There was also a small desk in the rear with a cash register on it. Behind it, in the corner, I saw a terrified sales clerk about my age. She stared at me, clearly wondering who I was and why I’d chased an orange-haired woman in a pineapple top into her store.
Clunk. A few boxes fell off a display toward the rear of the store, across from the cashier’s desk.
I whirled around, and there she was.
Geraldine. She cackled at me.
“Let’s end this, Geraldine,” I said.
“Ha! You going to try to bond with me over your SATs again, boy?”
I lunged at her, knocking over several boxes of taffy in the process. She backed up against the wall, picked some boxes off the shelf there, and started throwing them at me. They fell open, and little individually wrapped candies flew everywhere. The cashier girl darted out from behind the desk and ran right out the front door. I didn’t blame her.
I caught one of the boxes of taffy and winged it back at Geraldine. “ENOUGH! We’re wasting taffy, and that’s just wrong.”
Geraldine cackled again, grabbing a ceramic sandcastle off the shelf. “You like taffy? Can’t stand it myself. Too sticky!”
Now I was really mad. “The stickiness is the best part!”
She chucked the sandcastle at me. I ducked. It hit the window behind me and shattered it with a crash.
Frank and Officer Gomez must have heard the noise, because soon they were running toward us and the three of us were able to corner Geraldine in the store. Finally she was trapped.
• • •
Back at the bench where everyone else had waited, Harper was speaking tearfully with her aunt Patty. When Patty saw Frank and me walking over, she waved us closer.
Patty was teary too, we could see now. “I’m trying to explain,” she said, “why what Harper did upset me so much.”
Harper wiped her eye with the back of her hand. “I never wanted to hurt you, Aunt Patty,” she said. “I guess I just thought it would be easier for you. You gave up a lot to take care of me. I love you, but I wanted you to be free.”
Patty stared at her. “Free?” she asked. “How could I ever be free, not knowing where you were, not knowing if you were even safe? I love you, girl. Don’t you understand that?”
Harper’s face crumpled into a sob. “I think I forget sometimes,” she whimpered.
Frank cleared his throat. “Harper,” he said, “it’s fine for you to try to turn over a new leaf, and make yourself happy . . . but you can’t con people out of their money, or lie to people who care about you. That’s what made what Geraldine is doing wrong.”
Harper sniffled. “I think I’m starting to get that,” she said. “I just . . . I don’t know. I was feeling so . . .”
“. . . desperate?” I suggested.
She looked at me, her eyes lighting with surprise. “Yes,” she said. “That’s it. Desperate.”
“Lot of that going around lately,” Frank muttered.
I looked at Harper. “You should know,” I said, “that Matt agrees your relationship should end. He knows he was too controlling and way out of line. He’s going to work on it.”
Harper looked briefly relieved, but then her gaze became dark again. “He’ll have to work on it alone,” she said.
I nodded. “He knows. And it’s probably a good idea for you to stay away from each other. But you don’t have to worry about him.”
Harper looked relieved again. She took in a breath, then let it out slowly. She looked around at Patty, Jones, Frank, and me.
“I’m sorry, all of you,” she said. “I’m so sorry I brought you all into this. Geraldine told me I needed a reason to stay at the UrMotel to give to my friends and family. Something plausible so they wouldn’t be suspicious about me coming to this town. I was worried about running into some of the people I’d tricked on InkWorld, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet you in person, Jones. It was such a fun day, and I thought of it as my last hurrah. But I see now how many problems I caused. I didn’t think people would feel that way about me, and I’m sorry I freaked you out.”
There were murmurs of appreciation from everyone, and Jones stepped forward. “I’m just glad you’re okay,” she said. “I know you’re still working things out, but I hope we can keep in touch.”
Harper looked at her, clearly touched. “Thanks, Jones.”
I looked down the boardwalk. Officers Gomez and McGill were leading a handcuffed Geraldine back toward us. I could see Complainy Guy already sitting in the back of the police car.
“Harper,” Gomez called to our teary friend. “You’ll have to come down for questioning too. Can you follow us to the station?”
Harper nodded. “Of course.”
“We should really thank you boys,” Officer McGill told us. “I know I didn’t trust you before, but you’ve been invaluable on this case. We never would have solved it without you.”
I smiled. Man, that never gets old. “Well,” I said happily, putting my arm around Frank’s shoulders, “this is just one more successful case solved by the Hardy boys!”
Something shoved between us. Someone. “And Jones!”
Suddenly Jones was standing between Frank and me, an arm around each of our waists, smiling a blindingly white smile. I stared down at her.
“Sure,” I muttered, wondering how long I’d have to put up with this. “And Jones.”
But then I saw how Frank was beaming at her—and me. And I remembered how Jones had helped us figure out Harper’s passwords and did tons of Internet research and kind of saved my life when Matt was after me with a hunting rifle.
Okay, so Jones wasn’t a Hardy. So she got in the way of Frank and Joe time. So she could be annoying.
Still, I had to admit to myself—she wasn’t that bad.
14
SECOND CHANCES
FRANK
A FEW WEEKS LATER I WAS reading in my room when Joe came barging in with his laptop.
“Okay, dude. Moment of truth and I need some support here.”
“SAT results?” I asked as he plopped down on my bed.
“Yup.” I watched his eyes scan the screen—and then saw his face fall.
“Ugh,” he said.
“That bad?” I asked gently.
He shook his head, putting the computer down. “Let’s just say . . . I didn’t do very well.”
I scratched my ear, suddenly feeling awkward. “I’m sorry, dude. We had a lot going on that week.”
Joe shrugged. “It’s not surprising, I guess. Still, I’m disappointed.”
“Well . . . ,” I said, trying to find the right words to comfort him. “We did find a missing girl and shut down a UrMotel-based crime ring!”
Joe nodded. “Right, that’s something,” he said, but his voice didn’t sound completely sincere. “Speaking of which, did I tell you? I got an e-mail from Harper the other day. Her apartment is really small, but overall, she’s having a really good time in the city. She’s learning now to bartend and hopes to use her earnings to keep paying back all the money she owes. And once she’s done with that: art school. She did get a ton of community service for all that fraud stuff, but it sounds like even that’s going well.” He smiled, and that, at least, seemed genuine.
“That’s great,” I said. “Good for her, landing on her feet. And I’m glad we managed to shut down Geraldine’s business before someone got hurt.”
Joe grunted. Geraldine hadn’t exactly gone quietly—she’d been feisty in the preliminary hearings for the case against her—but the evidence against her was pretty damning. It looked like she had been behind the two other “disappearances” in the area, and those people had now been found and had to face all the things they’d been trying to escape. It was hard to believe Geraldine would escape conviction.
As I’d spoken, Joe had opened up his test scores again and was frowning at them.
“Hey,” I said, putting my hand over the scores. “You know, the SATs happen again in a few m
onths—and as long as no serious mysteries happen, I can help you study? It’s not easy to be a teen detective and a scholar—but it is possible. I mean, just look at me.” I grinned.
Joe rolled his eyes, but then nodded. “Okay. You’re on.” He saved a file of his test scores to his desktop, naming it TO BE CONTINUED. “We just have to hope nothing mysterious is happening in a few months. . . .”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FRANKLIN W. DIXON is the ever-popular author of the Hardy Boys series of books.
ALADDIN
SIMON & SCHUSTER, NEW YORK
visit us at simonandschuster.com/kids
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Franklin-W-Dixon
READ ALL THE MYSTERIES IN THE
HARDY BOYS ADVENTURES:
#1 Secret of the Red Arrow
#2 Mystery of the Phantom Heist
#3 The Vanishing Game
#4 Into Thin Air
#5 Peril at Granite Peak
#6 The Battle of Bayport
#7 Shadows at Predator Reef
#8 Deception on the Set
#9 The Curse of the Ancient Emerald
#10 Tunnel of Secrets
#11 Showdown at Widow Creek
#12 The Madman of Black Bear Mountain
#13 Bound for Danger
#14 Attack of the Bayport Beast
#15 A Con Artist in Paris
#16 Stolen Identity
#17 Gray Hunter’s Revenge
COMING SOON:
#19 Dungeons & Detectives
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ALADDIN
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Aladdin hardcover edition February 2019
Text copyright © 2019 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Jacket illustration copyright © 2019 by Kevin Keele
THE HARDY BOYS MYSTERY SERIES, HARDY BOYS ADVENTURES, and related logos are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Also available in an Aladdin paperback edition.
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ALADDIN and related logo are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or [email protected].
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event.
For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Series designed by Karin Paprocki
Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Dixon, Franklin W., author. | Title: The disappearance / by Franklin W. Dixon.
Description: First Aladdin hardcover/paperback edition. | New York : Aladdin, 2019. | Series: Hardy boys adventures ; #18 | Summary: While at a comic book convention, the Hardy brothers and Frank’s new girlfriend Jones meet up with Jones’s online friend Harper, but when she disappears overnight, the brothers start looking into her life and uncovering her secrets.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018037375 (print) | LCCN 2018043895 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534414907 (eBook) | ISBN 9781534414884 (pbk) | ISBN 9781534414891 (hc)
Subjects: | CYAC: Missing persons—Fiction. | Brothers—Fiction. | Mystery and detective stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Mysteries & Detective Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General.
Classification: LCC PZ7.D644 (eBook) | LCC PZ7.D644 Df 2019 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037375
The Disappearance Page 11
