Four hours later.

Frank Hardy had been searching around town and in the library for four hours straight and he still hadn’t found his mother. She had told him that morning that she was going in hunt for a very rare book. That was at 8:00 a.m. and now it was almost 11:30 p.m. So Frank decided he should go home.

As Frank pulled up in the driveway he found Joe in the garage kicking the punching bag. “Hey little bro, what has gotten into you? It’s nearly midnight. You are keeping the neighbors awake.”

“Well big bro it appears that there have been two break ups today. Iola can’t keep her small tiny little dumb brain off of that new guy. So no luck with mum? I’m worried about her.”

“Ooh… sorry lil bro. Yeah… me too. But we can’t file a missing persons report until 24 hours plus I used my detective skills and found that her car was not in the library parking lot or around town.”

“That’s not good.”

“No it’s not.”

“So can we get into the investigation?”

“No.”

“Do you think mom could have run away?”

“No.”

“Can you answer anything but no?”

“Yes I can say: let’s go to bed it’s getting late.”

“Yeish Frank. You have absolutely no since of humor!”

“Well you shouldn’t exactly joke around when our mother is missing!”

“Goodnight then!”

“Goodnight.”

*Phone ringing*

“Hello, this is Fenton Hardy house why are you calling at three a clock in the morning?” Fenton said.

“Hi Fenton, this is Ezra, I am afraid that we have found a woman’s body in the woods torn to shreds and we think that it might be Laura’s but we need you to identify it.”

“What!?!” Fenton was now wide awake. “Oh my God. I won’t wake the boys. I will be right down to the morgue.”

Four hours later Fenton Hardy was sitting at his kitchen table with his sons. “So the body that they thought was your mother’s was really the missing woman’s that they have been looking for, for over 3 months” he was saying to them.

“Wow” was only Joe could say.

“So they already found this Lea Ann Hokper’s killer like a month ago. Right dad” Frank asked.

“Right, but the bad news is they let him out of jail the day before yesterday cause they were unsure that he was the murderer. And he has fled already.”

Joe shook his head as if to clear it and said “dad you think he kidnapped and fled with mom don’t you?”

“I hope not son. I really hope not.”