"It’s not your REAL niece for Pete’s Sake!" Joe finally commented as Iola walked past the group and into the house.

Frank let out a sigh of relief, but he was still baffled.

"You have seen Iola all summer and all this fall in her cheerleader outfit. I don’t think she could have hid that secret wearing all of those clothes," Joe quipped as the group made their way into the house.

Once inside, Joe explained the whole story. He even gave Frank the ring to examine. When he was finished telling the story, the youngest Hardy stood in front of his brother waiting for a reply. Instead of a reply, Frank got up and went over to the phone.

"What are you doing?" Joe asked.

"I am calling the police," Frank said with a stern voice. But Joe quickly dashed to the phone and held the clicker down.

"You CAN"T call the police. They will call Children’s Services and they will take Bekka away!" Joe shouted out.

"JOE! We can’t take care of her. What if she gets sick? We can’t take her to a doctor!" Frank replied to his brother. "The police need to know."

"Frank, I am not going to let you call the police. We are going to try to find out who her mother is and help her. If they get involved, she could lose Bekka forever!"

"She should! She ABANDONED her in OUR van on the side of a ROAD in the COLD, JOE!" Frank snorted back, picking up the phone again. But Joe stood his ground.

"She didn’t just ABANDON her!"

"Do you know his baby’s mother?"

"NO!"

"Then she WAS abandoned!" Frank pointed out.

"It doesn’t matter. She is coming back for her and we owe it to Bekka to help her get to her real mother. Bekka’s mother mentioned that she knew our parents! She trusts us and we can’t betray her trust. She needs our help, not our criticisms!" Joe pleaded. Then he looked at his older brother straight in the eye. "Frank, I really believe that we are doing the right thing by keeping Bekka. I just know her mother is going to come for her."

"And what if she doesn’t Joe? What about Mom and Dad? What do you think they are going to say about this?"

"I just know that Bekka’s mother WILL be back. I also know that mom and dad taught us to help other people. Something must be really wrong for her mother to think that she would be safe with us!" Joe answered stubbornly. Iola and Callie stood facing the boys. Bekka peered out over towards the boys as well. She looked at Frank and smiled. "AGHOO!" she proudly shouted out, her dimples clearly showing.

Frank’s heart melted at the sight of Bekka. Then he turned towards his brother. Joe was very determined and stubborn. The oldest Hardy told a big sigh and ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Fine, Joe. I am going to trust your instincts this time," Frank finally said, putting the phone down. Joe nearly knocked Frank over as he gave him a big hug.

"I knew you wouldn’t let me down!" Joe said cheerfully.

"But what ARE we going to do if the mother doesn’t come back?"

"I guess we will have a new baby sister!" Joe jokingly replied. Frank flashed him a look, then he looked at Bekka.

"Mom always did say that she would have loved to have had a little girl," Frank said with a grin.

"Now that everything is settled, we need to get little Bekka here settled and a tree needs to be put up," Callie pointed out. "Let’s get that done before we start investigating. I would not like to have to deal with your aunt if the tree was not up and ready to go, let alone with the news of a new baby in the house."

All four of the teenagers agreed and eagerly started getting the Hardy home ready for the Christmas party and its new visitor.

About a half-hour later, it was eight o’clock. The Christmas tree was trimmed in lights, tinsel and all of the Hardys’ most treasured ornaments from over the years. Iola had set up a nice area for Bekka to sleep in the guestroom otherwise known as Aunt Gertrude’s bedroom in her family bassinet. The stairway was lined with garland and white lights as well as the mantle above the fireplace. The middle of the dining room table was adorned with candles and pine garland, a favorite of Mrs. Hardy. The young couples stood back to admire their work when Chet came crashing through the door, loaded down with many bags.

"GOOD GRIEF CHET! You were just supposed to pick up baby wipes and Vaseline!" Iola quipped, looking at all the bags.

"Bekka needed a few other things. I stopped by the ATM and picked up a few dollars. That second hand store was open and I got a lot of good deals!" Chet exclaimed proudly. He quickly sat the bags down and immediately was showing his "treasure". He pulled out a small musical toy that looked like a little piano, a stuffed little brown bear, one blanket, a fuchsia colored jumpsuit and a velvet green dress with white lace with socks and black shoes to match.

"She needed a Christmas dress," Chet said softly as he held the outfit up. "The lady helped me pick it out."

"You didn’t tell her did you?" Joe asked with a worried look.

"No, I just said it was for a cousin," Chet replied.

Everyone sighed in relief. They all knew it was wise to keep the baby’s existence and whereabouts secret until they could find out more about the situation.

"Now I think it is time that we start to investigate. I think we should start by thinking of the teams that Bayport plays. I would think that she is local. Which city has the Vikings?" Frank said as he sat down on the couch next to Callie.

"None that I can think of in our division," Joe commented. "I have been wracking my brain. I know I have heard of a team around here called the Vikings."

"MIDDLEPORT! The Middleport Vikings!" Iola exclaimed loudly. She shouted it so loud that even Bekka jumped and then laughed. Iola hugged her and held her close. "Is that where you are from? Are you from Middleport?" she said as she looked at Rebekkah.

"You’re right Iola! But Middleport is over an hour away?" Callie replied. "But since she graduated in 2000, she could be living down the block from us right now."

"Some of the area schools here in New York State have websites. I wonder if Middleport has one," Frank recalled. "It was part of a grant a few years back. It was a way of getting the public involved with their local school. Bayport has one and it lists alumni and past teams of every sport."

"Then lets get on the Internet and see. If not, maybe that Classmates.com site might have some information," Joe answered, starting towards their father’s study. "Let’s use dad’s computer. Maybe once we can get a name, we can use his password to run the name through the system."

The teenagers made their way to the study. Frank booted up the computer and started searching the Internet for any information on Middlport High.

"There! Middleport High School, proud home of the three time state district girls’ basketball team…the Lady Vikes," Frank said proudly. He scrolled down the screen and clicked on "The Alumni Files" and then the year 2000. A list of names popped up. A long list to Frank’s dismay.

"That must be one big high school. There must at least be 200 graduates in that class," Joe announced as he looked over Frank’s shoulder. "But we are looking for the initials A. R."

Frank scrolled down the list and found four names that matched the initials that were female. "Let’s see… we have Annie Rollingham, Andrea Marcum, Allison McGuire and Amie Robinson."

"Didn’t they have a sports section?" Callie asked, pushing her auburn hair out of her face. Her green eyes were glued to the computer screen.

"That is my next stop," Frank said, flashing her a smile. He loved it that his girlfriend shared his same hobby for investigating, even though she wanted to be a journalist. Unfortunately, Joe did not share this same feeling. Frank looked over at his younger brother. Joe was too busy making faces at Rebekkah to care. Rolling his eyes, Frank turned his attention back to the computer screen. A sports section under Alumni 2000 news listed all of Middleport’s sports. He clicked on tennis.

"We got it!" Callie exclaimed. "This is going to be one of the easiest cases we have ever solved!"

"We-" Joe started to say, but he was interrupted by his brother.

"I wouldn’t say anything right now," Frank said in disgust. "It looks like there were two girls with those initials playing tennis that year… Allison McGuire and Amie Robinson."

"Great! That narrows it down to two!" Iola said cheerfully. She then looked at Bekka, who was looking around curiously in her arms. "We are going to find your momma real soon, baby doll."

"Don’t get too excited. It is not like we can just look these two girls up and say,’ Excuse me, did you leave your baby in our van one night?’ Iola," Frank replied.

"But two is better than four and four is better than nothing," Joe added.

"I just don’t have a good feeling about this. Things are going too easily. And you know what dad says about that," Frank said with a sigh.

"Yeah," Joe said with a frown.

"What?" Callie asked

"When a case is too easy, then something is not right," both boys said in unison.