"FENTON! JOE IS GONE!" Laura screamed from Joe's bedroom door as she looked at his empty bed. Frank, who had been sleeping, woke up with a fright and rushed to his mother. Fenton also came running down the hallway.

They all stared at the empty bed. It was seven a.m. and Joe was never up at this time in the morning.

Frank opened Joe's desk drawer and dragged out a brown wooden box. He knew where Joe kept his savings, but the box was empty.

"Joe's money is gone!" Frank threw the box back into the drawer.

Fenton walked in Joe's room and went through Joe's closet.

"If he's gone, he's travelling light. Almost all his clothes are here, but his backpack is gone."

"Maybe Vanessa knows where he is," Frank wondered, and picked up the phone and dialled Vanessa's number.

"Hi Vanessa, it's Frank. Is my brother with you?" Frank asked Joe's girlfriend, Vanessa Bender.

"No. I haven't seen him since after school yesterday. Is something wrong, Frank? If something is wrong please tell me." Vanessa's said.

"Joe's gone and we don't know where, or even when. Maybe you could come over and we could compare our notes," Frank suggested.

"I'm on my way," replied Vanessa, and Frank hung up the phone.

"She hasn't seen him since yesterday."

"I kind of figured that out," Fenton said, and sat down on his son's bed and buried his face in his hands. At this moment, he was so angry with Joe that he could strangle him but, at the same time, he was scared to death. Even though both his sons had been in danger more times than he could remember, this was nothing compared to that. His little boy was somewhere out there in the world, alone and by choice. And he had chosen to leave him.

"Find him Fenton please! He couldn't have gotten far- not with three hundred dollars and few pair of items. Find him now before it's too late," Laura begged.

"Frank-- call the group together. Maybe some of them know something about where Joe might have gone," Fenton ordered, and rushed downstairs and into his office.

***

Less than an hour later, their friends were sitting in the kitchen, confused. It was now evident that Joe had runway with out letting a single person know. Now they were sitting there trying to figure out where he might have gone.

"This isn't Joe's style," Biff said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"We had a big fight last night," Fenton replied in shame.

The rest of the people looked at Fenton not believing what he just said. Fenton never argued with his sons; they all got along great and always seemed to be the perfect family. This was just too unbelievable.

"What was the fight about?" Vanessa asked in tears.

"Joe screwed up a lot in school and I ordered him to go to summer school. I also ordered him stop all detective business until his grades had improved," Fenton confessed.

"You know that Joe could never give up being a detective! That's his life, his passion, his destiny, his everything." Vanessa wasn't trying to cover up her tears anymore.

Laura was also crying but she was hiding it better than Vanessa. Her baby was somewhere out there all alone and she didn't know if she would ever get to see him again. What if someone would hurt him or be mean to him? This is a cruel world and Joe was just a kid when all things were considered.

"Vanessa, we will find him; there is no question about that," Frank said. "What kind of detectives would we be if we couldn't find one of our own? In the meantime, don't worry about Joe. I think he will be all right; he can take care of himself."

"You don't know that, Frank! How can you possibly be so calm?" Vanessa cried out, and walked to the window hoping to see her boyfriend walking towards her.

"I am scared out of my mind Vanessa, but panicking will not bring Joe back home; rational thinking will. Now, does anyone have any clue where he might have gone?"

"Well," Tony said putting on his serious face "If I was going to runaway I would go to New York. It's easy to hide and no one notices each other."

"How does that help us?" Vanessa asked.

"Well, it doesn't, but it's a big possibility." Biff replayed.

"I think Tony may be right," Frank said. "I checked the bus schedules for last night and a bus left to New York shortly after ten last night, which means it would have arrived to New York around two in the afternoon. We can't be certain, but I am pretty sure that Joe left last night instead of early this morning. A bus left for Washington this morning, but that was around eight a.m. and we were all up at seven. Some one would have noticed him gone then."

"We should go to the bus station and see if anyone there noticed him leave," Laura suggested.

They all agreed that Frank and Vanessa would go to the station while the rest of them would call everyone they knew in Bayport to see if anyone had seen Joe. Fenton said he was going to the police station to file a missing persons report on Joe and also see if the officers there could keep an eye open in case Joe was still in Bayport.

***

The bus ride to New York was one of the longest and hardest that Joe had ever taken in his life. With every mile closer to the city, the further away from home he was going. He cried most of the way there and many times he had to restrain himself from asking the bus driver to pull over and let him out.

After arriving to New York, Joe walked around trying to decide what to do next. He didn't think this far when he planed running away and of course he didn't have any place to stay. It was late and Joe was getting really tired.

The first night as a runaway Joe slept on a bench.

He woke up that morning having the worst headache he had in years, if not ever. He slowly got up and looked around.

People were walking by but no one even looked at him. Most of them were carrying their suitcases, holding them very close, fearing that the next person might snap it off them.

Joe looked at the ground next to him and was glad to see his backpack there. He had hidden the money in the inside pocket of his jacket but he realized he would have to be more careful in the future. This wasn't Bayport, after all.

Joe got up from the bench and stretched. According to big clock in the park it was almost ten a.m.

"They must have noticed back home that I'm gone by now. I wonder if they even care." Joe said out loud to himself, but realised instantly how stupid that sounded. Of course they cared! They weren't bad people and he knew they loved him very much.

"Maybe I should just go back home, or at least call them," he thought, and walked towards the payphone. When he was about to dial the number he chickened out. What would he say to them? How would they react? Would they be glad to know that he was all right or would they be furious that he missed his first day of summer school?

Thinking back to summer school made him remember the reason for running off in the first place and Joe put the phone back. He still knew that he needed to talk to someone but who? He thought about calling Vanessa but she would just start to cry and ask him to come back home and he knew that he couldn't do that. What kind of runaway would he be if he came running back home after one day?! Not being able to think of any one to call Joe walked away feeling that he still had something to prove.

"I refuse to be the be treated like a child!" Joe thought to himself, "Being told what I can do and what I can't do! I am to old for that. If running away from home is what I have to do to prove to dad that I'm old enough to make my own decisions, running away is what I have to do."

***

Vanessa and Frank arrived at the bus station when it was about to open around eleven o'clock. A young man in his early thirties gave them a smile as he opened the door.

"Good morning there. May I be of service?" the young man said holding the door open so Frank and Vanessa could come in.

"Yes please, we are looking for this man," Frank said ,and handed him a photo of Joe. "We believe that he was here late last night or early this morning."

The man looked at the photo closely and for what seemed to be forever he finally said, "No. I am sorry I don't recognize him. Then again, if he left this morning, he didn't buy his ticket here since we are just opening. He may have asked the driver instead. You could ask the guy who had the late shift last night in case he left then. His name is Sheldon Tyrell and he will be in at three o'clock."

The man handed Frank back the photo and gave him a sympathetic smile.

Frank and Vanessa decided to visit Sheldon Tyrell at home instead of waiting for him to get back to work. Frank called information and found out that Mr. Tyrell lived in east end of Bayport. They went there immediately.

Sheldon Tyrell was a young man, maybe in his early thirty's. He opened the front door with a big smile on his face.

"Morning there," Frank said. "I am terribly sorry to bother you at home but this is an emergency."

"No bother! What can I help you with?" Sheldon asked, and offered them to come inside.

"My name is Frank Hardy and this is my friend Vanessa Bender. We are looking for my brother; he ran away from home last night."

"I'm awfully sorry to hear that," Sheldon said.

"I have a picture of him right here," Frank said, and handed him the picture of Joe he had on him. "We were hoping he might have bought a bus ticket from you last night."

Sheldon took a long hard look at the picture and then Frank. This seemed like forever, but he finally handed Frank the picture back.

"No, son. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen that boy. Do you have any idea when he might have left last night?"

"Sometime between 7 pm and 10 pm he left our house."

"I closed the bus station a little early last night," Sheldon confessed. "Please don't report me for that, it was my girlfriend's birthday. Anyway that was around 9 pm. There were two buses that left after that. One to Washington and the other to New York."

"Thank you for the information," Frank said, getting up from Sheldon's couch. "And don't worry about us reporting you. I have a girlfriend, too, and if I would stand her up on her birthday I wouldn't live to tell the tale." Frank thanked him and they left.

On their way home Frank was really quiet and every attempt Vanessa made to get him talking failed.

Arriving back home they found out that the others didn't have any more luck getting information then them.

Biff and Tony had called almost everyone Joe had ever met in his life, but there had been no luck.

The kids finally decided to head home since it was obvious they wouldn't have any more luck that day. They all promised to be in touch if they were to hear anything.

Going to sleep that night Frank couldn't escape the felling that he might not get to see his brother again for a long time.

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow them without express permission of the authors.