RESCUE
ME!
by
CQB
Chapter 6
The Chapters
“I’ll call Mr. Landles,” Amy Gantz said, picking up the phone. “Once the call is made, I’ll get the disk with Tim’s game on it.”
As Amy went into the other room to make the call, Frank looked at his brother and smiled. “I guess you were right, Joe. Looks like we’ll have this wrapped up in no time. You’ll get to dance with Vanessa yet.”
Frank’s grin turned into a frown as he took in Joe’s serious composure. “Alright, little brother, what are you thinking?”
Joe met his brother’s gaze. “I don’t know. I’ve just got a bad feeling…”
“Joe, I trust your instincts more than you could know, but I think this is going to work out fine,” Frank gave his brother’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze. Lowering his voice, Frank continued, “I’m sure the girls have introduced Dad to Mr. Gantz by now, and he’s probably on his way here.”
Joe sighed. “You’re probably right.” He managed to give Frank a lopsided grin, “And I always call you a worry-wart!”
* * *
“Okay, Fent,” Sam Radley chuckled, “You had to know I wouldn’t buy this joke of yours – too elaborate, my friend. When pulling a Halloween prank, one must keep it simple.”
“Sam, I thought it was a joke, too,” Fenton Hardy agreed, “I mean, I’ve heard of computers having viruses, bugs and worms, but never have I heard of a computer having a ghost.”
“But you think this is on the up and up?”
Fenton briefly faced his partner. “Yes, Sam; I do.”
Sam sat silently for several minutes as Fenton drove toward Amy Gantz’s house. Then he spoke softly, almost to himself. “I know I’ve heard of Cyrus Landles before.”
“What was that?”
“Just saying, Landles sounds familiar.”
“I thought the same thing when the girls told me.”
“Did you run a check on him?” Sam asked.
Fenton shook his head. “No time. If this is all for real, the boys are going to need us.”
“Let me use your cell-phone. I’ll call my wife and have her check my files,” Sam suggested. Fenton passed his phone to Sam.
The blond, muscular detective punched his home number into the device.
“Hello.”
“Hi, honey,” Sam smiled as he pictured his tall, slender wife. “Ethel, I need you to do me a quick favor before you head for the party at the Morton’s house.”
“Sure, Sam. What do you need?”
Sam explained what he wanted from his wife and hung up. “Eth will call back as soon as she’s checked Landles out,” he told Fenton.
“Good. I’ll feel better if we know something about this guy.”
* * *
Cyrus Landles pushed his red sports car as fast as he dare. The Mazda XR-8 performed wonderfully on the hilly, curved roads that led to Southport. He kept an eye out for local and state police, knowing he couldn’t afford to be caught speeding right now – he had to get to Amy Gantz before it was too late.
* * *
“He’s on his way,” Amy announced to the Hardy boys. “I’ll go and get Tim’s game master now.”
“Alright,” Frank gave her a smile. After she left the room, he pulled out his cell-phone.
“Who are you calling?” Joe asked.
“The girls. I just want to see if they’ve talked to Dad, yet; to see if he’s on his way,” Frank said.
Joe raised his eyebrows. “Is my uneasiness rubbing off on you, big brother?”
“Honestly? Yes,” Frank reluctantly replied.
Joe had tried to convince himself that everything was going according to plan, but alarms were going off in his head and he felt in his heart that something wasn’t right.
“The girls talked to Dad,” Frank stated, interrupting Joe’s thoughts.
“So he’s on his way?”
“Yes…with Sam.”
Joe smiled and felt a little better about the situation. But Joe’s peace of mind was short-lived.
“I don’t understand how you found out about Cyrus, but it won’t matter.”
Both Hardy boys looked up in shock as Amy Gantz pulled back the slide on her semi-automatic pistol.
“I’m really sorry you had to stick your noses in the middle of this,” Amy said with a mock pout. She walked into the room, followed by an older gentleman with graying hair and glasses, also carrying a hand gun.
“You must be Cyrus Landles,” Frank stated.
“You boys think you’re so clever,” Cyrus said, nodding his head. “Yes, I wanted Tim’s game, but I wasn’t alone in my quest.”
“You see,” Amy began, “Tim’s not the only gifted one of the family. I’m a graphic illustrator. I work for a company called Graphic Innovations, Inc., here in Southport. I’m tired of working for someone else, though. I tried to get Tim to let me design his game’s graphics, but he uses the same artist all the time.
“When the new game was ready for the graphics to be added, I asked Tim again. He said it was crazy to change now, no matter how good I was. I got really mad at him. That’s when I thought about marketing Tim’s new game. If I could market it, I’d make enough to start my own graphics company.
“I couldn’t go to my brother and ask him for the new game marketing rights, so I went to Cyrus.”
“I owed Amy a favor,” Cyrus grinned. “She talked her brother out of pressing charges against me after the fiasco I had with Tim’s last game. I’d gambled some of the profits away. I then doctored the records so Tim wouldn’t notice. I underestimated him though.”
“What made you think Tim would work with Cyrus again after that?” Frank asked Amy.
“Tim has always had a weak spot for me,” Amy shrugged. “I really thought I could pull it off. He had at least agreed to meet with Cyrus.”
“But when he wouldn’t sell, your plan fell through,” Joe interjected. “So, Cyrus killed him off, right? You would stand to get the rights to the game as closest kin to Tim.”
“Almost right on the mark, Joe,” Amy smiled coldly, “but Cyrus didn’t kill Tim; I did.”
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Disclaimer
The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors 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.