No Way Out by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2004-09-20T04:00:00+00:00

9 Ring of Fire

Joe stared at the note for a few seconds. Then a spurt of adrenaline spurred him into action. He copied the file onto a CD and raced to Ray’s room to print out the note. Then he grabbed the copies and charged back to the guest suite. Frank was ready in fresh jeans, sweater, and a jacket.

“Look at this.” Joe showed Frank the note hacked into his computer. “This has to be from Blackstone,” Joe reasoned. “It was in the folder I set up with his data. He traced my research back to my computer, hacked in, and left me this note.”

“He knows your name,” Frank pointed out.

“He got that from my own computer files.”

“He knows you’re a detective.”

“He could have gotten that from my files, or even from some article on the Internet about a past case that we cracked. And if he knows who I am, he knows who you are too,” Joe pointed out.

“Here’s the best part,” Frank read. “He calls you a jouster. That means only one thing.”

“That he was in the stadium last night,” Joe said with a nod. “There’s no reason to call me that otherwise.”

“Or someone who works for him was here,” Frank suggested, “and fed him a report.”

“At this point, I’d bet anything that Blackstone’s at least on the island.”

“And his message is pretty clear,” Frank said with a grim frown.

“Looks like Blackstone just moved to the top of the suspect list,” Joe said, folding two copies of the note and sticking them in his sports bag.

“I agree,” Frank said. “And let’s not tell the family about this. They’re already worried enough.”

“Okay—let’s get going. We need to get this investigation moving and find Alan.”

The Hardys took the stairway two steps at a time again and skidded into the kitchen.

‘Where’s Officer Chester?” Joe asked.

“He left,” Kay said. “He got a call to check out a fender bender in the village square.”

“Why?” Ray asked. “Did you find out anything?”

“Uh, nothing … well … I have some information on Blackstone for him, that’s all,” Joe said.

“We’ll take it to him when we go to the village,” Frank said. “We’re going in to see the rough cuts of the footage,” he explained to the others.

“First, have some lunch,” Penny urged. “It’s been a hard morning, and it’s already two o’clock. We have to keep healthy so we can find Alan.”

Over a bowl of hearty soup, and sandwiches piled high with turkey and cheese, the Hardys and Ray told Kay and Penny about Frank’s accident. Kay got maps of both the property and the mine, and laid them out on the big table.

“Here,” Ray said, pointing to the spot where Frank disappeared. “This is where he fell through.”

Frank and Joe both studied the maps, getting an idea of where the sinkhole was in relationship to the house, the stables, the maze, and the rest of the estate.

“And this must be the caretaker’s cottage where you got the rope,” Frank said, pointing to a small building located on the property map.

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