"Jason, is it really 11:47?" Frank asked, his voice tired.

Jason looked up from the computer screen that the boys had been glued to ever since they came back to the Kramer home.

"Oh my, I didn’t mean to be on here this long. No wonder my eyes are tired!" Jason said stretching out. "But it sure was nice chatting with Callie and Chet. They seem really nice."

"They are. Maybe some day you will be able to meet them in person. That web camera was also a neat idea. I am glad that Mom was home and was able to let Callie and Chet get to my computer," Frank commented. The teenagers had communicated part of the night with their web cameras. Jason could not get over how much Chet looked like Chuck. Callie loved hearing about the Kramers and thought it was funny to meet another crime fighting brother team that was so much like the Hardy brothers.

Frank stood up and stretched out his six foot one frame. "It is too bad Joe missed seeing Mom and the gang."

"I know, your Mom looks so much like my Mom. What is really freaky is that they have the same name even!" Jason said as he shut the computer down. "Now we know why Adam and Joe look so much alike."

"Hey, speaking of Adam and Joe. Did you ever see them come in? I haven’t seen them at all since we left the pier," Frank said, thinking back over the night’s events.

"I am sure that they came and we didn’t notice them. They should have been back an hour ago at the latest!" Jason said as he got up and walked towards the end of the hallway to Adam’s room.

When Jason reached Adam’s room, he found the light off and no sign of either of the boys. He walked back past his own bedroom and downstairs. Still, there was no sign of the boys. Jason started to get an uneasy feeling. He walked to the back door and peered out into the driveway. Adam’s car was no where to be seen. Without even waiting or worrying about the time, Jason immediately called Alyssa. Alyssa confirmed that Adam and Joe had left over two hours ago. After assuring her that they were probably just fine and promising to call when he found them, Jason got off the phone. Before he could even turn around, he heard Frank Hardy’s voice say, "Something is not right."

Jason sighed and bit his lip. It was not unusual for Adam to run late and get into something or another. It was not that he cruised the night and willingly made himself late for his curfews. Since his accident, Adam had a major problem with getting sidetracked and losing track of time. However, Jason could not help but have a sense of dread in his stomach.

"I would say that they met up with someone on the way home and lost track of time or they have had car trouble or something," Jason said, going to get the keys to the van. "Adam does have an old car you know."

"But would they have called on a cell phone?" Frank asked.

"Adam always forgets to take the extra cell phone with him," Jason muttered.

"Aren’t you going to tell your parents?" Frank said, as they were about to go out the door.

Jason winced thinking that his parents would want an explanation for his late night excursion. He didn’t want to worry his parents, especially his mother over something that might not even be a cause for alarm. However, he knew that he was going to have to tell the truth. Jason turned and walked up the steps to his parents’ bedroom. Knocking gently on the door, he heard his mother say to come in.

Peeking his head around the door, Jason quietly and calmly stated, "Adam and Joe are not back yet and Alyssa said they left a couple of hours ago. Frank and I are going to go and pick them up. I am sure that they ran into some friends or car trouble."

"You mean they are not here?" Carl’s voice spoke up. "I thought they were parked on the other side of the van."

"No, I checked. But I am sure everything is fine. I will call you when I find them so you will not worry any more than you already will," Jason commented. He knew the first thought that ran through their head. It was the same thought that ran through his mind as well.

Laura was not too convinced, but Carl reassured her that they should let Jason check the road to Alyssa’s house.

"If you don’t find them, you call immediately. I am sure that Adam has just lost track of time again. I just wish he would remember to carry that cell phone!" Carl griped.

Jason assured his parents he would report with any news at once and quietly went back down the steps. Soon the two older brothers were scouring the route that led to Alyssa’s house looking for any sign of an old Trans Am.

Jason drove down the familiar roads that led to Alyssa’s house. He just hoped that Adam did stick to the usual way instead of venturing off somewhere else. The countryside was wide and open and it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack among all the back roads. Frank had not said a word the entire trip. Jason figured he was just nervous. Jason knew that nervousness well. He also knew what it was like to find the nightmare at the end of the search instead of the happy endings that Frank was used to seeing. Frank had never had to watch Joe get hauled out of a piece of scrap metal and hear his brother flat line in the back of a squad. He had also never had to help nurse his brother back to as close to normal as he could ever possibly be. The Hardys were lucky there. They always seemed to have happy endings.

Meanwhile, Frank was too busy looking for any sign of anything. He could not imagine anything really bad happening, but that didn’t mean anything at the moment. He knew that Adam was more "daring" thank his brother and that thought worried him.

Frank looked over at Jason for a second. He could see the worry lines and the "big brother" look in his eyes. Grinning to himself, he turned his attention back to the side of the road.

Jason pulled down the lonely road called "Maple Hollow Road". Every time Jason drove that road at night it always gave him the creeps. It was the road that changed their lives. He entered into the only straight stretch on the one and half lane gravel road. It was then that the headlights of the van caught the sight of orange reflectors in the distance. His heart almost jumped out of his chest as he accelerated faster towards the object on the side of the road. As the object came into clear vision, there was no mistaking it. It was Adam’s beloved Trans Am. Jason brought the van to an almost screeching halt right beside the car that sat abandoned in the night air. As soon as the van stopped, Frank jumped out of the passenger side and was beside Jason in seconds. The car was sitting there with the keys still in the ignition and the T-tops off. The bad feeling in Jason’s stomach grew even worse. He knew that Adam would never leave his car like that for anything.

"ADAM! JOE!" Jason called out, looking around for any sign of the two boys. But there was no answer. "I will go check over here by the pines."

Frank nodded in agreement. "I will look around here for any clues." Frank started to look over the car without touching it. He did not want to disturb anything in case there would be a need to call the police.

"Do you have a flashlight in the van?" Frank called out.

"In the console!" he heard Jason’s voice call back.

Frank went and found the flashlight and looked around the car. The weeds were high on the side of the road and Frank could tell that the area around the passenger door to the back end was completely trampled down. In one place by the back end of the car, there was a large patch of weeds pushed down to the ground like someone had literally rolled and rolled over top of it. Then Frank turned the beam to the side of the roadway by the area. He saw something dark and went over to look at it more closely. Frank almost gasped when he noticed that it was not dark patches on the road, it was blood. A small amount, but enough to realize that something had definitely happened. Then he looked in the gravel. It seemed like the gravel was not even, as if someone had really dug into the gravel with his or her shoes for some reason.

The older Hardy looked in the car, but nothing seemed disturbed at all. However, Frank was sure that Adam and Joe were not off having "fun". Something had happened, just like earlier in the day. Jason was making his way back towards the car and ran up to Frank.

"Find anything?" the older Kramer boy asked.

"No, but I think Adam and Joe are in trouble. It looks like they put up a fight though," Frank said, flashing the beam of the flashlight to the side of the road.

Jason’s heart sank. "I bet this has something to do with what happened at the pier! I doubt if they had car trouble because Adam’s tools are not even out. I would try to start it, but I don’t want to disturb anything."

Frank walked Jason to the back end of the car and pointed the beam down to the side of the road.

"I also found a little blood there. I doubt if it is a major injury, but it seems that someone put up a fight and I can guarantee that Joe would have," Frank commented.

"Adam would have fought until he could not fight anymore too," Jason replied.

It was then that they heard a stirring sound coming from the extreme back end of the Trans Am. Jason and Frank looked at each other. Jason motioned for Frank to go to one side of the car while he went to get the keys out of the van. When Jason was back on the other side of the car, Jason motioned for Frank to be on guard as he opened the back hatch. Jason would have normally been able to look though the hatch glass, but Adam had his cover pulled over. In order to see what was in the back end of the car, they would have to open up the hatchback part. Jason pulled the license plate down and inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The sound of the lifter could be heard and Jason carefully got his fingers into position to open the hatch. Frank was now in position to spring into a defensive move. Mouthing "on the count of three" to Jason, Frank began the count down with his fingers.

One…

Two…

THREE!