"AHEM!" Callie and Frank said together, and Joe and Vanessa pulled apart from each other, blushing.

"Bro, you gotta knock next time!" Joe quipped to his brother as he gave Vanessa a small wink and scooted next to her on the floor.

"I see you’ve been working hard on finding information about the Capitol, Joe," Callie said, dryly.

"Hardly working is more like it!" Frank added.

"People, people," Joe said with a dramatic sigh. "Have you no faith in me? Have you no confidence in my abilities to come through when times are down, and to locate important information?"

"You found something, then?" Callie asked, sitting on the bed.

"No, actually," Joe responded. "But I had ya there for a minute, huh?" He laughed.

"That’s not funny, Joe," Frank said finally. "Callie and I have been working hard trying to find out some information, and we DID find things related to Jenna, if not the case." He shook his head in frustration. "Don’t you ever work?!"

Finally, Vanessa started laughing, and Frank turned to her. She, however, looked at Joe and said, "Joe, tell them the truth. Show them what you found. I told you they wouldn’t be in a mood for jokes!"

Frank and Callie just stared at Joe. "You’re right," Frank finally said. "We’re not."

"Well, what did you find? You might as well go first," Joe said.

Callie smiled in spite of herself at Joe’s antics. Sometimes, she wished Frank would be a little less serious. Then again, she thought, It’s that seriousness and loyalty that draws me to him. Loyalty. She shrugged off the last thought, unable to will herself to get upset at her boyfriend. "Well, Joseph," she began, and went on to tell him and Vanessa all about how Jenna had set Dave up in order to set THEM up. They listened intently.

"Wow," Joe said with a low whistle. "That girl must want you bad, Frank!" he quipped.

Seeing Callie’s face get a little red at that comment, Joe instantly felt badly. "But it sounds like she’s psycho, even if she’s gorgeous, and that’s not Frank’s type, most of the time," he added, to make her feel better.

"Oh, good lord, Joe!" Vanessa quipped.

"Yeah, you’re not making me feel much better," Callie said to him, ignoring the strain in Frank’s eyes at even having this conversation.

"Uh, what did you find out?" Frank cut in, eager to change the course of this conversation.

"A few things, really," Vanessa answered him. "There’s tons of information on the web, and it’s so easily accessible. We tried to get a brief history of the building, and we did find out a few things."

"Go on," Frank said.

"Okay," Joe interrupted. "First of all, The Capitol building doesn’t really store a lot of money by itself, if any. It’s more of a records keeping establishment. The actual production of money is really done in Mints across the country."

"And?" Frank asked, when Joe paused.

"Um, that’s all we got to," Vanessa sheepishly admitted.

Frank sighed heavily. "Great," he muttered.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and a young man in his twenties stood there. "Hi," he said to Frank when he opened the door. He extended his hand in greeting. "I’m glad to see you- you look a lot better than the last time we met! I’m Brian," he concluded.

Frank shook his hand. "It’s nice to meet you. Come on in," Frank said, ushering Brian into the room. "And thanks for your help that night," he added. "I understand you were a real lifesaver."

"No problem. Glad to help," he responded.

The next several minutes were spent making introductions and getting Brian some of the leftover Chinese food. Frank, looking at him, realized that Brian was young, and that’s probably why he had struck up a friendship with Joe. He had a laid-back demeanor and an easygoing smile, and Frank liked him. Besides, he thought to himself, if Joe was working this case alone at this rate, there’d never be an answer! He tried not be upset at Joe, though. He remembered the times he and Callie had done the very same thing, eager for some time alone together in between their crazy case schedules.

"So what’s up, guys?" Brian asked, sitting on the floor next to Joe and Frank. "That’s some out there theory you have about games and the Washington Monument, and now the Capitol! It’s cool, though. You’re like… Inspector Gadget or something!"

Vanessa laughed. "That’s Joe! Inspector Gadget!"

Brian just smiled.

Frank answered his question. "Well, we honestly haven’t found anything, yet. We just know that the Capitol building serves for basic administrative purposes, and doesn’t actually store money."

"Uh huh," Brian said. "Yeah, that’s pretty much common knowledge."

Frank glared at Joe, who just smiled and winked at Vanessa.

"So I don’t think the Capitol Building, itself, is in any danger," Callie added thoughtfully. "Unless there’s some sort of administrative wrongdoing going on."

"That’s possible," Frank said warmly to her. He chuckled softly. "I guess any place that deals with money could have that sort of thing."

Callie jumped at Frank’s words. "MONEY!" she said to Frank.

He was totally confused. "You need money? Now?" he asked her.

"No!" Callie sighed, exasperated. "Frank, this case is most certainly about money, if we’ve been right so far with the other clues!"

"Why?" Vanessa asked.

"Because what’s the other spelling of Capitol, as in the building?"

"Capital! That means money!" Joe chimed in. Callie was great with these things! "So," he said, getting up, "if the whole thing was a clue, leading us to TRIVIAL places so far, on reckless PURSUITS, what do we have? Capital Pursuits, or the pursuit of capital! Money!" He jumped up to give Callie a hug. "Callie Shaw, I’d kiss you, if you weren’t my brother’s girlfriend!"

"Or if your girlfriend wasn’t here," Vanessa said with a laugh.

"Don’t worry, Van- I wouldn’t kiss him," Callie said with a smile, and Joe tossed a pillow in her direction.

"Guys, stop," Frank said seriously. "If Callie’s right, and this case is about the pursuit of money, what type of money? It’s hard to figure that out, since we don’t know who’s even doing this!"

Callie gently touched Frank’s shoulder, calming him down. It worked. She’d always been able to calm him, somehow. "Frank’s right," she said, softly. "Let’s think for a minute here. We have all these museum NON- robberies, which we think was related to Trivial Pursuit. We have all the messages of things that were stolen, which have to do with escape."

"We also have someone having to have some sort of inside angle," Vanessa added, trying to piece this together.

"And," Joe added, "We have the Capitol Building, which suggests money is involved. We have the Washington Monument, which points there."

"There might be more to it than that," Callie added.

"Maybe," Vanessa added absently.

"Plus," Frank interjected, "We almost forgot about "So Defendants Will Prevail" and "AGIB", which could mean some defendants have escaped."

"And AGIB had what date, Cal?" Joe asked her.

Callie thought for a moment. "It’s either 4, for the letters, or 1792, for the numbers that correspond to the positions of the letters."

Brian sat up a little straighter. "Hey, guys," he said, slowly, "You didn’t hear about the embezzlement case about five years ago here, did you?" He bit his lip, unsure of what he was saying.

"No," Vanessa said. "What happened?"

"Well," he said, "I only know ‘cause I had just started out and it was big news. Records were being redone in the Capitol building at the time, and funds were being switched all around. A total of ten people were found to be guilty, but four- they got off the hook, because evidence had been confiscated from their private residences without a search warrant. The defendants got off on a technicality. No one knows where they went."

Callie took a deep breath. "That’s the number 4!" she said out loud.

"You might be onto something!" Frank replied, pleased.

"Yeah, but here’s the thing," Brian went on. "The punishment was really severe. The President now is in favor of the death penalty, but the former one, as you know, wasn’t. So, these six guys are on death row right now, pending appeals."

Vanessa had been listening the whole time, while trying to get info about the trial on her laptop as Brian spoke. "Here! Look at this!" she cried, pointing to the screen. Joe and Frank read about the trial over her shoulder. Brian was pretty accurate in his description of what had happened.

"This could be it!" Joe said, excitedly. "Great job, babe!"

"I know," Vanessa joked.

Frank, however, kept reading, ignoring them. Suddenly, he felt his face pale. Callie saw it at once. "Honey?" she asked him. "What’s the matter?"

Frank was quiet for a minute, and then spoke to the group, keeping his eyes peeled on the screen at all times. "Let me read this from the article, right at the bottom," he said, evenly. He took a breath and then read out loud, "The crime of embezzlement is a serious one, folks; much more serious than people think—especially if you’re an employee at the area Mints. The ten defendants accused in this crime were all Capitol workers; unfortunately for them, they were also employees at the Philadelphia Mint, from which they were embezzling funds via doctoring paperwork. Whomever said that old laws weren’t worth anything ought to be shocked by this case, as the 1792 law that established the first Mint made coin defacement, counterfeiting, and embezzlement by Mint Employees punishable by death. This reporter believes that really smart criminals ought to pay more attention in History class!"

"That’s some colorful journalism," Callie said with a small smile. "Not exactly "just the facts," you know?!"

"Cal," Joe cut in. "That’s true, but it’s not the point! AGIB is a reference to that 1792 law, the four employees, AND the GIBE at all of the people who never caught them!"

Callie was shocked, as was Vanessa and Brian. "I didn’t see that," she admitted.

"We have a case, at last!" Frank replied, happily. "Now we know who we’re looking for!"

"Frank," Brian cautioned. "You HAVE to tell the Chief about this, so you can decide what your next move is. This has to be kept fairly quiet. As it is, I think too many people knew about the Museums…well, non-heists… and you never know who might be working on this same lead. I swear, information travels!"

"That’s true," Frank agreed.

"Why, Bri? Have you been divulging all our secrets?!" Joe teased him.

"Nah, man," Brian joked back. "But my ex girlfriend, of a very short time, used to get me to chat. Chicks!" He smiled. After a moment, he paused. "Actually," he added, as he went to leave. "You may have run into her at the Museum. She was with you that night."

"Huh?" Joe asked.

"Jenna. Jenna. Barkalow. That girl’s a trip!"

They all froze.

Let the author know what you think of this story