"Do you really think they might have come here?" Kevin asked. "Why?"

"I can think of a reason," Ashlee said, in a teasing tone. "If I'd spent the evening with your brother, I'd want to get him alone too."

"Ashlee," Joe chided. "I'm really worried here, okay. Frank doesn't usually just up and vanish on me. Normally, he'd tell me where he was going." Kevin opened the door and stepped inside.

"Well, someone's here, because the kitchen light is on." He gestured at the light spilling out onto the floor of the darkened living room. Turning on a lamp on a nearby desk, he motioned Joe and Ashlee in. "It's either got to be them or Greg."

Joe wandered quickly through the downstairs rooms, frowning. "Kevin, there's no one down here." He glanced at the stairs. The hallway light beckoned him. As he ascended the stairs, he caught the faint whisper of voices. He paused at the top of the stairs to find Ashlee and Kevin behind him. Putting a finger to his lips, he turned back around and started down the hall, following the sound of the voices.

A door at the far end of the hall was slightly ajar. Joe could just make out Nancy's voice.

"And this was taken last year. She was a baby angel in the church Christmas pageant. I searched high and low for those wings....and this was from Halloween."

"Raggedy Ann?" Frank's voice asked. "Very cute. Did you make it?"

"No," Nancy was saying. "Sewing is a skill that I don't possess. One of our volunteers made it for her. She wore that dress and wig for nearly a week. Couldn't keep her out of it."

Joe pushed open the door. 'This must be Laurie's room,' Joe thought, realizing that he'd never seen it. Considering the pink walls, pink bedding, ivory carpet, and white curtains and furniture, who else would it belong to?

Nancy and Frank were sprawled out on their stomachs across the little bed, poring over a photo album. Two more albums lay scattered on the floor by the bed. He cleared his throat. Startled, his brother and Nancy looked up.

"What did you do in here, Nan? Bath the room in Pepto Bismol? How can you stand so much pink?"

"Very funny!" she said.

He leaned against the doorway, "What happened to you two? You've had us worried sick!"

"Not me," Ashlee said, slipping through the doorway past Joe. "I figured you two wanted to be alone. You have lots of catching up to do. Cute room." She flopped onto the floor by the discarded albums. Flipping through one, she remarked, "Oh, look at this Joe. She was such a cute little baby!" She held the book up to Joe. "Don't you think?"

Joe looked at the photos on the page Ashlee held out. "Yeah, she was. Still pretty cute at that." He looked at his brother, who had sat up and handed Nancy back the photo album. "So, I guess you two wanted to talk. That's good, right?"

"Yeah," Frank said. "Nancy's been acquainting me with my daughter. From everything I've heard tonight, she's a lot like someone else I know."

Joe grinned. "Yeah, that's what I heard too. Means I won't have to teach her how to have fun. She already knows all the tricks!" He sobered slightly. "Seriously, though, Frank. You two shouldn't have just disappeared like that. It really did give me quite a scare, especially..." His eyes rested briefly on Kevin, so he didn't finish the sentence.

"Sorry," Nancy said. "We didn't even consider that."

"Yeah" Frank echoed. "Sorry, Joe." He stood up and stretched. "Thanks for sharing the pictures with me, Nan. I think maybe I should get Joe home now." He met her eyes. "Are you sure you don't want to come back with us. I'd feel a lot better if...."

She nodded firmly. "I'm sure. We already discussed this." She flicked her eyes in Kevin's direction. Frank caught her meaning and let the subject drop.

"Okay, then. I'll see you tomorrow." He steered Joe toward the door. "Eight o'clock?"

She nodded. "Kevin, will you see them out?"

"Sure," he said. "Not a problem."

"Tell me again why we again why we're up at eight on a Saturday?" Joe asked. "And back here at Find the Children, where we already came up with nearly nothing once before?" He made a futile attempt to stifle a yawn.

"We're here because we should have the place to ourselves right about now," Nancy said. "If anyone comes in at all today, it won't be until the afternoon."

"And," Frank continued, "we have a suspect now. We have a better idea of what to look for. Last time you were more or less looking for a needle in a haystack."

"And we're not now?" Joe asked skeptically.

"No," Frank said. "We're looking for specific files that Greg may have on these girls - medical records, foster home placement, monetary records..." His voice trailed off as he glanced over Joe's shoulder.

"Hey guys!" Kevin called out cheerfully. "What are you up to? Investigating? I can help!"

Joe groaned. "What is he doing here?" he asked Nancy in a low voice.

She shrugged. "How should I know? When I left, he looked like he was sound asleep. So was Greg."

"Now there's a mental picture I did not need!" Joe shot back quietly.

"Hey Kevin," Nancy said. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard you leave this morning," he said. "I thought maybe you were going to do some detective stuff and wanted to help. I tracked you down to here. Pretty good, huh?" He slid his hands in his back pockets and rocked back on his heels. "May I? I can be very useful."

Nancy laid a hand on his arm. "Sure you can. You can be our lookout."

"Lookout?" He frowned. "I wanted to do some real detective work."

"It is real. Our suspect works here and we need to go through some of that person's stuff. Look for evidence. We need something that Frank can use to get a warrant for a more thorough, legal search. If anyone, and I mean anyone, Kevin, shows up; you come get me. Okay?"

"All right," he said. "But if you need me for anything else, you just yell for me."

The Hardys and Nancy took the elevator up to the fourth floor where Find the Children's offices were located. After a quick search of Greg's office, Nancy quickly located Greg's laptop, the computer they'd been looking for at her home last night; but had finally given up the search for and turned their attention to the photo albums instead. She handed the laptop to Frank, then switched on the desktop computer for herself.

"What do you want me to do?" Joe asked.

"There's a file room down the hall and around the corner," Nancy said, handing her keys to Joe. "Why don't you poke around in there. See if you find anything interesting in storage. The boxes should be labeled by years, if that helps."

"By years? Oh boy, this still sounds like a needle in a haystack." He turned and left.

After close to an hour, Frank shook his head. "This computer is clean. If he had anything on it that might incriminate him, it's gone now. I bet he reformatted it." He blew out a frustrated breath. "Do you have anything?"

"I think I do," she said. "I've got some interesting bank statements here. Guess he didn't get time to disconnect this one from the network and clean it up." Frank leaned over her shoulder. "Anything that might come close to the payments that agency of yours was receiving.'

"Maybe," he said. "Can you get me a copy of those? Preferably on disk."

"Yeah, I think I can," she said. "There's something else here I want to look at too. Give me a couple of minutes." She turned to Frank. "Looks like we're going to close your case."

He stared at her. "I'm just sorry that it's your friend..." He turned to the doorway as the sound of a door slamming caught his attention. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Nancy said. "Maybe you had better check on Joe. I'll get this stuff for you." She turned back to the computer as Frank headed out the door.

"Joe", Nancy heard Frank shout in alarm. Hastily, she grabbed the disk from the computer and hit the button to shut it down. Grabbing the other disk she had already made, she slipped out of Greg's office. Near the stairwell, she found Frank bent over Joe, who was slumped against the wall.

"What happened?" she cried. She dropped to her knees beside both brothers. Joe winced in pain.

"Somebody grabbed him and tried to throw him down the stairs," Frank answered. "He caught Joe coming out of the back room. Joe never stood a chance."

Nancy glanced around the hallway.

"Don’t bother," Frank said, shaking his head. "Whoever it was is probably long gone by now."

Joe groaned. "I would've stood a chance if he'd made a little noise. Imagine sneaking up behind a guy like that. What a criminal thing to do!"

Nancy raised her eyebrows. "He must not be that seriously hurt. He can still crack jokes."

"Could've been worse," Joe said. Frank helped him into an upright position against the wall. "I could've went down the stairs headfirst. Instead, I managed to twist sideways and the wall caught me. So no new injuries. Just bruises to add to my other bruises."

Kevin appeared from around the corner. "Hey, I wanted to let you know...what happened to him?"

"I ran into someone that didn't want like me snooping around," Joe told him.

"Did you even get a look at the guy?" Nancy asked.

"Nope," Joe said. "I couldn't even tell you if I was hit by a male or female."

"Well, I got a good look at his retreating back," Frank said darkly. "He was definitely male. A tall, slim man with short red hair."

Nancy, Joe, and Kevin exchanged glances. "Red hair?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Frank said. "Red hair." He looked at Kevin.

Kevin appeared bewildered. "Red hair? A guy with red hair did this to you?"

"Yeah," Joe said. "What were you coming to tell us, Kevin?"

"That Greg's car is out front. I didn't see him pull up or come in, but it's there now. And it wasn't earlier, so he must have came in the back." Kevin eyed Joe. "Was it Greg that pushed you?"

Joe grimaced. "I'm afraid it might have been." He waited for Kevin's reaction.

"Is this in connection to those girls who lost their babies that you two were searching for?" His gaze bounced from Nancy to Joe.

"Yes," Nancy said.

"And you think he's part of it?" he pressed.

"Well," Frank started. "Yeah, Kevin, he might be. The question is, what do you know about this? How deep are you in on it?"

"Me! I don't know anything more than what these two told me! And I don't believe it," Kevin said. "We're talking about buying babies from teenage girls and for all practical purposes putting them up for sale to the highest bidder. On the internet, no less. Greg would never do such a thing. It's a coincidence. Or someone's setting him up. I guarantee it."

"I wish you were right," Nancy said, biting her lip. She had trusted Greg for so long. She was having trouble imagining him being mixed up in anything illegal. "But I did find a database file on his hard drive that contained a file on Jennifer Price. He also has one on the Carter girl. And someone has ID'd his photo, Kevin." She decided to leave out the part about Frank also identifying him as Allen Thompson, the director he'd met in New York. "It doesn’t look promising for Greg."

"I don’t suppose those disks in your hand contain those files?" Frank asked hopefully.

She flashed him a grin. "You bet they do." He reached out and took the disks from her.

"How did you get into Greg’s files?" Kevin asked. "He keeps heavy security on his laptop at home."

"Actually, his laptop is here. And I learned from a master," she said, glancing over at Frank. "And anyway, how would you know what security Greg has on his computer? You‘re always the desktop in the living room." Nancy asked.

He grinned sheepishly. "I was feeling a little insecure a while back, so I tried to break into his email. I just wanted to see if he had any little cyberspace flings going. After all, that is how I met him."

Joe rolled his eyes. Frank looked confused, and Nancy just grinned.

"You just lost me," Frank said. "Why would you be insecure about Greg? I thought he was with..." his eyes involuntarily flicked to Nancy.

"Greg is Kevin’s boyfriend," Nancy said. Frank looked dumbfounded. "I can't believe you missed that one, Frank."

"See," Joe said. "I tried to tell you. You were so upset that she was living with not one, but two men all this time. I tried to explain that you had nothing to worry about."

Nancy regarded Frank curiously. "You were upset about who I was living with?" she asked.

Frank turned bright red. "It wasn’t that. It was just..." he turned his attention back to Joe. "Maybe we should take you back to the hospital, have you checked out."

Joe clucked his tongue. "Changing the topic of conversation, are we? You two keep this up, you’re never going to work this problem out." He groaned, then allowed Frank to help him to his feet. "I don’t need a hospital, just a good night’s rest. And I can get that after we find Greg and give him the third degree. And maybe get back the file he took from me when he was attempting to push my down the stairs."

"File?" Frank and Nancy both asked at the same time.

"File." Joe repeated. "As in paper trail in a manila folder. I really wanted to read it, since it looked so interesting."

"How so?" Kevin asked.

"Because it was on a young woman named Rebecca Addison. Who had a new baby girl." He looked at Nancy, watching as her eyes widened.

Frank met Nancy’s eyes momentarily, then cleared his throat. "Well, there’s nothing much more we can do here. Let’s get you back to your apartment and I can check out the files on this disk."

As the four started down the stairs, with Frank supporting Joe as much as possible, a loud crash sounded from above. "What was that?" Kevin asked.

"Do you think Joe’s assailant is still here?" Nancy wondered aloud.

"You mean, Greg, don’t you?" Kevin asked.

"I mean whoever it was," she said.

"He might be," Frank said. He was torn now. Torn between getting Joe to the car and going in search of the mysterious figure.

Nancy had already started back up towards the door, taking the stairs two at a time. "I’m going to go check it out. You get Joe back to the car."

"I’m going with you," Kevin announced. He turned abruptly and followed Nancy out into the hall.

"Go after them," Joe ordered. He pulled away from Frank’s grasp. "I can get myself down the stairs. Nancy made need help."

Frank glanced at the empty doorway. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," Joe said. "I’m not exactly worried about Nancy getting into much trouble, but even if Kevin isn't helping Greg, he's still a walking accident. He’s liable to get them both hurt."

Frank nodded and left Joe alone on the stairs.

Nancy grimaced in frustration. "I was so sure that sound came from up here," she said softly, looking around the fifth floor utility room.

"Why?" Kevin whispered back.

She shrugged. "Instinct. That and the fact that this is the only floor where the stairwell door was standing open."

Kevin nodded. That made sense. "What if it’s a trap?"

"I don’t know," she said. "For now, just be careful." She searched the room carefully in the dim light. "What I wouldn’t give for a flashlight right now!"

"Where’s the light switch?" Kevin turned around.

"No," she stopped him. "I want the element of surprise to be on our side." She glanced carefully at the floor. "There," she pointed out softly. "See those footprints in the dust. Someone’s been up here recently." She moved forward. Next to a pair of old file cabinets was a mass of overturned boxes. Boxes that had been sitting in front of a door.

"Roof?" Kevin whispered in her ear.

She nodded.

Kevin moved around her and started up the ladder.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Going up," he said. "Element of surprise, remember. If it’s Greg, he’s not going to be expecting me."

Nancy followed behind him. She squinted against the glare of the afternoon sun. "I don’t see anything," she started to say, but Kevin was no longer listening. He’d spotted movement near the left of the roof’s doorway.

"Greg?" he called out. "Greg?" Kevin started out on the roof. "He’s headed towards the fire escape," he yelled back at Nancy as he ran across the roof. Nancy followed him out into the light.

"Greg, stop!" she called. "We just want to talk to you, that’s all. Please, just stop."

Greg stood poised, one foot on the fire escape, some kind of bag hooked on his arm. As Nancy and Kevin got within reach, he suddenly turned on them. Greg swung the black duffle bag at Kevin, knocking him backwards. As the bag finished it’s arc, towards Nancy, she attempted to twist out of it’s way. She fell, flat on her rear, to the roof. Greg clambered onto the fire escape.

Nancy jumped quickly back to her feet. She made a grab for the bag Greg carried. He jerked the bag away. Nancy’s hand had made contact and the motion Greg made pulled her forward. She felt herself toppling over the edge!

"Nancy!" Kevin shouted. He was back on his feet. He couldn’t believe what had just happened. Not only had Greg actually hit him, he may have just killed their friend. Kevin ran to the fire escape as Greg continued his downward trip, and saw Nancy hanging from the metal support just below the fire escape’s top steps.

Frank had just made his way to the utility room when he heard Kevin cry out. "Damn!" he swore to himself as he barreled through the open door. Kevin was lying flat on his stomach on a fire escape, his face beet red.

"I’ve got her," he puffed as Frank dropped down beside him. "But I can’t pull her up by myself." Frank looked down. For just a moment, he thought his heart was going to pound it’s way right out of his chest. Nancy clung to Kevin’s hands, trying desperately to hook her foot onto the metal support bars of the fire escape.

Frank flattened himself out alongside Kevin and reached down for her. He carefully took one of Nancy’s hands from Kevin. "Get a better grip on her other hand by grasping farther down on her wrist," he ordered Kevin. "And hold on tight."

Nancy looked up at Frank, fear showing in her eyes. "Don’t let go," she whispered.

Frank held her gaze. "Never." he replied. "I won’t let you go, I promise." He tore his gaze away and looked at Kevin. "On the count of three, I want you to pull upwards. As you do, try to draw your arms back slow and steady. We need to get her hands on the platform. From there, she can grasp the edge, and we can reach down and pull her up from under her arms. Ready?"

Kevin nodded. Frank counted to three and slowly, carefully, they pulled Nancy to safety. Kevin backed off the fire escape and onto the roof, and Frank followed, pulling Nancy with him. The trio collapsed onto the roof and found themselves looking up into Joe’s disbelieving face.

"What, the view from the ground wasn’t good enough for you?" he inquired.

Frank shook his head and glanced down at Nancy, who was lying partially in his lap, one arm thrown over her eyes, facing the sky.

"You ok?" he asked, trying to sound calm.

She nodded.

"Well?" Joe asked. "Anyone plan on telling me what happened?"

Kevin opened his mouth to speak. "You honestly expect me to believe that you guys used to do this kind of stuff all the time - and you enjoyed it?"

Nancy broke out laughing. She couldn’t help herself. Tears spilled down her face as the laughter bubbled out.

Frank and Joe regarded her carefully.

"You sure she’s ok?" Joe said. "’Cause I’m didn’t think it was that funny."

Frank shrugged. "Shock, maybe?"

Nancy shifted in his lap. "Five years," she managed to choke out. "Five whole years."

"I don’t get it," Joe said.

"Five years of relative safety and keeping my feet on the ground. I spend a few days working with the two of you again and once more I find myself hanging off the edge of something, nearly plummeting to my death." She rolled off of Frank’s lap and stretched out on the roof, once again caught up in a gale of giggles.

Frank cracked a smile. "You know, she’s got a point. I may be a police detective, but my current position rarely puts me in harm’s way that often."

Joe grinned. "True." He looked at Nancy, whose giggles had finally subsided. "But you have to admit, it was quite a rush, wasn’t it?"

Nancy’s laughter erupted again, this time with Joe joining her.

"Oh, that hurt my ribs," he said. "Laughing - not a good idea!"

Frank just shook his head, smiling. He got to his feet and dusted himself off. Reaching down, he held out his hand to Nancy and helped her to her feet. "I think you’ve spent entirely too much time around Joe this past week. He’s become a bad influence on you."

Nancy had to stifle one last giggle. "You may be right," she said. "By the way, thanks you guys for saving my life. It was greatly appreciated."

"No problem," Kevin said. "Let’s just not do that again anytime soon. I still can't believe Greg is behind this. I thought I knew him so well! I mean, he almost killed you! And after all that talk about family and friendship.'

Nancy stopped in her tracks as the others made their way toward the door. Frank turned to her. "What's wrong?"

She groaned. "Oh God, did I ever mess up!"

"How?" Joe asked.

"I just remembered. It happened when you were in the hospital, Joe. Greg was upset that none of us - Kevin, Laurie, or I - had been home for two nights. To be more exact, that I'd had Laurie out all night. When I told him that Laurie was safe with a friend, I sort of told him who the friend was to pacify him."

"You told him where Laurie is at?" Frank asked.

"Uh huh." She nodded miserably. "I didn't suspect him at that time, Frank. He was talking crazy, wanting the four of us," she gestured at Kevin, "to run off together and start over somewhere else. Afraid you'd want Laurie and me to go home with you to Bayport and he'd lose us. At least, that was his excuse at the time. Man, I didn't even see it. I told him she was with our old friend Bess Marvin."

"He would never hurt Laurie," Kevin began.

"Maybe not," Frank said worriedly. "But if he decides to cut and run, he may take her with him. Did you tell him where Bess lives?"

"No, but I don't have to, Frank. She's a rising TV star. It wouldn't take him long to find out where she lives. Or to find out what set she's filming on."

"Man, Nancy, when did you get so sloppy?" Joe asked.

She glared at him. "Excuse me for being rusty! I haven't exactly done real detective work in five years - other than helping find an occasional missing child. Most of my work is in the office." She turned to Frank. "He's right, though. It was sloppy. What kind of mother am I, putting my own child in danger?"

Frank put an arm around her shoulder. "We'll get to her first, Nan. Right now. Even if we have to barge our way onto the set." He turned to Joe and Kevin. "Let's go, guys. We need to go get our daughter."

The foursome made their way down the stairs and out of the building. As they hit the sidewalk, Joe slung one arm over Nancy’s shoulder, and then pulled Frank close so he could put his other arm over his shoulder. "Despite everything that's happening, I just have to say this. This feels pretty darn good," he announced.

"What’s that?" Nancy asked.