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 2)

Christopher stomped out of the room and slammed the door. It looked for a moment as if Jessica and Sally might do the same. But in the end they decided that they were too close to winning. Everyone glared at everyone else and the game went on.

But not for long. About ten minutes later a great commotion started out on the street. People went running past the house, shouting; police sirens sounded in the distance. John jumped up from the game board and rushed to the window, followed by the others. They were just in time to see a police car pull up outside. The police officers jumped out and ran up the driveway.

"Come on!" cried John. "The cops are chasing somebody!"

The other detectives were close behind as John raced downstairs. They all came slamming out the back door just as the two officers plunged into the bushes at the end of the back yard. The Kids from B.A.D. joined the chase. Something was definitely going on and they didn't intend to miss any of it.

The chase was long, through seven back yards, over three chain fences and past at least two angry dogs. But when the Barton Avenue Detectives finally caught up with the police it was all over. The crook was already sitting in the back of a patrol car with two officers guarding him. John caught his breath and asked a woman standing nearby what had happened.

"Oh, my heavens, I can hardly believe it," she told him. "There's been a bank robbery down on Bloor Street. That man in the back of the police car was the one who did it. I was walking down the sidewalk here when he ran past and almost knocked me down. A policeman was just driving by; he jumped out and grabbed him."

John was terribly disappointed. It was the biggest crime that had ever happened in the neighbourhood, and the Barton Avenue Detectives had missed the whole thing.

"If we hadn't been wasting our time playing Monopoly we might have caught him ourselves," said John sadly.

"How could we know he was going to hit the bank?" said Sally.

"We can't just hang around banks all day waiting," Ben pointed out.

"We could at least have been playing outside," said John. "Then we'd have seen him running by and we could have been the ones chasing him."

"Do you think we'd have caught him?" asked Jessica.

"Maybe, I don't know," said John. "But I do know one thing. We'll never get the chance again. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we blew it."

The five detectives decided to try to get a better look at the bank robber. They were just slipping through the front of the crowd when another police car pulled up. A man in a three-piece suit jumped out and came running over. He was red in the face and looked very worried. When he saw the crook he pointed at him.

"That's him, you've got the right one," he said excitedly. "He's the one who robbed the bank. I saw him do it."

"Who are you, sir?" asked one of the officers.

"I'm the assistant manager at the bank that was just held up," said the man, wiping his forehead. "I'm sure glad you fellows caught that man before he could escape. Where's the money?"

The officers looked uncomfortable. "We don't know," one of them said.

"You don't know?" whispered the assistant manager in disbelief.

"He didn't have it when we caught up with him and he won't tell us what he did with it," said the second officer. "How much did he take anyway?"

"Over ten thousand dollars, I think. I'm not sure; we're checking that at the bank right now," said the assistant manager. He sagged against the police car, looking as if he might faint. "He was carrying the money in a paper sack when he ran out of the bank."

"Well, he must have gotten rid of it when he saw us coming after him," said the first officer.

The other officer nodded. "He probably hid the paper bag somewhere between the bank and here."

The bank man turned from red to white and looked as if he had just swallowed his tie. One of the officers was frowning; the other was looking very grave. But John was smiling. In fact, he was absolutely grinning. Some of the other people nearby had been listening too. The word passed quickly through the crowd and soon everybody knew.

"He hid the money somewhere in the neighbourhood," said one man.

"It was over ten thousand dollars!" exclaimed another.

"He had it in a paper sack," said a third.

"Oh, my word, I hope someone finds it," said a woman.

"Don't worry about that," John told her. "The Kids from B.A.D. are on the case now. We'll find it for sure."

The Barton Avenue Detectives ran off together to search for the money. But the funny thing was, a lot of others in the crowd had just the same idea. All the people seemed to be getting a strange look in their eyes, and some were smiling as they imagined what ten thousand dollars would look like all in one place. One by one the people around the patrol car began to drift off down the alleys and into the surrounding back yards. Everyone seemed to have his own guess about where the hidden money might be.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," cried the bank man as he saw everyone leaving. "That money belongs to the bank." But no one paid him any attention, and he slumped back against the fender of the patrol car. "We'll offer a reward to whoever finds it," he said weakly, but he was clearly starting to fade.

One of the officers tried to console him. "Don't worry, sir, we've called in a number of back-up cars. They're already going over the escape route. Funny no one has called in about the money yet, though. Someone should have found it by now." The assistant manager didn't say anything. All he could do was groan.