Everybody thought it was a fine idea. They started the club that very
afternoon. John got to be chief detective because it was his idea. They
shot fingers for assistant chief detective and Sally won. That left Mike
and Ben as detectives-at-large. They weren't too happy about the way it
turned out.
"It isn't fair," complained Mike. "Sally's the assistant
chief and that's all right because we need somebody to be chief in case
you get bumped off or something. But what about Ben and me? We want to be
chief of something too."
"Like what?" asked John.
"I want to be chief of the murder squad," said Mike.
"And I'll be chief of spies and codes," said Ben.
"All right," John decided. "You've got it."
The four detectives spent the rest of the afternoon making identification
badges for their wallets. They cut them out of cardboard and put a star
on the front with the letters B.A.D. inside it. On the back they wrote their
names and their new titles. Then John signed them.
"Now it's official," he said, scrawling his signature for
the fourth time. "The Kids from B.A.D., that's us. And the crooks had
better watch out because the B.A.D. kids always get their man."
The next morning right after breakfast they started on the bicycle case.
"Everybody spread out," John told them when they met at his
house for instructions. "Keep your eyes open for anybody acting suspicious."
"What if we spot a bank hold-up or something?" asked Ben.
"Do we chase the guy or keep looking for the bike gang?"
"If you spot a crime going on you can step in and make the arrest,"
said John. "But only if it's something big. The most important thing
is to get those bicycle crooks, they're the ones we're after. Everybody
meet back here at noon; Mom'll have sandwiches ready for us. Any questions?
Okay, let's roll!"