"Dad never found him. He got away with what he did to mom. Who knows how many other women he's attacked? He deserves to pay," Joe said with an assertiveness Frank hadn't heard from Joe since this whole mess had begun.

"Mom and Dad will never go for it," Frank warned.

"They don't have to know," Joe replied.

"Okay," Frank agreed. "We'll find him." He looked at Joe closely. "Are you sure you can handle this?"

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life," Joe said calmly, his tears having quit, his face set in stone, he looked older than his seventeen years. Frank silently vowed to make sure Joe's natural father was punished, not for the crimes he had committed but because of the pain etched in his younger brother's face.

The next morning found Frank and Joe in their father's office. "Here it is," Frank said, pulling a folder from one of the file cabinets. "Dad was still a cop during this case," he added.

"I know," Joe replied. "I'm using Dad's passwords to access the NYPD's files," he told him, typing in an approximate date. "Got it," he said, a minute later.

"Print it up and lets get back to our room before they get back," Frank urged. "Dad will blow a fuse if he finds out what we're up to."

Taking the materials back to their room, they started pouring over their contents. "Mainly there are victims listed," Frank said with puzzlement.

"What's wrong?" Joe asked, looking over at him .

"Mom's not listed as one of the victims," he said.

'That's kind of understandable," Joe said. "They put the victim through the mill on the witness stand when the rapist gets put on trial. With all the others, Dad probably thought he would have enough against him if he were caught without putting mom through that too."

"You're right," Frank agreed. "I hadn't thought of that."

"I've got a list of possible suspects," Joe said. "They all had alibis for some of the rapes but not one of them had an alibi for all of them."

"Does it give the alibis?" Frank asked.

"Yes," Joe said. "Let's start with the most questionable ones and go from there," he suggested.

"All of this was in New York," Frank said. "We're going to have to go there for a few days," he warned Joe.

"How are we going to do that without making Mom and Dad suspicious?" Joe asked.

"I've got an idea," Frank said, his brown eyes twinkling. He picked up the phone and called Vanessa.

"Hello?" she said when she answered.

"Hi, Vanessa," Frank said.

"How's Joe?" she demanded, hearing Frank's voice instead of Joe's.

"He's fine," Frank told her. "We need a favor," he said.

"What?" Vanessa asked.

"We'll tell you when we see you," he said. "We're on our way over," he added.

"Good," she replied. "I want to know what happened in California."

They hung up and Frank and Joe left for Vanessa's. When they arrived, Vanessa ran down the steps to greet them, enveloping Joe in a big hug. "Are you okay?" she asked him softly.

"Yeah," Joe said, kind of backing away from her.

Looking hurt, she let go of him and led the way inside. "What happened?" she asked, after they had been seated inside. "Did you find out about Joe's real parents?"

After receiving a nod from Joe, Frank told her about Joe's father. Shocked, she looked at Joe, who sat stiff and avoided looking at her. She got up and knelt by his chair. Taking his hand in hers, she kissed it. He looked at her in surprise. She got up and sat in his lap. "You idiot," she said fondly and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "It doesn't matter who your dad was," she said. "I love you!" she told him forcefully, leaving him in no doubt she didn't care about his parentage.

Frank looked at Vanessa with new respect. Until now, he had just treated her like Joe's girlfriend, a passing acquaintance who really didn't have a place in their lives except on a temporary basis. But now, he could see she really cared about his brother. Maybe she wouldn't be such a bad sister-in-law in the future. Maybe she could make Joe forget about his grief over Iola and actually live life to it's fullest again. If that were possible after this mess. Frank really doubted Joe would ever be as happy as he once was. Blast Fenton anyway! Frank thought with a fresh burst of hatred toward his father.

"Frank," Joe said. "Frank," he said again, snapping Frank out of his thoughts.

"What?" Frank said.

"Did you want to tell Vanessa about the favor?" Joe reminded him.

"Oh," Frank said. "We need to go to New York for a few days and we don't want Mom and Dad to know. Could you cover for us and say you needed us for a few?"

"Why New York?" she asked. "I thought Joe was born in California."

"I was," Joe told her. "But we lived in New York back then."

"What was your mom doing in California when she was that pregnant with you?" she asked. "It looks like she would have wanted to stay home."

"Joe was a month early," Frank explained. "They were visiting friends of Dad's."

"Sure, I'll cover for you. Be careful, huh?" she asked them. "This guy may be your natural father, but he may still try to kill you if you get too close," she cautioned.

"We will," Joe promised. "We'll get some of our things and bring them over here," he continued. "Then if Dad comes looking, he can see our stuff and know we are about somewhere."

"Did you want to leave your van?" she asked. "You can borrow my car," she offered.

"Thanks," Frank said, "but if Dad does come around and sees the van he'll want to talk to us. If it's not here you can always say we went to pick something up."

"We'll let you know where we're staying," Joe promised.

"You better," she said, giving him a hug.

They went home and packed. A duffel each for the trip and one each to leave at Vanessa's. They had stowed the stuff in the van and were coming in to leave a note when their mother arrived home. "Hello, boys," she said, walking into the kitchen, and setting two bags of groceries down on the counter. "There are more in the car," she told them, starting to pull items from one of the bags. They went out and brought in the rest of the bags.

"We're going over to Vanessa's for a few day," Joe told her.

"Why?" she asked, casually, removing more groceries.

"Her mom got some equipment in and she wanted us to hang around and make sure no one stole it until their burglar alarm was installed," Frank said.

"I thought her mom was out of town," Laura said, turning to look at her sons.

"She is," Joe said. "Which is why Vanessa is so worried about her mom's stuff," Joe said, foring a carefree grin.

"You two aren't involved in a new mystery, are you?" she asked suspiciously.

"No," Joe said.

"Nothing new's come up," Frank replied.

"All right then," she agreed to the arrangements. "Call me," she ordered.

"We will," Frank promised. She walked over and kissed them good bye. Joe stood rigid, still upset because of what his father had done to her. Frank accepted the kiss with a slight frown but quickly smiled when she looked at him.

"What's wrong?" Joe asked Frank once they were in the van. He had noticed Frank's reaction to his mom.

"Nothing I can put my finger on," Frank said truthfully. He felt his mother was holding something back, but he wasn't sure what. There was no sense in saying anything to Joe. He had enough to worry about.