Hundreds of miles away in Chicago, Illinois, Nancy Drew slept peacefully next to her husband, Frank Hardy. She was sleeping soundly without a care in the world. They had been happily married now for almost eight months. They lived in a modest, one-story home on a quiet neighborhood right out of the city limits.

Nancy let out a loud groan as the phone started to ring at ten that morning.

"Just let it ring." Frank said beside her.

"It may be work." Nancy said softly.

"Let the machine pick it up." Frank said.

"I can't." Nancy said.

"We're supposed to be on vacation, Nan." Frank said.

Nancy reached for the phone on the bedside table. "Hello."

"Nan..." Joe Hardy's voice sounded from the other end.

"It's your brother." Nancy said to Frank. "What's up, Joe?"

"I'm kind of in a jam." Joe said. "Is Frank there?"

"Yeah. He's right here beside me." Nancy said. "Do you wanna talk to him?"

"No. I'd rather talk to you." Joe said.

"So, what kind of jam are you in?" Nancy asked.

"I'd rather tell you when you get here." Joe said. "Can you be on the next flight to Las Vegas?"

"What?" Nancy asked.

"Just please get here." Joe said. "I'm in jail. I don't want Frank here, Nan. I just want to talk to you right now."

"What?" Nancy asked again.

"I have to go." Joe said. "They're telling me my time's up."

"But, Joe–" Nancy said.

"Just get here, please. And you might want to call your dad" Joe said and hung up before she could say anything else.

Nancy hung up the phone and turned to Frank.

"What did he want?" Frank asked, with his eyes still closed.

"Your brother's in Las Vegas." Nancy said.

"What's he doing there?" Frank asked.

"Apparently getting himself thrown in jail." Nancy said.

Frank's eyes popped open and he looked at Nancy.

"He wants us on the next flight to Vegas." Nancy said. "But he said that he'll only talk to me, Frank."

"That's crazy!" Frank said, throwing the covers off of himself.

"Frank, we need to do it his way. It has to be pretty bad if he's not willing to talk to you about it first. Maybe he thinks that you'll judge him." Nancy said.

"I wouldn't judge him, Nan." Frank said. "He may not think things through clearly before he actually does them, but I will always be there for him."

"I know you will, Frank. But let's do this his way." Nancy said. "Now, see if you can book us a flight for as soon as possible and I'll see if I can get a hold of my dad."

Frank looked as if he wanted to say something more, but instead he just reached for the phone and put in a call to the airlines. Nancy went into the next room and called her father, Carson Drew, a prominent criminal attorney, from her cell phone. She quickly told him everything that Joe had told her and when she finished, Carson let out a long sigh.

"He's not really giving you much information." Carson said to his daughter.

"I know, Dad. But he really didn't have time to tell me everything over the phone." Nancy said. "He's going to tell me everything once we get to the station. Just tell me that you can be there."

"Of course I will, honey." He said.

Nancy let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Dad."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Carson said and hung up.

She put down her phone and pushed her hair out of her face. Joe had better have a very good reason for having Frank and I put our vacation plans on hold.

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The eight-by-ten cell in which Joe Hardy was being held, was confining to him. Sure, he had been held in small spaces before, but he always managed to get out of them before they drove him crazy. Now he wasn't so sure that he would get out of this one. The police said they a substantial amount of evidence against him and it didn't look good for him. He just wished that he could remember what exactly happened last night.

He had read in books where sometimes people who committed murders had blackout periods–a period of time that was blocked from memory, usually around the time the murder was committed. He wondered if this is what was happening to him. But he shook his head. He just couldn't believe that he was capable of doing something like this.

At least, this is what he kept telling himself.

Joe just wished now that he never would have left the comforts of Bayport, New York. He had a wonderful life up there, and it was now being held in this cell for murder, that he realized this. He should have just stay there and just faced his problems head-on. Instead, he just took the chicken way out and ran, thinking that it would somehow make things better. He closed his eyes, remembering had led to him running away. It was Vanessa, he thought sadly.

Ever since Frank and Nancy had gotten married, Vanessa had been acting differently. She would just look at him with a starry gaze in her eyes. He even caught her a few times looking through bridal magazines. When he would catch her, she would just look at him embarrassed saying Nancy must have left it. But he finally figured out why. Actually, he didn't figure it out for himself; Vanessa had asked point-blank when they were going to get married.

And for the first time in his life, Joe Hardy was scared–make that terrified. He had been up against some pretty ruthless criminals and he realized that he had never been scared of them the way he had when Vanessa mentioned the word "marriage". And that really surprised him because he wasn't afraid of commitment; he had been with Vanessa for a while now. It was just the idea of marriage that scared him.

So, Joe did the only thing–unreasonable thing–he could think of, and ran away from it all. He knew that it was wrong, even more so because he hadn't called Vanessa to let her know where he was. And what was really bad was that he couldn't even talk to his brother. Well, he could have, but Frank had a life with Nancy now and he didn't want to be a burden to them.

You mean like you are now, Joe thought bitterly.

He knew they had been waiting a long time for a vacation. In fact, it was supposed to be their honeymoon they hadn't taken yet. And here he was sitting in a jail cell, making them prolong their plans, yet again, just to get him out of the mess he had somehow gotten himself into.

Joe sat up on the cot and swung his legs over the side. He put his face in his hands and let out a long sigh. He just wished that this could be a nightmare that he could wake up from.

"Hey, Hardy!" an officer said, coming up to his door. He pulled a ring of keys from his belt and unlocked the door to Joe's cell. "You have a visitor."

He opened the door and escorted Joe to the visitor's room. There, he saw Nancy at the small table in the middle of the room, her hands resting on the table in front of her.

The officer closed the door to the room and locked it. Joe walked up to Nancy and enveloped her in a big hug. "Thank you so much, Nan." he said.

"You know that I would do anything for you, Joe." Nancy said. "But I should start off by saying that you hurt Frank."

"What do you mean?" Joe asked as he sat down across the table from Nancy.

"He's hurt by the fact that you didn't want to talk to him first." Nancy said.

"I wasn't trying to hurt him, Nan. I just can't handle the disappointment that I'll see in his eyes. It would kill me." Joe said.

"I understand." Nancy said. "So, how about you tell me why you're here? I know it's not for the food."

Joe gave her a small smile. "They think I murdered a woman last night."

Nancy stared at him with her mouth agape. "Please tell me that this is a joke."

"I wish to God that it was." Joe said.

"What happened?" Nancy asked.

"Well, that's the problem. I don't remember anything from last night." Joe said.

"Then I'm confused." Nancy said.

"When I woke up this morning, there was a dead woman in my bed. She was covered in blood and there was blood all over my hands. There was also a knife with my fingerprints all over it beside my bed." Joe explained.

Nancy's brows burrowed in thought. "And you have no recollection of this at all?"

"None whatsoever." Joe said.

"What is the last thing that you remember?" Nancy asked.

"I was at the Saraphina Casino, playing the slots." Joe said.

"You were gambling?" Nancy asked in disbelief.

"I'm in Vegas, Nancy. What else am I going to do?" Joe asked.

"I'm sorry. That was a stupid thing for me to say." Nancy said

"It's okay." Joe said, softly.

"Look, I better go talk to Frank. I called my dad and he's on his way here. We'll get you out of this mess, Joe." Nancy said.

"Thanks, Nancy." Joe said. He looked as if we wanted to say something else.

"What is it, Joe?" Nancy asked.

"I can't help but wonder, what if I am guilty?" Joe asked.

"That's crazy, Joe. You're not capable of something like this." Nancy said.

"Is it crazy?" Joe asked. "I know it doesn't look good for me, Nancy."

Nancy just looked at him, not knowing how to answer that.

"What if I'm a murderer, Nancy?" Joe asked.

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Author's Note: Well, I am so glad that you enjoyed the first chapter. It's nice to know that so many enjoy my writing. It really helps me to keep going. I hope that you like this one as well. As always, please review! I will try to update again soon.