The man watched the small family with great interest.  It was a man, his wife, and their two young sons.  

One was older, dark haired and serious.  The smaller one had blond hair, blue eyes and definitely more than his share of fire as the man could see the animated way the child carried himself.  No detail was unlooked or beyond his awe and the man wondered if it was his first time at a carnival.  

He watched the parents.   

The father was a tall, handsome man with the same dark hair and eyes as the older boy.  The watcher figured that whatever he was, he was successful, for he carried himself as such.   

The woman was petite and colored like the younger boy, and the man was struck by just how beautiful this family was…each one of them.  

Oh yes, they’d be perfect.

* * *

Six-and-a-half-year-old Frank Hardy, and you couldn’t leave out the ½ as it was very important to a growing young man, counted to twenty very slowly.  His younger brother, Joe, although very sharp for his age, sucked at playing Hide and Seek.   

Their father, an up and coming private detective, had taken the day off expressly to take his family to the Labor Day Weekend Carnival.   

An unexpected turn in a case he was working had caused him to miss Joey’s fifth birthday only a few short weeks ago and he was determined to make it up to the small boy.  

Of course both boys were pleased as punch to spend this time with their father, as it seemed that lately he was seldom home.  Fenton had quit the New York Police Department only five short years ago to move his family to Bayport and pursue a career as a private investigator.   

It had been rough in the beginning but as his reputation was growing, the detective team of Fenton Hardy and his associate, Sam Radley, were also growing…in demand.  

Right now the brothers were playing Hide and Seek in the Fun House.  It was their third trip through and the first time that their ride-weary parents let them go in alone.  Having been in twice themselves, neither Fenton nor Laura was at all concerned about their safety.  

It was Frank that wanted to go in again.   

He was in love with the twisted house, and Joe had agreed to go back only after Frank told him how fun it would be to play the game in there.  So with conspiring grins, the two little boys left their parents waiting outside and started to play.  

“Ready or not!  Here I come!”  Frank yelled out as he began to search for his brother.  And as with every other time, Joe had found a horrible hiding spot and Frank saw him almost immediately.   

The younger boy was reluctant to go very far from his sibling so it severely limited his ability to hide.   

Frank sighed in disappointment, wishing that one of their other friends like Chet or Tony were here.  At least they would have made it more challenging.   

However, since it was him who had wanted to come back in the house anyway, the older boy pretended he didn’t see the younger one for a few moments until Joe’s giggling made it impossible to even keep up that guise.  

“I found you!”  He finally called out and Joe stepped out from his hiding spot.  

“It’s my turn to count now!”  The blond boy announced and then began counting before Frank even said he was ready.  

Quickly the older boy slipped away from his brother and found a great spot to hide.  He could hear Joe finishing his count and then from his vantage point he could see his little brother looking for him.   

After a few moments of fruitless searching Joe began to get worried. “Frankie?  Where are you?”  Frank heard him but kept quiet.  Joe had wandered into the hall of mirrors and he knew it would take him a few moments to get back out.  

The older boy was just congratulating himself for his craftiness when he noticed something.  Joe had stopped calling out to him.  Listening intently for a few moments, he paused, figuring that the younger boy was trying to fake him out.  

The house had become eerily quiet and Frank strained to hear any sounds from his brother.  But there was nothing.  

After a few more long moments, he decided that fake-out or not, he needed to find his brother. “Joey?  Joey?”  Frank called out tentatively but still heard nothing; he was hesitant about shouting to loudly in case he got in trouble with the Fun House ticket taker.  

The boy began to really get worried.  Where was his brother?  

“JOEY!”  This time he shouted, no longer caring if he got in trouble or not.  

But still nothing.  

With his heart racing, Frank hurried towards the exit calling for his brother.

* * *

Fenton Hardy looked at his watch and smiled.  He would give the boys another five minutes in the Fun House and then he was going in after them.  The day was coming to an end and both he and his wife were hot and tired.  And they knew the boys were running on sheer adrenalin now.  

He was just turning to say something to his wife when he heard someone shouting, “JOEY!”  And his heart dropped when he saw the worried face on his oldest son when the child came tearing out of the Fun House.  

“Daddy!  I can’t find Joey!”  Frank shouted as soon as he saw his father.  

Instantly the investigator and his wife had crossed the distance between them and Frank and then Fenton was running into the house shouting for Joe.

* * *

Joe was terrified.   

He had been starting to get really worried when he wandered into the hall of mirrors calling for his brother and getting no answer.  He saw the reflection of a man but wasn’t overly concerned about it until the man grabbed him.  

Joe tried to scream out but the man clasped his hand so tightly over the child’s mouth that it was hard for him to breathe, let alone make any noise.  And then he was pulled into a small dark crawlspace and that was when the real nightmare began.

* * *

Police Chief Ezra Collig made his way towards the somber family.  His heart went out as he saw the little dejected face of the child who sat so still and clutched his mother’s hand so tightly it must have hurt.  

Fenton saw his friend and quickly hurried over to him.  They had known each other for a couple of years now and the detective could tell that the police Chief knew something… something he wasn’t too happy to share.  

“Ezra?” Fenton said impatiently imploring him to tell him whatever it was.  

Sighing, the chief police pulled Fenton away from his family and looked up at the tall Ferris wheel as it lit up the evening sky. “As I was leaving we got an anonymous tip from a guy who reported seeing Fulton McBride near the fortune teller’s tent about an hour ago.”  

“ Fulton McBride?” Fenton said as he tried to place the name and then his face turned white and he gasped, “Oh no…”  

“I’m sorry Fenton, “Ezra could not look at his friend’s face because he knew what he would find there – horror.  

Fenton’s mind was whirling.   

No, not Fulton McBride…anyone but him.…  

The detective turned to look at his other son and his wife.  How could he tell them?  What could he say?   

How do you look at your loved ones and tell them their son might have been abducted by one of the FBI’s most wanted?  A man who had molested, tortured and murdered six young children…children like Joe.  

Suddenly the detective felt light headed.  No…this couldn’t be happening.  

“I…I didn’t know he was in the state,”  Fenton finally said as he tried desperately to deal with this.  He couldn’t afford the emotion right now. Not if he intended on finding his son before it was too late.  

Ohmygod, what if it was already too late??  Shaking the thought from his mind, the detective pushed the father out of his head and focused on the task at hand.  Don’t think of him as your son, think of him as just another missing kid.…  

Easier said then done, he thought a moment later as he saw his wife and Frank get up from where they were sitting and walk towards them. Ohmygod, what do I tell them?

* * *

Frank was feeling horrible.  Why didn’t he just come out of his hiding spot when Joe called him?  Why did he let his brother just go off alone?  

His father had asked if Chief Collig could get someone to drive him and his mother home and as they left the Carnival Frank felt himself starting to cry.  

Big boys don’t cry, he scolded but as his mother wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly, he broke down.  

He had never been so scared in his young life…scared that he would never see his brother again.  

Right there and then he vowed if God would just let Joey come home Frank would never let anything happen to his brother again.  Please God, he prayed, please.

* * *

Gertrude Hardy, Fenton’s older unmarried sister who frequently stayed with the family, met them at the door.  

“Oh Laura,” she said as she helped her sister-in-law into the house and gave Frank a little hug, “Don’t worry, Fenton will find him. You’ll see.”  

The pretty blond didn’t look so convinced, as her eyes looked hauntingly into Gertrude’s and she whispered, “What if he doesn’t?”   

Numbly Frank left his mom and aunt and went upstairs.  He had seen his mother’s lip starting to quiver and did not want to see her break down.  It was scaring him to see his parents so upset.  

The dark haired boy didn’t go to his own room though; instead he went to Joe’s room and sat on the bed.  As usual his brother’s room looked like a cyclone had hit it…a cyclone named Joey.  

Sighing, the older boy lay down on his brother’s bed and stared up at the ceiling.  Closing his eyes he drifted off to sleep wondering where his brother was right now and if he was all right…or if he was scared and calling out for his big brother….

 * * *

Joe was learning new meanings to the word fear.  Every time they heard someone coming near, the man would whisper to the boy and Joe’s eyes would grow even wider.  

And he said nothing.  

Not that he could have anyway because the man was pressing him down to the floor, using his large body to pin him, and the small child was having trouble getting enough air into his lungs to breathe, let alone enough air to scream.    

That plus he was still holding his hand over the child’s mouth.   

Joe was trembling so badly and to his own embarrassment he realized he had peed himself, and so he was now wet, cold and terrified.  But still the man pressed his body down beneath his.

* * *

“…breaking news tonight…one of the FBI’s most wanted men in America , Fulton McBride, was reported to have been spotted in the Bayport City area earlier today.  McBride is wanted on six counts of child molestation and murder.  An anonymous tip has put the pedophile at the Labor Day Carnival around the time that five-year old Joseph Hardy was reported missing from the Fun House….Anyone with any information on McBride or the missing child are asked to call the Bayport City Police Department immediately….”  

Laura stared in shock at the television, hardly daring to believe what she had just heard. Beside her Gertrude gasped, and then Laura was running for the phone….Why hadn’t Fenton told her?  Why hadn’t he told her a monster might have taken her child?