Of the two, Adam seemed like the more likely suspect. It was hard to see Mina touching a frog, let alone throwing it at someone’s face—no matter how scared she was to perform. Adam had a history of causing trouble. Frank and Joe had already run up against him once on a case, when they were trying to find the missing money from a video-game competition.
It wasn’t hard to guess where Adam would be. If it was recess, he was over by the swings. That’s where he and his friends—all the biggest and meanest kids in school—liked to hang out. They didn’t even play on the swings. They just knew other kids wanted to use them, and liked standing next to them so everyone else would stay away.
The whole school was talking about the frogs. No one had any idea how it could have happened. As they walked across the school yard, Frank and Joe heard all different kinds of theories.
“I heard it was Principal Butler herself. She, like, went crazy or something. They took her away in a strait jacket!” That was Madison Tillery, the most popular girl in school. She had a whole circle of girls around her, listening wide eyed. They were all texting the story to friends at other schools while they listened to Madison.
“I’m tellin’ you, it was aliens!” That was Chet Morton. He was a good friend of Frank and Joe’s. He was talking loudly to a group of kindergartners. “I saw a whole TV show about it. They pick up frogs, and then they— Oh! Hey, Frank! Hey, Joe! Are you guys going to figure this mystery out?” Chet knew all about their cases, and had even been inside the tree house where they wrote them all up on a big chalkboard.
“We’re going to try,” said Frank.
“Nuh-uh,” corrected Joe. “We’re going to succeed!”
“Cool,” said Chet. “Here’s a lead for you: aliens!”
Frank laughed. Chet always thought it was aliens. Frank and Joe continued on their way. Finally, they made it over to the far side of the playground, where the swings were. Sure enough, there was Adam—along with Jeffrey Perkins, Susie Merrell, Joe Stracy, and Ian Williams. The five of them added together would have made ten of Frank or Joe. They towered above all the other kids in the third grade. Adam had his back turned as the boys approached, and was talking loudly to his friends.
“Did you hear me up there?” Adam was saying. “They loved me! If Principal Butler hadn’t pulled me off the stage, I would have won the talent show, no questions. I was cheated!”
It sounded like Adam was pretty upset at Principal Butler. That would be reason enough to ruin the show. And if he thought he deserved to win on top of it …
“What do you want?” Susie asked. She had noticed Frank and Joe, listening to Adam. She had a mean look in her eyes. She was probably the smartest of the third-grade bullies. All the other girls went running when she came into the cafeteria.
Joe swallowed loudly. “We, uh, we wanted to talk to Adam about the frogs.” He was trying not to be afraid. Or to be afraid, but still do the right thing. That was what their dad had taught them.
“Did I say you could talk?” asked Susie. She pushed the other kids aside and walked up to Joe. She was a good two inches taller.
“Well, you did ask me—,” Joe began.
“‘Well, you did ask me. Nah, nah, nah,” Susie copied him. Adam and the other kids laughed.
“Look, we just want to know if he had anything to do with the frogs that interrupted the talent show,” said Frank.
“Goody Two-Shoes!” yelled Ian.
“You think I did that?” asked Adam. He walked over to Frank and Joe. The other kids came with him. Quickly, Frank and Joe were surrounded.
“It couldn’t have been Adam!” A voice rang out from behind the circle of third-grade bullies. A second later, Mina wormed her way through the wall of kids.
“What do you mean, it couldn’t have been Adam?” said Frank. He had pulled out his pen and notebook, eager to get another clue on the case. The bullies had already been forgotten.
“Hey, Mina, be quiet!” Adam looked nervous all of a sudden.
Mina ignored him. “He was with me!” she said.
Adam started waving his hands and trying to cut her off. “Don’t listen to her!” he said. Now Frank and Joe were really curious. What was she going to say? All of Adam’s friends were staring at Mina as well.
“He was—”
But Mina never got to finish her sentence. Adam put his hand over her mouth. “Fine!” he said. “You caught me! I did it.”
“What?” said Joe.
“I did it! I threw the frogs onstage. You can go tell Principal Butler. In fact, let’s go do that right now.”
Adam still hadn’t removed his hand from Mina’s mouth. She was staring at Frank and Joe, trying to get their attention. As Adam talked, she shook her head. It seemed like Mina didn’t believe Adam. And neither did Frank or Joe. What was he trying to hide?
But it was too late to try and find out now. Adam was on his way to Principal Butler’s office pushing Mina in front of him! Frank and Joe hurried to follow him. Could this be the end of the mystery after all?