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Chapter 5

Mr. Hardy kept flipping through the pages upon pages of notes. He had been in the study since he had shoved down a quick dinner. There was still something he was missing, he could feel it. It was nagging him to no end. He was only pulled from his intense concentration as his phone rang. Knowing that it had to be important, he quickly altered his attention to a frantic young voice at the other end. "Tony, it's Mr. Hardy. What's the matter? The boys aren't home right now. (There's panting on the other end of the phone) Son, is everything okay?"

"No, Mr. Hardy everything isn't okay. They are gone."

"Yes, I know, they went to the pizza parlor and will probably be arriving home soon."

"No Mr. Hardy they won't. You see their car is here still. They walked outside nearly ten minutes ago," Mr. Hardy urged him to take a breathing as he could tell the boy was panting, obviously frightened. "Mr. Hardy the car was unlocked. They were nowhere near it and the keys were just lying on the ground."

This caught his attention and he directed the boy, "Tony call the police. I will be right down there. Don't touch anything."

"Yes Mr. Hardy. I understand. Thank you." He hung up.

Mr. Hardy jumped up and ran to the living room, "Laura, I have to go check something out real quick. Ill be right back."

"Okay honey, just call and let me know. Those three should be back pretty soon and if they are not, I'll wait until you come back to do to scolding for staying out late on a school night."

"Of course sweetie," he quickly said and kissed her cheek. Then he ran outside with his coat and scarf half on eager to track down the teens. Only yielding to the red lights, Mr. Hardy made it to the pizza parlor in no time. There was a cop car next to the boy's van with a young boy fervently motioning the intrigued father over.

Worried he jogged over to them, "What happened?"

"Sir that is what we are going to find out. Are you their father?"

"Yes," he gave the officer an exasperated look (obviously he was new, he thought) and continued by introducing himself to Randy "I'm Fenton Hardy and would like to hear what both of you know."

The officer appeared slightly embarrassed as he explained he basically knew nothing, so Mr. Hardy directed his attention to his sons' young friend. Tony told him that the three of the teens left after everyone else and since it was late on a school night the lot was pretty empty. They already asked the few people in pizza shop, but they noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Undeterred, Mr. Hardy made his own way around the van, inspecting the ground around the ajar door.

"Tony, did you open the door?"

"Yes sir, that's why I thought something peculiar, might have occurred because it wasn't locked."

"Thanks," Mr. Hardy replied and took one more swift glance around as he picked up the car keys and turned to the two men, "How about we head inside, it's quite chilly and there doesn't seem to be anything to find."

Everything was cleaned up and mostly everyone was cleared out of the restaurant. A young lady and boy were sitting at the counter. The three men approached them once inside. Tony's father, who was the owner of the fine eating establishment, beckoned them over to the couple.

"Sally and Tim, this is Mr. Hardy, Tony, and Officer Randy, please tell them what you told me." They nodded their head and turned around.

Sally began, "Hello, I'm Sally Karr and this is my boyfriend Tim Lawhead. We were sitting by the window earlier having a pizza, but when you were in here before I was in bathroom. So I didn't get to tell you that I did see something odd. There was a dark car peeling through the parking lot. It was extremely hard to make out with the lack of light and snow starting to come down. Anyways I saw it just fly in and go over the curb, which caught my attention, but then it went past my eyesight. A little while later it did speed out of here, but Tim didn't notice, so I didn't think anything of it. When I came back out here, Tim told me about you asking the customers, so I decided to wait for you to come back."

"Thank you so much Sally," Randy said, "Tim do you have anything to add?"

"No sir."

"Okay, well then you two are free to leave. Thank you."

"No problem," Sally said, "I hope you find them, they seemed really nice." The two of them left the two Pritos, Mr. Hardy and the police officer to ponder on their next move.

Mr. Hardy broke the silence, "Do you guys have cameras outside this place?"

"Yes!" Mr. Prito exclaimed, "Follow me!" The four men rushed to the office. Shortly the film was being rewound. It had a perfect view of the boy's van pulling in and the three of them going inside. Mr. Prito fast-forwarded it till right after they checked out (he checked the computers earlier). The film showed the three of them slowly making their way to the car and just after unlocking the door the dark car pulled up and the scene unfolded. After it drove away, the screen stopped.

Randy spoke first, "I'm taking this down town for evidence. Thank you sir. I'm going to ask for another car to come around to see if any finger prints can be gathered. My partner Thomason should still be in the car, I wanted him to secure the scene."

"Sounds good. These two can probably lock up and go home, right?" Mr. Hardy directed at the officer.

"Yes they can and I will contact you if we do need anything else because it looks as though the parking lot was the only crime scene." Mr. Hardy continued walking out with Randy.

"Okay, here's the deal, your partner can be lookout until a team arrives. You and I can take my car to the station to use their video software. We need to find my sons and their friend." Mr. Hardy gave the younger officer a glare as he was about to protest. Randy had heard about this man and his sons. They were the talk of the town when he moved there a few months ago. Today was the first encounter with the knowledgeable gentleman because he had happened to be close by on rounds, so took the frantic call. Understanding he was not someone to cross Randy nodded his head and silently followed the anxious detective outside.

Fenton warmed up his car as Randy gave the down low to his partner. Barely closing the door Mr. Hardy raced off towards the police station.

"Are you okay?" Frank roughly whispered. They had been driving a while and thrust about quite a bit.

"Yeah I'm alright for being shoved in a van, hands tied behind my back, and bouncing back and forth between you two for I don't' even know how long," Joe responded.

"I'm okay Frank. Thanks." Kailey said.

"Shhh…" was ordered from one of the men in front of them. It was an SUV and they were squished in the farthest back seats of the vehicle behind three very large men. The leader was driving with his second in command in the passenger's seat.

"Yeah, be quiet ya hear," said another man with a scruffy voice, "Or we'll make you be quiet." He smiled an extremely creepy smile after the threat and turned back around.

The three teens just looked at each other in horror and confusion. What have they gotten themselves into this time?

Approximately thirty minutes later the car veered off on a gravel road then stopped. All the men got out then pulled out the teens roughly. Forced to walk in front with a gun at each of their backs, they followed the leader to a dark building. As they got closer the shape could be barely made out. It was tall and wide. Not until the giant doors slid open did it become obvious they were in a remade barn. The floor was hay, but it was well lit with fake walls put in place and a large amount of unfinished insulation done.

"Welcome to my humble abode," the sneering leader announced and smiled, motioning them to continue following. Passing some more makeshift walls the three of them eventually were lead into a small blocked off area that was labeled inventory. They were quickly pushed in on top of each other as the door was quickly slammed shut and locked.

"Well, this is just great," Joe managed to say as he rolled off of his brother. They were all trying to get into a sitting position to look around.

"How are your ropes?" Frank asked as he strained to slip his hands out.

"Barely can budge, you?"

"Same," Frank replied then looked at Kailey who was very quiet. "Hey are you alright?"

Kailey looked up to two looks of concern, "Yes I'm okay as I can be for being kidnapped. I think I may have some leniency in my bonds. I have pretty small hands." She smiled.

"Oh wait, I think I have my knife, do you Frank?" said Joe filling the teens with a new sense of enthusiasm.

"I'm not sure, where's yours?"

"My back pocket, ugh, I can't quite reach. Can you?" Joe scooted over to his brother who tried to lean back and grope for the swiss army knife in his obscenely large pocket.

"Almost….. Got …it," Frank said.

"Wait!" Kailey whispered harshly, "I think I hear someone coming." She was closest to the door, so slowly backed away by the boys, not too eager to be the first to face their captor. Frank and Joe froze as they heard the steps and the sound of unlocking the door.

It creaked open to revealing the sneering slim man. "Hello, I hope your new accommodations are to your liking." He took in the three teens that looked none worse for the wear.

Joe scoffed, which wasn't as quiet as he had hoped. The man's cheerful demeanor altered instantly into a death glare. He snapped his fingers and two of his henchmen entered the room behind him. "Joseph, isn't that pleased, what do you think we can do to change that?"

Scruffy voice replied to his boss, "I'm not too sure sir, what did you have in mind?"

"Well, I believe we have some blindfolds for them so they don't have to look at their place since it's so unappealing. Want to go grab them Tyler." The other goon exited, leaving grouchy and scruffy to glare at the teens with extreme interest.

To break the building tension from the intense silence, Joe spoke up, "Who exactly are you and what do you want with us?"

The leader grinned, "Oh, you don't know who I am? Well then I guess you're not as close to your father as we thought. Surely he would have disclosed his most recent case with you?"

The boys both shook their heads, so the raving man continued, "That's a shame. Well I am Warren Hildern. And that is all you really need to know for now. Ah thank you Tyler," he said to the returning henchman. The three men approached the teens and covered their eyes with ripped up bed sheets. "Now don't do anything you will regret. Just make yourselves comfortable and you shall be returned to your father within the next few days." Ending on that note the criminals left, locking the door.

"Nice going little bro."

"Aww, come on Frank, what exactly did you expect was going to happen?"

"Well, I thought he may have given us a bit more to go on, but your uncontrolled laugh didn't make him as willing to share. Now don't move too much, I'm still gonna grab that knife," Frank directed his brother.

"Kailey I'm really sorry about this," Joe pleaded.

"It's okay. They weren't that harsh with us. We'll get out of here in no time. I trust you."

Joe asked, "What do ya mean?"

"Well, your father is a well-respected PI, so I can only assume he passed on some of his traits onto his sons who have been following in his footsteps. Therefore I have faith that this isn't exactly the worst situation you have been in, so we'll get out unscathed."

"Thanks," both boys replied, earning a giggle from Kailey.

"So you're enjoying Bayport?" Joe asked to break the silence that was starting to grow unbearing.

"Joe, really?" Frank said.

"Yeah, it's a really nice town. That was some pretty good pizza."

"Pretty good? Pretty good? I can't believe you would day that about that pizza. It's the best ever!"

"I don't know about that," Kailey retorted.

"Come on Frank back me up," Joe asked his brother who was slowly working on his bonds.

"I don't know. We haven't tried tons of pizza places in the world, so we can't be totally say that it's the best."

Joe just groaned at his logical brother and Kailey laughed at their banter. "Score!" Frank said as his brother's hands were free. In a few minutes they were all free and rubbing their sore wrists.

"Now what?" Joe asked.

"Well we need to get out of here for starters. Do you know anything about dad's case?"

"No, not much. You?"

"Not really," Frank responded.

"I thought he shared everything with you guys," Kailey stated as they began inspecting the place where they were held.

"Actually, he has been out of town quite a bit lately for this case. He hasn't shared much with us as he knows that we've been busy," Frank said as he thought about it carefully.

"Yeah, true. He must have mentioned something, was it a fraud, robbery, murder or conspiracy?" Joe wondered.

"Okay, so guys, if we do manage to move these walls and get outside how do you propose we leave? I just want to jog your memory that it's like a tundra outside with the snow and wind. It's not like they're going to give us a ride back to Bayport," Kailey pointed out to the boys who were avidly testing out the strength of the walls.

"Oh yeah, well, we'll figure it out once we are sprung from this cell," Joe responded

"Swell," she replied following their gaze. There was a loose wall attachment towards the back of the room. In a few minutes it was eased out of place and they stuck their heads out to check for more goons patrolling the corridors. With no one in sight the three teens made a break for it. Silently tip-toeing across the hallways they froze as they heard voices.

Scruffy, "Yeah, well, this should be over with soon. My contact at the department let me know that Hardy was already heading there with some kind of evidence."

"Okay man, but isn't that a little ahead of schedule?" another new voice asked.

"No, there's no way he really knows much. We told the kids it's about his most recent case and they fell for it. So we should be in the clear."

"Good. Let's go eat. We've been busy loading boxes all night."

"Sounds good," was the reply and the footsteps slowly were gone.

"That was close," Joe breathed and got a silent motion from his brother who began sneaking around the corner.

Shortly they came upon a door. Each looked at one another with a smile for their success. Taking a step closer they stopped dead. They door was burst open and they were standing out in the open.

Author's Note: Please read and review. It really motivates me to write and it's pretty enjoyable! Thank you:)