Ship of Secrets by Franklin W. Dixon

Author:Franklin W. Dixon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

6

A Secret Prank

Joe pulled out the notebook and began writing everything down. First suspect leaves while being questioned, he wrote. Seems upset. Doesn’t want to talk about where he was when the watch was stolen.

Frank looked over Joe’s shoulder. “We need to find Dad,” he said. “Ralph wouldn’t even talk to us. And now he knows he’s on the list of suspects. If he did take the watch, we’re giving him time to get rid of it.”

“I know. It’s all very suspicious. Where was he yesterday? He doesn’t have an alibi,” Joe added. Their dad had taught them that word. No person could be in two places at the same time. If Ralph could prove he was somewhere else during the four hours when the watch was taken, Frank and Joe would know that he couldn’t have stolen it.

They took off for their cabin, the notebook tucked in Joe’s back pocket. “Wait!” a voice called out behind them.

Ralph’s friend was running after them. He was much shorter than Ralph, and when he spoke, they noticed he had a gap between his two front teeth. “Don’t go,” he said. “Please don’t tell the ship’s security officers.”

“What’s wrong?” Frank asked.

“I shouldn’t tell you this, but Ralph had nothing to do with that watch going missing.”

“Then why wouldn’t he talk to us?” Joe asked. “We just wanted to know where he was yesterday afternoon.”

“He was here, working with me. He was standing right by that deck,” the man said, pointing to a podium on the other side of the pool. “You can check the schedules. He worked the pool with me from two in the afternoon until eight at night.”

Joe was confused. “Why wouldn’t he just say that, then?”

The man took off his helmet. He scratched his head like he was thinking about something. “This is the hard part. Can you keep a secret?”

Frank wasn’t so sure. They were happy to keep secrets for friends, but they’d just met this man. They didn’t even know his name! “We can try,” he said.

“The thing is . . . Ralph sometimes plays pranks on the guests he doesn’t like. This one time, he put a slug in a woman’s hat. She was sitting right by the pool. He dropped the slimy thing into her hat and then just waited. Sure enough, a few minutes later she started screaming.”

Joe couldn’t help but laugh. He knew it wasn’t right to play pranks like that, but it was kind of funny. “He did that?”

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