Ship of Secrets (4 page)

The boys walked away, trying not to feel too discouraged. “It’s hard to just tell people what he looks like,” Joe tried. “It would be so much easier if we had a picture of him.”

That’s when Joe saw it. Off in the far corner of the game room was Max, the man who had drawn the picture of them just the day before. He had spiky hair and was mostly hidden behind a large easel. He sat on a stool, drawing on the easel in front of him. A little girl with brown pigtails was having her picture done.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Joe asked. “We could have Max draw a picture of our suspect. Didn’t Dad say that’s what he sometimes does when he doesn’t have an actual photo?”

Frank smiled. “You’re right!” He’d seen those
drawings on the news many times before. If they had a drawing of the man they were looking for, they’d be able to show it to people. It might not work, but it was worth a try.

When Max was done with the little girl’s picture, they told him what had happened. “Do you think you could help us?” Joe asked.

“You betcha. Just tell me a few things about him.” Max held his black marker in the air, waiting for them to give him the steward’s description. Frank told him about the man’s eyes and hair, and how he had a beard and big ears. Joe told him about the earring and bushy eyebrows. They tried to describe the man exactly how Andrew and Sir Reginald had.

“Maybe you could draw him in a steward’s uniform too,” Frank said.

Within minutes Max gave them a picture of their suspect. “This is perfect,” Joe said. Max had drawn a more serious-looking picture than any of the ones they’d seen so far. The man had a weird expression on his face. He kind of looked like the type of person who might steal a pocket watch.

“Now we just have to find the real guy. Thanks!” Frank cried over his shoulder as they ran out the side doors. They scanned the hall, looking for the first steward they could find.

With the picture it took them only ten minutes to find someone who recognized their suspect. A waiter on the fourth floor said the guy’s name was Ralph and that right now he was working as a gladiator at the Colosseum pool. “No wonder we couldn’t find him,” Joe said as they ran up the ship’s stairs. “He was in disguise!”

When they got to the ship’s back deck, they spotted two gladiators talking by the edge of the pool. They had silver helmets on that came down the sides of their faces. They each had plastic armor on their chest, and a shield strapped onto their arm.

Frank looked down at the picture, then up at the men. He looked back and forth, back and forth, until he was sure. “That’s definitely him!”
he whispered, pointing at the guy on the left. He looked exactly like the picture. The only difference was his nose, which was much bigger in person.

As they walked toward the two men, Joe looked up at him. “Are you Ralph?” he asked.

Ralph nodded and smiled, but he looked a little confused. “Yes. . . . What can I do for you? Did you boys want your picture taken with two of Rome’s fiercest gladiators?” He held up his sword. His friend, a shorter man with black hair, flexed his muscles.

“Actually, we wanted to talk to you about Sir Reginald Heartpence,” Joe said. “We heard you two got into an argument yesterday in his room.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ralph said. He’d stopped smiling as soon as he’d heard Sir Reginald’s name.

“He said you brought bags to his room yesterday morning. Is that true?”

Ralph shifted on his feet. “Why do you ask?”

“Sir Reginald’s antique pocket watch has been stolen. We’re investigating what happened,” Frank said. He studied Ralph’s face as they spoke. His dad had taught them to always watch people’s expressions. If the person’s expression changed or seemed odd, it might be a sign that the person was lying.

“I didn’t do anything, okay?” Ralph said. “I knew I was going to get blamed for this!”

“No one’s blaming you,” Frank said. This was always the trickiest part about questioning suspects—they would get angry if you thought they had something to do with the crime. “We’re just trying to check everyone off our list.
Where were you yesterday between four o’clock and eight o’clock?”

“I’m tired of answering questions,” Ralph repeated. His cheeks were bright red. Frank and Joe looked at each other. They could barely say a word without Ralph getting upset. Why was a simple question bothering him so much?

“Reginald said you told him you’d get back at him . . . that you wanted revenge. Is that true?”

“I only said that because I was angry!” Ralph said loudly. A few people lounging in pool chairs turned around, trying to see why he was yelling. “He yelled at me. All I did was bring the wrong suitcase to his room.”

With that, Ralph took his helmet off and tossed it onto the ground. “I don’t have to stand here and be questioned by you two,” he huffed. Then without another word he stormed off.

Frank and Joe watched him leave. “He
wouldn’t answer any of our questions,” Joe whispered under his breath. “What do you think it means?”

“He’s hiding something,” Frank said. “But what?”

J
oe 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?”

The man laughed. “Yup! And he’s played other pranks too. Sometimes he’ll put a bar of fake soap in the person’s soap dish and it’ll turn their hands blue. Anyway . . . he was planning a prank on Sir Reginald. And he asked around, wondering if he could get the key to Sir Reginald’s cabin. He wanted to put cottage cheese in his shoes.”

“So that’s why he’s worried?” Frank asked.

The man nodded. “Yup. He never got a key, but now he’s scared everyone will think he stole the watch.”

Joe wondered if the security guards had already heard about this. Did they know Ralph was a suspect? Had someone reported that he wanted the key to Sir Reginald’s cabin? “More people might have questions for him,” Joe said. “But he should try to tell them the truth. Otherwise he could be in big trouble.”

“I know,” the friend said. “I know. But believe
me, Ralph just wanted to scare Sir Reginald. He would never steal anything. He’s just a big goofball.”

Joe pulled out the notebook and added everything that Ralph’s friend had said. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Paul Crowley.” The man spelled it out. “And you won’t tell our boss about the pranks, right?”

“We’ll just tell him about Ralph’s alibi,” Joe said.

Paul smiled. “Well, I’d be happy to confirm where Ralph was yesterday. If you need me, I’ll be right here.” He put his helmet back on. Then he climbed back onto a podium at the edge of the pool, holding his shield in the air.

Frank and Joe kept looking at him as they walked away. “So Ralph was playing pranks,” Frank said. “We’ll have to check his alibi with the cruise director, but it doesn’t seem like he did it after all.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Joe agreed. He flipped through the pages of his notebook. Then he drew a line through “the steward.” Their one big lead had just become one big dead end.

Frank let out a sigh. There was only a day and a half left before the ship pulled into the harbor, and they weren’t any closer to finding Sir Reginald’s pocket watch. Frank kept thinking of how sad Mrs. Heartpence had looked when she’d found out it was missing. “Where do we go next?”

Joe looked at the only two names left on the list: Ollie and Margaret. “Just two last suspects . . . if we can even call them that.”

Frank shook his head. “They’re Sir Reginald’s friends. I don’t think we can.” They walked off across the pool deck, darting around a giant statue of a horse and chariot. It was time for more questions!