TAKING A CHANCE

CHAPTER TEN

"How Stupid Can They Get?"

"How stupid can they get?" Joe asked Nancy as he looked over the note again. "The one thing they could have done to ensure that we were definitely going to check out James Fleming was to do this. Don't they realize that?"

"Maybe it was your mysterious friend spurring us on," Nancy said as she looked at the broken window of her car. "One thing's for sure, we can't take this to St. Louis tomorrow. We'll either have to borrow or rent a car. I'll call my dad, maybe we can take his car."

"You think he'll let us?" Joe asked as he sat down on a parking barrier. "We need something to get us out there."

"It shouldn't be a problem," the red-haired girl said as she pulled out her cell phone. The first call was to the police to report the vandalism of her car. The second was to her father to ask permission to take his car to St. Louis. Nancy did some fast-talking to convince Carson Drew that going to St. Louis was important but, in the end, he agreed. Nancy sat down beside Joe to wait for the police and smiled at him.

"I think we should keep the note to ourselves," Nancy said. "I don't think we want to broadcast why we're looking for James Fleming, right?"

Joe nodded his agreement. "And I think we should be careful from here on out. Someone knows we're looking for Frank now and doesn't want us to find him. Something we've done has set them off – I don't know what but something. Whatever it is…"

"You don't have to tell me to be careful," Nancy smiled at her friend. "I'm the level-headed one here, remember?"

Joe cocked an eyebrow, indignantly, at the young woman. "Hey, I'm as level-headed as the next guy. Smooth, calm and thoughtful, three words to best describe Joe Hardy!"

"Sassy, rash and stubborn would be the words I'd use," Nancy laughed. "Nobody in their right mind would call Joe Hardy calm or thoughtful."

"Hey! I can think!" Joe protested.

"Right," Nancy agreed. "You can think but you don't always choose to do it."

A police car pulled up a few minutes later and took Nancy's statement. A tow truck also arrived to bring the car to a garage where the glass would be replaced in the window while Nancy and Joe were out of town. The police officer that took Nancy's statement drove them back to the Drew home.

Papers in hand, suitcases packed and loaded, Joe and Nancy left early the next morning to drive to St. Louis, Missouri. As Nancy drove, Joe spent most of the trip gazing out of the window, his heart in his throat.

What will we find there? Is it really Frank? Will he remember me?

It was all Joe could do to sit still and not beg Nancy to drive faster, to get them to St. Louis even sooner. The pain of losing Frank never lessened, though. Whether James Fleming did prove to be Frank or not, that pain would remain. Closer than close to his brother, Joe knew it would be years before the last two years of separation were lost in a mist of memory.

Joe caught Nancy glancing at him occasionally, a worried expression on her face. The older girl was quiet as she drove but in those glances, Joe saw Nancy's worry and fear as well. They both wanted James Fleming to be Frank and they both feared what it would mean.

What if he refuses to come with us? What if he won't believe us, despite our evidence?

Joe absolutely refused to think that again. It was Frank. And he would accept nothing less.

"We're almost to St. Louis," Nancy told Joe a few minutes later. "And… this is going to sound odd but… I think we're being followed."

Joe didn't immediately turn around to look. Instead he leaned forward slightly and looked through the mirror on his side of the car.

"Which one?" he asked Nancy.

"The dark blue sedan back there," Nancy said. "When I stopped in Springfield it pulled off with us and when we got back on the interstate it got back on at the same time we did. I slowed down about ten miles an hour for a few miles and he never passed me."

Joe frowned. "Do you think they were the ones who threw the rock?"

Nancy shrugged. "Don't know. I'll see if I can lose them when we get into St. Louis."

They continued their trek toward St. Louis and Joe occasionally leaned forward to see the blue car still behind them about six or seven car lengths. When they got over the bridge and into St. Louis, however, Nancy put her foot on the gas and took off like a shot, heading straight down Highway 40 for a bit and then turning North at I-170 to get back on I-70.

"How'd that do?" she asked Joe.

"I don't see them anymore," Joe said. "They must not have been serious about it. Then again, if they were following us, they know where we're going. We'd better stay on the look-out."

"I agree," Nancy said. She continued over the next bridge and into St. Charles, and had Joe start reading off the directions she'd gotten from an online map search.

"So, which plan are we going with?" Joe asked her as they turned onto the street where James Fleming lived.

"Journalism 101," Nancy said. "We can at least hope that will get us close enough to see Frank."

"He's probably at work," Joe said. "We should wait until this evening."

Nancy regarded her friend for a moment. "You aren't getting cold feet, are you?"

Joe glared at her. "No. I just think he's at work. How're we gonna see him now if he's not in the house?"

"We won't know until we try," Nancy slowed the car and was about to slow to park in front of James Fleming's home when she heard the sound of a car speeding toward them.

Nancy and Joe looked up in dismay to see the dark blue sedan speeding toward them, straight for a head-on collision!