Ship of Secrets Read online

  Joe pulled out the notebook and added everything that Ralph’s friend had said. “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Paul Crowley.” The man spelled it out. “And you won’t tell our boss about the pranks, right?”

  “We’ll just tell him about Ralph’s alibi,” Joe said.

  Paul smiled. “Well, I’d be happy to confirm where Ralph was yesterday. If you need me, I’ll be right here.” He put his helmet back on. Then he climbed back onto a podium at the edge of the pool, holding his shield in the air.

  Frank and Joe kept looking at him as they walked away. “So Ralph was playing pranks,” Frank said. “We’ll have to check his alibi with the cruise director, but it doesn’t seem like he did it after all.”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Joe agreed. He flipped through the pages of his notebook. Then he drew a line through “the steward.” Their one big lead had just become one big dead end.

  Frank let out a sigh. There was only a day and a half left before the ship pulled into the harbor, and they weren’t any closer to finding Sir Reginald’s pocket watch. Frank kept thinking of how sad Mrs. Heartpence had looked when she’d found out it was missing. “Where do we go next?”

  Joe looked at the only two names left on the list: Ollie and Margaret. “Just two last suspects . . . if we can even call them that.”

  Frank shook his head. “They’re Sir Reginald’s friends. I don’t think we can.” They walked off across the pool deck, darting around a giant statue of a horse and chariot. It was time for more questions!

  7

  A Break in the Case

  The ship’s security guards haven’t found a single lead,” Mr. Hardy said. “And those cameras aren’t much help either. Most of the pictures are blurry. I’m proud of you boys for doing so much work.”

  “But, Dad, we barely have anything to go on!” Frank said. He pushed the notebook across the table. All that was written on the page was Ollie and Margaret. Two names. That was it.

  “You ruled out Ralph as a suspect. That was a big help,” Mr. Hardy said. He took another sip from his coconut. They were sitting on the back deck of the ship, near a tropical-fruit stand. A man was selling pineapple slices and coconuts with straws stuck in their tops.

  Just then a woman strode by, a tiny monkey on her shoulder. “Would you like a picture with Mookey the monkey?” she asked. The little monkey stood up when she said his name.

  Joe didn’t even bother answering. He put his arm out and let the monkey walk right up it. The woman took a few pictures with her Polaroid camera, then handed them to him. The monkey was sitting on his shoulder when Ollie and Margaret finally showed up. “You must be Frank and Joe Hardy,” Margaret said. She was tall and thin, with a white bun on top of her head. She scrunched her nose at the monkey.

  “And I’m Fenton Hardy,” Mr. Hardy said. “Thanks for meeting us here.” Ollie was a round man with tiny glasses. As they shook hands, Ollie and Margaret sat down.

  “It’s the least we could do,” Margaret said. She seemed happier when the woman took the little monkey away. “We were so sorry to hear about Reg’s pocket watch. It’s been in his family for more than a century, you know.”

  “We do,” Frank said. “That’s why we need your help. When you saw Sir Reginald before dinner, did you notice anything unusual?”

  Ollie put his hand on his chin. “He was carrying that leather briefcase, that’s for sure. But he never opened it. I can’t say if the watch was still inside or not.”

  Joe scribbled these answers down in the notebook. “What time do you think that was?”

  “Just before five,” Margaret said. “Maybe a little earlier.”

  “And where were you?” Mr. Hardy asked.

  “Right outside the ballroom. We were all going in for dinner when Reginald and I got to talking,” Ollie said. “We were planning to play bridge this morning, but then the watch went missing.”

  “Did you notice anything odd?” Joe asked. “Was anyone suspicious standing around?”

  “No, not that I remember,” Ollie said. “It was very normal. Everything seemed fine.”

  Margaret nodded. “Nothing I can recall.” Just then her cell phone rang and she turned away, talking loudly to someone about a fur coat.

  “Are we done here?” Ollie didn’t wait for them to answer. Instead he stood, reaching out his hand for Mr. Hardy to shake.

  Frank frowned. “Is that it? You don’t remember anything else?” he asked.

  Margaret kept talking to the person on the other end of the phone, ignoring the Hardys. She was asking about the price of the coat when Ollie answered. “I’m sorry, I don’t. I appreciate all you boys have been doing for Reg, but we’re the last people you should be talking to. I own three islands in the Pacific Ocean. Why would I need an expensive pocket watch?”

  Mr. Hardy stood. “We didn’t think you took the watch,” he said. “Just that you may have seen something.”

  Ollie laughed. “You shouldn’t be questioning me. You should be questioning that girl from the game room. The one everyone’s talking about.”

  Frank and Joe looked at each other, confused. “What girl?” Frank asked. This was the first time they’d heard about her.

  “Some kids in the game room saw a girl last night with the watch,” Ollie said. “You didn’t hear? A bunch of them have been talking about it. We were stuck in the elevator with them while they went on about it. I thought everyone knew.”

  “What time was it when the kids saw her?” Frank asked.

  Ollie shrugged. “I’m not sure. I just know that it was last night.”

  Without saying another word he and his wife strode across the deck, leaving Mr. Hardy and the boys behind. “Finally! A break in the case!” Joe said. He was so excited, he was nearly yelling.

  But Mr. Hardy was worried. “Someone in the game room was spotted with the watch,” he said. “But who? I’m going to check the cameras one last time. You boys see if you can find the kids that Ollie was talking about. There must be witnesses.”

  Mr. Hardy went toward the pyramid pool, and Frank and Joe headed in the opposite direction, down to the game room. “This is the best news we’ve had all day,” Joe said. “I only wish we’d heard it sooner.”

  But Frank didn’t mind. He loved when a case suddenly changed and new information was discovered. Their dad always said “breaks” were the most fun part of the job. As they went down the stairs, Frank couldn’t run fast enough. “Hurry!” he said. “We need to find that girl with the watch!”

  8

  Red Scarf Sighting

  When they got to the game room, it was packed with kids. There was a group standing by the pinball machines watching a girl break the high score. Two boys were playing a race car game. Joe looked to the corner of the room, where a set of brown-haired twins shot basketballs for Dino Ball. Even now Joe was still thinking of the Soaker Shooter and the forty tickets they needed to get it.

  “Where should we start?” Joe asked, looking around. Two boys ran past, chasing each other.

  “You go that way,” Frank said, pointing toward the ringtoss. “And I’ll go this way.” Then he took off.

  Frank moved through the crowd, stopping at a girl with a hammer. She was watching a bunch of holes, waiting for little plastic gophers to pop up so she could hit them back down. “Can I ask you a few questions?” Frank said.

  The girl bit her lip, then hit a gopher on the head. “Sure.”

  “I heard a rumor that there was a girl here last night. A few kids saw her with a pocket watch.”

  The girl smashed one of the gophers down, and the machine spit out a whole line of tickets. “I didn’t see her,” she said.

  “Do you know anyone who did?”

  Before Frank could say another word, he heard Joe calling him from somewhere across the room. “Frank! I found them! Frank!”

  Frank darted through the crowd. Joe stood with two girls and a boy. They were leaning against a dancing game. Another boy was st
epping on different-colored pads and moving his arms in the air. “Dance to the music,” an electronic voice said over and over again.

  “I saw her last night, around five,” one of the girls said. “She stood out because she had a red scarf around her head.”

  “And sunglasses!” the boy, who had freckles, added. “Don’t forget the sunglasses.”

  Joe scribbled everything down in his notebook. “What color hair did she have?”

  “Brown,” the boy with freckles said.

  “No, she didn’t,” the second girl argued. “She had blond hair. And she wore a long tan coat.”

  “I thought the coat was gray,” the boy said.

  Joe wrote down Hair: brown or blond, then Coat: tan or gray. This was sometimes a problem with witnesses. They disagreed about what they had seen. “Everyone thinks she had a red scarf, though?” Joe asked.

  “Yes!” the three kids shouted at once.

  “And was she carrying the pocket watch when you saw her at five?” Frank asked.

  The second girl, who wore glasses, nodded. “When she came in, I saw the watch in her hand. I thought it was odd, but then I went back to playing pinball. I was in the middle of a game and close to beating my high score.”

  “Did she have it when she left?” Joe asked.

  “Nope. She left only a few minutes later, and it was gone.”

  Frank looked at his brother. “She might’ve hidden it here,” he said.

  “Or given it to someone,” Joe added. He looked at the kids. “Did you see her talking to anyone?”

  “Nope,” the freckled boy said. “But I was busy playing Hungry Alligators.” He pointed to a game by the door. On the screen, alligators were chasing a swimmer down a river.

  “We couldn’t really tell what she looked like,” the girl with glasses added.

  “How old?” Frank asked.

  “Not sure.”

  Frank was about to ask the girl for another description of the girl’s scarf, but then his father walked through the door. He was holding a sheet of paper in his hand. “I’ve been looking for you two!” he called out.

  When he got closer, Frank and Joe saw what it was. It was a picture of the girl the kids had described. “I spent the last hour going through the video footage from the game room,” he said. He pointed to a camera in the corner. “That camera caught our suspect coming in the door with the watch, and leaving without it. Security helped me print these out.”

  Joe looked at the picture. It was blurry, but you could see the pocket watch in her hand as she walked in. Then, in the next photo, her hands were empty. “Is this the girl you saw?” Joe asked the kids they’d been talking to.

  “That’s her! Definitely,” the boy said.

  “And she didn’t talk to anyone while she was here?” Frank asked again.

  “I really don’t think she did,” the girl without the glasses added. “I looked at her a few times. She was always alone.”

  “It seemed like she was looking for something,” the boy said. “She went around to a couple of the games, but she didn’t play any.”

  Mr. Hardy put his hand on his sons’ shoulders. “It’s possible she came here to find a safe spot to put the watch until the ship pulls into the harbor. If she stole it, it might’ve been too risky to carry it around or keep it in her room.”

  “It’s Saturday night, and the game room is closing in fifteen minutes,” Frank said. “The ship pulls into Miami at eight a.m. on Monday morning.”

  “Which means . . . ,” Joe said. “She’ll be back at some point tomorrow to get it.”

  Frank and Joe looked around the game room, which was emptying out. A man in a cruise T-shirt was sweeping popcorn off the floor. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Frank asked. He pointed to the photo booth in the corner. There was a curtain covering the inside. Taped to the front of it was a sign that said OUT OF ORDER.

  “Stakeout?” Joe asked.

  “Stakeout,” Frank said, smiling.

  Mr. Hardy nodded. “Great idea, boys. It’ll be impossible to find the watch in here without some help. When she comes back tomorrow, she’ll lead you right to it.”

  Joe felt more hopeful than he had all day. Tomorrow they’d be on a real stakeout, just like in the movies. With a little luck they’d get the watch back to Sir Reginald by nighttime.

  “What are you going to do?” the boy with the freckles asked. He looked confused.

  “We’re going to do the easiest thing,” Joe replied. “Tomorrow we’re going to sit in that booth and just wait.”

  9

  Straight from the Dino’s Mouth

  Joe pushed his feet against the wall, trying to get comfortable. “I can’t feel my legs,” he said. He folded himself in half and tried to squeeze into the corner.

  “Join the club,” Frank said, and laughed. Joe could barely hear him, though. Frank was poking his head out from behind the booth’s curtain, looking for the girl from the photo.

  There was popcorn and empty juice boxes on the photo booth floor. Their mother had packed them lunch, including turkey sandwiches from the ship’s dining hall. They’d been stuffed into the booth for more than five hours now, but there’d been no sign of the girl. “She has to come back,” Joe said. “Doesn’t she?”

  “I hope,” Frank said. But it was feeling less likely. It was almost two o’clock. Half the day had passed, and they still hadn’t seen her.

  Frank drew the curtain closed again. “Your turn,” he said, climbing over his brother. They switched spots, so Joe was sitting on the outside. They’d done this all day, taking turns keeping watch.

  Joe pulled the curtain back just an inch so that he had a good view of the game room. Because it was Sunday, it was busier than ever. A group of kids was standing around the dancing game, watching a girl who was really good. She jumped and kicked in time with the music. They all cheered when she beat her high score.

  Ten minutes passed, and Joe was so busy watching the scoreboard that he almost didn’t notice the girl walk in. She had the same red scarf on that she wore in the picture. Her sunglasses were so big, they covered half her face. “Psssst! Frank!” Joe whispered. He nudged his brother in the side. “I see her! She’s here!”

  Frank sat up straight. “It’s about time!”

  They both squeezed into the front of the photo booth, looking out into the game room. The girl wore a long gray trench coat and had brown hair, just like the boy had said. She looked around as if she knew someone was watching her. Then she took off toward the other side of the room.

  “We have to follow her,” Joe said. He stepped out of hiding. He and Frank crept along the wall, trying to stay out of sight. They watched the girl move through the game room. She went past the pinball machines and the Hungry Alligator game. When she stopped, they stopped, hiding themselves behind a bouncy castle.

  “She’s going to Dino Ball!” Frank said. He couldn’t believe it. She walked right up to the game and stood there, watching two boys shooting the dinosaur eggs into the nest. “What does she want with that game?”

  “Shhhh,” Joe whispered. “Just watch.” He didn’t mean to be rude, but Frank was always talking on stakeouts. The last time they’d been watching a thief, he’d nearly blown their cover. (That was what their dad called it when people discovered you were there.)

  The girl stood still. The two boys kept shooting basketballs into the nest. Then she looked around, and without saying anything to anyone, she reached her hand into the T. rex’s mouth. When she pulled her hand out, she was holding something. “The watch! It’s the watch!” Frank whispered.

  Joe put his hand over his brother’s mouth to keep him quiet. They studied the girl. She turned the gold watch over, making sure it was okay. Then she looked around to make sure the boys hadn’t noticed her—they were too busy shooting basketballs to really notice—and she headed for the door. “We have to do something,” Joe said. “She’s getting away!”

  Frank sprung out from behind
the castle. “Stop! Wait right there!” he yelled.

  The girl turned around. Then she tucked the watch into her pocket and ran as fast as she could in the other direction. Joe and Frank followed her. A chase was on!

  She ran down a staircase that led into the grand ballroom. Onstage a man with long hair was singing Broadway show tunes. He kicked high in the air as he belted out a few last notes. Couples were dancing to the music.

  The girl darted between the dancers, nearly knocking some of them over. “Hey! Watch it!” an old man yelled. “You nearly toppled me to the ground!”

  Frank and Joe never took their eyes off her. They were only ten feet behind her, and they tried to keep up. But she was fast. A little too fast.

  “I don’t know if I can keep running!” Frank yelled to his brother as they ran up another set of stairs. “I can barely keep up!”

  Joe and Frank followed their suspect through another hallway, then a room with card tables. People were playing poker and rummy. A dealer pushed plastic chips around on a table. “You’re right,” Joe said. “And she definitely isn’t an old lady!” The scarf and trench coat looked too big, like they had been borrowed from someone else.

  The girl ran out of the card room and down another hall. The boys sprinted as fast as they could. “Hurry!” Frank yelled. “She’s getting away!”

  She turned right, and they turned right. She turned left, and they turned left. She kept running through the maze of hallways, but they kept right behind her, not slowing down. Joe was nearly out of breath. Just when he felt like he couldn’t go any farther, she took a left . . . and the hallway ended. Their suspect was cornered!

  “All right! All right!” the suspect yelled. “You caught me. I’m sorry.”

  Frank and Joe stood in the hallway, trying to block her exit. But she didn’t try to run. Slowly she undid her red scarf, letting her dark hair fall down around her shoulders. Then she pulled off her sunglasses. Standing in front of them was Sir Reginald Heartpence’s own daughter. She took the pocket watch from her coat and held it in her hand.