The man staring back at Vanessa was wearing a baseball cap pulled down low concealing his eyes. The collar of his jacket was turned up, further obscuring his face.

"Car trouble?" the man asked. Vanessa couldn’t tell in the dark but he seemed to be smiling at her.

"Yeah. It just stopped." She replied.

"I can give you a ride to the nearest service station, if you like." He offered.

‘Don’t get out of the car.’ Joe’s voice echoed in her head.

"Thanks, but my fiancé is on his way. He’ll be here any minute."

"I see. That’s good." The man glanced up and down the deserted road as if looking for something. "If you open the door I can pop the hood and take a look while you’re waiting for him."

"That’s really nice of you to offer, but like I said…"

"Your fiancé is on his way." The man finished.

"Yes. He is." Vanessa said forcefully.

The man didn’t respond. He stood staring at Vanessa for a moment then reached out and rested his hand on the door handle. Without taking her eyes off the stranger, Vanessa quickly scrambled into the passenger seat, fumbling for her cell phone. Suddenly a bright beam of light illuminated the mans face. He stepped back and quickly turned away before she could get a good look at him.

"Hey, buddy, that’s pretty bright. Do you mind?" he said facing away from the light.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact I do mind." At the sound of Joe’s voice, Vanessa let out the breath she didn’t even realize she was holding. She had been so distracted by the sudden appearance of the stranger that she hadn’t noticed Joe pull up behind her.

"You must be the fiancé." The man said, still not looking at Joe.

"Must be." Joe’s voice was cold and hard.

"Well, I guess you won’t be needing my help."

"Guess not." Joe had kept the flashlight trained on the mans head though he never turned to face Joe.

The man quickly walked towards his car, which was parked several yards in front of Vanessa’s Jeep and got in. As he pulled out onto the road, Joe aimed his flashlight at the license plate. Although the rest of the car seemed to be spotless, the license plate was covered with mud. His instincts kicked in immediately as he made a mental note of the meager details. ‘Dark color. Black or blue. Late model. Lexus? Audi? Dark jeans. Dark jacket, collar turned up. Dark baseball cap pulled low.’ He shook his head in disgust at the lack of information.

Turning back to the Jeep he reached towards the door handle, keys in hand. Before he got close enough to unlock the door, Vanessa flung it open and jumped out, throwing her arms around Joe’s neck. He put his arms around her pulling her close.

"It’s ok, Baby." He said holding her tightly. "He’s gone."

Joe looked up as a pair of headlights approached the couple. Keeping one arm around Vanessa, he motioned for the vehicle to pull in front of the Jeep. Vanessa looked up and recognized the tow truck driven by Joe’s friend Todd Whiting who owned the busiest car repair center in Bayport.

"Get your things out of the Jeep. You can wait in my car, ok?" Joe said.

"Ok." She nodded. Joe waited until she had pulled everything she needed out of her Jeep and then walked her back to his car. Using the remote to unlock the door of his Mustang, he held the door open as she slid into the passenger seat.

"I’ll be back in a few minutes." He leaned in and kissed her. As he walked towards the tow truck he extended his arm back and used the remote to lock Vanessa inside the car.

Leaning back against the head rest, Vanessa realized just how scared she had been. Watching as Joe and Todd disappeared behind the raised hood of her Jeep, she recalled the recent newspaper articles she had read about the serial rapist. ‘Angel Beach… Southport…Kirkland. Too close for comfort.’ She knew Joe, Frank and their father were assisting the police in trying to catch him, but that was all she knew. Joe had not talked about this case at all with her. She did not press him for information or ask any questions. Knowing that Frank and Joe had solved every case they had ever taken on she was confident it was just a matter of time before they solved this one also. Hearing the click of the lock she looked up as Joe slid into the drivers seat.

"Well?" she asked. "Is my Jeep going to live?"

"Yeah, I think so." He chuckled. "Couldn’t tell much in the dark, but Todd doesn’t think it’s fatal. He’ll call tomorrow when he knows what’s wrong." Joe looked back over his shoulder and smoothly pulled out onto the road. "So, what’s for dinner?"

A few hours later, after dining at Prito’s Italian restaurant, Joe steered his car out of the parking lot and on to the main street of downtown Bayport.

‘I’ll have to ask her sooner or later,’ he thought glancing at Vanessa. ‘I need to know exactly what happened. I hate to upset her, but if it’s the same guy…’ He grew angry at the thought ‘Damn, she could have been his next victim!’

"Joe? Is something wrong?" she asked noting the look on his face.

Stopping for a red light he turned to look at her. "I need to know what happened tonight. Exactly what happened. In detail."

"Ok." She shrugged her shoulders. "A little while after I called you, I checked my watch to see about how much longer you’d be. I used that flashlight you put in my glove compartment, by the way. Thanks for insisting on that. It came in handy tonight." She smiled at him.

"When I leaned over to put it back, someone knocked on the window. I assumed it was you and reached back to unlock the door." She noticed him tense up slightly but continued. "Luckily I noticed in time that it wasn’t you." She smiled reassuringly.

"It was that guy. He asked me if I was having car trouble. I felt like saying ‘Why no, I just thought I’d pull over and enjoy the scenery!’" she said sarcastically. "What an idiot. Of course I was having car trouble! Why else would I be sitting on the side of the road in the dark?!"

Joe chuckled, but said nothing.

"I told him yes and he offered to drive me to a service station. Yeah, like I would be stupid enough to hop into a car with a total stranger! I told him I had called my fiancé and expected him to be there any minute. He didn’t seem too happy about that. Then he said if I opened the door, he could pop the hood and take a look while I waited for you. What, I’m not capable of popping the hood myself?!" She crossed her arms, scowling out the window.

Joe suppressed a laugh at her new found anger at the man.

"Then he put his hand on the door handle, like he was going to try and open the door. It was locked, for God’s sake! What did he think he was going to do, rip it off the hinges?"

‘He touched the door handle?!’ "Damn." Joe swore under his breath.

"What?" Vanessa asked, confused. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, Babe, you didn’t do anything wrong." he answered. ‘But I did. Why didn’t I ask her about this right then and there? How could I be so stupid? How many people have touched that door handle since then? Me, Van, Todd…who knows who else once Todd got it back to the shop!’ He realized, with disgust, any fingerprints the stranger may have left would be obliterated by now.

"That’s when you showed up and saved the day." Vanessa said lightly, as Joe pulled into the parking space below their apartment. She leaned over and batted her eyelashes at him with great exaggeration. "My hero." She said breathlessly.

"Oh, brother." He muttered, rolling his eyes.

Vanessa burst into laughter as Joe exited the car and walked around to open her door. Walking to their apartment he threw an arm around her and thought, once again, how much he loved the sound of her laugh.

As soon as they entered the apartment, Joe was on the phone, dialing his parents number.

"Hello?" Laura answered.

"Hi, Mom."

"Hi, honey! How are you?"

"Pretty good. How’s everything with you?"

Laura began to tell Joe about her day. Although Joe was itching to talk to his father he tried to provide an "Uh-huh" or "Really?" at the appropriate moments. Laura suddenly stopped mid-sentence and began to laugh softly. "Hold on, I’ll get your father." She said sensing her son’s impatience.

Joe winced. "Sorry, Mom. Was I really that obvious?" he asked sheepishly.

"Only to those who know and love you. Hold on."

"Thanks, Mom."

He heard other voices in the background and then his father was on the line.

"Joe?"

"Hi, Dad. Did I hear Frank?"

"Yes, he’s here."

"Good. Can you tell him to pick up on an extension? It’ll save me a phone call."

He heard Fenton relay the message to Frank, who picked up a few seconds later.

"Hey, bro, what’s up?"

"Vanessa had a little problem tonight." He proceeded to relate the evenings events to his father and brother adding a few choice words here and there.

The silence that followed made him uneasy. "Well." He said impatiently. "What do you think? Could it be the same guy?"

"Well, it’s possible." Fenton replied. "Some of what he did fits the pattern. A woman, alone on a dark, deserted street is typical. But he’s never spoken to any of the victims before. Either way, we can’t just dismiss it."

"So if it was him and I had been just a few minutes later…" Joe’s voice dropped. "Vanessa could have been his next victim." He did not need a reply to know his father and brother were thinking the same thing.

After speaking with Joe a few more minutes and making plans for the next morning, Frank and his father retreated to Fenton’s office. Fenton closed the door behind him and took a seat on the leather couch next to Frank. Frank had gone to his parents for dinner as Callie was out with several friends from work that night. Earlier he had mentioned to his father that he wanted to talk to him about Joe.

"Ok, son, what is it you wanted to tell me."

Looking at his father, Frank wasn’t exactly sure how to begin. All he had was a feeling and Joe’s increasingly strange behavior over the past few days.

"I’m not exactly sure where to start, Dad."

"Let’s see if I can help. You mentioned earlier that Joe had been acting strange recently; out of character. In what way?"

"Well, for one the way he’s been harping on Mom, Callie and Vanessa about going out alone, being careful, checking in a million times a day so we know they’re ok. I know he has this ‘thing’ where he feels like he has to protect them, but ever since we started working on this case he seems to have gone off the deep end. Vanessa loves him no matter what, so it’s a little easier for her to put up with it, but Callie is ready to kill him and even Mom rolled her eyes at him last night!"

Fenton smiled and nodded remembering the incident Frank was referring to.

"Come on, Dad, he’s her baby. Her patience is endless when it comes to Joe. For him to get that kind of reaction out of her, well, it’s gotta be bad."

"I’ll agree he has been more overprotective than usual lately. Is there anything else?"

"Well, today when we went to the first crime scene – the old hotel in Angel Beach – I don’t know…he just had this weird reaction to the place."

"How so?" Fenton asked.

"I started to walk across the room and realized Joe wasn’t following me. I turned around and he was leaning against the door staring at the corner of the room where the rape happened." Frank noticed the look on his fathers face starting to change. He had obviously struck a nerve.

"He had this look on his face like…I’m not sure what. It was like he was looking at something only he could see and whatever it was absolutely terrified him."

"Did he say anything?" Fenton asked, hoarsely.

"He said ‘God, she must have been terrified.’ But it was the way he said it, Dad. And the look in his eyes; almost like he could actually see it happening. It worried me, you know? I mean nothing scares him anymore. But for just a few seconds there, he was petrified."

Fenton closed his eyes. Putting his head in his hands, he whispered "Oh, God. He’s starting to remember."