A/N I almost didn't think I was going to get this chappie finished today, I was at the pool until after six and then I ate dinner and then I had the choice between updating and baking cookies and I hadn't baked anything in a while and my mom had just gone shopping and well I like to bake. You know, I like baking a lot more then cooking, baking is a science as the saying goes, if you do everything as instructed it should turn out perfectly…and I'm rambling aren't I? Okay, well, onto the story. Lol.
Thanks to all reviewers!
Disclaimer: I own nada.
"Did you get her?" Marion asked without preamble when Gustafson walked through the door to his office.
"Yes, I put her in with Frank."
"I trust there was no trouble getting Miss Shaw?" Marion asked idly leaning back in his office chair.
"No, I just grabbed her and dragged her into a stairwell when she walked by, but I found out some interesting news." Gustafson replied.
"Oh?" Marion asked sounding mildly interested.
"Joe Hardy didn't die; his little friends probably found him or someone called the police." The other man replied sounding as though he regretted this fact and he probably did.
"His prognosis?" Marion asked.
"He's expected to be fine, in fact they're all set to release him in a day or so."
"No matter, the important thing is that he's not here to distract young Franklin, and we still have Miss Shaw to keep him in line, she should be considerably easier to manage and since she is of no practical use for her we can just keep her locked up for the most part." Marion responded. "Are we ready to progress with our plans?"
"We should be ready to go in about three days," Gustafson answered. "So far there's been no indication that any government officials are onto are plans, and it doesn't seem like Hardy or his friends have bothered contacting the police, everything looks good."
"Excellent." Marion answered a maniacal smirk spreading across his face.
-Two days Earlier at the Hardy Home-
Fenton Hardy drummed his fingers against the tabletop of his office desk; his sister had given him a lot to think about and he had mulled over her words for the better part of the last few days. He knew he was wrong when he had hit Joe and blamed Frank's death on him, and he knew that he would never gain anything by continuing to live his life in his current fashion. He was hardly home anymore and when he was he made a point of shutting himself in his office. He knew he was hurting Laura and Gertrude and probably himself as well but he couldn't get past the overwhelming guilt he felt when he thought of how he had failed his family. He hadn't paid enough attention to his children and he had allowed them to get hurt and because of that his wife had lost her sons.
Gertrude's words echoed in his ears: "Stop being so selfish, think about your family, yes, Frank meant the world to this family, but we're not going to get him back, so stop acting like a child, stop hiding in your work. Face the facts, Fenton. Find Joe. Apologize, reach out to him, bring him home." When she had first told him to stop wallowing in his misery he had determinedly ignored her, but the more he thought about it the more he realized that she was right.
Fenton Hardy was nothing if he was not a good private investigator. And he rather doubted that Joe had bothered to put that much effort into concealing his whereabouts. It might take some time but he would find his son, and he would apologize and bring him home. Fenton would try to salvage the remnants of his family no matter how difficult it was going to be. He owed it to them, he owed it to Frank, who he knew wouldn't want to see his family falling apart like they were. He needed to make up for pushing Joe away; he needed to bring him home.
-I am a line-
"Have you found anything on Marion?" Joe asked when Phil walked into his hospital room accompanied by Vanessa.
"What no hello?" Vanessa teased.
"Oh, hey." Joe responded before repeating his question. "So, did you find anything?"
"I've got a list of addresses, he owns warehouses and businesses all over the world, but I narrowed them down to just the New York places, he owns twenty places in New York, four of them are in the city, I'm going to guess that it's more likely he's in the city because if they're planning an attack they'd probably want to be close." Phil responded.
"So, we've just got to go to these four places and hope that he's at one." Joe stated. "We've got to move quickly though, they're planning to launch their attacks within the week." Joe continued. "We should start today. I'm supposed to be released today, so once I get signed out we'll head back to my apartment split up to search for signs of Frank and Callie at the locations, and then meet back at my apartment before we take any definitive action. These people are dangerous we can't storm in there on our own we'll only end up getting captured right along with them." Joe continued.
-I am a line-
"Okay, we have four locations and there are seven of us." Joe stated. "How are we going to split this up?"
"We can't send anyone alone, it's too dangerous." Vanessa responded.
"But, we do need to cover all of these locations, and we are working on a very limited time span. What we really need is an eight person." Phil pointed out.
"Yeah, but where are we going to get an eighth person?"
A/N I know it's kind of short but it needs to end there because I want the entire search to take place in the next chapter, anyway review the 26th chapter written on the 26th day of June.