Ship of Secrets Read Free Page A

Heartpence said, “but he was determined not to let it out of his sight.”
    “I made a mistake. . . .” Sir Reginald ran his hand through his thick white hair and frowned. “I saw it this afternoon. I was polishing it. I like to do that sometimes—give it a good polish. Then I put it right back into the case.”
    “About what time did you polish it?” Joe asked.
    “Four o’clock,” Sir Reginald’s son said. “I remember because I’d just come back from the pool.”
    “That’s right! Andrew had just come back from the pool, and Melinda was there with us, watchingtelevision,” Mrs. Heartpence added. She pointed to their daughter, who was sitting, curling her long brown braid around her hand. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the stage. A couple was salsa dancing. “Reginald and I stepped out for a snack at some point, but that was only for ten minutes or so. The kids were in and out of the room.”
    “It was nearly eight o’clock when we heard you shouting,” Mrs. Hardy said.
    “So the thief took the watch somewhere between four o’clock and eight o’clock,” Joe added.
    Sir Reginald nodded. “That’s right.”
    Frank wrote “When” right below “What,” and then put down the times. “So the pocket watch disappeared either from your room or from somewhere inside the ballroom.”
    “It was sitting right under the table by my feet!” Reginald said. “I had one foot resting next to it practically the whole time. Then, in the middle ofdinner, I just had this funny feeling that I should check on it. Sure enough, it was gone.”
    Joe and his brother shared a look. It was hard to say exactly where the watch had disappeared from. It could have been stolen in the room, on the way to dinner, or in the ballroom. Frank decided to write down all three possibilities under “Where.” They knew it was best to narrow the places down later.
    Another dance ended, and some of the crowd got up from dinner, and left to go to other parts of the ship. Joe and Frank kept their eyes open for anyone who looked suspicious, but the ballroom was mostly filled with families. People watched the show, or picked desserts from the dessert table. There didn’t seem to be a lot of suspects.
    “Who could’ve done this?” Joe asked.
    “Anyone!” Mrs. Heartpence said. “Anyone who wants to make a lot of money. The thief could be anywhere.”
    “But who was around during that time?” Joe asked. “You, Melinda, Andrew, and Sir Reginald were in the room. Was there anyone else you stopped to talk to along the way? Did anyone else come into the room after you polished the watch?”
    “No,” Sir Reginald said. “But now that you say that, I remember that I got into a fight with a steward this morning. He brought the wrong bag to our room. He was terrible! He had no clue what he was doing!”
    Frank raised his eyebrows. “What happened?”
    “I told him not to yell at the guy, but Reginald has such a temper,” Mrs. Heartpence said. “And then the steward got angry and yelled right back.”
    “Where was the pocket watch when this happened?” Joe asked.
    “In the room,” Melinda said. She raised her head for the first time since Frank and Joe had started talking to her parents.
    “He said ‘You’re going to pay for this’ and ‘You’ll be sorry.’ That seems like a threat, doesn’t it?” Sir Reginald straightened his scarf. “Do you think he could’ve taken it?”
    “Possibly,” Joe said.
    “We also saw my dad’s friends Ollie and Margaret,” Andrew added. “We ran into them on the way to dinner.”
    Mrs. Heartpence covered her mouth with her hand. “There’s no way they would’ve stolen it. They’re our close friends!”
    Frank wrote down, the steward, Ollie, and Margaret . “It’s good to have a complete list anyway. Maybe they saw something. You never know. Was there anyone else?”
    “Not that I can think of,” Sir Reginald said. “Those are the only people we talked to during that time.