A huge thanks to my wonderful BETA Dragonstar65 for her continuous support and encouragement in this endeavor of mine.
a/n: Thank you so much for all your wonderful and generous reviews. Much appreciated!
Chapter 4
Vanessa did not think her day could have gone any worse. Ever since her fateful meeting with James Obler she had been deemed a suspect in his murder, her apartment was sealed off as an active crime scene, there were people who probably wanted her dead, and now she no longer had a job.
Yesterday, I was complaining about being single, having a relatively boring job and a very sedentary life. Today I would do anything to get my boring life back.
"Hey, how you holding up?" Joe asked softly. Vanessa hadn't replied when he told her about the lawsuit. He had a worried expression on his face.
Vanessa shook her head. "Not good, especially now that I know they are desperate to get me out of the picture," she answered truthfully.
"That means they are definitely hiding something," Joe offered.
"Is this what my life is going to be from now on. Living in fear, in hiding? I'm all my mother has. We already lived through it once. Growing up we had a nice house in Yonkers. My dad was a city official till he got snared in a corruption case. That case took everything from us, including my dad," she said. The simple question had opened a floodgate of emotion and previously forgotten fears.
Vanessa took a few deep breaths before continuing, "I spent the rest of my childhood in a little apartment in Queens with my mother. After school, I moved here and for the first time things were going according to plan. And now this."
Frank crouched down to where she was sitting on the couch with Joe. "Hey, look at me," he said in a soothing tone. "I know it seems like this is the end, but we do this for a living. We're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to find out who exactly is responsible. Just hang in there." He squeezed her hand.
Vanessa looked at Frank and slowly nodded.
Joe stood up and asked, "Yeah, Vanessa, what he said. Are you hungry? Do you want to get some lunch?"
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They were at Mr. Pizza, the Hardys' regular hangout joint since they were teenagers. Long hours had been spent here with friends like Chet, Iola, Phil, Tony, Biff, and Callie. Iola's sojourn in this world had sadly ended. Tony and Phil had moved away from Bayport. Those that remained - Biff, Chet, and Callie - worked long hours and hardly ever had time to hangout here anymore. Life moved on, but that didn't stop Joe from stealing time with his brother here when they had the chance.
And the pizza was just too delicious to leave to the past. Joe was already on his third slice.
Frank smiled at him, "Seems like the hangover is gone? Nothing like a good cheesy pizza to bring back the normalcy," Frank commented.
Joe gave Frank a thumbs up rather than speak through the mouthful of perfectly baked pie. Frank pushed his own empty plate forward and got up to chat with the pizzeria's owner.
Joe swallowed and called out with a wave, "Hey Mr. Prito."
The older man waved back before diving into an enthusiastic conversation with Frank.
Vanessa turned to Joe. "You get friends and family discount? You guys seem close with the owner," she commented.
"Sure did. But my jerk of a brother put a stop to that once we were gainfully employed. This place is owned by our friend Tony's father. Everybody thought Tony would take over the family business, but he surprised everyone when he flew off to greener pastures." Joe paused to take a bite.
"After school we would come here all the time. We had a special booth where we would catch up and talk about everything under the sun. Those were some fun times," Joe continued.
Vanessa smiled. "I bet this place holds a lot of memories for you guys. I thought I saw a picture of a few kids hanging up on the wall. Must that be you and your gang?"
"Damn right," Joe said. He beamed proudly as he wiped his hands on a napkin. It was always great to think about the old days. But, he still had business to follow through with as well. He couldn't treat this lunch out as the casual event it seemed.
He turned his focus back to Vanessa. "Enough about rascally young goof-offs. Tell me about your work," Joe asked.
Vanessa took a deep breath. "I started working there two and a half years ago. It was nice there, with benefits and bonuses. Not too crazy workload. There's always little stuff, things you complain about to friends or family, but my work life was pretty cool. Hindsight is 20/20 right?" she said, shaking her head and laughing roughly. Her head tipped back to look at the ceiling, and her eyes were shining.
Joe touched her arm lightly. "I am sorry." He paused and then said, "But if you don't finish your slice quickly I might eat it."
Vanessa blinked twice. Then, she laughed heartily. Her thumb wiped quickly under her eyes and the wetness there didn't return. "I have never seen anyone eat that many slices of pizza in such a short amount of time. I think you got some sauce on your shirt," Vanessa said.
She dabbed a napkin in water and started rubbing off the sauce stain from Joe's shirt. Their eyes met and Joe realized she was really close to him at that point. He could feel her breath on him. Vanessa must have realized that too as Joe could see a pretty blush on her face. A noise above caught their attention and both of them turned to see Frank who was clearing his throat.
"Right. Bill's all set. We should probably head back," Frank stated.
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Later that evening Vanessa left with the Hardy boys to go to their apartment. They had the evening planned out. Joe along with Vanessa would search her apartment for anything that would answer why James went there to begin with. Frank was going to search James' apartment for the audio file.
As soon as she walked into their fancy apartment, she was awestruck at how clean and spotless it was. The magazines were neatly stacked on the coffee table, tasteful pictures adorned the walls and the living area had curtains with colors that matched the sofa. It got her thinking about what Joe would feel when he saw her cluttered space and blushed.
"Yeah, Frank likes to pretend nobody lives in our house and I abide by it else I'll be thrown out," Joe commented as if he could tell what she had been thinking.
Vanessa giggled while Frank made a face.
While the boys got busy packing their knapsacks with flashlights, lockpicks, and pocket knives among other things, Vanessa sat on their couch pondering over the events from the day. She had remained in the loop on everything they had found out so far. Their partnership if anything had so far been impressive, and they had treated her with utmost respect. Then her mind wandered on the lawsuit that had been filed against her. Her stomach turned as she wondered just what trumped up evidence her own employer was now using against her.
The sound of the apartment lock turning broke Vanessa from her worries. A beautiful blonde walked in, balancing her laptop bag, purse, and Chinese takeout in her arms. "I brought dinner," she said merrily.
Frank walked up to her and helped her set the bags down and then pulled her close and gave her a lingering kiss. Still seated in the living room watching them, Vanessa blushed at the pure romance on such brazen display and quickly looked away.
"How was your day?" Frank asked letting her go.
"Ugh, I am so tired. There is just too much blood in my caffeine system. When are you guys leaving?"
"We should leave as soon as we can. Thanks for bringing dinner. Saves us some time," Frank said. He nodded towards Vanessa. "This is Vanessa Bender. Vanessa, this is my girlfriend Callie I told you about this morning."
Callie's eyes widened, Vanessa realized that it was she who had relayed information about the lawsuit earlier. "Nice to meet you Callie," Vanessa said.
Joe walked in to the living room as the women exchanged greetings. "Hi Callie!," he greeted her.
"Hey Joe! looking good," she replied back.
"Aww, thanks Cal. I don't know what to say."
"Just lie something, like I did," Callie teased.
Joe shook his head, "I always enjoy these moments of ours."He turned to Vanessa "Here," he said as he handed a taser to Vanessa. Joe appeared to notice the shock that registered on her face as he quickly added, "Just in case. I am not saying we will use it but it's good to always be prepared."
"Take it. It is no use arguing with them. Even I carry one all the time, it gives me a sense of security," Callie offered.
Over dinner, the boys updated Callie on the case, and she offered to help find anything further on Michael Emerson or about the girl he allegedly was having an affair with. Vanessa tried to decide how comfortable she was with this new person knowing all about her case. She surveyed the three people before her.
Callie's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as she took in everything Joe was telling her and Frank scrolled through his phone, eyes narrowed in concentration. They trusted one another implicitly, she decided.
"If the audio clip is worth killing for, what do you think has happened to this girl? Wouldn't Michael be worried about her spilling the beans on their affair?" Callie asked, resting her hand on Frank's lap.
"That is why we need you to see if perhaps there were any employees that died under suspicious circumstances at Ophelia Pharmaceuticals recently," Frank said taking a forkful of noodles from Callie's plate.
"I'm on it. I'll get started right away. Unless you want me to come with you to search James' apartment? We can cover more ground that way." Callie offered.
"That is quite alright babe. I can manage," Frank said immediately. Vanessa noticed the brothers exchanging a look.
Callie had seen the exchange as well. "What?" she asked.
"Nothing," Frank said and winked at her.
Vanessa felt Joe's eyes on her; she had not eaten much and had practically said nothing the whole time. "Try to eat Vanessa. You need all the energy to help me find why James was in your apartment" Joe said kindly.
"Oh Vanessa, I am so sorry about everything. I can't even imagine what you're feeling right now. Trust me Frank and Joe will do everything in their power to help you out of this mess," Callie said as she clasped Vanessa's hands in hers.
"Thank you." Vanessa gave Callie a small smile.
"So Vanessa, are you seeing someone?" Callie suddenly asked. Vanessa felt the other girl was looking to lighten her mood by talking about things not related to the case.
"I used to, but umm…he turned out to be gay. He didn't know it at the time," Vanessa admitted. She blushed. "It was a little disappointing when we broke up".
"Hey," Joe said, "it was the right thing to do. It can't have been easy and there were probably times you were pretending to go on with a normal life. But neither of you could make each other happy no matter how hard you tried."
Vanessa and Callie both nodded.
"Right. And you can never be true to another person until you first learn to be true to yourself," Joe concluded.
"Wow. Gosh, that's a really cool thing to say." Vanessa said honestly.
Callie's mouth was open. She asked with astonishment, "Gee, such profound thoughts from you?"
Joe merely smiled.
Since they had to keep to their schedule, Callie offered to clear the table. Vanessa stood up to help Callie and noticed that Joe had a smug look on his face, while Frank was staring at him totally unimpressed.
"Give it here," Frank said.
Joe gave him a cocky grin and handed him a little ball of paper. Frank smoothed it out and found it to be the fortune out of his fortune cookie. Vanessa read the paper from over Frank's shoulder and shook her head.
Before you can be true to another, it said, you must first learn to be true to yourself.
