Seconds later, the closet door was swung open and Joe squinted as the sudden flood of light hurt his eyes. But William afforded him no reprieve and grabbing his arms, he dragged his dazed brother out of the closet. Quickly he untied Joe and hauled him to his feet.

Joe felt a vague alarm when he noticed that William was wearing a cream colored sweater. Wasn’t I wearing that? And his heart raced as he realized that whatever Will had been doing…he had been doing as Joe.

"Wh-what?" he managed as the gag was finally removed although it seemed hard to form a coherent thought as he was still not fully aware yet. His mind and thoughts felt a bit out of sorts and he found himself wondering if he had a fever.

"Shut up", William hissed as he was eagerly anticipating seeing the dog again and had no time for Joe’s stupidity. How dare Iola disappoint him! He wasn’t going to be disappointed again…he had to find a release.

Still unsure of what William was planning; Joe felt a jolt of fear go through him as he was dragged into the back room where the bloodhound was.

Sherlock went ballistic when he saw William again and Joe’s blood chilled when he heard William holler flippantly, "Relax dog…I’ll be with you in a minute."

Horrified by what his brother meant, Joe tried to protest, "No…Will…no…leave Sherlock alone."

William turned to look at the younger boy with an amused look on his face. Joe didn’t want him to hurt the dog…this could work out very well.

"What’s this Joey?" William sneered, "a backbone?"

"Just leave the dog alone", Joe said, his voice stronger now as he started to come more to his senses and realized that the other boy would kill the dog without so much as batting an eyelash…if it so suited him.

Joe had first hand knowledge of what his brother could do and fought the wave of half memories that threatened to assault him. William had turned torturing animals into a fine art while he was still a child; Joe was in no mood to see how he had fine tuned his skills over the years.

William let go of Joe very much amused by this turn of events. Of course his brother’s impertinence would cost him…but not yet. He had other sport first.

Joe wavered slightly when William let go of his arm but kept his feet. His back was hurting so much that he fought back the rising bile that the pain brought. He needed to protect Sherlock…that was all he could focus on.

The other boy removed the cream colored sweater and tossed it towards Joe, "the undershirt is still in Biff’s room. Go get it."

Joe hesitated. He did not want to leave them alone.

"NOW", Will yelled and Joe actually jumped but still didn’t move. His terrified blue eyes locked on the warm brown ones that watched him from the kennel. He couldn’t let Will hurt Sherlock.

As if sensing Joe’s thoughts, Will chuckled, "Don’t worry sweetie I won’t start without you."

Not really comforted, Joe slowly turned and painstakingly made his way back to Biff’s room, the sweater held tightly in his hands. It seemed to take forever as he felt very weak and was unsteady on the stairs but he finally got there and back. He didn’t dare take the time to put them back on, he wanted to get back downstairs as quickly as he could.

When he was outside the door, he heard a sound that made him forget any of his own discomforts and rush into the room.

He heard Sherlock yelping.

* * *

William waited until he heard Joe on the stairs before he walked over to the pool table in the room and checked out the pool sticks. This room, besides holding the dog kennel, doubled as the family rec room and Biff and his friends spent a lot of time hanging around and playing pool in here.

Selecting a nice heavy stick, William approached the kennel. He wasn’t stupid enough to let the dog out. The bloodhound was too large for him to manhandle easily so he figured he’d ‘prepare’ him a bit first.

Taking the pool stick, he poked it at the dog through the wire cage door. Sherlock avoided the first couple of jabs by snapping at the pool stick but then William caught him square in the chest and then followed up quickly with more painful jabs.

Joe rushed into the room and threw himself at William catching his brother off guard. The pool stick was knocked from Will’s grasp as he hadn’t been prepared for the assault.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" the brothers scuffled briefly on the ground before William rolled Joe onto his back and then pinned him down cruelly rubbing his back against the carpet.

Joe let out an agonized scream as the carpet chafed against his raw back and he felt his body trembling. Will also felt it and he enjoyed it immensely.

Particularly the tremendous shudder that ran through the body beneath him as he leaned over and hissed into Joe’s ear, "Sorry little brother…but Iola was much more fun in this position…"

With a surge of pure adrenaline Joe shoved William off him and into Sherlock’s cage, "NO!" he screamed as everything became clear…too clear. That was why William was wearing his sweater…he went to Iola as him…as Joe…he hurt Iola…

"NOOO!" he screamed again and threw himself into William intent on pummeling him.

William recovered and grabbed the pool stick in time to bring it sharply across Joe’s exposed abdomen, immediately bringing the already weakened boy to his knees. And then another quick whack across his tormented back dropped him to the floor.

"You stupid idiot", William was now riled up. He had been playing before but now the game was out of hand, "How dare you do anything that I haven’t given you permission to do."

Kicking Joe hard in the ribs, William dropped the stick back on the pool table and then turned back towards his brother.

Joe was curled up on the floor trying to catch his breath and prepare for what he knew wasn’t going to be pleasant. But at least one good thing came out of it. William seemed to have forgotten about the dog…at least for now.

William paced the room like a caged tiger. He was so angry and as much as he wanted to just strangle Joe for his attempted coup, he knew he needed his brother to be able to get home tonight. So he forced himself to calm down a bit before he went back to him.

The room was quiet with the only sound being Joe’s ragged breaths as he still lay on the floor. From his cage, Sherlock watched but didn’t make any sounds. The feelings that he was sensing from the new boy were dangerous and the dog knew he was in a vulnerable position.

But not as vulnerable as his master’s friend who had stopped his tormentor.

The dog whined softly as he watched Joe and the sound brought William’s attention back to him.

Swiftly he crossed back to the kennel and was rewarded when the large dog stepped back away from the door.

"Well well", he mused, "the dog is a quicker study then you my dear brother."

Joe didn’t say anything…and wouldn’t have, even if he could. He didn’t want William going after Sherlock again and was worried about the dog possibly already being injured.

And then Joe’s eyes grew large as William stopped in front of the kennel and picked up what the younger boy had left there himself – Sherlock’s leash.

When Biff first got the puppy he discovered that the pooch loved to chew everything but had a particular love of chewing up his leashes. So he had stopped buying nylon ones…now he only bought chain linked leashes.

Just like the one that William was now holding.

* * *

Frank Hardy was humming to himself as he took the garbage out to the garage. Phil had left around suppertime and then after Chet left around 7:30, Frank had finally got down to finishing the James Patterson novel he was reading, Roses are Red. He loved reading his mystery novels and admired Patterson’s hero, Alex Cross. He kind of reminded Frank of his own father.

But now, he mused, he’d have to wait for the next one, Violets are Blue, to come out before he could find out what was going on. Frank hated cliff hangers, he didn’t have the patience to wait for the resolution…he needed to know now!

Normally he was very patient…but not with things like this!

Joe loved cliff hangers. He loved to speculate on what was going to happen and would drive Frank crazy with some of the wild scenarios he’d come up with. Thinking of Joe made Frank sigh. He hadn’t seen his brother since the morning and was half tempted to take a quick drive by the Hooper’s place just so he could see for himself that Joe was okay. After all he liked the dog too!

He just had a nagging feeling about it. But then he thought about William.

Will had gone by and hung out there for a bit. And he said Joe was okay…

Coming back to the house, Frank figured he should just stick around the house. Con was due to be by at any time and he might get worried if they weren’t there.

Sure William was upstairs, in bed, but Frank doubted he would get up to answer the door when Con came. So he decided to go online and find out when the next book was going to come out.

He was almost halfway up the stairs when he heard a knock on the front door. Con was here.

* * *

Conrad Riley had met Fenton Hardy shortly after becoming a rookie Bayport Police officer a couple of years ago. A card-totting member of the Fenton Hardy fanclub, Con had been wowed to meet his idol and he had struck up a friendship with the Investigator.

Now years later, Con had earned Fenton’s respect as well and he had often had him housesit and even watch the boys on occasion. And Con relished every chance he got to do stuff like that.

At 6’2, he rivaled Fenton in height but was almost 10 years younger. Handsome by any standards, he had dark black hair, permanently tanned skin and warm hazel eyes that turned emerald green when he was upset or angry. More lanky then the investigator, Con left people with the impression that beneath his police uniform was an athlete’s hard body…and they were right.

Although considered a catch, he avoided the dating mainstream as many people did not know it but Con was a widower. His wife and unborn baby had been killed in a car accident when he was in the academy and he had never gotten over it.

He truly enjoyed spending time with Fenton and his family as it helped fill a void that losing his wife had left in him. A void that had cried out for him to become a voice on the Kids HELPLINE and he had not regretted one moment of it since.

"Hi Frank", he greeted the youth when the door was opened.

"Hi Con, come on in", Frank grabbed the pizza from Con and took it to the kitchen. As he followed, the older man glanced around looking for any sign of the twins.

"Where’s Joe and William?" he asked after a few moments. He had not met William yet because a flu epidemic left him working double shifts…between that and the helpline, he had been pretty tied up.

"Will’s upstairs in bed. He’s been sick since yesterday", Frank said grabbing a couple of cokes from the fridge and tossing one to Con, "and Joe’s at Biff’s. They’re gone for the weekend and he’s hanging out with Sherlock."

"Ah", said Con knowingly. Even he knew how much Joe liked the dog, "when’s he coming back?"

Frank shrugged, "Don’t know. Should be soon though, " he cast a glance out the window at the dark night, "you know how much he hates walking home in the dark."

Con was a bit surprised by Frank’s seemingly aloof attitude towards Joe and his brother. That wasn’t like Frank and he asked casually, "Walk? He won’t call you for a lift?" he knew that Laura’s car was here for the boys to use.

Frank just shrugged, "Probably not. So what did you bring?" he tried to change the subject as he picked up the movie and grinned, "Return of the King? You’re really making sure we don’t sneak out after you leave or something!" Referring to the length of the movie.

The police officer grinned although he had not failed to notice how Frank changed the topic, "Or something. Come on. We can’t wait for Joe or else I’ll be here all night!"

Nodding Frank grabbed the movie, some napkins and his drink before heading down to the basement which their father had converted into a family room complete with big screen TV and surround sound stereo. It was the only place to watch a movie. The tv in the living room was well…way too small…

Picking up the pizza, Con followed the teen downstairs. He hoped Joe would call for a ride as he didn’t like the younger boy walking home by himself after dark. Bayport was a fairly safe place but at the age of 15, Con was still concerned about Joe walking by himself.

* * *

Joe screamed as the chain leash was brought down again and again on his already abused back. He felt something sticky and knew it was blood but still William was relentless.

He’s going to kill me, Joe thought, he’s finally going to kill me.

Joe had known it wasn’t going to be good when William had went over to the stereo and cranked up the volume. It was going to get loud and he didn’t’ need the neighbors calling the police or something. And unfortunately Joe was right.

It wasn’t good.

In his kennel, Sherlock whined and flinched as the sound of the chain hitting the boy was acutely loud in his keen hearing. And he knew. Just as dogs know.

He knew that Joe was taking this for him. Joe had saved him.

* * *

William forced himself to stop. He was breathing hard from the exertion but he had to stop.

Standing over the beaten boy, his breathing was ragged as he waited for this rush to pass. It wasn’t exactly what he had planned for this evening…but it had made a fine substitute.