"I’m so glad you’re back!" Vanessa said to them as they entered the room. "You guys were gone forever! Did you find anything out?" she asked, as she gave Joe a quick kiss in greeting.

"Actually, we might have," Joe responded with a smile. He went on to tell his brother and Vanessa about his theory that the cases all the thefts had occurred from seemed to be somewhat similar. He found himself reinforcing the idea that he didn’t know if that actually meant something, but it was a bit of a coincidence, nonetheless.

Agreeing that they should discuss all the facts of the case thus far, Joe and Vanessa headed down to the lobby to get sodas and chips, promising that they would return in a few minutes. At that time, Frank and Vanessa could tell both Joe and Callie about the latest robbery.

Sitting alone with Frank, Callie felt decidedly uncomfortable for the first time in her life. She wanted to tell Frank all about what had happened with Dave, even though she knew he’d be upset. Still, as she opened her mouth to speak, she found she couldn’t talk. Thoughts of Frank with Jenna began to overwhelm her, and she was continuing to try giving him the benefit of the doubt, as hard as it was.

"How’re you feeling?" she asked him, as soon as Joe and Vanessa left the room.

Frank smiled at her, and sat down next to her at the table across from his bed, reaching for her hand. "Ah, I’m okay," he said to her, and linked his fingers through hers. "Thanks for helping me last night. As usual, you came through. What did I ever do to deserve you?" he added with a twinkle in his brown eyes.

In spite of herself, Callie felt her own smile begin to creep up her face, and she knew it reached her eyes as she looked at him. "I’m just glad you’re okay," she responded.

Frank gave her a small wink, and then asked, "So, how was your day? That was a pretty interesting idea that Joe came up with. Wow- you two have been getting along exceptionally well lately. Should I be afraid or something? You were gone all day," he finished, teasing her.

Callie rolled her eyes. "You found me out, Frank," she said with a smile. "That secret undercover affair I’ve been having with Joe all these years has finally been exposed."

Frank laughed. "Let’s not even joke," he replied.

"And how was your day?" Callie inquired. "Um…I know you’re gonna tell us about the robbery in a minute when Joe and Van get back, but what else did you do? Talk to anyone… interesting?" Callie tried to make her voice sound casual, while deep down secretly praying that Frank wouldn’t lie to her. She wasn’t disappointed.

"Well, I spoke to Jenna, although I wouldn’t call say it was particularly interesting," Frank said honestly. "She called this morning to see how I was. She told me that she might drop by tonight, as a matter of fact, so we could all compare notes." Seeing that Callie was making an effort to remain neutral, Frank’s expression softened. Gently, he reached out to touch Callie’s cheek. "But I told her that I’d only talk to her if you were here. I wouldn’t want her to get the wrong idea about anything."

"Really?" Callie asked softly, biting her lip.

"Yeah, really," Frank responded with a smile, and leaned over to kiss her tenderly.

At that moment, all thoughts of Jenna Barkalow vanished from Callie’s mind. At that moment as well, Joe and Vanessa walked through the door.

Joe let out a loud whistle when he saw them, and Vanessa chimed in with "OOOOOHHHH," teasing them.

"We can’t leave you two alone for a minute!" Joe sighed in mock exaggeration, secretly pleased that Callie and Frank seemed to be back on track. Callie blushed deeply, but Frank, to her surprise, didn’t. Instead, her normally reserved boyfriend reached over to hug her, and said to his brother, "Get lost for a few more minutes!" Callie was shocked at Frank’s outward display of affection, but she found herself happier than she had been since they first arrived.

Covering his mouth and pretending to be embarrassed, Joe finally laughed out loud and tossed both Frank and Callie a soda. Then, sitting next to Vanessa, he said to her, "Okay, spill it. What robbery occurred? Van? Frank? Callie and I have been patiently waiting." With that, he started munching on potato chips as he awaited their response.

"Okay," Frank began, sitting back in his chair. "Vanessa and I were talking when you were gone. If you can find records of daily events in the Library of Congress, why couldn’t we look it up on the computer? Everything nowadays is computerized. The records would have to be updated daily."

Joe smiled, and replied, "I should have known my computer whiz girlfriend and brother would think of that," he said wryly.

"So that’s what we did," Vanessa cut in. "And guess what? Just several hours ago, a theft occurred at the United Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum, if you can believe that. It’s hard to find REALLY recent information listed as of yet, but it appears to be the same pattern.

"What was taken this time?" Callie asked in curiosity.

Vanessa furrowed her brows in concentration, as if trying to make sense of it as she spoke. "Well, it’s really strange," she said, thoughtfully. "There were several original records that were kept by a man named Timothy Kohl in Germany during that time. He would keep track of Jewish prisoners, and often exchange them for money or goods. He’d get the cash, and those poor people were often made to be servants of some kind. They couldn’t rightly refuse, because the alternative was horrific- concentration camps."

"So he worked for the German government," Callie responded, listening.

"True," Frank responded. "But what he was doing wasn’t exactly legal. He’d service the higher ups in the German government, claiming that these people wanted to redeem themselves, and convert to Christianity." Frank’s eyes darkened as he thought of the ordeal these people must have gone through, just to stay alive. "So what did the German officials care? They got cheap labor, and if they weren’t good enough….well, they were easily disposed of for something better to come along."

Vanessa shuddered as she thought about it, and the four were silent for a moment.

Callie spoke up first. "So, the records that were stolen were of money changing hands in a secret fashion," she concluded, and Joe nodded in agreement.

"Let me give Brian a call and see what else fits," Joe said to the group. His friend, the officer, had been kind enough to give Joe his personal phone number. With the amount of overtime that these cases were offering, Joe was pretty much willing to bet that Brian may know something about it.

"Who?" Frank asked.

"A friend of mine in the police department," Joe answered his brother. "He happened to have helped you out the other night, although I doubt you remember it," he had to add.

Joe picked up the phone and dialed Brian’s number. To his surprise, Brian answered it. After waiting for Brian to get to a quiet location to talk, he filled Joe in on as much as he knew. A few minutes later, Joe hung up, and addressed everyone in the room.

"Well, this is what he said," Joe began. "The case was the same, or similar to the others- I asked him that. Everything else matches to a "T"- the "AGIB," and the note, "So Defendants Will Prevail." This time, it was left on a Yellow envelope. And, again, although this was pretty valuable, it doesn’t appear to be the most valuable item there by any means. This is kind of confusing," he concluded.

"Yeah, it is," Vanessa responded.

"Maybe we ought to lay out what we DO know," Callie suggested. "It seems like we always do better when the facts are laid out in front of us."

"Good idea," Frank answered her with a warm smile.

As they were about to do that, there was a knock on the door.

"That must be Jenna," Frank said, and went to answer it. He was right.

After a few moments, they all sat down and tried to compare notes. Joe couldn’t help but to notice that Jenna was particularly distant and colder to Callie than she had been in the past. It didn’t even look like she was pretending to get along with her. He had to smile, though, when he noticed that Callie didn’t look like she cared. Good, Cal, he thought. She’s not worth your time. He also noticed that although Frank was polite as always, he kept a lot closer to Callie than he did to Jenna. Satisfied that things were slowly returning to normal, Joe began to speak.

"Okay, guys," he said. "Let’s start with the facts." He made a list, as he always did. Frank had started him on that habit, and he learned that it did often help him. He was a lot more visual than he had originally thought.

"Let’s start with the Museums, and the color of the envelopes," Callie suggested, and Joe wrote as she spoke.

"All right," Frank interjected. "So we have those. Now, let’s list what was taken from each."

Again, Joe wrote.

Original plane designs

The last homerun ball Ruth hit

Painting, called "Refugees"

Handcuffs, from Alcatraz prison

Secret records of money switching hands

"Plus, we have the word, or acronym, "AGIB," and the saying, "So Defendants Will Prevail," Jenna said, trying to get in a word.

"And, the cases in which these artifacts have been contained all seem pretty similar," Vanessa added.

"And it looks like it’s an inside job. I mean, it’s got to be, right?!" Joe responded. Sighing heavily, he said, "I have no idea what this means."

Callie gave him a supportive smile. "Well, Joe, at least it’s laid out. I’m sure there’s a pattern. I mean, the ‘defendants’ part seems to indicate that, at least," she said.

"Hmmm…" Frank pondered. "That’s true, Cal. I guess we’ll have to work on that angle."

Vanessa yawned, and they all realized that it was late- almost 1:00 in the morning- and they decided to go to bed.

"I guess I’ll get going, then," Jenna said. "I’ll just walk to the Metro by myself. It’s only a five minute walk from here." She looked longingly at Frank.

Callie bit her tongue, and sighed inwardly. This girl was really getting on her nerves. But, Callie knew with absolute certainty that Frank, and Joe as well, would never let a girl go alone in a city, especially since it could be dangerous. So, she decided to be gracious. "I’m sure Frank will take you to the stop," Callie said to her.

Frank, Vanessa, and Joe all looked at her, shocked. "Oh, okay," Frank said at last. "That’s fine. Do you want to come with me?" he asked.

Callie smiled, grateful for the invitation. "Thanks, but no thanks. I’m a little tired myself. Go ahead. I’m sure you’ll be back soon." With that, she gave Frank a quick kiss on the cheek and said, "Goodnight."

Frank smiled, and got up to take Jenna to the station. He couldn’t help but to be grateful for how much Callie trusted him, and how understanding she was. On the way to the Metro, Jenna was unusually quiet, barely speaking. Finally, when they arrived and were waiting for the train, she finally turned to him.

"Oh, Frank," she said mournfully. "I… I need to tell you something. I’ve been struggling with it all night, but I care about you- and I think you should know."

Frank raised an eyebrow at her. He had no idea what Jenna was going to come out with, and he wasn’t really even sure that he wanted to find out. "Okay," he said, slowly.

"It’s about… well, it’s about Callie," she said, dramatically.

"What about her?" Frank asked, uncomfortable already.

"I… I was out earlier today, sightseeing, and I happened to be by American University."

"Uh huh," Frank muttered.

"And I was just innocently taking pictures; you know, Washington is so pretty this time of year," she added.

"Jenna, is there a point to this?" Frank had to ask at last. Although he still found Jenna very attractive, she no longer held any special appeal for him. Frank knew how lucky he was to have Callie, and he really wasn’t interested in anyone else.

The train started to approach, and slowed down for Jenna to board. Jenna took a quick glance at the train getting ready to stop. "I snapped this picture, Frank. I just thought you should see it!" Before she handed Frank the picture, she leaned up and kissed him. Frank was too stunned to move.

"Wha..?" he began, but Jenna had turned and boarded the train.

Slowly, he looked at the picture in his hand, and his face drained of color. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him as he felt his hands start to tremble.

"No," he whispered.

But pictures didn’t lie. And there was Callie, locked in a passionate embrace with Dave from Georgetown.

He sat down on the bench in disbelief as the train started away……

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