J.M.J.

Author's note: Happy St. Valentine's Day! Thanks for reading! Thank you especially to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: Candylou, max2013, ErinJordan, BMSH, and Cherylann Rivers! Congratulations to Candylou for figuring out what was going on at the end of the last chapter! ;) In answer to BMSH's question: yes, it is supposed to be Tom Radley. The connection to Sam will be explained in the next chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter VII

A New Strategy

Fenton lowered his gun as he recognized the screaming intruder in his apartment. "Gertrude?" he asked in disbelief, suddenly recalling something that he had forgotten several days earlier in all the excitement.

Gertrude Hardy regained somewhat of her composure. "Fenton Hardy, what on earth is the idea? First, neither you nor Laura is there at the airport when I come in. Then neither of you answer your phone so I have to take a taxi here – and let me tell you, that was not cheap. I get to your apartment and no one's even here. Thank goodness I have that spare key you gave me. And now you come busting in here like you think I'm a murderer or something."

"In my defense," Fenton replied, failing in his attempt to stifle a grin, "I did think you were a murderer."

That answer didn't seem appease Gertrude much. "What do you mean by that? Where are Laura and the boys?"

"They're at a hotel," Fenton told her, holstering his gun once again, which he had almost forgotten he was holding. He glanced at Mitch, who was grinning now that he realized that the "intruder" was Fenton's sister.

"In other words, someone's been threatening you," Gertrude deduced. "I should have known. If I've told you once, I told you a thousand times, detective work is no business for a family man."

"Yeah, I know. You've mentioned that before. Sorry, Gertrude. Something pretty big has come up and I completely forgot that you were coming to visit. You should have called the precinct."

"I did," Gertrude said. "I called several times, actually, and every time I was told you were out. So, what exactly is going on? What kind of a case is it this time?"

"Let's not talk about it here. We can go on down…" Fenton paused in mid-sentence as he noticed something on the kitchen cupboard that had certainly not been there when he had last left the apartment. It was a bouquet of black roses in a vase. "What is that?"

Gertrude glanced at the flowers. "That's what I was wondering. I was wondering if maybe Laura's taste in flowers had taken a serious turn for the worse."

Fenton approached the vase cautiously, as if he was afraid that the flowers themselves would do him some harm. He noticed a card attached to them and picked it up to look at it. It read: "Forget the Beretta case unless you want your wife and sons to end up like Hannigail."

He showed the note to Mitch, who whistled. "Well, this seals it that the two cases are related."

Gertrude peered over his shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean? Who's Hannigail?"

"Mitch, you call for Dr. Harbinger to come here," Fenton said instead of answering Gertrude's question. "Have her bring a team. We need them to analyze these flowers and this card. Also try to figure out how the intruder got in here. I'll take Gertrude and go check on Laura and the boys. I don't want to call them either from here or the cell phone because either could be bugged."

Mitch nodded. "Don't worry about a thing. I'll take care of it."

Fenton gestured for Gertrude to follow him. "Come on. I'll explain on the way."

Gertrude had dozens of questions for her brother as they drove from the apartment to the hotel, even though Fenton was explaining things thoroughly. She never liked to admit just how much of an interest she had in her brother's detective work. She knew the dangers well – few people were more aware of it than she and Fenton – and she didn't want to encourage him in case there would ever be hope of Fenton adopting another line of work. On the other hand, the dangerous and the difficulties only made her that much more interested in the whole. When she was being very honest with herself, she had to admit that she was proud of her younger brother, especially in consideration of everything that had happened.

When they reached the hotel, Laura didn't waste any time in answering the door. From the look on her face, it seemed she had been frightened but was trying her best to pretend otherwise for the sake of the boys. "Fenton, I've been trying to call you at the precinct. I'm so glad you came. And, Gertrude, I'm so sorry. I completely spaced it off that you were coming."

"It sounds like you have every right to," Gertrude replied. "You poor thing."

"What happened, Laura?" Fenton asked.

"Well…" She glanced at the boys, who were both asleep on one of the beds. "Let's talk quietly. I don't want to wake them up."

The trio was standing in front of the door, as they had entered immediately to reduce the chances of anyone spotting them in the hall.

"About half an hour ago, someone knocked at the door," Laura explained. "I looked through the door viewer, but no one was there. I waited a minute or two, and then I looked out. There was no one in the hall at all, but I found that lying in front of the door." She pointed at the sink, which was just outside the bathroom door. Lying on the counter next to it was a single black rose.

Fenton's face became a shade paler. "Then somehow they figured out where you are. I'm sure no one followed us when we brought you here. How did they figure it out?"

"You don't suppose Danielle told someone that she had seen us in this area and then they figured it out from there?" Laura asked.

"It's possible," Fenton admitted, although he didn't much care for the possibility. "Come on. I'm going to take all four of you down to the precinct and we'll figure it out from there."

HBHBHBHBHB

After returning to the precinct and talking over the issue for nearly an hour with Mitch, once he had returned, there were two points that were perfectly clear, although they were, unfortunately, the only two points that they had. The first was that the only person besides the Hardys and Mitch who knew even the general location where Laura and the boys had been hidden was Dr. Danielle Harbinger. Both Fenton and Mitch were certain that they had not been followed when they had taken Laura and the boys to the hotel, and it only took a simple check to ascertain that Fenton's phone had not been bugged. The information about their whereabouts had to have been leaked through her somehow. The second point was that someone had found out about Odin Hannigail talking to the police, and Alex Casey had been in the room when Mitch had told Fenton about it.

"So, it's looking like chances are good that it's one of those two," Fenton concluded. "It's also possible they both might have just mentioned these things to the wrong person, but either way, I think it's time to have a talk with them."

"And what are Laura and the boys and me supposed to do in the meantime?" Gertrude asked. "You can't expect us to just keep sitting around this police station until you figure out this case."

"No," Fenton admitted gloomily. "Honestly, I don't know what to do there." He glanced at Laura, silently asking her for ideas.

"We can find another hotel," Laura promptly said. "We'll be more careful and they couldn't…"

"But they already did," Gertrude protested. "And if Fenton is right that one of his own officers is working for these mobsters, we won't be safe anywhere in this city. The only thing we can do is leave town for a little while."

Laura shook her head. "I'm not leaving the city. I'm not leaving Fenton alone."

"Which is precisely what he'll be if those mobsters find you again," Gertrude pointed out.

"You know," Mitch interjected, "I think she's right. Until we've got Gregorio behind bars, at least, this place isn't safe. I have an idea. I think Agent Roche has proven herself reliable. There's no real reason to suspect that she isn't exactly who she says she is, and anyway, some of the information that's been passed along to this black rose outfit, she couldn't have possibly known. So, I say let her handle Rockport alone. We'll call Tom Radley back, and he can act as a sort of bodyguard for the women and the boys."

"I don't want a bodyguard," Laura protested, while at the same time Gertrude said, "That's an excellent idea. Where does this Tom Radley live?"

"A little place called Bayport," Mitch told her.

"Perfect." Gertrude nodded in satisfaction. "I've never heard of it, so maybe these mobsters haven't either. We'll get a hotel there and have your Mr. Radley keep an eye on our door. He's not too young of a man, is he? I wouldn't want to put our lives in the hands of someone inexperienced."

"Um, no, he's not too young," Mitch said. "As a matter of fact, he's in his mid-fifties."

"Oh." A shade of disappointment passed over Gertrude's face. "Well, I hope he isn't too old, then. He won't be much help if he has arthritis and can't move much."

Mitch tried his best to suppress a grin. "You know, it could be plain, dumb optimism on my part, wanting to think I can stay young and healthy as long possible, but I don't think a guy in his fifties is quite ready for the nursing home."

"It doesn't matter, though," Laura broke in, "because I'm not going. I'm staying right here where I belong."

"Don't be ridiculous, Laura," Gertrude said. "It would be bad enough if it was just you that you had to think of, but there's the boys, too. You're not going to let them stay here, are you?"

Laura glanced at the two boys, who were, thankfully, paying no attention to the adults' conversation. They were sitting on the floor, playing with their toy dinosaurs that they had brought. "I don't know what to do," she confessed, her eyes growing a little watery.

Fenton sighed. "I don't like the idea of you being out there without me any better than you do, Laura, but I think they're right. We do need to think of the boys, first and foremost."

"Yeah," Laura admitted, albeit a little weakly. Then she burst out, "Why can't they just leave us alone? You're only doing your job."

"I don't think that argument would convince them," Mitch said.

"Besides, if Fenton just had a different job…" Gertrude began, but Fenton raised his hand to stop her.

"Not right now, Gertrude," he requested wearily. "I think we all know what we need to do, even if we don't want to do it."

There wasn't much more to add to the conversation. Mitch went to work trying to get hold of Tom Radley, but the detective didn't answer his phone. Fenton collected himself, and then asked Danielle Harbinger to come and see him in his office.

"Have you made any progress on those black roses?" Fenton asked her.

"Yes, I have," Danielle replied. "I was about to come and report to you, anyway. So, first off, there are no naturally-occurring black roses. What people usually mean when they talk about a black rose is either a very dark purple rose or a white rose that has been dyed black. These flowers, both the ones from the apartment and the ones from the hotel are the latter. My team's working on isolating the exact type of dye that was used. Once we have that, we might be able to trace where it was bought and who bought it."

"Excellent," Fenton told her. "How ID'ing those last two shooting victims."

"No luck," Danielle admitted. "We've completed the facial reconstructions, so we know what they looked like now. There's absolutely nothing on them. Even the FBI has no records whatsoever of these two. It's like they just appeared out of nowhere."

"Weird," Fenton said. "That's not an easy thing to accomplish. Could have they done plastic surgery to alter their appearances?"

Danielle shook her head. "There was no trace of anything like that. We've tried just about everything. Dental records, fingerprints, DNA, nothing yet."

"Okay." Fenton acted as if the interview was at an end, but then he added, as if it was an afterthought, "Say, Laura mentioned that she ran into you earlier at the ice cream shop."

For an instant, Danielle's face froze. Then she tried to smile. "Yeah. That was a coincidence." She seemed to realize that her attempt to play it cool hadn't worked, because she then added, "About that, Lieutenant, I didn't realize that she and the boys were supposed to be in hiding. If I had known, I wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone. You don't think that's how this gang found them, do you?"

"That depends on who you mentioned it to," Fenton replied.

"Just Casey," Danielle said. "Surely he wouldn't have passed on the information to the gang?"

"I don't know," Fenton admitted. "But there is someone else who knew: that man you were meeting there. Who was he? A secret boyfriend or a secret contact?"

Danielle looked pained. "Neither. I was wondering if Laura had seen that. He's my cousin, Jackson Hart. You can check on it if you want. He had a good job up until a couple of weeks ago when the company he was working for went broke. He's been trying to find a new job, and I've been helping him out until he can. He's embarrassed about it, though. He doesn't want everyone to think he can't hold a job, so he wants me to keep it quiet. He has absolutely no ties to any criminals. Like I said, you can check on it."

Fenton nodded slowly, trying to decide whether to believe her or not. "Okay. Thanks, Dr. Harbinger. I will check, just to be thorough. If you see Casey, tell him I want to see him, and don't tell him why."

As Danielle was leaving, Fenton's phone rang and he answered it. It was the front desk trying to get hold of Mitch, who evidently had a phone call.

"He's not in here," Fenton told the officer. "Have you tried his office?"

"Yeah," Officer Nicholson replied. "I'll see if I can track him down. The person seems pretty insistent to talk to him right away."

Fenton hung up, not giving the incident much thought. He briefly tried to call Christine Roche to see whether she had any news, but she didn't answer. Then he went to look for Alex Casey, but he learned that the other detective was out on a call. Finally, he started digging into Danielle Harbinger's files to see what he could learn about her cousin.

He had barely begun when Mitch came bursting into the office saying, "Great news!"

"There was a call for you at the front desk," Fenton told him. "Did you get it?"

"I sure did," Mitch replied. "The John, Giovanni, whatever, Beretta I found is the one we're looking for. I talked to him briefly, but I didn't want to tell him too much over the phone. With this whole potential mole issue, you can never tell just how private your conversations are around here. I told him we'd go and talk to him in person."

"'We'?" Fenton repeated. "Didn't you say he was in Boston?"

"Yeah," Mitch confirmed, "but I've got this all planned out. It's perfect. I finally got hold of Tom Radley, and he's willing to go along with our plan, and Bayport is on the way to Boston. I checked. So basically, we can take your family over to Bayport on our way to Boston. You know, you getting out of town for a day or so might not be such a bad idea, either."

In the end, Fenton agreed to go along with the plan, although it wasn't Mitch who persuaded him. First of all, he wanted to make sure that his wife, sons, and sister would all be in good hands during their sojourn in Bayport. Secondly, he had a hunch that somehow he would get a lead in Massachusetts.