One thing he knew now, even if he was found he wouldn’t be able to eat at first, he felt that sick, it had gone past just his constant stomach rumbling, he felt so sick, he was cold, he wasn’t used to not going without a meal, he thought he would throw up, if he had anything to throw up. He also felt extremely tired, he hadn’t slept much either, he had to remain on constant alert for anytime his captors might come down to torment him and his family some more, but he finally managed to nod off, and drifted into an uneasy sleep.

* * * * *

Back at the Hardy home, all of a sudden Frank doubled over in pain, everyone gasped as Frank ran out of the room, Fenton got up and quickly followed him, when Frank went into the downstairs bathroom and closed and locked the door, he heard Frank throwing up, he knew Joe was hurt, but was Frank worrying so much, that he was making himself get sick?

"Frank, are you okay?" Fenton called, when he heard the toilet flush a little while later.

"Yeah," Frank replied, "I’ll be out in a bit." Frank leaned over the sink, He just knew he was feeling someone from Joe, sure I’m was worried, but I hadn’t had enough to eat to make myself that sick with worry, Frank thought to himself.

A few minutes later, Frank emerged from the bathroom, although he had thrown up, he didn’t look all that pale, Fenton worriedly asked, "Frank, what happened. Are you okay?"

"I don’t know, I felt like I hadn’t had anything to eat in a long time, and I had a light lunch, a couple of hours ago," Frank replied. Then, as he was walking back into the office, a thought struck him, "Oh no."

"What is it?" Chet asked, bewildered.

For awhile neither Fenton nor Frank could speak, it finally struck Fenton why Frank threw up, finally Fenton managed to say something, "This is kind of hard to explain, but sometimes, when either Frank and Joe feel any intense pain, the other feels it," Fenton explained.

"I knew you two were close, but I would have thought Elizabeth would be feeling it, after all, she is Joe’s twin," Biff commented, incredulously.

"She is, but since we are so close, we have had a few times when we both have felt something," Frank replied, sometimes not believing it himself, as he was a person of science, and reason, and this wasn’t something he couldn’t easily explain.

"I always wondered, why you knew Joe was in danger, and vice versa, that certainly explains a lot," Chet commented.

"But, one question, could that mean Joe’s still alive?" Biff asked.

"Probably, they want to keep him alive, at least until they are through playing games with him," Fenton replied, rubbing his hand on his face, he hadn’t had much sleep since this all started.

"Well, that means we had better find Joe, before they’re finished playing their stupid games," Biff hotly exclaimed.

"We will certainly do that, the leasing and real estate companies should be getting back in touch with us soon," Frank paused, "They said it would take awhile, as this is one of the busiest times to get new renters because school just recently started, and Phil and Tony should be making headway in their search, and get back in touch with us."

There was a strained silence between all of them, Fenton closely examining the map of the area, "Well, I think I have roughly narrowed down the area where we should be looking," Fenton announced, breaking the silence.

"What is it?" Frank asked, anxious to hear, then he saw what his father was looking at. "They’re at the south side part of town, at the outskirts!"

"Yes, I don’t know why I didn’t see it before, but they lived at the south side of their town in Maine, I guess I was too upset to notice the pattern," Fenton replied.

"No one will blame you, Mr. Hardy, we all know how concerned you are for Joe," Biff said.

"Thanks, Biff, but that is how I managed to break the case originally, I guess I thought they would alter their pattern, but the only thing that appears different are the phone calls," Fenton replied.

Suddenly the phone rang, everyone wondered if this was a lead or the Draven’s, Fenton was the first to recover, "Hello?" he answered.

"Fenton," Laura said, on the other end. "How close are you to finding Joe?" she asked, she wasn’t able to hide the worry in her voice, normally she was able to remain calm when the boys or Fenton were on a case, but this case was different.

"We are very close, honey," Fenton replied. "How’s Elizabeth?"

"She’s worried Fenton, she knows Joe is in pain, how’s Frank, can I speak to him?" Laura asked.

"Frank, your Mom wants to speak to you," Fenton said, handing the phone to Frank.

"Hi, Mom," Frank answered.

"Frank!" Laura said, "You sound awful, how are you holding up?"

"Worried," Frank replied, he didn’t know how to answer his mom’s question.

"You have to be strong for Joe, he needs you," Laura tried to comfort her son.

"I know, it’s just hard not being able to be there for him," Frank replied.

"He understands, and he knows you’re looking for him, Elizabeth told me," Laura said encouragingly.

"I know," Frank said.

"Well, I’ll let you and your Dad go, I know you have work still to do, keep yourself up, you’ll need to keep your strength up. Bye," Laura said.

"Bye, Mom," Frank said. "Don’t worry we’ll find Joe soon." With that he hung up the phone.

While Fenton and Frank were closely examining the map on the wall, the phone rang again, "Hello?" Fenton answered.

"Mr. Hardy, this is Ms. Anthony from Bayport Real Estate, I have eight houses that match the criteria you gave us, do you have anyone that can come pick it up, or do you want me to deliver it?" Ms. Anthony asked.

"I’ll send someone to pick it up," Fenton replied. "Thanks." Then he hung up the phone after saying goodbye. It was like that with all the other companies they called, soon Biff and Chet were on their way to pick up the information that had been compiled, they prayed that there wouldn’t be that many houses in the area that Fenton had pointed out, as a likely spot for the Draven’s to hide Joe, because the sooner they found Joe, the better they would all feel.

Soon after Biff and Chet left, the phone rang again, "Hello?" Fenton answered, with a sense of dread, he had a feeling who would be on the other end.

"Still haven’t found another lead?" Alexa gloated, she couldn’t help it, it seemed she had the world famous private investigator stumped. Little did she know, that they were busy chasing up leads.

"Even if I found anything, I wouldn’t let you in on it," Fenton coolly replied, trying to sound convincing and he seemed to being pulling it off.

"Too bad," Alexa said. Alexa pulled the phone away from her ear, and put it to Joe’s after they had jostled him awake. "Speak to your Father!" she ordered.

But Joe refused to speak, truth be told, it was hard to speak, he was weak, tired, hungry, and angry, he only glared at his captors, which wasn’t easy when you could only easily see out of one eye.

"I told you to speak!" Alexa shouted at Joe, with that she kicked him in the ribs, he let out an involuntary grunt of pain, the only indication to Fenton that Joe was still alive, he knew why Joe wouldn’t speak, he didn’t want to give the Draven’s the satisfaction, and possibly there was another reason, maybe he couldn’t speak that easily, but it only made his captivity worse on him, he all of a sudden realized that this was more than the norm than the previous cases he had studied that could be linked to this trio, they kidnapped and are torturing Joe to get back at him, he felt anger at this, but he also knew that anger wouldn’t bring Joe home sooner so he kept it bottled up.

"Well, I guess what I heard about your son is true, about him being headstrong, but that won’t help him one bit," Alexa sneered, when she returned the phone to her ear. With that the line went dead.

For a few minutes after that, Fenton couldn’t speak, Frank could see how upset his dad gotten over the course of the call, and he himself could hear what they were doing to Joe, to get him to speak, but Joe refused to, he just hoped that Joe’s stubbornness, hadn’t pushed the Draven’s too far this time.

It took a few minutes for both Fenton and Frank to compose themselves, the whole case had been draining on both of them, but with the discovery that they were stubbornly sticking to their pattern provided a ray of hope in finding Joe in time, in what condition they would find him, they didn’t know, but Fenton was determined to stop the Draven’s and get his son back alive, he knew, from past experience that Frank would fall apart without his brother, and he felt sure he would too. It wasn’t easy trying to be the strong one in the group, especially if you had some clue as to what Joe was going through.

"I shouldn’t have let Joe play football, I knew the profile of the people they went after..." Fenton began.

"Dad, you can’t blame yourself, even if Joe didn’t play, they probably would have still gone after him or me, even if Joe didn’t play, they were after revenge at this point, and we’ll get Joe back, and they will pay for their crimes," Frank said. "Dad, I understand how you feel, I feel like I let Joe down, when he got captured."

"It’s not your fault Frank, they were extremely careful with their timing, remember they have been doing it for years, there was even a case where one kid was kidnapped in broad daylight, just before Joe was taken, that is the one they haven’t found yet," Fenton paused, to collect his thoughts. "That is the first thing we need to find out once their caught, and give his family closure."

"Yes, but the only closure, I’ll get, is having Joe back at home, safe and sound," Frank said with absolute certainty.