J.M.J.
A/N: Thank you for continuing to read this story! Thank you especially to BMSH, Candylou, max2013, Cherylann Rivers, angelicalkiss, and EvergreenDreamweaver for your reviews on the last chapter!
Chapter XIV
Joe wasn't sure whether he was going to have a panic attack or if he was simply going to be sick. For a horrible moment he felt like he'd been backed into a corner with no way out. Then, all at once, his fighting spirit came to him and flared up in a rage. He clenched his fists and slid over to the driver's seat. The key was in the ignition.
"What are you doing?" Ned asked, in shock at the picture himself.
"I'm going to kill them," Joe said through gritted teeth as he switched the engine on. "Give me the map."
"Joe, wait," Ned protested. "You can't do that. We'll talk to your dad and Mr. Drew and Mr. Radley and –"
"Ned," Joe interrupted him in a tone of voice Ned had never heard him use before. "Didn't you see the picture? It's no use. They're going to get us all, sooner or later. It might as well be sooner if it means I can beat the crap out of Terry first." He grabbed the map out of Ned's hands, ripping a corner off it in his impatience. "Stay behind if you want."
Ned jumped into the passenger seat as Joe put the car in gear and sped down the street. At first, he only did because he realized he couldn't let Joe go by himself. Then the full import of the revelation of the picture sank in. Up until right this moment, it hadn't really registered. Of course, he was shocked by the picture, but for the first time, he really understood that it meant that these lunatics had killed one of his best friends. Not only that, but if they'd killed Frank, did they kill Nancy, too? He almost choked on an enraged sob.
Joe was driving well over the speed limit, and it took them only minutes before they reached the spot marked on the map. A little side road came off the highway there. It was unpaved and poorly maintained, and so even in his furious haste, Joe was forced to slow down at least a little, but even so the car shook violently.
"We need a plan," Ned said finally, starting to get a bit of a grip on himself.
"What for?" Joe asked. "I don't have anything to lose."
"Well, I do," Ned told him. "They've still got Nancy – I hope. We can't take any chances until we know for sure."
Joe swallowed hard. The last thing he wanted to do right now was to think sensibly, but Ned had a point. "What's your plan?"
Ned shook his head helplessly. "I don't know." He felt hot tears on his cheeks.
To his astonishment, Joe slowed the car to a stop and switched the engine off. He rested his arm on the steering wheel and leaned his forehead against it as he began to cry. There was an empty place where his heart ought to have been. He still wanted nothing more than to make Terry pay for what he'd done – but then no one could ever pay for all of this.
Ned was feeling much the same, although he was still fighting to hold onto a hope that he could still rescue Nancy. It helped, but there was still a sickening fear for Nancy and a despairing grief for Frank contending for supremacy. He had to just focus on that one glimmer of hope. He needed to think of something, make a plan. If Nancy was somewhere around here, he couldn't afford the time to have a break down. Clearly, Joe wasn't in any frame of mind to think this through. It was all on Ned.
They were obviously walking right into a trap. Or driving into one, rather. Maybe walking would be a better plan. There was heavy forest on either side of the road, and if he and Joe walked the rest of the way, maybe they would go unnoticed. They'd certainly have a better chance of being unnoticed doing that than driving up with the noise of an engine and the glare of headlights. They could scope out the situation and maybe even get the upper hand.
"Joe?" he said gently. "Joe? If we want to rescue Nancy or get revenge on them, either one, we've got to outsmart them. Maybe if we go on foot, we can at least see what's going on."
Joe's whole frame was still shaking with sobs, and he couldn't answer. Every encounter he'd ever had with Terry was playing out in his head. Terry taunting and sneering at Joe before he shot him in the arm; Terry shooting Iola from behind in the dark; that still picture of Terry and another thug standing over Frank's lifeless body. There had surely never been such a despicable human being. Joe didn't even know what Terry had against him and his family. At least Evangeline and Dan's motives made sense. All of that had been rampaging about in Joe's mind since he had seen the picture. Yet slowly but surely, another feeling was supplanting it. He thought of all the adventures he and Frank had had, all the times they'd had each other's back, all the cases they'd worked on together. The thought that Frank was gone filled him with an unspeakable grief. The grief and the anger contended with one another, and Joe thought they would tear him apart.
"Come on, Joe," Ned said. "We've got to rescue Nancy if we can. It's what Frank would want."
HBNDHBND
"Unfortunately, this seals it." Sam threw his jacket onto a chair in disgust. "We must be in the right place. I've never seen such a mess. First, Frank and Nancy, now Joe and Ned. What were they thinking?"
After Fenton had received the text from Joe mysteriously telling him to check out a certain car, Fenton had called Police Chief Collig in Bayport to look it up for him. When the answer came back that the car was registered to Evangeline Moriare and the boys had still not returned nor would they answer calls or texts, the four men had gotten very concerned and went looking for them. They had searched every street of the small town – which wasn't hard – but they hadn't found a trace of Joe or Ned.
"They must have found some clue they're running down," Carson said wearily, not wanting to accept the possibility that seemed most obvious to all of them right now.
Jack Wayne was blunter about it. "Or these fruitcakes have them, too, now."
"I think it's time the FBI get involved here." Sam took out his phone and started dialing the number. "The local police, too. Like I said, this pretty much clinches it. What we need to do is find them before the Moriare bunch can move them again."
"We're not going to just sit here and let the FBI and the cops take over, are we?" Jack asked.
Fenton had been sitting in the corner on one of the hard and uncomfortable armchairs, resting his head in his hands. At Jack's question, he looked up. "No. Joe keeps the GPS in his phone disabled in case anyone would hack into it, but does Ned?"
"I don't know," Carson said, "but I'll bet George could find out."
He found the number in his phone quickly and placed the call. Even though it was late in River Heights, which was an hour ahead of where they were, George answered immediately.
"Hi, Mr. Drew. Any news on Nancy and Frank?"
"We think we're in the right place," Carson told her. "That's all pretty much all we know. I was calling to ask if you could do me a favor, George."
"Anything," she replied.
"Ned and Joe went to run down a clue, and we can't find them now," Carson said. "Do you think you could track Ned's phone like you did with Nancy's?"
"Sure thing," George told him. "It shouldn't even take as long this time since I know what I'm doing now. I'll call you back in a minute."
HBNDHBND
The night dragged by painfully slowly. Clarissa snored contentedly for hours, but Frank and Nancy at best only dozed off. They were too cold, too uncomfortable, too watchful, and too preoccupied to do any more than that. In amongst all the other thoughts going around in her head, Nancy couldn't get her mind off what Terry had said about her mother. After seventeen years – nearly her entire life – Nancy had long since come to terms with her mother's death. She still would become sad and quiet at times, wishing her mother was there or that she had at least had a chance to get to know her, but the pain was only ever a dull ache before. Now it felt as if someone had cut that wound open anew. Nancy thought of Evangeline standing in front of her in the doorway, and she wished she would have knocked her senseless with the aluminum cot leg that she had brought to use as a make-shift club.
Frank's thoughts dwelt on that encounter, too. At least, they did when he could make himself focus on anything. He was having a hard time keeping from shivering uncontrollably, and his skin felt warm to his own touch. He must have been running a low fever. That wouldn't help anything. If it got any worse, it would force Nancy to take complete charge, and she'd have to try to get them to safety, help Frank along, and keep an eye on Clarissa all at once. But it was weird that Evangeline had just let them go like that. Terry and Will hadn't chased them either. There was something wrong with this.
"Nancy?" Frank said finally. "Are you awake?"
"Yeah," Nancy replied.
"What's their game? Why did Evangeline let us go?" Frank asked. "What we were talking about earlier doesn't make much sense, that they wanted us to escape. What could they want?"
"I don't know. I've been thinking about that, too." Nancy crossed her arms in front of her, as much to try to keep warm as to try to think. "Of course, Clarissa wouldn't have come on purpose if they just wanted us to die out here. By the time she led us far enough away that we couldn't get back, she wouldn't be able to get back either. Maybe there'd be a secret place she would go to that we don't know about, but nothing would stop us from just following her."
"You know, it's kind of pointless to just sit here, freezing and pretending to be asleep," Frank said. "Let's just keep going."
"Frank, I'm surprised." Nancy turned around to look at him. As she did, Clarissa, who was leaning against both her and Frank, lost her balance and fell backward, which woke her up, if she had ever been asleep. "We'll never be able to keep our bearings in the dark. If we're not hopelessly lost already, we would be before morning."
"Hopelessly lost?" Clarissa repeated. "What are you two talking about?"
"Yeah, you're right, Nancy," Frank said. "I guess I'm too tired to think."
Nancy frowned. She wasn't entirely convinced that it was a case of merely being tired. Frank had taken a beating not very many hours earlier. He seemed to be all right, but what if he wasn't? They needed to get out of these woods and to civilization of some kind. As soon as it was dawn, they'd head out.
From somewhere in the distance, an animal howled. Clarissa gasped and shrank back between her two companions.
"Was – was it a coyote?" she asked stammering a little.
"I'd say it was probably a wolf," Nancy replied. "Coyotes' howls don't really sound anything like that."
"A wolf?" Clarissa quavered. "There are wolves out here?"
"Not very many," Nancy said, "but there are a few."
"That's it." Clarissa leaped to her feet. "I don't care what they'll do to me. I'm going back. I'm not staying out here to get eaten by wolves." She bolted off into the woods.
"They're not going to eat you!" Frank shouted after her, while Nancy also shouted, "You're safer here with us than by yourself."
Clarissa ignored them and continued running. Frank and Nancy looked after her in dumbfounded dismay for a moment. Then Nancy remembered her suspicions of Clarissa. She scrambled to her feet and held a hand out toward Frank to help him.
"Come on. We've got to follow her. She might lead us out of here," she explained.
They followed as well as they could, but Frank was stiff from his injuries and the long run into the woods and then sitting still in the cold for several hours. Their progress was much slower than Clarissa's. Fortunately, Clarissa didn't make any effort to be quiet, and they were able to follow the sound of her crashing through the woods.
It was almost completely dark by now. The terrain in the mountains was uneven and frequently became steep without warning. Trees would loom up out of the darkness in front of them all of a sudden and have to be dodged around. There were large rocks, tree roots, and low shrubs everywhere that had to be avoided.
Nancy and Frank were doing their best to get around these obstacles, but the crashing and rustling sounds of Clarissa's flight were getting farther and farther away from them. Nancy sped up for a few paces. All at once, a small ravine opened in front of her. She tried to stop, but she lost her balance and, with a startled cry, tumbled into it.