Chapter Seven

"You mean to tell me that she did not get kidnapped?" Greg looked at the Hardy's in shock. They had since returned to their table where Greg had been waiting with the Sweethearts.

"Well, the lady at the front desk described her to a tee. Unless she has a twin running around town, that girl was Charlie." Joe shrugged and fell into a chair beside Ann.

"No, no twin." Ann shook her head. "She only has a brother."

"Oh yeah. Has anyone talked to Nick since C went missing?" Sammy looked to her friends.

"I called him yesterday." Leslie told her.

Dawn sat back in her chair. "How is he?"

"Worried, but aren't we all?" The lead guitarist shook her head in dismay.

"Can we keep talking about the real problem?" Joe sat up and looked at each girl in the eyes. The Sweethearts all nodded.

Greg looked back to Joe and Frank. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know yet." Frank confessed.

"I'd better get back to work." Danny nodded to his boss and the rest of the group.

"Sure. Thanks for your help." Frank smiled at the youth as he watched him walk off and into the backstage portion of the club.

"Back to square one." Mumbled Joe.

"That's just great, isn't it?" Everyone turned as MK walked into the room. "I am never going to find my lead singer now, am I?" He glared at the two Hardy brothers. "Detectives? Ha!"

Joe fumed. "We're doing everything we can!"

MK merely ignored him and looked to the girls. "I saw your car parked outside. What are all of you doing here? You should be rehearsing! I didn't rent that rehearsal hall all for nothing!"

"Sorry, MK. We'll get going." Dawn smiled sadly at her manager and rose from her seat. The rest of the girls soon joined her.

"I don't know what the four of you think you were doing here..." MK continued glaring at the Hardy's and their friend.

"They're trying to help us find Charlie." Ann said.

"Well, they're doing a terrible job of it." MK herded the girls towards the door. "Now why don't we forget all about this? It's the police's job to find Charlie. Meanwhile, we still have a show to put on and you four need to rehearse!"

Tony and the Hardy's barely heard the last portion of the angry manager's speech as the front door to the club closed behind him and the Sweethearts. Once he had left, Tony turned to the others. "Well? Now what?"

"We wait for Chet and Biff to arrive and then we follow our lead on the earring." Frank said.

"What lead? All we know is that Charlie stopped by and picked up her other earring." Joe drew a circle on the tabletop in the condensation left by a water glass.

"We don't know that for certain. We'd need the earring to get a positive ID that it indeed belonged to Charlie. Besides, I'm sure there are other girls besides Charlie who fit that description."

"Yeah, like her twin." Joe huffed.

"But Ann said she didn't have a twin. Frank's right, Joe. We don't know for sure that girl was Charlie." Tony nodded looking to the elder Hardy. "Right?"

"Right." Frank agreed.

Just then, the boys other two chums entered the club. Chet Morton waved at the two Hardy brothers as he approached with athlete Biff Hooper at his heels. "Hey guys, sorry we were late. We didn't miss anything did we? Where are the girls?" Chet took a seat next to Tony letting out a tired breath.

"They had to go to a rehearsal hall." Tony explained. "Their manager returned not too long ago and boy was he ever angry."

"Then I'm glad we missed him." Said Chet. "Anyone order any food?"

The other boys groaned. Count on Chet to think about food at a time like this!

"So, anything new on the case?" Biff asked the brothers. Both brothers shook their heads.

"No leads if that's what you mean." Said Joe.

"Hm. Okay. So what do you want us to do" Biff asked motioning to the boys sitting at the table.

Frank thought for a moment, "I guess we could go pay Gary a visit. Maybe he'll be more open to talking now that he's behind bars?"

"Gotcha! Let's go." Biff stood waiting for his friends.

o0o

Not much later, the five boys entered the Bayport police station. The officer at the desk smiled at the boys as they approached.

"Hey there, boys. How's it going?"

Frank returned the gesture, "Hi, Sam. I was wondering if we could possibly talk to a man you have here. Gary Brent? He was brought in yesterday, suspected of kidnapping."

At this Sam Radley's smile faded, "I'm afraid you'd have to get an okay from the chief."

Joe frowned, "Somehow I knew he was going to say that!"

"Sorry, boys. You know the rules." Sam sat back in his chair.

Biff sighed, "Well, thanks anyways officer." The five teens turned towards the door.

"Well, that was a bust." Tony said once they were out the door.

Joe shrugged, "I could have told you that before we even got there!"

"Well, I think it was worth a try." Frank unlocked the boy's van and slid into the driver's seat. "So what if it got us nowhere? At least we tried!"

"I guess." Joe shrugged again and went to get into the passenger seat.

Soon, all five boys were loaded into the van and Frank pulled onto the main drag. Joe looked out him window at the passing scenery.

"Well, where to next?" Asked Tony from the backseat.

"Food." Chet answered. The rest responded with irate sighs. "Oh come on, guys. I'm starving!"

"Come on, Chet. We need you to think of the case, not your eating habits." Joe looked back at him. Chet sighed.

"What are you thinking, Frank?" Tony looked to his friend.

Frank keep his eyes on the road, "That we try to talk to Josh again."

"Josh?" Biff looked to the Hardys for an explanation.

"Josh was the one we told you about. The guy that hangs out at the clubs all the time." Joe said looking behind his seat once again.

Biff nodded. "How do we find him?"

"We head back to the club and if we can't find him there, we'll try a phone book."

o0o

When the Hardys and their friends arrived at the club, Josh was seated at the same table where they had left him before; this time munching on a hamburger and fries. He didn't look up as they approached, though Frank was sure he had seen them.

"Josh?" Frank said to him, "Can we talk to you again?"

This time, the teen looked up and gave the boys an angry scowl. "What do you want?"

"We need to talk to you… about Charlie." Joe scowled back at him.

"I already told you, I don't know where the chick is!"

"Well, how about, Gary? Did you hear that he was arrested yesterday?" Frank said, trying to lead the conversation in a slightly different direction.

Josh sat silently.

"Well?" Joe was growing angry.

Josh shrugged. "So I heard it. Why does that make any difference?"

"None, except that we think he's innocent." Frank slid into the seat across from their suspect.

"Of course he did it. Gary has always had a few screws loose. He does crazy, senseless things all the time." Josh picked up another fry and dunked it in ketchup.

"Why do you say that?" Joe sat beside his brother.

"Gary is one of those guy's you'd classify as a geek." Josh shoved the ketchup-covered morsel into his mouth and chewed. "He's also what you'd call a sore loser. When he lost Charlie," Josh whistled, "Guy just went nuts."

"Hmm. Interesting." Frank looked to his younger brother then back to the young man across from him. "Well thank you for your time."

Josh shrugged, "Sure."

As Frank walked away with his friends, he couldn't help but think he was missing something. It was quite apparent that neither Gary nor Josh liked eachother very much, but was that all because of Charlie? Frank had his doubts. After all, Charlie was a nice girl, but he knew there had to be something else. He only hoped they would get to the bottom of things, and fast. After all, most missing person's cases didn't have a happy ending.

A/N: Well, What's going? Who do you think is was? Josh? Gary? Hard to say! We hope you liked it! Let us know what your thoughts are on the case at hand! We love to hear from all of you!

B&R