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without saying anything to anyone, she reached her hand into the T. rex ’s mouth. When she pulled her hand out, she was holding something. “The watch! It’s the watch!” Frank whispered.
    Joe put his hand over his brother’s mouth to keep him quiet. They studied the girl. She turned the gold watch over, making sure it was okay. Then she looked around to make sure the boys hadn’t noticed her—they were too busy shooting basketballs to really notice—and she headed for the door. “We have to do something,” Joe said. “She’s getting away!”
    Frank sprung out from behind the castle. “Stop! Wait right there!” he yelled.
    The girl turned around. Then she tucked the watch into her pocket and ran as fast as she could in the other direction. Joe and Frank followed her. A chase was on!
    She ran down a staircase that led into the grand ballroom. Onstage a man with long hair was singing Broadway show tunes. He kicked high in the air as he belted out a few last notes. Couples were dancing to the music.
    The girl darted between the dancers, nearly knocking some of them over. “Hey! Watch it!” an old man yelled. “You nearly toppled me to the ground!”
    Frank and Joe never took their eyes off her. They were only ten feet behind her, and they tried to keep up. But she was fast. A little too fast.
    “I don’t know if I can keep running!” Frank yelled to his brother as they ran up another set of stairs. “I can barely keep up!”
    Joe and Frank followed their suspect through another hallway, then a room with card tables. People were playing poker and rummy. A dealer pushed plastic chips around on a table. “You’reright,” Joe said. “And she definitely isn’t an old lady!” The scarf and trench coat looked too big, like they had been borrowed from someone else.
    The girl ran out of the card room and down another hall. The boys sprinted as fast as they could. “Hurry!” Frank yelled. “She’s getting away!”
    She turned right, and they turned right. She turned left, and they turned left. She kept running through the maze of hallways, but they kept right behind her, not slowing down. Joe was nearly out of breath. Just when he felt like he couldn’t go any farther, she took a left . . . and the hallway ended. Their suspect was cornered!
    “All right! All right!” the suspect yelled. “You caught me. I’m sorry.”
    Frank and Joe stood in the hallway, trying to block her exit. But she didn’t try to run. Slowly she undid her red scarf, letting her dark hair falldown around her shoulders. Then she pulled off her sunglasses. Standing in front of them was Sir Reginald Heartpence’s own daughter. She took the pocket watch from her coat and held it in her hand.
    “Please,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “Let me explain.”



10
The Confession
    F rank and Joe just stood there, shocked. They had never suspected that Sir Reginald’s daughter had anything to do with the case. She’d just sat there listening when the boys had questioned her parents. They’d had no idea that she was the thief!
    “Melinda?” Frank asked. He could barely remember her name. “Why would you steal your dad’s watch? We’ve been looking all over for it. Your parents were so upset.”
    “I’m upset!” she said, tears on her cheeks. “This isn’t my father’s watch. This is my grandfather’s watch. It was his, and now my dad is selling it.”
    “But your parents said they have to,” Joe tried to explain.
    Melinda shook her head. “I don’t care. I don’t want them to. . . . I was so close to my grandpa before he died. He called me Little Lindy. And he always carried this watch around. It’s been in our family forever. If they sell it, what do I have to remember him by?”
    Frank lowered his head. He felt a little bad for Melinda now. He could tell the watch meant something to her, and she was very upset her parents were selling it. But she still shouldn’t have taken it without asking. “You