The New Year Dragon Dilemma (5 page)

She pointed to the top of the ladder. “It was a man wearing a dragon mask,” she went on. “He pulled me down on the floor and took off my mask. Then he sprayed something in my face. It was awful, and it hurt my eyes. I felt him pull the crown off me. Then he put the bag over my head. I … I don’t remember anything after that.”

Dink’s mind flashed back a half hour. They were all watching the dragon “walking” along the parade route. One of the pairs of legs crawled out from under the dragon and hurried away in the other direction. Toward the swan float.

“Um, I think I saw him,” Dink said.

Everyone looked at him.

“You saw who attacked Miss Chen?” Officer Feist said.

Just then another police officer thudded up the ramp and into the middle of the swan float. “What’s going on?” he asked the two officers.

They explained the situation.

“Okay,” he said, “but let’s finish this at the station. There are a few thousand unhappy people out there, and they want their parade!”

“We have to go to the police station, too?” Josh asked.

“That’s right, son,” the officer said. “Where are your parents?”

“My dad’s back at our hotel,” Dink said. “We’re staying at the Bayside.”

“You’d better call him,” Ruth Rose said.

Everyone started to leave the float. Dink noticed that Holden and Lily each had a police escort. Dr. Worthington
walked alone, but the third officer was keeping an eye on him. One by one, they walked down the ramp.

“Let’s take the easy-peasy way,” Josh whispered to Dink.

“He means the ladder,” Ruth Rose said.

Dink was standing next to the ladder’s top rung, where it came up the side of the truck bed. He put his hands on the ladder and looked down. They were about six feet off the road. Flower blossoms partly covered the ladder rungs. It looked slippery.

“I’ll take the ramp,” he told Josh and Ruth Rose. But his fingers had touched something soft on the top rung. He looked and saw a piece of white yarn.

Dink pulled the yarn off the rung and examined it closely. Under the lights, it looked curly and silky. Dink thought of the yarn his mother used when she knit
scarves and sweaters every winter.

He had seen a white sweater only minutes ago, on Holden.

Dink slipped the yarn into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He hit speed dial for his father’s number.

A half hour later Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were sitting around a table in a small room at the police station. The floor was gray concrete. The walls were painted the color of pea soup. There were no windows.

Dink’s father stood behind them. He shook his head and smiled at the three kids. “I never expected to be invited to a police station tonight,” Mr. Duncan said.

“Sorry, Dad,” Dink said. “We never expected someone to rob Miss Chinatown’s crown!”

Officer Feist walked into the room. She carried a small tape recorder, which she set on the table.

“This won’t take long,” she said, turning on the machine. “I just want to record your statement about the man you saw running toward the swan float, Donald.” She placed a pencil and notebook on the table next to the recorder.

Josh giggled. “We call him Dink,” he said. “Or Dinkus.”

Officer Feist grinned. “And what do we call you?” she asked.

“Josh.”

“Joshua, actually,” Ruth Rose said. She nudged Dink’s arm.

“Don—I mean Dink, tell me what you saw,” Officer Feist said.

“We were watching the dragon,” Dink told her and the tape recorder. “You know how all those people were
underneath, carrying it along. Some of them were fooling around, running up and putting their heads inside the dragon’s mouth. Well, one of them left. He—well, it could have been a she, I guess—anyway, this person came out from under the dragon and ran toward
the back. He or she wasn’t very tall, I remember.”

“So this person could have been a small man or woman, or a kid?” Officer Feist asked. “Exactly how big was this person?”

“Like Josh,” Dink said. He nodded at his friend. “Skinny legs, too.”

Officer Feist looked at Josh. “Would you stand up, please, Joshua?”

Josh stood up.

“How tall are you, Joshua?” Officer Feist asked.

“Almost five feet,” Josh said. He tried to stand taller.

“How was this person dressed?” Officer Feist asked Dink.

Dink closed his eyes. He saw the dragon and the hundred pairs of red legs. “Well, everyone under the dragon was wearing red pants,” he told Officer Feist. “But the person I saw had on a
sweater, too. It looked white or yellow under the light. I …”

Suddenly Dink stopped. Maybe the yarn in his pocket hadn’t come from Holden’s sweater! There were two white sweaters! He pulled it out of his pocket and placed it on the table. He explained where he’d found it.

“Do you think the guy who stole the crown left this behind?” Dink asked.

Officer Feist poked at the snippet of yarn with her pencil.

“There are lots of ways this could have gotten there,” she said. “Dozens of people climbed that ladder when they were decorating the float.” She smiled. “In fact, I have a sweater in my closet that this could have come from.”

“But it could also have come from the person Dink saw, right?” Dink’s father asked.

Officer Feist nodded. “That’s right,
Mr. Duncan.” She opened a drawer in the table and took out a small see-through evidence bag. Using the tip of her pencil, she pushed the yarn into the bag and sealed it. They all watched her write something on the outside of the bag.

“All of the people who carried the dragon are being searched and questioned right now,” Officer Feist said. “The floats and the dragon have been returned to the warehouse. They’ll be kept there under police guard until we get to the bottom of this.”

“Will you try to match the yarn I found with what they’re wearing?” Dink asked.

“Absolutely,” Officer Feist said. “I’ll have one of my detectives run it over immediately after this interview.” She pushed the
OFF
button on the tape recorder. “When are you folks planning to return to Connecticut?”

“Day after tomorrow,” Dink’s father said. “Tuesday. Will that be a problem?”

Officer Feist opened her notebook and made a note. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said. “But I don’t think you’ll need to change your travel plans.”

She stood up. “Now you can all go to your hotel and get a good night’s sleep,” she said.

Officer Feist held the door open. Dink’s father left first, with Josh and Ruth Rose right behind. Dink followed them all down a long hallway.

“Dink!” someone called out. Holden came out of a room on Dink’s right. He was escorted by two police officers Dink hadn’t seen before. Each held one of Holden’s arms.

Holden’s black hair was messed up. His eyes were red and swollen. “They’ve got Lily!” Holden cried. “Tell them we didn’t steal anything!”

Josh, Ruth Rose, and Dink’s father all turned back to stare.

Dink stopped in his tracks, stunned. Holden and Lily were being arrested!

The officers marched Holden past Dink and around a corner in the hallway.

Dink hurried to catch up to his father, Josh, and Ruth Rose. He passed another room, where he heard crying.
He looked through the open door and gasped.

At a small table, Lily sat between an older Chinese man and woman. Dink figured they were Lily’s parents. The couple sat as still as statues, staring at their daughter.

Lily was sobbing as Officer Goodman placed handcuffs around her slim wrists.

It was dark outside the police station, so Dink’s father stopped a cab and they all got in. Dink sat in the back, between Josh and Ruth Rose. His father sat next to the driver.

“Do you think they did it?” Josh whispered to Dink and Ruth Rose.

“But Lily was tied up with that sash thing,” Ruth Rose said. “And she had that bag over her head.”

“Maybe the cops think Holden tied her, to make it look like someone else did it,” Josh said.

Dink remembered the few minutes that Holden had disappeared during the parade. He’d told the kids that he’d gone to use one of the portable bathrooms. Had he been lying?

Dink also remembered the look on Holden’s face when they found Lily tied up. That look was no lie!

“I believe Holden,” Dink said. “Did you see his face when we found Lily hidden under that box? He was really shocked, guys.”

The cabdriver pulled up in front of the Bayside Hotel. Dink’s father paid him, and they all went inside. The concierge, Mr. Alderson, smiled from behind his desk.

“Good evening, folks,” he said. “How was your day, kids?”

“Fine, thank you,” they all murmured. No one wanted to mention what happened at the parade.

The elevator took them to the third floor. The Bayside was the kind of hotel that offered its guests small apartments as well as single rooms. Dink’s father had rented an apartment with three bedrooms, a living room, and a tiny kitchen.

Josh opened the refrigerator. “There’s nothing to eat,” he announced.

“What would you like, Josh?” Mr. Duncan asked. He winked at Dink and Ruth Rose behind Josh’s back. “A juicy steak with mashed potatoes? Fried chicken? Spaghetti and meatballs?”