“You guys really solve mysteries?” Tony asked.
“Tons,” Chet said. “And I help. We’ll find out who pulled the alarm in no time.”
Frank looked at Joe and Chet. “We’ll start at lunch.”
• • •
At lunch Frank looked around the cafeteria. The large, brightly lit room was filled with kids. Frank spotted Tanya. She was sitting with her friend from the playground. All of the long tables seemed to be full.
“Where are we going to sit?” Joe wondered out loud. “I can’t solve a mystery when my stomach is growling.”
“Definitely not,” Chet said. “Follow me.” He led the way to a table near the windows.
“But somebody left their stuff here.” Joe pointed to a couple of short pieces of wire and a screwdriver.
“No big deal,” Frank said. “There’s still plenty of room for us.” He pushed the wire and the screwdriver to one side and sat down.
Chet and Joe sat down, too. The boys opened their lunch boxes.
Joe was glad he had the same lunchtime as Frank and Chet. This way, they’d all be able to eat together. Half of the classes in the school ate forty-five minutes later.
Frank had brought a piece of paper and a pencil from his classroom. “Let’s start by making up a list of suspects,” he said.
Joe laughed. “You sound just like Dad.”
“I know,” Frank said with a grin.
Their father, Fenton Hardy, was a private detective in Bayport. He’d taught Frank and Joe a lot about crime-solving. The boys knew one of the first steps was to make a list of suspects.
Joe took a bite of his peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich. He chewed as he thought about suspects. “Tanya might have pulled the alarm,” he said after he swallowed.
“Tanya?” Chet mumbled with his mouth full. His lunch box held two sandwiches, a banana, an apple, a small bag of chips, some cookies, and two juice boxes.
“Yes,” Joe said. “She wanted to see the hot-air balloons. They passed over the playground while we were outside.”
“I don’t think Tanya would pull the alarm just for that,” Frank said. “She could have watched from the window of her classroom.”
Joe shrugged.
Chet took a sip of juice. “Write her name down,” he said. “We can always take it off the list later.”
“Okay,” Frank said. He wrote the word “suspects” at the top of the paper. Under that, he wrote “Tanya—balloons.”
“Who else?” Joe asked.
“What about Zack?” Chet took a big bite of his cookie. “Tony told him, ‘darers go first’ this morning.”
“And Zack was out of our class when the alarm went off!” Frank exclaimed.
“Really?” Joe asked. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know.” Chet looked thoughtful as he took another bite of cookie. “The office called our classroom. Then Mrs. Burton whispered something to Zack and he went out. That was about five minutes before the alarm went off.”
Frank put Zack’s name on the list. “Anyone else?” he asked.
The boys all thought for a moment.
Joe shook his head. “Nope.”
“I can’t think of anyone else,” Chet said. He snapped his lunch box shut.
Frank folded up his list. “Then let’s go outside. Maybe we can find some clues.”
“Cool,” Joe said.
The boys started to get up. Just then all of the lights in the lunchroom went out. Kids screamed as the room became dark.
4
A Shoe Clue
Just stay in your seats, everyone, until the lights come back on,” a teacher’s voice called out.
“I wonder who turned off the lights,” Joe whispered to Frank.
“Maybe the cook blew a fuse,” Chet suggested.
“Or maybe it was the same person who pulled the fire alarm,” Frank said.
“Maybe,” Joe said.
Suddenly the lights flickered back on.
Joe stood up quickly. “Come on, let’s go get those clues now.”
“Wait!” Frank exclaimed. “My list of suspects is gone.”
“Are you sure?” Chet asked.
Frank pointed to the table. “The list was right there when the lights went out.”
“Maybe it fell off the table,” Joe said. He got down on his hands and knees and searched around on the floor. But all he saw were a few peas and a piece of baloney.
“I think someone stole it,” Joe said as he stood up. He brushed off his knees.
“Why?” Chet said.
“Maybe someone doesn’t want us to investigate this case,” Frank said.
“Cool,” Joe said with a big smile. But his smile faded when he spotted Zack coming down the row of tables. “Here comes trouble,” Joe muttered.
“What did you babies lose now?” Zack asked. “Your bottles?”
“Very funny,” Chet said. “We’re going to find out who really pulled the fire alarm this morning.”
Zack shrugged. “What makes you think I care?”
“Because we think you might have pulled it.” Frank watched Zack’s expression. He doesn’t look worried, Frank thought.
“I didn’t pull the alarm,” Zack said angrily.
“Where were you when the alarm went off?” Chet asked. “You weren’t in class.”
“That’s none of your business.” Zack started to push by him.
“If you didn’t pull the alarm, why won’t you tell us where you were?” Joe called after Zack.
Zack didn’t answer. He just kept walking.
Frank shook his head. “I think we should move Zack to the top of our suspect list.”
“We don’t have a suspect list anymore,” Chet said as they walked out of the cafeteria.
Frank tapped the side of his head. “That’s okay. I’ve got it all up here.”
Joe stopped walking. “Look, you guys, here’s the fire alarm,” he said. “I’ll bet whoever pulled it left their fingerprints all over it.”
Chet looked up and down the hallway. He pointed to a nearby door. “That’s Mr. Levy’s room. He teaches fourth grade,” he said. “A kid from that class could have pulled the fire alarm in about a second flat.”
“Good point,” Joe said. “We’ll have to find out if any of our suspects are in that class.”
While Chet and Joe were talking, Frank was bending over and examining the floor. “It sure is dusty around here,” he said.
Joe and Chet stepped forward to get a closer look. A thin layer of white dust lay just under the fire alarm.
“The rest of the hall is much cleaner,” Joe said. “I wonder where all of this dust came from.”
“I don’t know,” Frank said. “But I’m glad it’s here. Look!”
Frank pointed to the floor right under the fire alarm. There was a footprint in the dust.
Joe leaned down to examine the footprint. “I think I see a W in the footprint!” he said with excitement. “What kind of shoes have W’s on the bottom?”
Chet turned over his shoe and looked at the sole. “Not mine. It’s got a bunch of squiggly little S’s.”
“Mine doesn’t have any letters at all,” Frank reported.
“Well, all we have to do is find someone with a big W on the bottom of their shoes,” Joe said. “And then we’ll know who pulled the . . . ”
Joe’s voice trailed off. He heard a loud clanking noise coming down the hall. The boys turned toward the sound.
A slender, gray-haired man was coming down the hallway. He was carrying a big can of paint, and a broom and dustpan. Several paintbrushes were tucked under his arm. He was dragging a ladder behind him.
“Who’s that?” Frank asked.
“Mr. Sterling, the custodian,” Chet said.
Frank dashed toward the man. “Mr. Sterling, do you need some help?”
“No, thanks,” Mr. Sterling grunted. “Almost there.”
The custodian came a few more yards up the hallway. He
stopped next to Joe and Chet. He leaned the ladder against the wall. Then he dropped the rest of his gear with a sigh.
“Whew!” Mr. Sterling wiped his sleeve across his forehead. “That was quite a load!”
“Why didn’t you make two trips?” Frank asked.
“It’s faster this way,” Mr. Sterling replied. “I like to get things done quickly.”
“What are you doing?” Joe asked.
“Got to touch up on this wall with a little paint,” Mr. Sterling explained. “It’s my job to keep this place in perfect shape.”
Joe peered at the wall. He saw a patch of plaster near the fire alarm that was a lighter color than the rest of the wall.
“Is that the spot?” Joe pointed.
“Yup.” Mr. Sterling started to sweep up the dust under the fire alarm.
Frank and Joe looked at each other. Their clue was being swept away!
“Why is it so dusty here?” Frank asked the custodian.
“I guess that’s because I was patching the plaster,” Mr. Sterling said. “Sanding plaster makes a lot of dust.”
Chet pulled on Frank’s arm. “Come on. Let’s go outside.”
Frank examined the fire alarm one last time. He didn’t want to miss any clues that might get cleaned up and disappear forever.
“Yeah,” Joe said. “I want to play dodgeball.”
“Okay,” Frank agreed.
Out on the playground a group of boys and girls was playing dodgeball. The other kids were already hot and sweaty. Lunch period was almost over.
Frank, Chet, and Joe ran to join the game. Iola had the ball. She threw it. The ball hit a short boy Joe recognized. It was Malcolm’s cousin, Brad—the boy who wanted to be a firefighter when he grew up.
“Ha, ha!” Iola yelled. “You’re it.”
Brad stuck his tongue out at Iola. The other kids scattered as he picked up the ball. Brad fired the ball at Joe with all of his might. Joe tried to jump out of the way. But he was half a second too slow. The ball hit him in the heel.
Brad came up and patted Joe on the back. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem.” Joe bent down to pick up the ball. He noticed Brad’s gym shoes. They had a big WHOOSH! printed on one side. WHOOSH! was a popular brand of basketball sneaker.
“Nice shoes,” Joe said as he stood up. “They must have great grip.”
“They call it turbo grip,” Brad said. “It’s great for fast turns. Check it out.”
Brad picked up his foot so that Joe had a view of the bottom of his shoe. It had a big W printed on the bottom.
Brad made that footprint! Joe thought in surprise. And that must mean he pulled the fire alarm!
5
Jumping to Conclusions
The dodgeball game broke up a few minutes later when the bell rang. Joe was happy. He couldn’t wait to tell Frank and Chet what he’d discovered.
“You guys!” Joe motioned them away from the other kids. He quickly told them about the W on the bottom of Brad’s shoe.
Chet was nodding quickly. “That makes sense!” he said excitedly. “Last year Ms. Vaughn had a contest to see who could design the best fire safety poster. Brad was only in first grade, but he won. He got these fire prevention stickers as a prize and put them all over his bike.”
“Maybe Brad pulled the alarm so that he could see real firefighters in action,” Joe said eagerly.
“Maybe,” Frank said. “Let’s talk to him after school.”
“This might be the easiest mystery we’ve solved yet!” Joe said happily.
But Joe’s good mood didn’t last long. When he got in line with his class, Malcolm and Kevin took two big steps away from him.
“I don’t want to stand next to the tattletale,” Kevin said.
“Me neither,” Malcolm said.
Joe shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to class by himself.
Tony was sitting at his desk when the other kids came into Mrs. Adair’s room. He had his arms crossed, and he was frowning.
Joe stopped next to his desk. “What’s the matter, Tony?”
“The Time Out room,” Tony said. “You can’t talk in there. You can’t even breathe loudly. And you definitely don’t get to play dodgeball.”
“Don’t worry,” Joe told him. “I think the Clues Brothers are about to crack the case.”
Tony’s eyes opened wide. “Already?”
Joe nodded confidently. “Ms. Vaughn should know you didn’t pull the fire alarm today after school.”
Tony smiled a little. “That’s great!”
• • •
“Brad, wait up!” Joe yelled across the playground after school.
Brad turned around. He looked surprised when he saw Joe, Frank, Chet, and Tony hurrying toward him.
“What’s up?” Brad asked.
“You pulled the fire alarm this morning,” Tony blurted out. “And I got in trouble for it.”
“I didn’t pull the alarm,” Brad said.
“But we found a footprint under the alarm,” Chet said. “Your footprint.”
Brad looked down at his feet and shrugged. “I was looking at the fire alarm,” he admitted. “But it was after the alarm had already gone off—during lunch.”
Tony frowned. “Can you prove that?”
“Sure,” Brad said. “First of all, you can ask my teacher if I left my classroom at all this morning. She’ll tell you I didn’t. Then you can ask Malcolm whether I looked at the fire alarm during lunch. He was with me.”
Tony’s shoulders slumped.
“Okay,” Frank agreed. “We’ll do that.”
Brad looked at the other boys. “Any other questions?”
“No,” Joe said. “I’m sorry we blamed you. I guessed we jumped to conclusions.”
“That’s okay,” Brad said. “I hope you find out who pulled the alarm. Whoever it is deserves to get in trouble. False alarms are really dangerous.”
“They are?” Chet asked. “How can fighting a fire be dangerous when there’s no fire?”
“It would have been dangerous if there had been a fire somewhere else,” Brad said. “There might not have been enough firefighters to go to the real fire.”
A beige station wagon pulled up to the curb.
“That’s my mom,” Brad said. “See you later.”
Tony frowned as he watched Brad climb into the car. “Are you guys sure he didn’t do it?”
“We can ask Malcolm tomorrow when he and Brad were looking at the fire alarm,” Joe said. “And we can ask Mr. Sterling when he sanded the wall. Maybe he didn’t even do that until after the alarm rang.”
Tony frowned. “Looks like I have to spend lunchtime tomorrow in the Time Out room.”
• • •
“How was your first day at school?” Mrs. Hardy asked that evening. It was almost time for dinner. The boys had just come into the kitchen to wash their hands and clean out their lunch boxes.
“Fine, I guess,” Joe said. He was thinking about how Malcolm and Kevin hadn’t wanted to stand next to him in line.
“Exciting!” Frank added. “Someone pulled the fire alarm. And we have a new mystery to solve.”
“A mystery?” Mr. Hardy started to set the table. “Let’s hear about it.”
While Joe rinsed out his thermos, Frank told Mr. and Mrs. Hardy everything that had happened at school that morning.
“All done!” Joe announced. He put his thermos in the drying rack and sat down at the table. Frank took Joe’s place at the sink.
Joe continued the story. “At lunch we made a list of suspects—just like you taught us, Dad. But when we finished, the lights in the lunchroom went out. And someone stole the list!”
Frank cleared his throat. “Well, maybe not.” He held up a piece of paper. “Look what I just found in my lunch box.” It was the list.
Mrs. Hardy laughed. “Well, that’s one mystery solved.”
Joe frowned. “But if nobody stole our list, why did the lights go out?”
Frank shrugged.
“Good question,” Mr. Hardy said. “Find the answer and you may also find out who pulled the fire alarm. Or you might learn the lights and the alarm have no connection.”
“What’s the matter, Joe?” Mrs. Hardy asked as the family sat down to eat.
Joe was frowning. “It’s just that this mystery is so . . . mysterious.”
Everyone laughed.
• • •
“Frank Hardy?” Mrs. Burton said the next morning.
“Here,” Frank said.
“Chet Morton?”
“Present!”
“Present,” Zack repeated from the back of the room. Frank turned around and gave Zack a dirty look. Zack threw a balled-up piece of paper at him. The ball landed on a boy named Peter.
“Please get out a fresh sheet of paper,” Mrs. Burton told the class after she finished the attendance. “Number it from one to ten. Then write a sentence with each of the words I’m going to put on the blackboard.”
Mrs. Burton started to write. She’d gotten to word number five when the classroom phone rang. Mrs. Burton talked on the phone for a moment and then hung up.
“Zack,” she called. “Please come to my desk.”
Frank watched Zack walk to the front of the room. Mrs. Burton spoke to him in a low voice. Then Zack took one of the hall passes and left the room.
Frank twisted around in his seat. He gave Chet a questioning look.
Chet shrugged.
I’ve got to find out where Zack is going, Frank thought. He raised his hand.
Mrs. Burton had finished writing on the board. She turned back toward the class. “Yes, Frank?”
“May I go to the bathroom?” Frank asked.
“Of course you may,” Mrs. Burton said.
Frank hurried to the front of the room. He got the other pass and left the room. He stepped into the hallway just in time to see Zack turn the corner.
Great, Frank thought. Now I can see where he’s going.
Zack was walking past the cafeteria. He turned right—toward the front entrance of the building.
Frank followed as closely as he dared.
Zack opened a door and went inside.
As soon as the door swung closed, Frank tiptoed up to it. Principal’s Office was painted on the glass in perfect black letters.
First Day, Worst Day Page 2
