Hardy Boys -1. The Tower Treasure

A Clue or Two

 As soon as the Hardys and their friends returned from church Sunday morning, they quickly changed out of their Sunday best, ate the breakfast Phil had made, helped clean the kitchen, and jumped right back into Tony's van to head back to Willow Grove. There was a tense, nervous, and excited silence on the ride up to Willow Grove. Would Chet's car be there? Would they find any clues on this search? Would they catch the culprit? Would they find out if the thief had any connections to whatever was going on at the Pollitt place? Joe sat in the far back and kept fiddling around with the objects in the box.

Chet finally got frustrated. "Ugh, Joe! Will you stop tampering with the equipment? It's driving me up a wall!"

Joe slowly grinned. "Even though Tony's the one driving you up the road?"

There was a slight pause before everyone burst out laughing, the tension starting to evaporate.

"Good one Joe," said Biff, raising his hand. The two high-fived.

"Well, now that he's officially broken the silence," said Jerry, "can we know the plan of action, Captain?"

Frank blinked. "Um . . ."

Chet, who was sitting next to him, grabbed his arm and began shaking him. "Please tell me you have a plan!"

"Whoa, Chet, cut it out, will you? A guy can't think when his brains are being shaken and stirred!"

Chet let go and grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."

Frank rubbed his arm. "Thank you. As for the plan of action, well, that's going to depend on if Chet's car is there or not. If it is, we call the police immediately before looking for clues."

"And if it's not?" asked Jack.

Frank shrugged. "Well, the only thing we can do, look for clues. Then we call the police and let them know we found the Queen's last known location in the past twenty-four hours."

"Aren't we going to check out the Pollitt place too?" asked Joe.

Frank turned to glance at Joe with wide eyes. "Joe! Dad didn't ask us to!"

Joe rolled his eyes. "I know, but we have to be sure it's not in connection to our cases, right?"

Frank let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. He knew what his brother wanted, even though he had a good point. Leave it to Joe to find the loopholes. "Fine, yes, we'll check out the Pollitt place too."

Joe grinned, a grin Frank knew to mean he won. But Frank was hoping that everything with Queen would keep them busy long enough to either forget about the Pollitt place, or not have enough time to check it out.

"Well," said Biff, "if we are going to check out the Pollitt place, shouldn't we do that before the police come swarming Willow Grove?"

Frank grimaced slightly. Well, there went that plan. "You do have a point Biff. But we're going to have to make it quick at the Pollitt place, we don't want to lose any vital clues concerning Queen."

The others nodded solemnly.

"So, then, what's the plan for the Pollitt place?" asked Phil.

Frank rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. "I think we should split up in groups of two each, two take the cellar, two take the main floor, two take the second floor and the attic, and two check the area around the house. The two who take the main floor will make sure no one gets locked up."

Joe raised his arm. "Biff and I will take the area around the house."

Phil raised his hand. "I'll do either the main floor or the second floor. I'm not going to get stuck in the cellar again."