Fenton Hardy lay awake in his bed, not wanting to move for fear that he would wake Laura, who had finally drifted off to sleep. He had spent most of the day tracking fruitless leads. He and Adam Whiteside, an unexpected ally in searching for his missing son, had gone through endless files looking for anyone Fenton put behind bars who might have recently escaped from jail or had a relative in the area.

Joey had now been missing for over 24 hours. Fenton felt a tear slip down his cheek as he thought of his golden-haired baby boy. Was he hurt? Was he alone? He knew for certain that Joey would be very frightened.

‘It’s my fault,’ the distraught man thought, ‘I should have put in a security system right away.’ He eased out of bed, careful to not wake his wife, and slipped out the door. He padded silently down the hall to his son’s bedroom. Opening Frank’s bedroom door, Fenton smiled at the dark haired child, curled up with his brother’s stuffed alligator tucked under his chin.

Fenton went into Joey’s room. Moving inside, he was immediately overcome with emotion. Joey’s room was decorated in a "Noah’s Ark" theme. Smiling elephants, tigers and chimpanzees looked down from the walls, painstakingly painted by Laura just months after Joey was born.

Fenton pulled down the safety rail on the side of Joe’s twin bed, and snuggled against his son’s pillow, taking in the scent of baby shampoo that clung to the fabric. "I’m sorry, Joey," Fenton cried into the pillow, "I’m sorry I didn’t keep you safe."

* * *

Joey felt someone shaking him. He opened his weary blue eyes and looked into the masked face of his kidnapper. The man pulled Joey into a sitting position.

"Here you are, Precious," the man spoke softly, stroking the child’s tear-stained cheek, pushing aside the momentary apprehension he felt at the warmth radiating from the child’s skin, "I’ve brought you something."

Joey watched the man pull a carton of milk from a bag. He opened the carton and put a straw in the opening, holding the milk for Joey to drink.

The child ravenously sucked on the straw, gulping the warm milk. The man in the ski mask then pulled a banana from the bag. He carefully peeled it and broke off pieces for Joey to eat.

After he had finished the fruit, Joey looked at the man, "I want Mommy," the child said softly.

"Soon, Precious," the man replied, "Mommy will be here very soon."

The man moved away from Joey, and climbed up a ladder that was coming down from the hole. When the man had climbed up, Joey watched the ladder disappear up through the hole, too. Soon the light faded and the child was left alone again in the terror of the darkness.

~ ~ ~ PRESENT...