The New Year Dragon Dilemma

by Ron Roy

  The kids sprinted and jumped onto the cable car just as it began moving. The car was crowded, and they hid behind a bunch of tourists with cameras and maps clutched in their hands.

  “Can you see him, Josh?” Dink asked.

  Josh was the tallest of the three. Standing on tiptoes, he peeked from behind his sketchbook over the heads of the tourists. “He’s standing right by the front door,” he said.

  The car sped along, swerving and clattering as the underground cable pulled it up the hill along its route. It stopped twice for new passengers. When the car stopped a third time, the group of tourists clambered off, talking in a language the kids didn’t understand.

  “He’s getting off, too!” Josh whispered.

  The kids hopped off the rear of the car, keeping their eyes on Burk’s back as he headed into the fog.

  “Where the heck are we?” Josh asked.

  “I think I know,” Ruth Rose said. She bent over and picked up something. “Look at this.” She was holding a flower blossom.

  “This is where the parade was last night!” Dink said.

  “Look at the ground,” Ruth Rose said. “There are blossoms everywhere. They fell off the floats.”

  Burk walked slowly through the fog. The kids followed him, their footsteps muffled by the dampness.

  He stopped in front of a building the size of Dink’s school back home—it was the warehouse where they’d seen the dragon!

  “What’s he doing?” Dink asked.

  Burk had walked up to the door. The kids watched him pull something from his pocket. They heard a click, then a rattling noise.

  “That sounded like a lock,” Ruth Rose said.

  “Yeah, and I’ll bet Dink’s Laptop Guy gave him the key,” Josh said.

  Burk disappeared inside the building.

  “Come on,” Dink said.

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose scurried quietly to the door. An open padlock dangled from a hasp.

  The kids peered into the building. The floats sat in the darkness like sleeping giants. On top of the closest truck bed, Dink saw an oversized tiger, crouching in a jungle setting. He could smell the flowers that made up the tiger’s orange and black body.

  “This is where they keep the floats,” Josh whispered.

  Along one wall lay the dragon. Its two-hundred-foot length was only partly visible in the dim light. Dink thought it looked asleep. He had liked the dragon better when it was dancing along in the parade.

  “This place is creeping me out,” Josh said.

  The three kids stepped inside. Josh pulled the door partly closed behind them. He folded his sketchbook and used it to wedge the door open a couple of inches.

  “What’re you doing?” Dink whispered.

  “I hate dark places,” Josh said. “My pad will let in a little light.”

  They stood to let their eyes adjust. Looking around, Dink saw no windows. Then he felt a hand grab his arm. Ruth Rose pulled Dink down and whispered in his ear, “Look over by the dragon. I think I saw a light.”

  Tiptoeing, the kids headed toward that side of the massive space. As they drew closer, they could see Burk crouched by the dragon’s head. In one hand, he held a flashlight. The other hand was inside the dragon’s mouth.

  “What’s he—”

  Dink stopped Josh from speaking. As quietly as possible, he drew his cell phone from his pocket. Getting down on his knees, Dink crawled toward the dragon. When he was as close as he dared go, he aimed the phone’s camera lens at Burk’s back.

  Burk pulled something from the dragon’s mouth. It was a round object, the size of a tennis ball. He turned his light on the object and it blazed red. It was the ruby.

  Grinning, Dink pushed the button on his cell-phone camera. It made a quiet clicking noise.

  Burk lurched around. “What the …” Leaping to his feet, he bolted toward Dink.

  “Run!” Ruth Rose screamed.

  “Split up!” Josh yelled.

  Dink raced for the nearest float, shoving his cell phone into a pocket. He nearly bumped into the float. Looking up, he saw the tiger leering down at him. Dink crawled under the truck bed and made himself as small as he could behind one of the rear tires.

  Some of the flowers and vines that made the tiger’s “jungle” hung down over the sides of the truck. Dink felt hidden, but he knew Burk could find him with his flashlight. He wondered where Josh and Ruth Rose were hiding.

  Suddenly an earsplitting whistle pierced the air. “POLICE! FREEZE!” a voice shouted.

  Dink peered out from under the truck. If the police were here, he was getting out of this place right now! He sprinted for the door as fast as his trembling legs would take him.

  Somebody grabbed him as soon as he had cleared the door. It was Josh, who pulled Dink out of the way.

  Then Ruth Rose slammed the door shut and snapped the padlock. She turned and grinned at Dink. “Josh and I made a plan when you went to take the guy’s picture,” she said.

  “But … but the police, the whistle …,” Dink stammered.

  Ruth Rose held up her Swiss Army knife. From it dangled a tiny teddy bear and a shiny police whistle. “That was me,” she said. “I was hoping Burk would think I was the police and hide, and you’d run outside.” She dropped her knife into her backpack. “And you did!”

  Josh picked up his bent sketchbook. “Now use that cell phone of yours and call the real police!” he said.

  “They’re twin brothers?” Dink asked.

  Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were sitting on the floor in the living room of their Bayside Hotel apartment. Dink’s father sat on the sofa. He had just gotten off the phone with Officer Feist.

  “Yes, Dr. Winston Worthington has a twin brother named Wayne Worthington,” Dink’s father told them. “Wayne got out of prison a few months ago. He stayed with Winston for a while, then borrowed some money from him and bought that old sailboat, where he now lives.”

  Dink thought about Wayne’s tattoos. “So those were W’s on his hands, not M’s,” he said. “I was reading them upside down!”

  His father nodded. “Apparently, Wayne did some snooping when his brother wasn’t around,” he went on. “That’s how he learned about the parade, Miss Chinatown’s crown, even when the fireworks would go off. He was the one who set off the second round of fireworks.”

  “So he decided to steal the ruby?” asked Ruth Rose.

  “Yes, but he needed help, so he enlisted Burk, the little guy who actually stole the crown right off Lily’s head,” Dink’s father said. “He and Burk had once shared a prison cell.”

  “So that’s why Dr. Worthington seemed so sad on the swan float,” Dink said. “He must have figured out that his own brother was the crook!”

  “I think you’re right about that,” Mr. Duncan said. “Luckily, you kids figured out what they were up to.”

  “Dad, why didn’t Burk just take off with the ruby after he stole it?” Dink asked. “Why did he hide it in the dragon’s mouth?”

  “Burk knew if he didn’t go back to help carry the dragon in the parade, he would be suspected,” Dink’s father answered. “But he was worried that everyone would be searched, so he stuck the ruby in the dragon’s mouth, figuring he or his partner in crime could get it later.”

  “So he confessed?” Ruth Rose asked.

  Dink’s father laughed. “Yes, he did,” he said. “But not right away. When the cops let Burk out of the warehouse, he denied everything. Said there was no proof. But when the police showed him the picture Dink took, he changed his story.”

  “Cool!” Dink said. “I wasn’t sure if the picture was any good. It came out pretty dark.”

  “It was fine,” his father said. “It showed Burk holding the ruby. And when the piece of yarn matched his sweater exactly, he began to sing like a bird.”

  “Did Burk put the crown in Holden’s buggy?” Dink asked.

  “Yes, because he hoped that would make the police believe that Holden and his girlfriend had pulled o
ff the caper,” Dink’s father said. “While Wayne was staying with his brother, he learned that Lily was one of the two finalists for Miss Chinatown. So he followed her, learned about Holden, then made his plans.”

  “But that was pretty dumb,” Ruth Rose said. “Because even if Holden was the thief, he would never have hidden the crown in his own buggy!”

  Dink’s father laughed again. “That’s right,” he said. “But most crooks aren’t very smart!”

  “So where are Holden and Lily?” Josh asked. “I hope he’s not still in jail!”

  Just then the apartment telephone rang. Dink’s father answered. “Yes, please send them up, Mr. Alderson,” he said into the phone.

  “Send what up?” Dink asked.

  “I ordered take-out food,” his father said.

  A minute later there was a knock on the door. Dink got up and opened it. Holden and Lily stepped in, with bags that smelled very good.

  “Is anyone here hungry?” Holden asked.

  “Yes!” everyone yelled.

  If someone asked you to name your favorite thing, what would you say? Chocolate? Money? Reading? Watching TV? Playing a sport? Obviously, this list could go on and on. If you were to ask me, I would have to admit that I like all the things in the above list, but my favorite thing is traveling. I have been many places in the United States, and have visited a lot of other countries as well. Here’s just part of my travel list in the U.S.: Hawaii, Florida, California, Colorado, Texas, Washington State and Washington, D.C., Maine, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. I have also had wonderful vacations in England, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Panama, Belize, Germany, Mexico, Canada, and India.

  In The New Year Dragon Dilemma, my characters travel to one of my favorite cities: San Francisco, California. Have you been there? What a place! My first visit to San Francisco was during a college vacation. I’ll never forget the steep hills, the cable cars, the food, and the smells and noises made by those sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf. And I love to eat Chinese food, so I loved wandering around Chinatown.

  It’s not hard to find a mystery in a large city. You just have to use your imagination and keep your eyes open. In this book, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose had a lot of fun in San Francisco. But they found a crime to solve, too. I hope you enjoyed going along with them on their big adventure!

  Happy reading!

  Sincerely,

  P.S. Be sure to look for the answer to the hidden message on the bottom of the next page. And please keep visiting my website at ronroy.com!

  Did you find the secret message

  hidden in this book?

  If you don’t want to know the answer,

  don’t look at the bottom of this page!