Fright Wave (8 page)
Authors: Franklin W. Dixon
"We've got to get Jade out of here," Frank said. "They could be back looking for her here. This is the most logical place for us to bring her."
Jade slumped down in a chair. "Why would they want me?" she asked glumly» staring at the floor. "They got what they wanted - my father."
"I'm not so sure about that," Frank answered. "They could have grabbed him anytime. Why now?"
Joe thought about it for a minute. "Because they couldn't get Jade."
Frank nodded. "All this time they've been trying to get her, not him."
Jade looked up. "But why?"
"I don't have the answer to that one," Frank said. "But I think I may know someone who does."
He turned to his father. "Are the police still holding Nick Hawk?"
Fenton shook his head. "They didn't have any solid evidence. After we found out about Kevin Roberts's connection to Catlin, that shifted the attention away from Hawk."
Joe glanced at his brother. "I don't get it. Do you think Hawk is mixed up with Catlin?"
"Think about it," Frank said. "Catlin's a kingpin of bookies and loan sharks - and Nick Hawk has some heavy gambling debts."
"Let's go find out what he knows," Joe said, glancing over at Jade. "Do you know where Nick lives?"
She nodded slowly. "I'll take you there."
Joe put his hand on her shoulder. "No, it's too dangerous. We'll have to find a safe place for you to stay before we go after Hawk."
There was a knock at the door. Frank's eyes narrowed. He put a finger to his lips and stepped silently to the door. He peered through the tiny peephole. He wasn't surprised by what he saw. He could clearly see the scar over the man's left eye. He tiptoed back to the others.
"It's Gordon," he whispered.
There was another knock on the door, this time sounding harder, more insistent.
Joe's eyes darted around the room. They stopped at the balcony overlooking the ocean.
"There's only one other way out of here," he said in a low voice.
Fenton Hardy looked at the balcony. "Go for it," he said. "I'll try to buy you some time."
Joe glanced at Frank. His brother nodded. Joe took Jade's hand and led her out onto the balcony. He gripped the railing and looked over the edge. There was another balcony on the next floor down. But a misstep of a few inches would send him plummeting twenty-five floors to the ground. He took a deep breath and climbed over the railing.
He eased himself down until he was hanging from the bottom of the railing. His toes just barely touched the railing of the balcony below. But he couldn't get a solid footing.
The knock on the door changed to pounding. "Just a second!" Fenton Hardy called out. "I was in the shower! I'll be right there!" He had wet his hair in the sink and was now slicking it back.
Joe pumped his legs and started to sway back and forth. He let go of the railing as he swung in toward the lower balcony. Both his feet landed solidly on the cement floor.
Jade followed Joe. He grabbed her around the waist as she dangled from the railing, and pulled her safely in.
Above them, Frank glanced back at his father. "Go ahead," Fenton urged him. "As long as Gordon doesn't think I suspect anything, I'll be all right."
Frank grasped the railing with both hands and vaulted into the air. He swung over and down and dropped onto the balcony below.
There was no one else there. Joe and Jade were gone. The sliding glass door that led into the dark hotel room was open, but all the lights were out. Frank poked his head inside. "Joe?" he whispered. "Where are you?"
Someone grabbed his shirt collar and yanked him through the doorway. "Gotcha!" a voice said. It was Joe.
"What's the big idea?" Frank replied. He could barely make out his brother's features in the dim light.
Joe held something up. The moonlight filtering into the room glinted off the surface. It was a heavy, glass ashtray. "If anybody but you had come through that door, they would've gotten it."
"Well, let's get out of here," Frank said, moving toward the front door. He peered around in the gloom. "Where's Jade?"
"Right behind you," came the reply.
Frank whirled around. Jade was standing behind him, a table lamp in her hands.
Frank chuckled softly.
"What's so funny?" Jade asked.
"I was just thinking," Frank answered. "Most couples wait at least a week to start throwing furniture around."
Jade glanced at Joe. "Just ignore him," Joe said. "He was born with a crippling handicap - no sense of humor." He poked his brother in the ribs with the ashtray. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
***
They drove away from the hotel in Jade's faded green jeep. Joe tried to persuade her to give him the keys. He didn't want her to be there when they questioned Nick Hawk, but she wouldn't budge. She insisted on driving. "It's my car, and it's my life," she stated flatly. "You never would have found his house without me," she added as she pulled over to the curb.
"We'll take it from here," Frank said. "Which house is it?"
"The white bungalow with the palm tree in the yard," she replied.
Joe looked around. In the dark, all the houses looked like white bungalows with palm trees in the yard. But only one of them had a half-dozen surfboards lined up on the front porch.
Jade started to get out of the jeep. Joe pushed her back down gently but firmly. "No," he said. "This is as far as you go. If there's any trouble, you take off as fast as this bucket of bolts will go. Understand?"
She looked up at him. "Joe, I'm responsible. If anything happens to my father ... " Her voice trailed off.
"Getting yourself hurt isn't going to help your father," Joe pointed out.
"And standing around talking isn't going to help much, either," Frank cut in. "Take a look over there."
In the harsh glow of the porch light, Joe saw a tanned figure with long blond hair. He had a suitcase in one hand and a backpack slung over his shoulder. It was Nick Hawk.
"Looks like Nick's going on a long trip," Frank noted. "And just before the big competition, too."
"Those bags look kind of heavy," Joe said. "Let's give him a hand." He walked quickly across the street, Frank following.
Frank put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Slow down. Stay cool. He doesn't know who we are. We can take him by surprise."
Nick Hawk was throwing the suitcase and the backpack into the trunk of his car when Frank and Joe strolled up behind him. "Going on a trip?" Frank asked casually.
Hawk spun around. There was a switchblade in his hand. Frank could see that he was wound up tight. The blond surfer sized up the two brothers. "You guys don't work for Catlin," he said mostly to himself. "And you sure aren't cops. Who are you? What do you want?"
"We want some answers," Joe snapped. "And we don't have time to play around. So if you're going to use that blade, make your move now. I'd love an excuse to break your arm."
Hawk's arm dropped to his side. "I can't take much more of this," he said wearily. "You're the two guys that have been hanging around with Jade, aren't you?"
Frank nodded.
"I saw you once and Connie told me about you," the blond surfer continued.
"You mentioned the name Catlin earlier," Frank said. "Do you know Thomas Catlin?"
"Not personally," Hawk replied. "He controls half the bookies on the island, and I owe money to most of them."
"So that means you were in debt to Catlin," Joe said.
Hawk nodded. "He sent one of his trained gorillas to tell me I could pay off the debt with one little job. All I had to do was make sure Jade didn't compete at the Banzai Pipeline."
"So you tried to kill her just to pay off a gangster?" Joe burst out.
The surfer shook his head. "I just wanted to scare her off. I'd never kill her."
"The runaway surfboard at Waikiki and the shooting at Waimea," Frank said. "That was you, right?"
Nick Hawk stared at the ground. "I was desperate. These guys play rough, and they play for keeps. But after I found out I almost shot Connie, I just couldn't go through with it. So I sent word to Catlin that I would find some other way to pay him back."
"Now you're leaving town before his goons come knocking on your door," Joe said.
Hawk looked at him. "I got a phone call a little while ago. It was Thomas Catlin himself. He told me the debt wouldn't be paid until Jade was dead - or I was."
"Did he say anything else?" Frank prodded. "Anything about Kevin Roberts?"
"Jade's father?" Hawk replied. He shook his head. "No, nothing about him. But he did say something weird."
"What was that?" Frank asked.
"Catlin said his daughter had been waiting a long time for this, but Catlin doesn't have any kids."
Joe looked at the surfer. "So what are you going to do now? Run away?"
Nick Hawk shook his head slowly. "I was - but I guess I owe Jade more than that. Maybe it's time I told the police what really went down."
"Not yet," Frank said. "Not until Jade and her father are safe."
***
"What did Nick say?" Jade asked when Frank and Joe got back to the jeep. "Anything that'll help?"
"We don't know yet," Joe answered vaguely. He didn't think it would help Jade to hear proof of Catlin's grisly intentions. "We still don't have all the pieces."
Frank yawned in the backseat. "We're not going to find any of them tonight. We need to [find a place to get a few hours' sleep."
"We can go to Al Kealoha's house," Jade suggested. "I know we can trust him."
"Sounds good to me," Joe said. "Let's go."
"Stop at the gas station up ahead on the right," Frank said. "I want to call the hotel and make sure Dad's all right."
The telephone rang a few times before someone answered. "Hotel operator," a voice said.
"Give me room twenty-five-fifteen, please," Frank said.
"One moment," came the reply.
There was a strange clicking and humming on the line. Frank didn't know if it was a problem with the pay phone or the hotel switchboard. Finally, he heard his father's voice. "Hello?" Fenton said. "Who is this?"
"It's me," Frank said.
"Frank?" Fenton replied. "Are you all right?"
"Everybody's fine," Frank assured him. "We're going - "
"Don't tell me where you are or where you're going," his father cut in. "There may be a tap on this line."
As soon as Frank hung up, the pay phone rang. He stared at it for a moment. It kept ringing. He picked it up.
"I hope you get a good night's rest," a voice murmured in the receiver. It sounded like a man with ice water in his veins. It sounded like Pete Gordon. "Because tomorrow morning at eight o'clock sharp you're going to deliver the girl to me at Sand Island Park."
"What if we don't show?" Frank snapped. "What can you do about it?"
"We can kill Kevin Roberts," came the cold reply. "Very slowly - and very painfully."
Frank didn't say anything about Gordon's threat when he got back in the jeep. He wanted to talk to Joe alone before telling Jade. He finally got his chance when they got to Al Kealoha's house.
"You guys don't mind waiting here a minute, do you?" Jade asked. "Let me just talk to Al alone first and make sure it's all right."
"No problem," Frank replied. "Take your time." After she was gone, he turned to his brother and said, "We've got a problem. We're running out of time."
"So what's our next move?" Joe asked after Frank told him about the phone call.
Frank looked at his watch. "I don't know - but we've only got about eight hours to come up with something."
Jade waved to Frank and Joe from the front porch of the house. They got out of the jeep and joined her.
Al Kealoha was standing in the doorway. The big Hawaiian surfer studied the Hardys for a moment. "Jade tells me you guys saved her life," he finally said. "I also saw what you did for Connie after that wipeout at Waimea. You can stay here as long as you want. Anything you need, just ask."
They followed him inside. Joe looked around and saw electronic equipment everywhere. Televisions, radios, videocassette recorders, even a couple of microwave ovens.
"How about a stereo?" he asked.
Al Kealoha smiled. "Don't get the wrong idea. This stuff didn't fall off a truck. Most of them are broken. Like this TV here. I buy it cheap, fix it up, and sell it. Surfing's my life, but it doesn't pay the rent."
Joe picked up a remote control for a garage door opener. "This isn't worth much all by itself."
"You'd be surprised," Kealoha replied. "You can change the radio frequency so that it works with almost any garage door opener."
Frank was inspecting a digital clock that showed the time as 88:88. He looked up at the Hawaiian. "What did you say?"
"I said you can change the radio frequency so - "
"That's what I thought you said," Frank cut in. "You wouldn't happen to have an old radar detector around here, would you?"
"I had a couple," Kealoha said. "But they go fast. Maybe there's still one around somewhere."
The Hawaiian poked around inside a few cardboard boxes. "Got one," he finally said, holding up a small, black object.
"What are you going to do with it?" Jade asked.
"I'll tell you in the morning," Frank said. "But right now, you should get some sleep. I have a feeling tomorrow's going to be a long day."
It was still pitch black out when Joe woke up. He hadn't meant to fall asleep at all. He had dozed off in a chair while his brother and Al Kealoha puttered around with the insides of the garage door remote control and the radar detector. He glanced at a clock on the table. He thought he must still be asleep. According to the clock, the time was 88:88.
"What time is it?" he asked groggily.
Frank looked at his watch. "A little after two."
"How much longer?" Joe wanted to know.
"Almost got it," Frank replied. He took the back-plate from the remote control and screwed it back in place. "Okay, Al - ready?"
"Go ahead," came the reply. "Hit the switch."
Frank aimed the remote control at the radar detector on the workbench across the room. He pressed the wide, rectangular button on the top. "Take that," he whispered.
