The Bicycle Thief

by Franklin W. Dixon

  Adam’s mother smiled. “Well,” she said, “how nice of you boys to help each other out! Okay, then, let’s all go get Frank’s bike.”

  At that moment Mr. Mack and Lucy caught up with them.

  “Did you find your bike?” Mr. Mack asked.

  “We’re on our way to get it!” said Mrs. Ackerman.

  “Great,” said Mr. Mack. “Let’s go!”

  Adam grumbled under his breath. He didn’t seem happy to have to give Frank’s bike back, especially because he had to do it in front of so many people. But it was better than getting in trouble with his mother.

  As they walked Frank elbowed Joe and pointed to Adam’s right leg. Sure enough, he was limping a little bit.

  Adam led them back to the road where Lucy had lost the track originally. He kept walking down the road. They passed people picnicking and passed the ranger’s station. They walked all the way to the statue of Bayport’s founding fathers and mothers. Adam turned off the road at the memorial.

  There was a small man-made pond and stream near the memorial. Frank and Joe often came here to throw the remains of their sandwiches to the ducks. On the bank of the river were a number of huge old willow trees. Their branches hung all the way to the ground. Adam walked over to the largest one.

  “I put it under here for safekeeping,” he said.

  “More like he put it there so you would never find it!” Joe whispered to Frank.

  Adam’s mother beamed with pride. No matter how many times Adam got in trouble, she was convinced he was the best kid at Bayport Elementary School.

  Adam pulled aside the branches of the willow tree to reveal a hidden patch of ground, just big enough for Frank’s bike. There was only one problem.

  The bike wasn’t there.

  7

  Teamwork

  What!” yelled Adam. “Where did it go?”

  Adam swung his head back and forth, as though the bike might be hiding somewhere.

  “Very funny,” said Frank. “Now, where is my bike?”

  “I left it here. I swear I did! You’ve got to believe me.”

  Adam’s mother put her hands on her hips. She frowned. “Adam, sweetie. This is no time for games. You’ve had your joke. Now give Frank his bike.”

  “No, I’m not kidding, Mom!”

  Adam beat around the tree branches, but the bike wasn’t hiding anywhere.

  “Adam, this is not funny. You had better find that boy’s bike!” said Adam’s mom. She didn’t sound happy. The two of them began to argue. Frank looked around sadly.

  “Did you get your bike, Frank?” Mr. Mack called out. Lucy came bounding into the space beneath the willow tree, someone’s magazine in her mouth.

  “Adam says he left it right here, but . . .” Frank looked around him. It was clear that his bike wasn’t there.

  “Well, maybe he got confused about which tree he left it under. There are a bunch of willows here, and they all look pretty similar.”

  “That’s a smart idea, Mr. Mack!” said Joe. “Frank, you look through the trees to the left. I’ll look through the ones to the right.”

  Frank and Joe looked under every willow tree in the area, even the ones that were way too small to hide a bike under. But Frank’s bike was nowhere to be found.

  “Do you think he’s telling the truth?” Joe asked Frank.

  Frank thought for a moment. “Yeah,” he said. “I don’t think he’d lie to his mom. And he seemed really surprised when my bike wasn’t there.”

  “That can mean only one thing.”

  “Someone else must have stolen it from here!”

  That meant they were back at the beginning! Or worse. Now they didn’t have any real suspects. Both Lucy and Adam were now innocent. Who else could it be? There was only one thing to do.

  It was time to look for more clues!

  “We need to hurry,” said Frank. The sun was getting lower in the sky. Soon it would be dark. He and Joe weren’t allowed to be out alone after sunset. Frank was starting to worry.

  “First we need to make sure Adam was telling the truth,” said Joe.

  The boys started to search outside the willow tree. If Adam really had hidden the bike beneath the tree, there would be—

  “Tracks!” yelled Frank. Sure enough, there were more of Adam’s footprints, with Frank’s bike’s tire track right next to them. They led under the tree, where Adam was still arguing with his mom. Mr. Mack and Lucy were still there too, hunting for a smell that Lucy could follow.

  There was also a set of tracks that showed Adam walking out without Frank’s bike.

  “Look at these,” said Joe.

  Next to Adam’s prints the ground was all torn up. It looked as though a lot of people had walked through recently.

  “Someone else was here!” said Joe.

  “Yeah,” said Frank sadly. “Lots of someones. Way too many to get any prints.”

  Joe looked closer. Frank was right. The ground was too much of a mess to get any individual footprint.

  “Hey, guys! Looking for something?” Cissy had shown up behind them while they were searching.

  “Yeah,” said Joe. “Frank’s bike.”

  Frank plopped down onto the ground. “We’re never going to find it!” he said. “I’m going to be in so much trouble. We thought Adam had taken it, but he says he left it here. And now it’s gone again!”

  “He did leave it here,” said Cissy. She grinned.

  Frank jumped up. “How do you know that?” he asked.

  “Easy,” Cissy said. “I saw him!”

  “You did?” said Frank. “Then, did you see who took my bike?”

  “Yup,” said Cissy. “It was me!”

  “What?”

  “A couple of us Bandits were practicing over on the big lawn, and we lost a ball, and I went after it. I saw Adam sneaking around with your bike. I could tell it was your bike, Frank, because no one else has a bike like yours. So I followed him here. I learned a few things from watching you guys solve crimes! When he left, I got the rest of the Bandits, and we picked up your bike and carried it away to safety. Then I went to go find you, but you were gone! I’ve been looking for you ever since.”

  Cissy stopped because she was out of breath. When she was excited, she talked even faster than usual.

  “Did you hear that, Mom?” Adam yelled from under the willow. “I told you I was telling the truth!”

  Frank looked at the ground. So that’s why there were so many tracks! It was his teammates, rescuing his bike.

  “You guys are the best!” he said. “So where is my bike now?”

  “Follow me,” said Cissy.

  She took off running. The only things faster than Cissy’s mouth were her legs—and her pitching arm! Behind her came Frank and Joe. Behind them were Adam and his mom. And behind them were Mr. Mack and Lucy.

  Two minutes later they were surrounded by the rest of the Bandits, who were playing a game of baseball.

  “Hi, Frank! Hi, Joe!” everyone yelled.

  “Hey, guys!” they yelled back.

  “Hey, Frank. Your bike is right over here!” Cissy led them over to a big old oak tree. They walked around to the other side of it.

  And there was nothing there.

  “What?” said Cissy. “I left it standing right here!”

  8

  Missing in Action

  Oh no,” said Frank. “Not again!”

  “I put it right here,” said Cissy. “I swear!”

  “I believe you,” said Frank. “But I’m beginning to think my bike is cursed. Or else I am!”

  The Bandits were putting away their baseball mitts and bats. Everyone was getting ready to leave. The sky was growing dark. Soon it would be nighttime, and Frank and Joe would have to go home. And then Frank was going to be in a lot of trouble.

  “Maybe it’s time to give up,” Frank said. “My bike is gone.”

  “No way!” said Joe.

  “Hey, everybody!” Joe yelled. The Bandits stop
ped putting their things away. Adam and his mom stopped arguing. Adam’s little sister, Mina, came running over to listen. Mr. Mack stopped whistling. Even Lucy stopped barking to listen. “Frank’s bike is missing! We’ve only got a little while before the park closes. Will you help us find it?”

  “Yeah!” yelled everybody, except for Lucy, who barked.

  “Great!” yelled Joe. “Let’s team up and start looking. Everyone go in a different direction. The last place anyone saw the bike was over there by the big oak tree. Let’s do it!”

  Soon everyone was searching for Frank’s bike. They were looking behind trees and under benches. They were looking down in every ditch and up on every hill.

  “Wow,” said Frank. “You guys are the best!”

  “You’ve helped solve mysteries for everyone in town,” said Cissy. “Now it’s our turn to help you!”

  They searched and searched and searched. They found two missing library books, a baby stroller, a bright red toy fire truck, an abandoned picnic basket, three sets of keys, and a cell phone. They found every baseball the Bandits had lost in every practice game in the last year. They found pretty much everything anyone had ever lost in Bayport Park.

  But they didn’t find Frank’s bike.

  Then a yell came up from the other side of the big lawn.

  “I found it! I found it!” Jason Prime was jumping up and down and yelling. Frank came running over. Finally he was going to get his bike back.

  Jason brought him to a bunch of trees on the other side of the park. Frank could just make out a bicycle wheel peeking out from behind the branches.

  “My bike!” Frank yelled. He ran around the trees. He was so excited to get his bike back.

  But it wasn’t his bike. It was someone else’s red bike. Frank’s heart sank.

  “I’m sorry,” said Jason. “I thought it was your bike.”

  “It’s all right,” said Frank. He walked back across the big lawn, hoping someone else might have found his bike while he was gone. But no one had.

  “I give up!” he cried. He sat down with his back against a tree. He stared out at the field, where all his friends were still searching. “My bike is . . .” He trailed off into silence. He had a weird look on his face.

  “Your bike is what?” asked Joe.

  But Frank ignored him. “Joe!” he said. “Look at that sign!”

  Frank pointed at a sign on a tree above Joe’s head. In big letters, it said: NO LITTERING—ENFORCED BY PARK RANGERS. ABANDONED PROPERTY WILL BE REMOVED.

  A lightbulb went off in Frank’s head. “What if someone saw my bike and thought it had been abandoned?” he said to Joe.

  “They would have gone and gotten the park ranger,” said Joe.

  “Right,” said Frank. “And the ranger would have taken my bike away to the lost and found!”

  “We’ve got to get to the park ranger’s station before the park closes!”

  And with that, Frank and Joe were up and running.

  9

  Found and Lost

  The sun had almost set. If Frank and Joe were too late, the park ranger would be gone. They had to get to the ranger’s station before the park closed!

  Right behind was the entire Bayport Bandits team. Some of the players were practicing running and throwing the ball to one another at the same time. Cissy was juggling three baseballs—that was her other big talent, besides pitching the fastest fastball in the local Little League.

  Behind the Bandits were Adam, his mom, and Mina. Mina was practicing with her hula hoop while she ran.

  Behind the Ackermans were Mr. Mack and Lucy. Lucy kept darting forward to try to steal the baseballs from Cissy and the rest of the Bandits.

  “Is this a parade?” asked two girls as Frank and Joe ran past them. They were packing up their stuff and getting ready to leave the park for the night. They had been blowing bubbles. When no one answered them, they grabbed their bubbles and joined the long line of people running through the park.

  Next everyone ran by three musicians practicing in the park—a tuba player, a trumpet player, and a saxophone player. They took one look at everyone, picked up all their instruments, and started running behind the rest of the crowd.

  Now there was a juggler, a hula-hooper, two bubble blowers, and a band following Frank and Joe. It really did look like a strange parade running through the park.

  They ran across the big lawn and down past the Bayport memorial. They ran through the woods where Lucy buried her treasures, and near the willow trees where Adam had hidden Frank’s bike. Finally they made it to the ranger’s station. Ranger Curtis was standing outside with a big trash bag, picking up the litter that people had left in the park throughout the day.

  “Hey, what’s going on here?” asked Ranger Curtis.

  Frank opened his mouth to explain—but he was too out of breath from running to answer!

  “It’s a parade!” yelled one of the girls with the bubble wands. The musicians played a loud fanfare.

  “A parade?” said Ranger Curtis. “I don’t think we have that on the schedule! Do you have a permit for this?”

  “No!” said Frank.

  “No permit?” said Ranger Curtis. “Well, then, I’m afraid we simply can’t have a parade. It’s against the park rules.”

  “No, it’s not that we don’t have a permit!” said Frank, trying to explain.

  “So you do have a permit?” said Ranger Curtis. Now he looked confused.

  “No! We’re not a parade.”

  “Well, you look like a parade,” said Ranger Curtis, scratching his head and looking even more confused. “I’ve got the papers for a parade permit right here.”

  Ranger Curtis pulled a notebook from his pocket. “Now, let me just find them.”

  “We don’t want to have a parade, Ranger Curtis!” said Frank. “We just want to find my bike. They’re all helping me look for it.”

  “Oh,” said Ranger Curtis. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

  “I tried but—” Frank started to explain, but Ranger Curtis cut him off.

  “This missing bike, what does it look like?”

  Frank pulled out his notebook. He flipped to the page where he had drawn his bike. He held it out to Ranger Curtis.

  “It looks like this, Ranger Curtis. Only it’s red, not black and white.”

  “Oh, sure,” said Ranger Curtis. “I know that bike. I found it all by itself in the middle of the park. You shouldn’t have left it like that. It could have been stolen.”

  “That was my fault,” said Cissy. “I was trying to give it back to him.”

  Frank thought about trying to explain all the places his bike had been that day. But it was just too much.

  “Please, Ranger Curtis. I have to be home before dark. Is my bike here?”

  Ranger Curtis smiled. “Sure is, son. I put it on the other side of the ranger station for safekeeping. Let’s go get it and give this parade something to really celebrate!”

  “Yay!” the whole crowd cheered. Finally they had found Frank’s bike.

  The musicians played their instruments. Cissy juggled. The girls blew bubbles. Mina hula-hooped. The crowd celebrated and danced. They walked around the ranger’s station.

  And Frank’s bike wasn’t there.

  The parade stopped. The music stopped. The bubbles stopped. The hula-hooping and juggling stopped.

  “Where did it go?” asked Ranger Curtis. “You aren’t playing a trick on me, are you, Frank?”

  “No, sir! But it seems like someone is playing a trick on me. I can’t find my bike anywhere.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, Frank. The bike was here just a few minutes ago. But it’s time for me to close the park up. You’ll have to come back and look for it tomorrow.”

  Frank sighed. There was nothing he could do. They’d have to go home without his bike.

  10

  Home Sweet Home

  One by one everyone told Frank how sorry they were that
they couldn’t help him find his bike. Finally the only people left with Frank were Adam and his family, Cissy, and Joe. Adam came up to Frank.

  “I’m sorry I took your bike,” he said. He dug his toe into the dirt. “But I was going to give it back to you! I promise.”

  “I believe you,” said Frank. “And this isn’t your fault. But you shouldn’t have taken it anyway.”

  “I know. I’ll . . . I’ll help you look tomorrow!” For the first time ever Adam Ackerman actually looked like he might cry.

  “Thanks,” Frank said. He held out his hand. They shook.

  Adam and his family left.

  “Hey, Frank!” Cissy said. “I know. We can make missing posters for your bike! I got some new colored pencils, and I can bring them over tomorrow after school, and then we can put posters all around Bayport! I’m sure someone knows where your bike is.”

  “Yeah,” said Frank. “That sounds like a good idea.” He tried to smile, but his heart wasn’t in it.

  Cissy gave him a hug. “See you tomorrow,” she said. Frank and Joe said good-bye.

  “I guess we should go get your bike and go home,” Frank said to Joe.

  Together, Frank and Joe went and unlocked Joe’s bike. Then they began the long walk home. Neither of them had won the 2011 Bayport Junior Bike Rally, Frank’s arm was all scraped up, and worst of all, his bike was still missing. This was the worst day ever at the park.

  Walking home seemed to take forever. It was so much quicker to ride a bike! In his head Frank did some math.

  “Six months!” he suddenly said out loud.

  “Six months what?” said Joe.

  “That’s how long it’ll take me to save enough allowance money to buy a bike.”

  Six months without any more bike races. Six months without being able to bike to school or to the playground or to the store. Joe thought about it.

  “I can lend you everything I have saved!” said Joe.

  “Oh, wow! Thanks! How much is that?” asked Frank.

  “Uh . . .” Joe pulled his pockets inside out. “Two dollars, seventy-three cents, some lint, and two sticks of gum?”