Chapter 12

The next morning, Fenton found Joe to be a lot more reactive. He was sitting up better, was animated and wisecracking and he gave his dad a lazy grin as he entered the room. "Well, you look a lot better!" Fenton said.

Vanessa and Con had insisted Fenton go home the previous night after Frank had unexpectedly returned Joe's wristwatch and have a proper rest. He'd spent every hour in Joe's room since the previous morning and the injury to his arm was causing him some discomfort.

"I feel a lot better!" Joe agreed. "The Doc said that they'll remove the oxygen later if things are still improving."

"That's what they told me as well," Fenton said, smiling. He gave Joe's leg a squeeze and then turned to Vanessa. "Where's Con?" he asked.

"He's had to return to the precinct, he got called away."

"Was he here?" Joe asked surprised.

"Yeah, he was here a lot of the night with me." Vanessa said.

Fenton tipped his thumb over his shoulder. "I wondered why Officer Anderson was on door duty again."

Vanessa slid off the bed. "Right, now that you're back, I'm going to get myself a hot chocolate or something. Would you like me to get you anything, Mr H?"

"No thanks."

"Can I have bacon and eggs?" Joe asked.

"Funny guy…" Vanessa muttered, letting fly an air kiss before leaving the room.

"Oh well, it was worth the try." Joe said, pretending to catch it.

Fenton walked around to the other side of the bed and perched himself in the same spot Vanessa had just vacated on top of the covers. "This is as good a time as any to ask you something that I didn't get a chance to yesterday. Are you feeling up to talking for a while now?"

"Yeah."

They both heard voices outside in the corridor, but neither took any notice, as there was always a constant flow of human traffic.

"Are you sure? The last time, Doc Lyndsey said you were pulling the wool over our eyes."

"Actually, I wasn't, I was feeling pretty breezy until the bed started moving from under me. But ask away, I'll be sure to let you know if I suddenly start feeling ropey again."

"Yesterday, you said that you got a look at one of the men who left the car and that you understood that he was going to do some sort of task. Con has a theory about who that person might be and we were hoping you could give us a description of some kind."

The door suddenly opened wide to Joe's room behind him, resulting in Fenton rolling his eyes up to the ceiling and dropping his chin. He felt justified in displaying his frustration considering he'd been trying to broach that particular question with his son for nearly 24 hours and yet again, fate was seeing fit to intercede. However, more weirdly was his son's reaction, which was to shrink away into his pillows, his eyes widening. Fenton looked over his shoulder to find Con standing just outside in the corridor with Officer Anderson next to him and another unknown Policeman framed in the doorway.

"Actually," said Joe, "I can give you a really good description of him. He looked exactly like THAT guy!" and pointed past his father at the man now looking uncomfortable in the spotlight.

Fenton turned back and gaped dumbfounded at Joe, and then across again at Con and then finally to the silent man standing in front of him. Something hot and unpleasant began to boil up inside and it was only a matter of seconds before the devil was blistering forth.

"Erm…Dad?" Joe asked.

Fenton wasn't even sure what occurred next, but inexplicably, he was no longer perched on the bed next to his son, he was on the floor in the corridor, astride the uniformed stranger who had just been pointed out as the person who had had a hand in almost ending one son's life and chasing the other to ground. His large hands were about his throat and Con and Anderson were either side of him, trying to pull him away and making a difficult job of it. In the end it was Vanessa – who had come running when she heard the brouhaha – who managed to do what they couldn't by stooping down in front of her boyfriend's father and shouting into his face to stop.

He snapped out of it and Con was finally able to drag him clear. "Calm down, Fenton," his friend ordered, "we got him, leave him to me." Con called through the still open doorway into Joe's room, "are you giving me a positive I.D., Joe?"

"Yes Con, that's the guy."

Vanessa had at first been mystified as to why Fenton was acting like a lunatic, but then the reason dawned. "Is this one of the thugs who did this to my Joe?" she asked, immediately after the man had been read his Miranda Rights.

Con nodded, handcuffing his prisoner.

"If I'd have known, I wouldn't have stood in Mr H's way," she said and considered the man with revulsion.

"If I wasn't a cop, neither would I have," Con agreed. "Get this filth out of here," he said, yanking him to his feet and pushing the man into Anderson.

"Wait!" Fenton said, stepping up into the stranger's face. "Whom do you work for?" he asked.

He regarded Fenton impassively, holding his gaze but saying nothing.

Trying again, Fenton asked. "What do you want my son, Frank, for?"

Still nothing, just a shift of the eyes to look off into the distance.

"I don't think you're going to get anything out of him." Con said and nodded to Anderson to take their prisoner away. "I'll work on him at the station later."

"Who is he?" Fenton asked, checking his upper arm to ensure he hadn't started bleeding through his bandage and clothes.

"He's Officer Bob Stanwick, although I doubt that'll turn out to be his real name. He's only been working at the precinct for a little over a year. A bit of a loner, not an effective team player." Con answered.

"How did you find out who it was?"

"I didn't find out, not for sure. I used one of those tools that you and Joe are so good as utilising – I took a wild hunch. He was the one officer out of all of them that was keeping his head down just a little too much. Never taking risks, nor volunteering for anything. Never stepping out of line – and all cops do that, the good ones, anyway." He accompanied his friend back into Joe's room, where Vanessa had already headed. "I couldn't accuse him of anything or else I would have tipped him off, so I put him on the bodyguard roster and waited until Joe was awake, and…well, you witnessed what happened."

"Did you hear any of that, son?" Fenton asked as they re-entered the room.

"Are you kidding me? The door was wide open, I saw most of what happened and heard everything. It was better than TV." A wicked glint emanated from the corner of Joe's eye. "Dude, you move pretty quick for a old guy!"

"I see that smart mouth of yours is back!" Fenton snapped, feigning annoyance, but secretly enjoying having the cheeky side of his son back. "If you weren't in that bed, I'd be showing you how fast I can move!"

Con laughed. "I think someone is definitely feeling much improved this morning."

Fenton snorted. "I'm not sure that's such a good thing now. I think I preferred it when he was in the land of nod. At least I can tell Laura that he's really on the mend."

"So you finally managed to get hold of Laura?" Con asked.

"Yes she phoned last night and is trying to arrange a flight home. Her and Gertrude re-boarded the cruise liner and finally got my messages. And as predicted, she's not happy with me because I was supposed to be keeping my eyes on the boys. Not that I'm sure how I was meant to do that, I couldn't keep track of them when they were kids."

"Mr H, that can't be right…" said Vanessa.

"Oh, it is honey, Joe and Frank were laws unto themselves," he said, crossing his eyes at Con.

"…No, I don't mean that, I mean about Laura not knowing until now. She must have known before because she told Nancy about it."

"You must be mistaken."

"No I'm not, Nancy told me herself. She said that Laura had phoned to tell her about Joe, and so she had decided to visit."

"But I thought you'd told her!" Fenton said.

"Why would you think that?" Vanessa asked.

"Because when Joe asked who'd told her, she said 'a little birdie' and winked at you." Fenton said.

Joe nodded in agreement. "She did do that."

"No, I took that to mean 'Silly Fenton, how else does he think I found out?' Why would I tell Nancy Drew? I only know her through Frank and Joe, it wouldn't even occur to me to contact her and I don't have her number. Callie Shaw knew her better than me."

"But why on earth would she…" Fenton started, and then a light came on in his head, "Duh!" he said, using a term he hated his own sons using. "She must be working with Frank, why else would she lead us down the garden path? She's a crafty one!"

Joe pointed at his father. "That makes perfect sense. If Frank can't come to us, he'd go to the only other person who is able to play mental ball games with him and someone who is off the radar – Nancy Drew. We've not worked with Nan for well over a year."

"And that'll be why Frank hasn't been accessing his bank account or been needing a car." Vanessa finished.

Fenton turned to his friend. "Con, can you see if you can find out if Nancy has rented a car and if you can track down where's she's staying."

"I'm on it. Also, I'll have one of our techies take a look at Stanwick's PC at work, see if I can uncover some clues as to why these people are so keen on Frank."