Danger at the Fair by Peg Kehret Read Free Book Online Page B

bandage on his face. Brown hair. Jeans. A T-shirt with elephants on it—from a zoo, I think.”
    “Did his parents see you?” she asked.
    “He was alone.”
    “Are you sure? If he was only eight or nine, somebody must have brought him to the fair.”
    “There wasn’t anybody with him when he ran after me,” Mitch said, “but by now he’s probably blabbed to his parents or whoever brought him. We’ll have to quit. We can sit here and wait until Tucker gets his dinner break.”
    “No!” said Alan. “You promised we could work until Uncle Tucker can meet us.”
    “I didn’t know some junior detective would show up and accuse me of stealing.”
    “I want some more ice cream.”
    “You’ve had enough ice cream,” Mitch said. “We’ve bought a dozen ice-cream cones today.”
    “I never get to finish them. I always have to pretend I’m falling and spill them on the ground.”
    Joan chuckled. “You’re getting to be a fine little actor,” she said. “I almost believed you myself last time, the way you cried and carried on.”
    Alan smiled. “Let’s move to Hollywood,” he said. “Maybe I’ll get a job in a TV show.”
    “I don’t like it,” Mitch said. “Maybe we shouldn’t even waitto eat dinner with Tucker. All we need is some little kid going to the cops.”
    “Today has been the best day of the whole summer,” Alan said. “Maybe even the best day of my whole life. We got tons of wallets and purses. We even got that video camera. Let’s keep that. Can we, Mitch?”
    “Be quiet, Alan. I’m trying to think.”
    “This is way more fun than delivering a dumb old car,” Alan said. “And you said we could do it all afternoon. You promised.”
    “Alan!”
    Alan said, “Mom! You promised, too. You said if I did my part good, I could have some of the money. You said we could do it until Uncle Tucker’s dinner break.”
    “We did say that, Mitch,” Joan said. “Now that we know about the boy, we can watch for him. There can’t be more than one kid that age running around with a Batman bandage on his face and elephants on his shirt. If we spot him, we’ll back off.”
    “I don’t like it,” Mitch repeated. “We’ve done well this year; we’ve made a lot of money. I don’t want to blow it over a two-bit pickpocket incident.”
    “Just work until dinnertime, when we meet Tucker,” Joan said. “We promised Alan and it’s been such fun, working a crowd again. It’s like when I was first on my own and had to pick pockets in order to eat.”
    “If we get caught by the cops, your meals will be provided by the state—in jail.”
    “First offenders get off with a warning.”
    “Not always.” Mitch knew Joan did not fully understandwhat a risk she was asking him to take. How could she, when Mitch had never told her about his past? She did not realize the depth of his fear. She did not know how important it was for Mitch never to be picked up by the police.
    “Let’s tell Tucker about the kid,” Joan suggested, “and Tucker can watch for him, too, just like he watches for the guards now. If the kid shows up, Tucker signals us, and we beat it out of there.”
    Mitch looked dubious. “That platform of Tucker’s is a long way up and there are an awful lot of little kids at the fair.”
    “Not wearing big Batman bandages on their cheeks.”
    “Please, Mitch?” Alan said. “I want to do my ice-cream trick some more. This is the most fun I’ve had in my whole life. Please?”
    “No,” Mitch said. “No more. We’re going to sit right here and wait for Tucker.”
    “Nobody ever keeps their promises,” Alan said. He put his head down on the seat and started to cry.
    “You can sit here, if you want,” Joan said. “Alan and I are going back to the fair. We’ll work alone.”
    Alan’s tears instantly vanished.
    Joan and Alan got out of the car.
    “Don’t do this,” Mitch said.
    “I worked by myself for years, before I met you.”
    Mitch looked at Joan and Alan, side by