Frank woke first the next day – he showered in the unfamiliar shower and dressed in a change of clothes that Mandy and Sam bought early that morning from a nearby department store – all before his roommate even moved.  Frank checked the time on his Braille watch and started shaking Connor’s arm to get him to wake up.  As usual with his roommate, it took persistent shaking, and threats, to waken the other man, but finally Connor woke.

“Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Frank grinned.  “It’s time to get moving.”

“What time is it?” Connor yawned as he spoke and Frank stifled a laugh.

“ 9:30 ,” Frank said.  “Late enough for the girls to be up, dressed and to the store.  You’ve got clothes on that chair.”

Frank pointed toward where he knew the chair was; he’d put the clothes there after the girls had dropped them off.

“Pink?” Connor demanded a moment later.  “They got me a pink shirt?”

Frank was startled into surprised laughter.

“You have a pink shirt?” he asked.

“Yes,” Connor groused.  “Pink.  Think baby rooms, bunnies and Easter.  I’m going to kill your sister…”

“She’s your girlfriend,” Frank smiled innocently.  “And you know you won’t.”

Connor sighed.  “How do I love thee,” he murmured softly.  “Ah well, at least it’s clean.”

Frank continued to smile, and he actually waited until Connor was in the shower and the water was running before he burst out laughing.  Even blind he could clearly picture Connor in the pastel pink shirt.  He sighed and shook his head.

Frank sat down on his bed again and carefully folded his dirty clothing before placing them into the now empty bag from the store.  He sat the bag down on the end of his bed, staring out at the blackness that surrounded him.  He heard muffled voices out in the hallway, more coming from somewhere outside of the hotel.  The water from the shower made its own musical noise, filling Frank’s world with sound.

Frank smiled as he began his morning ritual, visualizing each member of his family so that he would retain the memory of their faces.  He started with Joe, blonde hair and blue eyes, quirky smile, curls… beautiful.  Then there was Mandy, his sister.  Beautiful, forceful, talented…

The visualizing helped in two ways.  He relaxed as the retained the faces in his mind and he focused, seeing the day’s plan laid out before him.

The knocking on the door caused him to jump and he nearly fell off the bed.  He slid to his feet and scooted along, feeling his way down his bed, down a wall and toward the door.  When he got to the door he spoke through it.

“Who is it?” he called, expecting it to be the girls.

“Agent Stewart,” a voice from the other side of the door said.  “Bobby Stewart.”

“Oh!” Frank exclaimed.  He fumbled with the doorknob but managed to get the door opened.  “Agent Stewart? Come in, please.”

Frank stood out of the way to allow the agent to pass and he followed Bobby into the room by following the path he’d taken to the door.

“How did you know we were here?” Frank asked the agent.

“My boss talked to his wife who talked to your dad,” Bobby answered.  “He passed that info onto me so I could meet up with you this morning to find out what your plans are.”

Frank sat back down on his bed.

“I was just thinking about that, sir,” Frank said, politely.  “I think we’re going to check out the other house that we were told about.”

“Run me through everything that you’ve done so far.  I got some of it from Deanna but I’d like to hear it from you.”

Frank ran Bobby through the day yesterday, from the confrontation with Doctor Rich and Anna at the school and Mandy and Connor’s confrontation with Lindsey to their search of the house the night before. 

“My boss, Deputy Director Merrill, has sent a team to search out the location you found,” Bobby supplied.  “Since your father and Deanna aren’t sure that your cousin brought your brother there, Daniel felt it was best to keep the teams we have working this area here and send a new team to the location in Virginia .”

Frank nodded to indicate he heard what the agent said and relaxed a little.  Maybe they were getting closer.  They were building a box out of manpower and use it to slowly close in the space where Andrew could hold onto Joe.  Frank just hoped that, no matter what, Joe would not give up hope.

We'll find you, little brother,  We'll find you, Frank promised again.

"Can I ask a personal question?" Agent Stewart asked suddenly. 

'Two months.  Well… six weeks," Frank said without waiting for the question.  "Is it that obvious?"

"Well…" Bobby dragged the word out a bit.  "It's just, unlike blind people who are sightless from birth, you are self-conscious about it.  That's really the only reason I could tell."

"Oh," Frank relaxed a little.

"My younger sister, Erika, is blind," Bobby continued.  "Since birth.  She doesn't have that "I'm missing something" air of the recently blinded.  To her, sight is something straight out of science fiction."

"My instructor said something about that," Frank remembered the discussion, when they talked about this very issue.  A girl named Ashley explained her attitude about being blind and how, having adapted from birth, sight didn't mean as much to her as it did to the recently blinded.

"You adapted pretty well so far," Bobby complimented Frank.  "Better than most."

Frank shrugged and sighed with relief when the bathroom door opened.

"Uh…" Connor said.

Boy, that was eloquent, Frank thought.  I hope you're dressed, pal!

"Nice shirt," Bobby commented and Frank coughed to stifle a laugh.

"I heard that, Hardy," Connor declared.  "Remind me to remind you about that later."

"Sure," Frank said agreeably.  He knew he was grinning broadly but he did manage not to laugh outright at his friend's discomposure.

"My girlfriend picked it out, if you must know," Connor muttered.  "And I may have to repay her for it in."

He spoke the last so softly that Frank barely heard it.

"It looks so good, though!" Bobby sounded disingenuous.  "So… you!"

Frank stifled another laugh, sure that his roommate would smack him if he didn't.

"So why are you here?" Connor asked bluntly.  "Did something else happen?"

"No," Bobby admitted.  They were all diverted by another knock on the door but Frank let Connor get it.

Mandy and Samantha joined them – Sam gave Frank a very thorough good-morning kiss, causing Frank to blush.  He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, causing her to sit right next to him on the bed.  He inhaled and smelled the slightly fruity smell of the hotel shampoo in her hair.

"You smell good," he said to her in a soft voice.

"Why, thank you, kind sir," Samantha's voice sounded happy and relaxed.  "They have great showers here – the shampoo is only so-so and they didn't have any conditioner.  My hair is going to be a total disaster later on today."

"Never," Frank said as he touched her hair.  He kissed her again and smiled.

"Geez, do you two ever stop?" Mandy complained. 

"Did I did I not just hear you over there having a little one-on-one session with Connor, little sister?" Frank demanded of his sister.

"Little," Mandy agreed.  "Not two days lasting for practically forever."

"Ah, it's jealousy," Frank smirked.  He heard Sam's soft laughter in his ear.  "Got it."

"I'm going to kill you," Mandy announced in a deadly voice.  "With great pleasure."

"I hate to break this up, kids," Bobby said and Frank glared at him.  WHY did people insist on calling them kids?  He was practically twenty-one, for pete's sake!  "But what are your plans for the rest of today now?  Are you heading over to the house right now or later?"

"Sooner the better," Mandy said.  "The sooner we get there, maybe the sooner we find Joe."

Maybe.  Frank wondered if the doubts were creeping in on his sister.  She was the most adamant about Joe being alive – he knew she wouldn't give up… but that maybe…."

"I made some phone calls this morning while Mandy was showering," Samantha said.  "I called your friend, Phil and he agreed to track some paper trails for us.  Mandy and I were talking and we thought seeing if there were any other local properties that Andrew told no one about could be found, along with anything else under that assumed name we found in the other house.  Phil also mentioned he would check records for any names that were permutations of Andrew's name in case he's got yet another one we don't know about."

"Smart," Bobby whistled appreciatively.  "Very smart."

"Thank you," Samantha said.  "Most of it was Mandy's idea though."

"Hey, we worked together on them," Mandy said.  Mandy hit Frank with a pillow.  "Oops, sorry!"

"No you're not!" Frank protested.  "What'd you do that for?"

"Little sister handbook, page 430, paragraph 5, subsection 9.  All little sisters are required to regularly hit their older brothers with pillows, no matter the provocation or lack thereof.  Sorry, just had to follow the rules."

Frank sent his best glower her way and silently promise revenge on her – later.  Her action had at least broken up any remaining tension in the room and Frank felt much more relaxed – and ready to conquer another day.

"It sounds like a good idea," Bobby said.  "But I want you four to stay in touch with me throughout the day and let me know anything you found out.  Be careful."

"Always are," Mandy said pertly. 

"Yes, sir," Frank agreed.  "All right, team, let's go."

Frank just stood when they were interrupted again, this time by the telphone ringing.  He nearly jumped and frowned as he rubbed at his ears. 

"Hello?" Connor's voice said.  "Oh, hi, Mr. Hardy.  Yeah, hold on, he's right here."

The phone was put into Frank's hand and he lifted it to his ear.

"Hi, Frank, how are you?" his father asked him.

"Good," Frank agreed.  "Just fine, dad.  How are you?"

"Good," Fenton sighed and frowned.  "Look, Frank, we got some information I thought I should get to you right away.  We were able to track down who go the explosives…"

"Was it Andrew?" Frank asked.

"No," Fenton sounded angry.  "It was Cathy."

"Cathy?  Aunt Cathy?" Frank protested.  "But why would she do that?"

"I don't know," Fenton declared.  "I'll be sure to ask her just as soon as I find her.  In the meantime, be careful all right?  If you see her anywhere, stay away from her.  She may be as unstable – or more – than Andrew or Derak."

"Wow," Frank shook his head.  He couldn't believe that it was Cathy.  His heart thumped hard in his chest in anxiety.  Cathy.  He'd liked her!

"You okay there Frank?" Fenton asked.

"Yeah," Frank said, softly.  "Fine, dad.  Just… angry.  Upset."

"Me too," Fenton agreed.  "What are you doing today?"

Frank told him about the second house.

"Well, like I said, use caution – and think.  Alright?"

"Sure," Frank nodded though his dad couldn't see it.  "We will."

"Bye, son."

"Bye, dad."

Frank handed the phone back to Connor and repeated the conversation to the others.

"Aunt Cathy?" Mandy sounded no less shocked than Frank felt.  "That… we trusted her!"

"We trusted both of them!" Frank declared.  "I can't believe she'd help Andrew with any of it."

"This is a good find, you know," Mandy said.  "If we find Aunt Cathy we have someone to question.  We'll be that much closer to finding Joe."

"Maybe," Frank said dubiously.  "All right, team, let's head out.  We have a brother to find!"

*** *** *** ***

Interlude:

Joe lay very still on the bed.

He no longer felt.  Nothing hurt him at the moment.

He couldn’t move either.  He tried.  He wanted to get to his feet and run.

He wanted to pound Andrew into a million little bits for… for touching him.

For treating him no better than Uncle Derak had when Joe and Andrew were both ten.

Joe closed his eyes again and willed the world to go away.

 

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors 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.