Chapter 17
Kelly pulled out his pistol and the man nearly walked into it. He stopped short. Joe turned on a flashlight to see a man of about 35, of stocky build, with dark hair and wearing dark clothes. His eyes grew wide with a look of surprise on his face.
"Not a word." Kelly warned. "You utter a sound and I see how resistant your face is to bullets, ok?" The figure nodded.
"Check him over, Frank." Kelly said quickly. Frank shook down the man to find a set of keys and some cash, but no ID. Kelly looked back down the tunnel but saw and heard nothing. He focused his attention back to their captive.
"Ok smartass, we have a couple of our friends as your guests. You understand?" He nodded fearfully.
"Now then," Kelly continued. "You will lead me to where you are keeping them prisoner. If you don't, I will make an effort to see how many shells I can put into your fat ass." The man sneered but nodded upon seeing Kelly acting so free with a loaded gun under his nose.
"Lead on then." Kelly ordered. "And in case you have any thoughts about overpowering me, they have something to say about it." he gestured to the others who also had guns pulled and aimed at him. He nodded in defeat.
"Look, I just deliver goods to people. I'm not kidnapping anyone. I see where a couple guys are locked up, but I had nothin to do with it. I just deliver goods to people and they take them." Kelly nodded
"Oh, I believe you on that, son. But if you are thinking that delivering stolen goods has a slap on the wrist sentence, then try on accomplice to murder and kidnapping." The man visibly paled.
"Ok, I will show you were they keep the guys who got in the way." Kelly prodded him with the gun.
"Ok, go to it or I will make sure you hang for 35 years for attempted murder."
"Man, I don't know nothin about no murder." Kelly snorted.
"Convince the jury of that, son. Now move!" He slowly moved back in the direction from which he came. They started noticing that the areas were seemingly more refined. There were iron doors here and there. But no sounds came from any of them. Another five minutes walking came to a large door on the left. He paused before it.
"This is where I saw two guys tied up. That's all I know." Kelly snorted before the large iron door.
"Do you have a key?" The man shook his head.
"No, I was only given keys for rooms where there were items I needed to deliver." Joe was busy trying the keys from the key chain they had taken from the man. But sure enough, no keys were present that fit this particular door. Tony placed an ear to the door. He lifted his head.
"That iron is pretty thick guys, no way of telling unless we had a sound magnifier. Or a locksmith." Kelly shook his head and looked at the lock.
"The only way we get in there is by blasting away with magnum artillery or explosives. None of which is discreet. I left my sound magnifier back at camp." he turned back to the prisoner.
"Ok where does the main gang or boss hang out? Is he around here?" The man started sweating. He clearly did not want to answer the question. Kelly placed the gun to his head. "Remember yet?" he asked more forcefully. Finally, the prisoner nodded. He led them down to another door and gestured that he'd need a key. Joe handed the key chain to him and they watched him closely. He opened the door and led the way in. The room was small but a door on the other side of the room was in plain view.
"There is a small corridor past that door and then their office in at the end. I can't get into that room without a key, which I don't have. And I can promise you it's quite locked. Even if people are in there." Kelly nodded.
"You better not be messin with me, son. Or I will mess with you." He pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
"Ok son, hands under your legs." the prisoner complied and was soon sitting on handcuffed hands and immobile. Satisfied, the group headed slowly toward the other door. Kelly tried it and it opened. This was not too surprising as it was merely a door into a stone hallway. Kelly took out the flashlight and aimed it down the corridor. There was indeed a door at the end, and more importantly a bright light shone from under it.
"Good chance there's someone in there." Kelly whispered to the others.
"What do we do?" Tony asked. Kelly nodded. And gestured they return back to the room. Kelly walked over to the prisoner.
"What's your handle, boy?" he prompted impatiently, "And don't lie, or I will be mighty pissed." The prisoner looked up.
"They know me as Trent." Kelly nodded.
"Let's hope so." he grunted and gestured for the others to follow. Quietly they sidled up to the door with the light under it. Kelly gestured for Tony to take out his sawed-off shotgun and get ready to poke it between the door. Tony nodded and came up. Everyone had their weapons drawn. Kelly rapped sharply on the door. A rustling sound was heard from within. Footsteps sounded near the door. A rough voice sounded.
"Yeah?" came the voice. Kelly tried his best to duplicate the voice of their prisoner.
"Trent." he said sternly. A moment later the sound of the lock being unlatched was heard. The door slowly opened. Tony jammed the barrel of his shotgun in. Kelly pushed the door open further. Tony had the man covered who opened the door, however as the door opened wider a second figure from the corner got off a shot from a handgun which caught Tony in the shoulder.
"Yow!" Tony shrieked falling to the floor. Kelly returned fire. A series of pistol cracks were exchanged. Frank saw one of the figures fall back to the floor and the other pointed his gun in Kelly's direction again. Frank took careful but quick aim and fired. The buckshot caught the man square on the leg and he fell back. Joe jumped over Tony and ripped off a couple more shots towards the left of the room which had been obstructed by the door. Another shot fired barely missing Kelly. He fired back hitting the man's other leg. By the time all had filed into the room, Kelly had the man to the left covered and the other lay on the floor bleeding from the shoulder. Frank jumped over and kicked the man's gun out of the way. Joe had collected what guns where in view and Kelly bent down to help Tony. He was still conscious. He looked up.
"Ow! This damn well hurts, ya know?" Kelly smiled.
"You're gonna be just fine. You were just clipped." he said observing that the bullet had passed through soft tissue around Tony's shoulder.
"Can you get up?" Tony winced, but tried. He was able to come to his feet. Frank and Joe were busy securing their prisoners.
"Looks like we got two legs with buckshot and one in the shoulder of this other guy." Joe called over. He looked down at the men.
"Hey Kelly, any of these guys look familiar to you?" Frank asked. Kelly took a few steps over looking down at them. He grunted and gave a firm nod.
These guys are the right-hand men to David Sharpton's gang. These were the same guys we were tracking on the other side of the state. Sharpton is the ringleader. Say boys, wanna tell me where your boss went?" Kelly asked. The one with the leg wounds managed to laugh.
"Your too late. The boss should be out of this place for good soon. And we took care of your friends too." This last statement made the Hardys nervous.
"Search em for keys." Kelly commanded. Frank went through their pockets. He found two key rings and a large quantity of personal cash. Frank walked over
"We have a couple dozen keys and about ten grand in cash." Kelly nodded.
"Frank, take the keys back to that other room and try them out. See if there's anyone there. Joe, take these extra handcuffs and make our guests even more uncomfortable than they already are." Joe nodded taking the cuffs. After securing the prisoners, Joe and Kelly left them behind after making sure that they had no weapons laying around. They helped Tony walk back down the corridor. Kelly had found a shirt in the office and given it to Tony to keep on his wound. They went to their first prisoner. Kelly stood above him.
"Two of your bosses are laying on the floor in there bleeding. Unless you want to join them, you will tell me where the boss would be leaving here from." The prisoner sighed.
"Go down this corridor we came in from. Go three doors down and on the left will be a door. Take it. There's a ladder leading to a passageway which leads to an underground cavern with water. There is a waterway that leads to the river." he confessed without thought. Kelly nodded and the three headed down the corridor. They found the door but it was locked. Kelly looked about for Frank, as he had the keys but he was not to be seen.
"No time." Kelly muttered taking out some spare cartridges from his pocket. He placed those into the gun from the buck shot he had in earlier. With .38 high power shells he should be able to blow the lock. He took careful aim and fired. The explosion roared through the cavernous area. The lock took damage but not enough. Kelly fired again. This time the lock totally pushed out of the door. Kelly pushed the door in and sure enough there was a ladder. The two looked to Tony, who shrugged.
"Get that guy! Just because I can't scale a ladder doesn't mean he needs to get away. Get him if he is still around. I will wait for Frank." Kelly and Joe nodded and raced for the ladder. They slid down it and found a slanted corridor. Kelly and Joe raced down it, weapons drawn. They soon arrived at a doorway which was open. They crept into what was indeed an underground waterway. No sooner had they arrived than the sound of a motor starting was heard. The motor was that of a speedboat that had just turned its motor over. They rushed in. They saw a black speedboat getting ready to pull out of a dock area. A bald man was at the helm. Joe drew his gun and leveled it.
"Freeze!" he said above the motor whine. The man looked up in alarm. Upon seeing Joe and Kelly he reached under his seat and pulled out a large automatic and started firing all around the area where Joe and Kelly were standing. They fell to the ground to avoid the flying bullets. Joe returned fire but with his cartridges still being buck shot grade they didn't have much drive or force. Kelly took out his revolver which now had actual bullets in it. He made careful aim and fired! The shot apparently missed as the boat shot forward without any obvious difficulty.
"Damn!" Kelly cursed, "Outta the real stuff." Joe had emptied his pistol, but to no avail. He looked up grimly and looked at his gun.
"See what you mean. This is like bird shot on anything real. Too bad Chet isn't here, I'm sure he would have a grenade handy." The sound of the motorboat faded. Kelly kicked some nearby rocks.
"We've been tryin' to nail that boy's ass for months now, and he got away. No way we can follow. If there is any boat hidden around here it's probably locked up without keys. By the time we'd get to our boat he would be halfway to China." Joe shook his head in disgust.
"Damn. I wonder where dad is." he said aloud. "We'd better tend to Tony and see about the prisoners." Kelly snorted
"We better find your dad. He will want to know." Joe nodded.
"I will go search for him. Can you handle the prisoners and Tony?" Kelly nodded.
"I will dig up Frank. We can handle it. But I'd suggest looking for your dad locked up somewhere. That one fella indicated he was taken care of possibly. So at least go bang on some of these iron doors and see if anyone bangs back. I will get Frank on it with those keys too and see what we come up with. Also, I am gonna see if I can get through to the state police." Joe nodded.
"Ok, Kelly. Good luck!" He ran back up the passageway they had come from. Joe immediately returned to the main tunnel where they had captured their first prisoner and backtracked so he could follow the tunnel the others had taken. Joe had finally reached the main room below the now blown up cabin. He entered the other tunnel and ran down it, freely aiming his flashlight about. He was running fast when the tunnel began to turn. He then noticed a door. It had a large iron pry bar wedged against it. He stood there and caught his breath. He then pounded on the door.
"Hey, is anybody in there?" He called. Almost instantly Chet bellowed back.
"Joe, is that you, pal?"
"Yes Chet, it's me."
"We're stuck, can you help us out?" Joe smiled in spite of the situation.
"I guess I can Chet. But what do I get?" he called half-jokingly, trying to move the pry bar. Iola's voice sounded with agitation.
"It's what you WON'T get if you don't open this door, Joe Hardy!" Joe smiled and laughed then redoubled his efforts. Finally, he managed to pull the large iron bar from its position where it was wedged between the door and jam. He pulled on the heavy door. Iola was the first through and wrapped her arms around him.
"God, thank you for coming." she said with relief. Callie, Chet and Mr. Hardy came out.
"Good work son." Fenton Hardy smiled. "Where are the others?" he asked noticing Joe was alone. Joe took a breath.
"We managed to find three of the bad guys. The first one was a delivery boy. The others Kelly identified as cohorts of Sharpton." Mr. Hardy clinched his fist.
"So, this is indeed Sharpton's crew. Did you find the man himself?" Joe looked dejected.
"He got away. Apparently their method of trafficking the goods was by an underground waterway that connected the river to an area in this maze of caverns and tunnels. He fired but he was taking off in a speedboat when we found the waterway." Mr. Hardy looked grim.
"Loaded down with money I bet, too!" Joe looked back up.
"But maybe we can get something from the guys we caught. Kelly is supposed to be getting the state police down here. We had a little firefight. We took one guy down with shots to the legs and another we nailed his shoulder. But they managed to get Tony before he put them down."
"Tony got shot?" the girls chorused. Joe nodded but smiled.
"Just a flesh wound in the shoulder though. He's up and at em. Just can't climb ladders. Frank is following up on a lead that may find the captain and Bill." Fenton Hardy wasted no more time.
"Take us to the area where this is happening!" Joe nodded and led the others back down the tunnel. They headed up the other tunnel and soon found a relieving sight. Frank and Tony were standing there with Bill and an older man. Fenton Hardy smiled.
"Thomas! Is that you!?" The old man turned and smiled broadly.
"Fenton, you are here! Yes, it's me. Your brilliant son has just freed me and this young man, Bill." Fenton smiled broadly.
"Wonderful work Frank! Bill, Thomas, are you alright? Are you hurt?" They shook their heads.
"No worse for wear, Fenton. Did you all get the man responsible for this?" Fenton shook his head slowly.
"From what I have been told he has gotten away. But, we did get a few of the others." he walked over to Tony and examined his wound.
"You are indeed lucky, Tony. A few more inches and it would have made a lot of difference. We will get you to a doctor as soon as we can." He looked to Frank.
"Where's Kelly?" Frank looked up.
"He went to the surface to summon help. His cell phone didn't work down here." Mr. Hardy nodded.
"We should have some help then soon." Callie and Iola had taken the liberty to help Tony sit down in the room that was once the prison for Bill and the captain. They tended to his wound. Tony smiled while the two girls fussed over making him feel better.
"Shame I had to take a bullet to get you ladies to look after me so." Callie smiled.
"Shhh, save your strength. I know it isn't serious, but getting shot is still getting shot."
The group looked about the room and saw it consisted of three cots, two chairs and not much else. After hearing the captain's tale which consisted of him investigating strange noises from the hollow one night.
"I thought it was a woman screaming..." Thomas went on. "I took my rifle and headed down the slope into the hollow. I saw a group of men carrying crates. That's when I was jumped. I fired off a couple shots but they went wild. I was overpowered and taken prisoner. I was mainly kept here, but had been taken to a couple other places during captivity." He sat back in thought.
"That's why I wrote you. Because it had happened before. Strange screams and noises. They figured to be something suspicious. I'm afraid I was little too old to be investigating." Mr. Hardy smiled.
"Just so your safe now. That's all that counts."
The group sat around regaining their strength when a noise was heard down the tunnel. Mr. Hardy went out in the tunnel to look and was soon relieved by the sight of Kelly leading a group of state police officers and paramedics.
"Kelly, thank goodness!" Mr. Hardy smiled. Kelly smiled with a cigar hanging in the corner of his mouth.
"I ever let ya down boss?" he smiled. He led the state police up the tunnel to round up the prisoners. One of the paramedics also escorted them. A paramedic stayed behind to tend to Tony.
"Lucky guy." he observed as he worked on cleaning the wound. "We can patch ya up here and it will hold until you get to a doctor." The paramedic patched Tony's shoulder up and gave him a painkiller. The paramedic then checked over the captain and Bill deeming them both injury free. Chet handed Bill a bottle of water, as well as the captain.
"How goes it Bill?" Chet smiled, "good to see you in one piece." Bill grinned.
"Not bad for getting snagged twice. Guess I better go back and get some training at the FBI camp again. That's kind of embarrassing." Chet smiled.
"Could have happened to any of us."
Momentarily the others returned back down the tunnel. One of the prisoners was on a stretcher while the others were following behind, wary of the police rifles pointing and prodding them along. One officer stopped before Mr. Hardy,
"We are gonna put these birds in a cage after some medical attention. If you find the need to interrogate them, our base office and holding facility is in Treeport. At least you got some of them. And they will be tagged with a nice little kidnaping rap as well as possible hijacking and theft charges." Mr. Hardly smiled grimly.
"When I get Sharpton, I will be happy.." The officer nodded.
"There will likely be some detectives over shortly to collect any evidence left behind. Let us know if you find anything pertinent." Mr. Hardy nodded and watched the group leave. Mr. Hardy turned to the group. Why don't you all head back to the camp and make a meal up. Kelly and I will go and inspect the office area where the two were caught." Chet nodded,
"Ok, Mr. Hardy." Frank stepped up.
"Dad, do you mind if Joe and I go down and inspect that waterway where Sharpton escaped from?" Mr. Hardy nodded.
"That would be fine, Frank." Joe and Frank took off. Chet, Tony, Bill and the girls headed out of the tunnel. Mr. Hardy and Kelly walked towards the office.
"I did call the water patrol and the coast guard. If he goes that far anyway, to be on the lookout for that black boat." Kelly said. Mr. Hardy nodded.
"Good precaution. But knowing Sharpton, he will dump that boat and be on the road sooner than later. He probably has enough cash on him to buy an island or two. The possibilities are endless. Say, that was great response time from the state boys."
"Helps when you arrive by a helicopter and have a beacon. Luckily, they found enough of an opening in the trees to land safely. But, try to see the positives, boss. We have the two kidnapped victims back safe. And a few of Sharpton's boys in custody." Kelly snorted while puffing on his cigar. Mr. Hardy shrugged somewhat hopelessly.
"True. But we should be so lucky to catch the man himself." They entered the office which appeared to be nothing more than a casual hangout rather than an office which would have held records and files.
"I'll be real surprised if we find anything." Mr. Hardy muttered, "if he was heading out anyway, that means this room is probably clean."
Down the passage Frank and Joe went. Joe led Frank to the underground waterway. The large cavernous room had a small channel of water leading into it.
"Nifty little arrangement, huh?" Joe observed. "Take your stolen goods in by truck and export by boat, or the other way around." Frank nodded grimly as they looked around.
"Pretty efficient." He noted that the waterway went through the cavern and curved around to a blind spot.
"Say, what's over there?" Joe shrugged.
"Probably nothing. I guess the waterway ends there and it's just a pool. I don't think it leads anywhere. Just stone." He said. Frank made his way around the waterway's edge to see.
"Hey Joe! Come here." he called. Joe rushed over. Frank stood next to a speedboat. Joe slapped his head.
"Damn, there was another boat here all along. Kelly and I could have caught him!" Frank gestured.
"Maybe all is not lost, Joe. What do you figure the odds are that Kelly and Dad have the water patrol and such scouring the area?" Maybe this guy is held up somewhere." Joe brightened up.
"Yeah! Say, let's appropriate this craft and see what we can do." Frank nodded and they jumped into the medium size speedboat.
"Damn, no key." Joe cursed. Frank held up the key rings he had gotten from the prisoners.
"I will bet it's on here." he started looking through the keys. Sure enough the key to the speedboat was there. Joe cranked the motor over and smiled.
"Let's go!" Frank said. Joe hit the throttle. The boat jumped from where it was sitting and headed down the waterway. The waterway was a narrow channel of water that went a long through the darkness. Joe flipped the lights on. The lights illuminated the small passage.
"We must be way underground." Frank remarked, "We should be coming to a regular river branch at some..." he was cut off by Joe immediately killing the lights and motor. He gestured with sign language that there was something up ahead.
"Let's get out of the boat and investigate ahead. I think our man is up there!" he whispered. Frank nodded. They silently lowered themselves over the edge of the boat and made their way to the shallower side. They cautiously maneuvered themselves forward. Soon it was evident what Joe meant. At the end of the long waterway was an opening. The opening however was blocked by a set of bars set into a grid.
"Bet they built that to discourage anyone from accidentally boating into the area." Joe whispered. Frank nodded as they saw a black speedboat. In the water nearby was a large bald man who was struggling with the iron drop gate. They heard the man cursing in low tones.
"Looks like he's having trouble getting the gate up!" Frank said excitedly. Joe held up a hand.
"He is armed with an auto. So, let's watch it." Frank nodded and pulled out his pistol.
"What I wouldn't do for one of Chet's Uzis about now." Frank muttered. "All I have loaded in this thing is that buckshot. Which means to have stopping power I have to be in range." Joe nodded as they crept further up. The bald man was apparently having great problems raising the gate far enough to accommodate the boat. Frank took advantage of his concentration on the gate to edge up within 10 foot of the man. He steadied his pistol on the subject.
"Freeze, pal." Frank commanded. The man turned abruptly. He looked menacingly at Frank. He had apparently not seen Joe, as he had disappeared from sight.
"So, it's the punk again! What are you going to do about me taking a walk right out of here?" Frank flinched.
"Give up and come peacefully! Now!" the man smirked and reached under the water and came out with an automatic pistol. Frank fired, but the pattern of the buckshot spread and barely caught the man's arm, merely agitating him. The man returned fire. Frank dove to the side at the rat-tat-tat of the automatic cracked across the water. Frank rolled to one side and pulled his gun and leveled it again. He fired and caught the man squarely in the backside with most of the buckshot.
"Ow! You little bastard!" he screamed wincing. He twisted and fired away again with the auto. rat-tat-tat. The bullets nearly hitting Frank but he dove back just in time! The man winced in pain as he tried to walk over towards Frank to get a better shot. At that moment Joe had been swimming deep underwater. He grabbed the man's legs from under and pulled him off balance. The man screamed going down as Joe surfaced. Frank did not waste a second as he joined in. The man surface and Frank cracked him firmly on the jaw with a right cross. Joe Put his pistol against the man's head before he got any further inspiration to attack.
"Think about it pal, at 1 inch from your neck I could have a single pellet loaded and still hit a major vein. With magnum buckshot, I'd say at this range the blast would rival that of a 20-gauge shotgun. Are you feeling lucky?" Frank had seized the man's automatic and held it against the sullen prisoner.
"You'd better clear out of here before my boys come down here and take you out!" he threatened. Frank smiled testily.
"Are these the same boys who just lost a firefight with us upstairs?" The man looked visibly shocked. Frank smiled.
"Keep him covered, Joe. I'm gonna have a look in that boat. At this the man actually gave a half smile. Frank climbed into the craft. But to his dismay he found only some food, clothes, camping supplies and about ten thousand cash. From what his father figured, there should be millions he would be making his escape with. Frank looked over to Joe and shook his head.
"Let's get this guy back to the others." Joe nodded and pointed a finger in the direction from which they came.
"Ok pal, that way. You try anything and I will put you on the list for a kidney donation." The man grudgingly walked along. Frank and Joe watched their prisoner well knowing that he was the brains of the outfit. It was well evident however that their prisoner wasn't in the physical condition to try escape. He was bleeding from the arm and from the backside. Walking seemed to be getting difficult. They retraced their steps through the passageway and up the ladder. Within a few minutes Frank and Joe were prodding their prisoner back to the office room. Fenton Hardy and Kelly were still in there rooting about. Upon seeing the strange entourage Fenton Hardy smiled with delight.
"Sharpton!" he said with satisfaction. Frank smiled.
"Well, he did try to kill us first, so we had to plant some buck shot in his ass and that slowed him down." Joe pushed the prisoner into the room.
"He had a security gate down in the waterway and it must have jammed or something, but he couldn't get it up to pass by." Mr. Hardy smiled.
"Excellent work! Did you find any money?" The boys shook their heads and Sharpton smiled.
"And you won't. Do you think I'd be stupid enough to carry it with me while the heat was on?" Mr. Hardy smiled.
"No, but at least you just let me know that it apparently exists. Looks like you were able to fence all the hijacked loot. No doubt with a plan to talk with certain governments and offer them a deal of a lifetime."
"What are you talking about?" Sharpton fired back. But one could tell he was clearly alarmed by what Mr. Hardy knew.
"Well, since you haven't bought any scientific secrets on satellite security yet, we can call this a fairly successful case. With the exception of the missing money and all the honest people you ripped off. Not to mention attempted murder! But you will have time to think about all of that. Cuff him, Kelly!"
"Right Boss," Kelly drawled, "reckon we better notify the police to get back here."
"That won't be necessary a voice came from behind. The Hardys and Kelly looked in the corridor to find a contingent of state police officers and detectives. A man in a black suit stepped forth. He pulled out an ID.
"Agent Spalding, State police. Excellent work, as usual detective Hardy." Mr. Hardy smiled,
"Thanks, but Frank and Joe made this collar." Detective Spalding turned to the youth with a broad smile.
"Excellent work, fellows. I have of course heard of your reputations also. You will be happy to know you have stopped a national security threat. This bird had it all arranged to buy trade secrets regarding satellite technology and how it works with our nuclear defense systems. Had he actually made the transaction he would have put a huge hole in our line of defense. We will be able to sleep better knowing he is behind bars."
He had a state trooper fit the prisoner with shackles.
"Better get him a medic, too, Williams. Looks like he's leaking." A trooper nodded and led the prisoner down the tunnel. Spalding turned to the Hardys.
"Was there any money recovered?" Fenton Hardy shook his head.
"Nothing yet. He must have hidden it well on the contingency that he'd get pinched." Spalding nodded.
"Figures. And he probably has it squirreled away well, too." Mr. Hardy stepped forward,
"Boys, I want to take a peek at that boat he was making his getaway in." Frank and Joe nodded. Mr. Hardy looked at Kelly.
"Kelly, brief the state boys. I am going down to look at that boat." Kelly nodded.
"Right, boss." he said casually. Fenton Hardy and his sons headed down to the waterway area. Upon reaching it they made their way down the side where a small path went along the side of the channel. Ten minutes hard walking brought them to the area where they apprehended Sharpton. They came upon the large black speedboat still floating before the gate that wouldn't open.
"Well, let's take a closer look." Mr. Hardy suggested. The three waded out to the boat and pulled themselves aboard. Fenton Hardy started searching the stern while his sons took to the bow. Frank looked over his shoulder.
"What are we likely looking for dad? As it's a cinch there isn't millions in cash onboard." Fenton Hardy smiled
"Documents son. Anything that records their criminal activity. Anything at all." Frank and Joe found this a bit defeating as they searched in every compartment they could find and nothing appeared. Joe then looked down at the floor. There was the typical stick mat type flooring you found in boats, but in one area the mat seemed to be raised slightly. He bent down and started pealing the edge of the mat away at the edge and carefully pulled the floor mat back. Sure enough there was a small watertight box. Joe seized it and found it to contain several data discs.
"Oh dad!" he said excitedly. Mr. Hardy turned around to see Joe holding up a box of data CDs. He smiled.
"Excellent work, Joe! The info on these discs will hopefully tell us what we want to know." He looked about. "I'm pretty sure this is all there is here. Let's let the state boys take over this hideout and boats." He and the boys left the boat and made their way back to the main tunnel where the police contingent was making fast work out of checking the place over and making a thorough investigation. Fenton Hardy found detective Spalding.
"Joe recovered some data discs from the boat. Since I have federal jurisdiction over the case I'm going to go peek at them first. I will gladly make copies for you boys though. We will be staying at our camp over the rise from where you came in if you want to stop by later or you can radio." Spalding nodded.
"That's fine Detective Hardy." he said, "we will be here for some time to fine tooth comb the whole place." Mr. Hardy nodded.
"Very good. We are off then." he gestured to the boys and they headed out of the tunnels.
Ten minutes brought them hiking over the rise. There was a great smell in the air. They found Tony who was looking much better along with Bill, Thomas McGuire, Chet, Callie and Iola siting around a fire. Chet was grilling steaks.
"Hope you have plenty." Boomed Mr. Hardy. "Sorry we are late, but we had to catch Sharpton." The others looked up keenly interested. This time it was Frank and Joe's turn to enthrall the group with the capture of the ringleader. After they told the tale, all eyes remained on them in awe.
"That's a hell of a tale, Frank." Chet said turning the steaks. Good to see you in one piece."
"What about the missing money?" Bill asked when told they had not recovered the large sum of cash that should have apparently been present. Mr. Hardy sighed.
"Well, I won't know much till I look at these discs. And with no computer handy I will just have to wait until we get home." Joe smiled looking up.
"We're going home?" Mr. Hardy nodded.
"There's not much more we can do here. The police may even dig the cash up. But if not it isn't likely going anywhere. I know Sharpton wouldn't have let anyone else in on where he stashed it. Besides, I think we could all use a warm bed and some time with our families. And Tony I am sure wouldn't mind a proper doctor looking his shoulder over. So, do you boys have a road vehicle parked around here somewhere?" Frank nodded.
"Chet's SUV is parked over at the captain's house." Mr. Hardy nodded. Then I suggest Chet, the girls and Tony head back to Bayport in the boat. The rest of us will hike back to the captain's and take Chet's SUV from there back to Bayport."
"When do you want to leave?" Joe asked. Mr. Hardy yawned.
"Let's say in the morning as I want to be around if the police find anything worthwhile. But I think it best for Tony to get to a doctor sooner than later. So Chet, if you don't mind, how about you and the girls taking him after dinner?" Chet smiled.
"No problem, Mr. Hardy. I was worried about that myself." The girls nodded their agreement.
So, after they ate, Chet, the girls and Tony packed up some of the belongings and wished the others the best on their hike and speedy return to Bayport. Chet and the girls were especially attentive to Tony on their trek back to the boat.
"Are you doing ok, Tony?" Chet asked over his shoulder. Tony smiled.
"Fine Chet. I think we'll make it ok, but thanks for being concerned." They made their trip easily within forty-five minutes. Chet and the girls insisted that Tony rest at least while they uncover the boat. Soon the boat was uncovered and Chet had the motors churning away. Tony and the girls took seats. Callie smiled to Chet and kissed him.
"Take us out of the woods. I have seen enough of them, baby." Chet nodded with a smile. He turned the boat about and headed out of the hollow. It was a mellow ride, knowing that no one was watching them and they weren't pressed for time." Chet flipped through his CDs and soon the slow chugging sound of The Grateful Dead's Ripple filled the boat. Callie sat back next to Chet with a relaxed smile.
"I love this song. But how on earth did you know that? I've never played it outside of my own bedroom." Chet gave a casual, but mystified look.
"I had no idea Cal. I was just hoping you'd like it. I suppose we really are kindred spirits." She leaned over and kissed his cheek. Tony cracked a smile.
"I think you guys were just meant to be." Iola nodded.
"I'd have to agree. You guys just fit." she smiled.