Chapter 15:

"It's not Katie, Joe," Vanessa shook her head vehemently. "Katie wouldn't do a thing like that – I've known her all my life." When Joe didn't reply, she sighed. "You don't suspect, say, Chet, of kidnapping Frank, do you?"

"That's not the same thing. We've known Chet all our lives," Joe retorted but Vanessa stopped him a murderous glare.

"You mean, you have known Chet all your life. I don't. I only met him last year when I came to Bayport."

Joe sighed. He didn't like the comparison, but he nodded anyway. With the two girls being fast friends, he had hung out with Katie (with Vanessa, of course) more than Frank had, and he could see that she wasn't someone who would intentionally hurt another person. But her dad – that's entirely a different story. There had to be some reason why Frank was checking up on Dr. Ryan. If only… if only he had listened to Frank that night.

"What about her dad?" Joe asked, slowly. "Have you ever met her dad? Tell me about him."

Vanessa's eyes narrowed. She knew with absolute certainty that Dr. Ryan was an upright, honorable man. But there were things about Dr. Ryan that she had promised Katie she would never tell…

-xx-

After what seemed like a million years, Frank finally managed to get the ropes off his hands. Hurriedly, he undid the bonds around his ankles, and made his way to the door. He was just about to try the handle when he thought he heard footsteps from outside.

With a quick stealthy movement, he positioned himself at the side of the door, ready to jump on whoever that was coming in. The door did click open, but to his astonishment, a blonde head peered in cautiously.

"Frank!" a girl hissed.

"Callie!" whispered Frank in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Callie hushed him. With trembling hands, she beckoned him out of the room.

"How did you…"

But Callie shook her head. "You've got to go," she told him urgently. "They might hurt you if you don't."

"They?" Frank repeated, before the realization suddenly hit him. Those familiar eyes, that familiar voice... "Steve!" he cried out. He wondered who the other guy was.

Callie cringed. So, Frank had recognized Steve. "Just go," she urged him. But Frank was staring at her, suspicion lurking in his eyes.

"You mean you knew about this?" he demanded, his tone accusing. "How did you know I'm here?"

"I overheard Steve when he was on the phone," Callie replied softly. "He was at my place when someone called him."

"When was that? And who was that someone?" Frank's voice was low, but sharp. He glanced at his watch. The glass was broken but it still worked. It was two thirty in the afternoon. Doing a quick math in his head, he concluded that it was Steve who had come in earlier. He recognized the familiar eyes and voice now. Earlier that morning, someone had shoved Katie in. And the last time someone had come into the room, as far as he was aware, was yesterday afternoon, when the needle punctured his arm. If it was really Steve, then the only time he could be away was in the evening, or at night.

Callie swallowed. She had noticed Frank checking his watch, and a quick glance at his face told her that his mind was working furiously. And since she did not know what had happened here in this mansion, or whether Frank actually had met Steve, she realized that she probably couldn't lie.

"Yesterday night," she admitted finally. "He was at my place for dinner."

Frank could hardly believe his ears. "What? You mean you actually knew about this yesterday evening? And you didn't stop him?"

"I couldn't." Callie hung her head, tears coming into her eyes. "He didn't know I heard."

"You could have called the police," he snapped.

"I can't," Callie almost screamed. "That's Steve we're talking about. You can't have him going to prison."

"Great. This is just great," Frank said sarcastically. "You're worried about him being caught. But you don't care if I died. In fact, you would wait for more than twelve hours before coming to rescue me. You would rather have me killed than him being caught." He took a deep breath. Now what the hell was that, Frank Hardy? he chided himself silently. Of course she cared about Steve more than she cared about you. Steve's her boyfriend, for goodness sake.

"I didn't know they got you too!"

"You said you overheard Steve last night," Frank reminded her.

Callie trembled. She knew she should never have let Frank interrogate her. He was a detective, and sharp as a packet of needles. "I did hear him. But I didn't know he had you. He didn't mention your name. I only realized that when I bumped into Vanessa this morning, and she said you were missing."

"But you overheard that he was kidnapping someone," he persisted. "What? You mean, you wouldn't care if it wasn't me here?" He was deliberately driving Callie round and round with his questions. He figured that by getting her confused, there a better chance of her spilling everything out into the open. "Didn't you wonder who his victim was? Wait… you just said, you didn't know they got me too…" he looked at her suspiciously.

When Callie fell silent, his eyes narrowed. "You knew he got Katie, didn't you?" he asked quietly. When Callie didn't answer, he took it as a 'yes'. "Oh Callie, how could you?" he groaned. His head was still spinning with this new information and he placed a hand against the wall to steady himself.

"Why Katie?" he asked, a moment later.

Callie gave a sob, and tried to blink back her tears. Frank got impatient. "Okay, who was the guy who called Steve last night?

"Callie?" His tone was sharp.

Callie bit her lip. "Shane."

Frank stared at her. Shane? Shane Miller? Of course! What an idiot he had been! The green car was from Shane's rental agency. That car was never stolen nor rented out. Shane had just conveniently taken the car, and lied to him on the phone.

"And you let him? What has Shane got against her?" he queried on. As far as he knew, Katie had never met Shane. Shane was his classmate from last year. Katie wasn't even in Bayport then. He figured by now that Katie was probably Shane's targeted victim, though he didn't know why. If Shane had anything against him, he would have gotten at him long ago, considering the length of time he knew him. Gritting his teeth, he determined to find out what was going on.

"I… I don't know."

"Even if you couldn't call the police, you could have called Joe. Joe would have done something. And you should know that Joe would not call the police if you asked him not to."

Callie hung her head. "I don't know why I didn't. I… I …."

"I what?"

Callie did not answer.

A short squeal came from one of the rooms, breaking their conversation, causing Frank to turn instinctively in its direction. "Kate…" He felt his heart constrict. Whatever was Steve, or Shane, doing to her?

"Go outside and call the police," he instructed Callie. He turned towards the direction of the cry.

"We can't," Callie protested. "We can't call the police. Please, Frank. Steve… he's just doing this for me. It's not his fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's yours."

"What?" Frank looked at her in bewilderment. "What do you mean, my fault?" he asked. Suddenly realization dawned, and his head started to throb. Breathe, Frank, breathe! He leaned onto the wall and closed his eyes. "How could you? How could you allow Steve do this to Katie? She doesn't deserve any of this." He was greeted with silence once again.

"Please, let's go," Callie pleaded.

"Look, if you don't want to call the police, for Steve's sake, I can accept that. But we need to get Kate out of here."

"Frank, you need to go. Shane might hurt you if you don't."

"And leave Katie here to die?" He was clearly disgusted by now.

"Frank! Please! They are not going to kill her."

"No," he told her flatly. "You can leave if you want to. I need to get her out of here." He stormed out of the room, in the direction the cry he had heard; unaware of the fact that there was actually more to this than both he and Callie had realized.

-xx-

Meta says: uh-oh, I think we have offended a whole lot of Callie fans with this one…

Scrawler says: Let's go and hide. (dodges pots and pans)

Happy reading!

p/s: Laura: thanks for the suggestion. We've amended that last sentence now.

To people who have read: don't worry about the little change. The change is purely grammatical/ sentence structure.