Frank sat in the recliner in the living room getting his homework done. He was more comfortable there instead of sitting in his desk chair in his bedroom. As he tried to study his chemistry notes, his mind kept trying to figure out who was aiming at them.

Someone purposely tampered with the baseballs and the van, twice, he thought. But who and why? Rachel admitted to the stunts aimed at our fellow classmates, but she wasn’t the one. There has to be something we’re missing, but what is it?

"Hey, Frank," Joe said walking into the living room. "Do you want a snack before I head upstairs to do my homework?"

"No. I’m fine."

Joe came in and settled on the couch. "What are you studying?"

"Chemistry."

"Really? That’s what you were working on when I went upstairs before."

"I keep getting distracted."

"The case?"

"Yeah." Frank closed his notebook.

"Any ideas?"

"Not a one. I’m coming up with more questions than answers."

"These incidents are happening with no rhyme or reason."

"Someone is involved and we need to figure out who."

"Absolutely."

"Did you see if there were any prints on the van belonging to our saboteur?" Frank asked.

"Not yet, but I will. Do you want to look at them later?"

"Yeah. We may get the lead we need."

"All right." Joe got to his feet. "I’ll take care of it."

"What about your homework?"

"I’ll do it later. Besides, this is more important. We need to stop this person before we’re killed."

Frank let out a breath knowing Joe was right. They needed this solved and quickly. "Let me know when you’ve got them."

"Got it." Joe turned and left the living room.

Frank leaned back in the recliner closing his eyes, hoping they had something to go on.

*****

After dinner, Frank sat at his computer analyzing the prints Joe had taken from the front quarter panel of the van. He had already eliminated his and Joe’s prints and saw there was only one other he couldn’t identify. Leaning back in his chair, he realized they had nothing to go on.

"Hey," Joe said coming into Frank’s bedroom. He settled on Frank’s bed. "Anything?"

Frank shook his head. "Except there is a print I can’t identify."

"So, that puts up back to square one."

"We could check with our classmates to see if they saw the person at the van."

"We should do that tomorrow and hopefully we’ll get something."

"I hope so, too," Frank said turning back to his computer and shutting it down. "I really don’t like having this missing X factor."

"All we know is that someone purposely set the baseballs up and that the van was tampered with."

Frank turned back around to face his brother. "I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before."

"What?"

"Think about the baseballs."

"What about them?"

Frank knew he was going to have to explain it slowly. "Those baseballs may not have been specifically aimed at us."

"The ball exploded when it connected with the bat I was swinging. Of course it was."

"How would the person responsible know that one of us would be at the plate when the ball was thrown?"

Joe was quiet for a moment. "The person couldn’t know for sure."

"And Tony was the one who requested a different baseball," Frank said.

"Tony wouldn’t try to hurt us," Joe stated.

"Exactly."

"But who put the baseballs thereto use?"

"Coach Williams doesn’t recall seeing anything out of the ordinary at practice."

"But someone did put them there."

Frank got to his feet and started pacing. "We know we need to find who and I think when that is answered, we may know why."

"We could also figure out why and that could point us to who."

"Either way, we need to figure this out. This person is playing dirty and needs to be stopped."

"Absolutely."

*****

The next day at school, Frank and Joe questioned their classmates hoping someone saw something the previous afternoon, but were coming up empty. They also talked with their baseball teammates hoping someone could have seen or recalled something. They weren’t having any luck there either.

Joe stood as his closed locker door wondering what their next step was going to be. He knew he needed to get to baseball practice before Coach Williams sent out a search party.

As he pulled open his locker, he heard a voice call out, "Hey, Joe."

Turning, he saw Frank making his way toward him. "Hey."

"Aren’t you going to practice?"

"I’m heading that way now. I just wanted to toss my books in my locker." He tossed the books in and slammed the door shut. He turned to Frank. "Where are you going?"

"I was going to grab some clothes from my gym locker then head to the library to work on a paper." They started down the hall to the locker room.

"I’ll come find you after practice then."

"Okay, but you first need to get to practice since you’ve already missed a week."

"Yeah, yeah."

When they arrived at the locker room, Joe moved to his locker as Frank went around to the next row. Joe quickly found the combination and pulled the lock off. He pulled open the door and stood still.

Hanging from the top was a note.

"Bang, Bang, You’re alone now."

Joe had a feeling of dread wash over him. He yelled realizing he wasn’t the target. "Frank! No!"