J.M.J.

Chapter IV

Before he even thought about it, Frank took a couple of steps forward. Then he stopped, realizing that the man holding a knife to Callie's throat might very well be serious about his threat. Even so, he couldn't help shouting, "Let go of her!"

"Just leave me alone and I will, once I get out of here," the man retorted. He started edging his way toward the door, forcing Callie to come along with him.

It was about then that it clicked in Joe's mind that this man looked very familiar. He was quite a few years older than he had been in the picture that Mario had sent them, but this had to be Angelo Beretta. Joe decided he might as well test it to see. "Look, Angelo, we're just here to talk to you. Calm down."

An expression of surprise and confusion flashed across Angelo's face, but he merely shook his head. "You asked them here, didn't you?"

These last words were directed toward the young woman who had answered the door. She was now kneeling by the man whom Angelo had clearly injured and was crying anew. "No, Angelo, I swear I didn't."

Angelo's response to that was hardly civilized, but the gist of it was that he clearly didn't believe her.

"She's telling the truth," Joe interjected, thinking that might help the case. He was about to say that it was Mario who had sent them to look for him, but then he decided not to. Since Angelo wasn't on speaking terms with the rest of his family, it would probably be better not to mention them right now.

Angelo didn't seem to care. He continued backing toward the door, which only took him a few steps. Then, pulling Callie with him, he started backing toward the front door.

Everything in Frank except his experience told him to make a rush at Angelo and try to wrest the knife away from him before he could harm Callie, but he knew he'd never make it in time if he attempted such a move. The only thing they could do was try to talk him down, like Joe was trying to do, but Angelo didn't seem interested in listening. In a few more seconds, he would be outside, and there would be no way to stop him then.

"Angelo," Joe said again. It was remarkable how he could keep calm when it was absolutely necessary, considering he was a hothead most of the rest of the time. "You're not going to make things any better for yourself this way. You're just going to get yourself in even deeper trouble. Why don't we talk?"

"Why don't you shut up?" Angelo retorted.

He had just reached the front door and he was fumbling for the knob while still somehow managing to hold onto both Callie and the knife. A moment later, he had backed through it and slammed it behind him.

Frank sprang toward the door at once, only to find that it didn't open. In his agitation, it took him a second or two to realize that that was because Angelo had turned the lock before he slammed it.

Joe was right behind him, although he took time first to say, "Tony, Phil, you stay here and see if you can help that guy. And call the police!"

Meanwhile, Callie's mind and heart were racing. She knew Frank and Joe would do everything possible to rescue her, but at the same time, she knew there wasn't much they could do. Her captor was armed and they weren't. Any attempt on their part to save her could wind up getting her killed. At the same time, if she wasn't rescued, she would almost certainly be killed.

Once they were outside, Angelo hurried her across the yard to the sports car that was parked at the curb. He reached for the door, at the same time, telling Callie, "Get in."

Callie froze at that. Once she got in that car, she could give up all hope of escaping. A sudden desperation came over her and instead of obeying, she began to struggle. Somehow, she twisted herself around so that she was facing him. She kicked him hard in the shin and he lost his hold on her. Then she started to run.

If Angelo had any thoughts of chasing her, he quickly changed his mind when he saw Frank and Joe dashing across the lawn toward him. He dove into the open door of his car and tore away from the curb.

Callie threw herself into Frank's arms and hugged him tightly. It felt so natural at the moment. Joe only paused long enough to ask her if she was all right and give them both a confused look before he jumped into his own car and took off in pursuit of Angelo. As soon as Frank saw what he was doing, he took a step forward as if he could stop the car, but he realized he was too late to do anything about it. Besides, he couldn't very well leave Callie now.

At the same time, Tony and Phil had their hands full. The girl was kneeling over the man on the floor, sobbing.

"Oh, he's dead. He's dead," she repeated over and over.

Phil bent down to feel for a pulse. It was faint, but he found one. "He's not dead," he told the girl. "Get back and give him some air."

"You'd better sit over here," Tony said, helping her to her feet and directing her to the bed, since it happened that the room they were in was a bedroom. She threw herself face down on it and continued sobbing while Tony called 911.

Phil was doing his best to rouse the injured man, but he hadn't responded by the time Tony finished his call. Tony almost started to help him, but then he decided he might be more use trying to comfort the girl. He crouched down next to the bed so that he would be on eye-level with her.

She must have seen him because she said again, "He's dead, isn't he?"

"No," Tony told her. "He's not dead. There's an ambulance on the way. He'll be all right. What's your name? I'm Tony Prito."

"Allison." She didn't offer a last name, and for the time being, Tony thought it best not to press her for it.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Tony nodded toward the injured man.

Allison shook her head. "He's my brother, Marshall. Are you sure he's not dead?"

Tony glanced at Phil, who nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."

"I tried to leave him when he found out," Allison said. "He…he said I couldn't keep it, but I couldn't…couldn't…He tried to help me, but he found out and then he came here. I thought he'd kill us. He's never been this way before. But now…He didn't believe me. That's not really love, is it?"

"Um, no." Tony had hardly understood a word of what she was saying, but he agreed with her anyway.

"That's what he said, too. I've been so stupid. I should have listened. Now what am I going to do?"

"It's going to be okay," Tony assured her. "Everything's going to be fine. Your brother's going to be just fine."

To both Phil's and Tony's relief, Frank and Callie walked in at that moment. Callie was holding on tightly to Frank's hand—a detail which wasn't lost on either Tony or Phil. But at the moment, Phil was more interested in the more glaring detail.

"Thank goodness you're okay, Callie," he said, "but where's Joe?"

"He went chasing after Angelo," Frank replied, casting a worried glance over his shoulder as if he'd be able to see anything from there.

Phil jumped to his feet. "What? By himself? Why would you let him do that?"

"I didn't know what he was going to do," Frank insisted. "He's in the car. I'm sure he'll be okay." But there wasn't much certainty in his voice.

"Is he okay?" Callie asked, looking at Marshall.

Phil shrugged helplessly. "I don't know," he whispered, casting a glance at the still-sobbing Allison. "I've tried to wake him up, but he won't respond. Tony called for the police and an ambulance. They should be here any minute."

It was a couple of minutes' wait before a siren informed them of the emergency services' arrival. Phil went out to wave them in, and in a few moments, two EMTs were examining Marshall while a police officer was trying to get a straight story of what had happened. Frank and his friends gave as complete an account as they could, but they themselves were missing a large chunk of the story. The officer tried to question Allison, but she refused to say a word to him.

Eventually, the boys and Callie persuaded her to come outside and give the EMTs more room to work on her brother. The police officer followed them outside, but he hung back a little. He seemed to be getting the idea that he might learn more if he kept back. A crowd had gathered outside and another police officer was working on holding them back. Allison balked when she saw all the people, and no one could persuade her to go farther than the steps outside the front door. She sat down on them and put her head in her hands.

"Are you sure he's not dead?" she asked one more time.

"Positive," Tony told her. "Say, I didn't introduce you to my friends yet. This is Phil Cohen, Frank Hardy, and Callie Shaw."

Allison looked around at all of them. She seemed a bit calmer now, but still not very far away from tears. "Hi. I…I'm sorry. It's just…He said he was going to kill me. I thought I'd be safe here."

"Who? Angelo?" Frank asked. Allison nodded, and Frank went on, "Has he ever done anything like this before?"

"I don't know," Allison admitted. "I've only known him four months. Marshall said I shouldn't go out with him, and he was right."

"What exactly happened?" Frank asked.

Allison looked away. "I don't want to talk about it."

There wasn't time for any more questions before Joe pulled up and pushed his way through the crowd. "He got away," he announced in disgust. "Is everybody okay here?"

"Well, we are," Frank told him, glanced at the doorway into the apartment.

"You mean, Angelo got away?" Allison asked, looking up at Joe. "But after this, he'll come after me again, and maybe Marshall, too. Why did you let him go?"

"I didn't exactly let him go," Joe muttered in annoyance. "But we'll get him. I can promise you that."

"Oh, I hope so," Allison said. "I don't know what I'd do if he showed up again."

"Maybe you should go to your parents?" Tony suggested.

Allison shook her head. "We don't have any parents. At least, none worth mentioning. Marshall and I grew up in the foster system, and now that we've aged out, we don't have anyone besides each other."

"Don't you have any friends?" Callie asked.

"No." Allison scoffed. "Well, Marshall has all those kids he runs around with. But I wouldn't call them friends. They just hang around because…" She stopped abruptly and looked at the police officer. "Never mind."

Joe followed her glance. "Oh, officer," he said. "I've got some more information on the suspect for you. At any rate, I've got his license number and a good description of his car."

The officer took out his notebook. "You must be Joe Hardy, then. Your brother mentioned that you were in pursuit of the suspect."

"That's right." Joe proceeded to describe the car again, although Frank had already given an accurate description of it.

Shortly after that, Marshall was taken to the hospital. Allison accompanied him, although she still refused to say anything of substance in the presence of any police officers. The Bayporters, on the other hand, were asked to go back to the police station to give a few final pieces of information. When they arrived, they met Lieutenant Durant there.

"Well, well," he greeted them. "I thought I might be seeing all of you again today, but I didn't think it would be under circumstances like this. I know you've already gone over it several times, but would you mind telling me what happened one more time?"

He listened as the Bayporters described the incident one more time, nodding in understanding as they went. When they finished, Joe asked him if he could fill in any of the blanks.

"Not really," Durant admitted. "I didn't even know that Marshall Given had a sister. Of course, I don't take too much time to keep tabs on Marshall. He's not wanted for anything himself; he just comes up frequently in investigating juveniles around here. As for the David Ferris part of all this, I'm afraid I haven't had time to look into that yet."

"Well, as far as our investigation is concerned, that doesn't matter so much," Frank said. "We were just asked to find Angelo, which we did. Although, he is gone again, so I guess it didn't do a lot of good."

"Maybe David could help us figure out where he went," Phil suggested. "We could try calling on him again."

Joe shook his head. "That's probably not going to end any differently than last time. Our best bet would be to talk to Allison Given again. If she was going out with Angelo, she might have some idea where he went."

Durant looked down at his hands for a moment. "I don't know how they do things over in Bayport. I, personally, am not a big believer in turning police matters over to teenagers, no offense. Still, from the looks of things, Allison isn't interested in talking to the police. If you would like to try talking to her again, I would appreciate it. After all, now that Angelo has attempted murder and kidnapping to his name, finding him is my business. I'll keep working on the Ferrises, in the meantime. One of us might get lucky."

As it turned out, no one got lucky. Although the Hardys and their friends did their best, they couldn't get much out of Allison. She flatly refused to talk about what had started the fight between her and Angelo. As for where Angelo might have gone, the only idea she had was his apartment, but when the police went there, they found nothing. The news was so apparently upsetting to Allison that everyone was inclined to believe her when she insisted that she had no idea where else Angelo might have gone. Even the license plate on Angelo's car was no help since the DMV check on it showed that the car was stolen.

The search for David Ferris also turned up empty. Susan Ferris refused to speak to Durant when he went to her house. In fact, she even refused to open the door, although Durant was sure she had been there. As for where David might have been, that was harder to determine. Durant questioned a few of David's friends, but they all insisted that they hadn't seen him in several days.

To make matters worse, Marshall Given was in a coma and the doctors were unsure when or if he would wake up. Any hope that he might be able to clear up the remaining questions on the matter were dashed by that information.

All in all, it was a discouraging report that Frank called to give to Mario Beretta at the end of the day. However, he was spared giving it at the moment as Mario didn't answer the phone and Frank didn't want to leave the information in a message.

"Nobody wants to talk to us today," Joe commented when Frank told him what had happened. He yawned. "Well, what's the plan now? Back to Gresham and then back here first thing in the morning?"

"For what?" Tony asked. He was tired and discouraged and beginning to not be in the best mood. "We're not going to find out anything about this Angelo guy. He must be out of the state by now."

"Probably," Frank admitted, "but we might as well try. I'd hate to get this close to solving a case and then give up."

Phil chuckled. "As if a Hardy would give up a case under any circumstances. Anyway, we've already had our share of trouble on this case. What more could happen?"

Author's note: Well, would you look at that: I got a second chapter out this week after all! Hopefully the next chapter won't be far behind this one. Several of you are guessing that the case with Angelo and the serial killer are connected. In a way, they are, but maybe not in the typical fashion that cases wind up being connected in the Hardy universe. By the end of next chapter, you're going to see what I mean by that. Anyway, thank you for reading! Thank you especially to everyone who has reviewed the previous chapters! I'm always thrilled to read reviews, so please leave one if you like! Until next time!