Trouble at the Arcade Page 2

  “I didn’t know Mimi was here,” Joe said.

  Chet looked guilty. “I sort of forgot she was,” he admitted. “Iola and I are supposed to be watching her while Mom runs some errands at the shopping center across the street.”

  Mimi spotted Chet and skipped over. She always loved wearing bright colors and goofy outfits. But today she looked even weirder than usual. She had at least six beaded bracelets on each arm, seven or eight necklaces draped around her neck, and plastic rings on every finger. She even had several butterfly barrettes stuck in her wispy hair.

  “Hey, Mimi, where’d you get all that stuff?” Iola asked, walking over to join them.

  Mimi held out her arms to admire her bracelets. “A lady never gives away her fashion secrets,” she said.

  Joe rolled his eyes at Frank. Mimi was a pretty strange kid. She was always saying stuff like that. She liked to make up stories and pretend she was a princess or a movie star.

  Chet poked her in the arm. “Come on,” he said. “There’s no way you won enough tickets for all that stuff yourself. Where’d you get it?”

  “I didn’t win the tickets, I found them,” Mimi said proudly.

  “Found them?” Iola echoed. “Found them where?”

  “On the floor.” Mimi waved one arm around. That made her new bracelets jingle. “They were just lying there, so I picked them up.”

  Chet looked worried. “That’s not right,” he scolded her. “Someone probably dropped them and is looking for them. You should have turned them in at the front office.”

  “No way!” Mimi shook her head so hard her barrettes bounced. “I didn’t want to go there. I don’t like that mean boy.”

  “Mean boy?” said Frank. “You mean Darryl?”

  “He chased me away before,” Mimi said with a shudder. “All I wanted was some tickets!” She giggled and started playing with one of her necklaces. “Lucky for me some tickets found me! They walked right up to me and jumped into my hand.”

  “Don’t be dumb,” said Chet, sounding annoyed.

  Joe wasn’t paying much attention to Mimi. “Hey, check it out,” he said. “I’m up next.” He rubbed his hands together and cracked his knuckles. “Prepare to be amazed!”

  Chet and Iola laughed, but Frank shook his head. “Don’t get too cocky,” he told Joe. “That’ll just make you more likely to mess up.”

  “Next!” the attendant called.

  “Here I go,” Joe said eagerly. He rushed over and stuck a ticket into the machine. Then he pressed the start button.

  The alien blobs started coming. Joe took the controls and started blasting them. He was doing great.

  “Take that, alien scum!” he yelled as he dropped rocks on a whole row of aliens. Now he was at level two.

  “Go, Joe!” Iola cheered. “Don’t forget to watch out for the goo spitters.”

  Joe just nodded. He was totally focused on the game. Soon he was at level three. Then level four. Level five . . .

  “Attention, everyone!” a loud adult voice rang out. “May I have your attention, please! We have a very serious problem. The entrance money from the office is missing!”

  4

  Who’s the Thief ?

  The announcement broke Joe’s focus. He looked around and saw Mr. Fun, the owner of Fun World, standing in the middle of the arcade. He was frowning and looked very upset.

  BLURP!

  “Rats!” Joe exclaimed, looking back at the screen. An alien had just blobbed him. Game over.

  “Good job,” the attendant said. “You’re in fourth place. You’ll probably make the finals.”

  Joe didn’t say anything. Fourth place wasn’t good enough. He wanted to be first!

  Tickets came spitting out of the machine. Joe took them and stuck them in his pocket.

  Meanwhile, Frank was looking over at Mr. Fun. So were most of the other kids.

  “What do you mean, the money is missing?” someone called out.

  Mr. Fun didn’t look like he was having much fun. His face was red and angry.

  “I just went over to the office to collect today’s entrance money,” he said. “But it wasn’t there!”

  “What did Darryl say?” Frank called out. “Isn’t he still in the office?”

  Mr. Fun glanced at him. “He wasn’t there. I guess he stepped away for a moment.”

  A boy from Joe’s class shrugged. “If nobody was in the office, anyone could’ve come in off the street and grabbed the money.”

  “Yeah,” Iola put in. “There wasn’t even a lid on the box.”

  Mr. Fun shook his head. “Impossible,” he said. “The front door was locked. Darryl knows better than to step away from the office without locking up.” He glared around at all the kids. “It had to be someone inside Fun World who took the cash.”

  That made everyone start talking at once. Most of the kids in the arcade were gathered around by now. Joe saw Adam in the crowd, along with the new girl, Callie, and some other kids from school.

  “Wow,” Chet commented to the Hardys. “Too bad your dad isn’t here. He’d be able to crack the case for sure.”

  “Yeah,” Joe agreed. “Maybe we should call him.”

  “Wait, we should find out more first,” Frank said. “What if that money just fell on the floor or something? Like Iola said, the box didn’t have a lid. And when we came in, it was right on the corner of the table. Darryl might have knocked it off on his way to lock the door.”

  Joe raised his head. “Hey, Mr. Moore—I mean, Mr. Fun,” he called out. “Did you check on the floor under the table?”

  “Of course I did.” Mr. Fun sounded kind of annoyed. “That was the first place I looked. The cash wasn’t there.”

  Some of the other kids started asking him questions. As Mr. Fun turned away to talk to them, Adam came swaggering over to the Hardys. He was staring at the list of top scores with a smirk on his face.

  “Hey, Joe,” he said. “Looks like you couldn’t even come close to my incredible awesomeness. As usual.”

  Joe frowned. “That was only the qualifying round,” he said. “I’m saving my best game for the finals.”

  “Yeah, right.” Adam snorted. “With a score like that, you’ll be lucky to even make the finals.”

  “Oh, shut up and drink your stupid soda,” Joe snapped.

  “What soda?” said Frank.

  Joe realized that Adam wasn’t holding anything. “Oh,” he said. “I thought he went to get a soda. What happened, Adam? Were you so obnoxious that someone poured it over your head?”

  “Just keep making jokes, Hardy,” Adam said with an even bigger smirk. “We’ll see if you’re still laughing when I totally destroy you in the finals and take home the prize.”

  Mr. Fun heard them. He looked over with a frown. “Don’t get too excited about that, boys,” he warned. “I’m shutting down the video game tournament until whoever took that money returns it. And if the cash isn’t back within one hour, the contest is off for good!”

  5

  A Big Threat

  Shut down the tournament?” Joe exclaimed. “No way!”

  “You can’t do that!” someone else called out. “Most of us already did the first round!”

  “Yeah,” a third kid cried. “It’s not fair!”

  “Tell that to whoever took the money,” said Mr. Fun. “As soon as I get it back, the contest’s back on.”

  A bunch of other kids started muttering and staring at one another. Frank glanced over at Adam. He expected Adam to be the most upset of all, since he was winning the contest so far. But Adam wasn’t saying anything.

  Iola noticed too. “Aren’t you upset?” she challenged him. “Or are you not so sure you’re going to win that video game system after all?”

  Adam just shrugged. “Oh, I’m sure,” he said. “But it’s not a big deal.”

  At that moment Frank noticed a sudden movement at the edge of the crowd. He turned just in time to see someone disappearing through one of the archways. But th
e person was moving too fast for him to see more than a sneaker and a flash of blue jeans.

  “Hey.” Frank elbowed Joe. “Check it out. Someone just ran out of here at top speed!”

  “Let’s follow them,” said Joe. “Maybe it’s the thief!”

  “Hey!” Chet called from behind them, sounding confused. “What’s going on?”

  “Come on,” Iola said. “Let’s go with them.”

  Frank glanced back and saw Iola and Chet running after them with Mimi trailing close behind. A few other kids were joining in the chase too, and even Mr. Fun was starting after them.

  But he didn’t have time to worry about them. Not if he and Joe wanted to catch up to whoever had just run away.

  “I see someone!” Joe yelled, pointing ahead. “Up there! I think whoever it is just left the arcade.”

  Soon both Hardys were racing through the doorway leading into the rest of the Fun World complex. The first area they came to was the bumper cars arena. It wasn’t very busy, but there were about five or six bumper cars out on the floor. Frank spotted a kid in jeans on the far side, heading for another door.

  “Come on!” he shouted. “He’s got a head start—we’ve got to catch up!”

  “Let’s take a shortcut,” Joe said. He ran to the wall of the bumper car arena and vaulted over it.

  Frank followed. The floor was pretty slippery, and when he landed he almost skidded out. But he caught himself and ran after Joe.

  “Coming through!” Joe yelled as he ran.

  A teenage boy was driving one of the bumper cars. When he saw the Hardys, his face lit up.

  “Whoa!” he called to his friends in the other cars. “Let’s get them!”

  He aimed his car straight at Frank. “Hey!” Frank shouted. “Quit that!”

  But the teenager just laughed. Frank had to jump aside to avoid the bumper car. It skidded past him and crashed into the wall. That made all the teenagers laugh.

  Luckily, by then the brothers were both across. “Whew!” said Frank as he jumped over the other wall. “That was close.”

  Joe was staring ahead. “Through there,” he panted. “Come on!”

  They dashed through another doorway and found themselves in the Skee-Ball room. The long, narrow room was pretty crowded. There were a lot of kindergartners running around, plus several adults pushing strollers. When Joe saw them all, he groaned.

  “We’ll never get through here!” he exclaimed.

  Frank had just spotted a flash of blue up ahead on the far side of the crowd. He was pretty sure it was the kid they were chasing. But how were they going to catch up without knocking aside a bunch of little kids and babies?

  Then he had an idea. “This way!” he yelled.

  He led the way to the Skee-Ball lanes. They were like miniature bowling alleys, but raised up a foot or two off the ground. People were supposed to roll wooden balls up and into the holes at the top.

  Frank jumped onto the end of the first lane. “Hey!” the kid playing there protested.

  “Sorry!” Joe said as he followed Frank. “Just taking a shortcut.”

  They ran across the bottom part of all the lanes. Lots of people started yelling at them, but Frank tried to ignore them. Behind him, he heard a shout.

  “Coming through! Pardon me, please!”

  “That sounds like Mr. Fun,” said Joe breathlessly as he ran.

  Frank just nodded. He guessed that the owner must still be following them. “I just hope we can catch whoever it is in time,” he said. “Otherwise, they could escape out another entrance.”

  Soon they reached the end of the line of Skee-Ball lanes. They had to leap over a trash bin at the far end. When he landed, Joe let out a shout.

  “There!” he cried, pointing. “At the snack bar!”

  Frank saw that Joe was right. The kid in blue jeans had run into the snack bar for this section of Fun World. It was in the back of the room, and there was no other exit. Joe put on a burst of speed and caught up to the other kid.

  “Hey,” he said in surprise as their quarry looked around desperately. “It’s you. The new girl.”

  She turned around, her shoulders slumping. “Yeah,” she said. “Hi. I’m Callie.”

  “We know.” Frank had caught up by now. He stared at Callie. “Why’d you run away like that? Did you steal that money?”

  “No way!” Callie said right away.

  Frank could hear Mr. Fun and the others still coming. “Then why’d you run?” he asked.

  Callie just shrugged and stared at the ground. A second later Mr. Fun and the others arrived. Chet and Iola were there, along with Adam and most of the others. Even Mimi was bringing up the rear.

  Mr. Fun was huffing and puffing from the run. “Did you catch the thief, boys?” he asked.

  “Um . . . ,” Frank began uncertainly.

  Suddenly Callie whirled around and pointed straight at Adam. “It was him!” she cried. “I saw him with that money. But when I told him he should give it back, he said he’d beat me up if I told anyone! That’s why I ran away!”

  6

  A Real Mystery

  What?” Mr. Fun roared, turning on Adam.

  “No way!” Adam protested. “She’s lying.”

  “No, I’m not.” Callie folded her arms. “It was just a little while ago. I was at the other snack bar—the one in the arcade.”

  Mr. Fun nodded. “The Snack Shack.”

  “Adam was standing over by the counter,” Callie went on. “He was counting a big stack of money—you know, dollar bills and stuff. But he stuck them in his pocket when he saw me looking.”

  “Oh yeah?” Adam challenged her. “Then how come there’s no dollars in my pockets right now?”

  He pulled both front pockets out of his pants. Joe leaned closer for a better look. All that came out of Adam’s pockets were a few coins, a short paper clip chain, and a pebble. There was no sign of any paper money at all. Adam also turned around so everyone could see his back pockets. They were empty too.

  Mr. Fun didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think I’d better call your parents, young man.”

  “That’s not fair!” Adam exclaimed. “The ones you should call are her parents.” He pointed at Callie. “She’s a liar!”

  Callie’s cheeks went pink. “I’m not a liar! You are!”

  Mr. Fun looked uncertain. But before he could say anything, his son Darryl came jogging up.

  “There you are, Dad,” said Darryl, sounding annoyed. “I’ve been looking everywhere!”

  Mr. Fun raised one eyebrow. “I could say the same to you,” he said. “Where have you been?”

  Joe’s eyes widened when he saw that Darryl was holding a fistful of cash. “Is that the missing money?” he blurted out.

  Darryl looked from Joe to the cash to his father. “Missing money?” he said. “What missing money?”

  Mr. Fun looked stern. “Where did you get that cash, Darryl?” he demanded.

  “It’s mine,” Darryl said with a frown. “This lady came in and asked if I’d help her carry some heavy stuff out to her car from one of the shops across the street. After I did, she gave me a tip.” He waved the money he was holding.

  Frank and Joe traded a look. Joe could guess what his brother was thinking. Was Darryl telling the truth? Or was that the money from the cash box?

  “I locked the door while I was gone, just like you’re always telling me to do,” Darryl put in sullenly. “So what’s the big deal?”

  “The big deal is, the money from the cash box is gone!” his father snapped. “And I want to know where it went.”

  “Whoa.” Now Darryl looked kind of worried. Suddenly he blinked. “Hey,” he said, looking at someone behind his father. “Where’d you get all that stuff?”

  Joe glanced that way and saw Mimi staring at Darryl. Her round cheeks started to turn pink, and she ducked behind Iola.

  Darryl took a step toward her. “Why are you hiding?” he demanded. “Is it becau
se you know you shouldn’t have all those prizes?”

  “Hey,” said Frank. “Take it easy. She’s just a little kid.”

  Darryl snorted. “I already chased her out of the office once earlier,” he said. “She was sniffing around looking for extra tickets to trade for prizes.” He narrowed his eyes as he glanced at Mimi again. “I didn’t give her any. So where’d she get all that loot? Maybe she stole that money, and some tickets, too.”

  Mimi burst into tears. “I didn’t!” she sobbed, clinging to Iola. “A lady never steals stuff!”

  Mr. Fun was starting to look confused and annoyed. “Come with me,” he said, grabbing Darryl by the arm. “The rest of you, don’t go anywhere. Especially you, you, and you.” He pointed to Mimi, Callie, and Adam. Then he turned and dragged Darryl off toward the arcade.

  Everyone else started talking and wandering after them. Iola and Chet were trying to stop Mimi from crying. Adam was glaring at Callie, who was ignoring him.

  Frank shot Joe a look. “Wow,” he whispered. “Now I really wish Dad was still here. This is turning into a real mystery!”

  “Who needs Dad?” Joe whispered back with a grin. “We’re eyewitnesses, right? I think we should try to solve the case ourselves!”

  7

  Who, What, When . . .

  Frank hadn’t thought about it that way. He realized Joe had a point. The two of them had been right nearby when the money got stolen, and they knew most of the people who might have done it. Plus, they knew all about solving crimes from listening to their father’s work stories their whole lives. Who better to figure out the mystery than the two of them? Besides, it could be fun!

  “Let’s do it!” he agreed. “Dad’s taught us a lot about solving crimes over the years. So let’s think about it—what would he do right now if he were us?”