Also, I'm sorry it's been a longer break between chapters than what I was hoping to do in this story. I was hoping to have a chapter every three days, but there have been some changes at work and I wound up with a lot more hours than usual. That isn't a bad thing, of course, but it does mean I have a lot less time to write. At least there are weekends to catch up on both reading and writing! I'm still hoping to have at least two chapters a week, but we'll just kind of have to wait and see how it all goes. In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying the story. If it gets to be too long between chapters, you can always check out some other writers' work. I can particularly recommend Aurora Mandeville and angelicalkiss's stories. They're both great and they've both got series that are currently on-going. Until next time! God bless!