Joe began to wake up, and winced at the pain he felt at the back of his skull. His head had fallen back down in the cold grass where he was laying. He instinctively touched the back of his head where the pain originated to feel for blood. There was no blood, but he had a nasty lump on the back of his head.
"Try not to move around too much, little brother," Frank said, hovering over Joe. "We both got bopped pretty hard on the head."
Joe slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "Who conked us?" he asked. "And where's Dad?"
"That's the bad part," Frank said. "Not only do we not know who knocked us and Dad out, but Dad is also missing!"
Hearing that his dad was missing sprung Joe into action as he practically sprang up from his sitting position on the ground and stood up.
"Dad was followed!" Joe exclaimed.
Frank nodded grimly. "It sure looks that way," he shook his head. "And we need to figure out who's behind this!"
"Now I remember," Joe said as his mental faculties were coming back. "Dad said there was something about finding out some very interesting things about this case before we got knocked out! But why knock all three of us out, and then only take Dad? Why not take all three of us prisoner?"
"This note might shed some light," Frank said, handing Joe a folded piece of paper. "This was on the ground next to me."
Joe unfolded the paper and read the contents. It read "If you ever wish to see your dad alive again, drop this case and go home to Bayport now! We'll call you when you're at your home. And take your fat friend with you! We'll also know if you tell the cops, so don't try anything stupid."
Joe folded up the note, disgusted. "So now what?" he spat angrily. "We can't leave New York!"
"I don't think we have a choice at this point," Frank said quietly. "We can't risk Dad being killed at the expense of our pride. Besides, when they call us at home, they may unknowingly give up a clue to us."
"That sounds far-fetched," Joe said.
"Do you have a better idea?" Frank argued.
Joe shrugged his shoulders. "No," he sighed. "What's with the sirens?"
Frank looked around, and saw the flashing lights of a police car approaching the parking lot where their van was parked.
"Chet must've called the cops," Joe said. And then he instinctively reached up to his ear. "Where's my earpiece?"
Frank reached up to his ear. "Mine's gone, too!" he exclaimed. "They must've taken them when we were conked out!"
"How would they know about our earpieces?" Joe asked. "That is, unless—"
"Our van is bugged!" Frank exclaimed. "That's how they knew about Dad meeting us here! And about our earpieces!"
Joe checked his jeans pocket. "My tracker is still here," he said. "Maybe they didn't know about the trackers."
"Put that note in your pocket," Frank ordered. "We have to keep the cops out of this. Just follow my lead when they start asking us questions."
Joe nodded and put the note in his pocket. About a minute later, 2 officers showed up, with Chet in the lead.
"Here they are, officers!" Chet exclaimed as he was running short of breath. "Hey, where's your dad?"
"He never showed," Frank said grimly, looking at Joe, who caught Frank's cue.
"I heard your dad on the earpieces," Chet pointed out.
"You thought you heard Dad, but it wasn't him," Joe said evenly, staring at Chet in the hopes that Chet would catch on to what Frank and Joe were doing.
"It was an imposter?" Chet asked them.
"He did a great impression of Dad," Frank said, "and then knocked us out."
The two officers, who identified themselves as Officers D'Angelo and McCracken. They took statements from Frank and Joe, who told them that they were lured into a trap by someone posing as their father and then knocked out. Officer D'Angelo contacted Captain O'Rourke, who confirmed that their father was working on a case with him.
"Story seems to check out," D'Angelo told his partner. "I don't know if we can do much here. No weapon, and no leads. Do you guys want paramedics to check you out?"
"I'm okay," said Frank. "But thank you for the offer."
"I'm okay as well," nodded Joe.
"Hopefully your dad shows up soon," Officer D'Angelo said. "Best of luck to you boys."
After D'Angelo and McCracken left, Chet looked at Frank and Joe. "What was that all about?" he asked. "That was your dad! I heard him loud and clear!"
Joe pulled the note out of his pocket and showed it to Chet. Chet read the note and turned red. "Wait till I get my hands on the writer of this note who called me fat!"
Joe chuckled. "You better give me the note before you rip it up in anger," he said as Chet handed it back to Joe, who promptly folded it up and put it in his pocket.
Frank looked at Chet. "The van is bugged. So here's the thing. We have to get back to Bayport and let them call us, whoever they are. In the meantime, while we're driving back to Bayport, the two who aren't driving need to check for bugs. And if you're going to talk in the van, keep the conversations casual. We don't want to let them know that we're looking for a bug or bugs."
Chet nodded. "Got it," he said.
Frank and Joe flipped a coin to see who would drive. Frank won the coin toss, so Frank was the driver. Joe and Chet would search for the bug on the way to Bayport.
They got back into the van and Frank turned on the ignition. They were soon out of New York City and on the freeway heading towards Bayport. Joe and Chet, in the meantime, were searching for the bug. Chet started in the back of the van while Joe started the search in the front of the van. Chet followed Frank's instructions, and was talking about football, girls and pizza with Frank and Joe. Then Chet and Joe decided to have fun with whoever was listening on the bug and started up an animated discussion about pizza.
"Joe, you're out of your mind!" Chet exclaimed. "Mr. Pizza is the best pizza place in Bayport!"
Joe, who was searching along ceiling of the van behind the front seats, said with a smirk, "Well, of course you would like Mr. Pizza, Chet. They're the only pizza place in town with a lunch buffet!"
"Very funny, wise guy!" Chet retorted with a grin back at Joe. "But Bayport Pizza is—"
Chet felt something in the fabric ceiling in the back end of the van. He signaled to Joe that he found something. But Joe knew he had to keep the conversation going.
"Bayport Pizza is what, Chet?" Joe said quickly. "Too cheap to have a buffet for you?"
While Joe had made that remark, Chet took out a pocket knife and began to cut away at the fabric.
"Why do you have to make fun of my weight all the time?" Chet asked as his knife dug deeper into the fabric.
Suddenly, the van phone rang. Chet and Joe stopped and stared at the phone. Frank gave them an "I'm driving" look.
"I got it," Joe said. Picking up the receiver, he said, "Hello?"
"Do you kids think we're stupid?" a disguised voice on the other end of the phone said. "Congratulations on finding the bug. But if you remove that it, Fenton Hardy is dead. And tell your fat friend that if he calls the cops again, Fenton Hardy dies."
Before Joe could say anything, there was the sound of a hang up and a dial tone.
"Who was that?" Chet asked.
"Leave the bug alone," Joe said. "They figured out that we had found it."
"Who's 'they'?" Chet asked out of curiosity.
"Now, how would I know?" Joe snapped. "Whoever it is, they said they would kill Dad if the bug got removed. So just leave the bug alone and let's just get back to the house. And Chet, the caller knows you called the police. We need to keep the cops out of this for dad's sake."
Joe sat in the passenger seat while Chet sat in the back. There was an awkward silence between all three of them as Frank continued on to Bayport. Chet was upset with Joe for snapping at him. Joe felt trapped because he couldn't do anything to change the situation, and Frank was concerned for his father. Dad was right, Frank said to himself, something is very off with this case. The gnawing question at Frank's brain was, what was it specifically that was very off with this case? But he wasn't about to discuss anything with Joe and Chet, considering that the van was bugged by the very same people who had their father hostage. They would have to have that discussion later, Frank thought to himself.
After a couple of hours of awkward silence, Frank pulled the van into the driveway of the Hardy home. Frank noticed that their mom's station wagon was gone.
"I hope they didn't take Mom and Aunt Gertrude, too," Frank said grimly.
Suddenly, the van phone rang, and Joe picked up the phone. Frank and Chet huddled close to Joe to listen to the call.
"Don't worry about your mom and aunt," the same disguised voice said. "They went to their Bridge game at the Auxilliary. We didn't kidnap them. Now quit horsing around and get in the house and wait for our phone call!"
The line went dead, and all three looked at each other. All three thought the same thing – was the house bugged, too?
As they climbed out of the van, Frank whispered to them, "How would they know about their bingo night unless they bugged the house? I don't like this one bit."
Joe nodded. "There's a lot more to this case than what was presented to us. Dad must've found that out and they abducted him keep the truth from coming out. But we don't know who it could be!"
"Come on, let's just get into the house so they can call us," Frank said. "No sense in arousing their suspicions."
As soon as Frank unlocked the front door, the phone in the living room rang. Frank picked it up.
"Hardy residence, this is Frank speaking," Frank said, in case the call wasn't from his dad's kidnappers.
"Here's what you're gonna do," the disguised voice said. "Go into your dad's den, and get his file on LPR. I'll call back in five minutes. Remember, any funny stuff and your dad's a dead man."
The phone hung up, and Frank quickly told Joe and Chet what the caller demanded. They ran upstairs, but the den was locked! Fortunately, though, Frank had the spare key for it. He unlocked the door, and all three boys went through Fenton Hardy's file cabinet.
"Got it!" Joe exclaimed as he pulled the folder. Joe quickly perused the inside of the folder, and confirmed that it was the LPR file.
As if on cue, the telephone in the den rang, and Joe picked it up.
"OK, Hardy, listen up," the disguised voice said before Joe could say anything. "Open the file. I need to know a few things."
"Um, OK," Joe replied as he sat the folder down his father's desk. Joe then opened up the folder. "What are you needing to know?"
"Is there a picture of any LPR members in the file? If so, hold on to those pictures," the voice said.
"No, there are no pictures," Joe said, deliberately omitting that he and his brother had pictures from Agent Culligan in their possession, "our father said only the FBI and CIA had pictures of the LPR members. Dad said he didn't even the clearance for those pictures."
"Very well," the voice said. "Now I need you to see if your father has a file on Ted Huntley. You have five minutes and I'll call right back."
Joe hung up the phone, frustrated. "Now he wants to know if there's a file on Ted Huntley," he said.
"I thought Huntley wasn't a part of LPR," Chet pointed out. "Didn't the CIA tell us that?"
Frank and Joe both gave Chet a sharp, angry look. Chet got embarrassed, remembering that the house was bugged. Chet shrugged as if to say "I'm sorry."
"No, I think you misunderstood what Harry Young told us," Frank said while attempting to cover up Chet's comment. Frank shook his head. "Anyways, let's find that file as well."
After a few minutes, they could not locate a file for Ted Huntley. Frank and Joe both remembered that their father never showed them one, so maybe there wasn't a file in their dad's den.
"I can't find this file anywhere," Frank said, hoping that his comment was heard on the bug in the house.
The phone rang, and Frank answered. "Sorry, we've looked everywhere, but there's no file on Ted Huntley."
"I guess your dad wasn't lying about the lack of a file," the disguised voice said. "That's good news. Excellent news, in fact. Well, your father will be a free man shortly. Meet us at The Rock in Shoreham. We'll turn your father over to you. But you stay away, and I mean, far away from this case! Are we clear on that? If you go back on your word, then I know where you and your family live! I would hate to see something unfortunate happen to your Aunt Gertrude."
Frank turned beet red in anger at the thought of his aunt being harmed, but kept his composure. "What time in Shoreham?" he asked.
"I'll give you slack time for the traffic," the disguised voice said. "just so you realize that I'm not a completely terrible person. You have 45 minutes to get there!"
The phone line clicked dead.
"Come on! We don't have much time! We have to get to The Rock in Shoreham in 45 minutes! " Frank yelled out as he ran down the stairs. Joe and Chet quickly followed suit.
A minute later, they roared out of the driveway and made their way to Shore Road, heading north toward Shoreham. To keep from being harassed by their caller, they stayed silent for the whole trip.
They arrived at The Rock in Shoreham. The Rock was a large jetty sticking into the bay at Shoreham and was a popular fishing spot during the day. The three of them piled out of the van, and waited. They walked about 20 feet away from the van, which they estimated put them out of the range of the bug in the van.
"They're going to drop off Dad here," Frank explained.
"That makes no sense!" Joe exclaimed. "They're freeing Dad in exchange for nothing? Come on, Frank, you don't actually believe that, do you?
"Do we have a choice?" Frank shot back in anger. "They have our van bugged, our house bugged, they've threatened to kill Dad and they've threatened to harm Aunt Gertrude. So if you have a better idea, Joe, you'd better spit it out right now!"
Joe punched his left palm with his right fist. "I don't have a better idea!" he fumed. "But what do we do?"
"We stick to this case, rescue Dad and save Times Square," Frank said evenly. "That's what we're going to do. Whether or not they actually drop off Dad, the fact that they're coming here should give us some clues about them. License plate numbers, physical descriptions of the suspect or suspects, vehicle descriptions. You know the routine, little brother. We have to stay focused."
Joe nodded his head. "I know," he conceded.
"Not to interrupt your family moment," Chet said, pointing down the road from The Rock, "but a vehicle is coming this way!"
Frank and Joe immediately looked where Chet was pointing. The vehicle appeared to be a van or a truck. It was already past sunset, and all they could make out were headlights, and the headlights did appear to be from a truck or a van instead of a car, and it was driving towards them at a rapid speed.
"That vehicle's heading straight for us!" Chet cried out, running towards the Hardys' van.
The vehicle now appeared to be a van as it drove past the few streetlights at The Rock. It continued to drive faster towards the Hardys. Frank and Joe stood defiantly, not moving as the van came closer to them. When the van got within about 30 feet of the Hardys, it skidded and made a sharp left turn away from the Hardys. The side cargo doors of the van opened, and a human body was thrown out of the van!
"It's Dad!" Joe cried out. "They just threw him out like a rag doll!"
Frank and Joe immediately ran to the body. The body was wearing their father's clothes, but it wasn't a body. It was a dummy. Frank's eyes widened.
"The dummy has a bomb attached to it!" Frank exclaimed. "Run!"
Frank and Joe ran for their own van, and seconds later, they were thrown to the ground by a powerful explosion!