J.M.J.

Chapter VII

Thursday, April 29

"Day four of Operation What Is Sally Up To," Biff said in a half-hushed voice as he recorded himself talking with his smartphone.

"Uh, Biff, what are you doing?" Iola asked. The two friends were in the hallway between classes and they had just noticed Sally coming towards them. Biff had instantly whipped out his phone and started making a video.

"I'm getting all of this on the official record. After four days, I'm about ready to be done with this investigation. I'm not taking any chances on missing a clue."

"Well, yeah, but I don't think there's anything particularly suspicious about a student being in the hall between classes," Iola pointed out.

Biff didn't reply as he tried to listen to what Sally was saying, only to realize she was just letting another girl know she had a stain in her shirt. "Have you had any luck in talking Joe into taking this case after all?"

Iola scoffed. "Nope. I've barely even seen him this week, except for here at school. He's been all wrapped up in that Angelo case, and to be honest, I haven't been pushing it too much. I have a project I've been working on every evening I can."

"What kind of project?"

"Oh, um…" Iola stammered. She didn't want more people than she could help finding out about her attempts at riding a horse. She didn't want it getting back to her parents before she had improved at it, and she was starting to realize that she had a long way to go before that.

An interruption saved her from having to think of some way to evade the question, but it would have been less disastrous to have just told Biff about her horse escapades. Sally had noticed Biff recording her and had obviously put it together what he was doing. She came stomping up to him.

"What are you trying to do, you creep?" she demanded, snatching the phone away from him. "I thought you told me several months ago that you weren't interested."

"Hey, it's not what you think." Biff made a grab for the phone, but Sally kept it out of his reach.

"Then what is it?" Sally asked.

Biff blundered around for an answer. "It's…I mean…Nothing. Can't a guy hold his phone without someone blowing up at him?"

"If that was all you were doing, sure." Unfortunately, the camera was still up and Sally played the video. "Okay, I take it back. You're not the kind of creep I thought you were. But what are you guys investigating me for? Is this about Chet still? You must be some kind of psycho, Iola. What do you want? Girls to submit an application before you let them date your brother?"

"That is completely uncalled for!" Iola snapped back.

"Why don't you just admit that you're up to something sneaky and underhanded and no good?" Biff said. "Just like you always are."

"I don't have to admit anything to you two, just because you're a couple of freaks," Sally insisted.

By this time, the argument had attracted the attention of everyone in the hallway, including several teachers. Biff, Iola, and Sally were promptly escorted to the principal's office, where Sally showed the principal the video that Biff had taken. Since Joe's name had been mentioned on the video, he also was summoned.

When Joe arrived at the office, he gave Iola and Biff a confused glance before he asked the principal, "Um, Mr. Carlson, what's going on here?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Mr. Carlson replied. "It seems your friend Allen was making a video of Sally here which she didn't want."

Biff cringed at the use of his real name. "It's, uh, kind of a long story, Mr. Carlson."

"You heard it yourself, Mr. Carlson," Sally said. "It's some kind of dumb investigation they're doing, just because they're made that I made a date with Iola's brother."

Mr. Carlson turned back toward Biff and Iola. "Is that true?"

"Well, uh, sort of," Biff admitted.

"Sally's never been at all interested in Chet before this," Iola said. "We think she's playing some kind of cruel joke on him or something and we want to stop it before anyone gets hurt."

"Looks like you're a little late for that," Mr. Carlson commented. "Do you have any proof?"

Biff and Iola looked helplessly at one another before turning to Joe.

"What do you know about all of this, Joe?" Mr. Carlson asked.

"What Iola just said is about all there is to know," Joe told him. "I don't know that we have any proof, but I did hear one of Sally's making fun of Chet on Monday and Sally didn't say anything to defend Chet. It doesn't like her interest is too genuine to me."

"That's hardly proof," Mr. Carlson said.

"You know what," Sally spoke up, glaring daggers at Iola. "I just figured it out what this is all about. I thought it was because of Chet, and maybe Biff and Joe think that, too, but Iola's got something else on her mind besides protecting her poor big brother. She's trying to come up with something to blackmail me."

Iola was too flabbergasted to even reply, which was probably just as well since both Joe and Biff instantly jumped to her defense, insisting that such a thing was not only unlikely but impossible.

It took a couple minutes for Mr. Carlson to quiet them down. "That's a very serious charge, Sally. Do you have any proof?"

"No, but it all adds up," Sally said. "I know something about Iola that she doesn't want anyone else to know. Of course, I wouldn't have dreamt of telling anyone, but Iola's so terrible at keeping secrets herself that naturally she assumed she'd need some leverage to keep me quiet. So she roped Joe and Biff into helping her dig up some dirt on me so that she could threaten to show it to Chet if I breathed a word to anyone. Too bad for her there wasn't any dirt to dig up."

"That is the stupidest…" Joe began, but Mr. Carlson held up his hand for him to stop.

"That's not evidence," he said. "You're jumping to conclusions just as much as everyone else. Now, we can't have this kind of thing going on in our school." He proceeded to give them all a lecture about the dangers of making rash judgments of others, although all four of his audience were seething with fury at the accusations they had been hurling at each other, none of them got much out of it. Finally, he let them leave for class.

As soon as they were out of the office, Sally whirled on Iola. "Just for this, I'm going to make sure everyone find out about what you've been up to."

"What are you even talking about?" Joe asked her.

"I might as well start with you two," Sally said. "Iola's been trying to ride a horse."

Joe and Biff stared blankly at her for a few moments, and Iola rolled her eyes.

"Oh, no," Iola said in a sarcastic tone. "My whole life is ruined now. I might as well move away as have such a horrible thing known about me."

"Nice try," Sally replied, "but Chet already told me that it's your parents you don't want finding out about this. Well, that's just too bad."

"Look, you're really starting to bug me," Joe said. "Could you stop being nasty for one second and just leave?"

Sally snorted in disdain in his direction, but she left. Then both Joe and Biff turned to Iola and started asking her what this was all about. Reluctantly, she explained.

"Don't you realize how dangerous that was?" Joe asked.

"As if you never do anything dangerous," Iola retorted.

"That…That's different," Joe insisted. "I don't do dangerous things just for the fun of it. There's always a point to it."

"Well, maybe there was a point to this." Iola turned her wheelchair and started wheeling herself away.

HBHBHBHBHB

Frank tapped his finger on the keyboard a few times as he thought of another search to try. Every once in a while, at times like these, he wished Google really did have the answers to every imaginable question. But then, if that was the case, there wouldn't be much need for detectives. Still Google was frequently an invaluable tool. Right now, Frank was trying to find if Angelo had any social media pages where Frank might a clue where he had gone. Frank didn't think he would be stupid enough to post exactly where he had gone on the Internet, but there might be some indication.

He was so deep in concentration that he didn't notice Callie come up behind him and say his name. He didn't realize she was there until she touched his shoulder and made him jump with an involuntary cry. Several other people studying in the library cast him disapproving glances and Callie chuckled.

"I didn't mean to scare you," she said in a low voice, pulling a chair beside his.

"Yeah, I'm sure you didn't," Frank replied, feeling embarrassed.

Callie nodded at the computer. "That doesn't look like school."

"Hardly. You know, it's been four days, and we haven't come up with anything on Angelo. Joe and I have both been trying. I'm starting to feel like we're not such great detectives after all."

"Now that's a silly way to feel. You don't have any leads. You've taken longer than this to solve cases before."

"Yeah, I guess so. I just want to find him, and I kind of want to choke him, but more than that, see that he goes to jail and stops causing trouble for everyone who crosses paths with him."

"No kidding. Say, what about that David Ferris kid? Have you tried looking for him again?"

"Lieutenant Durant was handling that part of it," Frank replied. "He hasn't had any luck. Susan Ferris won't talk and nobody seems to know where David's at. It doesn't help that Durant told in not so many words to keep out of Southport. Since everyone thinks we're working on the serial case, he doesn't want everyone we talk to getting caught up with that in the gossip chain."

"That makes sense, even if it does throw a serious crimp in your investigation." Callie paused. "You know, I kind of hate to bring this up because saying it makes it feel like it might actually be, but what if Angelo is mixed up in that Black Rose thing? They could have helped spirit him away without a trace. That seems to be one of their specialties."

Frank frowned. The idea of Black Rose being involved had been gnawing at the back of his mind for several days now, and it was disconcerting to have Callie mention it out of the blue. No one seemed to know what the secret society's goals were, so they could be involved in just about anything. Besides that, Angelo's parents had been involved with them and had even been killed by them. It wasn't such a long stretch to think that Angelo himself might have some connection with them now. After all, a year and a half ago, the Hardys had learned that Black Rose was keeping tabs on Mario, at least, and possibly other members of the family.

"Well," Frank said finally, "if that's the case, I don't feel as bad for not having a single lead. I hope it's not, though."

Callie nodded, hoping the same thing. Last time they had tangled with Black Rose, Iola had wound up getting paralyzed. If they got involved with Black Rose again, who knew what might happen?

Frank was the first to shake off the dark cloud that seemed to be forming over them. "I doubt Black Rose is involved. There's no reason why we would keep running into them everywhere. Anyway, let's talk about something. What's going on for you?"

Callie gave a disgusted sigh. "You know, I'd almost rather talk about the mystery. I just got out of biology, you know. I'll be so glad when that class is over, even I do wind up with my ever B minus of my school career."

"It's not that big of a deal. Nobody can get A's in everything."

"I did in high school." Callie grinned mischievously. "And of course it wouldn't be a big deal for you. No one ever doubts that you're smart, no matter what grades you get. Even that time you got a D in art history."

"Hey! That was in the seventh grade, and anyway, we didn't even go to the same school back then."

"I heard about it from reliable sources. Anyway, like I was saying, biology isn't going so well, and I'm not the only one having a hard time, so the professor gave us an extra credit assignment, and I really don't want to do it, but it might bring that B minus up to a B."

"What is it?"

"You know how the college sometimes brings in guest lecturers? There's one coming tomorrow night, and if we go to it and write a short summary of the lecture, the professor will give us some extra credit. It's just that it sound so boring."

"What's the topic?"

"Human genetics."

"That doesn't sound boring to me."

Callie chuckled. "That's because you're a science nerd, instead of an art/literature/history nerd like me. Since it doesn't sound boring to you, how about coming with me? It would be a lot more fun not having to go alone."

Frank didn't have to stop and think about that. Even if the topic had been something he wasn't interested in at all, any excuse to spend an evening with Callie was a good excuse. "Sounds great! Let's do it."

HBHBHBHBHB

In another place, much too close for comfort, a person was sitting hunched at a table all alone. There was nothing alarming about the room, at first glance. It was furnished just like a studio apartment inhabited by someone struggling to make ends meet. The furniture was old and plain and there wasn't much for decorations. There was an old, dusty picture frame, designed so that it looked like the picture was surrounded by a garland of white roses, but it was so dirty and cracked now that the roses ranged in color from a musty yellow to a dull gray. But the occupant of that place didn't care much for that picture and had the frame turned down so that the picture didn't show. It wasn't much of a decoration. That might have been the first indication that there was something not quite right about this place.

The second indication wouldn't have been apparent unless a visitor was looking very closely. The bed in the corner of the combined living/dining/bedroom had an old-fashioned metal frame. Something was attached to the foot, but it was mostly hidden under the neatly-made sheets. It would have had to be pulled out to see that it was a pair of shackles such as might be used on prisoners of a particularly cruel government.

The final indication was the table where the person was sitting. It was covered in surveillance-type pictures of different people. The person was running a finger along them, studying each one in turn.

"So many deserving people. It makes it hard to choose just one. It'll have to be one of these two, though." The finger tapped first one picture and then another. "I have to show those fools the benefits of what I'm doing. Once they see for themselves, they'll realize their mistake."

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! I was hoping to get this chapter out yesterday, but I didn't even get a chance to sit down at my computer the whole day. I think I can probably get another chapter out this weekend, but as I mentioned before, I'm going to be pretty busy, so no guarantees. Thanks for staying with me even though the posting schedule is a little chaotic for this one. Also, special thanks to everyone who has reviewed! I really appreciate it!