Joe slowly woke and realized the light in the room had changed. Turning his head toward the window on the opposite side of the room, he saw evening had set in. He also saw Frank sitting by the window, gazing out into the darkness.

"You all right?" Joe asked, pressing the control button to lift the bed.

Frank turned to look at him and Joe saw the misery was still on his brother's pale face. Frank said, listlessly, "Yeah."

"Do you want to tell me the truth? I can see you're not fine."

Frank turned back to the window not saying a word.

Joe sighed and realized he did not like the turn of events. He knew he could usually get his brother to talk to him, and was concerned that Frank's worry for Callie was more than he had ever felt before.

Before Joe could say anything, the door to their room opened and Fenton entered. Joe was surprised to see him there.

"You're back."

"Yeah," Fenton said sitting down in the chair between the two beds. "There have been some developments."

"Like what?" Joe asked. He glanced at Frank and saw he had not turned around at the news.

"Lucky for us, Phil was on his way to see you earlier when he overhead someone saying that Frank was going to be the next target to get Callie's father to do what is needed to get her back."

"Frank is a target?" Joe asked.

Fenton nodded his head. "Phil got a description of the guy, but he bolted out of here. Security has been alerted as well as the police. Chief Collig understood the seriousness of the situation and has posted a guard outside your room until you are both released."

Joe groaned realizing they wouldn't be able to do anything with a guard, but knew it was only temporary until they were discharged. "So, what is the plan when we get out of here?"

Frank got to his feet and exited the room, leaving Joe and Fenton stunned at his departure.

"Did I say something wrong?" Joe asked, confused.

Fenton shook his head. "No, son. Frank is just trying to deal with this. He doesn't want to put Callie in anymore danger than she already is and he is struggling to realize that we do need to investigate to find her before she is harmed."

"Hopefully, he'll come around soon."

At that moment the door to the room opened and a uniformed officer stepped into the room. "I'm back Mr. Hardy."

Fenton was puzzled. "I didn't know you went anywhere."

"I stepped down to the vending machine to get a cup of coffee," he said. "I figured your sons would be fine with you here."

Joe saw the concern on his father's face and knew in an instant that something had happened to Frank.

"Call security," Fenton said, quickly. "Have them look for Frank. He left this room and who knows where he may have gone."

The officer nodded and headed into the hall. Joe grabbed the phone to call security while his father went in search for his brother. Joe just hoped Frank was all right and hadn't been taken.

 

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency 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 original characters without express permission of the authors.