“How did it go today?” Vanessa asked, not lifting her head from Joe’s shoulder.  She wasn’t sure she believed Joe when he said they could get by on his salary alone, but felt now wasn’t the time for a serious discussion about their financial situation.

“Ok…I guess.” Joe replied.

“That sounds ominous.  Just how ok was it?”

“Andrew gave me a few different options for my defense.”

“You shouldn’t need options!”  Vanessa said angrily.  “You’re innocent!  Any idiot knows that.”

Joe laughed, running his fingers through her hair.  “Spoken like the neutral observer that you are.”

Vanessa smacked him lightly on the arm and continued.  “Seriously, why would anyone believe you killed Chris Taylor?  You had the chance to kill the man who was responsible for Iola’s death and instead you tried to save his life.”

Immediately Joe thought of the day in the mall, when Al-Rousasa was hanging onto the third floor balcony by his fingertips.  Joe had indeed thought briefly of stomping on his fingers, causing him to fall three stories to his death.  Instead, Joe had reached down and tried to save him.

“Does it make any sense that you would try to save a murderer and a few years later kill someone else over a rape?  I don’t think so. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“Let’s hope the jury agrees with you.”  Joe smiled, sadly.

“Of course they will.” She said confidently.  “How could they not after everything you’ve done for this community?”  She could see in his eyes, he wasn’t nearly as certain about the verdict as she was.

“Ok.” She sighed.  “What options – other than proving you are innocent – did he give you?”

Joe remained silent as his face clouded over with worry once again.

“Joe, what else did he say?” Vanessa asked again.

“There is one way I could avoid prison even if they think I’m guilty.” He replied avoiding her eyes.

“And that is…what?”

Joe took a deep breath but found he had trouble saying the words out loud.

“Joe, what is it?” Vanessa asked becoming concerned at his unusual silence.

“Temporary insanity.” He said quietly.

“What?” Vanessa stared at him, dumbfounded.  “You can’t be serious!”

“It would keep me out of prison and…”

“NO!” Vanessa said, anger flaring in her eyes.  “Absolutely not!  You will NOT admit to a crime you didn’t commit.  Not for me or anyone else!”  She looked at him closely, and saw he was seriously considering this.  “Joe, you’d never be able to live with yourself.”

“If I’m convicted, I’m going to prison, Van.  Maybe for the rest of my life.  I can’t leave you to deal with this…this mess…alone.  This way we’d be together.  Well, after I was released, anyway.”

“Released?  From where?” Vanessa became alarmed.  “If there’s no prison time where would you be going?”

“The hospital.” He said quietly, again not meeting her gaze.

“Hospital?  What hospital?” She said, then gasped, understanding exactly what he meant.  “Joe…” 

He looked everywhere except at Vanessa.  Taking his chin in her hands, she forced him to meet her eyes.

“Joe, you are not insane.  Not permanently.  Not temporarily.  Not at all.” she said, softly.

“That’s just it.”  He whispered.  “I think I am.” 

Vanessa pulled him close, holding him tightly.  “No, Baby. You’re not.  You’re under a lot of stress right now, that’s all.” 

She felt a small stab of guilt.  ‘And my neediness hasn’t helped at all!’

“You don’t understand, Van.”  He choked out.  “The dreams…the children…”  Suddenly everything came rushing out.  Unable to stop himself, he told Vanessa about the horrible dreams he’d been having, starting with the first one the night he was in jail and concluding with the awful images that had awakened him the night before.

When Joe was finished, Vanessa looked at him, stunned.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before now?” she asked.

“You’re kidding, right?”  Joe looked at her skeptically and then realized she was serious.  “I figured you already had more than enough to worry about without adding me to your problems.”

Vanessa shook her head realizing she had been so caught up in herself she hadn’t seen how much Joe had been suffering.

“You are not a problem.  You are the love of my life and the man I am going to marry.”

“If I don’t get myself thrown in prison.” Joe said disgustedly.

“You aren’t going to prison.  And you most definitely are not insane, no matter what bizarre things you’ve been dreaming about.”  She reached out and pushed an unruly lock of hair out of his eyes.  “I’m so sorry I haven’t been here for you.”

“Vanessa, don’t…” Joe began, but she put a finger to his lips, silencing him.

“Let me finish.” She smiled, recalling Dr. Jennings advice that one of the best ways to move forward in her recovery was to help someone else.  “You’ve rearranged your entire life for me these past few weeks.  Your whole world has revolved around me and my needs.  You’ve been here for me twenty four hours a day and done everything I’ve asked without question. Even when I haven’t asked very nicely.  And I haven’t even thanked you for it.” she kissed him softly.  “Now let me do the same thing for you.  Dr. Jennings said I could help myself by helping someone else. So if you really want to help me get past this, you’ll let me be here for you.”

Joe was taken aback by Vanessa’s speech and wasn’t quite sure how to respond.  He did know one thing for sure – he felt like the luckiest man on the planet to have found someone that would stand by him through all this.

“We’re in this together, Baby.” Vanessa said, resting her head on his shoulder once again.  “And we’re going to be ok.”

As they sat and watched the fading sunset, Joe felt something he hadn’t felt in a very long time – hope. 

 

The following morning, Frank pulled up in front of Phil Cohen's house and saw his friend waiting on the front porch.  Phil walked to the car and climbed in the passenger seat.

"Thanks a lot for helping me out with this, Phil.  Are you sure you still want to do it?"  Frank asked, giving him one last chance to back out.

"Absolutely." Phil responded.  "Anything to help Joe and Vanessa."

Frank had spent the previous afternoon with Chief Collig as they both tried to convince a Clayton Beach judge to issue a search warrant for Chris Taylor's apartment.  Unfortunately, the judge didn't see things quite the way Frank did and steadfastly refused.  He insisted there was no logical reason why Chris Taylor would surrender only to commit suicide and thought Frank's idea that Joe had been set up was a last ditch effort to get his brother off the hook.  In his opinion, there was no evidence for Frank to find so there was no need for a search warrant.

Frank, however, was determined to get inside Taylor's apartment one way or another.  When the legal channels fell through, he felt he had no choice but to resort to "less than legal means" to gain access to the apartment.

'I've done it before for other people.  And this time it's for my brother.'  Frank had thought in an effort to justify his actions.

He hadn't told his father or Joe what he was planning to do even though he knew he would feel better with some kind of back up.  Although reluctant to ask his friend to break the law, he had never the less called Phil, who readily agreed to help.

"If we do find something that might help Joe, then what?"  Phil asked.  "It would be inadmissible in court since it would have been obtained illegally."

"I know.  If we find anything, we're going to leave it right where it is and then I'll tell Dad what we did.  He's got enough friends in high places that owe him favors that he can pressure someone to get a search warrant.  Then we can get whatever is in there legally."

"Why didn't he just do that in the first place?"

"He doesn't seem to think Taylor would leave whatever it is in his apartment.  Dad thinks he has it hidden somewhere else.  Somewhere more secure or someplace we wouldn't think of looking for it.  He wants to save any favors in case we need them down the road."

"That makes a certain amount of sense.  You don't agree with him?"

"Well, yes I do, but we have absolutely no idea where to start looking.  I don't expect to find concrete evidence to clear Joe just lying around Taylor's apartment.  But I'm hoping we might find something that will lead us to wherever it is that he actually hid the evidence."

"Still if it comes out that any part of this was done illegally…"

"It won't come out!"  Frank said hotly.

Phil saw Frank was in no mood for a game of Devil's Advocate and changed the subject.

"How's Joe doing?  And Vanessa?"

Frank sighed and remained quiet for a moment.  He had spoken to Joe earlier that morning and was starting to think if it wasn't for bad luck, his brother would have no luck at all.

"Vanessa quit her job yesterday.  She can't face going back there.  It reminds her too much of the rape."

"Really?" Phil asked in astonishment.

"Yeah.  Joe insists they can get by on his salary alone, at least for a while.  It's a good thing he works in a 'family business' or he would have been fired by now and they'd have no income at all."  Frank said, obviously frustrated that his brother's life just seemed to get worse by the minute. 

"Earth to Phil…" Frank joked when he noticed his friend hadn't responded.

"You know, I've been wanting to add a separate graphics department to my company for the longest time.  I'd like to eventually spin it off into it's own company.  I've got some decent people to staff it, but I just haven't been able to find anyone I trust enough to run the whole department - and eventually the company itself.  My expertise isn't really in graphics.  I'd need someone I really had faith in.  Someone I know could do the job without constantly running to me for advice."  Phil finished his little speech and looked at Frank with raised eyebrows.

"Vanessa?"  Frank said surprised, just now realizing what Phil was suggesting.

"Why are you so surprised?  She can work magic with computer graphics and she's worked in her mother's company for so many years I know she has the business end of it down pat."

"It's a great idea, Phil, but I don't know if the timing is right.  She's still recovering and now she has to deal with Joe's trial…"

"She doesn’t have to start tomorrow, for goodness sake.  And initially she could do most of the work from home.  It's going to involve a lot of strategy and planning just to get it off the ground.  I've waited this long, there's no hurry to get it going immediately.  And that would eliminate the worry of her having to look for another job.  That's stressful enough all by itself. It sounds like more stress is the last thing they need."

Frank shook his head, smiling.  "You're a good friend, Phil."

"I'm just taking advantage of an opportunity."  Phil replied, smiling back.  "You think it would be ok if I gave her a call just to talk to her about it?  See if she's even interested?"

"I think it would be very ok."  Frank replied, once again thankful for the good friends he and his brother had.

 

A short time later, Frank and Phil arrived at Chris Taylor’s apartment building.  As they approached the door to his apartment, Frank checked to make sure the hall was clear.

“Keep a lookout and let me know if anyone is coming.”  Frank told Phil, kneeling in front of the door.

‘I sure could use Joe’s help right about now.’ Frank thought ironically.  While Frank could extract a single piece of vital information from the Internet in the blink of an eye, Joe had it all over him when it came to picking locks.  It seemed to Frank as if it took forever before the lock finally popped open.

He stood and entered the apartment followed closely by Phil.

“Wait’ll I tell Joe how long it took you to get the door open.” Phil needled his friend, earning him a dirty look from Frank.

“You start in the bedroom and I’ll start out here.”  Frank said looking around the small living room.  “We’re looking for anything that shows Taylor was obsessed with Joe or had some kind of grudge against him.  Anything at all.”

Two hours later, Frank stood in the middle of the apartment totally dejected.  They hadn’t found one single thing that could be used to help Joe.

“I don’t get it.”  Frank said, frustrated.  “Taylor was completely obsessed with his stupid vendetta against Joe!  The guy was a genius and a meticulous planner.  He had no idea he would be caught that night, let alone that he would die.  He had absolutely no reason to destroy whatever notes or records he had kept.”

“Well, we need to figure out where he kept them, because they’re obviously not here.”  Phil replied.

Frank frowned in concentration for a moment before his eyes lit up.

“Uh, oh.  Here we go again.”  Phil said. “What revelation have you had this time?”

“Let’s go.”  Frank said, totally ignoring Phil’s question as he rushed out of the apartment.

“Where are we going?” Phil asked running to keep up with Frank.

Frank stopped short and whirled around to face his friend.  “To prison!”

 

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow them without expressed permission of the authors.