A/N: Thanks so much for taking time to leave a review, unobtrusive, lilith, Maddi, zenfrodo, Jackie, Vinsmouse, leya, Caranath and bhar! Much appreciated! Thanks to those reading, as well!

Chapter 12

Frank paced back and forth in the hotel suite, thinking out loud with Nancy.

"We know Mrs. Sanders didn't have Amy in the house we went to today," he began. "So there must be another place she's keeping these girls."

Nancy nodded. "And the girls she did have in the house all seemed perfectly willing to be there."

"But for the girls that aren't perfectly willing..."

His head snapped up as the entire adoption scheme crystallized in his mind, and he turned to Nancy. "That's where she has Joe."

"It makes sense," Nancy responded. "Now all we have to do is find out where this place is. The place for girls who don't want to give up their babies."

Frank sat on the edge of the sofa, a plan formulating in his mind. "We need to make another appointment with Mrs. Sanders."

"And do what?"

"Get into the filing cabinet in her office."

Frank turned as the door to the suite opened and Agent Brown walked in with Fenton Hardy.

"Any news?" Fenton asked his son immediately.

Frank shook his head. "No, but Nancy and I have a theory." He explained what they'd been thinking and Agent Brown nodded.

"I'm sure you're right, Frank, but getting into those files is going to be tough without someone on the inside helping you," Agent Brown said.

"I know who might help." Emily stood in the doorway of the bedroom.

"Emily, I thought you were resting," Nancy said.

"I can't rest. Not with Joe..." She hung her head and Fenton walked over to her and hugged her tightly.

"Don't you worry, honey, we're going to find him."

Emily sniffled. "I know, and I'm going to help."

"What were you going to say, Emily? Who do you think might help?" Frank prompted.

"Jodie. She's Mrs. Sanders's secretary. When Joe and I went to the agency yesterday, she told us to leave. She said that we shouldn't give our baby away, and that Joe should never let me out of his sight while I'm there. We wanted to ask her more, but Mrs. Sanders walked into the waiting room."

"Did Jodie say why she wanted you to leave?" Frank asked.

"She said she was afraid that Mrs. Sanders would somehow persuade us to give her the baby and that we should just run."

"We put a tail on Jodie yesterday evening at Joe's request," Agent Brown spoke up. He looked at Agent McClafferty. "Would you see if a report has been filed by the agent who was following her yet?"

Agent McClafferty nodded and picked up the telephone.

"Maybe Jodie would tell Emily what's really going on with Mrs. Sanders, if she was so willing to warn her and Joe yesterday," Nancy suggested.

"Yes, but we need to be careful about using Emily," Agent Brown said. "They obviously want her baby."

"And if they find out she's not really pregnant..." Frank didn't finish his sentence, but the implication was understood. Joe would be in grave danger.

Agent McClafferty hung up the phone. "Jodie McMillan went home with Mrs. Sanders last night. The agent who followed her did some checking, and apparently Jodie is Mrs. Sanders' niece."

"Her niece?" Frank thought for a moment. It actually made sense. If Jodie was nervous about what her aunt was doing she would be reluctant to speak up about it if she actually lived with the woman. But why was she living with her? "What does Mrs. Sanders have on her?"

"It's not like that," Agent McClafferty explained, looking down at her notes. "Mrs. Sanders' sister...Jodie's mother...was in a serious car accident some years ago. She's paralyzed from the chest down and lives in a special facility with a twenty-four hour a day private nurse. Evidently Mrs. Sanders pays the bills for her care."

"Well, that certainly explains Jodie's reluctance to tell Joe and Em what was going on, doesn't it?" Nancy said.

"But she did want to tell us," Emily insisted. "And I think she would have if her aunt hadn't come into the room."

Frank nodded. "We'll just have to approach Jodie away from the agency somehow. Then maybe she'll talk."

"Only if you use the right person," Fenton said.

"And that would be?" Nancy asked.

"Emily." Fenton's voice was grim and Frank caught his father's eye from across the room. Joe would kill them both if he knew.

OOOoooOOO

Joe groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. How long have I been here? His body felt heavy as he raised himself to a sitting position.

A wave of nausea washed over him. Clutching his stomach, he forced his legs off the bed. He sat and took several deep breaths before he tried to stand up. He managed to get to his feet, then leaned heavily against the concrete wall behind his cot. Man, I feel so sick.

His footsteps were leaden as he forced himself to move forward. Hearing voices, he stopped. Not again, please.

The voices weren't coming toward him. Where were they?

Joe crept along the wall until he stood directly under a vent. Pausing, he listened as the voice of a young girl cried out distinctly, "Stop it! No!"

I'll bet that's Amy. Joe blinked his eyes trying to eliminate his blurred vision as he took in his surroundings. He headed toward the only source of light in the room. A boarded up window set high in the cement wall. He glanced around the basement and dragged some boxes toward it.

Struggling against dizziness and his roiling stomach, he managed to climb on them high enough to reach the window. He didn't have the strength to pry off the boards, but he managed to peer through the crack.

I'm in a neighborhood. This must be Mrs. Sanders little dormitory of hell. He climbed down from the boxes and pushed them away from the window. Time for you to come up with a plan, Hardy.

OOOoooOOO

Emily twisted her hands together as she waited with Fenton in the parking lot of a gas station, across the street from the adoption agency.

"Are you sure you want to do this, honey?" Fenton asked.

Emily nodded vigorously. "I'll do anything to get Joe back."

Fenton smiled at her. "I know you will." He looked over at the entrance to the convenience store. "Is that Jodie?"

Emily nodded as a young girl exited the doorway, carrying a tray of Styrofoam cups. "Wish me luck."

"You'll do fine," Fenton said. "And I'll be right here. Nothing will happen to you."

She took a deep breath and hurried over to the secretary. "Jodie?"

Jodie startled, and coffee sloshed through the top of the flimsy lids of two of the cups in the cardboard tray.

"What are you doing here?," the receptionist demanded. "You need to leave. It's not safe."

"Jodie, Joe is missing."

"What?" Jodie stopped, a terrified look coming over her. "Oh, no."

"You've got to help me." Tears began falling down Emily's cheeks. "I have to find him. Please."

The receptionist shook her head as she snuck furtive glances toward the adoption agency.

"Jodie, I know you know something," Emily pleaded. "In the office the other day, you started to tell us. What was it?"

Jodie bit her lip, then grabbed Emily by the arm and took her behind her car. "Listen, this is very dangerous. Mrs. Sanders and her husband, they're awful people." She cast a nervous glance around the parking lot. "There are girls who come to us...she takes them, hides them until their babies are born. Then she sells their babies."

"But why don't these girls say anything?" Emily asked. "How does she get away with this?"

"She makes them addicts. All of their babies are born by C-section, and then she gets them hooked on drugs while they're recovering. By the time she turns them loose, they don't remember what happened and they don't care." Jodie started to back away. "I've told you too much."

"Wait, I need to know where Joe is."

"She must have him where she keeps the girls. The ones who don't want to give up their babies." Jodie started moving backwards, coffee now spilling down the sides of the cups. "I don't know where the house is...they don't even think I know about all of this."

"But, Jodie-"

"Listen, I hope you find Joe. You guys are so great together. Please, be careful." She hurried to the edge of the convenience store parking lot and dashed across the street.

OOOoooOOO

From inside the building, Eugenia Sanders watched her niece talking with Emily. Her eyes narrowed and she pushed a button on her phone. A burly man entered the office.

"Yeah, Mrs. Sanders?"

"I need you to take care of something, Roger," she said with a smile. "Jodie McMillan needs to have a bit of an accident."

Roger smiled a near toothless grin at her. "Gotcha, Mrs. S." He shook her well-manicured hand with his thick and calloused one. "I'll take care of it."

"Thank you," she replied as he left the office.

She watched through the window as Emily got back into her Honda. "You're next, sweetie," she said through gritted teeth.

OOOoooOOO

Joe heard footsteps overhead and dragged himself as quickly as he could back to his cot. He lay down, pretending to be unconscious, as he heard two sets of footsteps descending into the basement. He cracked one eye open only enough to see who was there.

"He's still out like a light," Mr. Sanders said. "Damn it, Rose, how much of that stuff did you give him?"

"Just the usual." She frowned. "Maybe it was a little too soon after the first dose."

Harold Sanders sighed. "Well, I don't suppose it matters. It'll be easier to have him unconscious."

"Mrs. S. sure seems eager to get his girlfriend."

"Yes, Emily is quite beautiful. She's certain her baby will command a high price." Harold paused. "In fact, she's toying with something entirely new for Emily."

"What do you mean?"

"Keeping her." Harold smiled. "Eugenia seems to think she can use her to breed designer babies."

"Not following you," Rose said.

"Get her pregnant again by some other young stud after she delivers this baby."

"I think she's losing it, Harold," Rose said, as she began walking back up the stairs.

"You want to tell her that?" Harold closed the door to the basement and bolted it shut.

Joe sat up in bed, anger coursing through him. Breed her? Force her to have sex with other men and get her pregnant? Over my dead body!

He shook his head slightly, trying to clear his thoughts. I've got to get out of here. They can't get anywhere near Emily. His girlfriend's face flashed into his mind. Stay safe, baby. Please.

OOOoooOOO

"Nothing?" Frank asked Agent McClafferty. "No property listed under her name?"

Agent McClafferty shuffled through her files on the coffee table in Frank and Nancy's hotel room. "Except for the adoption agency itself, no other property lists the Sanders as owners or tenants."

Frank sat back in his chair and sighed. "No, I guess that would make things too easy."

"We're going to have to follow them," Nancy said.

"Yeah." Frank looked up at his girlfriend. "Not Mrs. Sanders though. The nurse at the house we went to today. What was her name?"

"Um, Rose, I think."

"Her," Frank stated. "She's the one. If she takes care of the girls in the first house, it stands to reason that she would also take care of any other girls, right?"

"Yes," Nancy agreed excitedly. "And don't you remember how nervous she looked when we kept asking questions? She definitely knows what's going on."

"Yeah, and she was having a hard time hiding it," Frank said, turning his head toward the door of the suite as a key was inserted in the lock. Fenton and Emily entered.

Nancy jumped up from the sofa. "What did you find out? Did you see Jodie? Did she tell you anything?"

"She was really scared," Emily said quietly.

"Yes, but did you learn anything?" Nancy persisted.

Emily stared at her, a troubled look in her eyes. "Mrs. Sanders steals the girls' babies, then she turns them into addicts so they can't remember anything…and even if they do, they don't care anymore."

OOOoooOOO

Joe dragged himself from the cot again and began searching the room for any possible means of escape. The basement was almost completely empty except for the boxes he'd used to get close to the window. That may be my only way out. He heard the female voices talking from upstairs again. Standing under the vent, he struggled to listen to the conversation.

"I want to go home. I want to see my parents," a young girl's voice sobbed.

"Why? They're only going to throw you out on the street," Rose replied. "Isn't that why you didn't tell them you were pregnant in the first place?"

"Yes, but whatever they do to me can't be worse than here."

"Now honey, listen to reason. In a few months, this will be all over with, and you can go back home," Rose continued in what Joe thought was meant to be a soothing tone. "Then your parents will never have to know that you were pregnant."

"But you're going to take my baby!"

"We are going to place your baby in a home with loving parents who can take care of her. You can't do that, Amy. You're fifteen years old, for crying out loud. You're still a baby yourself!"

Joe backed away from the vent and sat down on the cot.

It was Amy. He couldn't just break the window and run for it now. He had to get her out, too.