"We had a hard time finding the proof that you were behind this racket," Mr. Silver said.

"Price-fixing is hard to prove," the man said, "but now you need to forget all about it." Mr. Silver hesitated a bit on the decision and then shook on the deal.

Joe was at the perfect angle to see his crossed fingers behind his back. Joe knew that it was a sign to him that Mr. Silver was bluffing. He didn’t dare move any closer to the men. He watched as Mr. Silver was directed to a gray car before rushing to the rental that Mr. Silver had gotten.

Joe followed at a good half a block away, occasionally letting a car get between himself and the gray car. It stayed in a straight path, making very few turns. Finally, the car drove into the parking lot of a gray building.

Joe passed by and parked about a block away. Then he exited the car and returned to the building. He easily recognized the green van that Frank had rented. At least the others were there in case any trouble came up.

Mr. Silver was being led inside and Joe rushed in behind them, being careful to stay absolutely silent. Not a sound was heard in the building, but the faint jingling of keys from nearby.

"There must be more than a hundred rooms in this building alone," C. J. complained, "We’ll never get them checked in time."

"We don’t have to check all the rooms," Frank told her, "Just the closets and storage rooms. By what I see, there must be tons of those too."

"Either way," Joe Clark said, "We have a long job ahead of us. We should keep searching until we’ve checked as many rooms as possible."

"Of course you’re right," C. J. said, "It’s just that we’d better find something before the meeting is over. I’ll get some more of those key rings and we can check the other floors quicker." She walked back to the room and returned shortly with two more key rings. Joe Hardy was right behind her.

"I heard voices coming from a room down the hallway after I got here," he told them, "They were talking about a deal. I recognized Mr. Silver’s voice because I followed him here. When I parked the car, I returned and couldn’t find them. This doesn’t sound good." Frank, Joe, and C. J. glanced at each other. They had to work fast now and find that room.

"There are three floors in this building," Frank suddenly pointed out, "If we split up now, we should have this building searched in about an hour. Let’s go."

"I’m taking the second floor," C. J. said. Joe

Clark immediately decided to go with her.

"I guess that leaves the third floor for me," Joe Hardy said, "Give me a key ring." C. J. handed one to him and he quickly found a flight of stairs, "There’s no way that I’m waiting for an elevator."

Frank was left to check the remainder of the first floor. C. J and Joe Clark ran up a flight of stairs and began their search of the second floor.

Since half of the floor had already been checked, Frank walked over to the other side of the building and started checking all the rooms that were unlabeled.

The first room Frank entered was about medium size and was covered in tables and papers. Blueprints were spread on the tables, every room and door was marked on them. He walked over and glanced at a few of them. Only one of them caught his attention though.

Behind one of the walls in a room upstairs, he could faintly see the marking of a passage of some sort. Could that be where Vicki was? It made sense. If anyone knew where she was, then it would explain why almost no one was there. They didn’t want to be found out.

He took note of the room number as he took a pen from one of the tables and wrote it down. Then he checked the rest of the papers, but found no other passages.

C. J. and Joe hadn’t come across anything since they had arrived on the second floor. Most of the rooms contained tools or storage. They continued looking around anyway though.

"Joe," C. J. asked Vicki’s boyfriend, "How did you get that necklace back from the cops?"

"They let me take it," Joe answered, "It didn’t help in the investigation so I asked if I could hold onto it. They said yes. Vicki’s going to want it back."

"She is," C. J. replied, "Did you know that necklace is one of few pieces of jewelry that she’ll actually wear?"

"No," Joe said, a little surprised, "I didn’t know that. I never really thought about it. Do you know why she always wears it?"

"I don’t know," C. J. answered, "but I’m glad she has. It’s helped in a few cases you know? If she’s not wearing it, you know she’s in trouble or following a big lead."

"I wish it were only a lead she was following," Joe said.