Mystery Map Read Free

treasure!” Joe broke in, sounding excited. “Awesome! That twisty dotted line probably marks the trail to the spot where the treasure is buried.”
    Frank peered at the line. “It’s pretty hard to see with all the dirt and stuff,” he said. “Maybe we should show it to Dad. He might have some tips for figuring it out.”
    Joe jumped to his feet. “Let’s go find him!”
    They hurried out of the dining room. In the kitchen their mother was talking on the phone.
    â€œYes, Gertrude,” she was saying when they entered. “Fenton will be there to pick you up at the station. I hope you—”
    â€œMom!” Joe whispered. “Where’s Dad?”
    His mother frowned and shook her head. Suddenly, Joe remembered that she hated it when hetried to talk to her while she was on the phone.
Oops,
he thought.
    Frank tugged on his arm. “Come on,” he murmured. “We can find Dad ourselves.”
    The next place they looked was the living room. Their dad liked to read the newspaper there after dinner. But there was no sign of him. He wasn’t in the den watching TV either, or in his bedroom.
    Frank and Joe stopped in the upstairs hallway. “This is turning into a real mystery,” Frank joked. “I think we need to investigate.”
    â€œMaybe Dad has a secret tree house of his own,” Joe said.
    Frank grinned. Mr. Hardy had helped the boys build a tree house in the woods out back. Nobody knew it was there except the three of them. Lately it had become the headquarters for the brothers’ investigations.
    â€œIf we’re going to solve the case of the missing father, we’d better do it the right way,” Frank said. “The six
W
s, remember?”
    â€œWho, What, When, Where, Why, and How.” Joe ticked each word off on his fingers. “Okay, we know the Who.”
    â€œWe’re looking for Dad, that’s the Who,” Frank agreed. “The What is that he’s missing, and the When is right now.”
    â€œSo all we need to find out is Why and How, and maybe then we’ll figure out the Where,” Joe said. “I know! Let’s check the garage and see if his car is there.”
    â€œGreat idea,” Frank said. “If it is, we’ll know he didn’t go far.”
    Soon they were out in the garage. Their parents’ cars were parked neatly side by side.
    â€œThat means he’s probably still in the house somewhere.”Joe glanced out the garage window. “Or maybe the yard.”
    Frank pointed to several pairs of boots lined up just outside the door leading into the house. “His outside shoes are here,” he said. “That means he’s probably not working in the garden or anything like that.”
    Joe glanced up. “Did you hear that thump?” he asked. “I think I just solved the mystery.”
    â€œOf course! The spare room!” Frank couldn’t believe they’d forgotten to look there. For the past month or more, their father had been fixing up the area over the garage. That was the Where.
    The brothers left the garage and hurried around the outside of the house. They started up the steps to the spare room, which started near the kitchen door.
    When they reached the landing, they saw thatthe spare room door was shut. Joe reached for the handle.
    â€œIt’s locked,” he said.
    Frank nodded. “Dad’s been secretive about the spare room all along,” he recalled. “You decided he was going to surprise us by letting one of us move in there so we could each have our own room, remember?”
    â€œI still think he’s going to do that,” Joe said. “What else could it—”
    Just then the door opened and their father looked out. When he saw them, he quickly stepped out onto the landing and shut the door behind him.
    â€œYes, boys?” he asked. “What is it?”
    â€œWe wanted to ask you about the