A/N: Thanks for the patience, folks. As promised, this chapter focuses on what Frank and Joe have been up to. While we're not into the 'action-packed' part of the story yet, information containted within is still vital to the story. Read with due care and attention.

Ch. 6

"What are the chances they joined some weird cult and don't want to be found?" Joe posed this question to Frank.

"Less than none," came Frank's flat reply. He really wasn't in the mood for light banter right now.

For the past week, they'd been retracing Cal and Sandy's steps, mostly along the rural route they would have taken between the city and the cabin and back again.

Since their disappearance had seen some press coverage in many parts of the state, people in the small town nearest the Hunters' family cabin were aware of the situation and most were willing to answer the questions the brothers asked them.

Working for now on the dreaded assumption that the couple and child met with foul play, Frank and Joe tried to ascertain from the locals if they had noticed any strangers in the area, especially any who might have seemed to be particularly interested in the young family.

Unfortunately, as one old-timer had pointed out, with all the cabins and fishing destinations in the surrounding hills and valleys, strangers were always crawling around. Since nearly two months had passed, the brothers knew well that people's memories fade and get distorted with time. If anyone had noticed anything of significance, it was probably long gone from the light of conscious thought.

"Well, they had to have disappeared on the return trip, since they gassed up at the station in town," Joe murmured from the passenger-side seat. "There's just no other way it could have happened."

Frank was taking his turn at the wheel. It wasn't the first time this scenario had been discussed between them, and Frank didn't bother to respond. He knew Joe was repeating it just to keep their objective in mind. It was one of the only facts they were able to hold onto in the frustrating disappearance case.

Cal and Sandy filled the tank of the Taurus at the gas station. They paid with Cal's credit card. That was the last time anyone remembers seeing them. That was the last time any charges were run up on Cal's card...

"What if we don't find them?" Joe asked grimly.

Frank felt himself cringing inside. He hadn't wanted to explore the possibility of failure yet. It was still too early to be adopting a defeatist attitude, wasn't it? They hadn't found bodies. That alone was good news, surely. Or was he simply deluding himself? Even though they had been approaching the case as if the couple and child were no longer living, Frank had been unwilling to admit it was the only possibility.

"I never took you for a pessimist, Joe," Frank finally responded.

"Let's face it, Frank, we have nothing. It's a big country. Cal and Sandy could be anywhere. Dead, alive; Mexico, Canada…nobody remembers seeing anything after they gassed up. No broken-down Taurus on the side of the road. No accidents. No one wandering around the woods with amnesia or something crazy like that. You'd think someone would have noticed a couple with a baby, right?"

A depressing circumstance had been suggested by the police chief when they had been in to see him to ascertain how the initial investigation had been carried out.

"Level with us, Chief. What do you think happened?" Frank had asked.

"Okay, I'll 'level' with you guys," Chief John De Groot said to them. "Sometimes a fella gets tired of playing house. Maybe he offed his wife and kid and ran off with another woman. You'd be surprised how many of these 'disappearances' are domestic in nature. Look at that case in California with the husband who was convicted of killing his pregnant wife and dumping the body in the Bay."

It certainly wasn't the answer Frank and Joe had expected. And to be honest, not one they had even come close to considering.

Noting the surprise on their faces, De Groot continued: "Like I said, some fellas just think they can 'play the field' indefinitely. So when the little wifey gets pregnant and has the baby, he feels trapped, see? No more playtime. So what does he do? He finds himself amusement elsewhere and gets rid of anything standing in his way."

Dumbfounded, Frank and Joe could only stare at him.

"Hey, it's a possibility!" De Groot protested. "Either that, or the wife gets that post-partum depression and does in the child and the husband; maybe even herself, too. Maybe in the end this will turn out to be a murder-suicide. But who really knows? I've been in this business a long time, and I can tell you I've seen it all. There's a lot of ugliness out there. Unspeakable crimes carriedout by folks against their fellow man."

"What about dogs?" Joe inquired. "Did you get a K9 unit or cadaver dogs out?"

"Son, you know how many square miles they'd have to search? We'd have no idea where to even start looking. It's big country out there. No, I'm afraid we just don't have the manpower or budget to conduct a search of that magnitude. If we had found a broken-down car at the side of the road, or some eyewitness account of a car matching the description of the one belonging to the missing couple, then we could have sanctioned a search in that general vicinity. As it is, you are quite well aware we had none of the above."

Back on the road after the meeting with De Groot, Joe was still upset at what the chief had suggested.

"Do you think it's even remotely possible Calvin Hunter would be the sort of man to have a mistress on the side and kill his own wife and child so he could be with that other woman? Why not ask for a divorce at the very least if he wants to leave so bad?"

"I don't know," Frank said, frowning. "As much as I hate to admit it, we really do need to keep an open mind about this and explore every angle. We can ask Callie and the rest of the family if she noticed any tension between Calvin and Sandy…but they're definitely not going to appreciate it"

"Cal and Sandra just looked like such a happy couple."

"Agreed," Frank said. "But looks aren't everything. As investigators, we know this. We've seen the same kind of 'ugliness' Chief De Groot was talking about. Shoot. I'd hate to think that when all is said and done, we find out it was something like what De Groot thinks happened."

Upon their return to their office in Bayport, Frank called Callie immediately, and asked her as delicately as possible what she thought of the possibility that Cal and Sandy's marriage could have been in trouble.

"You know, we expected that line of questioning from the police, Frank," Callie said, her tone icy, "but I never thought you'd think for a moment that Danny's brother could be a killer."

Frank sighed heavily. He wasn't in the mood to argue his point. "Just answer the question, please, Callie."

"No. I didn't notice any 'tension' between Cal and Sandy. Sure, they were stressed out because of the baby like most new parents would be, but they were happy! They were crazy about each other! I can't believe - I won't believe that Cal would do anything like what you're suggesting. It doesn't make sense. And I don't think Sandra would, either, just for the record."

"Thanks, Callie. I appreciate your honesty. You recognize, of course, it was something I had to ask. I wouldn't be covering all the bases if I didn't. And in a case like this, we can't leave one stone unturned."

"I know," Callie said in a conciliatory tone. "It's just…I feel so helpless. Danny's a wreck. It's his baby brother that's out there, missing, and no one knows for sure if he's dead or alive. They're very close. And Danny was so thrilled to be an uncle for the first time…But, Frank, did you find out anything else up there? Anything at all?"

"Nothing that will help us, unfortunately. I'm sorry, Callie. I wish I could give you something to hang onto. When the trail goes cold like this, picking up new clues or leads becomes extremely difficult."

After hanging up, Frank swivelled in his chair to face Joe, who was tapping a pen on his desk, a faraway look on his face.

"There's something bothering me about the car…" Joe said, still staring into nothing.

"What's that?" Frank asked, eager to hear what his brother had to say.

"Martin said that they only drove Sandy's Taurus because the SUV was in the shop getting its tires replaced. Seven cars along the road in Cal and Sandy's neighbourhood had their tires slashed. The Taurus was fine because it was parked in their garage…Do we have any information on that act of vandalism? Did the police ever catch anybody? Any eyewitnesses?"

"Why do you ask? What are you thinking?" Frank felt a quickening of his pulse, sensing that Joe was on to something important.

"First I need to find out one thing," Joe said. "I need to know what sort of security or tracking features they had on the SUV."

"You mean like a Lojack system or GPS locator in case it's been stolen, right?"

"Exactly."

The wheels in Frank's head were turning. He was starting to see where Joe was going with this. "You're working on the assumption that they were deliberately targeted, aren't you?"

Joe nodded. "If we dismiss Chief De Groot's less than flattering solution, it's the only thing that makes sense. What if the tire-slashing isn't a big co-incidence? What if it has everything to do with Cal and Sandy's disappearance? I ask you: Which is easier to remember? A dark green, fairly non-descript sedan, or a good-sized bright red SUV?"

"My money's on the SUV," Frank said.

"Right," Joe responded. "And if that SUV can also be tracked, that makes the chances of it being found much better than a vehicle that doesn't have such a feature."

"Let's get the family on the phone right now to find out."

Frank dialled while Joe sat back in his chair. If his hunch panned out, and the SUV did have a tracking system and Taurus didn't, Joe realised it would be a whole new ballgame. It also opened up a whole new avenue of questions in the disappearance of Cal, Sandra and Andy. They'd been over it dozens of times, and nothingin the Hunters' backgrounds gave the brothers reason to think someone would have a compelling motive to make them vanish. Which means we're clearly missing something, Joe thought, and it can't be anything good.