Joe parked the van up to Biff’s bumper, took his keys from the ignition and jumped out. Chet looked back in his seat and waved a greeting.

"What did you bring for me to eat?" Chet asked eagerly as he friend sat down in the back.

"Don’t turn the bag over to him, Joe - he’ll scoff the lot and I’ll not get as much as a crumb!"

"I had no intention of handing Chet the bag. I know your not allowed to feed monkeys!"

"Quit it guys, I’m starved," Chet grabbed the bundle and rummaged for a burger. He passed the bag across to Biff who also helped himself hungrily.

"Seen anything interesting?" asked Joe looking out at the office building.

"Only people milling in and out. We took photographs of them, but none looked like our Mr Powers or John. They looked like business types…you know…suit wearers. I’m beginning to understand why you hate surveillance so much"

"The rest of us had an interesting afternoon," Joe began. He filled them in on what they’d discovered and passed the picture of Wayne, John and Chelsie around. Chet peered searchingly across the street at the scrap yard.

"I think I can see the web-cam, it’s just above that window on the scrap yard’s portacabin. I wonder if you can see Biff’s car?"

"You can," Joe informed him. "We saw you in the Cyber Café."

"Do you want us to carry on, in view of the new evidence?" asked Biff.

"In the meantime, yes. But once you spot either of our two guys, phone me immediately and I’ll contact Chief Collig and let him in on everything we’ve discovered."

"Sounds like a good plan, but, if we’re going to continue watching the building, it would be better, under the circumstances, if you weren’t here," pointed out Biff.

"Trying to get rid of me?" asked Joe smirking.

"Not officially, but if either Mr Powers or John sees and recognises you our cover will be blown apart."

"You’re right," he agreed. "If I don’t hear from you before, give me a ring in a couple of hours and give me an update - I’m out of here!"

"Okay, Champ. Speak to you later," said Chet.

Joe exited the car and drove the van homewards.

***

He entered the house and wandered into the sitting room. Frank was sitting watching TV with his feet up on the coffee table. He turned suddenly, realising he was being observed "Oh, hi Joe. I didn’t hear you come in."

"Sorry, did I make you jump?" asked Joe awkwardly.

"No, just thought I was being haunted by the ghost of my past," he went back to looking at the screen.

"What’re you watching?" asked Joe.

Frank shrugged his shoulders. "Just some rubbish soap."

"Where’re Mom and Dad?" he asked, heading for the kitchen to fix himself a drink.

"Out for the night, gone for a meal with some client of Dads."

"Oh, right," he stopped and loitered clumsily in the doorway, looking at the back of his brother’s head. "Frank…" he began.

"Yeah?"

"…I…erm…do you want a drink of something."

"If you’re making one."

"Okay," he sighed resignedly and entered the kitchen. Stopping in front of the sink, he slapped himself hard on the forehead, annoyed for wimping out of the conversation he’d been meaning to have with his older brother since the previous day’s argument.

"You don’t want to do that too hard, or you could end up in the mess I’m in," said a downcast voice behind him. Joe turned and looked at Frank properly for the first time in two days, he noticed that his brother’s face looked drawn, making him appear much older than his young 18 years. Frank slumped into the kitchen chair and looked at Joe, seemingly studying him. His eyes narrowed. "You know what, Bro, we don’t look so dissimilar you and me. We may have the opposite hair and eye colour, but I can tell we’re brothers - even if I can’t remember it."

Joe sat down opposite him. "You’re right, we’re not that different. In fact, we make a great team."

"No, correction, we made a great team."

"And we will again."

"Will we?"

"Yes, it won’t be like this forever."

"Wish I could believe that."

Joe raised himself from the table and went about making them both a coffee.

"I’d give you a hand, but I can’t for the life of me work out where mom keeps the sugar."

"Neither of us takes sugar in coffee," observed Joe.

"Well, you learn something new every day," said Frank grinning slightly.

Joe swung around suddenly to face his brother. "Frank, about yesterday…"

"Don’t worry about it, Joe. It was my fault. I’ve been a real idiot treating Callie the way I have."

Joe shook his head. "Like dad says, you can’t blame yourself for something your not in control of."

"Is Callie very upset?" asked Frank.

"No, me and Vanessa have managed to protect her from most of it. She knows nothing about Gillian and she thinks I caught up with you before you were able to have your little drinking binge the other night."

"I really went off the rails, didn’t I."

"Yeah, you did a bit, but come to think of it, it was pretty funny!"

Both brothers started to laugh, quietly at first and finally erupting into full belly laughs.

"You know what’s even funnier?" said Frank through his tears of laughter.

"What?" asked Joe in a high-pitch voice, holding his belly.

"She dumped me today anyway - said I was immature." This news brought on a fresh wave of hysteria.

Frank and Joe talked for a long time that evening, until night had fallen outside. They made pizza and lost all track of time. Joe felt it was almost like old times and Frank was amazed by the stories his brother entertained him with.

Consulting his watch, surprised by the passing of time Frank stated, "Mom and Dad will be home in a couple of hours. Mom’ll be relieved when she sees we’re getting along."

Joe jerked bolt upright. "What time is it?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"9.30, why?"

"They were supposed to ring me at 8.00 – I can’t believe I forgot about it!"

"What…What’s wrong?" asked Frank, disturbed. His eyes followed Joe as he jumped up and leapt up the stairs, two steps at a time.

"What is it?" Frank shouted again after him.

Joe’s feet reappeared and he peeped around the stairwell. "Nothing serious," he replied, deciding to play it down. "Biff and Chet said they’d phone me and let me know if they could come over tonight, that’s all."

"That was a pretty strong reaction to a forgotten phone call," observed Frank.

"Yeah, I know, sorry about that. I always over-react to things. In fact, you’re always telling me off about it - some things never change, eh?" Joe had decided not to involve Frank in the investigation, it would take too long to explain everything, and on a cut-throat level, he realised Frank wasn’t up to the task.

He entered his father’s study and shut the door behind him so he wouldn’t be overheard and reached for the phone. Sitting down at his father’s desk, he quickly dialled Biff’s cell phone and listened for the ring tone. He allowed the phone to ring for a full minute before finally accepting that no one was going to answer.

"I wonder if they went home?" he considered, aware that he was probably grasping at straws. He rang their homes and spoke to both their mothers. They both confirmed that they hadn’t seen Biff or Chet all day. Both had assumed that they were still out with Joe, Vanessa and Callie.

Sitting back in the swivel chair, he picked at his eyebrow, considering the next plan of action. "Of course!" he thought, snapping his fingers. He leant forward and turned on Fenton’s computer. He logged onto the internet and accessed the scrap yard’s site. He went straight to the web-cam icon and clicked on it, watching impatiently as the picture slowly hoved into view. Although the image was dark, due to the hour of the night, there was a street light beaming straight down onto Biff’s car - Joe could clearly see that the car was now unoccupied.