Crime in the Cards Read online

  “Students caught playing with the cards during school hours will have their decks confiscated,” the principal’s voice continued. “Anyone carrying Creature Cards today should put them in their lockers.”

  “What a stupid idea!” sneered Pete Kaufmann, a sharp-featured blond kid sitting at the next table. “Daphne’s cards got taken from her locker!”

  As Pete spoke, many in the room glanced toward Daphne Soesbee, who was sitting alone at a table near the door. She rested her chin in her hands and looked miserable.

  “Take the cards home tonight, and don’t bring them back,” Principal Chambers continued. “This decision will be strictly enforced. Photocopies of the new policy will be handed out to each student in homeroom. That is all.”

  The P.A. clicked off and the bell rang.

  “I know many of you are unhappy about this decision,” Mr. McCool said. “Sometimes, though, we have to roll with the punches. Let’s all have a good day today.”

  The cafeteria doors opened, and everyone began to file out. The card players folded up their decks and put them away.

  “I can’t believe this,” Chet said, pounding his fist on the table in frustration. “It’s like we’re outlaws all of a sudden.”

  “Poor Daphne is taking it hard,” Callie said.

  “She has some serious deck rebuilding to do if she wants to compete in that tournament,” Chet noted.

  “Chet, you dope,” Iola said, “I think Callie means that Daphne could use some friends right now. She just transferred to Bayport this semester, after all.”

  “We should talk to her,” Frank suggested. “Find out what she knows about her cards.”

  “Yeah,” Joe said. “Maybe we can figure out who took them.”

  When they looked up, though, Daphne had already blended into the crowd of students leaving the lunchroom.

  “We’ll try to catch up with her later,” Frank said.

  “By then,” Chet moaned, “we probably won’t even be able totalkabout the cards!”

  Frank didn’t catch up with Daphne until just after lunch, when he went to English with her. Chet and Tim were in that class, as well.

  Daphne, however, didn’t want to talk to Frank—or anyone else. She sat near the back of the room and sulked, her short red hair drooping over her hazel eyes.

  As Mr. Pane bustled about, Chet leaned over to Tim. “When you get a minute,” Chet said, “I’ve got something to show you. I picked it up at the Dungeon Guild last night.”

  “A card?” Tim said. “But we’re not supposed to have them in class.”

  “I know,” Chet replied, “but after what happenedto Daphne, I didn’t want to put my deck in my locker. I’ll show you when we get a minute.”

  “Better cool it, you two,” Frank whispered from behind them.

  Chet and Tim nodded and turned to face the front of the class.

  Mr. Pane called the class into session a few moments later. He led a spirited discussion of the characters and symbolism in Herman Melville’sMoby Dick.

  “That white whale would make a great creature,” Chet whispered across the aisle to Tim.

  Tim nodded and whispered back. “What do you think, attack of nine and defense of four?”

  “Nah,” Chet said, shaking his head. “Defense would have to be more like six. A whale’s easy to hit but hard to damage.”

  “And as a special power, it could swallow another character whole,” Tim said gleefully.

  “I’d be happy,” Mr. Pane said, “if this special power didn’t disrupt class. Lester, Morton, consider this a warning.”

  Tim and Chet nodded glumly.

  Mr. Pane turned from the duo to Frank and said, “Frank, what do you think the sea gulls that circle Moby Dick symbolize?”

  “Well . . .” Frank replied, “sea gulls live near shore, so they could represent a longing for home on the part of the sailors. On the other hand, they accompany Moby Dick, which suggests they’re actually afalse hope—the kind of desire that leads men to their doom.”

  The discussion continued until a message over the P.A. system called Mr. Pane from the room to take a phone call. “Study the final chapters while I’m gone,” the teacher said. “When I return, we’ll talk about Queequeg’s coffin.”

  For a few minutes Chet studied his book. Then his enthusiasm got the better of him. He leaned over to Tim and said, “Tim, check this out.”

  From his pocket, Chet drew out a Creature Card.

  “Wow!” Tim said, his eyes growing bright. “The Coyote! That’s a demigod card I’ve never seen.”

  “I got it last night. It’s not as rare as the Bargeist,” Chet said, “and it doesn’t have as good an attack number. But Coyote’s better on defense. Plus, he’s immune to most magic—only spells from the Supernatural Sphere can affect him.”

  “Way cool,” Tim said. “But Sinbad and his Sister could still kick Coyote’s tail. Is that a blood spatter on the corner of the card?”

  “No, it’s ketchup.”

  “Chet . . .” Frank’s voice broke in.

  “What is it, Frank?” Chet asked, slightly annoyed. “Can’t you see we’re—”

  “Breaking the rules, Morton?” said Mr. Pane. He’d returned to the room a moment before, as Chet and Tim were busy talking.

  “Mr. Pane,” Chet said, “we were just—”

  “I can see what you were ‘just,’ Morton. Nowjusthand the deck over to me.”

  Chet’s face broke into a forlorn expression. Mr. Pane held out his palm, and Chet handed over the card he was holding.

  “The others as well, please,” Mr. Pane said. Chet dug into his pocket and produced the rest of the deck.

  Mr. Pane straightened the cards into a neat pile and walked with them to his desk. He opened the middle drawer and put the cards in. Then he drew a key out of his pocket and locked the drawer.

  “You can reclaim the cards at the end of the school day,” Mr. Pane said to Chet. “And, Morton . . .”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Don’t bring them to my class again, or you won’t get them back.”

  Chet swallowed. “Yes, Mr. Pane.”

  Chet moved like a zombie through the rest of his classes, his mind on nothing but reclaiming his Creature Cards.

  “I can’t believe you were so . . . stupid,” Iola said to her brother as she, Callie, and the Hardys gathered next to Chet’s locker at the end of the day. “After the announcement and the photocopied rules and everything. What were you thinking?”

  “My enthusiasm got the better of me,” Chet said glumly. “That Coyote card was burning a hole in my pocket. Ihadto show it to someone.”

  “Too bad you didn’t wait until after school,” Callie said.

  “Hey,” Joe interjected, “I think Chet feels bad enough already.”

  Frank put an arm around Chet’s shoulders. “Cheer up,” he said. “You’ll have those cards back before you can say ‘King Creature Commander.’ ”

  Just then Gerry Wise wandered by. “Hey Chet-man,” Gerry said. “Bummer about your cards. Everybody’s talking about it.” Gerry pushed his black-framed glasses up on the bridge of his long nose and smiled sympathetically.

  “Everybody?” Chet asked forlornly.

  “Well, all of the Creature Card players,” Gerry said. “Bad news travels fast. I saw some people trading cards before you got busted but after . . .” He formed his fingers into a goose egg. “Nada.”

  “Well, if people think this is going to slow me down,” Chet said, “they’re sadly mistaken. I still intend to vanquish all comers at the tournament.”

  Gerry turned and walked toward the front doors of the school. “We shall see, my man,” he called back. “We shall see.”

  “Is he a player?” Callie asked.

  “Nope,” Chet said. “He does a lot of card trading and selling, though.”

  “Makes some good dough on it, too, from what I hear,” Joe added.

  “Creature Cards is a seller’s market,” Chet said.�
�Some people will pay almost anything for a card that helps their game strategy.”

  “Well, let’s go get your cards back,” Frank suggested. “Otherwise, your strategy is going to be sitting on the sidelines during that tournament.”

  The five of them went to Mr. Pane’s classroom. They found the teacher organizing a shelf of books near the windows.

  Chet rapped lightly on the door. “Mr. Pane,” he said politely.

  Mr. Pane turned and smiled. “Morton,” he said, “I thought you might show up.” He walked toward his desk. “Sorry I had to do that, but rules are rules—and I could hardly break a new rule on the day it was implemented.”

  “I understand,” Chet said sympathetically. “I shouldn’t have had the cards out.”

  “I’m glad you understand,” Mr. Pane said. He pulled the desk key out of his pocket. “I meant what I said, though. I don’t want to see these cards in my class again.”

  Chet nodded as Mr. Pane opened the drawer. Mr. Pane frowned. Chet’s jaw dropped.

  “What is it?” Frank asked.

  “The cards,” Chet said. “They’re gone!”

  3 Cardnapped

  Creatures

  “Did you take the cards out of the desk?” Frank asked Mr. Pane.The teacher shook his head. “No,” he said. “I haven’t even opened the drawer since I confiscated them.” He pulled the drawer all the way out and emptied the contents, but there was no sign of the cards. “I don’t understand it,” he said. “They couldn’t have just vanished!”

  “Does anyone else have access to your desk?” Joe asked.

  “Normally, no,” Mr. Pane said. “I had seventh period off today, though, and the room was empty. I was in the teachers’ lounge. Anyone could have come in then, I guess. The desk was still locked, though.”

  Frank picked up the drawer and examined the lock.“It doesn’t look as though it’s been forced,” he said. “If it was picked, it was picked by an expert.”

  “I’ll have to tell Principal Chambers,” Mr. Pane said. “All of you wait here until I come back.”

  He went out the door and headed for the school offices.

  Chet collapsed into a chair behind a student desk at the front of the room. He buried his face in his large hands. “I can’t believe it,” he said.

  Iola walked over and put her hands on her brother’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, Chet,” she said. “We’ll find your cards.”

  “That deck had the Coyoteandthe Bargeist in it!” Chet moaned. “I have some spare cards at home, but how will I ever rebuild my deck in time for the tournament?”

  “You could buy more,” Callie suggested.

  “At six dollars for a pack of thirteen?” Chet scoffed. “No way. Most of the cards in every pack are common cards—duplicates of ones I already have. It’s taken me almost two months to build up that deck to tournament level through buying and trading. I don’t have the time or money to replace the rare cards I’ve lost.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his short blond hair distractedly.

  “We’ll just have to get your cards back, then,” Joe said. He and Frank had been poking around the room, looking for any clues.

  “Do you think youcanfind them?” Chet asked hopefully.

  “We’ve solved tougher cases,” Frank said. He replaceda row of books he’d been paging through. “I’m not finding anything here, though. How about you, Joe?”

  Joe, who had been searching under the desk, stood up. “Nothing,” he said. “Too many people use this room on a regular basis. We’d have to be pretty lucky to find a clue pointing directly to the culprit. Unless, of course, the robber got careless.”

  “Whoever opened that drawer knew what he was doing,” Frank said. “A pro couldn’t have done better.”

  Just then Mr. Pane returned with the principal. Chet stood up hopefully as they entered.

  “I can’t say that I’m really surprised about this,” Mr. Chambers said.

  “Well,I’msurprised,” Mr. Pane replied. “No one’s ever broken into my desk before.”

  “Those cards have been causing a lot of trouble in this school. It was your deck, Mr. Morton?” the principal asked.

  Chet nodded.

  “Were the cards valuable?”

  “Some of them. Yeah.” Chet said.

  “I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic,” Principal Chambers said, “but this is one of the reasons I banned Creature Cards from school this morning. If you’d kept the cards in your locker, as I suggested, this wouldn’t have happened. We’ll look into it, of course, but we have a lot of students and we can’t just interrogate everyone. We could call the police, though.”

  Chet shook his head. “No,” he said. “The cops wouldn’t take this seriously.”

  “Chet,” Callie said, “alerting the police might be a good idea.”

  “I’d rather trust Joe and Frank,” Chet said. “They’ll get my cards back.”

  “Thanks, Chet,” Frank said. “We’ll try to live up to your faith in us.”

  “I’ll talk to the other members of the faculty,” Mr. Pane said hopefully. “With a little luck maybe we can turn them up.”

  “Thanks,” Chet said. He and the others filed silently out of the classroom. They visited their lockers and then headed out to the student parking lot.

  “Man,” Joe said, “I hate locked-room mysteries. A locked desk is almost as bad.”

  “As you said, Joe, there are just too many people with access to that room,” Frank noted.

  “Well, whoever took Chet’s cards had to know they were in that desk,” Callie said. “Shouldn’t that limit the suspects to the people who were in Mr. Pane’s class at the time?”

  “That might be true,” Frank said, “if it weren’t for the network of Creature Card players in the school. Remember what Gerry Wise said? The news about the cards being confiscated was all over school.”

  Callie frowned. “Oh, that’s right,” she said. “All the card players’ being so close will sure make this tougher to solve. What about the lock, though? Who’dhave the skill to pick it? Could you narrow the list of suspects that way?”

  “It didn’t look like a very tricky lock,” Frank said. “Either Joe or I could have sprung it without leaving a mark.”

  “Plus,” Joe said, “it’s a standard issue school desk. There may be any number of keys for it floating around.”

  The group reached Frank and Joe’s van.

  “Let’s go get pizza,” Frank said. “We can discuss the case on the way.”

  “What about our cars?” Callie asked.

  “We’ll come back and pick them up later,” Joe replied.

  “Sounds good,” said Iola.

  All five of them piled into the Hardys’ van and headed for the pizza shop.

  “So, you think there could be another key to the desk?” Iola asked after they were under way.

  Frank nodded. “It’s possible. Any number of people could have a duplicate. Mr. Chambers probably does, for one.”

  Chet sighed. “But weknowChambers wouldn’t swipe my cards. So where do we go from here? I’m sunk without that deck.”

  “We should talk to other players,” Joe said. “Figure out who had a motive for taking your deck.”

  “That could be just about anyone,” Chet said with a laugh. “Those cards are valuable. Whoever took them might just sell them. Some kids collect CreatureCards without playing the game. They keep them as an ‘investment.’ Gerry’s like that. He’s got plenty of cards, but I’ve never seen him play. Daphne and I aren’t the only ones who’ve had cards stolen, either. Just about everyone I know has had a card or two lost or stolen. We’re the only ones who’ve had whole decks taken, though. And just a few days before the tournament.” He shook his fist in anger. “I wish there was something I could do.”

  “Don’t worry, Chet,” Iola said. “I know it looks bad, but Frank and Joe will find them. You should concentrate on getting ready for the tournament. Maybe you could buy the cards you need from Gerry. You�
�ve gotten cards from him before, haven’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Chet said. “But he bases his prices on the cost guides posted on the Internet—so shopping with Gerry is no bargain.”

  “I didn’t realize there was so much money in this,” Callie said.

  Chet nodded. “A lot of kids sink their savings into their decks. I know people who spend most of the money they earn at their part-time jobs on the game. I’ve done it myself—once or twice.”

  “Do you think all the thefts are tied together?” Iola asked Joe.

  “Maybe not all, but it seems likely that some are,” Joe replied. “What burns me up is that kids are getting hit at both ends. They pay dealers a lot for the cards initially, and then they have to replace their stolen cards.”

  “It’s just a big circle of cash,” Frank agreed. Hepulled the van up in front of the pizza shop. Inside they sat at a booth and ordered two pizzas and a pitcher of root beer.

  “Chet,” Joe asked, “how good do you think your chances really were in the tournament?”

  “Pretty good,” Chet said glumly.

  “Who are your main competitors?” Frank asked.

  “Well, the tournament will draw people from all over the state, and not just kids, either. The game is big business, and people take tournaments very seriously. So, it’s hard to predict who might show up. Locally, though, the toughest players are Pete Kaufmann and Daphne Soesbee.”

  “And Daphne’s missing her cards, too,” Callie said. “That puts Pete in a pretty good position.”

  “I guess it does,” Chet said. “I never thought of that.”

  “What about Tim?” Iola asked. “You play against him all the time.”

  “Yeah,” Chet said. “That’s why I’m not really worried about him. I know his moves pretty well.”

  “Speaking of Tim . . .” Frank said, looking through the big storefront window. “Isn’t that him walking up the street?”

  All of them looked. Sure enough, Tim Lester came strolling down the sidewalk past the pizzeria. He spotted the group sitting inside, waved, and entered the restaurant.

  “Hey, guys,” Tim said, a broad smile lighting up his face. “Chet, wait till you see what I got.” He sat downat the table and fished his deck out of his jacket pocket.