Sarah pulled the car up to the whitewashed gates and parked the car.
"So, what now?" Sarah asked when she realized the gates didn’t just open automatically.
"Use the call box." Jessica suggested.
"The what?" Sarah said. Jessica pointed to the box to the left of the car and said. "Oh, that." Sarah opened the box and pressed a button. When there was no answer Jessica got out of the car.
"What are you doing?"
"Going inside."
"And how do you plan on doing that? The gates are closed."
"So, come on, we can climb."
"Climb? Jess, this is awfully weird. What if the people who live here have a ferocious dog or something?"
"Dogs love me." Jessica smiled and walked towards the gate. She pushed on the gate and was shocked to feel it move. "Maybe we won’t have to climb after all." Jessica pushed the gates all the way open and walked inside. Sarah followed close behind her. They walked up a road and stopped suddenly when they saw a house in front of them.
"It’s beautiful." Jessica said.
"It’s just a house."
Jessica smirked at Sarah and started walking towards the house. "Did you see the H on the gates?"
"Yeah, why?" Sarah asked.
"It’s just, this house it looks awfully familiar."
"Maybe it’s been in a magazine."
"No, I think it’s my parents old house. The one that burned down. I’ve seen pictures of it."
"If it burned down how can it be here?"
"I don’t know…unless…" Jessica’s voice trailed off.
"Unless what?"
"Unless, he had it re-built."
"Who had what rebuilt?"
" My dad, this house. Come on let’s check out the inside." Jessica and Sarah walked to the front door and entered the house. "This is too cool." Jessica exclaimed.
"Very cool. Look at it, it’s gorgeous in here."
"It’s just the inside of a house." Jessica grinned at Sarah.
"Haa Haa."
Jessica and Sarah walked into the living room. "Creepy." Sarah said.
"What?" Jessica asked.
"That." Sarah pointed to some photos sitting on a coffee table.
Jessica looked at the photos and her eyes grew wide. Sitting on the coffee table were three photos. One of the Harts, taken years before she had met them, one of herself and one of her grandfather, Max. "Wow." She said.
Jennifer sat at her computer looking at all of the old files Deanne had put on disk. Jonathan had brought a big box of the disks home with him a few weeks ago. He had wanted to look through them and decide which ones could be erased. Now, Jennifer was looking through them trying to see if she could figure out why someone would blow up Hart Industries.
"Find anything interesting?" Steven asked as he came into the room. He handed Jennifer a cup of coffee.
"Not so far. Is Jessica home yet?"
"No, do you want me to go look for her?"
"No, thanks Pa." Jennifer smiled. "She is probably just having a long talk with Sarah."
"Do you need anything?"
"Nothing that I can have." Jennifer said wistfully. Steven kissed her on the forehead and walked out of the room.
Jennifer stared at the screen as she pulled up file on a man named Aaron Whitfield. "Aaron Whitfield?" Jennifer said to herself. She recognized the name but she couldn’t remember how or why. She was going to close the file and move on to the next one, but something told her to keep reading it. She read that he had two sons and that he had been a rival of Jonathan’s for several companies over the years. He had died a year ago while bidding on a company that Jonathan had ended up winning. Jennifer didn’t find anything unusual about the file. Aaron certainly couldn’t be after Jonathan or Hart Industries, he is dead. However, Jennifer kept looking at the file until she got down to the biographical information. His two sons were grown when he died; there was nothing interesting about them except they were both listed as scientists. Jennifer decided a trip to the library was in order. She went downstairs to tell Steven where she was going.
Jonathan tried to undo the ties around his wrists. It was a futile maneuver. Jonathan jumped, startled when the door to the room opened. Ian came inside quietly and whispered, "I want to help you."
"You do? Why?" Jonathan asked suspiciously.
"I don’t believe in murder and I don’t believe you killed my father."
"Your father? Who’s your father?"
"Aaron Whitfield."
"Oh, I’m sorry. That was quite a tragedy."
"Yes, it was. Walker blames you for it all."
"But, you don’t."
"No, and we must hurry, he’ll be back soon." Ian walked around and untied Jonathan.
Jonathan stood. "Where are we going?"
"I haven’t figured that out yet. It needs to be somewhere Walker wouldn’t think to look."
"I think I know just the place." Jonathan said.
Jessica and Sarah left the house full of excitement.
"Why do you think he re-built it?" Sarah asked curiously.
"I don’t know, probably for my mother."
"Are you going to tell her about it?"
"I haven’t decided yet." Jessica said as she and Sarah walked back to the car.
Jennifer sat at the library looking at microfiche’s of old newspaper clippings. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, so she was just doing a general search on the name Whitfield.
She had already looked at tons of obituaries and wedding notices for Whitfields. Her eyes were beginning to tire when she came across an article about a Willa Whitfield. Willa Whitfield was a prominent citizen of Dallas; she was on her way to a seat on the state senate. However, this article was detailing her descent into insanity. It had all started when her husband died in an explosion. Apparently, the building he worked in had sprung a gas leak. Jennifer looked for the husband’s name, but she wasn’t surprised when she saw that his name was Aaron and that Willa had two grown sons.
Jennifer printed the article and left the library. She wasn’t going to be able to figure this out without some sleep. She didn’t know how long she had been in the library, but she was sure it had been hours.
Jennifer entered the house and found it extremely still and quiet. The darkness from outside spilled into the house and cast shadows on the rooms. Jennifer was heading for the stairs when she heard someone stir in the living room.
"Pa?" she called when she saw whom it was sitting on the couch. "What are you doing up?"
"Did you find anything?"
"I think so. When did Jessie get home?"
"A couple hours ago, she was pretty tired, went right to bed."
"Thanks. I’m pretty tired myself." Jennifer yawned.
"Me too." Steven grinned as they both headed for the stairs.
Ian pulled up to the gates. Jonathan got out of the car and opened the gates so that Ian could drive the car through them. After the car made it through, Jonathan closed the gates and got back in the car. Ian parked the car in the garage and he and Jonathan headed for the house.
Ian was surprised to find the door unlocked. "You don’t lock your doors?"
"No one knows there’s a house back here except the contractors who built it."
"No one knows?"
"No, as far as the neighbors know, the house on these grounds burned down years ago."
"Good, then no one will accidentally discover us." Ian said as he noticed Jonathan walking towards the phone. "What are you doing?"
"Calling my wife."
"That’s not a good idea."
"Why is that?"
"Number one, she wouldn’t believe it was you, she’d think it was some sort of prank." When Jonathan didn’t seem to believe that reason he continued, "Number two, and most importantly, Walker is watching her every move. If he knows she knows you’re alive she’ll be in danger. My brother wants you to suffer and he will do anything to ensure that happens."
Jonathan sadly put down the phone. "What do we do now?"
"We figure out how to take out Walker."
"Have any ideas?" Jonathan asked.
"First we have to prove that he was involved in the explosion."
"Can’t you do that?"
"I can give testimony that we did it, but he can easily say I did it all and it’d be one suspects word against another’s."
"Why are you doing this? You’re bound to go to jail when this is all over."
"I know, I just can’t live like this anymore."
"How do we prove your brother’s involvement?"
"I don’t know."
Jonathan hid while he watched the house. Ian had warned him against it, but he wanted to see Jennifer. He waited for her to leave the house. He didn’t know what he was going to do when he saw her. He didn’t have much time to decide when Jennifer walked out of the house and waved to Jessica and Steven who stood in the doorway. "I’ll be back by lunch." She called. Jennifer walked to her car but stopped and looked in Jonathan’s general direction for a moment. She didn’t see Jonathan and soon got into her car and drove away.
Jonathan watched as her car faded out of his sight. He jumped when he saw another car pull into the driveway. He recognized the car as Jessica’s friend Sarah’s. Jessica got into the car and Sarah followed the trail left by Jennifer. Jonathan hoped that Jennifer and Jessica hadn’t noticed Ian parked in his car down the street. After he saw Steven go back into the house Jonathan headed for Ian’s car.
Walker was furious. He couldn’t find Ian or Jonathan Hart anywhere. He didn’t think Jonathan had escaped; surely he would have gone home to his wife if he had. From what he could see, however Jennifer Hart was still very much in mourning. He had to rearrange his plans now. If he couldn’t make Jonathan watch his wife grieve for him he would have to do something else. He had to make him pay for what he’d done. Walker couldn’t decide what his next move would be, but he was certain it would be big. There was no way Jonathan Hart would make a fool out of him. Then, suddenly an idea came to him. He knew it would be difficult to pull off, but there was nothing he liked more than a challenge. He’d just have to show Jonathan who was running this show. The only way he could think to do that was to kidnap his beautiful wife.
Jennifer entered the library and sat down at the microfiche machine. She brought up more articles on Willa Whitfield and learned her son’s names were Ian and Walker. Jennifer looked for articles about the sons and printed out the one’s she found. After the articles had been printed Jennifer took them and sat at a table where she could read them. The first article grabbed her attention, "Walker Whitfield Arrested". She scanned the article and found that Walker had been arrested for having parts to a bomb in his car. Jennifer was getting an uneasy feeling in her stomach and continued reading of Walker Whitfield’s brushes with the law.
She wiped a piece of hair from her face when she felt someone come up behind her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and she started to turn around. The person behind her yelled at her not to turn around, though and pointed something into her back. Jennifer could only assume that something was a gun so she did as she was told. The person indicated for her to stand up. She grabbed her purse and walked where the person led her. When they got outside of the library he pushed Jennifer into a car and got into the driver’s seat. When he sat down in the car, Jennifer recognized him from the articles she had just read. He was Walker Whitfield.
Jonathan and Ian arrived back at the house and headed for the den. They were going to plan their strategy for trapping Walker. They wanted to trap him and then try to get him to confess. They didn’t hear the front door open from their place in the den.
Jessica and Sarah walked into the house quietly. They saw a strange car in the garage when they had pulled up. They were not sure who would be parking at the house, but they figured it was just one of the people who had built the house. Still, they were being cautious and tiptoed into the living room. When they didn’t find anyone in there they began to search the other rooms. They were near the den when they heard voices coming from inside.
"That’s impossible." Jessica whispered.
"What?"
"That one guy, he sounds like Jonathan."
"You’re kidding." Sarah said.
"No, come on, let’s get out of here." Jessica wasn’t sure she wanted to know who was in the den. If it was Jonathan, she didn’t know how she would react to finding him alive.
"Don’t you want to know who that is?"
"No." She said emphatically.
"Come on." Sarah said as she pulled Jessica’s hand and snuck into the den. The men inside didn’t hear them come in at first. Jonathan turned around quickly, however when Jessica screamed.
"Jessie." He said as he walked over to her and tried to touch her.
Jessica was crying and pushed him away. "You’re dead."
"No, it was a trick."
"A trick? That’s awful." She yelled.
"No, I didn’t do it. It was someone else, a man named Walker Whitfield, he wanted Jennifer to think I was dead." Jonathan winced as he realized how unbelievable that sounded.
Ian came up behind them. "It’s true."
"Why should I believe you? I don’t even know who you are?" Jessica said.
"No, but you know me. You know how much I love Jennifer, do you really think I would put her through all this on purpose?" Jonathan whispered softly.
Jessica shook her head slowly. "I don’t understand." She cried.
Jonathan pulled her into his arms and cradled her head in his hands. "I know. The truth is, I don’t understand it either. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay."
Jessica moved her head to look at Jonathan. "When were you going to tell us you were alive?"
"As soon as we’d gotten enough proof to get Walker behind bars."
"Can we tell Jennifer? I don’t think I could pretend with her." Jessica pleaded.
Ian shook his head no, but Jonathan nodded. "Yeah, we’ll tell her now."
"Jonathan, that’s not a good idea."
Jonathan ignored him. "Sarah, can you do me a favor?"
Sarah nodded her head.
"Go to our house and get Jennifer to come with you somehow. Bring her back here."
"Okay, Mr. Hart." Sarah said as she headed out the door.
Sarah knocked on the door. Steven answered the door.
"Sarah? Where’s Jessica?"
"Umm, she’s, umm. Is Mrs. Hart home?" she stuttered.
"No, she hasn’t come back yet." Steven turned when the telephone rang. "Come on in and wait a second. I need to get the phone."
"Sure." Sarah followed Steven into the room.
"Hello?"
"Who’s this?" Walker asked.
"Steven Edwards, who is this?"
"I have a message. Tell Mr. Hart I have his wife."
"I don’t know what you’re talking about. Jonathan Hart is dead."
Sarah cringed when he said that.
"I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Mr. Edwards. Tell him to meet me at the old Whitfield Corporation building. He’ll know what I mean. Oh and tell him it’s a matter of life and death." Walker hung up the phone.
"Who was that?" Sarah asked.
"Just some prankster. Now, where’s Jessica?"
"I really need to talk to Mrs. Hart."
"She’s not here, now if something’s wrong with Jessie you need to tell me."
"There’s nothing wrong with her. She’s fine. It’s just well, I don’t know if I should tell you."
"You should."
"She’s with Mr. Hart."
Steven was confused. "But, that’s impossible. He’s…" Sarah interrupted him before he could finish.
"He isn’t. Someone made it look like he was, but he isn’t."
"Oh no." Steven gasped. "Then, that phone call… Sarah, I need you to take me to him."
"But,"
"Now!" He yelled. Sarah jumped back at his tone and did as she was told.
