Joe placed a phone call to his girlfriend and spoke to Mrs Bender, who put her daughter on the phone.

"Hi, Joe," she said brightly.

"Vanessa, have you spoken to Biff or Chet tonight?" he asked tensely.

"No, why, what’s up?" her tone changed to one of concerned puzzlement.

"They agreed they would phone me at 8.00, but I haven’t heard from them."

"Maybe they’ve gone straight home?" she suggested.

"I wish the explanation was that simple, I’ve just had another look at the scrap yard’s web-cam - Biff’s car’s still parked there, but it’s empty."

"Yes, I even phoned the Biff’’s cell-phone, but no one answered," Joe paused and came to a decision. "I think there’s something really wrong. I’m going out there to find out what happened."

He listened as Vanessa’s voice spoke anxiously to someone else. She came back on the line. "In that case, me and Callie are coming too."

"No, it could be dangerous, I’d feel happier if you were both safely at home."

"Okay," he agreed, sighing resignedly. "Just don’t pull up right next to Biff’s car, park half a block away and I’ll find you."

***

Joe was driving, barely keeping within the speed limit. He was thinking about the difficulty he’d had convincing Frank he was going out to meet Vanessa

"At this late an hour?" Frank had asked, suspiciously.

"Hey, some things can only be done at night," he’d said, looked into Frank’s eyes, and waggled his eyebrows.

Frank gave him a knowing smile, nodded and winked. "Say no more, you old dog! Don’t worry, I won’t wait up!"

As he drew nearer, to their rendezvous he began to scan the streets, keeping a look out for Callie and Vanessa. Finally he spotted the little red car and pulled in behind. He was turning the engine off, as the girls were climbing out to meet him.

"Did you hear anything from them yet?" asked Vanessa.

"No, not a word, " said Joe. "I feel kind of guilty because I told them to phone me and forgot until over an hour after the agreed time."

"There’s no time to cry over split milk, let’s see if we can find them, although knowing those two they’ve probably gone to find a pizzeria!"

"I hope so, Callie, I really do."

They jogged to Biff’s car. Joe peered into the interior and carefully tried the door. To his surprise it was open.

"That’s not a very promising start," he muttered, leaning in. "The key’s still in the ignition too," he pulled it out and put it into his pocket. He leaned further in and pulled the glove box open, inside was Joe’s camera. Examining it, he was surprised to find the film still intact and that 17 shots had been snapped.

Vanessa looked down and noticed something shining in the lamplight. "What’s that?" she bent down to take a closer look. "Uh oh, look what I found guys."

Joe tucked the camera back into the glove box and backed out of the door to see what she and Callie were looking at. Vanessa pointed towards the car’s back tyre and Joe saw that it was a chrome coloured cell phone. He picked it up, pressed a key and put the phone to his ear. "It’s still working, Biff must have dropped it."

"So, what do you think happened to them?" asked Callie.

"It doesn’t take a genius!" Joe replied, tucking it into his inside pocket. He looked across at the office building. "Come on, I think a spot of snooping is in order."

They ran quickly and quietly across the street and up the side of the building. Crouching low beneath the windows they began to make their way slowly along, listening as they went. Finally Joe held up a halting hand and they stopped, they heard voices and could just about make out what was being said.

"All day?" scoffed the voice.

"That’s Chet’s voice," whispered Callie. They others nodded in agreement.

They heard a scuffle break out and the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor. Callie gripped Joe and Vanessa’s forearms.

"WAYNE! CONTROL YOURSELF!" shouted a third voice. "We’ve plenty of time to get information out of them. Take him back upstairs and lock him up! Come back down when your done, we need to talk."

There was a pause.

They heard a door open and the sound of feet leaving the room. Joe shuffled back a little way and leaned over, inspecting the upper windows in order to ascertain which room Chet was being taken too. All the rooms were dark except one, which also had the blinds drawn tightly down "That must be it," he thought, crouching down under the window again and continuing to listened.

"Wayne Powers is becoming a liability. We’ll have to think of a way to get rid of him - permanently."

They heard the door open again and the room fell silent for a moment.

"Don’t you ever speak to me like that again!" hissed a voice, which was obviously now Wayne Powers.

Joe, Vanessa and Callie heard someone approach the window and were forced to duck lower and push themselves as flat to the wall as possible to avoid detection. A radio was switched on loudly, drowning out any further conversation.

"Head to the corner of the building," Joe whispered. They crept to their destination, stopped and got into a tight huddle.

"I counted four voices in that room, not including Chet," said Joe.

"Me too, " confirmed Vanessa.

"So, what’s the plan?" whispered Callie.

"I’m going to go in and get them out," said Joe

"Not without us your not - you’re not abandoning us here!"

"I wouldn’t dream of it! Wait here, I’ll check the front door," he approached the entrance furtively and pushed the doors. He was not surprised to find they were locked. Returning to the girls, he said. "We’ll have to find another way in."

They headed around the other side of the building and were relieved to note that there were no lights on, indicating that all rooms on that side of the building were unoccupied. The first two windows were shut tight, but the third window was ajar at the top.

"That opening’s too small for even Callie to squeeze through," observed Vanessa.

"Don’t worry, I’ll fix that," said Joe. He grasped the top of the window and, gritting his teeth, hauled himself up with one arm onto the window ledge, thankful for all the pull-ups he did at the gym. He balanced himself and reached through the window, put his hand around the latch to the larger pane below and twisted it open. He jumped down nimbly beside the girls and Callie opened the window wide.

"Ladies first," he offered.

"What a gent," jested Vanessa. She boosted herself through the window and quietly dropped to the carpeted floor. She turned and helped her smaller friend through and together they helped Joe climb in.

He went to the door, opened it and peered through the gap. "All clear," he whispered and gestured for them to follow. They stealthily and silently moved along the lit corridor towards the stairs, passing more doorways. They were bypassing the room with the radio playing when, suddenly, there came the sound of a door opening further down the hall. They momentarily froze, unable to react. Joe mentally shook himself and pulled on the nearest door handle, luckily it opened and he pushed the girls in. They stood in the dark, with their ears to the door listening to the footsteps approaching, which, to their relief, passed safely by and entered opposite. Joe opened up again and this time they were able to make it to the stairwell.

Upon reaching the first floor, they observed immediately that one of the doors was sealed shut by the use of a chair pushed up against the door knob. Vanessa removed the chair and they opened the door. Chet and Biff were sitting back to back in the middle of the floor, their faces bearing the impressions of rabbits caught in a headlight. Biff had been in the midst of untying Chet’s hands.

"Man!" Biff exclaimed. "We thought you were Powers coming back to fetch one of us for questioning again - what took you guys so long?"

"Sorry, I forgot about the phone call," Joe apologised, looking sheepish.

"Just remind me to do the same for you sometime, pal!" countered Chet, annoyed. "Get me out of this rope."

Vanessa and Callie crouched down and untied the boys. They stood and Chet and Biff rubbed their wrists feeling sensation returning.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Callie.

"Yeah, got a bruise on my rump though, where that thug shoved me over," said Chet.

"We heard that, we were outside the window," said Joe. "So, what happened?"

"We were sitting in the car looking at the building when someone came up beside the car and tapped on the window," began Biff. "I shoved the camera in the glove box, assuming it was the cops until I looked and saw a gun pointing at me - it was Wayne Powers. He made us get out of the car and fog-marched us in here."

"He questioned Biff first, but couldn’t get anything out of him and decided to have a go at me instead," finished Chet. "He knew we were watching the building, he was watching us watching them!"

"He saw you come by earlier, Joe, and recognised you, or he thought he did. I half persuaded him that he was mistaken - enough to put doubt in his mind, anyway. I think it bought us more time," said Biff.

"Let’s get out of here," said Callie, heading for the door.

"No, wait," said Biff. Callie stopped and looked back. "Let’s give this place a search first. I heard filing cabinets being opened and closed whilst I was being questioned downstairs, we can collect together as much evidence as possible, high-tail out of here and turn the whole thing over to Chief Collig. At least then, the proof would be safely in our hands as opposed to theirs."

"Breaking and entering again?" asked Vanessa, smiling slightly.

"Not the same thing, we were invited inside, whether we liked it or not, remember?" replied Chet.

***

They exited the room and Callie replaced the chair against the door to disguise they escape. Tip-toeing down the stairs with Biff in the lead, they were lead to a vacant room, next door to the room the suspects were occupying. He closed the door, drew the blinds tightly down and switched on the light. They looked around them and saw that they were standing in a make-shift office. There was a desk, book cases, and a filing cabinet. Joe immediately moved towards the cabinet and was disappointed to find it locked. Unperturbed, he took a paperclip from the desk and began fiddling with the lock. A few minutes passed and the cabinet draw slid open.

They all gathered round expectantly as Joe riffled through the contents. He pulled out file after file and handed them out. "Everybody look through what they’ve got and hold onto anything that may be of use," he instructed in a low whisper.

The only sound to be heard was the radio next door and the sound of shuffling paper. Callie pulled a document from a folder excitedly and tapped Joe on the shoulder, pushing it under his nose. It was a list of names and addresses of several couples. Next to that information were descriptions of children. Three of those had been crossed through, of those, all three descriptions matched the descriptions of the missing children. The paper was monochromed and had a Playbie’s Adoption Agency letterhead and logo. Callie also showed him some photographs she’d pulled from the file - instamatic photographs of the children, obviously taken without their parents’ knowledge or permission. Joe gripped her shoulder in delight and she folded the piece of paper and pushed it, along with the photos, into her back pocket.

Joe waved them all together into a huddle. "Callie’s found what we came for, now let’s get out of here."

"Good for Callie, but you ain’t going nowhere!" said a controlled voice in the doorway.