Biff went to the gym to update everyone while Phil waited with Frank in the office. "How did you know?" inquired Phil.
"It was too obvious," Frank said. "All my stuff was bothered but only bits and pieces of Joe's. Shoot! He may not even know what all is missing. But first, there was the pajamas that he couldn't find. Then his chemistry book. He looked everywhere for it. And the pictures!" Frank continued. "There was only half a roll of pictures of me in the van. What about the other half? And why let me know I'm being stalked in the first place?" he demanded. "What reason could O'Neil have had for it?"
"I'll bite," Phil said. "What was his reason?"
"To draw attention away from his real victim: Joe," Frank answered. "If everyone is concentrating on me then Joe's unprotected. He's an easy target."
Joe groaned and opened his eyes. 'What hit me?' he wondered, shutting them again as a thousand rockets went off in his head. 'Oh, yeah, O'Neil!' Joe remembered. He had been asked to go to the office to accept a call from Chief Collig near the end of class. He thought it odd but decided the chief must have found out something and hadn't wanted Frank wandering the halls of Bayport High alone.
He had left his class, which was located in the basement of the R.O.T.C. building, and passed by the alley between the buildings but that had been as far as he had gotten. A footfall had alerted him that he wasn't outside alone and he had turned, expecting to see Ike or one of the other school bullies cutting class. Instead, he had seen O'Neil's face a fraction of a second before he felt O'Neil's fist.
"Wake up, Joe," O'Neil interrupted Joe's musings, stooping down in front of the youth he had handcuffed to a chair.
Joe opened his eyes again and grimaced when he saw the smiling face of his captor. "Feeling okay?" O'Neil asked, genuine concern in his eyes. "I'm sorry I had to clock you so hard but I couldn't take a chance on your attracting any attention."
"Why?" Joe asked. Then winced because his jaw was killing him where O'Neil's fist had made contact. "Why did you grab me? It won't make Frank come to you. Dad, nor our friends, would let him."
"Silly, I don't want Frank. I never did," O'Neil informed Joe, pushing a lock of hair from Joe's forehead. "But with everyone thinking I was after Frank, you were left alone."
"You wanted me?" Joe asked in shock. "But Frank's stuff..."
"A cover," O'Neil explained. "I bet you never noticed I took some of your things," he added, waving a hand at the bed. Joe looked over and saw some of his comics, his pajamas and his missing chemistry book. There were shoes, pictures, and even some of his smaller trophies lying about. He had worried so much about Frank that the fact that some of his stuff might be missing had never even crossed his mind!
"Why?" Joe asked again. "Why do you want me?"
"You remind me of my little brother," O'Neil confessed. "Not in looks, but in every other way you couldn't be more alike."
"Won't he be jealous if you give me all of your attention?" Joe asked hopefully.
"Mickey died two years ago," O'Neil informed Joe in a thick voice. "I wasn't there to save him. I tried," he continued in a raspy voice. "Lord knows I tried to watch out for him. I was always there to get him out of whatever mess he had gotten into but the last time..."
He broke off and remained silent while he tried to compose himself. Joe kept quite, not wanting to interrupt O'Neil before he had finished. Soon, O'Neil began again. "I was shot in the line of duty," O'Neil told Joe. "It wasn't too serious but I was forced to stay in the hospital overnight. Mickey wanted to stay with me but he had school the next morning so I sent him home. The next day when I got home, Mickey was lying on the living room floor with a bullet through his head."
"It wasn't your fault," Joe told him. "You weren't there."
"It was!" O'Neil shouted at him. "Mickey was my responsibility. Even before our folks passed away, I took care of Mickey. But I let him down. I let him get killed."
O'Neil looked Joe squarely in the eyes. "You and Frank, you're just like Mickey and me. But Frank's too young. He doesn't realize what can happen. I do. I like Frank. He's a good kid and doesn't deserve to feel the kind of pain I've felt by letting his little brother down.
"You're a good kid too," O'Neil continued. "And I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I won't let you, or Frank, down like I let Mickey. I'm going to take care of you. Nothing's going to happen to you because no one will be able to find you."
"Don't you think someone will figure out that you're the one who kidnapped me?" Joe asked.
"They already know," O'Neil admitted. "I was starting to dispose of Reynolds when he made me see that his disappearance would lead to me through you. After all, you are the one who told me about him."
"You killed him?" Joe gasped, his eyes widening in horror.
"No," O'Neil answered. "He's tied up out back. I intend to leave him here when we depart. Being hunted for murder is a bit worse, and more intense, than being sought after for kidnapping."
"When are we leaving?" Joe asked, hoping it wouldn't be soon.
"Now," O'Neil answered.