John, Mike, Ben and Sally have formed a detective club called the Barton Avenue Detectives. The following story is the sixth of six cases contained in this collection.

Money, Money, Money (part 1)

There was no school on Tuesday because the teachers were having a special meeting. So the Barton Avenue Detectives all met at Ben's house right after breakfast. They didn't come to talk about the crime news though. They came to play Monopoly.

By eleven o'clock the battle was going full tilt. John had the most property. He had both Electric Company and Water Works and he completely controlled the greens and the yellows. Mike had all four railroads and the three red properties just past Free Parking. Ben had Boardwalk and Park Place. Jessica had two of the oranges, one of the light blues and both Mediterranean and Baltic. Sally had two light blues and all of the purples. The last orange property, St. James Place, was still up for sale because no one had landed there yet.

For a while things were pretty even. Then John started to get lucky. Jessica landed on Atlantic and Mike landed on Marvin Gardens right after. John had two houses on each so he collected a lot of rent. Ben's turn was next. He rolled double fives and landed on Ventnor, then rolled again and landed on Pennsylvania. Suddenly John was getting very rich.

"Money, money, money," he chanted happily as he counted up his winnings. "Roll the dice and hand over your dough. I'm not stopping until I've made a million."

"You're disgusting," Sally told him.

"And you're jealous," John replied.

"I am not," insisted Sally. "I just can't believe you could be so greedy. All you want to do is wipe everybody else out."

Jessica agreed but John didn't care. He just laughed and counted his money. But when his turn arrived he stopped laughing. He rolled double threes and landed on Park Place. So he had to pay Ben quite a lot. But that wasn't the worst part. When he threw the dice again he rolled double ones. That landed him right on Boardwalk so he had to pay Ben a whole lot more. And when he picked up the dice for his third roll he got double fives.

"Three doubles and you go to Jail," Mike called out.

"Wait a minute," said Sally. "Double fives puts him right on Connecticut Avenue. That's mine. He has to pay me first."

"No, I don't," said John, and he quickly put his marker into Jail. He also picked up two hundred dollars for passing Go.

Sally was furious. "You can't do that!" she told him. "If you go to Jail you can't pick up two hundred dollars along the way."

"But I passed Go," said John. "I'm entitled."

"Well, if you passed Go then you have to land on Connecticut Avenue too," Sally said. "You can go to Jail after, but you have to pay me first. Otherwise it's cheating."

They had a long argument about it and in the end they had to vote to decide who was right. Jessica voted with Sally. Ben and Mike voted with John, although the fifty-dollar bill John gave each of them might have had something to do with it.

"You call yourselves detectives?" Sally told them. "If you ask me, you're nothing but a bunch of crooks. You cheat and you take bribes and you're creeps besides. You're worse than creeps, you're..."

"Tycoons," said John, and Mike and Ben laughed. John slapped them on the back and gave them imaginary cigars. They lit up with hundred-dollar bills and blew imaginary smoke rings at Sally and Jessica. It was all so impossible that Sally almost quit. But Jessica took her aside and the two girls whispered for a moment. When they came back to the game again they were both smiling.

"John Jenkins, you're absolutely disgusting. So Jessica and I are going to teach you a lesson," Sally said. "We're going to be partners and put all our properties together."

"And our money too," said Jessica.

"We won't stop until we absolutely wipe you out," said Sally angrily. "From now on it's going to be war."

John just laughed and went back to counting his money again. But by the time half an hour had passed, things had definitely changed. Two turns after the big argument Sally landed on St. James Place and bought it. Now she and Jessica controlled half of the game board between them. It was just about impossible for John to get around their properties without landing on one of them, usually on two or three. And the girls used their money to build a lot of houses. They even had a couple of hotels.

To make matters worse, Sally and Jessica wanted to let Ben's little brother Christopher into the game. They said he could have Mediterranean and Baltic and they each gave him three hundred dollars to use. John didn't like that idea at all. It was bad enough having two girls taking all his money, but to have a little squirt who was only four-and-a-half helping them was too much.

"Chris can't play," said John firmly.

They had another argument about that. Chris got into it too. He'd been wanting to play Monopoly all morning.

"Let me into the game, Benny," he pleaded with his brother. "You let me play when it's just you and me. I even beat you last time."

Saying that was a big mistake. For one thing, Ben hated being called Benny, especially by his brother. And for another, he didn't like to be reminded of the fact that he had been beaten by him. Ben threw his vote solidly behind John.

That left Mike with the deciding vote. He didn't make up his mind either way for a while, but after John came through with five hundred dollars to sweeten the deal Mike had no trouble deciding.

"That's it!" said John triumphantly. "The vote is three to two against Chris playing. No little kids allowed in the game."

"That isn't fair," protested Chris. "I never get to play."

"Maybe some other time, Chrissy," said Ben.

"You're just saying that," complained Chris. "You say you'll let me play sometime but you never will."

"All right, all right," said John. "We'll let you play if you're going to make such a big deal out of it.."

"You will?" said Chris.

"We will?" echoed Ben.

"Sure we will," said John. "You can get in the game right now, Chrissy. The only thing is, you have to bring your own money. Real money."

Mike and Ben laughed. Sally and Jessica were disgusted again. Chris was angry about the whole thing.

"All right, I will," he shouted at John. "I'll go and get some real money and then you'll have to let me in your dumb Monopoly game. I'll beat you guys for sure."