The medical technician agreed that Frank's ankle was probably sprained, but an x-ray needed to be taken to be sure. They also wanted them checked over thoroughly at the hospital since both of their body temperatures were lower than normal.

They were taken to the hospital and admitted for observation due to the doctors concern of the lack of warmth they had during the ordeal and wanting to prevent them from becoming seriously ill. The doctors also wanted to make sure they rested and that Frank stayed off his ankle for at least a day.

Frank and Joe adamantly pushed to be in the same room since they had to stay in the hospital so they could talk to Fenton more about what happened.

Once they were settled in their room, covered in warm blankets, Fenton came in carrying three mugs, two hot chocolate and a cup of coffee for himself hoping to offer them some warmth. After handing out the drinks and then taking a seat, he let Frank and Joe tell him what they had seen to think the avalanche had been set off purposely.

"Well, Dad, what do you think?" asked Joe impatiently. The boys had finished updating their father a few minutes ago and since then, Fenton Hardy had just been gazing abstractedly at his half finished cocoa.

"Hmm?" Fenton looked up as Joe repeated his query even more impatiently. "Oh, well for starters, I think you boys need to get a good night's sleep. You've had a tough ti--"

"Dad!" groaned Frank and Joe both together.

Fenton laughed at their twin expressions of disgust. "All right, all right. I was actually wondering whether Mrs. Dilmer had received any sort of threats prior to this attack."

Joe frowned slightly as he tried to put into words something that had been nagging him. "Why would someone attack her in such a public place? I mean, I know it would be a good cover to have so many people affected, but someone was bound to suspect - just as we do. And there must be easier ways to kill her - these people certainly don't seem to lack for resources or brainpower. It would be as easy to arrange an accident for her with fewer people around. And they took a gamble that people would survive and remember the attack and perhaps even help convict if they were ever caught and this ever came to trial."

"I don't know, Joe," said Frank slowly. "If you hadn't seen those helicopters, we wouldn't think this was anything other than an unfortunate accident, would we? I remember something about flares going off, but given my injuries, I wouldn't be so sure of my memory if you hadn't seen and remembered it so clearly. And I'm willing to bet that that’s the case with most of the other survivors as well. Without you, a good defense lawyer could probably easily pick holes in our battered and concussed memories - so the attackers were fairly sure of their gamble. It was just dumb luck that you weren't hurt enough to set up a doubt on the memory thing."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves here," interrupted their father. "Joe may make a credible witness at trial, but first there has to be a trial. And for that, we have to catch the crooks who did this. Now, seriously, why don't you boys sleep while I try and find out whether Mrs. Dilmer was a target and if so, exactly why."

Joe noticed his father was looking intently at Frank. He glanced at his brother and saw Frank was struggling to keep his eyes open. He figured Frank was beginning to warm up and was ready to fall into an exhausted sleep.

"You're right, Dad," Joe said. "I think we both could use some shut-eye."

"We can keep talking," Frank said forcing his eyes open.

"Frank, you need to rest," Fenton said getting to his feet. "You've been through a lot in the past couple days and if you don't rest, you just may make yourself sicker. And if that happens, you won't be in any condition to help with this case."

"You're right," Frank mumbled, his eyelids sliding shut.

"I'll be back in the morning and fill you in on what I've been able to dig up."

"Okay, Dad, Joe said.

As Fenton left the room, Joe looked again at Frank and saw he was finally asleep. Joe also felt tired and was looking forward to a good nights sleep in a comfortable bed instead of the hard floor he had been on the past couple days. He turned the light off between the beds and slid under the covers pulling them up to his chin. Within minutes he was asleep.

* * * * *

Something woke Joe a while later. Opening his eyes, he could see Frank was still asleep since the light from the hallway bathed his face.

Figuring it was nothing, Joe rolled over to the other side ready to go back to sleep. As he was about to close his eyes, he saw a shadow moving toward him. Before he could react, he felt a pair of strong hands take hold of his neck and start squeezing.

* * * * *

In a low voice, "I'll let up if you promise to be quiet," the thug whispered. "Is that understood?"