Kickoff to Danger by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin
Published: 2001-08-16T04:00:00+00:00

9 Hits and Misses

Frank was surprised at the spurt of anger that shot through him. “And here I thought you were a smart guy, Freeman,” he said sarcastically.

Dan Freeman glared back at Frank. “What’s the problem? I don’t have enough school spirit?”

“You don’t have your facts straight,” Frank told him. “Bad debating technique.”

Dan had easily shrugged off taunts from Terry Golden, but Frank’s words made him shake with rage.

Good thing he hasn’t got a shovel handy, Frank thought.

“What facts?” Freeman made it sound like a dirty word.

“For one thing, Biff wasn’t one of the guys who grabbed the bags,” Frank said.

“There were more guys than—” Dan abruptly bit off his words. “Nice try, Hardy.”

“That wasn’t a try, that was a fact. Here’s another. My brother was in the locker room when Biff heard this whole thing going down. Biff got pretty upset.”

“Upset over missing out on all the fun?” Dan shot back. “He rushed right down when he heard about it.”

“That’s not what my third fact shows,” Frank replied. “And this I saw with my own eyes.”

“What’s that?” Dan mocked.

“I saw Biff lying on the furnace-room floor,” Frank said quietly. “And all around him, there were book bags.” Frank took a step forward until he was right in Dan Freeman’s face. “Biff was trying to get those books—and their owners—out of the basement.”

For a second Frank managed to change Dan’s bad attitude. Dan went pale and then stepped back.

But like any good debater, Freeman quickly rallied. “Brilliant deduction,” he sneered. “I figure you just made your job twice as hard.”

Frank frowned. “What do you mean?”

“If what you say is true, then Biff was trying to ruin the punching party his pals had set up. Maybe one of the jocks—like Chet—put a stop to that by putting a stop to Biff.”

Dan’s swollen lips twitched in a half-smile as he watched Frank’s expression.

“Didn’t think of that, did you?” the tall boy asked. “Maybe you should track down Terry Golden and try a couple of questions on him. A shovel to the back of the head sounds like his style.”

Dan turned and started walking away again. This time Frank didn’t try to stop him.

When Freeman stopped to glance back this time, he said, “Of course, if you try what I said, you may have to watch your back.”

Frank was watching Dan Freeman walk off when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Hey, bro,” Joe Hardy said. “Where were you? I wound up having lunch with your girlfriend.”

“Who just happens to have a little information,” Callie Shaw said, stepping up beside them.

She dug in her shoulder bag and gave Frank a piece of paper. “Here are all the debate group guys who went out after their books.”

Frank stared at the list of names. “How did you—”

“I got it from the girls on the debate team.” Callie gave him a smug smile. “When those big bozos came in, they took everybody’s books. The stuff belonging to the girls was left piled in the hall. The creeps were definitely after the boys.

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