She struggled to stifle the giggle that rose in her throat as she read his name on her phone.

"Yes?" She dipped her head in embarrassment when she heard her voice: too loud. Glancing guiltily over to Deirdre, she allowed herself a sigh—she hadn't been caught.

"Hey, Bess." God, he was so cocky—he was embarrassing himself, really. "What're you up to?" She could even hear the half-smile in his tone. "I was thinking about coming down for the weekend—you free?"

The innuendo was blaring—as was his volume. She shushed him softly, giggling a bit.

"Can you call me back?" she whispered. "I'm a little busy at the moment."

"Oh? Busy doing what?" So playful. "No—let me guess!" Just as she was about to scold him for his loudness, he quieted. "Secret service work? Is your phone tapped? Is someone looking up the barrel of your gun—are you looking up the barrel of someone else's gun?"

She was laughing outright and could feel Deirdre's eyes snap on her. "I'm undercover on a case," she barely dared to whisper after she recovered her breath—but she was sure she heard Deirdre snort a laugh at her side.

"What kind of case?" Instantly serious—she always marveled at that, how soon Nancy and the Hardy boys could flip from joking to focused in no time flat.

"I'll tell you if you promise to whisper," she murmured, but bit her lip immediately afterwards—oh Nancy, please forgive me for this!

"Okay!" She could barely hear Joe's voice on the other end. "What's the case?"

She sighed heavily. "Look, Nancy would kill me if she knew that I told you, so you didn't hear this from me, but it's about arson—somebody burned down Town Hall."

"And Nancy would kill you over telling me that because…?"

"Because she's kind of the main suspect…?" She dragged on the last syllable guiltily, holding her head in her free hand.

"Oh my God, really?" Even though he had tried to keep his voice soft, Joe nearly shouted his response now. "You've got to be kidding me! Who in their right mind would accuse Nancy of arson?"

"Well, they're not accusing her, exactly, it's just that she doesn't really have an alibi and was kind of seen crawling out of the building while it was on fire." The last few words were said in an increasingly softer whisper as she let her head drift down her forearm to rest on the cold table; she braced herself for Joe's reaction. There was nothing she could say to stop the tirade that would scream in her ear.

"She—she came out of the fire?" The disbelief made his voice deceitfully soft. "But she's okay, though, right? She's—she's not hurt, or in the hospital or anything?"

"Yeah, she's fine. She coughed up a storm when she came out, but that's all. No burns or anything." Bess sighed heavily. "I shouldn't have told you."

"Shouldn't—shouldn't have told me?" Here was the explosion she had tried to prepare herself for; as the words screeched in her ear she knew she never could've prepared herself for this onslaught. "One of my best friends just had a near death experience and you shouldn't have told me? How long ago did this happen—a few hours? Why didn't she call us? Why didn't you call us earlier—God, why are we never in the loop with River Heights? Were you ever going to tell us about this?"

"Look, Joe—"

"No! No, this is serious! We could help—Frank and I are just sitting on our asses today, doing nothing, while our best friend nearly dies in a fire? And nobody had the decency to think, "Hey, maybe Joe and Frank should know about this!"? Okay. I'm gonna go talk to Frank and we're gonna book the next flight out to Chicago. See you soon."

The hang up was abrupt and left her staring at her phone with a strange empty feeling. I really messed that one up, didn't I? she sighed to herself, spooning up a large helping of ice cream.

She nearly told Nancy the next time she rang, but Bess decided otherwise the moment she accepted the call. Nancy had enough on her plate as it was. No need getting her wound up about something else.