"I wouldn’t worry about this," C. J. told him, "We’ve always found her before and that necklace has almost always been the key that helped us out." She looked at him worriedly now, this wasn’t the Joe that she knew.

"I’m not worried," Joe reassured her, "It’s just that nothing adds up so far. Why bring her all the way back to Texas? Why not stay in Maine?"

"That is a good question," C. J. said, "but it would have been too easy to track someone down in Maine. We know the area, but we know nothing about Texas." They entered another room labeled ‘Maintenance Closet’ and looked around. What was inside the room surprised them though.

A large table sat in the middle of the room and a huge bookcase was set up against one of the walls. The carpeted floor silenced their footsteps from outside. Joe reached the table before C. J. did and looked at the papers lying on top.

"I thought this was a closet," C. J. remarked, "A sign outside said that it was."

"Wait," Joe said, "I thought that none of the maintenance closets had plates on the doors."

"They don’t," C. J. replied and then paused, "You think that it was meant to keep people out of this room? That something was going on in here that was secret?"

"It looks like it," Joe replied, "Look at these papers. These people have been busy." C. J. stepped over and glanced at the sheets. She did a double glance and re-read them.

"You’re not kidding," C. J. said, looking up at Joe, "This company has been price-fixing with another. They were working together to make their businesses better."

"Why was she kidnapped though," Joe asked.

"The papers," C. J. suddenly exclaimed and then quieted down, "That must be it. Those papers must be the evidence."

"What papers," Joe asked, looking closely at C. J. "What are they and what do they mean?"

"When this all happened," C. J. explained, "Vicki was supposed to be delivering papers for her dad to the corporate office."

"You mean that those papers are the key to this mystery," Joe asked, "They were the proof that Mr. Silver needed to send these guys to jail."

"Exactly," C. J. agreed, "They didn’t want this price fixing racket to get out so they decided the only thing they could do was try to get rid of the evidence."

The whole kidnapping thing made sense now. With Mr. Silver without the papers and Vicki missing, the scam would never get out. No one would believe a claim like that without hard proof. There was nothing that Mr. Silver could have done.

Suddenly, the door to the room began to open slowly. C. J. and Joe turned as it creaked and opened wider. Had they been caught?

Meanwhile, Joe Hardy had turned up nothing new. All the rooms contained more junk and definitely nothing helpful. He hadn’t run into anyone and while he found that odd, he really couldn’t have been happier. The last thing he needed right then was to get into a fight.

It seemed almost too easy though, to get into all the rooms, but then most of these people had nothing to hide. The only people that had any secrets were the men on top. He decided to take a chance and check out the offices he noticed on the second floor. If there was any secret, it would be there.

He carefully walked back down the stairs and located a list of offices on the wall. He checked the ones for the people in charge and recognized the numbers. Then he turned and headed in the opposite direction. A few lights were turned on.

When he reached the hallway where he wanted to go. Joe noticed a man walking out of an office door. Joe quickly ducked out of sight and watched the man lock the door and look around before leaving. After the man was out of sight, Joe walked over to the office and examined the lock. It would be simple enough to get inside.

It opened easily after the use of a credit card and he entered. A large desk accommodated one wall and a bookshelf the other. He opened the bottom drawer and searched inside. It revealed nothing, as did the next two. The last however, held something of interest. A small box in the bottom, hidden by a stack of papers, held another stack of papers.

"What exactly are you doing," a voice asked, and Joe hid the box inside his jacket, "Why are you in my office?" A man stood in the now open doorway and was staring directly at Joe, "Never mind your lame excuse. Come with me."