As she drove down the highway, taking the brand new Range Rover through its paces, Deanna leaned back in her seat and rubbed the back of her neck, grateful for the built-in hands-off device for her cell phone.  The thing even dialed itself, once you set up the numbers.  Just her kind of cell phone.

She heard grumbling on the other end of the line and smiled.

"Good morning, Deanna," Fenton said in a tired, sleepy-sounding voice.  "How in the world can you be so cheerful this early?"

"I've always been a morning person," Deanna said.  "Anyway, I thought I would touch base with you and see if you've come up with anything new.  I'm heading down to Virginia to help check out the address there.  I'm not convinced it's where your son is being held, though."

"Don't be," Fenton agreed.  "I don't think that's where Joe is either.  Andrew's faked us out before."

"Smart kid," Deanna said grimly.  "Seems to think several steps ahead of the game.  Still… "

She downshifted as the traffic slowed, up-shifted again to change lanes and sped around the slower traffic in front of her.  Deanna asked Fenton about his sister-in-law's possible involvement in the case.

"Are you sure it's her?" she asked.  "I mean, I know you told me that earlier… but…"

"The description matches her," Fenton said a little sadly.  "And we know that Andrew's had help, from a female accomplice, since this all began.  I don't see who else it can be."

"He seems to have quite a few people willing to lend him a hand," Deanna murmured as she steered around another car in the way.  "It could be another woman.  He had those girlfriends we saw in the pictures…"

"I know," Fenton agreed.  "But… she makes the most sense.  And she's the only older woman that I know about that's involved in this case.  Older as in not Andrew's age, of course."

"Of course," Deanna laughed.  "Nice save there."

"I know," Fenton sounded smug.

"I figure the house in Virginia is worth a look around," Deanna continued.  "Not that we can safely rely on anything we find there but there's always the barest possible chance he got sloppy and left something behind he meant no one to see."

"Just be careful, Deanna," Fenton warned the agent.  "It could be a trap, too."

Deanna nodded, then said, out loud, "I agree.  I will be.  I won't be alone, but I left Audrey to continue the follow-up there in Massachusetts .  I should be able to rejoin you tomorrow, after we check this situation in Virginia out."

"Great," there seemed to be a smile in Fenton's voice.  "I'll let you know what we find today, if anything.  Good luck."

"Thanks," Deanna said.  "Talk to you later."

She hit a button on the console by her seat to disconnect the call and continued the drive down to Virginia .

Deanna always loved early morning drives, even as a small child.  Staring out the window, watching as the world around her started to awaken and greet the day held the same magic now as it did then.  Even with the sun already risen, Deanna made out lights coming on inside of passing houses, a few farmers going out to tend what few crops existed.  Store attendants went into their stores to get them ready for their first customers and children's faces peered out through windows.

The day promised to be a beautiful day, a day that Deanna seriously hoped would bring them good – and not bad – news.  It would take her over 8 hours – if Mapquest was right – to get to Manassas , VA , where the house she sought was located.  The team from D.C. could make it in half that time, allowing them a chance to get in and start the preliminary search before she arrived.  Not the most ideal situation in Deanna's mind but the best she could manage.  Having only started the drive two hours before, it would be mid afternoon – barring traffic snarls or Mapquest's inability to calculate times – to get to Manassas .

Deanna sighed and shook her head, stretching again as best as the car seat allowed.  She brushed back her gold-blonde hair and pushed onward.

A pretty pickle.  That's what she called this whole case.  Over the years the agent got used to the twists and turns any particular case could make but this one was worse than usual.  Not as bad as the worst but bad enough.  The things that happened seemed to be driven not just by one young man desperate to keep what he shouldn't have but by something more – something on the fringes that were playing all of the characters like puppets.  Deanna frowned at the thought of those people lurking the in shadows and wondered if Andrew might be one of them, working for a society that was willing to give him what he wanted if he caused enough chaos.

Great, Merrill, just great, she berated herself.  Now you're becoming a conspiracy theorist.  You know better than that.  Cut it out.

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

Interlude:

“I love you, Joe,” Andrew stroked Joe’s hair.

Joe tried to fight his cousin off; he wanted nothing to do with the other boy ever again.  His body refused, again, to obey.  He struggled to use his hand to smack Andrew away but nothing worked.

Yet.

“I love you,” Andrew said again.  “You’re beautiful, do you know that?  I’ve loved you for so long.  And now you’re mine… We’ll be together forever, Joe.”

And then Andrew kissed Joe again, making Joe want to retch.

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

The drive to Virginia went as well as it could be considering the amount of traffic she hit going into the Washington D.C. area.  She skirted the outer edge of it, though, to find the highway that would take her to Manassas and finally arrived at her destination, which proved not to be a house but a warehouse.

"A warehouse?" she said to herself as she got out of her Range Rover and straightened her close. 

"Hey, babe!" Deanna turned to find a dark-haired, hazel-eyed man making his way over to her.  He swept her up into his arms and kissed her, soundly, as he turned her around in a circle a few times.  She smiled down at him and returned the kiss before he released her.

"What are you doing here?" Deanna asked her husband, Deputy Director Daniel Merrill.  "I thought you would have stayed in D.C."

"With you this close, babe?  Surely you jest.  I thought I'd come and lend a hand," his hazel eyes twinkled as he looked down at her and she kissed him again before she took his hand to turn to the warehouse.

"I wasn't expecting that," she pointed to the building.  "Who all's here?"

"Reilly, Turner and Carter," Daniel said.  "Along with a sweep team."  He handed her a radio that she fastened to her belt.  She put the microphone at her belt.

"Found anything of excitement yet?" Deanna asked as she turned back to her husband.

"Yeah, place was rigged like a Christmas Tree," Daniel said.  "Mostly flammable.  If we hadn't been careful going in a whole lot of people could've died.  It's taken this long just to get enough of it cleaned out to go inside.  Why is it everyone on our team lacks patience?"

"It's part of our charm," Deanna led the way toward the building.  "You sure it's safe now?"  She heard some of the team over the radios, talking about rooms being cleared.

"Supposedly," Daniel agreed.  "I haven't been inside of it yet."

"Let's track down Bill and get the two-bit tour, then," Deanna stepped through the door into a darkened room, lit only by the sunlight through the windows located near the top of the walls.  She pulled off her sunglasses and put them in the front pocket of her blazer.

"Bill!" she called out.  "Where are you?"

"Here," a voice said from nearby.  Deanna walked in that direction, through a nearby doorway and into another room.  The senior agent was lying on his stomach over a hole in the floor, peering down into the darkness below.  Deanna lay down on her stomach beside him and peered downward. 

"What've you got?" Daniel asked from above as he knelt but didn't lie down.

"Looks like a hidey hole," Deanna quipped.  "A large one.  Anyone down there, Bill?"

"Kacey," Bill said.  "Phil's down the way.  He found a computer."

"There's a computer in this dump?" Deanna peered over at the tall, slender, blonde-haired agent.  "Whatever for?"

"That's what Phil's figuring out," Bill explained, a 'well-duh' expression on his handsome face.  "Certainly nothing I care to know about, that's for sure."

Deanna laughed and got back to her feet.  "Perhaps I should join her down there.  Two's better than one."

"Don't bother!" a cheerful voice called from down below.  "There's nothing here but a couple of large rats, several good-sized spiders, lots of dirt and a baseball bat."

Deanna and Bill exchanged 'say what' looks of confusion. 

"A baseball bat?"

"Yeah," the voice below was getting closer.  "A 1959 Louisville slugger."

A red-head appeared from below and peered up at them.  She handed up a slender wooden object – the Louisville Slugger – and then climbed up the ladder.

"That's it," Kacey Turner said.  "Except for the spiders and rats.  I didn't think we needed those as evidence."

Deanna snorted.  "Sure you don't want one for your collection?"

"Yeah," Kacey said.  "I'm sure."

The quartet spread out to search other rooms; Deanna found another agent in one of the rooms near the back – Philip, black and silver-haired, bent over an antiquated computer, making it sing songs of rapture. 

"How's it going?" she asked him as she came to stand beside him.  His fingers flew across the keyboard; Deanna wondered if the computer was going to sit-up and beg.

"Okay," Philip said. 

Practically a speech for him, Deanna thought, admiringly.  She hadn't expected any answer from him.  He continued to dance his fingers along the keyboard then stepped back and shook his head.  Nothing, then.

"Well," Deanna sighed.  "I didn't expect much.  He hasn't left anything useful anywhere else."

She paused and looked around. She could hear someone in the next room over and went to look.

Daniel stood desk in the corner of the room, reading something propped up on the table nearby.  He bent beside it, putting a rubber-gloved hand on the page to keep it from rolling.

"Here, Dea," he turned to his wife.  "Why don't you take this out to the team and see if they can make sense of it.  Then get some coffee.  You've got to be half-dead on your feet by now."

"What are you going to be doing?" Deanna asked him.  "There's not much to see here, is there?"

"We have the upstairs area – the sweep team is up there right now and one of them just told me he found something.  I'll go check it out and you go out and get some coffee and a Danish.  You're completely out on your feet."

Deanna shrugged.  "I'm good to go for a while longer.  If you're so worried about me, love, why don't you go get my coffee and let me go see what the sweep team found?  I'll live until then."

Daniel shook his head and gave her a little push to the door.  "Superwoman needs to eat sometimes too.  Go on.  That's an order."

Deanna really hated being controlled by anyone – including her husband – but she turned and left the room.  She made her way through the other rooms on the bottom floor, on her way out of the warehouse.

As she set foot out of the door she heard a startled cry come from the radio at her waist – and from somewhere behind her.  She turned to go back into the room when she saw the flames shoot up from the backend of the building, consuming almost instantly the whole backside of the warehouse.

Deanna heard another scream over the radio and then another as the flames went hotter and higher than before, building into an instant inferno.

"Daniel?" she said into her radio.  "Daniel?"

Her heart dropped out of her chest when she didn't receive any answer from him and, as Bill Reilley and Kacey Turner grabbed her arms to keep her from running further into the building, she screamed,

"DANIEL!"

===

"No, no, no, no," Deanna eyes went wide and blank as she stared at the burning building, dark blue going almost black with fear and anxiety.  She struggled against the two people who held her back, fighting to gain her freedom against them so that she could race into the building.

"Deanna," Bill Reilley said, softly.  "Deanna, just stay here with us.  Let's let the others do the searching this time."

"No," Deanna shook her head while a numb feeling spread over her.  "No.  I have to go to him.  I have to, Bill.  Let me go!"

"Deanna," Bill pulled her back, further away from the building.  "He wouldn't want that.  You know that as well as I do."

Deanna shook her head again as tears streamed down her cheeks.  Finally, she collapsed back, falling to the ground between her two friends.  Kacey knelt beside her, holding her tightly in an embrace as Bill pulled out his cell phone.

"Audrey, this is Bill," he said to his usual partner.  "Something… something bad has happened.  We need you here, right away."

Deanna shuddered in Kacey's embrace as she watched men running in and out of the burning building, dragging out men as they were found – but so far, none of them were the one she wanted the most.  None of them were Daniel.

She heard nothing, then, saw nothing but the doorway past Kacey's shoulder.

"No," she whispered.  "No…"

Bill knelt beside her again and touched her back.  "Come on, Kacey.  Let's get her to one of the units."

Deanna didn't resist as she was led away from the disaster and toward her new Range Rover.  She didn't resist as she was pushed into the passenger's seat, her eyes still on the doorway, fearfully.

"Audrey's on her way," Bill said to Kacey. 

He knew – they all knew without saying – their involvement in the eventual rescue of Joe Hardy was now at an end, vanished with the loss of the man who had once been their leader. 

The local F.B.I. team, the Hardys and the local law were now on their own.

 

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.