"Did you ask who it was?" Frank asked, handing the paper bag he had in his hand to Joe, whose eyes brightened instantly.

"Hmm, that smells heavenly," Joe said, breathing in deeply. The previous attack had left him dependent on oxygen for days and though he had been content letting a machine do his breathing for him for a while, Joe was thankful he had fully recovered for he now realized that being able to breathe on his own was a luxury. Joe was about to turn around and go up to his room again he noticed Frank glaring at him from the foot of the stairs.

"Oh-right. Sorry," Joe said sheepishly. "Someone named Gloria Roberts. She mentioned something about some Chemistry assignment-or wait-that’s not right…"

"Chemistry quiz?" Frank felt like kicking himself. He had forgotten all about it. The national elimination quiz was just a week away and he hadn’t studied a thing! Frank cursed softly under his breath. If he made it to the finals it would look great on his high school credentials, not to mention how crucial it is if he wanted to enter a good university of his choice after graduation. I can’t believe I totally forgot all about, Frank fumed. I've gotten too carried away with the case.

"What’s the matter?" Joe was sitting on the stairs, munching on his burger. "Is something wrong?"

Frank sighed and joined Joe on the stairs. Joe listened in sympathy as Frank told him about the upcoming quiz. "I’m going to blow this one, I’m sure," Frank finished, sounding frustrated.

"Hey, it’s not your fault. People were being murdered, remember? That’s as important as anything. And besides you’ve still got one week left to study. Make use of it," Joe said. Frank raised his eyebrows. Joe made it sound so simple. Then Joe put down his food and propped his elbows on his knees, a distant look suddenly replaced the sympathy in his eyes.

"What are you thinking about?" Frank asked. Joe had gone quiet suddenly and Frank immediately knew something was troubling him because Joe had left his unfinished burger untouched.

Joe turned to look at his brother. Frank had always been smart and Joe admired him for it. A lump rose in his throat as he remembered how he felt a few weeks ago, how jealous he was of Frank, how he wished he could be more like his brother. If he had only sought Frank’s help then, he wouldn’t have gone to Tessa. If he hadn’t gone to Tessa, things would surely be different.

"Just be careful in choosing your tutor, Frank."

I bless the day I found you…

I want to stay around you…

A laugh suddenly rang through the vacant room.

And so I beg you…let it be me…

The image of a knife cutting through delicate skin flashed through in vivid colors. Ahhhh, is that blood I smell?

So never leave me lonely…

Tell me you love me only…

And that you’ll always…

So? Forever is mine. They’ll come. And better yet? The painted red lips curled into a cruel smile.

Let it be me…

"I’ll bring them to me."

The doorbell rang.

"I’ll get it," Joe shouted from downstairs, immediately regretting it as his voice scratched painfully against his healing throat. A hand reached for his neck and he rubbed it gingerly as he went to the door.

"Vanessa," Joe said, trying not to sound surprised. During his stay at the hospital, Vanessa visited him frequently but never stayed for very long. The awkward conversations all sounded false to her and he could see that she was always trying so hard to avoid the subject of Tessa or Craig. Joe was not exactly sure how he felt about Tessa or whatever her name was anymore and the fact that Vanessa was trying so hard to make things right between them touched him deeply. He knew they should both apologize to each other but nevertheless, Joe was thankful to her. If it weren’t for Vanessa, he would probably be dead. And he didn’t fail to notice how pretty Vanessa looked in a pink sweater and long, slim skirt.

"Hi, Joe," Vanessa said awkwardly. "You look-well."

Joe laughed. Vanessa looked so cute when she was nervous. "I feel well. Come on in."

Joe let a hand rest on the small of her back as he led her in. He could feel her muscles tense involuntarily, then relax. He noticed that Vanessa was even smiling a little. Joe couldn’t believe that just until a few weeks ago, they would kiss and hold each other like it was the most natural thing in the world. And now they were acting like bashful strangers, each reluctant to tell the other how one really felt, yet couldn’t wait to throw oneself into the other’s arms.

"So, uh, what’s up?" Joe asked softly, gazing into her blue-gray eyes.

"Joe, who is it?????" Frank shouted from upstairs.

Joe ignored his brother.

"I have something to show you," Vanessa answered slowly, drawn to Joe’s deep, penetrating gaze. Then she gave herself a mental shake. Now is not the time to think about it, Vanessa, she told herself. She reached a hand into her handbag and took out a spiral notebook. As she handed it to Joe, her hand grazed his a little and Vanessa shivered as a small rush of electricity ran through her. "And Frank," she said breathlessly.

"Joe?!!!" Frank bellowed even louder from upstairs, sounding panicked.

Joe and Vanessa looked up when they suddenly heard thundering footsteps running down the stairs.

"Joe-" Frank’s mouth dropped open when he saw Joe and Vanessa and instantly, the panic in his eyes turned into anger. "Why didn’t you answer me? I thought something bad has happened-" Frank was genuinely angry. He was busy studying and had just managed to memorize most of the periodic table of elements when someone rang the bell, and when Joe didn’t answer his shouts, for one second he had been terrified that something terrible had happened to his brother. "Joe, I can’t believe you!"

But Joe was not listening. He was too busy flipping through the notebook. "Frank, look at this."

"This is weird," Frank muttered as the three of them sat together at the kitchen table. On every page of the notebook was a series of diagrams, drawn with a pencil. At first sight, the diagrams looked box plots but as Frank examined them closely, he recognized what the boxes represented.

"These are fragments of a periodic table," Frank said finally. He was sure of it. Joe raised his eyebrows.

"Don’t look like one to me," Joe commented. Chemistry not being his thing and all, Joe seriously doubted he would ever surpass his brother in the academic department but he could know the Periodic table anywhere. The series of elements arranged according to the periodic changes in their chemical and physical properties, one of the many things sweet, dear Tessa had taught me, he thought bitterly.

"That’s because some of the boxes are missing," Frank said. "Joe, run upstairs and get my Chemistry book will you? It’s right there on the table." Frank could feel excitement growing in him. He didn’t fully understand it, yet. On every page there were numbers written all over, random numbers, which meant nothing to him at the moment. Small notes annotated the little boxes but the writing was illegible and even if it were, Frank doubted he could read it, because it wasn’t in English. Swedish was his best guess.

Vanessa looked thoughtful. "Could it mean something? It could be totally useless, I just grabbed what I could. Maybe she was revising or something prior to her disappearance."

"We’ll see about that soon enough," Frank said. Joe arrived with the book. "Thanks, Joe."

"Right, let’s look at the first page." There were 5 boxes arranged vertically in a straight line, the first box on top filled with a large ‘O’. "I’m guessing this is Group VI in the table, where Oxygen is on top. Check the book, Joe, is it correct?"

"Yeah, it is."

Frank squinted. "The writing is so faint, I can’t read a thing."

"I think that’s an S in the next box," Vanessa said. "For sulfur."

"Right. Then we have polonium down at the bottom. Why is the fourth box circled?"

Joe checked the Chemistry book. "The fourth element down the VI group is…Hmm, the symbol of the element is ‘Te’ but I’ll be damned if I know what that stands for…could be Tellurium, Telerium? I don’t know."

"Joe, grab a pencil and write down the atomic number and mass number of that," Frank ordered. Somehow he had a feeling that the numbers could be of significance.

"Ok." Joe wrote down ‘Te’, which has the relative atomic mass of 128 and atomic number of 52.

On the next page was also a sketch of Group VI but now, sulfur was circled. Joe did the same thing with that too.

At last after Frank had gone through all the fragments of periodic tables drawn in the notebook, Joe had written down the symbols of 6 elements of various groups.

"Right. What now?" Frank asked himself silently. He couldn’t help feeling that these series of elements mean something. But what?

"Any ideas?" he asked his brother and Vanessa.

"Could be a code of some kind," Joe said uncertainly. He couldn’t put his fingers on it but something about the numbers seemed familiar to him. But it wasn’t so much of their sequence but the numbers themselves. What could it be?

Suddenly Joe shot out of his seat.

"Wait," Joe said urgently. He suddenly ran out of the kitchen and came back a few moments later with Frank’s notebook.

"Frank, retrieve the file you showed me the other day at the hospital?" Joe said excitedly. "The one with the list of the victims’ names. Quick!"

"This one?" Frank asked a while later.

Janet Coulter.

Room 55, Grand Bluewave Hotel.

Trevor Dalton,

Room 195, Keyaki Hotel.

Valerie Houston,

Room 128, Trademark Hotel.

Mary Helen Lee,

Room 402, Manhattan-East Hotel.

Craig Henderson

Room 57, Middle Grove Hotel

Tessa McCaffrey(?)

Room 32, Sapphire Hotel

"What-Oh," Frank said in awe, realizing what his brother was trying to show them. "Joe, you’re a genius!"

"What? What is it?" Vanessa asked and ran around the kitchen table, leaning down to look at the screen over the Hardys’ shoulders.

"The room numbers," Joe said excitedly. "They’re the same as the mass numbers of the 6 elements!"

"Hmm, you’re right!" Vanessa exclaimed after checking the table Joe had filled in with the symbols and the numbers. "Wait, except for Room 204…’Tl’ has the mass number of 402. And it’s different for Astatine too."

"I think I’ve figured it out." Frank’s eyes were twinkling as he reached for a piece of paper and a pen.

And underneath the box, Frank wrote down the symbols for the 6 elements.

‘Te’ ‘S’ ‘As’ ‘Mn’ ‘Tl’ ‘Pt’

"Since the mass number of ‘Tl’ is 402, and since the room number is 204, the only thing I could make out of this would be…it must be the other way around then." Frank went on writing down the letters carefully.

‘Te’ ‘S’ ‘sA’ ‘Mn’ ‘lT’ ‘Pt’

Joe drew in a sharp breath. It made sense. God, it made perfect sense to him.

"She’s telling us where the body is," Joe gasped out.

"What?" Frank and Vanessa cried in unison.

"She’s telling us where the real Tessa is buried."