They got outside just as the masked men dragged Joe into the van, they desperately tried to reach Joe in time, but just as they got halfway across the front lawn, one of them whipped out a handgun and pointed it at them. Firing off a shot at their feet, both of them quickly halted, and watched helplessly as the masked gunman jumped in the van, and it took off, with the gunman closing the door as they took off down the street.

All of a sudden, Frank noticed Joe’s keys on the driveway near their van. "Dad! That’s Joe’s keys!" he shouted.

"Okay, let’s try to follow them," Fenton said. Frank turned off the alarm with the remote on the keyring, and they quickly climbed in, and started the engine. Frank put the van in gear and took off after the van.

Fenton put in a call to Chief Collig on the cell-phone in the van. "The Chief is going to send out a few cars to help in the search," Fenton said, after he hung up the phone.

After about twenty minutes, they couldn’t find a trace of the van anywhere. "I hope the police have better luck than we did, with the van being black, it’s hard to find it in the dark." Frank said, he pounded the steering wheel. "Why did they take him?"

"I don’t know, but we better head home, they might call," Fenton replied. "I’m going to have to check my records to see if there is anyone getting out, I suggest you do the same, I’ll help you check on the status on your cases."

A dejected Fenton and Frank drove back home, "You didn’t catch them?" Elizabeth asked.

"No, they were driving a dark van," Fenton replied.

"Have there been any calls?" Frank asked.

"No," Laura answered, coming over to hug her husband, "I want my son back, Fenton."

Fenton hugged her back, "I know, I want him back too, but all we can do is wait, and hopefully some clues will emerge. Right now, Frank and I are going to go through our files to find anybody who might want to do this."

"I’ll help you look Dad, the sooner we find out who, maybe we can bring Joe home all that much sooner," Elizabeth said.

"Okay, we better get started," replied Fenton. With that everyone piled into the Hardy home.

It was a long night of searching, and Fenton, Frank, and Elizabeth had narrowed it down to three possible suspects. All of them dealing with people Fenton had put away when Frank, Joe, and Elizabeth were little.

"Here is Patrick Gowan," Frank said. "You investigated him for kidnapping and burglary fifteen years ago, he was released on parole, two months ago."

"I don’t think it’s him, I just got back a report on him, he has moved to Texas, and has managed to turn his life around, besides he never got along with someone long enough to work well together with someone, he always worked alone," Fenton replied. "Even today, he runs his own landscaping business now."

"Here is William Addison," added Elizabeth. "You investigated him seven years ago for kidnapping, he was released from prison two weeks ago."

"Again, that doesn’t seem likely," Fenton said. "He was in Washington state the last I heard, working for a lumber company, and was injured last week, and broke his leg."

"What have you come up with, Dad?" Frank asked.

"Thomas Draven, Sr., he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole, died three months ago, he has a family, his oldest; Thomas, Jr. has an extensive record, and seems to be taking after his Father, I have been working on tying him to several cases recently, but I haven’t any solid leads, he is proving to be almost as hard to track his Father, but the MO is the same," Fenton explained.

"What is that?" Elizabeth asked, swallowing nervously.

"Kidnapping, and murder," Fenton replied.

"If he is still in prison, why is he a suspect?" Frank asked.

"Like I said, his son is taking after him, I was beginning to think, before Joe was kidnapped, that his whole family could have been involved in his crimes, which would explain why it was so hard to track down Thomas, Sr. in the first place, and also, I think he has been helping out from prison, as his sons visited him quite often when he was alive," Fenton explained.

"How did they kill their victims?" Frank asked, worrying about Joe even more.

Instead of answering, Fenton handed over the file, and got up and walked out of the room.

Both Frank and Elizabeth read over the file, and both immediately knew why their father reacted the way he did, and just sat there in stunned silence.

No one slept in the Hardy home, they couldn’t, Laura was worried about Joe, and the rest were trying to come up with some way of getting him back.

Just then the phone rang.

Fenton answered it, "Hello," he said.

"Mr. Hardy, is Joe there? He was supposed to pick me up an hour ago," Vanessa asked.

Pausing, Fenton didn’t know what to do or say, he didn’t want to lie to her, but he also didn’t want to worry her.

"Mr. Hardy? Is there something wrong?" Vanessa asked, growing nervous.

"No, there’s nothing wrong, he had to run an important errand for me, I guess he forgot to call you," Fenton replied.

"When will he be back?" Vanessa asked.

"I don’t know, he said he’d call when he was on his way back, he hasn’t called," Fenton replied.

"Okay, I guess I’ll see him on Monday, then. Goodbye," Vanessa said.

"Goodbye," Fenton said.

"Who was that?" Laura asked.

"That was Vanessa, Frank you better call Callie to tell her you won’t make, try not to worry her too much," Fenton told Frank.

Frank knew it was hard for his dad not to tell Vanessa the truth, but he knew that Vanessa would be worried even more if she knew the truth. He went up to his bedroom to call Callie and tell her that something came up and he would go with her some other time to the museum. He was glad when she said she understood, that occasionally things came up with cases.

A few minutes later, Frank heard a knock on the door, "Come in," he said.

"Dad wants you to call Biff and the others and have them come over, he said he’ll try his best to explain it to them, I’ll call Tony and Phil, you call Biff and Chet," Elizabeth told her brother.

"Okay, how are you doing?" Frank asked.

"Worried, why are they doing this?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don’t know, nothing that criminals surprise me," Frank replied. He himself wondered why they were doing this, even after reading his dad’s files, he was sure there was more to it, than Joe just fitting some profile of their intended victims. But, he was determined to find Joe and he knew his father wouldn’t rest until Joe was found as well.

* * * * * *

As everyone assembled in the Hardy home, all of the Hardy friends noticed someone was missing, Phil was the first to speak up, "Where’s Joe?"

"What I am about to tell you, can’t be told to either Callie or Vanessa, especially not Vanessa, she would worry too much," Fenton told them. "I need you to promise us you won’t tell them."

As all of the Hardy friends said they would not tell Callie or Vanessa about what they were about to hear, before Fenton could start, the doorbell rang. Laura got up to answer it, she came back a moment later and was followed by Con Riley, and Sam Radley.

With everyone seated, Fenton started to speak. "Joe was kidnapped last night, after he returned home from his date with Vanessa, and I am pretty sure we know who it is, that is why I called Sam," Fenton paused. "He and I worked on that case five years ago, we always thought there were some loose ends, but we could never prove it, but we have been working on it, off and on since then. When we would get a new lead, we would work on it."

"Con did you find anything?" Frank asked.

"Well, we did find the van, abandoned on Shore Road, so they evidently switched vehicles, we went thoroughly over the van for fingerprints, but found none, either they wiped it down or were wearing gloves, we did find traces of blond hair, and are attempting to make a match with a sample of Joe’s that we have on file at the station, but the good news, we seem to have found traces of red hair, which could be his abductors, and the suspects do have red hair," Con explained.

"Who are the suspects?" Chet asked.

"The Dravens," Sam replied.

"I heard my parents talk about that case, he was a serial killer you and Sam put behind bars Mr. Hardy," Tony said. "But he died, several months ago, that is why they were talking about him."

"Yes, the same, but we think his whole family was involved in this," Fenton acknowledged. "But we couldn’t prove it at the time."

"Wait a minute," Biff stepped in. "Isn’t he the one who kidnapped, all those blond-headed high school players from several states?"

"Yes, it is no secret Joe plays football, and the fact that he is my son, only makes things worse for him," Fenton replied.

Everyone knew what he was talking about, Frank and Joe’s father has had many cases, and has made many enemies. Everyone shuddered at what little they knew about the case.

"What makes you suspect the Dravens?" Con asked. No one was surprised he asked that question, although he trusted Fenton’s judgment, he still had to look at this from a cop’s perspective.

"Well, normally I try not to jump to conclusions, but like I told you over the phone, I have been investigating similar crimes over the years, that at first we thought were a case of a copy-cat killer, but last year, a young boy, about Frank’s age was kidnapped and murdered in Pennsylvania, same way Joe was kidnapped and all the others and red hair samples were found in the vehicle that was used in the kidnapping, and we did get a break on the case, someone saw Thomas Draven, Jr. in the area prior to the kidnapping, and he hasn’t been seen since," Fenton explained.

"Until last night I presume," Con said.

"Yes, one of the kidnappers matched his general description, except he wore a ski mask, so I couldn’t make out what he looked like," Frank replied.

"So Mr. Hardy, what do you want us to do?" Biff asked.

"I want you all to help with any leads and be on the lookout for any suspicious activity that goes on. Report back to me or the police, also ask around and see if anyone has seen anyone that matches these descriptions," Fenton explained, as he handed everyone a paper that described the Dravens. "Try not to make Vanessa or Callie suspicious though, it wouldn’t be unusual for the Draven’s to go after anyone their victims care about, so watch your backs."

Everyone adjourned and said they would be careful and keep them updated on their progress.