CHAPTER 2
The following morning found all six of them seated around a glass table on the restaurant veranda overlooking the beach. Joe and Biff both seemed to be having an easier time tucking into the platters of fruit and sweet breads than the previous night's fare.
"Wouldn't it be great to have that at home, Joe?" Frank pointed vaguely at the deserted shore with a cantaloupe laden fork.
Joe gazed at scene, quickly mesmerized by the dawn kissed brine, no footprints yet marring the day's pristine sand. The invoked mood certainly wasn't sibling banter, but the expectant look on Frank's face suggested the conversation was about to go that route. Besides, Joe knew which of them was supposed to be introspective, and it wasn't him. Ah well, may as well revert to type…
"Sure, Frank, love to have a tropical beach in my room. Probably result in more girls in bikinis…"
"You can get posters for that you know," Biff chimed in around a mouthful of cinnamon roll. "Put 'em on the ceiling and everything."
"Yep, 'Ness'll love it." Chet waggled a speculative eyebrow.
"Good point, fellas, but that wasn't what I meant." Frank continued to stare at his brother expectantly.
"If I bite now, will it get this conversation over with?"
"Sure, Joe."
"Fine. So what did you mean?" Joe concentrated on looking annoyed. He'd always secretly enjoyed Frank's teasing.
"A high tide every night to sweep away the detritus of your room. Clean slate every morning, no getting grounded for failure to straighten up that pigsty you live in…"
"My room is not a pigsty." Looking annoyed was becoming slightly easier.
"Come on, Joe, tornadoes leave behind less mess than you! We've been here less that twenty-four hours and…"
"Frank!" Joe huffed as he realized his mother was now taking an interest in the conversation. He really didn't want to spend the morning cleaning up his hotel room. It wasn't like it was that bad. Well, not yet anyway. He pointedly angled his chair away from his brother and changed the subject.
"So, Dad, you two coming on our tour of the town or do you need to start working?" Joe watched his father's face, hoping he'd have time to enjoy at least a little of the trip.
"Working?" Chet's ears perked up instantly, well aware of what working trips with the Hardys could entail. His friends' father wasn't one of the foremost private investigators in the world for nothing, and Frank and Joe often helped the famous sleuth on his cases. Unfortunately for Chet, his quick intake of air set of another round of coughing.
Frank tapped his stalwart friend between the shoulder blades. "Relax, Chet. Dad's the only one working this time around."
Fenton smiled as well. Chet Morton might sound like he wanted nothing to do with a case, but his sons had done a terrific job choosing their friends. Chet and Biff, as well as their cohorts back in Bayport, had backed the boys up on any number of occasions. Still, the senior Hardy was glad this wasn't likely to be one of them.
"Can we ask what you're working on, Mr. Hardy?" Biff selected another pastry, unsure if this was public information, but figuring Joe would have already warned him off the topic if it wasn't.
"You can ask, Biff, but I'm not certain myself yet. A friend of mine married a young lady from here on the island about fifteen years ago and has been living here ever since. He works in their equivalent of the department of public works and wanted me to look at some expense reports with him. He wanted an outside perspective."
"Not that I'm not going to enjoy two weeks of sun and surf, Dad, but there's no one here that he thought could do that?" Frank was curious, but knew with a foreign government involved, teenagers were most likely not going to be welcomed. "Aren't there a million people living here?"
Fenton gave his son a nod, knowing both boys had probably researched the island before leaving home. "Almost that many, Frank. And I'm sure one of them would have been more than capable of reviewing the files. Connor has a tendency to be extremely cautious, maybe even tending towards paranoid, about making a fool of himself. Before he goes through any official channels with his concerns, he wants to be absolutely certain there's something worth being concerned about. Thoroughness is good, but he takes it to an extreme and sometimes can't get anything done. That trait always slowed him down investigating cases when we were both police rookies, actually."
"He was a cop with you?" That was one piece of information that was new for Joe.
"Yes, son, a long time ago. Now, I don't think I answered your original question. Your mother and I can make plenty of time this morning for that tour. How about giving one of the horse carriages a go?"
Joe nodded, not sure if the change of topic was intentional or not. Either way, he was eager to get a look at the capitol city. "Sure, Dad, we'll be able to see more that way. I heard there aren't that many cars in the main city and they aren't even allowed in the walled section; the old streets are too narrow. Biff and I can go hire a carriage and meet you out front. Frank, are you and Chet ready?"
Frank popped the last of a slice of mango in his mouth and stood up to follow his brother. "Yeah, I think so."
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The carriage ride proved to be a great way to see the city, the group laughing their way through a four hour route that wound through a millennia old walled fortress as well as open air markets and a somewhat more modern fringe of buildings around the perimeter. Nothing exceeded three stories and the dense tropical vegetation hid the smaller buildings as they climbed the foothills toward the center of the island.
The driver kept up an endless stream of chatter as they rode, enchanting the group with tales of the ancient town and marking points of interest. While the landscape was beautiful, the island had been politically isolated until about twenty years ago. Since then, a more moderate government had been trying to modernize the country and open it to tourism, without losing the traditional pace of life. Still, there was no infrastructure outside the capitol to speak of, with most of the island being without power and phone service. Even their hotel was without television or internet.
The teenagers returned to the beach as soon as they arrived back at the hotel, which they now realized was one of only two open to international visitors. Laura decided to check out the pool and Fenton reluctantly returned to their room to finish making notes for the meeting the next day. At least everyone else was having fun.
A glorious afternoon of surfing completed, Joe made a point of herding the group back to the pool deck in time to catch the small restaurant open this time, the quartet joining Laura for broiled tuna steaks and some sort of spiced baked fruit. Whatever it was, it wasn't squid roll, and as far as Joe was concerned that was rather the point.
"Enjoying yourselves?" Laura surveyed the group, each sporting damp hair and a slightly sunburned nose.
"Yeah, Mom, we all are. Thanks. I think we'll go back down to the market tomorrow and maybe see about doing a little backpacking. Didn't the carriage driver say ninety five percent of the country's population lived within twenty miles of the capitol? Has to be a lot of unexplored terrain out there."
Frank looked speculatively at his brother. "I don't know if I'd call it unexplored. Almost the whole island's been charted Joe, it's just unpopulated. A lot of it is volcanic and won't support much; too rugged."
"Well, that still makes it unexplored by me! Come on, Frank, don't be a stick in the mud." His face lit with mischief.
Laura chuckled, recognizing the start of a debate between her boys. Standing, she tousled Frank's hair and gave Joe a peck on the cheek, earning him a soft snicker from Biff when his ears turned pink. "Just make sure you run any hiking plans by the hotel manager and your father, okay?"
"Of course." Four earnest smiles met hers before the conversation resumed.
"I'm not being a stick in the mud, Joe, but we need to do a little checking about where it's safe to go. I got the feeling from that driver that some of the rural population isn't too thrilled about this modernization plan. That probably includes not being too thrilled about us, by the way."
"Speak for yourself, bro. Everybody's thrilled about me. I'm adorable." Joe stuck his tongue out at his brother. "Anyway, I don't want to modernize a thing while I'm out there. Photograph it maybe, but not modernize."
"I was thinking more along the lines of foreign visitors may not be welcome outside the city."
The waiter leaned over Chet's shoulder to refill their water glasses, catching the last of the conversation.
Joe waited for the waiter to depart, noting the stranger's frown. Maybe Frank had a point. "So we'll be careful. I'm sure the concierge could recommend some safe zones that would still be a hiking challenge. Unless you just can't keep up with me any more…." He raised an eyebrow at his year older sibling.
"Excuse me? Who exactly taught you to hike in the first place? You find the trail information; I'll clear it with Dad."
Joe tapped Biff's leg with his toe under the table. Hooper now owed him five bucks. Somehow baiting Frank always worked for Joe.
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The following morning, however, had its own contribution to the hiking plans as dense storm clouds filled the sky. Fenton shrugged as he surveyed the dim interior of his room, glad Connor was coming to meet him instead of the other way around. The boys could plan routes today and trail-blaze tomorrow. The foursome had ventured as far as the market, Joe quipping that it made no sense to worry about getting wet after spending the last day and a half in the ocean.
"I'm going to go sit in the hotel solar and read while you two talk, hon." Laura kissed her husband, blushing a little when he pulled her closer rather than letting her leave. Maybe the tropical air was going to his head. Maybe that wasn't a bad thing…. Unfortunately, a knock at the door interrupted that train of thought.
Fenton laughed, smoothing a lock of her hair and handing her the discarded novel. "Hmm, lousy timing. Does this trip to the solar have to do with privacy for my meeting or my wife's love of watching lightning storms?"
Laura opened the door without answering him, greeting Connor politely and then mouthing the word 'storms' at Fenton with a wink while the other man's back was turned. She slipped out and left them to it.
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Thirty minutes later, Fenton was beyond angry with his old friend.
"You had to see this, Connor!" Fenton dropped the new files onto the strewn mess of the table. "I've known you to be overly cautious, slow to react, but never stupid. Surely you didn't need me to put this together for you!"
The other man studied his shoes for a long minute allowing the detective to vent. "No, I didn't."
"Then why did - " He found himself being interrupted.
"Fenton, I didn't need your help to put this together. But I do need some help in deciding what to do about it. I know this isn't the sort of work you prefer and I wasn't sure you would come."
"So you leave out the fact that this is about to get dangerous as all get out until I'm here?! I would have come, old friend, but you intentionally misled me into bringing my sons. Bringing my wife! I would have never brought them here if I had an inkling that this wasn't about building contract irregularities."
"I thought you were the one that always had an inkling about everything, Fenton. You always had to know more than everyone else! And your cover of being on vacation works a lot better with the family entourage in tow. Or is all that press about your sons being part of the Hardy mystery solving brain trust just a load of crap?!"
Fenton took long seconds to unclench the fist he had started to draw back. "That was uncalled for, Connor."
"You're right, it was. I'm sorry for dragging your family into this." The tense posture of the bureaucrat's shoulder's released a notch as he realized his frustrated outburst wasn't about to get him decked. "I'll send them home first thing in the morning; that's the next flight out. You want a ticket, or are you going to help me?"
"Lord knows why, but I'll try to help you, Connor. Too many bystanders are going to end up hurt if I don't. I don't think you understand how close you're cutting this, though. That slow nature of yours? Well, this time all that pondering may just get us both killed."
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to be continued...