Frankette said: "…While I agree to Nancy it's not right to do such a thing behind Frank's back but I think Laura didn't really have a choice coz with his current mental condition, Frank would have freaked out. Anyways, good chapter as always."

Thank you. I don't think Nancy ended up with any choice. Laura wasn't going to accept a 'no' from her - and you don't say no to your boyfriend's mom, do you? LOL And you're right, Frank would've probably freaked out. :-)

Watcher said: "Uh oh! I wonder what Mr. Joseph Hardy has thought up...What ever it is, I know it's going to be good. :) Nice chapter I really like where this is going! :)..."

Thank you too! You'll find out what Joe has in store in this chapter. Hope you enjoy. :-)

Boosting - Chapter 3

Joe stepped up to Frank's apartment and knocked. Looking up at the numbers screwed to the wooden door, he stood and waited.

He'd just seen Nancy and his girlfriend back to Vanessa's car where it had been parked on the opposite side of the building to where Frank's apartment was situated so they couldn't be overlooked from his windows.

"Hopefully we'll see you in a few days," Vanessa had said, giving him a kiss.

"—Or in about an hour!" Nancy called out from the passenger seat.

Joe dipped down to talk at her and lifted an eyebrow. "No, I'll definitely be seeing you in a few days. I'm determined." And to demonstrate how single minded he was being, he turned over his houseboat keys to Nancy. "Look after Rufus for me. Bye Nan."

"Bye Joe."

And then he'd made his way down into the basement to check Con was okay to wait a little bit longer before riding the elevator up.

Joe found he had to knock on Frank's door three times before he got any sort of a response and the last time he'd rapped hard and it had stung his knuckles. He was just starting to search his pockets for the spare key when Frank eventually opened up, walking back into the sitting room before Joe had even put a foot over the threshold and waving vaguely over his shoulder. "Hi Joe. Come join."

Joe followed after him and entered to find his brother already slumped down on his sofa, a beer bottle in his hand and a game on the TV blaring out. The sight was unsettling. "Bit early for that, isn't it, dude?"

Frank looked down to see what Joe was referring to and lifted one side of his mouth. "Nah, non-alcoholic – see?" he held up the bottle so Joe could see the label. "Just like the taste. So what digs, Nan said you wanted to see me about something important?"

"Yeah, I do." Joe went back out into hallway and lifted Frank's coat down off its hook and then returned to sling it at him.

Frank automatically caught it and watched nonplussed as Joe strode across the room to turn off his TV. "Erm, what are you doing, bro? I was watching that!" Frank objected, pointing to the television with the bottle.

"Not any more. Come with me, Dude," Joe ordered and headed for the front door again, returning to stick his head around the door seconds later when Frank made little effort to get up. "C'mon!"

Finally setting the bottle aside, Frank clambered up from the seat and accompanied his brother out of the apartment and to the elevator, which was still waiting on his floor. Joe kept his hand against the door until Frank had locked up and let it go as Frank joined him, pressing for the parking garage.

"You're walking better today, dude." Joe observed.

"It's improving a little every day. Nan's been taking me swimming, which has been working much better than the physiotherapy. Where are you taking me, bro?"

"Down to the parking garage."

"What for?"

"You'll see," Joe said, watching the floor numbers ticking down on the readout above the door until they arrived at the parking level.

The door slid open and Joe allowed Frank to exit the elevator first. He watched as Frank froze in surprise at seeing Con leaning up against a high performance motorcycle that was parked up alongside his own convertible.

"Con?! Why didn't you come up to the apartment if you wanted to see me?"

"That's not why I'm here, kiddo," Con answered and pushed himself away from the bike and approached. He put his hand out and Frank clasped it and held on, his other hand moving to grip around his wrist.

"I'm sorry I haven't been to see you properly," Frank said awkwardly. "I still haven't thanked you for what you did when…you know, it was above and beyond."

Con caught Joe's eye for an instant and seemed to make an effort to brush away Frank's embarrassed apology with a slap against the top of his arm. "Don't worry, I know things haven't been great, and you've not long been up on your feet again."

"Yeah, well…nevertheless. Thank's Con – nice machine, by the way." Frank said and let go of his hand. He turned back to Joe. "Okay, bro, what's the big idea with dragging me down here?" he asked.

Joe grinned and indicated with his chin towards the black and red motorcycle.

Frank looked back at the bike. "What? Am I supposed to be seeing something other than Con's ride?" he asked.

"That isn't my ride," Con corrected. "I'm the delivery guy. I think it's yours."

Joe could see that Frank was perplexed. "What do you mean?" he asked.

With Frank's face turned away, Joe quickly took something from his pocket and held it up, so that when Frank turned back to him, he was dangling a set of ignition keys right in front of his brother's face.

The penny finally dropped. "You're kidding, right?" Frank asked.

"Catch," Joe said, and tossed the keys into his brother's palm.

Frank turned in confusion to Con who was nodding and grinning. "But this is crazy! Joe, you can't afford it."

"I can actually. I got a quarter of the reward money, remember, so can treat my only brother, can't I?"

"This is really my bike?" Frank asked, allowing himself the sense of security to approach it. He walked around it, admiring its sleek lines and shiny chrome. He put his hand around one of the grips and swept the other along the saddle. "So, you bought me a bike?" he asked again for confirmation. "Why?"

"Yeah, I bought you a bike, dude. But you've got to earn it though."

Frank paused mid stroke. "Ah…I knew there'd be a catch. If this is about work—"

"No, nothing like that!" Joe interjected quickly. "Dad's forcing me to take some time off to recuperate and I thought it might be cool if we both took off somewhere. In fact, I already booked a place, a cabin."

"Like old times—" Frank said quietly and slowly grinned, the smile actually reaching his eyes for once. "Yeah, I'd like that." He rejoined his brother to embrace and slap him on the back. "I'd like that a lot!"

"Look, I even brought a friend with me," Joe said and pulled Frank around to the other side of the red convertible to show him another hidden bike, but a entirely black one this time. "See, all packed up and ready to rock 'n' roll."

"You're ready to go right now? But Joe, that's way too short notice, I can't simply—"

Joe immediately grabbed Frank by arm and shot Con a look. He knew that this was the moment that if he gave his bother any thinking time, the whole plan would fall apart. "—Yeah you can, c'mon on Frank," he interrupted. "Nan told me she's going to be away, so chuck a few things in the saddlebags and let's free-style it. We'll buy as we need. The timing was perfect, it's almost like you planned it – were you talking to dad by any chance? You're a life saver, bro, what would I do without you?"

"But—"

"—Good for you, Frank!" Con said, jumping in to assist with hustling Frank towards the elevator and back up his apartment to pack. He continued to jabber with Joe non-stop so Frank couldn't get another word in edgewise.

*****

Con walked into the office to find Fenton seated at his desk, concentrating hard on his screen. He only looked up once Con had reached the doorway. "Did it work?" he asked.

"Yep, they drove off together about an hour ago. Joe ended up with Frank convinced it was almost all his idea – I'm still not sure how your youngest managed that!" He went to sit down at his desk. "Has Joe always been able to wrap Frank around his little finger?"

"Pretty much."

"Joe said something that I didn't know about though. Said he'd got some sort of reward? What did he mean, any idea?"

"Frank didn't know it, but there was some sort of payment coming his way for dealing with the whole Pandora thing. Apparently, even though it was destroyed in the end, the government still felt that they'd had a lucky escape so they turned it over to him anyway. But they only gave him half of it and shared the other two quarters between Joe and Nancy."

"No wonder Nancy has been able to stay away from work for so long and Frank was able to sort out his trashed apartment."

"It was a surprising amount of money." Fenton agreed and raised himself.

Con watched as his friend walked slightly stiffly to the kettle, picked up the pot and shook it to check it had sufficient water before switching it on to boil. Even though going about a mundane job, Con could tell instantly by the way he was picking at his eyebrow that there was something on Fenton's mind he wanted off his chest. So he waited.

Eventually, Fenton carried on talking half over his shoulder. "Frank getting that money is a bit of a relief actually. It'll make it easier on one level if we have to let him go and start looking for a replacement for Joe—"

"—Whoa there, partner…you're not serious!?" Con interrupted, shocked. "For one, Frank is brilliant at his job and not easily replaced, and for two, if you set Frank loose, Joe'll be hot on his heels. He'll never work with anyone else; he's as loyal as a puppy. This thing with Frank…Fen…you've gotta know it's a temporary glitch? Frank'll get over this and he'll be back, give him time. You know that as well as anybody!"

Fenton grimaced and rubbed hard between his eyes. "I know, I know! I don't want to have to accept it either, God knows I don't, but it's a possibility that we have to accept. We're running a business here at the end of the day. What if Frank's never able to overcome it?" The kettle clicked itself off as it reached boiling point. "Hopefully getting away for a while will do him some good – maybe Joe can beat some sense into him."

"You need to talk to him too, Flash," Con said evenly. "You're doing him a disservice."

"And I will. I just need time to gather my thoughts." Fenton turned his attention to conjuring up two drinks, assaulting two spoonfuls of coffee by dropping them from a great height into each cup. Some of the granules made a bid for freedom by missing entirely and sprinkling themselves across the counter top.

"You need to carefully consider your options, buddy," Con said. "Or you could end up making the biggest mistake of your life – this isn't the time for rash decisions!" he smiled ironically. "Joe and Frank would probably end up setting themselves up in direct competition, get Nancy Drew on board, and kick our butts all the way to the unemployment line!"

The phone on Fenton's desk began to ring, so Fenton quickly stirred the coffees, dumped Con's in his hands and moved to his desk to grab the receiver. "Hardy, Riley & Sons…yes of course I remember you – how the hell are you?" he went quiet and started to listen intently. "Aw, Jeeze no!" he groaned and caught Con's eye, slowly shutting his own in exasperation.

Con sat back and started quickly gulping his drink. He sensed that if he didn't hurry up with this particular cup of coffee, than it would go half drunk and he hated wasting good caffeine.

Fenton continued: "Are you sure, because he might have left it with a friend for safe keeping, he does do that sometimes…oh I see, that's pretty much clear cut." He sighed deeply. "Yes, okay, I'm on my way," he replaced the handset and grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair. "Dammit all! I don't believe it – this is really helping my headache!"

"What's wrong?"

"Frank's car's been stolen from its parking space – how much more bad luck? If it was Joe's car…oh well, it's a banger, good luck to 'em…but Frank's is his pride and joy and not easily replaced."

"But it was there when we left an hour ago, how can it have been boosted so quickly?"

"God knows! That was your Officer Anderson on the phone. He's waiting for me down at Frank's apartment building." He started to quickly pull his jacket on.

"James Anderson isn't my officer any more," Con corrected him. "Wait up, I'm comin' with you."

*****

Fenton pulled up outside of Frank's apartment building and exited with Con to enter the parking bays on the underground level. Sure enough, they could see immediately that Frank's parking space was devoid of its red convertible.

They could also see Officer Anderson standing there in uniform, shuffling. He raised a palm in greeting and grinned broadly at Con, looking him up and down. "Hi ex-Lieutenant. How's retirement grabbing ya? Enjoying the pipe and slippers?"

"Smart ass!" Con muttered to Fenton. "Anderson, enough of the cheap jibes. What's happened to Frank's car?"

"What's the story, Anderson?" Fenton asked, catching Con's eye and rolling his eyes up to the sky.

"Come, on, I'll show you." Anderson turned red faced, obviously having spotted Fenton's face pulling, and led them towards the security kiosk and tapped on the side door. A short man in a security man's uniform almost immediately opened up.

"I take it you're Mr Hardy?" he said and then addressed Con. "Sorry, it's so obvious, his son looks just like him."

"Good looking devil, ain't he?" Fenton quipped, and smirked. He couldn't resist it, despite the reason for them being there.

The security guard laughed and opened the door wider. "C'mon in and I'll show you the CCTV footage we got of Frank's car being taken. It was slickly done!"

They all crowded into the small booth and looked up at the monitor while the security guard started the disc running. As it began, the clock in the corner of the screen indicated that the footage was taken approximately half an hour after Frank and Joe had left on their bikes. A man was seen walking up to the car. He was wearing jeans and a dark jacket and white sneakers. On his head he wore a cap that was obscuring his face totally from the camera. He went straight to Frank's car, bent and pushed something into the lock. He jerked his arm a couple of times and the door opened. With one quick look over his shoulder, he got in, turned the ignition over, pulled out of the space and was gone.

"Wow…that was slick!" Con muttered.

"Yes it was," Fenton agreed suspiciously. He turned to the security guard. "Where were your guys when all this was happening?"

The security guard look sheepish. "Actually, I was on other end of the lot. There was a fracas happening and I went to investigate and deal with it. In retrospect, I think it was a distraction tool in order to take the car easily."

"What sort of fracas?"

"Some people were yelling from the road, causing a disturbance, so I went across to tell them to clear out. By the time I reached them, though, they'd already gone."

"Was there a camera trained on the road?" Con asked.

"No, we only have CCTV within parking lot itself."

Fenton looked across at the other cars through the kiosk window. "Have you had many incidences of cars being taken?"

The man smiled slightly. "That was our first loss in three years. We're good at monitoring visitors and trespassers. Frank had a nice car though, so maybe someone really wanted it."

Fenton nodded. "Can we have a copy of the film?" he asked.

"Yes, I'll burn a copy for you."

"We'll come back and collect it in a while." Fenton turned to address Con. "Let's go up to Frank's apartment. I want to double check no one's broken in again and taken his car key. Seemed a bit of a clean getaway to me."

"Don't read too much into that," Anderson broke in, thumbs tucked into his belt. He stepped up close to Con's shoulder and looked up at him. "Car thieves have got all sorts of gadgets which mean they can boost a car in a matter of seconds. They wouldn't necessarily need the key."

Con sighed. "As much as it pains me to admit it, Anderson's right—"

"—Hey!"

"Sorry Anderson, no offence…they don't need to necessarily take the key, or take the ignition system apart."

"I'd still like to make sure his apartment's okay." Fenton insisted.

"It's your call."

With Officer Anderson dogging Con's heels, they left the parking garage and rode the elevator up to Frank's apartment. Fenton used his spare key to open the front door; a loud beeping began immediately sounding, which was only extinguished upon him entering a code into a little keypad on the wall, disabling the new burglar alarm system.

They all took a quick look in each room, but nothing looked out of place.

"No one's been in here," Fenton decided. "Or the alarm would have been either ringing out or disconnected." He turned and addressed Anderson. "Thanks for phoning. I'll go and get the recording and me and Con can get back to the office."

"Actually," said Anderson. "Chief Collig wants to know if you'll both go and see him. He's got something he wants to discuss with you."

"Oh?" Con asked. "What's that about?"

"Don't ask me, I'm just the messenger. I can give you a lift if you'd like, ex-Lieutenant. In the back of my cruiser…if sitting in the back doesn't make you uncomfortable." Anderson offered and gave him a goofy grin.

"Are you coastin' for a slap?" Con snapped.

Fenton put a restraining hand on his friend's arm. "No, thank you Anderson, I've got my own car here. Now run along, there's a good boy!" he opened the door, pushed Anderson's through it backwards and closed it on his surprised face.

Con sighed. "That kid's got a serious attitude problem, but he's actually good at his job. I think he's hungry to move up the ladder, but he's going about it all the wrong way. He seems to have a worrying lack of respect for his superiors." He folded his arms and tipped his head on one side. "More importantly though, I wonder what Ming The Merciless wants?"