"Listen kid," he explained, "all you need to do in this place is smile at the clients, move a few weights and look like you’re into fitness. You qualify in all three of those areas. I’m just happy Greta managed to get a new guy so quickly. Here, you need to put one of these on."

As Joe changed into the blue and white t-shirt with the gym logo on it, he decided to start his sleuthing early.

"What happened to the last instructor?" he asked Jake casually. Jake regarded him with narrowed eyes and then shook his head.

"Don’t know. Here one minute, gone the next. Probably got sick of it and couldn’t be bothered doing the right thing. Okay, let’s open up. It’s 6.00am. Greta is having the day off today."

Initially nervous, Joe found himself enjoying the morning. He found himself engaged in plenty of good-natured banter with many of the clients. They were mostly curious about the new member of staff. Just before he was due to go on his break, a woman in her early twenties directly asked him a question, which immediately captured his attention.

"Aren’t you scared to be working here?" she asked him. Joe feigned surprise and gave her one of his awesome smiles.

"I’m not scared of women with weights," he quipped. The woman rolled her eyes then became serious again.

"I’m not kidding around, Joe," she said, looking at his nametag. "Something strange has been happening around here. The last two instructors have just vanished into thin air."

Joe began returning some stray hand weights to the rack and kept his tone casual.

"Maybe they just found better jobs. Or maybe their girlfriends decided there were too many distractions in the workplace," he said.

"Joe, both Josh and Steve LOVED working here," she insisted. "Steve told me he wanted to own his own gym one day and wanted to learn everything he could from Jake. He was just about to write me a new program the day after he suddenly stopped coming in. And Josh disappearing was even more weird."

Joe looked at his watch. "Listen, I’m due for a ten minute break. Do you want to come and chat in the café area for a while?"

"Sure," said the woman, "and by the way, my name’s Kristine."

As Joe and Kristine sat in the café area, Frank and Biff came in for their workouts. Ever alert, Frank immediately caught sight of his brother sharing a table with the attractive Kristine.

"Geez, I don’t know how he does that!" marvelled Biff as they went through into the weights room.

"Nobody does!" agreed Frank.

After the break with Kristine, Joe’s shift was fairly uneventful. He saw Frank and Biff there training but couldn’t extricate himself from Jake or the clients long enough to talk to them. As previously agreed, Biff stayed outside the gym until the end of Joe’s shift then followed him home. Back at the Hardy home Joe eagerly sought out his brother and found him at the computer in his bedroom.

"Typical that big brother is taking it easy while I work myself to death," Joe said cheekily before flopping down on his brother’s bed.

"Yes, you really looked like you were working yourself to death," snorted Frank. He stood up and stretched. He felt like he had overdone the bench press trying to keep up with Biff.

"Did you know," said Joe, his blue eyes sparkling, "that a client named Kristine was waiting for Joshua outside the gym on the afternoon he disappeared, and that he never actually left the building?" Frank raised his eyebrows.

"Why was she waiting for him, how can she be sure he didn’t just leave through another exit, and why didn’t she tell this to the police?" asked Frank. Joe grinned at the barrage of questions.

"They had a date, he knew she was waiting for him, and she already has a husband. She didn’t want to tell the police anything," he told his brother. Frank was very interested. Joe also relayed Kristine’s comments about Steve and about how tight-lipped Jake had been about the previous instructors.

"I’m impressed little brother!" he told Joe. Joe seemed genuinely pleased with himself and totally absorbed in the case. Even getting up extra early hadn’t appeared to affect him.

The brothers heard their father come in and hurried to give him the latest developments. For an hour they sat together in Fenton’s office discussing the case. It was agreed that Joe should go in again the next day and see what else he could find out from the other clients, and maybe even get Jake to open up a little. Finally Joe rang Vanessa to see how she was enjoying Australia with her mother. Frank couldn’t help overhearing his brother’s excited voice as he spoke to his girlfriend. "I can’t wait until you come back," he heard him say. "I love you too," he added. Frank was rapt. A challenging case, Joe was feeling positive and Vanessa was starting to fill the enormous void left in his little brother’s life. How much better could life get?