Frank had just collapsed onto his living room sofa when the phone rang. He groaned, thought about answering it, then decided against it. Let the machine get it. He'd had very little sleep last night, and a long day on the job to top that off with. Frank kicked off his shoes and reached for the remote. He was planning to vegetate for awhile.

A familiar voice came through answering machine. "Hey, Frank! It's Joe! Pick up. I know you're there 'cause you're not at the station and you never go anywhere else. You're way too boring to be out on a date! So pick up the phone! Frank? C'mon Frank!"

Frank groaned again. "Oh, for heaven's sake!" he mumbled as he dragged himself off the couch and picked up the phone. "This had better be good, Joe!" he said as he fell back onto the sofa again.

"Hey, happy to hear your voice so soon too!" Joe said brightly.

"Sorry. I'm just tired." Frank yawned. 'it's nearly 10 and I'm beat. You know the drill, Joe. Too little sleep and too much to do."

"Yeah, well I got some information that will perk you right up."

"Really? What?" Frank was all ears now.

"I was informed today that child abductions by strangers are rare - especially those of an infant. But when my source went digging, she found that there seems to have been a small rise in infant abductions and - get this, they seem to be happening in clusters."

Frank sat up. "Clusters? Explain."

"Well, she started digging for the past two years, like I asked her to. She found close to 30 unsolved cases in FTC's missing children's database. They're linked to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, so this should be fairly accurate info."

"FTC?" Frank asked.

"Find the Children. It's the organization that she works for." Joe explained. "Anyway, get this. Of those 30, 19 were in the western half of the US. They were clustered around large cities like LA, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque..."

"How many missing from each city?" Frank asked.

"Anywhere from 2 to 4 babies per city. Each city seems to have been hit over the period of a couple of months, then nothing. No more disappearances."

"So why hasn’t this made national news?" Frank wondered aloud. "Nowadays if a kid disappears, the networks get the kids picture up within hours."

"Here’s the kicker," Joe said. "The parents of these particular missing babies are all single mothers, mostly in their early to late teens. Two were in their very early 20’s. After they reported the disappearances, they seem to have vanished too. No actual missing persons reports filed, mind you. Just no follow-up by the mothers. Now doesn’t that strike you as odd?"
"You mean the mothers of these babies never stayed with the cases? They weren’t pushing to get them solved?" Frank couldn’t imagine that. He was never going to be a mother, obviously, but if it was his kid, he’d move heaven and earth to find it.

"What are you thinking?" Joe asked.

"Just that if it was my child that was missing, I’d be breathing down the investigators necks on a daily basis." Frank said solemnly.

Joe fell silent.

"You still there?"

"Yeah," Joe said. "I’m here. Anyway, we’re thinking that maybe these girls might have sold their babies to someone, someone like your illegal agency, and reported them missing to cover their own butts."

"We?"

"My source and I."

"Oh, the woman that needed your help. How is that going anyway? You never did say what kind of trouble she was in."

He could hear Joe squirming on the other end. He was really holding something out on him. The curiosity was going to eat Frank alive. "Joe? You didn’t answer my question."

"She isn’t in any trouble, exactly. It’s more a case of trying to reunite her with her family."

"She doesn’t know where her family is?" Frank asked.

"No, more the other way around," Joe hedged.

"How are you supposed to help her, then?" Frank was now confused.

"I’m trying to subtly convince her to make contact, you know, go back home."

"Subtly? You?" Frank chuckled.

"What is this, pick on Joe day?" Joe sounded exasperated. "First she doesn’t believe I can handle babysitting, then she laughs at me when I tell her I can cook, and now you’re telling me I don’t know how to be subtle."

"You cook?" Frank said. "Since when?" His chuckle had turned into full fledge laughter.

"Fine, you know what, I’m hanging up now. I’m going back over to Kevin’s to play with Laurie. Then I’m going to take Ashlee out so I can feel appreciated a little bit before the day is over."

"Hey, Joe, I’m sorry. Really, I am. Since when couldn’t you take a little bit of good natured teasing."

"I can take it just fine. I’d just rather not get it over the phone."

"You said you were going to play with Laurie. Who’s Laurie?"

Joe stopped. Here was his chance. He could spill the whole story right now and have Frank on his way to California on the next flight. Should he? Or should he wait..."

"Joe?"

"She’s the four year old girl I was babysitting today - hey, quit laughing. You sound like her mother! She didn’t believe I could baby-sit either!."

Frank had tears in his eyes by this point. "You spent the day with a four year old! I’m sorry, Joe, that’s just too much! What did you do all day, play with her Barbie dolls?" Frank cracked up laughing again.

"As a matter of fact, we did," Joe said. "I was watching her while her mother was getting YOUR information."

"Ok, ok," Frank said. "And I thank you very sincerely for your sacrifice. Do you think you could get those files to me? Either overnight them or send them by email?

"I’ll try."

"Thanks. I want to see if I can find some of those girls, see if I can get one of them to tell me what really happened to her baby. Who knows? Maybe whoever is running the adoption service on the East Coast is getting babies from the West Coast."

"That’s what we were thinking. And I’m way ahead of you, big bro. Na-" Joe stopped. ‘Crap!’ he thought. ‘That just about slipped out!’ "We’re going to check out a few of the names from LA and San Francisco tomorrow."

"Who?" Frank asked.

"Rebecca and I - you know, the woman I’m trying to convince to go home."

"For a minute I thought you said.."

"Anyway," Joe cut him off. "I’ll get those files to you as soon as I can. I’ll get back with you tomorrow night to let you know what Rebecca and I find."

"Ok," Frank said. "I appreciate it. Meanwhile, we’re setting up a sting on my end. One of our female detectives had agreed to pose to be my wife and we’re going to try to present ourselves as potential clients."

"Be careful. You know how you have a habit of falling for women you’re pretending to be married to."

It was Frank‘s turn to fall silent. "Man, I hadn’t thought about that case in years. I remember that, now that you brought it up. And for your information, I do not. That only happened once and I already liked her. Besides, aren’t you the guy who just told me a few days ago to get out more often, move on, meet a girl?"

"Yeah, that was then. I’ve changed my mind, don’t want you to rush into anything."

"Joe Hardy, you never fail to astound me with your ability to change your mind at the speed of light."

"Yeah, I know I’m good." Joe said. "I’ll get those files out to you and get in touch tomorrow. Oh, and Frank, be careful."

"Yeah, you too little brother. I appreciate all the work you’re doing."

"I know you do." Joe hung up the phone. Boy, that had been close. He hoped Nancy appreciated how hard it was to keep this secret. He wasn’t sure how long he could hold out on this one.