JOE

After my morning wake up call I was dead tired. My head hit the bean bag and I was out like a light. I woke up later to a loud clanging sound and a loud stream of expletives. I jumped up, scanning the room, again forgetting where I was. As I calmed myself down I saw Tony hopping up and down just outside of the maintenance room. He saw me and his face cracked into his trademark giant grin.

"Hey, finally decided to get up?" he jeered good naturedly.

I stretched, grabbing my shirt that I'd abandoned part way through the movie last night, "It's not that late," I mumbled, fumbling for my phone. 11:24 AM, "Okay, it is late but haven't really slept in a while. How is the construction going?" I gestured at the room.

"It's going okay," Tony lied, blatantly. "Okay, it's not really. Chet and Bess walked to the hardware store to get the parts we need and left me trying to get this piece of junk off the wall. But it's heavy as hell."

I grinned, walking into the small room, "Here let me help you," I offered, shifting to one side so that Tony could reach the other side of the unit. Together we shifted the unit out the door and into the common area, kicking the bean bags and blankets aside.

"Whew, all done," breathed Tony, wiping his forehead, "I can't wait until this is fixed and we can shove off."

I wiped my own forehead with the bottom hem of my t-shirt, "yeah, the heat is unbearable. It makes you just feel like doing nothing," I flopped down into one of the displaced bean bags.

"You didn't seem to have that issue this morning," I saw his giant grin grow into a shit eating one and I felt my face flush.

"W-what," I stuttered.

Tony raised an eyebrow and gave me a piercing look, "Well detective let's look at the facts. 1) You are about 20 times more relaxed than I saw you yesterday. 2) I heard you and Bess screaming at five in the morning. And 3), the most damning piece, there is a used condom by your foot."

I looked down and suddenly the heat of the day quadrupled, sure enough there was the evidence of my debauchery. "Shit man, sorry," I mumbled scooping up the biohazard and dropping it in the garbage bin in the kitchen.

Tony rolled his eyes, "Don't worry about it but next time, keep it in the bedroom and away from the common area," he opened the door under the sink and tossed me a bottle of disinfectant and a rag, "And just clean up anything you guys might have touched."

About an hour later Chet and Bess came back, carrying a small cardboard box and a length of copper tubing. Tony and Bess went to work in the common area, bending and retrofitting the cheap busted pipe with the new copper one while Chet and I made lunch, BBQed ribs and corn, Chet's speciality.

It was almost three o'clock by the time lunch was ready, the essential marinating process taking a good chunk of time but the ribs were fall off the bone tender. As we all gathered around I heard more than one stomach growling its approval. I was just about to dig in when my phone rang and I checked the screen. Nancy.

"Hey, Nance," I chirped, nestling my phone between my shoulder and my chin so I could pick out some ribs and corn before Chet ate them all, "How'd the exam go?"

"Umm good," Nancy sounded distracted.

I put down my lunch and grabbed my phone more securely, "Nancy, is something wrong?"

"Uh, is Frank there?" She asked, sounding nervous. It was never a good sign when Nancy Drew sounded nervous. My stomach tightened.

"No. Why?" I asked, my jaw clenching. Bess, Chet, and Tony looked up watching me, all conversation ceasing.

"Well," she started slowly, "I haven't seen him today. I thought he was just catching up on sleep, he seemed beat yesterday, she continued. " When he wasn't up before my exam I didn't think anything of it but when I got back to load our luggage into the car he wasn't responding. I used my pass key to get into Dixon's room but he wasn't there and when I tried to call…" she stopped short, "the phone was still in the room," she finished, whispering.

My mind spiralled. My brother, the safe cautious one, ever the boy scout never went anywhere without his phone. Well at least not by choice...