A Treacherous Tide by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2020-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

We sat at the bar chowing down on endless shrimp poppers as planned. To make sure we’d still be there after everyone else was gone, Joe ordered three baskets. For each of us. And whale fries with old salt. And calamari. And spiny lobster roll sliders. The only thing he passed on was the pickled red herring tacos.

“This case may have too many red herrings already,” he’d said. “I don’t need them on my tacos, too!”

I’d thought his ordering frenzy was going a little overboard, but it turned out he was just really hungry. He was still stuffing his face at closing time!

Chuck had already asked us for an update on the search for EEE when she served us our food. Word had spread about the chum stink bomb and the stolen board, but we conveniently forgot to mention our run-in with Shaggy and his fake fin. At ten fifteen, Chuck started clearing her throat and yawning conspicuously in our direction.

“Okay, boys. I know I offered you all the free shrimp you can eat, and I don’t want to rush you, but I’d really like to get home,” she finally told us at 10:32, when the last of her staff had left for the night and the three of us were the only ones there. “Can I get a doggie bag for you guys to take the rest of that to go? I promise you can come back tomorrow morning for all the pink shrimp breakfast burritos you can cram down your gullets.”

“I’ll see your breakfast burritos and raise you everything you can tell us about the guest list at Chuck’s Poker Club,” Joe replied, popping another shrimp into his mouth for emphasis.

Chuck crossed her arms and stared us down for a minute before replying. “Somebody broke the first rule of the poker club.” She grabbed a shrimp out of Joe’s hand and tossed it into her own mouth. “I can’t let you join, if that’s what you’re getting at. Pretty sure letting minors play in a high-stakes poker game is against bigger rules than mine.”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure underground high-stakes poker games are against the rules for adults, too, but we’re not interested in busting you, and we don’t want to play,” I told her. “We’re here to get to the bottom of all the other rules that have been broken in the last few days.”

“If you’re talking about this whole anti-shark mess the mayor started and whoever’s messing with Shark Lab, then I’m with you, but I don’t see what that has to do with my little bitty game.”

“Your little bitty game is causing big problems. One of your members is using Shaggy’s losses to blackmail him, and we need to figure out who,” Joe said.

Chuck recoiled like she was genuinely surprised, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t bluffing. I had expected the hostess of a secret poker club to have a good poker face.

Joe and I had planned to play our cards close to our vest and not tell her about the fake fin right away.

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