The New Year Dragon Dilemma by Ron Roy Read Free Book Online Page B

on the object and it blazed red. It was the ruby.
    Grinning, Dink pushed the button on his cell-phone camera. It made a quiet clicking noise.
    Burk lurched around. “What the …” Leaping to his feet, he bolted toward Dink.
    “Run!” Ruth Rose screamed.
    “Split up!” Josh yelled.
    Dink raced for the nearest float, shoving his cell phone into a pocket. He nearly bumped into the float. Looking up, he saw the tiger leering down at him. Dink crawled under the truck bed and made himself as small as he could behind one of the rear tires.
    Some of the flowers and vines that made the tiger’s “jungle” hung down over the sides of the truck. Dink felt hidden, but he knew Burk could find him with his flashlight. He wondered where Josh and Ruth Rose were hiding.
    Suddenly an earsplitting whistlepierced the air. “POLICE! FREEZE!” a voice shouted.

    Dink peered out from under the truck. If the police were here, he was getting out of this place right now! He sprinted for the door as fast as his trembling legs would take him.
    Somebody grabbed him as soon as he had cleared the door. It was Josh, who pulled Dink out of the way.
    Then Ruth Rose slammed the door shut and snapped the padlock. She turned and grinned at Dink. “Josh and I made a plan when you went to take the guy’s picture,” she said.
    “But … but the police, the whistle …,” Dink stammered.
    Ruth Rose held up her Swiss Army knife. From it dangled a tiny teddy bear and a shiny police whistle. “That was me,” she said. “I was hoping Burk would think I was the police and hide, and you’d run outside.” She dropped her knife into her backpack. “And you did!”
    Josh picked up his bent sketchbook. “Now use that cell phone of yours and call the real police!” he said.

“They’re twin brothers?” Dink asked.
    Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose were sitting on the floor in the living room of their Bayside Hotel apartment. Dink’s father sat on the sofa. He had just gotten off the phone with Officer Feist.
    “Yes, Dr. Winston Worthington has a twin brother named Wayne Worthington,” Dink’s father told them. “Wayne got out of prison a few months ago. He stayed with Winston for a while, then borrowed some money from him and bought that old sailboat, where he now lives.”
    Dink thought about Wayne’s tattoos. “So those were W’s on his hands, not M’s,” he said. “I was reading them upside down!”
    His father nodded. “Apparently, Wayne did some snooping when his brother wasn’t around,” he went on. “That’s how he learned about the parade, Miss Chinatown’s crown, even when the fireworks would go off. He was the one who set off the second round of fireworks.”
    “So he decided to steal the ruby?” asked Ruth Rose.
    “Yes, but he needed help, so he enlisted Burk, the little guy who actually stole the crown right off Lily’s head,” Dink’s father said. “He and Burk had once shared a prison cell.”
    “So that’s why Dr. Worthington seemed so sad on the swan float,” Dink said. “He must have figured out that hisown brother was the crook!”
    “I think you’re right about that,” Mr. Duncan said. “Luckily, you kids figured out what they were up to.”
    “Dad, why didn’t Burk just take off with the ruby after he stole it?” Dink asked. “Why did he hide it in the dragon’s mouth?”
    “Burk knew if he didn’t go back to help carry the dragon in the parade, he would be suspected,” Dink’s father answered. “But he was worried that everyone would be searched, so he stuck the ruby in the dragon’s mouth, figuring he or his partner in crime could get it later.”
    “So he confessed?” Ruth Rose asked.
    Dink’s father laughed. “Yes, he did,” he said. “But not right away. When the cops let Burk out of the warehouse, he denied everything. Said there was no proof. But when the police showed himthe picture Dink took, he changed his story.”
    “Cool!” Dink said. “I wasn’t sure if the picture