Chapter 13 revised
Thanks to my reviewers! Here's the next chapter which should answer some questions.
Red: I actually identify with Frank – after all, he's the logical one who would expect everything to be black and white. His reaction was also a swipe at the Callie/Frank relationship which I've never been crazy about. But yes, the reunion should be interesting. We'll have to see! It's been fun giving Laura some Frank-like characteristics and Fenton some Joe-like ones, although I've tried to do the reverse as well.
LauraHardy: Nope, it doesn't mean anything.
Disclaimer: If I did own Fenton and Laura, I would lease them out to fabulous authors who would write great books. Sadly, I don't own them.
Fenton knew that the robbery would occur soon, but he could do nothing. Although he knew who the robbers-to-be were, he had no idea where or how they planned to strike. For the first time in his private investigative career, he had started to wonder if he was getting in over his head and it was now time to call in the FBI.
After his conversation with Laura a week ago, she had become more difficult to follow and he had sometimes lost sight of her on the streets of Bayport. Judging from her actions, she still did not believe his warning. If he called the FBI, the only place he could be sure of seeing her again was either Ossining or Attica. And that was why he was pacing in his hotel room instead of doing something productive.
There was a reason why you did not mix the personal and professional in life. As an investigator, his personal feelings were irrelevant, and he had long since learned not to wonder about the past lives of those he put behind bars. And heaven help you if you fell in love with… no, I'm not in love, I'm just …attracted...and its time for some fresh air.
On that warm night, Fenton headed for the Bayport docks. He passed many houses and envied the mothers, fathers and children who were safely sleeping without any problems that turned them into insomniacs. He imagined that once his life became a little more stable, he would start a family. But he would need to find a woman who was willing to live with the risks of a family of detectives. He would do everything to protect those he loved, but there was no way he could ever stop his work completely; it was in his blood.
He sipped a coffee purchased at a nearby diner and absently watched the tankers and barges load and unload their cargo in the distance. He tried very hard to keep his mind of a blonde-haired woman with blue eyes, and didn't even turn around when he heard her voice in his head asking him what the heck he thought he was doing.
"What the heck do you think you're doing?" the voice insisted asked angrily, except this time it seemed to be coming from behind him. Fenton turned around and promptly dropped his coffee on the pier. His brain registered her cold eyes staring daggers at him before it registered the gun that was in her hand and pointed at his chest.
"My job," he said as calmly as he could manage and hoped she didn't notice his unsteady hands. "The real question is why you are pointing the gun at me."
"Because you're finished Fenton," she said quietly. "Too nosy for your own good." She gestured with her firearm. "And now you are going to pay for it. Move."
"I called the FBI," he bluffed. "They'll be expecting me to be in their offices at six in the - ."
"Nice try," she snapped. "But you're a very bad liar. Now, stop stalling and get going." Deciding that a determined woman with a gun was more trouble than she was worth, Fenton followed her instructions. She directed him to a nondescript warehouse that had a particularly strong deadbolt on the door that burst open as they reached it.
"Hey Fenton, Laura did it! I knew she would," said Thomas looking at both of them as they entered the warehouse and smiling broadly at Laura. "Hey Dad!" he yelled turning around. "I finally caught Fenton Hardy!"
"You?" Fenton asked sarcastically. "Seems to me that your girlfriend here did all the work." Thomas was saved from responding by a booming voice that echoed across the space.
"You idiot!" Fenton had never before seen Eric Camarazzi, but the physical resemblance between him and Thomas was unmistakable. "What are you thinking?" he yelled at his son. "Why don't you just stand outside the Bayport police station with a bullhorn and announce what we're doing here!"
"But Dad," Thomas said patiently. "I caught Fenton Hardy before he caught us." At that point, Fenton only thought that Thomas looked like a fifth grader who had won the spelling bee.
"Fenton ain't a psychic," said Eric through clenched teeth. "He's been trying to follow us for the past week and has absolutely no idea what we've been doing. Now you've created a mess at exactly the wrong time."
"No, see Dad. I really saved us. This is why he won't come busting in later this morning with 50 cops while we're robbing the bank."
"Actually son, this is why Laura's been promoted and not you. Now, figure something out."
"We can lock him in the storage room," said Laura who had been watching this exchange from behind Fenton. "Then we'll shoot him outside later when the tides go out to the ocean. His body will never be found."
"Fenton," said Eric gruffly motioning all three of them deeper into the warehouse. He opened a cabinet and poured one glass of whisky for himself and one for Fenton. "Do you know why I've deliberately avoided you? Why all Camarazzi operations in New York City have been stopped? Why I've kept tabs on you since you broke up that drug ring in your high school and watched you from afar?"
"It's because we're so much alike," he continued, ignoring the baleful look Fenton threw him. "Pure raw talent. An ability to see the connections and put that talent to use. Tenacity. Courage to the point of stupidity. And loyalty to a cause, to a mission, and to those around us even when they disappoint us," he finished glancing at Thomas. "So, I'm compelled to make you an offer." He faced Fenton alone.
"I can make you the greatest private investigator in the United States. The New Jersey mob, the Boston Irish mafia, the Amaldo syndicate and most, but not all, of the drug cartels in the United States. You go about your business. I'll contact you when I've got a tip for you and you can pick them all off one by one. I swear nobody will ever know. Within ten years your career will be made and you can retire."
"And in return?" asked Fenton warily as he took a sip of whisky. He hated the stuff, but knew better than to turn down free booze.
"In return, you'll leave me alone. I'll run my affairs. We'll call it a mutual non-aggression pact. You don't burn me, I don't burn you. Now please, don't tell me you aren't tempted."
"For about a second," said Fenton abandoning the whisky. "But if I took your offer, I'd wake up one day and look in the mirror and find out that I've become you. I'm nothing like you."
"Then you're going to die," said Eric simply as he put the whisky bottle back in the cabinet.
"I'll die having lived," he snapped back. "That drug ring in high school, blackmails in college, who knows how many cases as a detective. I'll have done more with my life than you ever will. And one day you'll all be caught, brought down by greed like every other lowlife out there," he added bitterly.
"Hey!" Thomas interjected. "Don't talk about my fiancée that way." Fiancée?? Fenton's stomach dropped. He glanced at Laura who looked down at her hands. There, on her finger was a diamond ring. How could he have missed that earlier? He could only think of one thing to say.
"Congratulations," he said meeting both of their eyes. "You two deserve each other."
Locked into the underground storage room beneath the warehouse, Fenton fumed. He had had such hopes for this woman who reminded him of himself. That desire to tackle a challenge, her creativity and spunk. He had loved her. But she had betrayed every single positive thought he had ever held about her, and she certainly would not lift a finger to help him. Those were her choices, and he could do nothing to change them. Instead, he could be proud of all the choices he had made and all the people he had helped. He had meant what he said earlier; he would die grateful that he had lived.
The sun rose behind Fenton as he faced Thomas at the edge of the pier with his back toward the Atlantic. Laura approached both of them with a cold smile on her face and no warmth in her eyes. She kissed Thomas on the cheek and draped her arm around his shoulders as Thomas smirked, raised his gun, and then crumpled to the ground as Laura hit him on the head with the concealed wrench that she had hid in her hand.
"I was so scared!" Laura burst out and all of her words seemed to come out of her mouth at once as she moved toward Fenton. "Thomas came running in and said that you were here. He said that if I wanted to prove you were nothing to me, then I would bring you to him so he could impress Eric. If I didn't do it, he would have killed me and then tracked you down and killed you, too. I'm so sorry for everything I said earlier. Even if you don't believe me, I really, really, really didn't mean it."
"You're not engaged?" said Fenton staring at her.
"NO!" She took the diamond ring off her finger and threw it angrily into the ocean. "Cheap junk. He just stuck it on my finger and assumed that we were engaged. He didn't even bother asking if I wanted to marry him."
"Oh," said Fenton slightly ashamed. "But you have to admit that you put on a very good act-"
"No time," Laura interrupted. "They're pulling out of here in 20 minutes." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a CD-ROM. Taking a deep breath, she determinedly handed it to Fenton.
"That is everything you need to put the entire Camarazzi syndicate away. Eric's entire operation. It's all there. Now, you need to go."
"But you – "Fenton started.
"You showed me there's another way. A way to live a good life."
"So you'll come with me?" he asked eagerly.
"I'll be gone by the time you get back," she said avoiding his eyes. "There are some things I need to do before turning myself in."
"I want to see you again."
"I'll always find you. Just go!"
Fenton turned around and took three steps away from her. He turned back to find Laura right behind him. He bent his head down toward her upturned face and both of them threw their arms around each other and kissed.
That one passionate kiss was everything Laura had imagined it would be and more. "I love you," she murmured when she could finally speak. "But now you only have fifteen minutes left."
"I love you, too," said Fenton with an idiotic smile. "See you later," he added, and then he was gone.
"He won't be seeing you later," Thomas said. "I'm going to kill you. Then, I'll track him down and kill him too." Laura turned to face Thomas who had regained consciousness and was now pointing his gun steadily at her. For the first time in her life, Laura understood the full-force of Thomas's insanity. But she would never live with herself in the future if she didn't try to reason with him.
"I couldn't live like that anymore," she explained. "There's more to life than this. Why don't you come with me and start again, as a friend?"
"You're in love with him, aren't you?"
"Yes. Life seems so much fuller. It's like I've been living in a dark room and Fenton showed me the door and gave me back my own power to open the door and walk out into the sunshine. And there's no way I'm living in the dark again."
"The dark? The Camarazzi legacy is everything," said Thomas harshly. "It is my duty to fulfill it. I want to become the greatest con man on the entire east coast. And I want you with me."
Laura laughed. "You want, you want, you want," she mocked. "That's all you care about. You don't even care about me! It's only what I can do for you."
"That's not true!"
"It is. You just decided we were engaged without asking me. And you were planning on betraying me during the robbery." Laura still didn't quite believe Thomas was really capable of that, but Thomas's stunned expression told her that this was the truth.
"I trusted you," Laura said furiously. "I told Fenton you would never do that to me. But you did!"
"How dare you fall in love with him?" Thomas yelled waving the gun around angrily. "We were supposed to be the heirs to the Camarazzi syndicate. You don't just fall in love with anyone, which would be bad enough. You fall in love with the one person who can destroy all I've ever wanted to be."
"I never would have fallen in love with him at all if you would have let me go," Laura said sadly. "Now, because of all the good times we've shared and because I never should have let it get this far, I'm offering you one last chance. Come with me and start your life over again, or go to jail."
"Goodbye Laura" he said aiming the gun at her. "I'm going to kill you now, kill Fenton later, and then destroy every other syndicate by myself. I'll tell Fenton how much you hated him at the end before I kill him. He'll try not to believe me, but his last moments will be filled with doubt."
Laura gritted her teeth and stared at Thomas. How far away is he? Can I kick the gun out of his hand before he shoots me…
The foghorn blast from a passing ship shattered the silence. Resisting the urge to turn toward it, Laura moved forward as Thomas dropped his guard. Forcefully moving his gun arm out of the way with her left hand, she punched him in the eye with her right fist. Thomas kicked her in the shin and the two of them grappled, both hitting and kicking anything they could reach. Laura finally banged his hand against the railing and the gun tumbled into the water. Thomas countered with a punch to the gut that left Laura bent over and gasping.
He moved toward her with murder in his eyes as Laura tried to stand up straight. Laura leapt aside and stuck out her foot as Thomas reached for her to throw her over the railing. Thomas's momentum sent him over the railing, and Laura heard a thud as his head struck one of the posts. His body vanished with a splash into the ocean below.
Dead before 30, Laura thought looking at the still water. That's how my life would have ended if I had never met Fenton. All of a sudden the guilt that she had always blocked off and pushed to the back of her mind threatened to overwhelm her. She hadn't been involved in some of the worst crimes of the syndicate, but that was no excuse. She had known about them and she had done nothing.
She had not been completely honest with him. Despite her words, she still had not been ready to face the consequences of her actions. She had planned on starting her life as a law-abiding citizen again far away and to pop in and out of Fenton's life, here one day and gone the next. But the punishments of the court system would be nothing compared to the awful, sinking feeling that she felt now as the events of the last few years flashed through her mind. Thanks to Fenton Hardy, she finally had a chance to make things right. She walked off the pier and drove away as a swarm of police cars raced past her.