J.M.J.

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Chapter 9

"He's woken up now and we've tried to talk to him," Chief McGinnis explained. He ran a hand through his white-flecked red hair. "At first, he seemed toconfused to tell us much, but now, he won't talk at all. It looks like something may have happened to keep him from talking."

"Why do you think that?" Frank asked.

The first thing he and Joe did when they arrived in River Heights was to check in with the local police. They had been trying to contact their dad, Carson Drew, and Ned, but none of them would answer either phone calls or texts. It had them a bit worried, despite that they had forewarned them that cell reception in Paradise Valley was unreliable at best. McGinnis hadn't been in contact with any of them, either, which did nothing to reassure the Hardy brothers, but he did have some interesting news on the older Tom Swift, which he was relating to them now.

"Confused as he was, Swift tried to tell the nurses something of what had happened when he first woke up," McGinnis said. "They asked us to wait a bit to speak to him. I agreed, but I wish now that I hadn't. There were a few cards delivered for him. He looked through them and then suddenly he insisted on making a phone call. His doctor didn't think that was such a great idea, but he was so insistent that he was finally allowed to do so. Since then, he hasn't said a word to anyone."

"Did he use the hospital's phone system?" Joe asked. "There would be a record of the number he called then."

"We know the number he called," McGinnis confirmed. "It matches the number that the writer of this card asked him to call."

McGinnis handed Frank a card, and Joe leaned over to see it more easily. It was an ordinary get-well card, with a message from Swift's ex-wife, Olivia, asking him to call her so that they could make some attempt at reconciliation.

"Is this really her phone number?" Frank asked.

"Hard to say. It appears to be a burner phone. At any rate, it's been disconnected." McGinnis chewed his lip. "I have serious doubts that she really wrote that card. Even though her son is missing, possibly kidnapped, she's shown practically no interest in the entire case. It doesn't add up that she would then write this card."

"That seems pretty obvious," Frank agreed. "Whoever sent this just wanted Swift to call them so they could threaten him. They probably used Olivia's name as bait to get his interest."

"Unless she's in on this," Joe suggested. "What do we know about her? Is that possible?"

"We have looked into the possibility," McGinnis confirmed. "She has a police record, but nothing much like this. It's mostly drug or alcohol-related offenses and a few domestic issues. The biggest thing is that she attempt to kidnap young Tom once, when he was eight. Swift didn't press charges against her. Instead, as a sort of settlement, he had her sign over complete custody of the boy to him. She apparently jumped at the chance."

"It sounds like she could have a grudge against Swift," Joe said. "What does Tom think about this? The younger one, that is. Would he go back to her?"

"We don't know much about him," McGinnis said. "Swift keeps him almost completely out of the public eye. We're working on finding friends or relatives who can help shed some light on that possibility. From what we know for sure, it doesn't sound very likely. At the time of the attempted kidnapping, Tom said that he didn't want to go back to his mother, that he was afraid of her. Everyone we have talked to so far says that Tom and his father seem to be quite close and that Tom seems to be content with the situation. There is one peculiar detail that complicates the matter a bit. Swift—the older one—still wears his wedding ring."

"How long have they been split up?" Frank asked.

"Eleven years."

"And he's never remarried?"

McGinnis shook his head. "As far as anyone seems to know, he's never even expressed any interest in so much as dating. Of course, he also seems to value his privacy highly, but I don't think he could have pulled off a second secret marriage. Besides that, it would be rather odd for him to reuse his ring from his first marriage."

Frank smiled ruefully. "That would be strange. Do you think we could possibly talk to him?"

"I don't know that his doctor would agree to that," McGinnis replied hesitantly, "but I'll see what I can do."

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy crept down the hallway carefully, checking around every corner for anyone lurking nearby. There was no particular need for silence, since the incessant sound of machinery covered Nancy's footsteps even if it wasn't deafening here. The problem with that, however, was that Nancy also couldn't hear if anyone else was around. She had to depend entirely on her sense of sight. She didn't see anyone, and no one attempted to pursue her, so she was starting to think she might be able to escape, as long as she could find her way out.

What, precisely, she planned to do when she escaped wasn't something she could say at the moment. She had no idea who she was, where she should go, whether there was anyone she could trust. From the conversation she had overheard, it didn't sound like there was. If only she could remember something!

It was no use just wishing, so she kept going. The building was more massive than she had expected, and hallways crisscrossed in a pattern that she couldn't determine. More often than not, they would open into a catwalk over a massive open space that seemed to be where most of the noise came from. The first time it happened, it terrified Nancy to suddenly find herself stepping into an open space with the floor several stories beneath her. Of course, she was really stepping onto the catwalk, but in the confusion of the sudden change of place and the increase in volume, she didn't totally register that. She jumped back and closed the door.

After taking a moment to collect herself, she carefully opened the door again and looked out. The door was in shadows and it was so far up in the wall that she didn't think anyone would notice it opening again. At least, she hoped they wouldn't, because there were plenty of people milling about below. Glancing across to the catwalks on the other walls, Nancy could see that she was four stories up and on the top floor. There were no windows and there were doors on all floors and on all walls, so Nancy guessed that this space must be in the center of the building. Even if she could get to the ground floor, she would still have to navigate whatever maze of hallways was down there.

From Nancy's vantage point, it didn't appear that there was any one project being worked on. Instead, it looked like some kind of assembly-line manufacturing. Whatever was happening, Nancy didn't understand it, so it all looked like one big, complicated mess. She didn't see anything useful there. She did notice that there were ladders leading down from the catwalks to the ground floor, but she didn't dare trying to climb down one of those.

She backed into the hall once again and glanced both ways. The hall was still deserted, so she started down the opposite way from which she had come. It seemed strange to her that there were no directions anywhere, pointing out where stairs or exits were. After she had turned lefthand corners three times, she decided she must have gone all the way around the perimeter of the building without seeing either stairs or an elevator. The prospect of having to open every door and check behind it was not in the least appealing.

She tried a few different doors, putting her ear against them to listen before opening them. Oddly, no one was behind any of them, nor were any stairs. Nancy was beginning to wonder if the ladders on the catwalks were the only way down after all. But that didn't work. She had been brought up an elevator to this floor. It had to be here somewhere. It couldn't have just disappeared.

Then she tried yet another door and jumped when she saw what was beyond it. It was a storage room, much bigger than they closet where she had been imprisoned, but cluttered with all sorts of materials. None of that was what had caught her attention, however. Right in front of the door, a man was lying motionless on his face. For an instant, Nancy froze, but then she instinctively knelt next to him and checked for a pulse.

As soon as she touched the man, he stirred. In fact, he even recoiled, raising himself up slightly on his elbows until he could see her. As soon as he saw her face, he relaxed.

"Oh, it's you," he said, sounding relieved. "How did you get away?"

"Do you know me?" Nancy asked, studying his face closely. She didn't recognize him at all, but that was hardly surprising. Besides her obvious memory troubles, the man's face was cut and bruised in several places. His clothes were also torn, but Nancy now recognized them as a police uniform.

"What kind of question is that?" he asked with almost an incredulous grin.

Nancy hesitated for a few seconds, and then she decided she might as well admit to her amnesia. It wasn't as if she could hide it very well. "You see, I hit my head…"

"I'm sorry about that," the man cut in. "That was partly my fault. I didn't know what else to do."
Nancy looked at him hard. "What happened? You see, I don't remember anything about it now. Or about anything else for that matter."

The man put his hand to his forehead and then winced as he touched his own bruises. Nancy noticed that he had a nametag that was now half fallen off, identifying him as "Thompson."

"I can't believe all this," he complained. "It's like some kind of crazy dream. I'm afraid I can't help you much. I don't really know anything about you, except that you came to town asking a lot of questions that the people running this place didn't like. I wanted to help you and the Swift kid escape, but Meyers caught me. He shoved you and you hit your head against the car door. I was able to play the whole thing off, but Meyers must have suspected. Later, a couple of guys came asking about you and your friends. I passed them a message, but Meyers did catch me then.I almost escaped, but he had the others chase me down with the dogs. After that…Well, you can see what happened."

"So you're the one Tom told me about," Nancy said slowly. She remembered how Meyers had said that he would try to trick her with people claiming to be someone she could trust. This man could be a plant. On the other hand, the cuts and bruises on his face were real enough. That would have taken quite the dedication to allow himself to get beaten up just to trick her. Still, maybe he would have done that.

"I'm Roscoe Thompson," the man added with a nod.

"I'm Nancy."

"I know that much." Roscoe cringed and then took a deep breath before looking back up at Nancy. "How did you escape?"

Nancy explained. "You said that I had some friends with me," she added after she had finished. She was still speaking slowly, as she wasn't sure if this was a trick. "Tom didn't mention anything about them."

"They weren't there when you were caught. I don't know where they went, but I don't think they've been captured yet. They hadn't when I got found out, at least."

Nancy chewed her lip. She was about to ask some more questions when an alarm went off. There didn't seem to be any speakers in the room where they were, but it was loud and piercing in the hall. Nancy swung the door shut to try to block it out.

"They have noticed that you escaped," Roscoe said. "You'd better hide. If anyone comes in here looking for you, I'll tell them I haven't seen you."

NDHBNDHBND

Ned kept glancing over his shoulder every few steps. He didn't believe for a moment that Delvere would have let him go if Delvere didn't stand to gain from it. It was true that there was no real way for Ned to escape, but it still didn't all add up. Even so, he didn't see anyone pursuing him as he went.

He reached the edge of town and then looked around. It had been implied that Meyers thought the girls had gotten out of town. That seemed likely enough. If they were still in town, they probably would have been found by now. So that meant they were somewhere outside of town, but at the same time, Ned had no idea how far to go to reach the supposed electronic barrier. He started walking forward, thinking that there was probably quite a bit of space before he reached the barrier. But how much? This was going to be a lot more nerve-wracking than he had thought.

Finally, about a hundred yards out of town, he lost his nerve. He turned to the left and started making a circle. So far, he didn't see anywhere that the girls could be hiding, nor did he see anyone following him. Time passed, and Ned had made about a quarter circle around the town when he spotted a little cluster of buildings ahead. It was unmistakably a little farmstead. That seemed a likely place for the girls to have hidden, although it was a little farther out from town than Ned was now. The girls presumably wouldn't have been worried about the electronic barrier, so they wouldn't have hesitated to get as far from Paradise Valley as possible. The farmhouse was a likely place for them to try to hide.

Ned only hesitated a few more seconds before he started making straight for the farm buildings. As he went, he passed by a stand of trees, which gave him an idea. He picked up a stick and kept tossing it ahead of him a few feet as he walked. He wasn't sure if something could pass through the electronic barrier through the air without being shocked, in which case, his safety precaution would have been useless, but it was better than going on entirely blind. Eventually, he reached the farm without getting electrocuted and breathed a sigh of relief.

He wandered around the yard for a minute or two before he heard someone calling his name, in the sort of stage whisper of someone who only wanted one specific person to hear. He turned to see George poking her head out of the farmhouse door. He jogged over to her.

"What are you doing here?" George asked, still half-whispering.

"Looking for you," Ned replied. "Where's Bess?"

"She's inside." George nodded toward the door. "But Nancy…"

"I know," Ned cut her off. "Let's go inside. We've got to make some plans."