At lunch, Frank brought everyone up to date on what was happening with Joe.  "They just have to make Joe’s life miserable, don’t they?" Chet demanded with a scowl.

"Hold it!" ordered Camille.  "Who is this Lauren and why does she keep kidnapping Joe?"

"She didn’t this time; Matt did," Phil clarified.

Camille glared at him while Callie shot Frank a questioning look.  Frank gave her a slight nod and she smiled.  She was growing to like Camille and thought she should know about Joe.  "Camille," she said, drawing the redhead’s attention away from Phil.  "It’s too long of a story to tell you now but, if you like, I will drive you home from school and tell you about it then?"

"Please," Camille acknowledged the offer.  She hadn't even been out with Joe yet but from the way his friends were reacting to his disappearance she could tell that he was a very special person and she looked forward to getting to know him better.  As the bell rang announcing the end of lunch, she started counting the minutes until the end of the school day.

***

"Ready?" asked Callie, meeting Camille just outside of the front entrance of school that afternoon.

"I was ready at lunchtime," Camille told her.  She would gladly have skipped her afternoon classes to find out more about Joe.

Callie began telling Camille about Joe’s being switched at birth on the way to Shore Road.  "And Mr. and Mrs. Hardy found out about it when Joe was a kid?" Camille gasped.  "Why didn’t they tell him?  Eight years was old enough."

"Because...uh-oh," Callie broke off and slowed the car down when she saw a traffic check ahead.

"What’s wrong?" Camille asked, looking at the frown that had just crossed Callie’s face.

"I forgot my purse at home," Callie confessed.  "No license.  But don’t worry," she said.  "I think we can go around."

"How?" demanded Camille.  "They usually set up an alternate check on the side roads so you can’t go around."

"I’m not taking a side road.  It’s part of a private drive," Callie explained as she pulled off of the main road.  A few minutes later she was back on the main drag and telling Camille more about Joe.  By the time Callie pulled to a stop in the Lane driveway, Camille knew as much about Joe’s relationship to the Assassins as did Callie.

"Would you like to come inside for awhile?" Camille invited Callie.  "The traffic check probably won’t last very long."

"Sure," Callie agreed.  The two girls exited the car and made their way to the back door.

"I have an idea," Camille said, her eyes twinkling.  "Why don’t we..."

"Don’t make a sound," a disembodied voice interrupted her.  Both girls froze.  They heard a slight rustling sound and then both were turned around to face their attackers.  "What is your name?" demanded one of the two men present of Callie.

"Find out!" she hissed angrily.  She was shoved roughly against the back door and the stranger’s hands checked all her pockets.

"Nothing," he told his partner who had been giving the same treatment to Camille. 

"No ID on this one either," the man’s partner stated.

"Then we will have to take them both," the other man said.  "No witnesses and we can’t kill the wrong one."

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.