Kevin took the lead, and Ricky was instructed to pick up another member of the ‘family’, and dispose of Ben. He and Robert would take care of the witness. Before they went their separate ways, Kevin barked out a few orders to Ricky.

"Remember, don’t touch anything without gloves. Dump the body, and take his ID. After you do that, do a sweep of his car, and leave it miles away."

Kevin, the oldest of the young men had been a member of Webber Ryland’s little family for longer than either Robert or Ricky. He had an unhealthy respect for Ryland; it was almost akin to hero worship. Kevin spent every spare moment learning all he could about the ‘family business’ from Ryland and his top associates. For the first time in Kevin Lyons’ life, he had a purpose… he wanted to go as far as he possibly could within the organization. Maybe, one day he might even be Ryland’s right hand man.

Ricky was thankful Kevin had told him what to do, because otherwise, he would have had no idea. Kevin, on the other hand just hoped Ricky would not mess up and leave any evidence behind that could connect them to the murder; but with an eyewitness to take care of he had to trust Ricky to get the job done.

After assuring Kevin he could take care of things, Ricky looked at Robert and asked, "What are you two planning?"

Looking once more at the ID in his hand, Robert replied, "We’re taking a little trip to Bayport to pay a visit to one Joseph Hardy."

*****

Not being familiar with Bayport, it had taken Kevin and Robert over an hour to find the two-story home on Elm Street.

"I think this is the place," Robert said, as they slowed down in front of the Hardy home.

"Figures," Kevin said hatefully. "He’s a rich kid. We better park the car out of sight, and find a place to hide."

After parking the car down the block, on the far side of Elm Street Park, Robert and Kevin headed to the large home. Both men were a little surprised to see no sign of life at all. Everything was quiet and serene.

"This street must be full of old people," Robert mused aloud.

"Yeah, or a bunch of rich snobs," Kevin retorted. "I’m glad there’s no one out and about; it means there’s less of a chance we will be spotted by someone."

Robert noticed a rather large hedge running across the front of a neighboring home. As he pointed to the hedge, he said, "I think we just found our hiding place."

Within moments, they had taken up a position which afforded them a perfect view of the Hardy home. Around thirty minutes later, they saw a black van pull into the drive, and two young men stepped out.

"Which one is he?" Kevin questioned.

"The blonde one," Robert replied.

*****

Joe stood behind Frank, as he was unlocking the front door, willing his blurred vision and headache to go away. After opening the door, Frank turned to look at his brother. Joe stood there with his eyes closed, swaying slightly.

"Joe?" Frank said.

Hearing his brother’s voice, Joe slowly opened his eyes and started to speak; but he never got the chance.

"I knew you were worse off than you let on," Frank said annoyed.

"I am not, Frank. You know how it feels…it’s just post knock-out hangover," Joe chuckled, trying to lighten the conversation as he followed his brother into the house.

"Yes, Joe, I know it well. I also know that you need to take it easy tomorrow," Frank said trying to reason with his brother.

"Don’t start that again!" Joe said as he removed a bottle of aspirin from the kitchen cupboard. "I’m going to the mountains tomorrow with my beautiful girlfriend and my big brother as planned."

"You are making an old man out of me, little brother," Frank said seriously.

"Well old man," Joe said patting Frank on the back, "we better call it a night. You need all the rest you can get."

"Do you think we should go ahead and wake Mom and Dad up, and tell them what happened?" Frank questioned, knowing his parents had already turned in for the night.

"No way Frank. Mom will try to make me go to the hospital, just like Vanessa did. Then Dad will want to know all the details; I think I’ve told that story enough for one night. I just want to go to sleep!" Joe said tiredly.

"I guess you’re right, but you get to tell Mom why we didn’t wake her," Frank said smiling at his brother, knowing their mother would be upset.

*****

Kevin couldn’t help but laugh, as he saw the blonde boy swaying on the porch.

"Looks like you got off a pretty good hit," Kevin said grinning at Robert.

"Yeah", Robert said proudly. "I’m sure he has one heck of a headache."

As they watched their prey disappear into the house, Kevin said, "Let’s get out of here. I need to check in with Ricky and make sure he took care of things. We also have a meeting with Ryland in the morning to let him know our assignment is complete; well, almost complete. We can’t let Mr. Ryland know that we messed up our first major assignment and left a loose end. I just hope Ricky didn’t screw up anything."

"What are we going to do about him?" Robert asked motioning towards the Hardy home.

"When we’re through with Ryland in the morning, we’ll come back. I’d rather take him alone, if possible. The dark haired guy must be his brother, and I don’t want to add to our problem. We can watch him from the park; with the right equipment, no one will notice what we’re doing. When he leaves, we’ll follow him. Young Mr. Hardy will be the victim of a sad and unfortunate accident."

*****

As the brothers headed upstairs, Frank suddenly had a thought. "Joe, we never called Con to let him know that your ID was taken. Remember, he had already left when you discovered it was missing."

"We can call him in the morning, after we let Dad in on what happened," Joe replied yawning.

"Yeah, I guess that will be okay. Maybe he will have some new information in the morning," Frank stated hopefully. "Why don’t you jump in the shower in our bathroom and I’ll use the guest bath."

It wasn’t long before Joe was sleeping soundly. His headache had not abated, but exhaustion soon took over.

Frank had not been so lucky, he had spent the last hour tossing and turning. Methodically, he kept going over the few details that Joe had been able to give. Deciding the process was getting him nowhere, his last thought before he drifted off to sleep, was ‘How does Joe get himself into these things?’