A/N Hello, people. I have returned with an update! lol. Things are starting to wind down so, updates should become faster.
Thanks to all reviewers.
Disclaimer: I own nada!
He was just about to leave the room when a quiet voice halted him. Fenton had just stopped by the house to pick up some files from the office, and he had decided to stop in his sister's room to check on her.
"Why?" The voice asked softly. "Why, are you doing this to us?" Gertrude Hardy rasped out her voice barely louder then a whisper. Pneumonia had ravaged her lungs and throat and she had difficulty summoning enough breath to speak above the lowest of whispers. He didn't respond, so she continued. "Cutting yourself off from us won't bring Frank back," She paused and looked at him appraisingly. "It won't take back what you said to Joe either." She knew it was a low blow, but she said it anyways, because their family was falling apart, and she'd be damned if she sit back and watch it happen without at least trying to stop it. She was the older sister it was her job to take car of her family.
"Gert…" His voice trailed of uncertainly.
"It's killing her you know, your wife is practically drowning in sorrow, and yet you pay her no attention. She lost her sons, too." Her voice hardened. "Stop being so selfish, think about your family, yes, Frank meant the world to this family, but we're not going to get him back, so stop acting like a child, stop hiding in your work. Face the facts, Fenton. Find Joe. Apologize, reach out to him, bring him home." Her voice softened ever so slightly. "I can't watch you destroy yourself, Fenton. I won't do it." She sighed noticing the stubborn way his jaw was jutting out as he looked down at her. "Just think about it, okay?"
"Fine." He responded before turning on his heel and exiting her room shutting the door firmly behind him.
"Okay, based on the note he left me we know Joe left his house sometime before four p.m. yesterday, which is when I arrived. We also know he went to a nearby grocery store." Callie recapped. "So, we need to split up into groups and canvas the area looking for Joe, or…" She trailed off.
"Signs of a struggle," Biff supplied when Callie trailed off.
"Yes, we have to consider the possibility that Joe was kidnapped. I mean, this is Joe-the-danger-magnet, we're talking about. And, despite the fact that he is no longer in the detective business he could easily have run into trouble." Callie agreed.
"Couldn't he just be trying to avoid you?" Liz asked. "I know we don't want to think that Joe would run away again, but it is a distinct possibility."
"I don't think so," Callie answered. "Otherwise, he could've just given me some fake address and left Bayport and I would've shown up, not found him and gone home." She elaborated.
"So, we're going to hypothesize that something happened to him until we have evidence to the contrary?" Chet queried.
"Yes." Callie affirmed. "So, let's discuss how we should split up and where each group should look."
"Okay, well, since there's seven of us, we'll have two groups of two, and one of three." Phil supplied.
"Okay, let's see, how about Chet and Liz together," Tony said with a brief wink in Chet's direction before he turned somber once more. The other boy scowled at his Italian friend. "Phil, Vanessa, and I can be the group of three, and you can go with Biff, Callie." He added.
"Alright, now let's discuss where to look. Does anyone have a map of the area?" Callie replied.
"I do." Phil replied pulling a folded map out of his jacket pocket.
"Trust Phil to come prepared." Biff said with a grin at friend. Said friend unfolded the map on the kitchen table without response. Callie grabbed a red permanent marker from her purse and proceeded to place a large red circle over the spot on the map where Joe's apartment was located.
"We should probably check out Joe's work." Vanessa ventured. "Do we know where that is?" She asked.
"Well, I know it's some kind of small diner close by, but other then that, no." Callie responded.
"We could probably find the name somewhere in his apartment, he has to have like a name tag or something, maybe a uniform?" Chet offered.
"We'll have to look around for that." Biff nodded. "Although, with Joe's style of organization I don't know if we'll be able to," He said with a wry grin.
"Found it." Vanessa replied a hint of smugness in her tone.
"It never ceased to amaze me how you and Frank could always find Joe's stuff even in that disaster he called a room." Biff responded.
"It's called "Aunt Sally's", and it's located at 1235 Main Street, which is about two streets over from here." Vanessa answered. "It was on a piece of paper on his fridge." She added after a moment.
"Okay, so, who wants to cover the diner?" Callie asked.
"We'll take it." Tony answered. "I've got experience with restaurant folks after all." He added. Callie drew a red line from Joe's apartment to the diner, and wrote Vanessa, Phil, and Tony in neat, flowing script above the line.
"Where else are we going to check?" Phil questioned.
"We should probably just find the two nearest grocery stores and head toward them." Chet replied.
"It's probably the best course of action at this point." Liz said. Callie had already taken out the phone book was looking under grocery stores; she quickly pinpointed two that were just a few streets over. She marked them both on the map with the marker before nodding in reply to Liz's suggestion.
"Well, then, let's head out, shall we?" Phil queried. The others nodded in reply. They made their way out of the apartment, Callie locking the door behind them with the spare key Joe had left.
"Don't forget to call if you find anything." Biff stated before headed in the direction of the first of the two grocery stores with Callie following a few steps behind him.
Jonathon Marion was a no-nonsense type of person. He didn't tolerate mistakes, nor did he allow disobedience. He expected to be obeyed unquestioningly, and anyone who dared voice an opinion contrary to his own soon found themselves floating face down in the nearest lake. He had dark hair, and coal black eyes, standing at six foot three he was a formidable man. Currently, he was waiting for one of his underlings to report, he really didn't have patience for tardiness, but seeing as the man was only two minutes late he would forgive him…this time, anyway. The door to his office burst open.
"S-sorry I'm late, Sir." The brown haired, hazel eyed man stuttered.
"Report." Marion demanded ignoring the apology.
"The items you want are being moved to the government storage warehouse tonight, they're supposed to be shipped off to the government labs tomorrow so we need to get them tonight before they're in too high security for us to steal them without detection." The man recited.
"Indeed," Marion replied. "It seems it's time for young Joseph to prove himself." He paused. "I'm assigning him to the retrieval squad, if he gets in your way shoot him. Take Frank as well, but keep him in the van under guard, he'll be able to lift the electronic security measures on his laptop; he's gotten to be quite the little hacker in the last year. He hasn't gotten caught once yet, and that's more then I can say for the other hackers I've hired, though, it may have something to do with his background of consulting with the Network."
"Yes, sir."
"Don't return without the items I've requested, we need to get our operations moving quickly if everything is going to go according to plan." Marion commanded. "Now, go." He ordered. The man quickly fled from the room with one last mumbled 'yes, sir.'
A/N It always seems so much longer before I upload it into the document. Anyway, review, please. The pretty, purple button gets lonely when ignored. I shall try to update at some point this week. It shall depend on homework load.