Joe was collected early next morning by Vanessa. He had an appointment at the hospital to have his dressings changed and planned on getting it out of the way early so they would have the rest of the day to progress the case.

Vanessa pulled out of the driveway and swung into the road. "How was Frank yesterday?" she asked.

"A bit weird, actually. I don’t think Callie will recognise him when she comes over later, I certainly had trouble," Joe peered in the car’s wing mirror.

"In what way ‘different’?"

"He…just isn’t himself," Joe answered.

"I’m not surprised, it’s not every day you wake up not knowing who you are anymore."

"Vanessa, I don’t want to panic you, but we seem to have picked up a tail."

"Joe, have you ever known me to panic?" Vanessa demanded. She glanced at the rear view mirror. "Where?"

"About three cars back, the black one. I wasn’t sure at first, but it’s keeping pace with us, always allowing two or three cars to stay between us. I probably wouldn’t have realised we were being followed at all, but for the fact I’m trained in surveillance techniques."

"Hang on Joe, let me try something."

Vanessa headed along the street at an easy pace, keeping to the right hand lane. At the last possible second she twisted the wheel and shot left, slicing across the path of several cars. Joe heard angry horns being blown and looked behind him to see the black car shoot across the intersection, taken completely by surprise. The car stopped and began to reverse in order to continue the pursuit of their car. Vanessa took a quick right into a side street, turned left and left again. She quickly pulled into a vacant space.

"That was an ace piece of driving, Vanessa!"

"Hey, I’m not just a pretty face you know."

Joe opened his door and jumped out. "Wait here," he commanded, taking off his glasses.

"No way – we’re in this together!" she hurriedly pulled her car keys from the ignition and joined her boyfriend on the corner of the street.

They stood out of view with their backs to the wall listening. Upon hearing the car come screeching around the corner, they calmly stepped out and stood on the sidewalk. The car jolted to a stop and began to back off. Joe bent and looked straight into the face of the driver, but was unable to make out any distinct features – the sun visor was pulled down and the driver wore sunglasses and a baseball cap, successfully obscuring the face. Vanessa took a mental note of the car’s number as the vehicle spun away and sped off into the distance.

"Phew, if all your investigations are as exciting as this, I wouldn’t mind setting myself up as a private eye - I got the car’s plate number by the way," Vanessa remarked.

"Good, we’ll get on the computer later and track the owner," said Joe.

They walked back to the car.

***

Joe was feeling very happy as he grasped the steering wheel of his van. Following the visit to Bayport General he had been given the all-clear to drive again. It also felt good not to have to wear the sling.

Vanessa squeezed his knee and smiled across at him. "Feeling good?"

"You bet! I felt like I’d had my wings clipped!"

They’d picked up Biff and Chet and were heading for Callie’s place when Joe did a double take in the rear view mirror. "You’re not going to believe this Vanessa, but our friend is back!"

"Really?" Vanessa looked over her shoulder.

"What ‘friend’?" asked Chet.

"We picked up a tail earlier today, but managed to outsmart the guy — even got the car’s plate number."

"Which one? The black sedan?" asked Biff, also peering out the back window.

"Yeah."

"Did you trace the registration number?"

"Nope, haven’t had the chance yet," Vanessa replied.

"Let’s loose this sucker," Joe said determined. "Hang on everyone."

He put his foot to the gas and quickly picked up speed. The streetlights up ahead were on green. As they approached they began to change to red. Picking up even more speed they shot across the lights. Joe satisfactorily noted that the black car was trapped behind the rest of the traffic waiting for the lights to change. By the time the lights had change to ‘go’, the black car was nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

***

Callie climbed into the van and sat down. "Joe, you’re driving again!"

"Yeah, great isn’t it."

They brought Callie up to date on the day’s events. Biff was crouched up against the back window, keeping a sharp eye out for the return of the black car, but was sure that they were not being followed this time.

Ten minutes later they were parking the van at Jefferson Park. They all gathered round looking at the now faded chalk mark that once circled Frank’s blood. Joe, with his mouth set in a firm line, turned and stalked towards his van. Sliding the side door open with unnecessary force, he climbed aboard and yanked several boxes forward.

"Okay, listen up guys. I’ve got two metal detectors and a pair of two-way radios which are good for over two miles. Everyone take a pair of latex gloves and a handful of plastic bags – these are to be used to bag up any pieces of evidence we find. Whatever you do, don’t get your fingerprints on anything you pick up, or unintentionally rub away clues. Wear the latex gloves and handle everything with extreme care."

Joe handed everyone a holdall each and they began stuffing them with resealable bags. Everyone took a pair of gloves. "Here’s the plan: We split into two groups – Biff with Callie, and Chet with me and Vanessa. Biff and Callie will be dropped off up the road a-ways and they will start walking back towards the park, picking up anything they find along the way. The rest of us will start at this end. We should then meet roughly in the middle. Each team’s to keep in touch using these two-way radios," he held the radios aloft and handed one to Biff. They checked they were both tuned to the same frequency. "There is also a metal detector for each team," he handed one to Callie and one to Chet. "Don’t leave anything behind, no matter how unimportant it may seem, remember that even the most innocent looking clue can sometimes blow a case wide open," Joe looked around at their expectant faces. "Is everyone ready?" they nodded. "Okay, let’s roll."

Chet leaned towards Biff. "I bags being the ‘A-Team’."

"Oh brother!" Biff sighed looking heaven-wards.

***

Joe dropped Callie and Biff approximately two miles away, then drove back to join Chet and Vanessa. "Better check the two-way radios are working," Joe said to Chet.

His friend put the walkie-talkie to his face and pushed the button. "Biff, Callie, it’s the ‘A-Team’, are you receiving — over?"

There was a few seconds of interference and then Callie’s voice came through. "Loud and clear big guy — over and out."

"All seems to be in order, Captain!" said Chet handing him the radio.

They walked back onto the main road to began their systematic search, pacing the route slowly with their heads down, occasionally crouching to inspect something closely. Chet who had control of the metal detector swung it to-and-fro in a smooth sweeping action. Items were occasionally placed carefully into plastic bags. Their long search had begun.

***

An hour later Biff and Callie decided to take a five minute break. Biff stood up straight casting the metal detector aside, and arched his back. "This is surprisingly tiring work."

"Tell me about it!" Callie agreed blowing her fringe out her eyes and then tucking it behind her ear.

"You’ve a height advantage over me - at least your not hunched over as far as I am."

"Oh, stop grumbling and eat this," she pushed a chocolate bar into his hand. "Don’t say I never buy you anything."

"Hey, my heroine! Don’t tell Chet though - jealousy’s an ugly thing!" He ripped the paper from the bar and bit enthusiastically.

Callie stretched her arms in the air and wandered back up onto the road. She unhooked the transmitter from her pants and pushed the button. "Callie to the ‘A-Team’ — over" she said sarcastically.

"Hi Callie, find anything interesting — over?" it was Joe’s voice coming from the radio this time.

"Nope, just a few bits and pieces, nothing to write home about, sorry — over."

Biff was heading up the embankment towards her. He stopped and appeared to be inspecting the horizon, shielding the sun from his eyes.

"Same here — over."

"Me and Biff are just going to take a five minute break, why don…"

"CALLIE, GET OUT THE WAY!!" Biff suddenly yelled.

She spun round and saw a car, being driven at high speed round the bend in the road. The driver had time to see her and react, but the car just kept coming, the noise filling her head. Suddenly, she felt herself tackled around the waist and was sent soaring through the air, out of harm’s way. She lost her hold on the two-way radio and it flew from her fingers. Landing heavily on her side, she was winded and lay there gasping for breath. She heard Biff shouting. "ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY? YOU COULD’VE KILLED HER!" She got up onto her knees and saw a stationary car. Four teenagers were climbing out with mean grins on their faces.

"Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that, what did you say?" one of the youths, who was obviously their leader, came forward cupping his hand to his ear.

Biff stepped into the road, "Oh, I think you heard exactly what I said. What’s the big idea?"

"It’s not my fault your girlfriend’s too stupid to get out of the way." His friends laughed hysterically. Biff clenched his fists into balls.

Callie came to Biff’s side and grabbed his arm. "Don’t bother Biff, they’re just a bunch of kids."

"You should tell your girlfriend to watch her mouth, Biff"

"Number one: she’s not my girlfriend, and number two: I think you’re the one who’s in need of a lesson in manners."

The youth wasn’t laughing any more. He turned to his friends and motioned his head in Biff’s direction. They came forward and started to pulling a variety of weaponry from their pockets. Callie tried to pull her friend away, but he was determined to stay. The four youths started to surround Biff who took up a defensive stance. "Stand aside Callie," he said to her.

She ran down the embankment and frantically began searching for the missing two-way radio. She snatched it up preparing to call for help, when there suddenly came the sound of another vehicle approaching - everyone turned to look as one. Biff eyes widened as he recognised the car as the one that had been trailing them earlier. They watched as it was driven around them and sent on a collision course, straight into the other car’s rear fender, taking out a tail light.

"HEY!" shouted the leader of the group enraged. He turned back to Biff. "You’ve been lucky today punk. But your time will come, and you’ll be sorry you messed with me!" he jerked his thumb at the others and they ran towards the black car. He raised his fist and bought a hammer blow down onto the trunk but the car shot forward out of range and jolted to a stop again. He was made to look foolish as his fist sailed through thin air causing him to stagger clumsily forward. This antagonised him further and he and his companions jumped into their car. The black car roared off, and they took off after it.

"Phew, that was a close call," said Biff.

With a face like thunder, Callie stormed over and gave him a almighty shove in the chest.

"Hey…" he said staggering backwards a couple of steps.

"You stupid idiot! You could have gotten yourself killed. My boyfriend’s already in the hospital, I don’t want another one of my friends there as well!"

"Sorry…"

"So you should be. I’m grateful you saved me from being hit by that car, but your macho pride almost put you in the hospital!"

Callie glared into Biff’s hurt eyes. Suddenly, she realised how ungrateful she sounded and looked down at her feet, "I’m sorry, I really am glad you were there to save my bacon."

They looked at each other for a couple of seconds and then burst out laughing.

"You’re beautiful when your angry," teased Biff. She whacked him on the arm. "Ow…and violent too!"

They heard the sound of running feet. "What’s been going on?" Joe demanded out of breath.

Callie explained what had happened and pointed out the glass from the cars broken tail light.

"There’s something Callie wouldn’t have known," said Biff. "That car that came to our rescue, it was the black sedan that been following you."

"Are you sure?" Vanessa asked.

"As sure as I can be, the driver was wearing a cap and dark glasses."

"It certainly sounds like the guy," remarked Joe thoughtfully. "But that doesn’t make sense. Why run into the back of another car like that?"

"To break up the fight?" Callie suggested. "Or to bail Biff and me out of a sticky situation?"

"Well, if that’s the case, maybe this person is on our side, and if that’s true, I wonder why?"

"We definitely have to put that car’s plate number through the computer," said Vanessa.

"Well, we might as well carry on with our search," said Joe. "But I think we should all stick together this time, just in case those punks return for round two."

Biff went and retrieved his metal detector and they continued with the search. Another ten minutes passed and they came to an area where there was a large amount of glass swept into the grass verge.

"This must be where I punched out the window," observed Joe. He walked back on himself keeping his eyes to the left. He saw a flattened area of grass. " And this is where I landed," he called grimly, pointing to the spot.

Chet, who was moving slower than the others, stopped some distance up road of the others and wiped his brow with the back of his arm. Upon stepping forward again his foot landed on a concealed rock and he turned his ankle. "Whoa!" he exclaimed running sideways, pin-wheeling his arms in a vain bid to stay upright, but finally falling over. Biff stood over him with a smirk on his face and offered him a hand up.

"Ouch, what on earth did I land on?" he wondered, rubbing his arm. He knelt up and carefully parted the long grass, underneath lay a large wrench.