Fenton Hardy, Frank and Joe’s dad, was a private investigator who used to work with the local Bayport police force. He’d been a cop in New York City for years. The boys had been watching him solve crimes since they were old enough to crawl after him. Over the years they’d learned more than a few things about figuring out unexplained events.
And the first was to start with the six Ws of crime solving—What, When, Why, Who, How, and Where. Frank and Joe found a quiet corner of the auditorium to sit down and think. Everyone else had gone out to recess, so they had the room to themselves.
Frank wrote down in his notebook: What.
“That part is easy,” said Joe. “A rain of frogs!”
Frank wrote down frogs in the notebook. Then he kept going.
“What else are you writing?” asked Joe, curious.
Frank continued writing for a moment, then looked up and read from the notebook. “‘Frogs. Falling from all around at the Bayport Elementary annual talent show. All specimens looked to be around the same age, size, species.’”
If there was one thing their father had specifically told them, it was that it paid to be as precise as possible. Solving a crime often rested on the details.
Frank wrote When next, under What.
Joe looked at his watch. “It happened about twenty minutes after the talent show started, so around 11:20 a.m.” Frank recorded the time in the notebook. After it he added right at the beginning of Melissa & Todd’s act.
Joe scratched his head—a sure sign he was thinking about something.
“That means that the frogs must have gotten into the auditorium earlier today. It couldn’t have been last night, or they probably would have starved. And it couldn’t have been that much earlier than the show itself, or they wouldn’t have escaped at the right time.”
“So whoever did this did it recently!” said Frank, excited. If the trail was still “warm,” as their dad would say, they had a much better chance of catching the culprit.
“Okay,” said Frank. “Next up is Why.”
This one was tougher. In police investigations, this was known as the criminal’s “motive.” The boys took a few minutes to come up with as many reasons as they could as to why someone would want to drop frogs on the talent show.
“Someone hates frogs,” said Joe.
“Someone hates Melissa and Todd,” said Frank. He wrote both down. After that the list continued:
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” said Joe. Frank agreed. They had no way of knowing why someone would want to rain frogs down on the talent show. It was time to move on to the next piece of the puzzle: Who.
Who would want to sabotage the talent show?
“Well, Adam got pulled off the stage,” said Frank. “And he’s always starting fights and pulling pranks on people. Maybe he was angry at Principal Butler.”
Adam was a pretty good suspect. They wrote his name down in the book. They thought for a few more seconds.
“Mina was freaked out about having to perform in front of the whole school,” said Joe. “Maybe she did it so she wouldn’t have to go on?”
“That’s possible,” said Frank. “But Mina is so nice. It doesn’t seem like her. But like Dad says, you never know.” Frank wrote Mina’s name down too, even though they didn’t think it could be her.
“I didn’t see Adam or Mina when the frogs were falling, did you?” asked Joe.
Frank considered it for a second. He’d been pretty distracted. But now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember seeing either of them anywhere.
“So either one of them could be our prankster,” said Joe.
“Or anyone else who wasn’t at the show.” Aside from Melissa, Todd, Cissy, and Principal Butler, it could have been almost anyone. The crowd was so big, no one would have noticed if one person was missing.
Carefully Frank wrote Where in the notebook. His hand was starting to get tired. He was glad that they’d be soon done with the writing part of the investigation.
“The first frog hit Melissa in the face,” said Frank.
“But where did it come from?” said Joe.
“If someone was throwing them from the audience, they’d have to be pretty strong,” said Frank. “And have good aim.”
“Maybe they fell from the ceiling?”
Both boys looked up. How would frogs have gotten into the ceiling? Frank wrote it down, then crossed it out. That would be impossible.
“We’ve got two suspects,” said Frank. “Should we start with them?”
Joe nodded. Frank flipped his notebook shut and the boys headed out to find Adam and Mina. First stop: the playground.
