A to Z Mysteries: The Bald Bandit (2 page)

“What money?” Josh asked.

“Well, if Detective Reddy is going to pay us a hundred dollars each to find the video, I figure we can give the kid half the money. But only if he gives us the video.”

At the high school, they split up.
Josh ran around to the back of the school. Ruth Rose sat on the lawn next to the bike rack.

Dink sat on a bench where he had a good view of the front door.

Suddenly, he heard a loud bell. Ten seconds later, the front door burst open. A million high school kids shoved
through the door and scrambled down the front steps.

Dink stood on the bench so he wouldn’t get trampled. He was looking for red hair, but it wasn’t easy to spot. Some of the kids had hats on. Some wore jackets or sweatshirts with the hoods pulled up. Sometimes Dink couldn’t tell if a kid was a boy or a girl!

Finally, he spotted a tall guy with red hair. Dink jumped off the bench and ran after him.

“Excuse me,” Dink said, trying to catch his breath.

“Who are you?” the redhead asked.

“Dink Duncan.” Dink tried to remember his plan. “You may have won some money!”

The redhead stared down at Dink. “Money? Me? Why? How much money?”

“Were you near the bank when the
robbery happened last week?” he asked.

The kid kept staring at Dink. “Robbery? What robbery?”

“You didn’t hear about it? It was on the news, on TV. Some guy robbed Green Lawn Savings Bank.”

“So what’s it to you?”

“A kid with red hair got the robber on tape,” Dink said. “I’m helping to find him. There’s going to be a reward.”

“Rats, I wish I did tape the guy,” the redhead said, shaking his head. “I could use a reward. But I wasn’t anywhere near the bank last week.” He waved and headed for the park. “Good luck!”

Dink looked around for another redhead, but everyone had disappeared.

He walked toward the bike rack. Ruth Rose was sitting on the lawn, weaving grass blades together.

“Did you see any redheads?” Dink
asked, plopping down beside her.

“Three,” Ruth Rose said. “One was a short, fat boy. One was a girl. One was a teacher.”

Josh came running up.

“Any luck?” he asked.

“Nope,” Dink said. “How’d you do?”

“I talked to two guys with red hair. One of them told me to take a hike. The other one was an exchange student from Ireland. He told me he doesn’t even know where the bank is.”

“Great,” Dink said. “We all struck out. Now what do we do?”

Josh tossed a pine cone at a tree. “Beats me.”

“We should search the whole neighborhood,” Ruth Rose said.

“How?” Dink asked.

Ruth Rose stood up and dusted off her shorts. “Easy. We just go door to door and ask.”

“How can we do that without our parents finding out?” Josh asked. “Mine won’t let me get involved with some bank robber, that’s for sure.”

“Mine either,” Dink said.

“So how do we explain why we’re wandering around Green Lawn knocking on everyone’s doors?” asked Josh.

“Come on, guys,” Ruth Rose said. “Think about it. What’s tonight?”

Dink and Josh looked at each other.

“Halloween!”

With black shoe polish in his hair and plastic fangs in his mouth, Dink looked like Dracula.

His mom had made him a cape from an old black raincoat. He tied the cape around his neck just as the doorbell rang.

A strange creature stood on his porch. The thing was wrapped in green cloth. Tufts of red hair poked out at the top. Large black high-tops stuck out at the bottom.

“How do I look?” the thing asked.

Dink took out his fangs and grinned. “Like some weird vegetable. Half carrot and half asparagus.”

Josh shuffled inside the house.

“You look pretty good, Dink. I like the blood dripping down your chin.”

The bell dinged again. This time it was a miniature Elvis. Ruth Rose was wearing a white suit with sequins everywhere. She even carried a little guitar. Her Elvis wig made her look about two inches taller.

Ruth Rose strummed her guitar and wiggled her hips.

“Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen,” she said, taking a bow.

“Come on in, Elvis,” Dink said. “We have to talk about Operation Redhead before we go trick-or-treating.”

They sat at Dink’s kitchen table. A basket of candy stood waiting for the neighborhood kids.

“Here’s my plan,” Dink said. “Every house we go to, we ask if anyone knows a skinny redheaded kid.”

“That’s
my
plan!” Ruth Rose said.

Dink grinned. “Oh, yeah, I forgot.”

One of Ruth Rose’s black eyebrows was crooked. “We have to keep our eyes peeled. Check out tall kids trick-or-treating.”

“Got it,” Dink said.

“Anyone with red hair, we ask them if they took a video of the bank robber,” Ruth Rose went on.

“Check,” Dink said. “Any other ideas?”

“Yeah, I got a great idea,” Josh said. “Let’s stop talking and get moving!”

Dink’s mother walked into the kitchen. She screamed and clutched her chest.

“Oh, my goodness! Monsters in my kitchen!”

Ruth Rose stood up. “I’m not a monster, Mrs. Duncan. I’m Elvis!”

Dink’s mom adjusted Ruth Rose’s left eyebrow. “I know, honey. You make a great Elvis. But these other two!” She shuddered and made a terrified face.

“We’re going now, Mom.” Dink fit the plastic fangs over his teeth. He handed Josh a paper bag and took one for himself.

“Please be back in two hours,” his mother said. “Dad and I will have some cider and doughnuts for you.”

The three kids each took a different street. They agreed to meet back at Dink’s house in about two hours.

Dink headed down Woody Street. He looked at every tall kid in a costume, checking for red hair. But most of the kids out were shorter than him. He
counted seventeen ghosts, twenty little witches, eight angels with floppy wings, and a zillion small furry animals.

Dink rang Mrs. Davis’s doorbell. “Trick or treat!”

“Oh, hello, Dink!” said Mrs. Davis. She dropped a small bag of candy kisses into his sack.

“Have you seen any redheaded kids tonight?” Dink asked.

“Redheads?” Mrs. Davis patted her white hair. “I’m afraid I don’t know anyone besides your friend Josh who has red hair.”

Dink thanked Mrs. Davis for the candy and walked next door to old Mr. Kramer’s house.

Mr. Kramer was a little deaf.

“Do you know a skinny redhead?” asked Dink in a loud voice.

Mr. Kramer turned one ear and leaned toward Dink. “What’s that you
say? A tinny red bed?”

“A skinny red
head!”
Dink yelled even louder. He wished he had Ruth Rose with him. She was the only one loud enough for Mr. Kramer to hear.

Mr. Kramer dropped a nickel in Dink’s bag and slammed the door. Dink sighed.

He followed some ghosts to the next house on Woody Street.

A gorilla opened the door when Dink rang the bell. It had a hairy chest and a huge mouth filled with yellow teeth.

“Trick or treat!” said Dink.

The gorilla dropped a banana into Dink’s bag.

“Have you seen any tall redheaded teenagers walking around?” Dink asked.

The gorilla grunted and shook his head.

“Thanks anyway,” said Dink.

Two hours later, Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose poured their candy onto Dink’s dining room table.

Dink took out his fangs. “Any luck?” he asked.

Josh unwrapped his face. “I saw four redheads. Two girls about ten years old and two adults. No one I talked to knew a skinny redhead in high school.”

Ruth Rose took off her wig and eyebrows
and dropped them into her plastic jack-o’-lantern.

“Same here,” she sighed, slumping in her chair. “Nobody knew the right redhead. And I asked everybody!”

Josh ripped open a miniature bag of M&M’s.

“I really wanted that hundred bucks,” he said. “Maybe we should just forget it.”

“Give up after just two days? No way you guys!” Dink climbed up on the table. He wrapped his cape around his face so just his eyes showed.

In his best Count Dracula voice, he said,
“Vee vill never giff up!”

The next morning, Dink’s hair was stiff with black shoe polish. He shampooed three times before he got out of the shower.

The bathroom mirror was fogged up when he tried to see his reflection. He wiped the mirror, looked at himself, and gasped.

His hair wasn’t its usual blond and it wasn’t vampire black. It was a muddy brown color, like the rusty parts on his bike.

“Mom! Help!”

His mother peeked into the bathroom. “What’s the…oh, I see.” She giggled.

“It’s not funny, Mom. How am I supposed to go outside like this? My hair looks like it rusted!”

“Honey, lots of kids will have traces of makeup on their faces or color in their hair today. It’s the day after Halloween.”

Dink rubbed a towel over his hair as hard as he could. He looked in the mirror. Now he had
frizzy
rust-colored hair.

“Be thankful it’s Saturday,” his mother said, smiling. “At least you don’t have to go to school today.”

After breakfast, Dink jammed his baseball cap over his hair and headed for Josh’s house.