Discouragement was slowly setting in. It was now Thursday and her third day in Washington and Diana still had not managed to turn up anything from the leads she had been given. It had been an exhausting wild goose chase from one run down, abandoned building to the next and one unproductive interrogation to another.

It was 11:46 in the morning and Diana was walking along Q Street in the Dupont Circle area to her car when she decided she could really use a bite to eat. Skipping breakfast, she had been going non-stop all morning and was feeling the lack of nourishment. She would check in first, though.

Over the last couple of days she had made it a habit of checking in with Mailer twice a day to see if there was anything new. It was always the same response: "Diana, I will let you know if I hear anything new." But, would he really? She wasn't so sure that he might withhold something important out of sheer spite. No, she couldn't think like that. He was a trusted agent and no matter what kind of relationship they had, he would never do anything to jeopardize his job.

When her call to Irving Mailer's office went through, Teresa informed her that Mailer was out and wouldn't be back for another couple of hours.

"Okay. I was just checking to see if anything new had come in..."

"As a matter of fact, Diana, I just took a call from a young man who wanted to talk to Mr. Mailer pretty badly. He said he had gone to the police with some information and was told to contact the IADC... and Mr. Mailer in particular."

Diana's curiosity was piqued. She had rightly concluded that the local authorities were cooperating with the IADC to turn up any facts about the case that they could. But not too many tips, in fact only one, had come from the police. This led Diana to believe that this young man was holding some information and that he was unsure what to do with it. Following the usual route, he had called the police first. This was promising indeed.

"Teresa, could you give me the information he left- his name and where I could contact him," Diana asked rather hurriedly, excited by the thought of actually finding someone who might have something useful to tell her. But right away, she heard the note of hesitation in Teresa's voice:

"Uh, I'm not sure, Diana. I need to check this with Mr. Mailer first. He was very specific in his instructions to have everything go through him first and not to give anything out to you before..." Teresa realized what she had allowed to slip and tried to rectify her statement. Stammering she continued: "I mean, anybody... not just you. His exact words were..."

"I really don't need to know his exact words. I know what type of person he is and I think by now, even you know what we think of each other. But Teresa, this might be important and any leads we get need to be checked as soon as possible. Please, I will personally answer for this one if it gets you into any trouble." Diana tone was pleading.

There was a long pause. Finally Teresa said, "His name is Stephen Hartnell and his address is..." Diana smiled. She hadn't known Teresa long at all, but had known that she would come through.

"Thank you, Teresa."

Lunch was forgotten. Diana followed her own familiar route toward the Georgetown area and the address Teresa had just given her of the young man she hoped would shed some light upon this business.

She took Q Street over the Potomac to WisconsinAvenue. She was pretty sure that Grace Street was somewhere near Dumbarton Oaks. Yes, here it was. She scanned the small houses going by, not being able to see too many house numbers. There was 242 and 236, so she was going in the right direction, at least.

When she pulled up along the curb in front of 112 Grace Street, she saw that a young boy was sitting on the front steps smoking a cigarette. She estimated he was about eighteen and just out of school and she wondered if that was Stephen.

Walking toward him up the steep driveway, Diana's warm smile was met with a disinterested smirk.

"I'm looking for Stephen Hartnell. My name is Diana prince and I work for the IADC."

And it was suddenly as if a fire was lit under the boy. He jumped up and offered his hand to Diana. Nervously, he said: "I'm Stephen, uh... Steve. Thank you for coming, but, um... I was supposed to speak to a Mr. Mailer. That's what the cops told me anyways."

Diana reassuringly put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, you are in good hands with me. I was fortunate enough to receive your message before Mr. Mailer, so I came in his place. You don't mind?"

Stephen smiled. "Of course not. It's just that I needed to talk to somebody. I have always felt that it was a person's duty to tell when they thought somethin' strange was going on and man, have I seen some strange stuff. Let me tell ya. And besides he had no right to fire me. He just wanted to be able to keep all his secrets without anybody prying around..."

"Secrets? Who are you talking about Steve?" Diana asked, unsure at this point if the boy's ramblings had anything to do with why she was really there.

The boy blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, Ms. Prince, it's just that I get really mad when I think about it. I've just started college and I was depending on that job to help with some of the expenses. I got a partial scholarship to Georgetown; otherwise I wouldn't be going to any college at all. Anyway, this past summer I started working at Duvelli's Deli on 33rd. It was a decent job, better than flipping burgers. Mr. Duvelli was pretty nice and was willing to advance me pretty quickly. It wasn't long before I was filling orders and stuff. That was when I started noticing weird things going on. These guys would come in from time to time and Duvelli would always get this strange look on his face when he'd see 'em, you know? And they would go into the back and stay for a long time. See, he has this room he always kept locked and I started getting curious why he's always take these guys back there. He'd get all antsy whenever I got near it, which I had to do a lot because of the locker being back there too. Whenever I'd go back there to get some chops or somethin' he'd watch me like a hawk. And then other things would happen, things that if, they hadn't happened so often, I probably would'na noticed."

He paused to take a drag on his cigarette and Diana took the opportunity to cut in.

"You keep saying 'strange things'... what happened besies the men coming in and being taken to this back room?"

"I was getting to that. See, sometimes people would come in to make payments, so they said, on things that I had no idea of. At least, it wasn't for meats and cheeses, I mean. And each time these particular people would come in, Duvelli always had me go out and sweep off the sidewalk or something like that. It was almost like he was trying to get me out of the way. Well, the other day- Monday, these two guys come in making like they had a delivery and all the while smiling and laughing like they were up to something. Trouble is, I'd never seen these guys before- they weren't the ones who made the usual deliveries. I heard Duvelli say something about bringing it in through the back. Nothing ever gets delivered in the back. All that's back there is a warehouse that's not used for anything, but it's connected to the deli, see?" He stopped as if allowing Diana to catch on to where he was going with his story. When he saw Diana's confused look, he heaved a sigh and went on:

"That door, the one that's always locked, must go out to the warehouse!" And he grinned, obviously proud of his deduction.

Diana was beginning to see. "You mean you think that something is going on in that warehouse and..."

"The deli is some sorta cover up!"

Diana couldn't help but grin at his junior detective enthusiasm. "Stephen... Steve, is there any other reason why you think this matter should be of interest to the IADC?"

"I haven't gotten to the best part yet. As I said, I was getting curious about what was going on back there. Well, when those delivery guys showed up and Duvelli went around back to meet them, I went to the locked door and listened. All I could really hear for awhile was a bunch of mumbling voices and then some kind of struggle and a door slamming. But then it was like they were right on the other side of the door where I was and I could tell Duvelli was mad. I heard him yelling at the other guys, something about them not leaving a body at the scene and weren't they smart enough to realize that the IADC would know something was up when they couldn't find a body..."

He stopped his narration abruptly and stared at Diana, whose face had gone ashen.

"Are you alright?" the boy asked sincerely concerned.

Diana wasn't certain she had heard correctly. "What did you just say about a body?"

"I said, Duvelli asked them weren't they smart enough to know that the IADC would know something was up when they couldn't find a body..."

"What was said after that?"

"Well, that's the thing. Just about then it went all quiet and suddenly the door jerked opened and Duvelli found me there on the other side of the door. What was he supposed to think other than I was there eavesdropping on their conversation? I tried my best to give an excuse for being there, but couldn't... and he fired me. He said he couldn't trust me any longer and all that junk."

"So, the last day you worked was Monday and that was the same day this unusual delivery took place? Why didn't you call the IADC immediately, especially after overhearing Duvelli talking about it in connection with a body?"

The urgency of Diana's tone made the boy act guilty as if he'd done something wrong himself. "I... well, I really didn't know what the IADC was until I called the cops yesterday. When I told them what I heard they acted like it was all important and told me to call this number right away and ask for a Mr. Irving Mailer. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Diana felt ashamed that she made the boy feel he needed to explain his actions. He didn't know.

"It's alright, Steve. It's just that this case I'm working on involves a close friend of mine. In fact his name is Steve, too. Up until now we have had reason to think he is dead, but with what you have just told me, it confirms what I have been fighting to believe all along... he might be alive."