He wasn’t traveling at a high speed, but when his motorbike went over the oil slick Frank knew that he had to do something or he was going to be badly hurt! He immediately made himself fall, and winced in pain as he hit the hard ground. As he slid across the road Frank closed his eyes – for he saw a car rounding the curved road.

“No!” Frank thought, and opened his eyes – an inspired plan popped into his head. He knew the car would run over his bike first –so using the momentum of his fall to his advantage Frank pushed his body into a roll towards the side of the road.

Joe hoped that there was no one behind him as he came to a screeching halt. He jumped off his motorbike, letting it fall to the ground as he ran towards the oncoming car, signaling the driver to stop. Luckily the driver saw the bike and swerved his car to avoid hitting it – almost running over Joe in the process. The car swerved again heading once again towards Frank, but the driver managed to keep a level head and hit the brakes, skidding to a stop.

Joe ran over to his brother as the driver was shakily getting out of his car. Frank was lying on his back gasping for breath.

“Frank, are you all right?!” Joe asked with worry and concern.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“What were you two hot-rods trying to do?!” screamed the driver, a thirtyish slightly bald man. “I called the police and I hope they put you two in jail!”

Joe, who was kneeling next to his brother started to rise when he felt a hand touch his arm. He looked down at Frank who slowly shook his head. “He’s had a bad scare, Joe – we all have.”

Joe, notorious for his quick temper, gave his brother a slight nod as he rose to face the older man.

“I’m sorry sir, but we weren’t hot-rodding. The rain brought up an old oil slick that we didn’t see until the last moment.”

The man blustered a little more before finally accepting Joe’s apology. At that moment a police cruiser drove up. The brothers didn’t recognize the officers in the car, but then they only knew a handful at the department. One of the officers called for an ambulance while Joe called Biff. He was hoping his blonde-haired friend would drive the van and pick up the motorbikes. If Frank had to go to the hospital, Joe wanted to go with him.

Three minutes later the ambulance arrived. Unfortunately for Joe, Biff hadn’t arrived yet. Frank assured his brother that he would be fine and reminded him that their mother would probably be waiting for them at the hospital. As he watched the ambulance leave, Joe felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find the driver, Mr. Gardner.

“I hope your brother is going to be okay. And I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier.”

“We did give you quite a scare, Mr. Gardner – I’m just glad you were able to avoid hitting us!” Joe said with a grin.

“So am I,” sighed Mr. Gardner with relief.

Mr. Gardner left while Joe waited for Biff; the officers offered to stay and wait with him, but Joe assured them he would be all right.

Joe paced for a bit, and he glanced over to where the bike’s skid marks began. He didn’t know why, but Joe felt compelled to check out the oil slick. Making sure that no vehicles were coming, Joe ran into the middle of the road. He knelt down to get a better look at the oil slick, and frowned as he touched the outer lining of the stain. He traced his fingers around and towards the middle. Joe stood up walking a slow circle as he studied the oil slick. He heard the sound of a car horn and looked up to see the Hardy van heading his way.

With a smile on his face, Joe quickly jogged over to the side of the road. Biff came to a stop, then got out and walked over to his friend.

“Your mom said she’ll meet you at the hospital. So, what happened?”

Joe quickly told Biff what happened as he led him over to the oil slick.

“I want to show you something – you’ve seen enough oil leaks – what do you make of this?” He pointed to the outer layer first and continued towards the middle.

“The outer part looks like it’s been there for awhile but – this…” Biff bent down to touch the middle layer. ”This looks like a recent leak.”

“Maybe…or someone deliberately poured more oil onto the surface!”

Biff looked up at his friend, his eyes wide with disbelief. He slowly stood up, wiping his hand on his jeans, glad that they were an old pair.

“Are you and Frank working on a case?” he asked with curiosity.

“No, it’s been kind of boring, actually!”

“What about your dad?” Biff knew that sometimes Joe and Frank were often targeted to use as leverage against Fenton Hardy.

“No – I mean yeah, dad is working on a case but I don’t think it has any bearing on this.”

Confused more than ever, Joe turned to put the motorbikes in the back of the van. Biff silently followed – when they were done he gave Joe the keys and they drove to the hospital.

When they arrived, Frank had already been released. He wasn’t badly hurt – he was badly bruised and had a few scratches. Joe then drove Biff home – the Hoopers lived a block behind the Hardy home, so Biff had jogged over to their home.

Later that night, Frank took a long hot shower to soothe his aches and pains, then crawled into bed, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Joe lay on his bed listening to the running water as Frank took his shower. He could hear the faint sounds of Frank getting ready for bed. Joe waited a bit, letting his brother get settled.

Joe gasped when he felt something pounce on his chest. He opened his eyes and found himself staring at a pair of amber-green eyes.

“Precious, you scared me! Bad kitty!” Smiling, he scratched the cat –and then realized that he had dozed off. Holding the cat, Joe slowly sat up. Precious jumped back down as Joe got off the bed and went to check on Frank. He walked through the connecting bathroom and found Frank fast asleep. The lights were still on so Joe turned them off. He saw that Frank was sleeping on top of his covers; the comforter was still folded at the end of the bed so Joe covered him with that. Leaving the doors to the bathroom open, Joe went back to his room.

Joe decided to get ready for bed and found some PJ’s to sleep in before heading for the shower. As he lay in bed, he stared up at the ceiling wondering if the incident with Frank’s locker, the slashed tires and the oil slick were tied together and why.

*****

Matt Harris paced the floor of the small cabin. He kept seeing the security guard – how the guard looked when he was shot. Matt shuddered – he wanted to turn himself in but was afraid. He knew what happened to suspects who killed a police officer. No, he thought – the best thing to do was to run.

Matt quickly packed what little clothes he had – he was about to walk out the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I can’t stay here anymore – I have to keep running. Don’t worry – I left you your cut!” Matt said as he tried to walk past.

“I can’t let you do that – if you leave now you’ll ruin everything!”

Matt turned around and looked at the other man with a confused expression. He never saw the knife until it was jammed into his body.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.