"Chief!" I though you said you were going to turn off your alarm system!" Joe shouted as soon as they were in a conference room.

"Calm down Joseph. I know I said that. But, then I had an idea afterwards. It was too late to talk to you two about it, but I decided to go through with it anyways," Collig replied.

"What?" Joe demanded.

"Well, get this," Collig said, leaning forward in his chair excitedly. "Frank is arrested. You tell the kidnappers Frank is arrested. But, in truth, he isn’t and he can work form the inside in disguise and try to find out the people’s plan. He might even get to talk to Jason through it all. Meanwhile, you work on the outside. What do you think?" Joe thought for a minute.

"I like it…." he said slowly. "But, how will we keep in touch?"

"Through me," Collig replied. Joe slowly nodded his head.

"All right, I like it. But, what about Frank? Does he know? Can I talk to him?" he asked.

"Yes, he knows, and yes, you can talk to him. I’ll bring him here." Collig got up and left the room, returning soon with Frank. Joe jumped up and gave his brother a big hug.

"Thank God this was all a hoax," Joe whispered. "It had me scared to death!" Frank said nothing, but hugged his brother tightly. Then they sat down and quickly conferred, deciding in the end to call in once every three hours to Chief Collig. Soon, Joe left to go home and wait for a call on the kidnappers and to inform his Mom of their plans.

*********************

About three hours later, Joe got a phone call from the kidnappers.

"We saw what happened to your brother. You guys are really stupid! Man! You better be glad we are nice guys! Or else, the next time you would have seen Jason it would have been in the coroner’s office, DEAD!" Max shouted.

"Oh yeah, you guys are really nice!" Joe shouted back, his anger getting the best of him. Lucky for him, Max chose to ignore this.

"Listen to me," Max said, breathing hard into the phone. "You have 6 days to get me what I want, or else you’ll never see Jason alive again!" And with that, Max hung up. Joe sighed and looked at his mom.

"I’m going to call Chief Collig and leave a message with him for Frank." Joe did just that, and then sat down to try and think of his next move. Finally, he decided to go to bed and start fresh the next morning.

*********************

Meanwhile, Frank was stuck in a jail cell. Chief Collig had told him he couldn’t leave until about nine that night. He sighed then looked at his watch. It was 8:45. Just then Collig came to him. He opened his cell door and motioned for him to follow him. Once in a conference room, they started talking.

"Joe left me a message for you, Frank," Chief Collig said. "He said that the kidnappers called…they know you are ‘arrested’ and they sure aren’t happy about it, that’ for sure! They said you have six days to get the stuff for them…think you guys can do it?"

"Well, we’ll have to, won’t we?" Frank said grimly. He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "Come on, let me get to work!"

"Wow, sonny, cool it!! Go to bed tonight, and then start fresh tomorrow. I’ve got you booked at the Bayport Hotel under Fred Darling." He handed Frank a key from room number 231. Frank took the key and looked at it wryly.

"Darling?" Collig shrugged.

"Sorry, couldn’t think of anything else." Frank rolled his eyes, then asked,

"What about wheels?" At this, Collig grinned. He led Frank outside, to a 2002 Mercedes
Benz!

"WHOA!" Frank cried. "That’s my car?!"

"Yup!" Collig replied proudly. "It’s a car we impounded a while back, and I decided to give it to you. Technically, I’m not supposed to, but, who cares, it doesn’t really matter!"

"Cool! But, won’t it attract attention to me?"

"Yeah. But, your cover is an old guy’s rich spoiled brat. So, you get the car. OK? Remember that," Collig said seriously.

"All right, thanks Chief. I’ll call later, and check in. Bye!" Frank waved and drove off. Collig watched them drive off, and then sighed. Once again, Frank and Joe Hardy had gotten themselves in deep….hopefully, this time; it wasn’t too deep for them to be able to get out.