The Bicycle Thief (6 page)

“Yeah!” yelled everybody, except for Lucy, who barked.

“Great!” yelled Joe. “Let's team up and start looking. Everyone go in a different direction. The last place anyone saw the bike was over there by the big oak tree. Let's do it!”

Soon everyone was searching for Frank's bike. They were looking behind trees and under
benches. They were looking down in every ditch and up on every hill.

“Wow,” said Frank. “You guys are the best!”

“You've helped solve mysteries for everyone in town,” said Cissy. “Now it's our turn to help you!”

They searched and searched and searched. They found two missing library books, a baby stroller, a bright red toy fire truck, an abandoned picnic basket, three sets of keys, and a cell phone. They found every baseball the Bandits had lost in every practice game in the last year. They found pretty much everything anyone had ever lost in Bayport Park.

But they didn't find Frank's bike.

Then a yell came up from the other side of the big lawn.

“I found it! I found it!” Jason Prime was jumping up and down and yelling. Frank came running over. Finally he was going to get his bike back.

Jason brought him to a bunch of trees on
the other side of the park. Frank could just make out a bicycle wheel peeking out from behind the branches.

“My bike!” Frank yelled. He ran around the trees. He was so excited to get his bike back.

But it wasn't his bike.
It was someone else's red bike. Frank's heart sank.

“I'm sorry,” said Jason. “I thought it was your bike.”

“It's all right,” said Frank. He walked back across the big lawn, hoping someone else might have found his bike while he was gone. But no one had.

“I give up!” he cried. He sat down with his back against a tree. He stared out at the field, where all his friends were still searching. “My bike is . . .” He trailed off into silence. He had a weird look on his face.

“Your bike is what?” asked Joe.

But Frank ignored him. “Joe!” he said. “Look at that sign!”

Frank pointed at a sign on a tree above Joe's head. In big letters, it said:
NO LITTERING
—
ENFORCED BY PARK RANGERS
.
ABANDONED PROPERTY WILL BE REMOVED
.

A lightbulb went off in Frank's head. “What if
someone saw my bike and thought it had been abandoned?” he said to Joe.

“They would have gone and gotten the park ranger,” said Joe.

“Right,” said Frank. “And the ranger would have taken my bike away to the lost and found!”

“We've got to get to the park ranger's station before the park closes!”

And with that, Frank and Joe were up and running.

 9    

Found and Lost

T
he sun had almost set. If Frank and Joe were too late, the park ranger would be gone. They had to get to the ranger's station before the park closed!

Right behind was the entire Bayport Bandits team. Some of the players were practicing running and throwing the ball to one another at the same time. Cissy was juggling three baseballs—that was her other big talent, besides pitching the fastest fastball in the local Little League.

Behind the Bandits were Adam, his mom, and Mina. Mina was practicing with her hula hoop while she ran.

Behind the Ackermans were Mr. Mack and Lucy. Lucy kept darting forward to try to steal the baseballs from Cissy and the rest of the Bandits.

“Is this a parade?” asked two girls as Frank and Joe ran past them. They were packing up their stuff and getting ready to leave the park for the night. They had been blowing bubbles. When no one answered them, they grabbed their bubbles and joined the long line of people running through the park.

Next everyone ran by three musicians practicing in the park—a tuba player, a trumpet player, and a saxophone player. They took one look at everyone, picked up all their instruments, and started running behind the rest of the crowd.

Now there was a juggler, a hula-hooper, two bubble blowers,
and
a band following Frank and Joe. It really did look like a strange parade running through the park.

They ran across the big lawn and down past the Bayport memorial. They ran through the woods where Lucy buried her treasures, and near the willow trees where Adam had hidden Frank's bike. Finally they
made it to the ranger's station. Ranger Curtis was standing outside with a big trash bag, picking up the litter that people had left in the park throughout the day.

“Hey, what's going on here?” asked Ranger Curtis.

Frank opened his mouth to explain—but he was too out of breath from running to answer!

“It's a parade!” yelled one of the girls with the bubble wands. The musicians played a loud fanfare.

“A parade?” said Ranger Curtis. “I don't think we have that on the schedule! Do you have a permit for this?”

“No!” said Frank.

“No permit?” said Ranger Curtis. “Well, then, I'm afraid we simply can't have a parade. It's against the park rules.”

“No, it's not that we don't have a permit!” said Frank, trying to explain.

“So you do have a permit?” said Ranger Curtis. Now he looked confused.

“No! We're not a parade.”

“Well, you look like a parade,” said Ranger Curtis, scratching his head and looking even more confused. “I've got the papers for a parade permit right here.”

Ranger Curtis pulled a notebook from his pocket. “Now, let me just find them.”

“We don't want to have a parade, Ranger Curtis!” said Frank. “We just want to find my bike. They're all helping me look for it.”

“Oh,” said Ranger Curtis. “Why didn't you say that in the first place?”

“I tried but—” Frank started to explain, but Ranger Curtis cut him off.

“This missing bike, what does it look like?”

Frank pulled out his notebook. He flipped to the page where he had drawn his bike. He held it out to Ranger Curtis.

“It looks like this, Ranger Curtis. Only it's red, not black and white.”

“Oh, sure,” said Ranger Curtis. “I know that bike. I found it all by itself in the middle of the park. You shouldn't have left it like that. It could have been stolen.”

“That was my fault,” said Cissy. “I was trying to give it back to him.”

Frank thought about trying to explain all the places his bike had been that day. But it was just too much.

“Please, Ranger Curtis. I have to be home before dark. Is my bike here?”

Ranger Curtis smiled. “Sure is, son. I put it
on the other side of the ranger station for safekeeping. Let's go get it and give this parade something to really celebrate!”

“Yay!” the whole crowd cheered. Finally they had found Frank's bike.

The musicians played their instruments. Cissy juggled. The girls blew
bubbles. Mina hula-hooped. The crowd celebrated and danced. They walked around the ranger's station.

And Frank's bike wasn't there.

The parade stopped. The music stopped. The bubbles stopped. The hula-hooping and juggling stopped.

“Where did it go?” asked Ranger Curtis. “You aren't playing a trick on me, are you, Frank?”

“No, sir! But it seems like someone is playing a trick on me. I can't find my bike anywhere.”

“I don't know what to tell you, Frank. The bike was here just a few minutes ago. But it's time for me to close the park up. You'll have to come back and look for it tomorrow.”

Frank sighed. There was nothing he could do. They'd have to go home without his bike.

10  

Home Sweet Home

O
ne by one everyone told Frank how sorry they were that they couldn't help him find his bike. Finally the only people left with Frank were Adam and his family, Cissy, and Joe. Adam came up to Frank.

“I'm sorry I took your bike,” he said. He dug his toe into the dirt. “But I was going to give it back to you! I promise.”

“I believe you,” said Frank. “And this isn't your fault. But you shouldn't have taken it anyway.”

“I know. I'll . . . I'll help you look tomorrow!” For the first time ever Adam Ackerman actually looked like he might cry.