J.M.J.

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Chapter 5

There was a little more to Frasier than there was to Paradise Valley, but neither Carson nor Ned was particularly interested in anything in the town besides the police station. They found the small building and dashed inside. The young officer sitting at the desk must have guessed that there was something urgent going on because he stood up when he greeted them and asked how he could help them. Carson began explaining, but as soon as he mentioned Paradise Valley, understanding and possibly a little fear appeared in the officer's face.

"I'm afraid Paradise Valley is outside our jurisdiction," he said. "You'll need to talk to the State Police or the county sheriff. I'll call the sheriff, if you'd like."

"Please do. Thank you," Carson said, trying not to sound annoyed that the young man didn't even seem willing to hear him out.

The officer picked up the receiver of the phone, but then he hesitated for a second or two. "You think that the police in Paradise Valley might be involved in whatever happened to your daughter and her friends?"

Carson hadn't said that in so many words, but it was what he thought. "Yes, I think that."

"That's going to make things a lot more complicated," the officer commented.

Ned hadn't said anything, but he could guess the underlying meaning of the officer's laconic observation. "Complicated" was an understatement of what was going to happen. He and Carson didn't really have any evidence that Nancy and the others had even actually made it to Paradise Valley. The police were insisting otherwise, except for Thompson, but he seemed to be afraid to speak out. He might not be much help in an investigation. As for Meyers and any other police officers, they were formidable enemies. They would know how to cover their tracks and it didn't look like they were especially afraid of anyone finding out differently. Unless Thompson turned out to be more helpful than expected, an investigation into Paradise Valley wouldn't be very successful. What they needed was someone who knew how to work around cover-ups like this.

Ned slipped back from the front desk and took out his phone. He found the number he wanted and typed out a text that read: Can I call? He hoped it wouldn't take long to get an answer. Chances were that he would either get a reply right away or it would take hours. It was a relief then when a text came back saying Sure.

"Mr. Drew?" he said softly while the officer was still on the phone. "I'm going to go make a phone call."

"To the Hardys?"

Ned shrugged slightly. "It couldn't hurt."

"Right. Go ahead."

Ned only went to the far corner of the lobby as he pressed the call button for the number he had just texted. It barely rang before Frank Hardy answered it. Frank and his brother, Joe, were more Nancy's friends than Ned's, as they were all amateur detectives. That was why Ned was calling Frank now. He might have some ideas about this whole strange situation. What was more, the Hardys' dad, Fenton, sometimes worked with the government. If they had any trouble getting an investigation into Paradise Valley, Fenton might be able to help.

"Hi, Ned. Is something up?" Frank asked him.

"It looks like it," Ned replied. "Are you and Joe on a case right now?"

"Nothing too important. Is this about the Swift case?"

"You know about that?"

"Most of the country's heard about it," Frank replied. "It made the national news. Considering it happened in River Heights, I've been guessing that Nancy was investigating. If she happens to need any help, Joe and I can get away from what we're working on for a few days."

"I'm afraid Nancy might need some help." Ned explained what had happened so far.

Frank listened without interrupting until Ned had finished. "That does sound suspicious," he said finally. "I'll talk to Dad. He might be able to get some information. For that matter, he might even know something about this place. You never know. And I was serious that Joe and I could drop what we're working on now, if you want. This sounds a lot more important."

"We don't know for sure that anything has happened to the girls…" Ned said slowly.

"Even if nothing has, we wouldn't consider it a wasted trip. It sounds like there's enough of a mystery without any disappearances."

"I would appreciate the help, then."

NDHBNDHBND

It turned out that none of the buildings on the farm were locked. Even the door to the house opened easily when George tried it. Bess had been hesitant to try the house, but as soon as they slipped inside, they could tell that no one actually lived here. It was fully furnished, but everything was too perfectly in place, too impersonal, and too dusty to be anyone's actual home.

"Well, I guess we don't have to worry about running into people in here," Bess whispered as she peered around nervously. "But what about cameras? You said that the houses in town had them."

"If there were cameras here, they would have found us when we were hiding around here earlier," George reasoned. "Besides that, the cameras in town were really obvious. We wouldn't have missed them."

Bess still had her misgivings, which even George had to admit was fair. Nevertheless, the house seemed like the best place for them to set up camp while they figured out what to do. If they had to stay here all night, it would be warmer than any of the outbuildings, and if they got cornered, there were more doors and windows to escape from here, as well as more places to hide inside.

Once they had satisfied themselves that there was really no one lurking around the house, they sat in the middle of the living room floor. There was a fireplace in this room and it even had wood in it. The girls would have liked to light a fire, but they knew that that would attract attention to them. They had to content themselves to sit without it.

"We need to make some plans," George said. "What are we going to do?"

Bess shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I just wish we knew what happened to Nancy and what's going on with this crazy town."

"If we knew that…" George started, but then another thought distracted her and she said, "We should look around all the outbuildings. Maybe there's a car or a truck around here somewhere and we could drive out of this place."

"I wouldn't trust anything we found here not to blow up when turn it on or something," Bess muttered.

Anywhere else, George would have disregarded that suggestion, but she had the feeling that almost anything could happen here.

"Well, there are obviously only two things we can do," George said after a moment. "Either we have to go for help or we have to look for Nancy. We've got to decide which one we're going to try to do."

"Why do you think we couldn't get out of town before?" Bess asked.

George shrugged, trying to appear calm. "We just got turned around, I guess."

"But what if they made us turn around somehow? Some kind of magnetic wall or something?"

"That's a little too science fiction, don't you think?" George objected. "No one has any way of making something like that. It's got to just be coincidence. But the problem is that if we try striking out again, we don't have any guarantee that it won't happen again unless we take the road."

"And if we take the road, it will be easier for Meyers and the rest of them to find us," Bess added.

George sighed. "Yeah. That's our dilemma. The good news is that people are bound to start wondering where we are pretty soon, if they haven't already."

"I hope they don't just blunder in here and get in the same trouble we're in."

"That would start getting really suspicious if too many people disappeared in this town," George pointed out. "They'd probably just try to send them on their way like they did with us at first."

"I wonder why thy changed their minds about that."

"Nancy must have seen something they didn't want her to see."

"Which means she's probably really in trouble." Bess settled back against the front of one of the armchairs. Somehow, neither girl felt comfortable actually sitting in the chairs. "On one hand, I feel like we can't waste any time finding Nancy, but on the other hand, I don't see how we can even look for her without getting caught ourselves."

"I feel the same way," George admitted. "So we should go for help?"

Bess nodded. "I don't think we have any choice. Maybe if we wait until just before dawn we can still slip away without being noticed in the dark and we can have some idea which direction we're going."

"We can try it."

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy had managed to sit up on the cot and lean against the wall behind her. She watched the boy sitting across the small room for her, who was staring back at her in curiosity.

"You really don't remember anything?" he asked her.

"Not really," Nancy replied. "I almost feel like I can remember some things, but not quite. Maybe you can tell me something."

Tom chewed his lip. "I don't really know anything about you. Thompson just said that you had come to look for me. He thought maybe my dad had sent you. Anyway, he told me that if I snuck into the back of your car, you'd get me out of town. But then, when you came along, you didn't seem to know anything about it, and Thompson didn't tell you anything. So that makes me kind of wonder if he's really not trying to help me. I don't know what he is trying to do then, but he really wasn't as helpful as I hoped he would be, especially once Meyers showed up. After Meyers pushed you into the car door, Thompson didn't even try to help us."

"Who are Thompson and Meyers?"

"They're supposed to be cops, but I don't know if they really are or not. Anyway, they're some of the guys who have been guarding me ever since I got kidnapped. Thompson acts like he wants to help me, but Meyers is clear that he doesn't. Anyway, Meyers shoved you into the car door and you hit your head. I was afraid you were dead. There was so much blood, and you were unconscious for a long time. I guess it just bled a lot because that's what head wounds do. They brought us back in here and then they called some guy who they said was doctor. I guess he probably was. He put six stitches in your head before he bandaged it up. Then they just left us in here ever since."

Nancy reached up and gingerly felt the bandage on her head. Now that she looked at her clothes, there was blood on them. "I'm kind of glad I don't remember all of that. What about you? Why did these guys kidnap you?"

"At first I thought my mom had sent them. It wouldn't be the first time she tried to kidnap me. But then I realized that they want something from my dad. I haven't been able to figure out what, but it could be a lot of things. It must have something to do with why he put in a plant in a place like this in the first place."

Nancy rubbed her head and then grimaced and jerked her hand away. "I'm a little confused. Maybe you could start your story from the beginning. Maybe with why your mom would want to kidnap you?"

"Oh, sure. It's not very often that I run into somebody who doesn't already have a bunch of ideas about my family. You see, my family has owned Swift Enterprises for several generations now, which is a pretty big deal. We invent and develop a whole bunch of different kinds of tech. Most of the Swifts have always been really involved in it all. But my grandpa died while my dad was still a kid, and he was raised mostly by his mom, my grandma. My great-grandpa was still alive then, and he was head of the company all while Dad was a kid. When he died, Dad was in his early twenties, and suddenly he had to take over the company. He didn't really know what to even do. Great-grandpa had tried to teach him, obviously, but Dad would be the first one to admit he doesn't have much of a head for either business or technology. He tried hiring a CEO to run things for him, and he went on studying the arts. He met my mom while he was still in college and they got married really fast. Then he found out that the CEO was embezzling from the company, so he had to take a more active role in sorting that out. That was when he realized that the ethics of running a company like Swift Enterprises were actually really complicated. See, a lot of the things that were in development could either be used for unethical purposes, like weapons, or things were simply being developed or materials gotten in unethical ways. Dad didn't want any part in that sort of thing, so he tried being more active and tried to straighten things out. The company started losing money big time, and most people said it was because Dad was too incompetent. My mom realized she maybe hadn't made the fortune she had thought she did in marrying Dad, and so she had to get out while there was still money to get from him. She picked up and left us. I was only four then. It was pretty messy. They had joint custody at first, but then my mom tried to kidnap me once when I was supposed to be with my dad. After that, my dad was able to get full custody, and we haven't really heard from my mom since, so I guess it would have been kind of weird if she ad suddenly gotten these guys to kidnap me again."

"That all sounds awful," Nancy commented.

Tom shrugged. "Anyway, I don't think any of that has anything to do with what's going on here. It's got to have to do with the plant Dad put up in this town. This is Paradise Valley, by the way. It's a little in the middle of nowhere. A couple years ago, this guy named Lucien Delvere approached my dad about renting out a building he already had here to use for a plant. I forgot to say that after the whole mess with my mom, my dad really got everything together with the company and started making it a success again and clearing up most of the ethical issues. One that he ran into a couple of times, though, was that when he'd contract foreign manufacturing firms, a few of them misrepresented how they treated their employees or sourced their he likes to have as much work done domestically as possible, so that's why he made the deal with Delvere. Then a couple of months ago, Dad suddenly said he had to go check something out at this plant. He's never told me what was going on, but it seems like ever since then, he's been dealing with this place and Delvere. Then, we came out here a few days ago. I got the idea that Dad didn't want to bring me, but he also didn't feel like he could leave me behind. Then yesterday, he said he had to go talk to a lawyer and that I needed to stay at the place we had rented, which was in Frasier, which is a little bit bigger town about fifteen miles away from here. While he was gone, Meyers and some other guy—not Thompson—came in and grabbed me and brought me back here. They said that one of their people had shot my dad, but he was still alive so they were going to hold onto me to try to get him to do what they want. I'm not what that is. All I know is that I wish you could tell me how he is."

"I do, too," Nancy replied. "Don't you have any idea what they want?"

Tom pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Well, I don't know anything for sure, but my guess is that Delvere must have wanted Swift Enterprises here to use as cover for something illegal or unethical. Dad found out about it and tried to put a stop to it, and then Delvere retaliated. It seems pretty obvious that that's what happened. I just don't have any idea what they're trying to cover up."

Nancy rested her head and shoulders against the wall. She longed to lie back down and close her eyes for a few minutes, but at the same time, she recognized that she was in a lot of trouble, and the sooner she could start remembering a few things, the better off they'd be.

"Are you okay?" Tom asked her.

"As much as I can be under the circumstances." Nancy pushed herself to sit up straight again. "The most important thing right now is for us to escape. If we can also find out what these people are up to, that would be a great bonus, but if we get a chance to get away, we've got to take it."

"Okay," Tom agreed.

Before they could make any kind of plans, the door opened and Meyers came in with four other men, two of them dressed in police uniforms and two in coveralls. The prisoners looked up at them in apprehension, but Meyers didn't keep them guessing for long about what he was doing.

"The two of you can come along without any trouble, or we can drag you," he said without preamble. "It doesn't make any difference to us, and I think you both know by now that you can scream for help all you want and nobody's going to help you. It's you're choice."

Tom stood up cautiously. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere else," Meyers said. "We want you somewhere more secure in case anyone comes around, asking questions."