Chapter 18

"I don't believe this!" Fenton groaned as Laura gasped in horror.

"Where's he gone?" asked Mr. Johnson.

"Out looking for Denton," Sam answered grimly.

The old man looked worried. "Oh, dear," he said.

Con Riley was already on the phone to Chief Collig telling him about Miles Denton. "Yes, Chief," he was saying. "Okay, we will. Bye." Con hung up and looked straight at Fenton.

"Chief Collig is sending out some patrol cars to look for Frank," Con told him. "He's also trying to track down any apartment, house or motel room that Denton might have stayed in."

"And in the meantime, we're going to drive through Bayport keeping our eyes peeled for Frank and Denton," said Fenton. "I'm not sitting on my ass any longer."

"You promised the doctor you'd rest!" Laura spoke up at once. "Fenton, you're not physically able…"

"I can rest when all this is over!" Fenton cut her off. "I'm not going to argue with you on this, Laura. I'm going."

Laura stared unhappily at her husband. "Fine. But keep in touch and let me know what's happening," she said.

Sam Radley had been staring suspiciously at Mr. Johnson, making the old man shuffle uncomfortably. "What I'd like to know is why you didn't come to warn the Hardys sooner," he said suddenly. "And how do you know Denton?"

Mr. Johnson coughed awkwardly. "I'm afraid that's a rather delicate matter…"

"To hell with delicate matter!" Sam growled. "That bastard has held an eleven year old kid prisoner for the last seven days, and now his thirteen year old brother has just gone AWOL! I don't think this guy deserves discretion, do you?"

Mr. Johnson nodded sadly. "Let's just say I've been a good friend of the Dentons for a long time," he began. "Last year, Grace Denton passed away and Miles moved back to New York. I kept in touch regularly, calling Miles once a week. Last month, he told me he was going out of town to visit an old friend. After two weeks when I hadn't heard from him, I called his apartment. There was no answer so I assumed he wasn't back yet. But when I tried several times over the past two weeks with no luck, I got worried. I drove up to New York last night. Miles' neighbour told me that he had gone to visit his brother and I knew at once that something was wrong."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Gertrude, confused.

"I mentioned already that Miles' brother shot himself?" The others nodded and Mr. Johnson continued. "Well, whilst he and Miles were very close, Miles and his other brother don't get on; they despise one another in fact."

"Fair enough," said Fenton, nodding. "But how did you know he was coming after my son?"

"Miles had given me a key to his apartment," Mr. Johnson explained. "Once the neighbour told me where he had gone, I used it. His living room was completely papered with newspaper cuttings about Fenton Hardy, but one in particular took pride of place. It was from a paper called the Bayport Gazette and it had an article about a local festival in it. There was a picture of Fenton and his family."

The old man paused, removed a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow. "Miles had drawn a noose around the neck of each of your sons," he told Fenton. "I knew then where he'd gone and set off to either warn you or stop him. I'm the only one he trusts and I thought I might get him to listen to me."

Suddenly, Con's phone rang interrupting the old man. Everyone looked at him expectantly as he answered the phone. "Hello?…..There is!…..Okay, Chief, we'll meet you there!" Con hung up.

"That was Chief Collig," he said. "He found nothing locally on Miles Denton. But there was a cabin in Bayport woods rented to a Kevin Denton. The Chief is on his way there now."

Mr. Johnson gasped in alarm and they all turned to look at him. His face had gone ashen-white. "Miles' brother?" he said in agitation. "Oh, this is worse than I thought!"

"I thought you said they don't get on?" asked Fenton, baffled.

"Miles and Adam don't get on," Mr. Johnson told him. "Miles and Kevin were very close."

"Were?" Fenton repeated, puzzled.

Mr. Johnson nodded sadly. "Kevin Denton shot himself ten years ago."

XXX

Frank pedalled furiously in an effort to keep up with the car in front of him. It wasn't long before the car turned off the main road onto a smaller back road. As the car trundled on, Frank called back to his friends who were starting to weaken behind his manic pace. "Come on!" he yelled. "We're going to lose him!"

"Lose who?" Tony panted. "Frank, what's going on?"

Frank didn't answer, the car was at least seventy yards ahead of him and had just turned onto another road out of sight. He pushed himself faster, afraid of losing it. Reaching the turn, Frank looked in the direction that the car had gone. There was no sign of it.

"DAMMIT!" he roared in frustration, slapping his bike.

The others joined him. "Frank?" Chet prodded nervously.

"We lost him!" Frank wailed. "We were so close!"

"Who? Frank, what are you talking about?" asked Phil, shooting Tony a look.

"Denton! He was in that car!" Frank looked close to tears, and the boys glanced at one another uncomfortably.

"Lets go down the road," Chet suggested finally. "We might find some clue telling us where he went."

The four boys set off down the road in silence. After ten minutes of careful searching, Tony cried out, "look! Over there!" The boys rushed to where he was pointing and discovered a small path into the woods that had been hidden by several loose bushes.

"These were deliberately put across here," said Frank grimly.

"But why?" Chet demanded. "What's the point?"

"To keep anyone from finding this road," Phil guessed. "Most people would drive right by these bushes without guessing it was there."

"So whoever did it had a purpose," said Frank. "Come on!"

The boys pulled the bushes aside and set off down the path. However, the path was so muddy and slippery that it was difficult for them to cycle on, especially Chet whose bike was older than the others.

"How does your brother use this thing?" Chet gasped, as his bike slid and swerved in the mud. "It's so awkward!"

"Yeah, well, Angelo is awkward!" Tony retorted.

"Guys, this is useless!" said Frank suddenly. "We'll be faster on foot."

The dark-haired boy climbed off his bike and left it up against a tree. He looked expectantly at the others who quickly copied him.

"Onwards?" asked Phil, looking at Frank.

"Onwards," Frank answered.

Fifteen minutes later, the boys still hadn't discovered anything and Frank was growing agitated. "Maybe we came the wrong way!" he fretted.

"We can always go back," Tony pointed out.

Only Phil seemed to disagree with this idea. "I don't know. That car disappeared awfully quick and we didn't find anything else on the other road. Besides, this guy had a car, he was bound to be quicker."

"But we could waste valuable time if we're going the wrong way!" Frank argued.

Phil had opened his mouth to respond when suddenly there came a faint cry of someone yelling in the woods. The boys froze, listening to the dim sounds.

"That way!" Frank cried, pointing to the left.

As the boys crashed through the trees, Frank heard a voice in the distance bellow, "JOEEEY!"

XXX

Joe ran for his life. Kevin was right, Miles was back!

Suddenly he stumbled, falling hard on his injured arm. The pain was almost blinding. "Ahhhh" hissed Joe, through gritted teeth.

"JOEY!" he heard Miles roar again.

Joe realised he was never going to outrun the man. He was weak and ill, he had no shoes, and he was exhausted. Frantically the boy looked around and spotted a large, dense bush. Shakily, he got to his feet and limped over to it.

Ignoring the thorns that scratched at him, Joe crawled into the centre of the bush and tried to rearrange the leaves and branches so that he was covered. Then he waited, silent and fearful. Minutes later, he heard the sound of branches been pushed aside and a voice called, "you can't hide from me forever! You know I'll find you!"

Joe tried to stifle his wheezy breathing. For the first time in his life the boy was glad of his small size, it now enabled him to hide from his kidnapper. He could hear Miles moving around muttering to himself, and to Joe's growing alarm, he realised he was about to cough. Desperately he suppressed it. Please not now! Please not now! he prayed, as his chest burned with the desire to cough. Half-holding his breath, Joe nearly turned purple with the effort of restraining the cough.

After several agonising minutes, he heard Miles move away but he still didn't dare cough. Finally, when he could no longer hold it in, the boy let out one loud, hacking cough. Terrified, he listened to see if Miles had heard him.

It was then that Joe became aware of faint voices calling and pricked his ears to listen. Was it just his imagination or were they calling his name? He strained his ears and heard a very definite shout. "JOE!"

His heart soared hopefully. Joe would know that voice anywhere, it was his brother! The boy opened his mouth to respond, then quickly shut it. What if Miles heard him? Slowly, Joe crawled out from the bushes. He decided it would be a much better idea if he followed the sound of Frank's voice.

Slowly and painfully, Joe moved in the direction of Frank's voice. It was slow going, but Joe was rewarded when he heard his brother call him again, this time from somewhere very nearby.

Deciding it was now safe to answer, Joe opened his mouth to respond just as a large hand was clamped over it. A strong arm encircled him from behind and pulled the boy off his feet. Before he could react, Joe was propelled forward and slammed face first into the trunk of a tree.

His head swimming, Joe felt a body pin him to the tree from behind. He struggled desperately but the grip tightened and a voice spoke.

"Stupid little Joey! Did you really think you could escape from me?"

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and the nice words regarding my brother (not so lonely now that a few days have passed).

The Silent Rumble: Feeling better already! Thanks a mill for all your kind words!

Penguinlover: Nearing the end of the story now, I'm sure you'll be glad to know! Thanks for the review!

CA: Well, here's the next chapter. Hope you liked it as much as the last one.

Paperdaisies: If I get the chance I will visit him, I'd love to see Australia. Thanks again for the great review, hope you enjoy this cliffhanger too! evil grin

astalder27: This chapter should answer the questions in your last review...although I'm sure it raises many more! Thanks for the review!