Joe could not believe what he was reading and his silence spoke for itself. There on the front page of the newspaper was a picture of Vanessa’s Pathfinder sticking out of a river with his senior picture was beside it. Iola must have felt the deafening silence.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

While he wanted to ignore the knocking and the whole world around him, Joe got up and wearily knocked once back on the wall.

"Are you okay?" Iola asked her voice deep with worry.

"Yeah," Joe’s voice stammered.

"Joe, tell me what is on your mind," the familiar voice behind the wall replied. "What papers did they give to you to look over?"

"Newspaper clippings from back home along with e-mails," Joe replied solemnly. The papers were in chronological order with the e-mails in between the newspapers. He took a breath before he started to read the first newspaper headline and the story that followed to Iola. "Local Teenager is killed. On Friday, August 11^th nineteen year old Joseph Hardy was killed in a freak car accident. The Massachusetts State Patrol found a 1992 Pathfinder partially submerged in the Samoa River after it apparently caught fire. The body was burned beyond recognition according to law enforcement agents. Dental records early Saturday morning confirmed that it was Joseph Hardy. The accident, while still under investigation, seems to have occurred when Hardy lost control of his vehicle after it caught fire causing the vehicle to run off of the right side of the roadway. Then the vehicle veered back to the left side of the roadway, striking and flipping over a guardrail and coming to rest twenty feet below in the Samoa River. Funeral arrangements are being made by the Jenkins Funeral Home in Bayport. A full obituary will appear in tomorrow’s issue."

There was a long pause.

"Is there anything else?" Iola asked impatiently.

"Joseph Adam Hardy, age 19 died August 11^th as a result of a car accident. Born to Fenton and Laura Hardy on July 30^th, Joseph was a graduate of Bayport High School and a member of the football, track and baseball programs. Hardy was to attend Bayport University in the fall majoring in criminology. He was well known in the Bayport area for solving many crimes along with his brother Frank Hardy, who survives him. Several aunts, uncles and cousins survive along with special friend Vanessa Bender. There will be a memorial service on Sunday, August 13^th at the Bayport High School Gymnasium. Burial will be at 11am in the Bayport Memorial Gardens Cemetery following a funeral service."

"Oh Joe! I am so sorry," Iola managed to say. She knew this scene well. It was the same thing that had happened to her after she had been kidnapped.

"That’s not all," Joe continued. "They have other things too."

"Emails?" Iola asked. "They gave me e-mails from everyone after I died. They said they had taps on the e-mail accounts."

"Those things can be faked," Joe answered, remembering what his older brother had taught him about computers. "And you didn’t die."

"I might as well have died. I also used to think that those e-mails were fake too, but I don’t think they faked these ones Joe after hearing you talk about things back home," Iola added.

"What do you mean?" Joe asked as he moved closer to the wall so he could lower his voice. "What do you know Iola?"

He could hear her sigh and sit down beside the wall. "I know that you don’t use your e-mail account that much at all, but Frank did. Frank talked about you a lot to his friend in Australia."

Joe was in shock already. Frank had started to write Sven right before Iola died. There was no way that Iola even knew about Sven because Frank never told him until after Iola died.

"I remember a couple of e-mails in particular. One talked about you meeting a girl who almost got you in a lot of trouble. You were to have supposed to have hit some guy with your van and it turned out that she was involved with the whole frame up. Frank talked about her as if you liked her a lot, but he didn’t trust her at all. I can’t remember her last name, but I think her first name was Annie."

Another mental jab for the younger Hardy!

Iola knew about Annie! Even more convincing, Iola knew that Frank did not like her!

"Her name was Annie," Joe mumbled.

"I felt so bad when I read that e-mail. I was hoping it was not true," Iola commented. "But then Frank added that he thought you fell for her because you were trying to replace me."

"No one could replace you Iola. I want you to know that," Joe responded affectionately. It was true. While he did love Vanessa, she did not replace the hole that Iola left. No one seemed to be able to do that.

"Then there was this other e-mail that talked about Vanessa. Frank was so excited because you were finally acting better and moving on with your life. It seemed like from his e-mails that Vanessa made you happy and you liked her a lot."

"I thought you were dead," Joe admitted quietly. "I never stopped loving you."

"It is okay Joe," Iola reassured him. She wished she could reach through the wall and just hold each other like they used to do. "I understand. I was actually happy to hear that you were doing better."

Joe had to smile at that.

Sweet ol’ Iola, always thinking of others. That is why she was so special… she gave me an unconditional love.

"So the only e-mails you ever saw were from Frank?"

"No, there was one from you."

"Which one?" asked Joe. He knew that there were not many times that he wrote e-mails since he hated computers.

"You must have been writing it right after senior prom," Iola exclaimed. "It was written to Vanessa and you were thanking her for a wonderful night. That e-mail made me feel like I was there with you. You apologized for being late, but you said that you had to wash the van off because you accidentally drove through a muddle puddle. That was so like you. Always late!"

"Iola Morton, that is not true!" Joe said with a smile.

"You were always late, including on our first date. I was so mad at you, but I could not resist those baby blue eyes," Iola said happily. "I always said that you would make us late for our prom."

Joe had to grimace at that statement. While he was happy to have shared that night with Vanessa, it must have been hard on Iola to read that e-mail.

"Iola, I really did think that you were dead," Joe said glumly. "That is why after the prom when Vanessa and I went to our spot, I could not …we didn’t… you know."

"I know, I read that part in the e-mail," Iola answered.

"Frank always teased me thinking that we had done something because we didn’t get home until almost two in the afternoon! They all about killed us because they were so worried. Frank told me later he drove out past our spot and saw the van and just left. We just simply fell asleep in each other’s arms."

"It is okay Joe. Honestly. You don’t owe me an explanation," Iola reassured him again.

"I remember that e-mail. I wrote Vanessa in computer lab because I was bored," Joe commented. "I guess that means that these e-mails are probably real then. A lot of them are e-mails that Frank sent Sven."

"What do they say?"

"Frank is taking my death really hard, but he is trying to move on. He said that my bedroom has been left the same and that mom goes in there and smells my clothes and blankets. She said she just wants to remember everything about me. Dad keeps checking into the accident, even though he knows that I am gone. Frank mentioned in this one e-mail that Dad often visits the cemetery where I am buried. I guess Frank is unable to go there yet. He is taking classes at college to keep his mind off of things. He is still dating Callie, but he told Sven that he still feels lost," Joe said, swallowing the large lump that formed in his throat. He could not stand to read those e-mails because he could not stand to see Frank in pain.

"I know how you feel Joe," Iola said sweetly.

"I just wonder who they buried because it certainly was not me!"

"They told me that they got an unclaimed body for me, but there was nothing left after the bomb went off," Iola added. "I would say that is what they did with you."

"But they said that they compared this body to dental records?"

"Joe, these people can do many things. Look how long they have kept me," Iola replied. "They could have killed me a long time ago. Sometimes I think they did since Iola Morton does not exist anymore."

"I guess this means that we are on our own," Joe said with a determined voice. "If we are going to get out of here, we are going to have to do it ourselves."

"What do you mean Joe? We have tried! It seems impossible," Iola said tearfully.

"No Iola. It is not impossible. We are going to escape and we are going to do what everyone wishes they could do."

"What is that?"

"We are going to bring Iola Morton and Joe Hardy back to life."

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.