The Borgia Dagger Read online

  The three of them had no choice. Dr. Lansdale's lantern cast ghostly shadows on their faces as they silently obeyed. Slowly, they edged toward the motionless Harley, as Tessa shuffled closer to the door.

  "Faster! What is this? Am I in a nursing home?" Dr. Lansdale said impatiently.

  Tessa hung her head as she obediently approached Dr. Lansdale.

  "I hope you're competent enough to hold this," Dr. Lansdale said. She handed Tessa the lantern and then placed both hands on the gun. With a strong, steady motion, she raised it—and aimed it between Frank's eyes.

  "What a waste," she said with a sigh. "This is the smart one." Carefully, she cocked the gun.

  From the deepest reaches of her soul, Callie unleashed a long, terrified wail. She pressed her eyes tightly shut.

  It was hard to tell what happened next. The room got brighter. A shot rang out. There was a scream.

  Callie opened her eyes. "Frank!" she yelled. She turned to look at her boyfriend. His body was still standing. His arms were still raised in the air. His mouth hung open in amazement.

  Callie looked over to the door. Tessa had raised the flame in the lantern to full blast—and was holding it in front of Dr. Lansdale's face.

  "Enough! Enough!" Tessa shrieked, pushing the lantern into Dr. Lansdale's face again and again. "This was your idea in the first place! You turned Harley into an animal, you ruined my life—and now I see you for what you really are — "

  "You spoiled little twit!" With a slow but well-placed swing of her left arm, Dr. Lansdale ripped the lantern out of Tessa's hand. It flew through the air and smashed underneath the oak table.

  "I really didn't want to have to do this," Dr Lansdale snarled.

  She swung the gun at Tessa.

  Now there was no question — it was the right time. Callie leapt across the room. With a swift chop, she attacked Dr. Lansdale's arm. The gun crashed to the floor and slid across the room.

  Howling desperately, Dr. Lansdale dove after it. She reached for it, only to find a foot had gotten there first. Callie's foot. She kicked the gun sharply toward the lantern.

  All eyes followed the gun—and suddenly the room became dead still. The gun was circled by flames. Flames that the lantern had thrown onto the dry, old floor and table.

  "Put it out! Somebody!" Tessa yelled.

  "Where's the fire extinguisher?" Joe asked urgently.

  "Fire extinguisher? I don't — "

  That was all Frank and Joe needed to hear. "Come on! This place is going to catch like a pile of dried twigs!" Frank shouted. He grabbed Callie and ran out, pulling Dr. Lansdale. Joe lifted Harley and carried him into the hallway.

  They shot down the stairs and barged out the front door.

  On the lawn was a squad car. Two policemen emerged from it and sprinted toward the mansion.

  "Here they come!" a voice called out in the muggy night air. "Two white males, age eighteen to twenty-one — hold it, it's Frank Hardy!"

  Cursing and scratching, Dr. Lansdale struggled to wrench herself from Frank's grip. "Let go of me, you disrespectful young — "

  Frank ignored her as they stumbled toward the squad car. "Officer Riley — the third floor is on fire!" he shouted.

  "I've got eyes, Frank," Riley replied. "I've just called the fire department." He lowered his brows in a scowl. "I happen to have ears too. We heard a shot. Who's going to be the one to explain it?"

  "Officer, look what this young hoodlum is doing to me—" Dr. Lansdale yelled.

  "Hey, hey, now!" Officer Riley said. "Have you gotten carried away, Frank? Let her go, she's safe now!"

  "Officer Riley," Frank said, "this woman fired the shot you heard. It was meant for me."

  Riley looked from Frank to Joe with suspicion. "This woman?"

  "Wait a second!" Joe interrupted. "Why did you come here?"

  Officer Riley held up a silver-plated revolver in a clear plastic case. "Exhibit A, from the Cliffside Country Club shooting. Our ballistics experts traced this to the Carpenters. Officer Novack and I were coming here to ask Miss Carpenter a few questions." "Yes, it's hers!" Dr. Lansdale cried out.

  "Arrest her! It's the Borgia curse — it's still following her! Arrest them all!"

  "Ah, it's all clear now," Riley said, sarcastically. "We've got an ancient curse, an elderly lady who shoots young men, and a girl who's shot at by a person using her own gun."

  "And there in lies — " Joe began.

  Riley rolled his eyes. "A long story, I know." He grabbed Tessa and Dr. Lansdale. "Come on, you're both coming to the station house. It's going to be a long night."

  But Tessa's eyes were fixed in sheer horror at the smoke that was now billowing from the third floor. "I—can't leave," she said, in almost a whisper.

  "It's her house," Officer Novack said. "Let's at least wait till the fire department gets here."

  "Fire department!" Dr. Lansdale cackled. "If they're anywhere near as bright as you fellas, we'll be here all night!'

  Officer Novack gave Dr. Lansdale a long, hard glance. "You've got some explaining to do," she said.

  Dr. Lansdale folded her arms as Officer Riley reached for his handcuffs. Orange flames began to dance from the rooftop of the mansion. From the bottom of the hill came the sound of sirens.

  Behind Frank was a soft, sniffling sound. Frank turned to see Callie, sobbing.

  "I - I'm just a little shook up," she said.

  "With good reason," Frank said. He wrapped his right arm around her and looked deep into her moist eyes. "You're the reason we're all alive."

  Callie wiped away a tear and smiled. "Well, the Hardy family aren't the only good crime-fighters in Bayport!"

  Together they watched the burning mansion with a bittersweet sadness.

  ***

  Joe buttoned his leather jacket and rolled up the window of the van. "What kind do you want to get?" he asked.

  "Now let's get this straight," Frank answered sharply. "This Halloween candy is only for kids who come to the house, okay? I don't want this to be like last year, when you finished it all off yourself!"

  "Fine, fine," Joe said as Frank steered the van out of the brisk October air and into the shopping mall.

  They were alone in the elevator as they took it up through the mall. Slowly it came to a stop at the third floor.

  "Watch it, Joe!" Frank shouted. They both peeled to opposite walls as the door slid open to reveal a short, bald man with a machine gun.

  "Trick or treat!" a voice squeaked from behind the mask.

  "Honey, come on," a woman behind him said, urging him into the elevator. "These boys are shopping. Wait till we get home."

  Frank and Joe chuckled as they walked through the floor. "Looked a little like Albert Ruppenthal," Frank said. "

  "Yeah, except Ruppenthal's smiling a lot more since he got that court injunction to get the Carpenter collection back."

  "Well, he'll be spending a lot more time in court, what with that suit against Tessa for destroying the Greek statue—"

  "And the suit against Harley for hiring those two thugs to rough him up!"

  Frank smiled. "What a day that was. You should have seen the look on Harley's face when he knew they were coming, and we were the only ones in Ruppenthal's office!"

  "And little did you know Ruppenthal saw the whole thing through the window, walking back to the museum from lunch that day."

  "Yeah, no wonder he wanted to get out of town so fast."

  Motorized witch models flew around a replica of a haunted mansion in a toy store window they passed.

  Joe looked at it briefly and turned to Frank. "I hear they've repaired the damage to the third floor of the Carpenter place. Has Tessa finally decided to get an apartment and turn the old house into a museum?"

  "Those were the rumors a while back," Frank said with a shrug of his shoulders. "The last time I spoke to her was at Harley and Dr. Lansdale's sentencings. She said she had let the fire insurance policy lapse on the mansion, so the repairs had to c
ome from her own pocket. Now she's more broke than ever. She's just lucky most of the artwork survived."

  They stopped to watch a soap opera flickering from seven TV sets in a store window. A young blond man in a tuxedo was trying to comfort a woman in a mink coat. The woman was sobbing hysterically, her head buried in a sofa pillow.

  "I wonder what ever happened to Tessa," Joe mused.

  "Got some sort of job, I guess," Frank suggested.

  "But what? What kind of job could someone like that possibly be qualified to do?"

  They watched the soap opera quietly for a few more minutes. The blond guy stormed out, revealing a butler who was eavesdropping.

  The brothers began to turn away. But suddenly their attention was drawn to the TV again. In a shrieking rage, the rich young woman burst up from the sofa and faced the butler.

  Both Frank's and Joe's eyes popped open as they found themselves staring into seven images of Tessa Carpenter's face.

  "I guess that answers my question," Joe said. "Looks like she must have turned to Simon Lesterman to help her."

  Tessa stormed around the room, sometimes screaming and breaking furniture, sometimes pleading. The butler pleaded with her to stop.

  "It's just like she is in real life," Frank said.

  "And don't look now, but the butler is played by Edwin Squinder!"

  As Joe watched Tessa and Squinder's furious overacting, his mouth slowly formed the trace of a smile. "You know," he said, "I think they're both finally where they belong."

  The sound of Frank and Joe's laughter echoed through the mall, mixed with the muffled screaming from the TV set, as they raced each other to the candy store.

  The End.