‘Joe. Joe wake up!’

‘No school today, mum. Holiday,’ mumbled Joe, pulling the sleeping bag over his head.

‘Damn you Joe Hardy! Wake up!’

Callie grabbed a handful of Joe’s unruly blonde hair and yanked it hard.

‘Ow!’ yelled Joe, sitting bolt upright and rubbing his head. His eyes focused on Callie kneeling beside him. In one hand she held a torch. He glared at her.

‘What the hell did you do that for?!’ he demanded angrily, his blue eyes flashing.

‘I’ve been trying to wake you for the last five minutes,’ Callie explained. ‘Joe, Frank and Vanessa are gone! I can’t find them anywhere!’

‘What d’you mean, they’re gone!’ he spluttered. ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s 4.30am,’ Callie told him. ‘I woke up and realised that Frank wasn’t in the tent. I went to look for him. When I couldn’t find him, I thought I’d come and ask you if you knew where he’d gone. But there’s no Vanessa either. Oh Joe! What do you think’s happened?’

Joe struggled out of the sleeping bag and pulled on his coat. Snatching up his own torch, he wordlessly left the tent and inspected the campsite himself. Callie tagged along behind him, nearly treading on his heels. She was well and truly spooked. Finally, Joe stood between the two tents and began biting his thumbnail. Where could they have gone?

‘Maybe they went for a hike,’ said Callie hopefully.

‘Yeah, I can imagine that Callie. "Hey Vanessa, let’s go for a hike in the middle of the night." "Oh, yes, Frank. But let’s not leave Callie and Joe a note." Get real!’ said Joe.

‘Well, where ARE they?’ Callie implored him, her voice beginning to rise.

Joe walked over to the remains of the fire and shone the torch over the rug where Frank and Vanessa had been sitting. There were footprints all around but there was no way of distinguishing between them. He prodded the ashes. The fire had gone out at least an hour ago. Suddenly Joe’s eyes caught sight of something glinting in the grass beyond the remains of the fire. Crouching, he picked up an object that made his blood chill.

‘What is it?’ asked Callie, breathlessly.

‘It’s Frank’s,’ said Joe in a hushed tone. In the palm of his hand was what looked like half of a silver coin. Callie shone her torch directly at it. It had no denomination. The only symbol on it was a capital ‘J’. Before she could pick it up, Joe closed his fingers tightly around it and put it in his pocket.

‘They’re in trouble,’ Joe told her grimly. ‘Frank dropped this for me to find.’

‘How can you be so sure?’ Callie quizzed him.

‘I just know,’ replied Joe, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

‘We need to phone the police to get some help,’ said Callie. Aware that she was right, Joe took a step back towards the tent, but then stopped abruptly, smacking his palm against his forehead.

‘Damn! Vanessa has my mobile. Have you got Frank’s?’

Callie looked at him incredulously.

‘No!’ she exclaimed. ‘Frank always has his own phone WITH him! Why does Vanessa have yours?’

‘Because I kept misplacing it yesterday,’ admitted Joe with some reluctance.

‘Oh, this is BRILLIANT!’ said Callie sarcastically. ‘I’m here with one half of the world’s supposedly greatest teenage detective duos, who has NO phone, because he was worried he might lose it!’

‘Give it a rest, Callie!’ shouted Joe, feeling his temper rising. ‘What were the odds that something like this was going to happen?’

‘Something like this ALWAYS happens!’ shouted Callie. ‘I’m getting so used to it, it’s a wonder I’m surprised when it DOES!’

‘It will take us too long to walk anywhere to get help,’ said Joe, thinking out aloud.

‘Yeah, well if you were Frank, you’d have your own phone in your own hand ringing to get help right now, and we wouldn’t BE in this predicament!’ Callie told him, folding her arms.

‘Well I’m SOOOOOOOOO glad I’m NOT Frank, because if I was, I’d have to listen to YOU all day!’ yelled Joe.

They stood, Callie with her arms folded defensively across her chest, and Joe with his shoulders tensed and angry. They glared at each other for some time before Joe spoke again; this time in a much calmer tone.

‘Look, this is getting us nowhere. Fact: we have no way of contacting the police. Fact: Frank and Vanessa have gone missing. Fact: You and I are going to have to work together to find them.’

He held out his hand to Callie.

‘Truce?’ he offered.

Callie regarded Joe’s face for a moment and then extended her own hand to shake his. Joe was right. Despite their differences, they needed to work together. The lives of Vanessa and Frank could well depend on them.

…………

As dawn broke, Callie Shaw and Joe Hardy were still searching like they had been since they had discovered Frank and Vanessa were missing. Joe had suggested they comb the area around the campsite in ever widening circles in the hope of finding some clue. Callie was happy to follow any suggestion Joe made. He wasn’t Frank, but she knew she’d be foolish to question Joe’s approach to their problem, particularly when he appeared to be behaving so calmly and seriously.

‘Look for broken foliage, footprints, signs of struggle, pieces of cloth snared on twigs, anything,’ Joe had told her. Holding the torch with frozen hands, Callie’s eyes burned with concentration. At least having something to do occupied her mind and kept at bay distressing thoughts about what may have happened to her boyfriend and Vanessa.

At last, about 200 metres from their campsite, Callie grabbed Joe’s sleeve.

‘Look there,’ she whispered, ‘Over by that log.’

As she shone her torch at the old log, Joe stepped over to the object caught in Callie’s beam. It was Frank’s binoculars. Joe looked at them closely, his face a picture of concentration. In the still ghostly light, Callie was struck by how pale Joe’s face was, his blue eyes standing out in sharp contrast to his face and hair. The serious expression was like Frank’s, but there the likeness between the brothers finished. Callie suddenly had a fresh pang of worry about Frank and tried to shake it from her mind.

‘It’s a clue,’ Joe told her finally. ‘Frank’s dropped them so that we’d know what direction they’ve gone.’

He pointed down at the soft ground beside the log.

‘Look here. Three different types of footprint. Frank’s trainers. Vanessa’s trainers. And hiking boots.’

Callie stared at the prints, her eyes widening as she saw proof that a third person was involved in the disappearance. The hiking boot print was larger than Frank’s footprint. Vanessa’s was dwarfed by it. She swallowed the rising panic in her throat.

‘What do we do now?’ she asked Joe quietly, looking up at him. Joe took a deep breath and then exhaled. He wanted to start shouting Frank’s and Vanessa’s names, but he knew that he was going to have to do this the logical way. He and Callie would need to have a plan and they needed to have food. He was also aware that Callie was probably as close to freaking out as he was.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘We need to have something to eat and think about our options. We need to keep alert. We’ll be no good to Frank and Vanessa if we get ourselves caught as well. Come on Cal. What are you gonna rustle up for breakfast?’

‘Me?’ exclaimed Callie, falling into step behind him. ‘Why should I be the one to organize breakfast?’

‘Well you’re the girl aren’t you?’ said Joe without turning around. He smiled as he heard Callie having to hurry along to keep up with his long strides. ‘You know the drill. In the jungle, the men do the heavy work and protect the female of the species, and the women prepare the food and pamper the men.’

‘Oh yeah?’ snorted Callie behind him. ‘Well if there WAS actually a MAN around here to pamper, maybe I WOULD get him some breakfast. As it stands, YOU can get your own!’

The pair walked back to the camp, both grinning despite the seriousness of the situation. Joe was amused at how quickly Callie took the bait, and by her quick retorts. Callie knew exactly what Joe was doing; trying to take her mind and his away from Frank and Vanessa. His strategy worked to an extent and she found herself appreciating Joe for thinking of it. Not that she was prepared to admit it to him!