J.M.J.

Author's note: Thanks for continuing to read and for the reviews from Candylou, max2013, DusktoDawn21, angelicalkiss, and Bkworm4life4! It really means a lot to me. Whew! This has been an awful and also very, very busy week. As a result, I have not been getting much (as in any) writing done. Fortunately, I had written this chapter last week or I wouldn't have anything to post today at all. In light of that, I think it's only fair to warn you that life for me gets much busier in late May through early September, so I really don't think I'm going to be able to do any more Tuesday chapters for the duration of this story. We're close-ish to the end of this story. I can't say for sure how many more chapters. Anyhow, I will do my best to get out at least one chapter a week until it's done. Enjoy!

Chapter XVII

An Overdue Conversation

Laura woke up early the next morning. She had had a hard time getting to sleep after the excitement and worries of the day before. It didn't help that when Fenton had gotten home late that night, they had had to go over the whole thing again. Now, when she woke up, the first thing she realized was that Fenton was up already and the second thing was that it was only a quarter after five in the morning.

There wasn't much point in continuing to drowse there, nightmares jolting her awake again whenever she did manage to doze off, so she got up and went to look for Fenton. She found him in the living room, working at his laptop.

He glanced up when she entered the room. "Morning. What are you doing up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep, and anyway, I ask you the same question," Laura replied, sitting down next to him. "What are you working on?"

"I had an idea yesterday," Fenton said. "Well, at least, I remembered an idea one of the boys' friends had that they told me about. I thought I might as well check it out."

Laura looked at the computer screen which had two pictures off to one side, both of men in their early or mid-twenties. One had Asian features and the other appeared to be Middle Eastern. On the other side of the screen, Fenton had a window open with dozens of pictures of young men in the same age group. Laura recognized that window: it was a database of aged-up pictures of missing children who had never been found.

"Who are they?" Laura pointed to the two pictures that Fenton was apparently comparing to the others.

"You remember fourteen years ago, how this all started?" Fenton asked.

"The mob shooting," Laura replied. "I'm not likely to forget. It was between Alessandro Moretti's guys and Gregorio Moretti's."

"Yeah, more or less. Gregorio's guys were apparently really Black Rose. Three of them were killed, and we only ever identified one. These are the other two. One of the boys' friends suggested that maybe the point of the whole School of Thought thing was to get recruits. They get kids to join the cult, they brainwash them, and then they use them to carry out their schemes. It got me to thinking about these two. What if the reason we couldn't identify them was because they had joined up with Black Rose as teenagers or maybe even younger and ever since then had been kept completely apart from society? There would be no record of them as adults, nothing to identify them by."

"That's quite the idea," Laura said. "Which one of the boys' friends thought of that?"

"Well, I was the one to think to connect it to these two, but I think Callie was the one who came up with the original idea."

Laura smiled. "That Callie's a smart girl. I wonder if either of the boys will ever realize that."

"That's a little off-topic," Fenton protested good-naturedly. "I think the boys can find dates by themselves."

"I know that," Laura said. "I was a teenager once, too, you know. I remember one boy whom I was determined not to date because my mother was pushing me so hard to date him."

"Oh, really?" Fenton asked, raising one eyebrow. "Aren't you glad you didn't take your mother's advice?"

Laura grinned as she cuddled closer to her husband. "As a matter of fact, I did take her advice in the end, even though one of the main things I had against this guy was his funny name, Fenton."

It only took Fenton a moment to connect the dots. "Hold on. You never told me any of this before. You really think I've got a funny name?"

Laura's grin took on an even more mischievous character. "A girl's got a right to change her mind, doesn't she?"

"That's no kind of answer," Fenton replied, but he was clearly teasing. "I'm thinking you owe me one for this."

"Oh, what do you have in mind?" Laura asked.

Before Fenton could answer that, there was an alert from the computer, and they were both reminded of more sober affairs. They both looked and saw that the computer program had come up with a potential match between one of the Black Rose members and one of the aged-up lost children. It appeared the Asian-American man might very well be a boy who had gone missing in 1988 named Lucas Chang. Fenton clicked on the information about Lucas, and they read that he had gone missing shortly before his fifteenth birthday, after he had been showing interest in a particular group that showed some of the indications of a cult.

"It looks like Callie might have been right," Laura observed.

Fenton nodded slowly as the computer continued to run a search for the other picture. "I'll forward this information to the authorities so they can notify the families. Also, I think I'll show this to Lisa Prito. It might help her realize the truth. As for putting a stop to all of this, it doesn't take us too far in that direction."

"It's something, though," Laura comforted him.

HBHBHBHBHB

Being Sunday morning, the Hardys went to church a little later on. It was the same church that the Mortons attended, and afterward, Joe and Iola managed to slip around the corner of the church out of sight of the rest of the congregation, many of whom were standing around to catch up with each other from the week before.

"Did you learn anything from the picture of that key I sent you?" Iola asked first of all. It wasn't really the foremost thing on her mind, but it seemed a better way of opening the conversation than bluntly putting all her cards on the table.

"Not yet," Joe replied. "I sent it on to Dad. He's running it down."

"You really got shot at yesterday?" Iola asked, a slight tremble in her voice at the thought.

"I don't think they were shooting at me specifically," Joe insisted. "Still, it was exciting."

"I'm glad they missed, anyway," Iola said.

"Yeah, me too." Joe cleared his throat. "Look, Iola, I know things been kind of weird between us for the last week and I…Sorry about it all."

Iola paused, trying to gauge exactly what Joe was getting at, but she couldn't decide. She was only dreaming that he liked her in the same way she liked him. That had to be it. Now, if she could only continue to save face through all of this. "Oh, no. I was way overreacting. It's just…Well, you know. Sometimes somebody says something and it just hits you totally wrong. I don't know why I'd get so upset about something like that."

At the same time, Joe was trying to read Iola. He'd been fairly confident that there was some hope in all of this, but now he wasn't so sure. At the very least, Iola was trying to act like none of this was a big deal. Now Joe was probably going to come off as a total idiot and make things even worse, but somebody was just going to have to actually say what they were thinking. "Look, Iola, I don't want to make things more awkward, if that's even possible at this point. But since the cat's out of the bag, anyway…That wasn't the best way to say it. What I should have said is that it's long past when I should have started being honest, and the last week has shown me that I would have saved us all a lot trouble if I wouldn't have been such a chicken. You see, Iola, you're amazing. You're brave and smart and kind and…What I'm doing a really terrible job of leading up to is, would you like to go on a date sometime?"

Iola blinked. "Ye…yes. Of course. I'd love to. I've wanted to since…I don't know even know how long."

Joe grinned both out of relief and delight. "Really? If we both felt that way, why didn't we say something sooner?"

"I don't know." Iola paused. "Actually, I do know, for me, at least. I was too scared to be the first one to say something. I mean, if I said something and you didn't feel the same way, it would have made things so awkward, we might not have even been friends anymore that. I couldn't risk that."

Joe reached forward and brushed a lock of dark hair from her forehead. "I guess I felt the same way, but there really isn't any chance of that happening, for my part anyway."

"Mine, either," Iola agreed.

They had unconsciously stepped closer to one another. Joe began to lean forward, and Iola felt her heart almost stop with anticipation. But before they could kiss, a voice said from behind them, "Hey, Joe." They both jumped back from one another, with Joe awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck and Iola locking her eyes on the ground.

The unexpected intruder was Frank, who just now seemed to realize what he had interrupted. He cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Um, so, Joe, we've got to be going. Dad wants to stop over at the Pritos' to talk to Lisa."

"Yeah, right." Joe continued rubbing the back of his neck. "I almost forgot about that." He looked back up at Iola. "I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay," Iola agreed. "Bye. See you later, Frank."

"Yeah, you too," Frank replied. He hurried away, and Joe reluctantly followed him.

They both reached the car before their parents and Aunt Gertrude did. As soon as they had crawled inside, Frank closed the door and let out a long breath.

"That was embarrassing," he said.

Joe scoffed. "You think you were embarrassed."

Frank scratched his head. "Look, it's none of my business, really. Let's just drop it."

"Good idea," Joe agreed. He desperately tried to think of something else to say, but nothing came to mind. Despite the moment being thoroughly squashed, he was still elated. He had been horribly afraid that this conversation would end badly, and he hadn't realized until now just how much the dread of it had been weighing him down. Now, if only his dad would agree to let him and Frank help on the case again, everything would be perfect.

Before the subject could be changed at all, the rest of the Hardy family reached the car and got inside. After talking it over, they had decided that it might be best if they all went to pay the call to the Pritos, and so they drove straight to the Pritos' house. Tony's family had already gotten home from church more than a half hour before the Hardys arrived. Teresa Prito answered the door immediately.

"I'm so glad you're here," she greeted them. "I hope you can help Lisa. We've tried everything we can think of, but she still has barely talked to us for the past week."

"We can't make any promises," Fenton told her, "but I do have some new information that might make an impression on her. Maybe you boys should go upstairs or outside with Tony and his other sisters."

"But, Dad…" Joe began to protest, but Frank signaled for him to come along.

The group decided on outside instead of upstairs, and a few minutes later, Frank and Joe were sitting on the Pritos' lawn with Tony, Maria, and Katherine. Joe plucked a blade of grass in annoyance.

"I was really hoping Dad would let us get back on the case now," he grumbled.

"Yeah, well, I don't think that's going to happen at all now," Frank said. "Anyway, how's things going for you guys?"

Tony shrugged. "Same as it was, I guess. Only worse, because I'm pretty sure Lisa hates all our guts now, especially mine."

"I wish she'd just cut it out," Katherine complained. "Why can't she see those weirdos aren't any good?"

"It's my theory that she does see it by now and she just doesn't want to admit that she's wrong," Tony said.

Maria tilted her head to one side. "I'm not so sure. We don't know how long she's been listening to those people. It will take a long time to convince her they're wrong. Besides that, they had her convinced that we're all terrible people who will lie to get what we want. How can we get through to her that it's actually the other way around?"

"You'd think having known us for all her life would count for something," Katherine grumbled.

"I'm sick of talking about the whole thing," Tony said. "We just keep saying the same things and we never really get anywhere. What about you guys? Don't you know anything new at all?"

"Dad's been keeping us pretty well in the dark," Joe said. "The only thing we know for sure is that him and Sam are working on different theories. Dad still thinks it's Black Rose that's out to get him and Sam's pretty sure it's this Evangeline Moretti person. But maybe it's neither."

"Or maybe it's both," Frank spoke up. "I've been thinking about it—that's all I can do at the moment—and that seems like it makes the most sense. If only you could have caught that guy in the car yesterday."

"Hey, I was dodging a bullet, literally," Joe protested. "It's not like there was really anything I could do."

"Yeah, I know," Frank admitted.

"Although," Joe added thoughtfully, "that wasn't the only mysterious guy in a car yesterday. There was the one that was following Sally, and had Oscar Smuff tailing him in turn. I've still got the picture of the broken key that Iola took. There could be a clue there."

"Not to mention that we should talk to Smuff and see what got him following that guy in the first place," Frank said. "It looks like for once he might have been on the trail of an actual criminal. I wonder what tipped him off."

"You guys do realize that Smuff isn't going to tell you anything, right?" Tony pointed out. "He won't want you solving the case for him, unless he thinks that he can still take all the credit."

"This time, he might have a little credit owed him," Frank insisted. "The only problem is that we're not supposed to be investigating."

"There might be a loophole to that," Joe said. "Technically, the only thing we know that guy was doing was following Sally around. We don't have any proof that he's connected with anything else that's going on."

Frank rolled his eyes. "Dad's not going to go for that argument."

"What about the key?" Maria asked. "Could we look at the picture? That's not investigating, is it?"

"Not technically," Joe agreed. He pulled up the picture on his phone and showed it to the Prito siblings, who studied both the broken key and the rubber keychain with the word "Harper's" on it.

"It looks like some kind of locker key," Tony said. "A cheap one that would break off in a lock."

"Could be." Frank looked at the picture again himself. "I wonder if the rest of the key is still in the lock. There aren't that many places around town with lockers that use real keys…but that's still investigating, so it doesn't do us any good."

"I guess we could mention it to Dad," Joe commented, resting his chin in his hand.

"Wait a second!" Katherine said. "I recognize that keychain. I think I know where the key goes. Come on!"

She rushed into the house. The older teenagers looked at one another in confusion before they followed her. She led them up the stairs to Lisa's room and began rummaging in the top drawer of Lisa's dresser."

"Uh, what are you doing?" Tony asked.

"I know Lisa had a keychain like that," Katherine said. "She got it at a parade that Harper's Restaurant had a float in and they were throwing these keychains."

"I'm sure a lot of people picked some up the same day," Maria pointed out.

"Yeah, but most of them aren't involved in the mystery. Besides that…Ah-hah!" The last word was said as Katherine pulled a jewelry box out of Lisa's drawer. It was a cheap one with a lock. "Like I was going to say, that key looks a lot like the key to Lisa's jewelry box. I bet the answer to the whole mystery is inside here."

The others looked at one another skeptically. It seemed like quite the stretch. Then Frank held out his hand.

"Okay. It doesn't hurt to look, I guess. First, let's see if the key's been broken and is stuck in the lock." Katherine handed the box to Frank, who shone the flashlight from his phone into it. To his surprise, it looked like there was an obstruction in it, which he told the others. "It's hard to tell for sure, of course, but Katherine might be onto something."

Katherine grinned broadly.

"Can we open it without breaking it?" Joe asked. "Maybe we could take the hinges off."

Frank turned the box around. It was made so that the hinges for the lid were on the inside. "No chance there. Before we go poking around too much, why don't we go straight to Lisa?"

"Because she'll bite our heads off," Katherine told him.

"If we're wrong, we really don't have any business looking in here," Frank pointed out. "Lisa can tell us whether we're wrong or not without opening the box. All she has to do is prove she still has the key."

Although Tony and Maria shared Katherine's apprehensions about Lisa's probable reaction to the question, they all agreed that asking her was probably for the best. They took the box downstairs and waited at the door to the living room for a few moments. No one seemed to be talking, so they cautiously opened the door. Lisa was sitting stonily on the couch while the adults seemed frustrated.

"What is it, kids?" Dominic Prito asked when he saw the group at the door.

"Uh, we just wanted to ask Lisa a question," Tony said, gesturing toward the jewel box that Frank was still holding.

Lisa noticed it at once and this, at last, elicited a response from her. She jumped to her feet. "How dare you bother my things! Give that back to me!"

"Calm down, Lisa," Dominic told her, while at the same time Fenton asked, "What is that, Frank?"

"It's Lisa's jewel box," Frank admitted. "We think there might be a clue inside it."

"Well, there isn't," Lisa told him, failing to take her father's advice.

"You can prove that," Frank told her. "Do you have the key?"

"Of course, I have the key," Lisa insisted. "It's my box."

"Can you show us?" Frank asked.

Lisa folded her arms. "It's in my room. I'd have to go get it. Am I allowed to leave the room?"

Dominic sighed. "Go ahead."

Lisa brushed past Frank and ran up the stairs. Everyone else waited for her, but after nearly fifteen minutes passed and she didn't come back.

"It's taking her an awfully long time," Tony observed.

"I'm going to go see what's keeping her," Teresa said.

She dashed up the stairs herself, and everyone followed. Teresa swung open the door to Lisa's room. It was empty. Lisa was gone.