Trouble at the Arcade (7 page)

Joe's eyes widened. He jumped the rest of the way out of his bumper car. “Aha!” he cried. “It was Mimi—she must have seen that money under the desk and taken it!”

9

It didn't take long to find Mimi. She was in the arcade with Chet. The contest was still stopped, but a lot of kids were playing the different games. Chet was playing pinball while Mimi sucked on her lollipop nearby.

“Hi,” said Chet when Frank and Joe raced up. “Where have you guys been?”

Joe didn't bother to answer. “Hey, Mimi,” he said. “You didn't really find those tickets on the floor, did you? You found a bunch of money.”

“Huh?” Chet looked confused. He turned away from his game. “What are you talking about?”

Mimi scrunched up her face. Her cheeks went red. “I might have found some money,” she said. “But don't worry, I returned it to its rightful owner.”

“What?” Chet squawked.

Frank leaned closer to Mimi. “What rightful owner?”

“I don't know his name.” Mimi started playing with her bracelets. “He said he lost it. And then he gave me a big reward. I think he might be a secret prince or something.”

“That's not what you said earlier, Mimi!” Chet exclaimed.

Frank and Joe traded a look. It was no surprise that Mimi's story had changed. She was always making things up and exaggerating. Usually it was
harmless stuff, like pretending her dolls talked to her. Or that she was a princess. But this was different.

“So what did you do with the rest of the money?” Joe demanded. “Even all those prizes couldn't have used up more than a little of it.”

Chet grabbed her by the arm. “Let's see in your pockets,” he ordered his sister.

“Wait,” Frank told them both. He'd just thought of something. “The Prize Pavilion doesn't take cash. Mimi had to use tickets to buy her prizes. And Darryl said he hadn't sold her any tickets.”

“Duh!” said Mimi with a frown. “That was my reward, dummy. That secret prince guy gave me a whole bunch of tickets! Don't you know anything?”

She stomped away. Chet raced after her.

“Stop!” he called. “You're supposed to stay with me from now on, remember?”

The Hardys watched them go. “Do you think Mimi's telling the truth?” Frank asked.

“Who knows?” Joe said. “But if she is, it sounds like someone tricked her into giving him that money.”

“It would have to be someone with a lot of tickets.”

“Yeah. And you know who had access to lots of tickets?” Joe tapped his fingers on the pinball machine. “Darryl. Maybe he didn't get that cash from some mystery lady after all. Maybe he stole it himself!”

“Maybe.” Frank wasn't too sure. “But if that's true, why would he walk right up to his father, waving the cash around? Besides, there are tons of other people here with plenty of tickets. Like Adam, for one.”

“But if he took the money, where is it now?” Joe said. “His pockets were empty, remember?”

Frank nodded. That part was bothering him, too. “Maybe he hid the cash somewhere to pick up later.”

Joe looked dubious. “I guess it's possible,” he said. “Adam's always up to no good.” He sighed. “I thought solving this crime would be easy. But it's not.”

“Let's think about what Dad would do next,” said Frank. He thought for a second. “He'd probably say to look for alibis.”

“You mean figure out where everybody was at the time of the crime?”

“Yeah. That will help us figure out who
might
have done it and who
couldn't
have done it.” Frank pulled out his list again and checked it. “For instance, Adam was at the Snack Shack getting a soda at the time.”

“Except when he came back, he didn't have a soda,” Joe recalled. “That seems kind of suspicious.”

Frank tucked his list back in his pocket. “Definitely,” he agreed. “Let's go check with the people at the Snack Shack and see if he was really there.”

When the Hardys got to the Snack Shack, they found a college-age girl wiping the counter with a rag. Her name tag read
SANDY
.

“Hi,” Frank said. “Can we ask you something?”

“Sure,” Sandy replied. “As long as it's not for free food. You need tickets to buy.”

“It's not that,” said Joe. “We were just wondering if you saw a kid earlier. He's wearing a red long-sleeved shirt with a wide stripe on it and black high-tops.”

Sandy stopped wiping and looked at him in surprise. “You know, I don't usually pay much attention to you younger kids,” she said. “You all look alike to me. But I do remember him. I had to chase him away, like, three times to stop him from stealing all the napkins.”

Frank glanced over at his brother. Stealing napkins? That sounded weird even for Adam. But it did mean that he'd been over at the snack bar just as he claimed.

“I guess Adam does have an alibi, after all,”
Joe said as Sandy hurried around behind the counter to wait on someone. “Let's go question Darryl again. Or maybe that Callie girl—I still think it's weird that she ran away earlier. Although I don't know if even Mimi would call her a prince. . . .”

Frank was staring at the napkin dispensers. There were two of them sitting at one end of the counter. They were big and made of shiny metal, with napkins sticking out the front through a large slot.

“Stealing napkins?” he mumbled. “Why would Adam do something like that? Unless . . .”

He raced over to the nearest dispenser and started pulling out the napkins. There were tons of them in there.

“What are you doing?” Joe said, sounding surprised.

“I have an idea.” Frank kept yanking at the
napkins. Soon they were all out. He peered inside the dispenser. Nothing.

He stepped over to the second dispenser. By now Sandy had looked over and noticed what he was doing.

“Hey!” she yelled. “What's wrong with you twerps today? Stop messing with the napkins!”

Frank hesitated. He usually obeyed adults when they told him to do something—or
not
to do something. Besides, what if his theory was wrong? He would probably get in big trouble for wasting napkins.

But Joe had finally figured out what he was doing. “I'll check the other one!” he cried. He raced over and dumped the dispenser over. The napkins all came fluttering out.

So did a huge wad of cash!

10

Thanks for the ride, Mom,” Joe said as he and Frank climbed out of their mother's car. “Where's Dad? We want to tell him about the video game tournament.”

That wasn't all they wanted to tell him about. During the whole ride home, Frank and Joe had kept quiet about the mystery they'd solved at Fun World that day. They wanted to tell their dad about it first.

Mrs. Hardy smiled. “I'm afraid that will have to wait. Your dad went to the home improvement
store to pick up some more flooring for the spare room.”

“Oh,” Joe said. He and Frank traded a look. In all the excitement at Fun World, they'd almost forgotten about their secret bet. “Um, guess we'll go out and play in the woods, then.”

“All right,” his mother said. “But make sure you're back in time for dinner. Your dad is planning to grill some burgers tonight.” She hurried toward the front door.

“I guess neither of us gets dibs on the spare room,” Frank said as he and Joe headed around the side of the house. “After all, neither of us won the tournament.”

Joe nodded. Adam had been kicked out of the video game tournament after Mr. Fun found out he'd stolen that money. When the contest had started up again, Iola had ended up winning first prize.

Frank had come in right after Iola, with Joe
trailing right behind Frank. Frank could practice all he wanted—but he'd forgotten that Iola won at almost everything.

Joe looked up at the spare room as they passed the garage. He really wanted that room. But he wasn't sure he should get it anymore.

“Maybe you should take the new room,” he told Frank. “You were the one who figured out the answer to the mystery.”