Joe wanted to protest he wasn't hungry but a growl from his mid-section betrayed him. Joe went over and sat down on the bed. She handed him a plate and a fork. "I already cut it for you," she said. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can trust you with a knife."
"What would I do with it?" demanded Joe. "Even if I went after you, I would still be trapped here. You left the keys over there."
"True," she agreed. "But with you, there is no telling what you could come up with. I get the feeling you are better at getting out of scrapes than MacGyver."
"Angelic, please, can't you understand? I just don't love you," entreated Joe.
"I know," she replied. "And that is why I brought you here. You will grow to love me without anyone else around."
"Even if you have turned Frank and my friends against me, my parents will look for me," he tried to reason with her.
"But they are gone and won't be back for several more days," she said. "By then, I will have thought of something to keep them from worrying about you."
Joe paled at this, but kept pushing. "My aunt is due in Saturday night," he informed her. "She'll call the police."
"No, she isn't," Angelic denied. "When I stopped by your house last night to see Biff, the phone rang as Frank was going to get Biff. It was your aunt. Her friend had an accident and broke her hip. She has to stay and take care of her."
Joe put a bite of steak in his mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. If Frank didn't worry about him, and if he honestly believed he had been trying to steal Callie, Frank wouldn't, then no one would know he was missing until his parents returned home. And if she arranged something so they wouldn't worry, maybe even faking his death...Joe shook his head and closed his eyes as he swallowed. There was no telling how long he would be a prisoner.
"Wow, I didn't think you would like it that much," Angelic beamed at him, interpreting Joe's movements as pleasure.
Joe opened his eyes and looked at her, all the hatred he felt for her festering in his eyes. "Don't be that way," she begged. "It won't be bad, honest. It won't be long before you do fall in love with me and then you won't want to leave."
Joe never responded. His appetite gone, he set his fork on his plate and set the plate on the bed. Getting up, he walked as far away from Angelic as his chains would allow and sat down on the cold, hard cement floor.
"Okay," Angelic said, calmly putting her own plate back on the tray. She set his plate beside hers and covered them both up. Getting up, she left the cage. After locking it, she left Joe alone for the night.
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"So Joe hasn't been doing any of the stuff we have been blaming him for?" Chet asked. "Not even the cheating?"
"Yeah, we heard him admit to cheating," Phil put in.
"He just said it because he was angry," Vanessa told them. "He told me that Jeanine had told him all about the battle before the test."
"Jeanine broke into Harmon's car and copied the answers?" Chet asked, his face reflecting the absurdity of the notion.
"She was the only one to make a hundred," Callie said. "But how did she know there would be a test?"
"Unless she has been lurking around here for awhile?" Vanessa put in.
"And in the classroom where I saw Joe making a pass at Jeanine?" demanded Biff. He had already begun to feel bad for beating on Joe and now he was feeling lower than pond scum.
"Are you sure it wasn't the other way around?" Frank asked, looking him in the eyes. "He could have been helping her and she leaned over and kissed him."
"But she ran away," Biff said.
"I know," Vanessa said. "I drove her home..er, to the house she was using. You know," she added thoughtfully, "all the way to her place she kept asking about Frank and Callie."
"What did she want to know?" Callie demanded.
"If you two fought any. If you ever fought because of Joe. If you had ever gone out with Joe. She even wanted to know if I didn't think you and Joe would make a cute couple." Vanessa scowled. "That's when I told her Joe was mine. She said she thought he was too much of a playboy to have just one girlfriend. I told her that although Joe liked to look, he would never touch."
"And then the next day we see them kissing," Callie said, frowning.
"Do you think Jeanine knows where Joe is?" Chet asked Frank.
"I'm sure of it," he replied.
"So how do we find her?" Chet inquired, ready to help out in any way he could.
"First, we start by checking her record at school," Frank said. "That should give us a starting point."
"I'll take care of that," Callie volunteered. She helped out in the office on occassion and her presence wouldn't be questioned.
"What can the rest of us do?" Phil wanted to know. He was usually the patient, reasoning voice of the group, but after having turned on Joe because of Jeanine, he was aching to get involved. Like his friends, he felt guilty over his actions of the past few days.
"Until we find out something about her, there isn't anything we can do," Frank said.
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The next morning Callie was in the principal's office almost an hour before school was scheduled to start. She knew this would be the ideal time for her to check Jeanine's file because the secretary didn't come in for another half an hour and the principal usually had a few things to do before the start of the school day.
Callie went over to the file cabinets and looked under D. She quickly located Jeanine's file and pulled it. Not trusting herself to memorize it, she walked to the other side of the room and made copies on the Xerox machine. She folded the copies and tucked them into her backpack then returned the folder to its proper place. Shutting the file cabinet drawer, she left as quietly as she had arrived.
When Frank arrived at school a little later, he found Callie and Phil sitting on the front steps pouring over the papers. "You look terrible," Callie observed as Frank dropped a kiss on her forehead before sitting down beside her.
"I didn't sleep very well," he confessed. "I kept thinking about how mean I was to Joe."
Callie put a hand on his arm. "You didn't know he was being set up," she tried to comfort him.
"But I should have," Frank argued. "I know Joe would never do any of those things we thought he was doing. And I know you would never cheat on me either," he added, looking even more miserable than he had when he first arrived. "If..when we find Joe, do you think he will ever be able to forgive me?"
"Of course he will," Phil told him. "He knows you aren't perfect, although you do try to be. He loves you."
Frank suddently noticed the papers they were holding. "Are those what I think they are?" he asked, perking up a bit.
Callie nodded and handed Frank the paper she held in her hand. "You aren't going to like it," she warned him.
Frank looked the paper over then glanced at Phil. Phil shook his head. "I've never heard of her previous school," he admitted. "But I can check it out when I get to a computer."
"At school?" Frank asked.
Phil nodded. "Just keep Mr. Roland occupied for a few minutes and it will be a snap."
"Her previous address is listed as 514 Porstmouth Drive, New York, New York," Frank read from the paper. "I'll call Sam and have him check it out."
"Sam?" Phil asked.
"Peterson," Frank answered. "He was dad's old partner on the force."
"Isn't he the chief of police?" Phil inquired.
Frank nodded. "If you would go with Joe and me to New York sometime we could introduce you," he added, swallowing. He prayed Joe would be around to go with them.
"There doesn't seem to be anything else we can use," Callie said.
"No," Frank agreed. "But at least it's a start." He glanced at his watch. "I'll go and call Sam now," he said, getting to his feet and running insdie to the lunchroom where there was a pay phone. Unfortunately, cell phones weren't allowed at school.
When Frank got through to Sam, he told him about Joe's disappearance and requested he check out the address. "I'm sorry, Frank," Sam said, his tone sending chills of dread down Frank's spine. "I can tell you right now, it's a fake. There is no Portsmouth in the city; drive, road, or lane."
