J.M.J.

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! It's only fair to warn you that this story has taken a little bit of a different turn than I was expecting, so it's going to be a little while still before we actually see Frank and Joe. But don't worry—they're coming! God bless!

Chapter 4

Bess and George held their breaths for a few seconds, unable to even think whether they should try to escape the pitchfork by giving themselves up or to stay put and hope for the best. Bess was about to lose her nerve when they heard a shout and suddenly Meyers stopped jabbing the stack with the pitchfork. The girls breathed a sigh of relief and then listened to the conversation around them, hoping that this wasn't just a temporary respite from the pitchfork.

"They're hiding somewhere around here," Meyers told the newcomer. "I saw them run in here, so they have to be hiding somewhere. If we comb the area, we should be able to find them."

"Okay. We'll get started on that as soon as you're finished feeding the cows," another man said.

The girls heard Meyers snort in annoyance and drop the pitchfork. "I thought they might be hiding in the hay, but I guess not."

That was good news, and Bess and George were able to relax a bit. However, they knew that when the men didn't find them anywhere else, they might try the haystack again. It made for a long, anxious wait, especially since there would be long intervals where the girls couldn't hear anything and they would wonder if their pursuers were gone but then they would hear some sound from them again and know that they had to keep waiting. What was worse was that they had no idea what had happened to Nancy. Between her disappearance and Meyers' claim that she had been in an accident, it didn't seem too hopeful. Of course, Meyers could have been lying about Nancy. She might just be on the run, too, and hadn't wanted to give her friends' position away by going to them. With the cell reception situation, she wouldn't have any way to contact them.

After some time, the girls heard someone moving about near the haystack. They stiffened, afraid that they were about to be threatened with a pitchfork again. However, there was no indication that the person out there was searching. He—or she; they could only hear that there was someone moving around—was just pacing up and down near the haystack, evidently waiting.

"The only place left is that haystack." Meyers' voice was getting louder, indicating that he was walking toward them. "They must be in there, after all."

"No," someone else said right beside the haystack. "I just searched it. There's no way."

"Did you use the pitchfork?"

"Sure. I mean, we could still spread it all out on the ground if you want to, but those girls would have to have nerves of steel not to make a sound while someone's rooting around with a pitchfork."

Meyers seemed to hesitate. "Well, okay. I guess we don't have to do that. They must have slipped away somehow. It makes sense that they'd be tricky. The other girl is Nancy Drew."

"It was an unlucky day when she found out about all this," another man commented. "If we would have just gotten rid of Swift here, it never would have happened."

"We didn't know Swift was going to go to Drew, of all people, until after he left here!" Meyers pointed out. "Besides, a rich guy like that gets killed here, it's going to get us a lot of attention. We'd probably be able to get it ruled a suicide, but we'd still probably have reporters and such crawling all over."

"Oh, there's no point in arguing about it," a fourth man broke in. "This whole thing's turning into a disaster, and you know we're all going to get blamed. The one thing we've got in our favor is that we've got the Drew girl and Swift's kid. We might be able to get some kind of cooperation with that leverage."

"If it was just Swift, maybe," Meyers said darkly. "We could get him to do just about anything for that kid. But Drew's another story, especially if that girl doesn't come around soon."

The voices faded away with the sound of footsteps. The girls waited for another fifteen minutes to be sure the men were gone, and then they finally warily made their way out of the haystack. As they picked pieces of hay out of their hair, they looked around, but the place was deserted.

"Well, it looks like we got away," Bess said, "and it looks like that's the only good news."

"I don't know," George replied. "It also sounds like their scheme—whatever it is—is in trouble."

"But they've got Nancy and that other kid!" Bess protested. "And it sounds like Nancy really is hurt. We've got to do something."

"Definitely," George agreed. "I think the best thing we can do is to go for help." She checked her phone. "I wish we could get some cell reception. I'll bet they're blocking it out since they know there are strangers in town and they don't want us to be able to call out."

"That's great. High-tech criminals who are running an entire town," Bess said through gritted teeth. "This should be a piece of cake."

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

The problem with this was that they weren't sure where they were going. If they walked along the road, it would make it too easy for their pursuers to catch them, but they didn't know the exact direction to the nearest town. Their phones couldn't connect to GPS to help them out, either. Finally, they decided that it didn't exactly matter which way they went. Once they were out of range of whatever blocking technology was keeping them from calling out, they would be able to readjust their direction.

It was still fairly early in the spring, and so the sun set before they had gotten to where they could call out. Darkness came quickly after that, and they were still walking. They were beginning to feel that they would never get anywhere when finally, they saw the lights of a town in the distance.

Although they were tired by this time, they hastened their steps. As they drew closer to the town, however, George started to have a strange feeling about it. As they were about to enter the town, she stopped.

"What is it?" Bess asked.

George pointed to a building to their left. "Doesn't that look familiar?"

Bess turned and looked at the window, not wanting to see what she was seeing. "It's in Paradise Valley, isn't it?"

George nodded. "We're back again. We must have gotten turned around in the dark."

"But how?" Bess objected. "This place is starting to remind me of something that would happen in that show you made me watch. The black and white one?"

"You mean The Twilight Zone?" George chuckled wryly. "Yeah. I can see that."

"Well, what are we going to do?" Bess asked. "We can't just walk right back into this town."

"No." George sighed. "How about we go back to that farm? Maybe we can hang out there until we think of something. They probably won't think to look for us there again."

"Hopefully we can get there," Bess replied dryly.

NDHBNDHBND

Carson and Ned arrived in Paradise Valley close to the same time that Bess and George were debating what to do about unexpectedly returning there. The first place they stopped was the police station, and they weren't impressed to find that no one seemed to be around. The building was locked up tight and no amount of knocking brought anyone to the door.

"You'd think that with a possible kidnapping, they'd have someone here at the station," Carson commented, looking as if a police officer might materialize out of nowhere.

"They're a small town," Ned commented, trying to be generous. "They probably don't have a very big police force. Maybe they're all out following up on leads."

"I don't see Bess's car," Carson noted. "I wonder where the girls are."

Ned took his phone from his pocket. "It looks like our guess about no cell reception here is right. It's completely dead."

Carson looked around him again. There was something about this town that he didn't like, even though he had only been here a few minutes. It was just a feeling, so he didn't mention it to Ned. If it turned out he was just being paranoid, he didn't want to make that too obvious.

At about the same time, a police car pulled up in front of the building. Two officers got out, looking the two men over critically. The one who had been driving folded his arms as he stepped into the glow of the streetlight. Carson noted that his nametag read Meyers.

"Can I help you?" the officer asked.

"Yes," Carson replied. "I'm Carson Drew. My daughter came here earlier today and would have asked you some questions about the Swift case."

Meyers' eyes had widened, while his companion started even more visibly. Carson could just read his nametag: Thompson.

"The Swift case, you say?" Meyers said, smoothing his surprise over. "We've been in contact with the River Heights police about that, of course, but we haven't had anyone come and ask questions. Is your daughter a police officer?"

"No," Carson replied. "I'm sure she would have come here. Her name is Nancy. She had two other girls with her."

Meyers shook his head. "I haven't seen anyone like that. How about you, Roscoe?"

The other officer, Thompson, shook his head slowly. "Are you sure they were headed here?"

"I'm positive," Carson insisted. "Are you sure they didn't come here?"

"And I'm positive about that," Meyers said. "Maybe they found some lead along the way so they never got here. At least, I hope it was something like that and they didn't have any trouble on the way here. I can check with the State Police, if you like."

Carson had the feeling that the man was bluffing, and so he decided to call the bluff. "Why don't you? Here's the car they would have been driving." He gave Meyers the license number of Bess's car.

"Come on into the station," Meyers invited them.

Carson and Ned followed him inside while Thompson walked behind them. Meyers picked up a phone on the desk and made a call. He spoke for a minute, giving the information that Carson had given to him, and then he paused, briefly explaining to the others in the room that the person on the other end of the line was checking. It didn't take long before the other person apparently came on the line again. Meyers spoke to them for a couple of minutes and then hung up.

"The State Police haven't heard from them," he reported. "I'm sorry I can't help you. Cell reception in this area is notoriously bad. Maybe they stopped somewhere and tried to call but couldn't."

"I'd look around in Frasier," Thompson spoke up. "They're the closest town to here. At the very least, they've got a hotel that you can stay in. It's getting pretty late."

"What's wrong with the hotel here in town?" Ned asked.

"Nothing, if you like cockroaches, mice, and cold showers," Thompson replied.

"Is there anything else we can help you with?" Meyers asked abruptly.

"It's possible that the police station wasn't the first place that Nancy and the other girls came to," Carson suggested. "We might still go around and ask some questions."

"We can help make some inquiries," Meyers offered. "Most of the businesses will be closed by this time, so I'll need to call people at home, anyway."

"Do you have a picture of your daughter and her friends?" Thompson asked. "We can make sure all our officers have an eye out for them."

Carson glanced at Ned to see if he was having the same misgivings he was. From the frown on the younger man's face, he guessed that he was. "I have some on my phone," he said reluctantly. "There's no reception, though, so I can't send it to you."

"You must have Wifi in here," Ned commented.

"It's pretty shoddy," Thompson replied. He looked at his own phone. "It's not even working for me. Let me see if I can get it going by restarting the router. I'll be right back."

He disappeared through another door. Carson happened to glance at Meyers and thought that he didn't seem very impressed with his partner's actions. However, at the same moment, the person whom Meyers was calling answered the phone and he began to speak.

Thompson returned a few minutes later. "I've got it restarted. Let me see your phone and see if I can get it connected."

He reached his hand toward Carson, but it was Ned who reluctantly handed his phone over. "I've got quite a few pictures of the girls on there."

"Okay." Thompson took the phone and started doing something with it. After a minute or two, he handed it back to Ned. "Sorry. I can't get it to connect. Common problem around here."

Carson watched as Ned glanced at the screen and then quickly put the phone back in his pocket. The expression on the younger man's face was hard to read, but Carson guessed that something unusual had just happened.

"Well, thanks, anyway," Ned told Thompson. "If nobody in town has seen them, I can try sending the pictures once we get somewhere with reception."

Thompson nodded. "Sounds fair."

After about ten minutes, Meyers finished his phone calls and reported that he had tried everyone in town likely to have been approached by the girls, but none of them had seen them. "I'm sorry we can't be more help," he finished.

"We'll find them," Carson told him. "Let me know if you do hear anything."

They went back out to the car, but before Carson could start the engine, Ned showed him his phone. The notes app was open, displaying a note which read Get out of town and call for help.

"This what Thompson was doing instead of trying to connect my phone to internet," Ned explained.

Carson nodded slowly. "I think we'd better take him up on that advice."

NDHBNDHBND

She blinked a few times as consciousness returned to her. She felt scattered, unable to think at all. The mere idea of sitting up promised to send her aching head spinning, and she made a face and groaned.

"Are…are you okay?" someone asked from off to her left.

As she opened her eyes, she realized that whoever had been speaking to her had to be too her left, as there was a wall to her right and she was lying on an uncomfortable cot. She turned her head just enough to see the speaker. He was a teenage boy, about fifteen or sixteen, with blond hair and wide blue eyes which were watching her uncertainly as the boy was sitting on the edge of a folding chair in the corner of the room.

"They said that your name is Nancy and you came here to look for me?" the boy went on.

That struck her strangely. The name, at least, sounded right, but she realized with a start that she couldn't have supplied the information if she had been asked for it. She certainly had no idea what she was doing here or even where she was.

"Who are you?" she asked the boy.

"My name is Tom Swift. My dad owns Swift Enterprises."

None of that sounded familiar to Nancy. She carefully propped herself up on her elbow. "Why would I be looking for you?"

Tom stared at her incredulously. "Because these guys kidnapped me? They also said that they tried to kill my dad. Is he okay? Do you know?"

Nancy put a hand to her head, only to find that there was a bandage swathed over her forehead and around the back of her head. "No, I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't actually remember anything."