"He lied to me," Frank said, going into his father's office.
"Who did?" Vanessa asked.
"Dad," Frank replied, opening up the file cabinet where McCormick's file should be. "The file he gave me had nothing in it about...about," he couldn't say it. Just thinking about it brought a picture of Joe to mind, his face contorted in pain as a butcher knife sliced off one of his fingers. Frank shook his head, trying to erase the image. He searched through the files until he found an unlabeled one. Pulling it out he looked inside. There were the missing parts of McCormick's file. Frank sat down at his father's desk and began reading. Vanessa sat quietly in a chair in front of the desk.
Frank had almost finished when the phone rang. He looked up as Vanessa picked up the receiver. "Hardy Investigations," she answered.
"Who is this?" Fenton asked, not immediately recognizing the voice.
"I'm Vanessa," she replied, smiling. "Hold on Mr. Hardy," she added, hearing the beep for call waiting. "Hardy Investigations," she answered.
"Put Hardy on the phone," snarled a voice.
Vanessa fipped on the speaker phone for Frank to hear. "Hello," Frank said, as Vanessa set the conversation to record.
"Where's Hardy?" the voice demanded.
"My father isn't here," Frank replied.
"Trying to find your brother, no doubt," the voice stated with a sardonic laugh.
"Why are you doing this McCormick?" Frank demanded, trying to stay calm.
"My father is dead because of your old man," McCormick replied calmly. "It's only fitting I take away his son."
"Then take me and let Joe go," Frank offered.
"Thanks for the offer," McCormick replied with another laugh. "But I've put far too much effort into torturing your brother to trade out now," he added. "Tell your old man I called. I just wanted him to know his baby boy isn't feeling so good."
"You're doing to him what you did to your other victims," Frank said dully.
"Oh, no," McCormick hastily assured Frank. "I'm having much more fun with Joe," he added, before hanging up.
Vanessa stopped the recording with a shaky hand and took the phone off the speaker. She handed the receiver to Frank, then ran from the room.
"Dad," Frank said into the receiver. "McCormick just called." He told his dad about the conversation.
"The address was a bust," Fenton replied thickly. Frank knew his father was having a hard time controlling his emotions. "I'm on my way home," he added. Frank told him about the knife and Tony McCormick then hung up. It wasn't worth the effort to yell at him about holding back on McCormick.
Frank put his elbow on the desk and tiredly buried his face in his hands. He didn't stay that way long because the phone rang again. It was Sergeant Riley.
"What's up, Con?" Frank asked.
"Chief Collig wants you down at headquarters now," he told Frank. "We got the guy responsible for messing with Joe's file. And this one's still alive," he added with a bit of sarcasm.
Frank told a pasty colored Vanessa where he was going and left for the police station. On his arrival he was sent to the interrogation room. Inside he checked out the prisoner. He was barely twenty-two years old with blond hair and green eyes. He was tall, about seven feet and easily weighed three hundred pounds, but the most noticable thing about him was that he was terrified.
"His name is Ralph Langford," Chief Collig told Frank, coming over to meet him. "He deleted Dr. Freemont's name on Joe's file and put in Wagner's."
Frank walked over and looked Langford in the face. He stared at him for several minutes trying to control the intense hate he felt for the man. "Why did you help McCormick?" Frank asked, deceptively calm.
"Langford swallowed. He didn't know if he should be more afraid of McCormick or of the young man before him. "I didn't have a choice," he finally replied, his eyes falling away from Frank and resting on the floor.
"What do you mean?" Frank demanded.
"McCormick said he'd kill me if I didn't," Langford stated.
"And you believed him?" Collig asked.
"Of course I did," Langford admitted. He looked up at Frank with sheer terror in his eyes. "He just had made me watch him kill Jim Cornett."
