A to Z Mysteries: The Bald Bandit Read Free Page B

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 boxwas 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. “Whynot?” 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 theTV 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