A to Z Mysteries: The Bald Bandit (4 page)

“Listen,” he said. “I’m afraid to give that tape to the detective. What if the robber found out I handed it over? With my luck, he’d come after me.”

“How would the robber know it was you who taped him?” Dink asked.

Lucky sat up. “Because he looked right at me when he ran out of the bank. The guy saw me taping him! That’s why I ran to Howard’s to get my head shaved.” Lucky scratched his fuzzy head.

“But if you turn in the tape, the robber will get caught. Then you won’t have to worry about him at all,” said Josh.

“Besides, we’ll give you half of our reward,” Ruth Rose said. “Right, guys?”

“Right,” Dink said. “Is Lucky your real name?”

The kid shook his head. “It’s Paul. Lucky is my nickname. People call me that because I always have such rotten luck. Since school started, my dog died, my bike got stolen, and I broke my toe. I can barely walk to school.”

“You can buy a new bike with the reward money,” Ruth Rose said. “Then you won’t have to walk.”

Lucky smiled at Ruth Rose. “I’m saving all my money for college,” he said. Then he sighed. “It seems like I’ll never get enough.”

Lucky thought for a minute.

“Listen, that reward money would really help,” he said. “But you guys have to
promise
not to tell who gave you the video.”

They all nodded.

“Okay,” said Lucky. He got off the bed and limped over to his closet. He pulled a box from the top shelf. The box
was filled with videotapes. He handed one of the tapes to Dink.

Lucky looked embarrassed. “Um…
when can I get the money?” he asked.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Dink said. “We’ll let you know, okay?”

“Sure, that’ll be fine,” said Lucky. He pretended to zip his lips closed. “And remember, you promised not to tell anyone where you got the video. Not even that detective.”

The kids nodded again.

Lucky walked them to the door, stepping around a pile of kids wrestling on the living room floor. Dink noticed they all had red hair and freckles.

Josephine popped up out of the pile.

“Bye!” she said, smiling at Dink.

As soon as they were on the sidewalk, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose triple-high-fived each other.

“We got it!” Josh yelled.

Dink slipped the tape into his pocket. “Now we just have to call Detective Reddy and get our money!”

The kids hurried back to Dink’s house. There was no one home. Dink opened the front door with his key.

He saw a note on the kitchen table.

Dink was glad his folks were out. He knew they wouldn’t like him playing detective. When this was all over, he’d tell them how he earned the hundred bucks.

Josh opened Dink’s refrigerator. “What do you have to eat?” he asked.

Dink set the tape on the counter. “There should be some doughnuts on the counter.”

He pulled the paper with the detective’s number on it out of his pocket. He called the number.

“Hello, is this Detective Reddy? This is Dink Duncan. Me and my friends found that video for you. What? No, we haven’t looked at it. Okay. Bye.”

Dink hung up smiling. “He’ll be right over. He said we were good detectives. He told us not to look at the video.”

Josh was eating a doughnut. “Why
not?” he said with his mouth full.

“He said it was top secret.”

They all looked at each other.

“Come on!” Dink said, grabbing the video.

They ran into the living room. Dink turned on the TV and slid the tape into the VCR.

The first part of the video showed a big dog chewing on a rubber bone. Then they saw a girl in a bathing suit. She was laughing and running away from the camera. Next came a birthday party. Most of the people in the picture looked like Lucky O’Leary. Dink recognized little Josephine.

Finally, they saw the front of the Green Lawn Savings Bank. The door opened and a man came running out. He was pulling off a ski mask.

“That must be the robber!” Dink said. He pressed the pause button.

The man on the tape was completely bald. His head was shiny in the sunlight. He was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and he was carrying a gym bag. He had a surprised look on his face.

“That must be when he noticed Lucky taping him,” Josh said.

Ruth Rose moved closer to the TV. “Look, he’s got a dimple on his chin.”

Suddenly, Ruth Rose gasped. She ran across the room and out of the house. The door slammed behind her.

Dink looked at Josh. “What’s going on?”

Josh shrugged. “Maybe she doesn’t like guys with dimples.”

A minute later, the door burst open and Ruth Rose ran back in. She was carrying her Elvis wig and her fake eyebrows.

Ruth Rose stuck one eyebrow on the
TV screen, under the bandit’s nose. It looked like a mustache. She held the wig over the bandit’s bald head.

“Who does that look like?” she demanded.

Josh jumped into the air. “Oh, my gosh! The bank robber looks exactly
like Detective Reddy!”

Just then the doorbell rang. Dink peeked through the front window.

“Who is it?” Josh asked.

Dink’s eyes were bugging out when he turned around. “It’s Detective Reddy!”

Ruth Rose snatched the wig and eyebrow off the TV and hid them behind her back.

Josh pushed the eject button and slid the video inside his shirt.

Dink stared at the door. He didn’t think he could walk.

The bell rang again.

Dink looked at his friends. Then he took a deep breath and opened the door.

Ruth Rose slipped out just as Detective Reddy walked in.

“Hi, there,” said Detective Reddy. He grinned at Dink and Josh. “Gee, you kids are clever. How’d you find the redhead with the video?”

Dink stared at the man in front of him. He couldn’t believe it. Detective Reddy wasn’t a detective at all. He was a bank robber! And he was standing in Dink’s own living room!

“We were just lucky I guess,” Dink mumbled.

The man patted his mustache. “So where is it?”

Dink wouldn’t let his eyes look at the lump under Josh’s shirt. “Where’s what?”

“The video. You called and said you had the video. So where is it?”

Dink’s mind went blank. He didn’t know what to say.

Think, Dink!
he commanded himself.

Josh came to the rescue. “We hid the tape upstairs, remember, Dink?”

Dink stared at Josh. “Huh? Oh, yeah, now I remember.” He grinned at the man. “We wanted to make sure no one saw it before we gave it to you.”

“Come on, Dink.” Josh headed for the stairs.

“It takes two of you to get one video?” the man said.

“Well…um…it’s in my mother’s room.” Dink held up his front door key. “I’m the only one allowed to unlock her door.”

Dink hurried up the stairs behind Josh. They ran into Dink’s bedroom and shut the door.

Dink’s guinea pig, Loretta, started squeaking and running around in her cage.

“Not now, Loretta,” Dink said.

“Where’d Ruth Rose go?” said Josh.
“I can’t believe she ditched us!”

Dink didn’t answer. He paced back and forth in front of his bed. He tugged on his hair. He snapped his fingers nervously.

“Dink, stop, I’m getting dizzy.” Josh said. “What’re we gonna do?”

Dink stopped. “I don’t know! We can’t give him the video. He’ll destroy it. Then nobody can prove anything! He’ll get away scot-free. And he might even go after Lucky!”

“We have to catch him and hand him over to the cops,” Josh said. “Do you have any rope? We’ll jump him and tie him up!”

“I don’t keep rope in my bedroom, Josh,” Dink said. “Besides, he’s bigger and stronger than us. He might even have a gun!”

“Need any help up there?” the man yelled.

Dink opened his door a crack. “No thanks. Well be right down.”

Dink grabbed a soccer video from his bookshelf and handed it to Josh. “Let’s give him this.”

“But what happens when he finds
out it’s not the real video?” Josh asked.

“I don’t know. But we don’t have any choice.”

Josh pulled Lucky’s video out of his shirt. He dropped it in Loretta’s cage and covered it with shavings.

“Guard it, Loretta,” he said.

They walked downstairs. Dink tried to smile.