A/N: Long weekend! *parties by myself*

Thanks so much for all the reviews, and to everyone still reading!

He stared at the orderly surface before him and sighed, resting his face in his hands. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Just one of the many lessons that had been ingrained into his childhood.

God, but it was depressing that the one place that continuously trapped him, that mocked him as it took away all his dreams, that would be his future unless he took action, was also the one place where he could just sit and stare at the wall, feeling depressed, getting drunk and not dealing with people for a while.

This wasn't his plan, to end up here and still be stuck in the exact same place 5 years after he'd sworn to himself, as soon as he got the chance, he would be long gone. But it was supposed to be such a gift, such an opportunity, after all the hard work of generations before him. Wanting anything else was just ungrateful and childish... the words still stung every time he heard them, no matter how many times it was thrown in his face.

No one understood how he actually felt.

Not his parents, not his wife, and most certainly not him. Even thinking his name repulsed him. He gave a snort, pouring himself another glass of whiskey against his better judgement. The trouble that would come would require a clear head; this was a fact, but it was easier to just deal with the present at a minute by minute capacity.

He knew what was going to happen tonight. And honestly, the thought of it cheered him up enough that he almost felt more like celebrating than moping around in his office. But not quite. And it wasn't like he could just waltz out, either... His work was always first priority, no matter what... that's what his father always beat into him, anyway. He could recall all of his father's rules word for word, it was just following them that always proved to be difficult. Difficult for him, anyway... obviously others didn't have the same problem.

He made his fingers a steeple under his chin and closed his eyes, leaning forward on the desk in front of him. He enjoyed focusing on the absolute silence, save the steady ticking of the clock, in the dark, empty room. He didn't often get time to himself; it was actually a miracle no one had burst in yet.

The clock on his desk ticked slowly by, second by second, tick by tick... It was nearing. He had started off with small things, almost by accident, really. It must have been fate that he stumbled across the only other people, it seemed to him, who didn't think everything here was all rainbows and sunshine.

Sure, things would get messy. Potentially extremely messy, actually, depending on who was in the vicinity of the immediate area. But it was all for the greater good. Soon, he could escape this hell hole and stop the stupid façade he had to put on for all the others day after day.

Maybe he should get a bit further away, just in case... but no. He had been assured he would be safe from where he sat, and he wanted to be near the site when it happened.

The clock hand struck 8:00pm. He smiled to himself and reclined on his chair in grim satisfaction.

Today would be the first taste of what he could do when he was serious. He would make them regret discounting him so easily.

AaA

"I can't believe it," Nancy muttered, kicking the wall beside her and regretting it almost immediately with the pain. Her left foot throbbing, she sighed and flopped back into her chair, giving the ball room one last glance to make sure that absolutely nothing was out of place, no one was acting weird, and that there was nothing that he could have come here to do. "How did he just disappear like that? The hotel's not that big and there are five of us and one of him."

"It's not just that we can't find him now. Even while I was with you, the other three were running around looking for you in the hallways. What are the chances that he didn't run into any of them and none of them even heard him moving around?" Frank said.

The two were back at a table on the edge of the dance floor, worn out from a frantic search around the nearby area. Bess, George and Joe had headed out with haste to the hideout Nancy had discovered. The only reason Frank and Nancy weren't with them is because you can do stealth with three people. The prints would be suspicious leading up there, but there were ways to move around that didn't involve going through the snow thanks to the thick pines in the woods. Five people, though, is harder. Really, that's just pushing your luck when you're trying to hunt down one person. And someone had to do a thorough examination of the ball room, anyway, which meant that, boredom notwithstanding, Frank and Nancy were stuck here until they got more information.

"Maybe there's some kind of secret passageway around here..." Nancy said with a thoughtful glance to the hotel's interior walls. "It's definitely the right setting for that kind of thing. Once I had a case in a ski château and the place was ancient, filled with passageways everywhere. Literally, you could barely walk down a hallway without bumping into one."

"Well, that would explain the mystery of the vanishing man," Frank said. "Tell me more about the case. We have time to kill while we wait for the other three to come back, and with any luck, maybe one of them has found something."

"It was a diamond thief. And a pretty crazy one at that: when I found the diamond she was looking for, she snatched it right from me then pepper-sprayed me. In the eyes. From a foot away. It was my birthday, too."

"Ouch," Frank winced in sympathy, knowing the pain of that from past experience. "But, I'm betting you still stopped her."

Nancy grinned. "What else? Like I said, the entire castle was full of secrets. Luckily for me, I spent a lot of time learning them while working on the case and I just so happened to stumble across one that changed the very staircase she was escaping by. It could split itself into sections, breaking up the path - I almost fell through, actually." Nancy snorted at the memory. "But she practically ran into the hole I created and got stuck there."

Frank laughed along with her, mind only partially on the story. There had to be something they were missing about this, some clue that would point them in the right direction. They couldn't just run around aimlessly; they'd wear themselves out before they found him.

"I do wish we could be doing something important..." Nancy said. "Just sitting here makes me feel as useful as being tied up in a supply closet, and I would know."

"Same. But there's nowhere left to look in here. It's been too long, anyway," Frank said. "We've missed the window of finding him while he's in the immediate vicinity; he could have gone anywhere by now with the trails outside going, well, everywhere."

"No tracks either," Nancy added glumly. The hundreds of prints outside courtesy of the ball-goers obscured any hope of singling out his footprints. "We can't even find his coat, anymore... Whether he took it himself or got an accomplice to remove it, we can't tell."

"Anyway, we promised we'd wait here for them until they get back," Frank reminded her.

"But maybe we shouldn't waste our time by just waiting around here," Nancy said, perking up slightly as an idea grabbed hold of her. "How much time do we have until they promised they'd show up?"

Frank pulled back his sleeve to glance at his watch. "A good half hour yet. And there's no chance we're going to find him around here anymore, I'd bet."

"Frank," Nancy said solemnly, blue eyes wide. "We are going secret passageway hunting."

AaA

"Bess, George, I need you two to stay here for and keep a look out for me," Joe whispered to the cousins as they gathered behind a towering spruce, huddled together to protect against the cold.

George's eyes were alive with excitement, her cheeks rosy in the cold air. No doubt she was glad for the comfortable dress she'd worn, as the snowpants she had on would probably magnify the uncomfortableness of a dress. Or something like that. Joe wasn't positive, as, at least so far, he'd never had to wear a dress before. Which was maybe why Bess looked like she had her 'Not pleased.' face on. Seriously. It could be a patented thing, that expression.

Focus, Joe, he reminded himself with a pinch. Ouch. That hurt. Note to Joe: don't do anything that warrants a self-pinch unless the reward of the action is worth the punishment. Which it so isn't right now. Maybe this is why everyone always calls Frank the serious brother...

Leaving the two perched behind the trunk together, Joe crouched behind trees and ducked past branches to get closer to the cabin, his mind still whirling with unimportant information. As he got close enough to make out a faint outline of the room in the dark, he actually put all his attention towards the task at hand. Sure, Joe could be a little hyperactive sometimes but if there was one thing he hated more than being forced to sit still when he was restless, it was being outsmarted by someone. And what was worse was that this wasn't even the first time. It was starting to get embarrassing.

He assessed the situation as best he could from his post behind a thin poplar. Joe could walk right up to the cabin without leaving any foot prints due to a lack of snow, which was good. But then that meant there was no sure way to gauge who was inside, or how many people if there was more than one.

But the lights were off. And he didn't see anyone, yet. Which meant either they were wrong about him maybe going back up here or they had beat him to it with the shortcuts George had led them through.

Ah, what the heck.

Joe gave the window one last peek to be sure, strained his ears for a Bess-and-George signal that meant 'Get out of there while you're still alive!' just in case, and gave his surroundings a thorough but quick examination before he tiptoed up to the glass.

Damn, Joe thought to himself. Definitely no one inside. Quickly returning to Bess and George, he explained the situation and they returned back to the cabin together. He wasn't going to waste an opportunity, though. The cabin was locked with the same system as the one they were all staying in. The same system, in other words, that the mystery man had broken past to release a wolverine into the girls' bedroom.

It was easy work, picking the lock. The hard part came in finding a suitable lock pick, but luckily for Joe, both girls had some bobby pins to spare.

They crept in, Joe leading the other two, and peered around the dark cabin. Deciding quickly that, just in case, it was better to leave the lights off, they got to work. The cabin was small, but comfortable enough that you could stay here through a blizzard and probably survive just fine for a few days. It looked old, too, like it'd been around for a long time. There wasn't much to examine, but the three immediately divvied up the room into sections and began to look around.

Joe headed for the bed first. It was narrow, big enough for one person only, and stood a few inches off the ground. Noticing the gap, Joe got down to the floor and, grimacing at the dust, poked around beneath the wooden frame to see if he came across anything.

Nothing.

The bedside table, made of the same wood as the bed and showing the signs of amateur carpentry, yielded no secrets either, except for a rather disgusting piece of what could have once been half a sandwich. Joe groaned. He had been hoping the cabin, the man's hideout, would give them some progress in the case but it looked like it wouldn't be that easy.

As he pulled up the blankets, first noting their exact position on the bed, he was interrupted in his search by an excited cry from the 'living room', the corner of the cabin immediately to the left upon entering.

George, who was rummaging through a small bookcase minutes ago, was now triumphantly clutching a small book, bound in brown leather, that looked like it'd been through a lot.

Joe hurried over, intrigue piqued.

"I think it's a journal," George explained, flipping through the pages. "Only problem is-"

"It's in code," Joe said. Well, that wasn't going to stop him. "Is there a name on it?"

"Umm..." George turned the book around in her hand, moving closer to the window to get some better lighting.

"There!" Bess exclaimed, pointing to a faint inscription in black on the back cover. "What does it say, George?"

She squinted at the faded cursive, printed neatly on the back cover. "J... something, Haines."

Joe's eyes widened in surprise. "Haines? As in the dead one?"

"Wasn't his name Jake?" Bess said.

"Jake... yeah, I think that could be what the name on here says..." George scrutinized the signature again.

Joe grinned. That meant that no one would miss it if they took it with them. "Where did you find it, George?" he asked.

"Right there." She gestured to a small space between the bookshelf and a cupboard, barely noticeable from where Joe was standing. "I don't think anyone's disturbed it in a few days, there was quite a bit of dust when I found it and I only noticed it was there by chance."

Satisfied it wouldn't be missed, Joe tucked the small journal into his coat pocket, resolving to decode it as soon as possible. From what he had seen, the text within the journal was just a jumble of English letters. Maybe a Caesar cipher?

"Let's finish searching to see if we can find anything else that might identify the other guy, and then we can head back to update Frank and Nancy," Joe said.

Unfortunately, the journal ended up being the highlight of the cabin. Nothing else gave clue to who was staying here or why.

"We should get back," George said. "It's almost 8:00."

Taking a minute to ensure nothing was out of place or different from when they'd entered, the three left the cabin to begin the short trek back to the hotel.

AaA

Nancy and Frank were clutching each other, laughing silently with tears streaming down their face. Both were still struggling to catch their breath from having run so fast, Nancy only just keeping up in her footwear.

"Okay, so that was kind of awkward. Remind me again, whose idea was this?"

"That would be yours, Nance," Frank chuckled, straightening up.

"Shame we didn't find a secret passage though," Nancy commented, wiping her eyes in an attempt to look serious again.

She glanced at Frank. They were silent for a beat before they began to crack up again.

They had been fruitless in their search for a secret passageway, true, but then they hadn't finished searching the halls completely yet. Nancy tugged Frank forward by his hand with a grin and they continued their slow but careful prodding of the walls and floors, tapping for hollow spots and feeling around for secret catches. Just to be safe, they were also opening any unlocked doors they could find, which was what had led to their unfortunate predicament earlier.

"Did you see their faces, though?" Nancy asked with a giggle.

"They looked absolutely astonished," Frank agreed.

"Well, I can't really blame them," Nancy said with a mischievous glance at Frank. "I mean, if I was out working beside you all night with no break, I think I'd probably drag you into a broom closet for a few minutes too."

Before Frank could reply, a blush already forming on his cheeks, Nancy gasped.

"Hey, I think I found something," she said, excitement colouring her tone. Frank joined her side as the two poked and prodded at a fancy section of molding on the wall that stood out from what they'd seen in their explorations so far.

"This does look different," Frank agreed. "But there should be some kind of trigger to open it, like right... here..."

He frowned, and carefully brushed his fingers against the delicately formed leaf at the edge of the section of molding. Tentatively, he followed the stem to the small bead it encircled and with bated breath, he pushed against the spot.

To his surprise, he heard a faint click in the empty hall and stared as the section of walling slid aside to reveal a stone staircase that was completely dark.

Nancy grinned and rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek. "Now that's what I'm talking about," she said happily. "I've got a flashlight. Let's go."

"Why do you have a flashlight?" Frank asked as he followed her through the door.

Nancy shrugged. "I don't know, actually. Just in case?"

Frank smiled to himself quietly, then jumped as the doorway behind him slid shut. "Drat. I can't find a catch to open it on this side."

He probed around the wall as Nancy lit up the area for him but came back empty-handed.

"I guess we'll just have to see where this goes," Nancy suggested, not terribly worried. If the man had escaped from here, he had to have gone somewhere. Besides, she had had her fair share of passages that closed up on one half and opened up on the other, and Frank was with her too.

"Ladies first," Frank said with a small bow.

"You do know how to treat a girl, huh, Hardy?" she replied with a grin as she began the ascent up the steep staircase. "Just promise you'll catch me if I fall."

"You know I will," he said to her back. "Can you see how far up this goes?"

"It's not too long actually. Definitely no higher than one floor." It was a bit hard to navigate up the steps in a dress and heels, but to Nancy's relief, she came to the top soon.

Frank followed her, the passageway to narrow to allow for more than one person to pass at a time. It was slightly claustrophobic, and he found he had to duck his head slightly to avoid having his hair brush against the top of the stone hallway.

Nancy's eyes gleamed with excitement. "He had to have gone through here; it's the only way to explain the fact that none of us found him after so much searching, even taking into account his head start."

They proceeded quickly but cautiously through the tunnel, not sure where it would end off. Their only source of light was the small pen light Nancy held, and although it was bright, it produced only a small cone of light.

After a few twists and turns and another staircase going down, they came at last to a dead-end. Nancy frowned. She shone her light around in the hopes of revealing a path they might continue down.

"Is there anything along the wall that will open up a door?" Frank asked, taking the light from her hand so she could use both to test the stone wall.

"I... can't..." she struggled to lift a heavy stone that blocked the bottom left corner of the door. "It's too heavy," she grunted, sighing in frustration.

She stood back and turned sideways to let Frank squeeze past her, switching jobs and taking the flashlight from his hand once more. He pulled against the rock in concentration, but to no avail. "Maybe it's not meant to be lifted," he frowned.

He tried to push the wall to the right and was rewarded immediately. With a creak, the stone door swung open to reveal another hallway that looked quite similar to the one they'd entered through.

"Where are we?" Nancy asked in surprise.

"Wait... I think this is the hallway on the other side of the ballroom, the one near the kitchens," Frank said. "You can still hear music, so at any rate, we have to be somewhere close to the ballroom."

"So, under the assumption he hid in the passage way long enough for us to leave, then moved to somewhere else, what was he trying to do?" Nancy furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Tell me again, what was he doing when you followed him?"

"He walked down the hall, stopped at a closet, then rummaged around for a few seconds. I waited for him to leave, and when he wasn't in sight I crept up to the closet to figure out what he'd been doing," Nancy explained.

"And when you opened the door," Frank continued.

"Bam! He hit me on the head with something heavy and I woke up in the closet, tied up with duct tape," Nancy finished with a rueful sigh. "I guess I wasn't being as stealthy as I wanted to; he must have noticed me following him when I peeked around the corner and changed plan so he could carry out his course of action, whatever that may be," Nancy finished with a rueful rub at her head where he'd struck her.

"But he was looking through a closet when he noticed you, right?" Frank said.

"Yeah, why?" Nancy asked curiously.

"Chances are, since he changed his plan in the first place, maybe he waited in the tunnel for us to leave then left and-"

"-found another closet to carry out his master plan?"

He shrugged. "There's a chance. What time is it right now? Do we have to meet up with the others soon?"

She glanced at her watch. "Quarter to eight."

He nodded to himself, mulling over what they should do next. "We still have time. Let's walk through it: what would he have done as soon as he left the passage?"

Nancy considered for a moment, closing her eyes and picturing his path, then spoke: "So he leaves the passageway. He wanted to do something involving a closet, but not necessarily one closet in specific. Which means he needs to find a new one to avoid the risk of running into one of us."

"And therefore, he's looking for the first place that he can access quickly, so..."

The two looked around. Speaking in unison, they pointed to a small and inconspicuous supply closet, as marked on the door, that was only a short distance from the still blaring music of the ball. "There."

They hurried over, and hesitated outside the door to spare each other a glance. Apprehensively, Frank grabbed the door handle and turned. He opened the door unsure of what he would find, worried that the last thing he wanted to see would be there.

He stared grimly at the object on the floor of the small room, registering Nancy's gasp from beside him. No such luck, huh.

The two of them stood next to each other, and without consciously thinking it, Nancy's hand slid to take grasp of Frank's hand and grip it in comfort. The black object on the ground mocked her as it stood there, looking out of place but innocent, yet capable of major destruction.

She and Frank were staring at a bomb.