163 The Spy That Never Lies by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon [Dixon, Franklin W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9 Suspects List

“What does Con want, Dad?” Joe asked.

“He won’t say,” Mr. Hardy said. “Do you want me to call our lawyer?”

Frank and Joe shook their heads. “That’s not necessary, thanks,” Frank said.

“We haven’t done anything,” Joe added.

“Well, maybe I can sit in on the questioning then,” Mr. Hardy said. “I’ll go talk to Con while you get dressed. We’ll wait for you downstairs.”

A short while later Joe and Frank found their father and Con Riley seated in the study. Both held steaming cups of coffee. Glasses of orange juice for Joe and Frank were set on coasters atop Fenton Hardy’s desk. The brothers each took one and then sat down.

“What’s up, Con?” Joe asked.

“Boys,” Con said, “we had some trouble last night, and we were wondering where you were when it happened.”

“What kind of trouble?” Frank asked.

“A break-in at Councilwoman Hamilton’s office,” Con said. “Since you had some trouble with her and her daughter yesterday, we have to question you about it. Where were you around seven fifteen last night?”

Frank and Joe thought for a minute. “We were walking back to the BIT campus from the hospital,” Joe said. “We had to take our friend Jake there. He was pretty sick.”

“Do you have any witnesses?” Con asked.

“Professor Firestein saw us,” Frank said. “But that would have been closer to seven-thirty. Jamal and Vanessa left us at the hospital just before seven, though. They know we didn’t have our car with us.”

“I hope that will be good enough to satisfy the councilwoman,” Con said, rising from his chair.

“What do you mean?” Frank asked.

“Just that Councilwoman Hamilton has it in her head that you two were behind the break in.”

“Her office is downtown, isn’t it?” Fenton Hardy said. “There should be a Securitech tape showing exactly who broke in. It doesn’t show Frank and Joe, does it?”

“Well . . .” Con said, hesitating. “There’s a problem there.”

“What kind of problem?” all three Hardys said together.

“The Securitech system was down in that area last night,” Con said. “Just a temporary glitch in the programming, they say.”

“But long enough for a crime to happen to the system’s major supporter,” Frank said.

Con nodded. “Pretty frustrating, really,” he said.

“Quite a coincidence,” Mr. Hardy said.

“Yeah,” Joe agreed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Was anything taken?” Frank asked.

Con straightened his uniform. “No. Nothing. The place was pretty badly trashed, though—papers scattered everywhere, furniture and computers smashed. A real mess.”

“I’m betting her daughter did it,” Joe said.

“What?” Con asked, puzzled.

“Joe’s right,” Frank said. “It could be Cindy Hamilton. All this would make sense if she’s angry at her mother for some reason. Maybe she wasn’t trying to hit Jake the other night. He was carrying one of her mom’s flyers at the time. Maybe she was just lashing out at her mom.”

“That would explain the slashed posters, too,” Joe said. “Remember the first night we met her? When we went into Jake’s apartment that night, the poster on that tree was okay. Then we met Cindy. When we came out again, the poster had been slashed.

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