One False Step Read online

  Two Shows for the Price of One . . .

  “Anything wrong, dear?” Gina asked.

  “No, it’s just that high-rise robbery,” Mario said. “We thought those marks on the railings of the balcony might lead somewhere, but it was a dead end.”

  Frank shot a questioning look at Joe.

  “I saw Aérocirque’s first performance last night,” Mario said, “and you all are in for an amazing treat.”

  “Matt saw them in New York, but it’ll be the first time for the rest of us,” Tony said. “We can hardly wait!”

  Frank was looking forward to the performance too, but the high-rise burglary suddenly seemed more interesting.

  Contents

  * * *

  Chapter 1: Aérocirque

  Chapter 2: Detective Zettarella’s Problem

  Chapter 3: The Mystery of the Missing Acrobats

  Chapter 4: Another Robbery

  Chapter 5: Clues on the Balcony

  Chapter 6: Case Closed?

  Chapter 7: Can Elisabeth Be Trusted?

  Chapter 8: Tipped Off!

  Chapter 9: Undercover!

  Chapter 10: High-wire Act

  Chapter 11: A Change of Plans

  Chapter 12: Prisoners

  Chapter 13: Betrayed!

  Chapter 14: Escape!

  Chapter 15: A New Circus Act?

  1 Aérocirque

  * * *

  “I wish you two could have gone with me to see Aérocirque in New York last Saturday,” Matt Jenkins said to Frank and Joe Hardy. “It was amazing!”

  “Aérocirque?” seventeen-year-old Joe Hardy said. He sprayed some mousse on his blond hair and started combing it in. “I’ve never heard of it before.”

  “The New York show was their first,” Matt said. “The owner is a rich European who’s hired some of the best pilots and aerialists from all over Europe and turned them into ‘Aérocirque.’”

  Frank Hardy, who was a year older than his brother, pulled a blue sweater over his head, recombed his dark hair with his fingers, and said, “We were in Montreal helping Dad on a mystery case, so we couldn’t have gone anyway—but I’ve never heard of Aérocirque either. It sounds like something Joe and I would really like to have seen. Maybe next time.”

  Frank and Joe often helped their famous father solve mysteries all over the world. When police departments from Calcutta to Calgary, from Dallas to Dubai were confronted with cases that stumped them, they called on Fenton Hardy—and he called on his sons for assistance.

  “Well, I’ve got a copy of their schedule in my backpack,” Matt said, “so if their next performance is not too far from Bayport, maybe we could go.”

  “Great idea,” Joe said.

  The three of them headed out of the Hardys’ house to Frank and Joe’s van.

  “I appreciate the ride to school, guys,” Matt said. “My car won’t be ready for several days. They had to order a part.”

  “It’s no problem,” Frank said. “We’re glad to have you along.”

  Matt and his mother had moved into the house next door a couple of weeks before, and Matt had immediately fit in with Frank and Joe and their friends. Dr. Jenkins had just recently retired from the diplomatic service. She had grown up in Bay-port and wanted Matt to spent what was left of his high school years there. Matt’s father, a well-known mystery writer, had died of cancer when the family was living in Botswana.

  Joe looked at his watch. “We’re going to be late if we don’t hurry,” he said. “I didn’t finish reading chapter seven in my world history book, and we’re going to have a test on it this morning.”

  “What’s the chapter about?” Matt asked.

  “The apartheid years in South Africa,” Joe said.

  “Well, we never lived in South Africa, but Botswana is right next door,” Matt said, “so I know all about that period. Apartheid affected all the surrounding countries.”

  While Frank drove them to school, Matt told Joe all he knew about the South African policy of racial separation from the late 1940s through the 1990s, when Nelson Mandela became the country’s first black leader.

  As Frank pulled into the student parking lot of Bayport High School, Joe said, “Thanks to you, Matt, I should get an A on that test! We need to do this more often. You’re better than a textbook.”

  “I learned a lot of things about that time too,” Frank agreed. “Hey, there’s Chet!” Frank gave a short toot of his horn to get Chet Morton’s attention. “I need to ask him what the track coach said about tryouts next week. They were talking the other day.”

  Matt unzipped his backpack. “I got so busy talking about apartheid, I forgot about the Aérocirque schedule,” he said. He pulled out a piece of paper. “Here it is. Hey! They have several performances in Philadelphia this week.” He looked up. “We ought to get some of the gang together and go.”

  “Sounds like a great idea to me,” Joe said.

  “Let’s talk about it at lunch,” Frank suggested.

  • • •

  Frank surveyed the crowded cafeteria. “Do you see Joe and Matt?” he asked Chet and Tony Prito, who had just joined him.

  “Looks like they’re sitting down by Callie and Iola at that back table,” Tony said, nodding in their direction, “but there are still three empty chairs.”

  Iola Morton was Chet’s sister and a frequent date of Joe’s. Sometimes Iola and Joe double dated with Frank and Callie Shaw.

  “Do we have to sit with my sister?” Chet said. “I see enough of her at home.”

  “Don’t be so hard on her, Chet,” Frank said. “Anyway, I promised Joe and Matt that we’d talk about going to see Aérocirque this weekend.”

  The three of them headed for the serving line to get their trays.

  “I saw some pictures of that in the Sunday newspaper,” Tony said. “There were these two helicopters with a wire between them—and this guy was walking it!”

  “How can the person keep his balance?” Chet said. “Could you please give me double mashed potatoes?” he asked Mrs. Conroy, one of the cafeteria servers. He gave her a big smile.

  “I always give you double servings, Chet,” Mrs. Conroy said. “You don’t have to ask.”

  Chet grinned. “Thanks, Mrs. Conroy,” he said.

  “What about us, Mrs. Conroy?” Tony said. “Frank and I are really hungry too.”

  Mrs. Conroy shook her head. “Your coach told me you two are in training, so there are no doubles until track season is over,” she said. She leaned closer to them. “If you win district, I might even think about tripling your servings.”

  Frank smiled.

  As soon as they got their drinks, Frank, Chet, and Tony headed for the back table.

  When they arrived, Frank said, “Hey, Callie! How’d you do on that math test?”

  Callie shook her head. “I can’t believe I studied so much and knew so little,” she said.

  Iola rolled her eyes. “That means she must have scored ninety-nine instead of a hundred,” she said.

  “What were you guys talking about before?” Chet asked. “I hope it’s something that will be good for my digestion.”

  Joe looked at Chet’s plate. “I’m not sure anything is going to help your digestion if you eat all of that.”

  “Callie was telling us about a friend of hers in New York City whose family’s apartment was robbed Saturday night,” Matt said.

  “Oh, I thought it was something really interesting,” Tony said. “Those things happen all the time in big cities.”

  “This is different,” Callie said. “The police are totally stumped.”

  “What makes this crime so different, Callie?” Frank asked. He tasted the green beans, then moved them to the side of his plate. “Too salty,” he said
.

  “Do you remember Mary Beth Edwards? She’s visited me here in Bayport several times,” Callie said. “Our families are distantly related in some way.”

  Joe nodded. “She’s the one who looks like she could be your twin sister, right?”

  “Right,” Callie said. “Well, she and her family live in the apartment just below the penthouse in a new high-rise on West Sixty-ninth Street in Manhattan, and they were robbed Saturday night,” she continued. “What makes this so different is that the thieves got in through the French doors off the balcony.”

  “Window washers!” Tony said.

  Callie shook her head. “Nope. The police have ruled that out.”

  “Maybe it was one of those building climbers,” Matt suggested. “You know, the people who’d rather climb up buildings than mountains.”

  “The police don’t think so,” Callie responded. “Anyway, somebody always spots those people before they get to the top.”

  “Well, there has to be an explanation,” Chet said. “It couldn’t be somebody who just flew in and landed on the balcony, like one of those super-heroes.”

  “If you’re saying that you don’t believe in super-heroes anymore, Chet, then I guess we can throw away all those old comic books in the attic,” Iola said, smiling. “I need more space to store my things.”

  “Don’t you touch those comic books!” Chet said. “They’re worth a fortune!”

  Everyone at the table laughed.

  Callie looked at Frank and Joe. “Mary Beth wanted me to tell you about it,” she said. “She was hoping you two could suggest some ideas about who might have committed this crime to the New York police.”

  “You know, someone they might have missed,” Iola added.

  “Sure,” Joe said. “We’d be glad to.”

  “We’ll also talk to Dad,” Frank added. “If I know him, he probably already knows about the case and has some theories of his own.”

  Matt looked at his watch. “I hate to change the subject, Callie, but we were going to make some plans to go see Aérocirque this weekend in Philadelphia.”

  “Aérocirque! That’s where Mary Beth and her parents were when their apartment was robbed,” Callie said. “She said she had never seen anything so exciting.”

  “It was like nothing I had ever seen before either,” Matt said. He unfolded a piece of paper and laid it on the table. “Here’s Aérocirque’s schedule. They’ll be in Philadelphia for five days. If we leave Bayport Friday after school, we can see several performances.”

  “Why do we need to go so many times?” Chet asked.

  “Yeah,” Tony agreed. “It sounds interesting, but wouldn’t one performance be enough?”

  “They have several troupes of acrobats,” Matt explained. “They don’t all perform every night.”

  “I don’t know,” Chet said. “I had some other plans for this weekend.”

  “I hate to be a killjoy,” Tony said, “but . . .”

  “It won’t be as much fun if we don’t all go together. I was really looking forward to it,” Matt said. He looked around the table. “Look, guys, I’m sorry. I know I come on strong sometimes. You have to understand how much I’m enjoying having a normal American high school experience after spending so much time overseas. But anyway, who knows? Aérocirque will probably be on television in a few months. That’ll be just as good.”

  “Not really,” Joe said.

  “Well, if we don’t want to stay after the show Friday night, we can get up Saturday morning and come back to Bayport,” Frank said.

  “I guess that would work,” Chet said.

  Tony nodded his agreement.

  “If Mom and Dad don’t have a problem with it, then we’ll drive down to Philadelphia Friday after school,” Frank said.

  “You won’t regret it, I guarantee it!” Matt said.

  They all gathered up their trays and headed for the conveyor belt.

  “Don’t forget about Mary Beth’s robbery,” Callie reminded Frank.

  “We won’t,” Frank said. “I promise.”

  As Frank and Joe headed to the first of their afternoon classes, Joe said, “You know, this is a lot like one of those ‘locked room’ puzzles that Aunt Gertrude enjoys reading about so much. You know, when a crime is committed in a locked room, and nobody can figure out how it could have happened.”

  “That could be, Joe,” Frank said, “but at the end, the detectives always figure the puzzle out—and I’m sure that’s what’ll happen this time.”

  2 Detective Zettarella’s Problem

  * * *

  When Frank and Joe got home after school that day they went straight to the kitchen, where Mrs. Hardy had thick slices of chocolate cake and glasses of cold milk ready for them.

  “Thanks, Mom!” Joe said. “My favorite!”

  “If it’s food it’s your favorite, Joe Hardy!” Aunt Gertrude said, breezing into the kitchen, a finger holding her place in the latest romance novel she was reading. She gave both Joe and Frank a peck on the cheek. “I don’t know how you boys can eat so much and stay so slim. I just need to look at a slice of cake to put on ten pounds.”

  “Exercise,” Frank said. “That’s the secret.”

  “We have to eat this much, Aunt Gertrude,” Joe added. “If we didn’t, we’d be skin and bones.”

  “I guess so,” Aunt Gertrude said.

  “Anyway, you’re looking great, Aunt Gertrude,” Frank said. “It must be all those trips to your new gym downtown.”

  Aunt Gertrude blushed.

  “How’s Mr. Phillips?” Joe asked. “Are you and he still dating?”

  Aunt Gertrude blushed even deeper. “Good heavens, Joe Hardy! You make it sound like we’re a couple of teenagers!” she said. “Mr. Phillips and I are merely friends who enjoy attending an occasional philharmonic concert together.” She turned to Mrs. Hardy. “Laura, if you need me to help you with dinner I’ll be glad to, but if not, I’d just as soon finish this novel I’m reading.”

  “Thank you, Gertrude. I have it all under control,” Mrs. Hardy said. “Finish your book.”

  Joe crooked his head so he could read the title. “The Bride from Butte.” He looked at his aunt and grinned. “Sounds interesting,” he said. “Are you getting some good ideas from it?”

  “Don’t you go thinking I’m looking to get married, Joe Hardy,” Aunt Gertrude said. “This book was written by the granddaughter of a friend I went to college with. She asked me to read it.”

  Joe winked at Frank, and Frank grinned back.

  After Frank and Joe had had two more pieces of cake each, Frank said, “Mom, we were thinking about driving to Philadelphia this weekend to catch a couple of the Aérocirque performances. Would that be all right?”

  Mrs. Hardy took a casserole out of the oven, set it on a wire rack, and said, “We don’t have any relatives in Philadelphia, Frank. Where would you stay?”

  “I was thinking we could just rent a hotel room, Mom,” Frank said. “Several of the guys are going. Matt. Chet. Tony. We could pool our money.”

  “Matt went to see Aérocirque in New York last weekend, Mom, when were were in Montreal helping Dad,” Joe added, “and he can’t stop raving about it.”

  “Is it like that fancy circus that’s in Las Vegas all the time?” Aunt Gertrude asked.

  “No, this one is always in a big outdoor stadium. It uses helicopters,” Joe explained.

  “They tie a wire to a couple of helicopters, and then the acrobats walk across it while the helicopters are in the air,” Frank added.

  “I’ve never heard of anything so dangerous in all my life,” Mrs. Hardy said.

  “It’s the danger that makes it exciting!” Joe said.

  “That’s not all,” Frank said. “Some of the helicopters have trapezes attached to them on the bottom, and some of the aerialists swing from one to another.”

  “Oh, my goodness! What is this world coming to?” Aunt Gertrude said. “When I was growing up, we got excited if we s
aw lions and tigers at the circus.”

  “Times have changed, Aunt Gertrude,” Joe said.

  “Well, if you’re only planning to watch and not participate, then ask your father and see what he has to say about you going,” Mrs. Hardy said. “But it sounds fine to me.”

  “Dad always tells us to check with you first, Mom,” Frank said, “so is it all right if we tell him you think it’s a great idea?”

  “I didn’t say I thought it was a great idea, Frank Hardy,” Mrs. Hardy said. “I only said, well . . .” She sighed. “All right, just tell him that I thought it was a great idea!”

  “Laura, it’s probably safer than some of the cases they’ve been on,” Aunt Gertrude said. She turned a page of her romance novel. “Sometimes I wish we lived in a simpler age.”

  Frank and Joe headed for Mr. Hardy’s study. The door was closed, so Frank knocked.

  “Come in,” Mr. Hardy said.

  “Do you have a couple of minutes, Dad?” Joe said. “We have something to ask you.”

  “I always have time for my sons,” Mr. Hardy said. “I’m actually glad for a break. I’m stumped.”

  “Are you working on another case?” Frank asked.

  “Yes, but it’s not my case,” Mr. Hardy said. “I just got off the telephone with Detective Rodriguez in New York. He wanted my opinion on the robbery of a high-rise apartment.”

  Frank and Joe looked at each other.

  “Was the robbery Saturday night, and did the apartment belong to a family named Edwards?” Joe asked.

  Mr. Hardy blinked in surprise. “How did you know that?” he asked.

  Frank repeated what Callie had told them in the cafeteria.

  “Callie said the police think the thieves came in through the French doors off the balcony,” Joe added, “but they don’t have any evidence.”

  “Well, that’s not quite true. I know you boys won’t repeat this—the police did find some strange marks on the railing of the balcony,” Mr. Hardy said. “Dr. Edwards said he was sure they weren’t there before the robbery.”

  “When Callie was telling us about the robbery, the first thing I thought of was window washers,” Frank said, “but I guess that the police have ruled that out.”