"You stay in the car. This’ll only take a minute and I don’t want you scaring him again." Frank admonished Joe.

"Weenie." Joe muttered under his breath.

Halfway out of the car, Frank turned and frowned at his brother. "If you’ll remember, you did have the guy running for his life the last time you met. Just let me handle it, okay?"

Joe simply grunted in response, turning to look out the open window at the children playing in the street.

Sighing, Frank emerged from the car and made his way to the front door of the house, and knocked. A moment later a portly middle-aged woman, with light brown hair and pale blue eyes opened the door, smiling tiredly at him.

"Hello, I’m Frank Hardy." Frank introduced himself. "I called earlier. Is Davis in?"

"Oh, yes." The woman replied. "I’m Grace Rennig, Davis’ mother. Please come in." She stepped aside allowing Frank entrance to the foyer. "Davis! Frank Hardy is here!" She called up the stairs, and then turned back to Frank. "He’ll be down in a moment. Excuse me." With another tired smile, she disappeared down a hall towards the back of the house, which echoed with the sounds of squealing children.

Seconds later, Davis came pounding down the stairs, coming to an abrupt stop at the bottom. Gazing around warily, Davis fixed Frank with a nervous look. "Your brother isn’t here, is he?"

"He’s waiting in the car." Frank smiled. "Can you take a look at this picture and tell me if this was the man you held the door open for at Joe’s apartment building?"

Taking the picture and holding it close to his face, Davis studied it for several minutes. "I’m not absolutely certain, but it looks an awful lot like him." He replied handing the photo back to Frank. "He never actually looked at me, eye to eye, but I did get a glimpse of his face. This could definitely be him."

"Would you mind if the police contacted you just to verify that?" Frank asked excitedly.

"No, not at all." Davis replied, looking down at the floor for a second, before returning his gaze to Frank. "I really am sorry about letting that guy in the building. Especially if it turns out he really did hurt your brother’s girlfriend."

"It’s not your fault." Frank reassured him. "If you hadn’t held the door for him, the next person would have.

"Thank you." Davis replied, opening the door for Frank and standing in the doorway. Seeing Joe seated in Frank’s car parked in the street he jokingly added, "Think you could convince your brother of that too?"

Laughing, Frank waved goodbye and headed back to the car.

"Well?" Joe demanded before Frank even had the door shut.

"A definite maybe." Frank replied, tossing the photo of Ryan in the backseat. "He never got a good look at the guys face," Frank continued, checking the rearview and side mirrors and making sure all the children had moved to safer ground before pulling away, "but he did see him from the side and he said Ryan is a pretty good match. Let’s head back to the office and call Dad. Hopefully he and Sam are still at the station and they can tell Collig about this new information."

Turning to look at Joe, who was lost in a moody silence, he tapped his brother on the shoulder. "Hey, this is all good news, little brother. Collig has to admit there was someone else in your apartment that night. Someone who got into the building without letting his presence be known ahead of time. Someone who climbed down the balcony to get out, so it would look like you and Vanessa were all alone and locked up nice and tight."

Joe smiled sadly at Frank’s encouraging words. "It may help prove I was set up, but it could still turn out that I’m the one who stabbed Vanessa."

"You didn’t!" Frank snapped. "I know you, Joe, and it’s simply not possible. No way." He finished adamantly.

Hearing the determined belief in his brother’s voice, Joe wondered if maybe Frank was right. ‘He’s got an awful lot of faith in me.’ Joe thought, feeling encouraged. ‘Maybe I should have a little more faith in myself.’

Arriving back at the office, Frank immediately placed a call to his father. Before Frank had a chance to bring him up to date on the latest information, Fenton asked that Frank put him on speaker phone saying Collig had just informed him of the results of the DNA tests run on both Joe and Vanessa.

"Okay, Dad, we’re both here." Frank said sitting back in his desk chair, with Joe seated opposite him.

"As expected, some of the DNA under Vanessa’s nails were a match for Joe, and some of the DNA under his nails was a match for Vanessa. Collig agrees that doesn’t prove a whole lot since they live together. However, forensics found another DNA sample, found on both Joe and Vanessa, under their nails, which cannot be identified." Fenton related, a touch of excitement in his voice.

"So they were both in contact with the same, unidentified person that night." Frank’s eyes lit up as he looked at his brother.

"Exactly." Fenton concurred.

"When you put that together with what we found out this morning, it pretty much guarantees there was someone else in the apartment that night!" Frank exclaimed, and proceeded to relate what he’d found out from Jack Gilboy and Davis Rennig.

Asking Frank to hold on so he could confer with Chief Collig, Fenton’s muffled voice could be heard in a rushed conversation with someone. Coming back on the line, Fenton relayed news that left the brother’s cautiously optimistic.

"Based on the DNA findings and what you were able to find out this morning, Collig is sending a forensics team back to Joe and Vanessa’s apartment ASAP. They’re going to scour every room, especially the bedroom closet where Joe’s gym bag was found. Those drugs had to be planted. Hopefully whoever planted them accidentally left some DNA evidence behind that can be matched to what was found on Joe and Vanessa." Frank could almost hear the smile in his father’s voice.

"It won’t be long now." Frank grinned at his brother. "I can feel it. Before we know it, all the charges against Joe will be dropped." Ending the conversation, Frank immediately dialed another number as Joe watched.

"Who’re you calling now?" Joe asked curiously.

Frank answered with a mysterious smile, waiting for someone to answer the ringing phone. "Con? It’s Frank. Yeah, I just got off the phone with Dad. Finally, we’re getting somewhere. Listen, I need a favor…"

As Joe listened with rapt attention, Frank told Con about the hair sample he had retrieved from Ryan Bender’s apartment. Acknowledging that particular piece of evidence would not hold up in court based on the way it was obtained, Frank nonetheless asked if he could drop it off for DNA testing. After listening to Con’s expected objections and dire predictions of what would happen should Chief Collig find out, Frank patiently explained why he was asking.

If the hair sample matched the unknown DNA found on Joe and Vanessa, at least they would know for sure Ryan Bender had been the one in their apartment that night and they could search for him to the exclusion of anyone else, knowing they had the right suspect. Sighing heavily and muttering about losing his job and pension, Con finally relented.

Promising to be at the station in thirty minutes, Frank left Joe with a job of his own to do – call Andrea and see if she recognized the attorney whose name Frank had found on Ryan’s computer. Frank knew there had to be a reason why Ryan had kept the information, although he wasn’t certain what it could be.

Happy for the chance to check on Vanessa, Joe quickly dialed Andrea’s cell phone, knowing something was wrong the second she answered the phone.

"Andrea? What’s wrong? Is it Vanessa?" Joe asked anxiously.

"No, she’s fine but…he came back." Andrea replied nervously.

"He?" Joe asked. ‘Ryan!’

"The man who tried to suffocate her the other night." Andrea said, her voice shaking.

"Did the police officer Dad hired catch him?" Joe asked hopefully.

"No. The guy realized something was up before he really got close to the room and he took off."

"Did you see him?"

"No. I wish I had, but then again the last time I saw Ryan he was six years old. I’d never recognize him now." She said sadly. "I can’t believe he’d do this. Vanessa is his cousin!"

"Well, at least we know Vanessa is safe now." Joe sighed, wishing he could be there to watch over Vanessa himself. "Listen, Andrea, I need to ask you something. Frank found the name of a Bayport attorney on Ryan’s computer but we don’t know how it figures into everything. I wanted to see if you might recognize it."

"Sure, who is it?"

"Nathan Gunderson."

"Nathan? He’s my attorney. He looks over all my business contracts, drew up my will… mine and Vanessa’s." Andrea replied, surprised. "You don’t think he has anything to do with Ryan do you?"

"No." Joe said absently, his mind spinning. "He drew up Vanessa’s will?"

"Yes, both of ours. What do you think it means?"

"I have to check something out before I can answer that." Joe mused. "I’ll call you back as soon as I know."

"Okay, but listen I was just about to call you anyway. The doctor finally gave me some good news."

"Really?" Joe perked up.

"Vanessa is showing signs of regaining consciousness. He thinks she’ll wake up before the day is out." Andrea told him happily.

"Thank, God." Joe said quietly. "Andrea, when she does, could you tell her…"

"I’ll tell her you love her and you’ll be here to see her as soon as you can." Andrea promised.

"Thanks, Andrea. Bye."

Joe hung up and let out a huge sigh of relief, finally allowing himself to believe Vanessa would be all right. With renewed purpose, Joe telephoned Nathan Gunderson’s office, speaking with his personal secretary. By the time Frank returned, Joe had the answer they needed and another piece of the puzzle fell into place. After giving Frank the good news about Vanessa, Joe related what he had learned.

"Gunderson keeps all his clients documents on computer AND keeps hard copies in a warehouse. He once had a computer crash at a time when an important client needed a copy of a contract immediately and he couldn’t produce it. Ever since then he keeps a hard copy of everything stored in that warehouse just in case." Joe explained.

"Okay, how does that fit in with Ryan going after Vanessa?"

"Seems the warehouse was broken into several days ago. Nothing was taken but the file cabinet with all the documents for clients whose last names begin with "B" had the lock broken. They did an inventory and couldn’t find anything missing but one file seemed to have been disturbed, as if someone was looking through it." Joe continued with a grim smile.

"Let me guess. Vanessa’s file." Frank responded.

"Yup. Whoever broke in was very interested in her will."

"So that’s how Ryan found out who her primary beneficiary was." Frank mulled over this new information. "And you said he was seen at the hospital today, but got away before he could be apprehended?"

"Mm-hmm." Joe nodded.

"I don’t like this." Frank announced somberly.

"Neither do I." Joe agreed.

"No, I mean Vanessa hasn’t really regained consciousness yet. Ryan probably knows that, all he’d have to do is call pretending he’s a friend and ask about her condition. Yet it’s obvious security knows who he is now." Frank stated worriedly.

"Yeah, so?" Joe remarked, not quite following Frank’s train of thought.

"He’s no longer anonymous. Assuming that he has no idea Sam and I went down to Florida to check him out, he probably came to what seems to be the only logical conclusion."

"Spit it out, Frank. I’m not following you." Joe pressed, starting to get annoyed.