“Excuse us! Aquatic emergency! Marine detectives coming through!” Joe called out as they weaved their way past the exhibit’s surprised guests.
Frank pointed at Brady’s neon-green shirt disappearing around the corner ahead. “We’re losing him!”
By the time Frank and Joe rounded the corner, Brady was closing in on the exit sign at the end of the exhibit. His lunch box bounced against his leg as he ran, sending drops of liquid flying into the air.
Frank pumped his fists to make himself run faster. “According to the map, this leads to three other exhibits. If Brady makes it out that door, we may never find him.”
There was one last tank at the end of the Weird and Wonderful Worlds exhibit—the electric eels—and Brady had almost reached it.
“He’s going to give us the slip!” Joe shouted.
But just at that moment, Brady’s sneaker landed in a puddle from his leaking lunch box. He tried to catch his balance by pinwheeling his arms and swinging the lunch box in circles, but it was no use. He slid right off his feet onto his behind and skidded to a stop next to the electric eel tank. A fat, gray electric eel watched with beady little eyes as Brady’s lunch box popped open, spilling its contents onto the floor.
“He gave himself the slip!” Joe said as the boys closed in.
With Brady on his behind, they had no problem catching up to him. He frantically tried to pick up the spilled contents of his lunch box, but Joe was quicker.
Frank glared down at Brady while Joe looked for the lost sea star. “Done in by your own leaky lunch box.”
“Something’s leaking all right, but I don’t see Seymour.” Joe tossed aside a PB&J sandwich, a handful of carrots, and a nearly empty, very sticky thermos.
Frank eyed the lemonade-colored puddle left at the bottom of Brady’s lunch box. “Um, that doesn’t look very much like seawater.”
“Seawater?” Brady squinted up at them and adjusted his crooked glasses. “Why in the world would I have seawater in my lunch?”
“Hmm…” Joe dipped his finger into the liquid, and then he gave it a lick to confirm his suspicion.
MARINE MISCHIEF
“Wow!” Joe grabbed the thermos and took the last gulp. “That’s delicious!”
“Hey, that’s my dad’s famous homemade lemonade!” Brady said.
Joe handed the empty thermos back to Brady. “Compliments to the chef.”
Brady shook the thermos and frowned. “You drank it all.”
“Chasing you made me thirsty, and you spilled most of it, anyway.” Joe pointed to the puddle Brady had slipped in. “In case you didn’t notice, your thermos has been leaking all over the aquarium.”
Frank picked up the lunch box and examined it for himself. “You’re sure there isn’t a sea star in here?”
“If Brady took Seymour, he didn’t hide him in his lunch box,” Joe said. “Our theory about him turning it into a portable aquarium doesn’t hold water.”
“Take Seymour?” Brady’s eyes widened. “Why would you think I took Seymour?”
Frank scowled at him. “Someone did, and you’re the one who said you wanted a sea star for your home aquarium.”
“But I don’t have a home aquarium yet. And even if I did, I would never steal an animal from the Bayport Aquarium.” Brady crossed his arms. “I’m an ethical home aquarist. The illegal tropical fish trade causes tons of harm to the ocean. I only want sustainable, legally sourced specimens for my tank.”
“Then why did you run when we caught you spying on us?” Joe asked.
Brady looked guiltily down at his hands. “No reason.”
“No reason, huh?” Frank narrowed his eyes. “Maybe we should ask Ms. Klinger what she thinks.”
Brady gasped. “Don’t, please!”
“Then spill,” said Frank. “And by ‘spill,’ I mean ‘talk,’ because you already spilled all your lemonade.”
“Well, I may have not been totally honest with you about seeing that rare kaleidoscope jaguar shrimp in the touch pool,” Brady said without looking Frank in the eyes.
“Why would you lie to me about seeing one of the creatures in Tide Town?” Frank asked.
“Because it doesn’t really exist. I kind of made it up to get you to write down the wrong thing and mess up the extra credit so I would score higher.”
“I knew you were guilty of something!” said Frank.
“It just wasn’t sea star snatching,” Joe said.
“It’s extra-credit sabotage!” Frank pounded his fist into his other hand.
“I’m sorry, Frank.” Brady looked up and bit his lip. “I know it was wrong. I just wanted Ms. Klinger to think I was the school’s best Junior Marine Biologist.”
“I’m not ready to accept your apology quite yet. Just because you confessed to trying to sink my assignment doesn’t clear you of sea-life lifting,” Frank said. “You still could have used the runaway Penguin Parade as a distraction to grab Seymour from the touch pool while Lee was splashing around.”
“But it couldn’t have been me!” Brady shuddered. “I’m afraid of penguins!”
“That’s right! When whoever was taking the what from the where, Brady was running the other way to flee from the penguins!” Joe concluded. “As soon as the penguins ran for the touch pool, Brady flew the touch-pool coop!”
Frank grimaced at the memory.
“Um, now I think we’re the ones who are guilty.” Frank held his hand out to help Brady up. “We shouldn’t have falsely accused you of felony fishiness.”
While Frank pulled Brady back to his feet, Joe pulled out the clue book and crossed Brady off the suspect list. There was only one name left.
COSTUMED CULPRIT
“Pat,” Joe said. “He’s back to being aquatic enemy number one.”
“Who’s Pat?” asked Brady.
“The real name of the grouchy guy in the Seymour costume,” Frank replied.
“He was there at the where and when, and he has a why,” Joe said.
Brady stared at Joe like he was speaking a different language. “What?”
“What is Seymour,” Joe replied, holding up the clue book.
“Seymour is a chocolate chip sea star.” Brady shook his head and sighed. “I know you’re not a Junior Marine Biologist in training like Frank and me, but you really should pay better attention, Joe.”
Frank giggled.
“I know what kind of animal Seymour is! But he’s also our what.” Joe pointed to the clue book page with the five Ws. “Who, what, where, when, and why are the questions we need to answer to solve the mystery of the stolen sea star. We thought who was you, but now we think it’s Pat. Where is Tide Town. When is during the penguin pool party. That’s when Seymour was taken. And why is the motive for the crime.”
“Revenge,” Frank declared. “Pat was angry at the aquarium for making him wear the Seymour mascot costume instead of letting him be mayor of Tide Town, where the real Seymour lived.”
“We saw him after he ditched the starfish suit, sneaking through Tide Town at the time of the crime. He was back in costume arguing with Reggie the Ray a few minutes before we ran after you. Who knows where he went after that.” Joe looked around Weird and Wonderful Worlds and out the exit at the other exhibits. “It’s a big aquarium. Pat could be anywhere. How do we track him down to interrogate him?”
Brady’s eyes lit up. “I know where he is! At least I know where he was going. I saw him heading toward the food court when I was watching you guys.”
Joe slammed the clue book shut and looked at Frank. “Let’s go, bro!”
“Go get him and bring the real Seymour home!” Brady yelled after Frank and Joe as they marched out the door.
They were closing in on the food court when they saw the six-foot-tall, chocolate-chip-spotted sea star surrounded by kids in front of a nearby souvenir stand. Two of the mascot’s five arms were crossed over his chest as a group of little kids tugged at his chocolate chips.
Frank narrowed his ey
es at the costume’s huge, friendly smiley face. “If Pat is really smiling, I bet it’s a villainous smile.”
Joe looked the mascot up and down. “I wonder if he has the real Seymour hidden in his costume or if he stashed him somewhere else.”
“Let’s go find out.” Frank rubbed his hands together and marched toward the souvenir stand.
“Hey, Seymour,” Joe called. “Remember us?”
Seymour looked down at the brothers. There was no way to tell, but Joe had a good hunch the guy behind the mask was frowning.
“Yeah, the klutz and the know-it-all. How could I forget?” He sounded just as crabby as the first time they’d met him.
Joe had to try really hard not to stomp on his foot again. “We know even more than you think… Pat.”
Pat took a surprised step backward. He shook the little kids off his chocolate chips. “Scram, brats. I’m closed for business.” He waited for the kids to scatter before turning back to Joe. “How do you know my name?”
“Oh, we know a lot more about you than that,” said Frank. “Like how you left Reggie the Ray alone and ditched your shift to sneak off to Tide Town.”
“Have you been following me?” The giant sea star’s voice cracked, and he backed farther away.
“We also know what you did when you got there.”
Joe took another step closer. Pat tried to back up even more, but he bumped into one of the huge windows looking out over Bayport Harbor. There was nowhere left for him to go, which was exactly where Joe and Frank wanted him.
“I bet sabotaging Tide Town made you feel really good after getting passed over for the mayor job,” Frank said.
This time, Pat was the one who surprised them—by laughing. “Benjamin’s penguins sabotaged Tide Town, not me. It was pretty funny, though. It’s the aquarium’s own fault for letting a beginner like Mouna run an important exhibit instead of choosing me.”
“Sure, blame the birds,” Joe said. “Pretty clever to use the penguins as a distraction, but we know what you were really doing when Benjamin and Mouna were busy chasing them around.”
“Stealing a helpless sea star is pretty low”—Frank pointed a finger at their costumed suspect—“even for someone as grouchy as you.”
“Stealing a sea star?” Pat paused to glance down at his own mascot costume. “What are you talking about? I don’t want this ridiculous outfit. They made me wear it.”
Joe looked at Frank. Pat sounded genuinely confused.
“We don’t think you stole the costume,” Joe said. “We think you stole Seymour!”
“Stole Seymour? I am Seymour!” Pat raised two of his sea star arms into the air.
“You’re Big Seymour. We mean Little Seymour,” Frank said.
“You mean the actual sea star?” Pat scratched his costumed head. “What would I want to steal a sea star for?”
“For revenge,” Joe said. “We saw you sneaking through Tide Town without your costume on at the exact same time the real Seymour went missing.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Pat insisted. “I was passing through Tide Town on my way to the aquarium offices to tell my boss what I thought about being stuck with the mascot job.”
“We saw the shady look on your face. It was obvious you were up to no good,” Frank said.
“Okay, sure. Maybe I was happy things went wrong for Mouna, but I didn’t cause them to go wrong. I was just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. I didn’t even know the real Seymour was stolen until you told me just now. Do you really think I’d go talk to my boss with a stolen sea star in my pocket?”
Joe thought it over before replying. “That would be pretty gutsy. But how do we know you actually went to see your boss and aren’t just making that up to give yourself an alibi?”
“I can’t believe I’m defending myself to a couple of nosy kids.”
Pat sighed and lifted off the head of his costume. He was definitely the same spiky-haired guy with the villainous-looking pointy eyebrows they’d seen in Tide Town. He stuck one of his sea star arms out at Joe.
“Unzip my hand so I can get out my cell phone.”
Before unzipping his hand, Joe looked around to make sure there were still plenty of people nearby in case the guy tried anything funny. Once Pat’s hand was free, he reached into his costume and fished around for a minute before pulling out his phone.
“We have to scan our employee ID card anytime we go into the office.” He tapped one of the icons on his phone and started to scroll. “There’s an app that records all the time stamps to show when everyone goes in or out of any of the employees-only areas. Here.”
He shoved the phone in front of the boys’ faces. The screen had the official Bayport Aquarium logo at the top, with Pat’s name and the times he’d gone in and out of the office.
“He went in at nine fifty-six,” Frank said. “That’s right after we saw him in Tide Town. And he left fifteen minutes later. That means he went straight to the back office, like he said.” Frank looked up from the phone and stared Pat down. “That still doesn’t prove you were talking to your boss. You could have gone in there to hide Seymour before anyone caught you.”
“Nice try, kid, but the office is always full of people. You can ask anyone who works here, and they’ll tell you the same thing. My alibi is watertight.”
“He was also wearing shorts and a T-shirt when we saw him,” said Joe. “I don’t think Seymour could have fit in his pocket, and it would have been hard to hide a sea star under his shirt while talking to his boss.” He sighed and pulled out the clue book. “I hate to say it, but I think he’s telling the truth.”
A second later, Pat was crossed off the suspect list.
Pat put the head of his Seymour costume back on and trudged off, muttering to himself. “I really hate this job.”
Frank stared at the blank space under Pat’s crossed-out name. “Both our theories were wrong, and now we’re out of suspects!”
Frank and Joe both racked their brains trying to figure out what they might have missed. A minute later, Frank snapped his fingers.
“You know what? Brady wasn’t the only one in our group who said they wanted to take Seymour home!”
Joe gasped as it hit him too.
“That’s right! There’s one more suspect we overlooked. Mira said she wanted to bring Seymour back to her twin sister, since Avery couldn’t be here to see him in Tide Town.”
Frank nodded. “Mira had a motive, and she was there when the crime took place.”
“That’s not all,” added Joe. “When we were chasing Brady, I saw her sneaking around in a roped-off area. She could have been hiding Seymour, or even stealing more creatures for Avery!”
“We’d better go find Mira before she has a chance to take any more,” Frank said.
They didn’t have to search far. Mira was in the food court by the bakery stand.
“Oh no!” Frank pointed at the object in Mira’s hand. “We’re too late!”
Frank and Joe looked on in shock as Mira lifted Seymour… and started to eat him!
EDIBLE EVIDENCE
“Talk about hiding the evidence!” Joe wailed. “Mira is eating it! Even I don’t get that hungry!”
Frank and Joe sprinted into the food court, waving their arms.
“Put Seymour down!” Frank shouted.
Mira froze with the sea star in her mouth and gawked as the boys ran toward her. She looked almost as surprised as they did. It wasn’t until they got closer that they realized why.
There were cookie crumbs tumbling out of her mouth. And chocolate on her teeth. And…
“Um…” Frank tapped Joe’s shoulder and pointed to the cookies in the bakery stand’s glass display case. “I don’t think she’s eating Seymour the chocolate chip sea star. I think she’s eating a Seymour-shaped chocolate chip cookie.”
Joe examined the glass case. There was a whole row of identical Seymours. Next to them was a little sign that said FRESH-BAKED COO
KIES.
“The sea star she’s eating is a red herring!”
Mira coughed out a mouthful of cookie. “Ew! Why would I be eating a real sea star? And what’s a red herring?”
“A red herring is a mystery clue that leads in the wrong direction,” Frank said. “Someone stole the real Seymour from Tide Town, and we thought it might have been you.”
“Yuck!” Mira said, turning a little green again. “Seymour is cute, but I wouldn’t touch any of those creatures if you gave me a million dollars. I can’t believe you thought I’d eat one!”
Joe scratched his chin. “I guess Mira was one of the only kids who didn’t want to reach into the touch pool. It would have been hard to steal a sea star without actually touching it.”
“Um, if you didn’t steal Seymour, how come Joe saw you sneaking into an employees-only area?” Frank asked.
“Well, I know we’re not supposed to have cell phones.…” Mira looked around to make sure no one was listening. “But my mom gave me one for emergencies, and, well… it’s not really an emergency, but I really wanted to call Avery to see how she was feeling. I was afraid if Ms. Klinger saw me, I’d get in trouble. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”
“You’re sure you didn’t steal Seymour?” Joe asked.
“I actually did plan to bring Seymour home for Avery.…”
Joe and Frank tripped over each other trying to lean in closer. This was the big clue they’d been waiting for!
“Just not the real one. I got her a whole box of sea star cookies and a stuffed Seymour toy.”
Frank’s shoulders slumped as Mira pulled a large stuffed chocolate chip sea star out of her aquarium gift bag.
“That’s not the confession I was hoping for.”
“Sorry, guys. I really hope you find whoever did it. Seymour is too cute to be star-napped!”
Mira walked off, nibbling on her Seymour cookie.
Sea Life Secrets Page 3