The Case of the Ball Cap Hero

Kid detectives Emily Jones and Matthew Parker are chatting in the school lunchroom with Buck, a boy who once helped a con man named Mr. Skint run scams. When Matthew marvels at how much brain power Buck's old con jobs must have taken, Buck grows uncomfortable. Cons, he explains, don't require smarts, "You just need to know how ugly folks can get." He'd rather leave that reputation behind and be an average kid who helps people out. Neither Emily nor Matthew realizes how important that conversation will turn out to be.

That night, Emily knocks on Matthew's window with news: Casey's Convenience Super Shop has been robbed, but afterward the clerk found every stolen item stacked neatly on the curb outside. The police are baffled, which is exactly the kind of puzzle Emily can't sleep on. At six the next morning, the two question the excitable night clerk, who happily describes a robber in a hoodie and a rare Japanese kabuki mask. When Emily's own coat snags on the door handle, the clerk remembers the thief's jacket catching the same way. Sure enough, Matthew finds a torn scrap of fabric under the hot dog oven, a special weave made only for a local shop called Grembly's Clothiers, which went out of business years ago. Detective Polehaus accepts the clue but warns the pair that robberies are police work, adding, "The truth always comes out eventually."

The case refuses to leave them alone. While Emily and Matthew snack at Jenkins Market, the masked robber strikes again, demanding three toaster ovens and no cash at all. Moments later a woman named Jan Waldroff rushes in, announcing that a man in a ball cap tackled the thief outside and left the merchandise piled on the sidewalk before running off. Soon all of Odyssey is buzzing about the mysterious "ball cap hero." He even writes the newspaper, explaining that he was once a victim of theft who lost everything, so he has made it his mission to stop such crimes. Ms. Waldroff writes in too, announcing an online donation page to reward him.

Emily finds it all a little too perfect. Why is the hero at every robbery? Why does the thief steal boxes instead of money? Matthew's research turns up a promising lead: of the local businesses that have failed in recent years, one owner lost his whole uninsured inventory to thieves, Arthur Grembly of Grembly's Clothiers, and he still lives in town. But when they visit, the nervous, stammering Mr. Grembly hardly seems like someone who would tackle a crook in the street.

Stumped, Emily briefly suspects Buck himself, an average guy who wants to help people. Buck denies it, but mentions a trick Mr. Skint called the Good Samaritan scam: one con man fakes a robbery, a partner plays the hero who recovers the goods, and the "hero" collects reward money. It almost fits, except that the ball cap hero has stayed anonymous and claimed no reward. That missing piece is exactly what Emily needs, and she takes a plan to Detective Polehaus.

At the police station, Polehaus tells Ms. Waldroff the case is solved and presents Buck as the ball cap hero, asking her to hand over the donation account so Buck can collect the reward. Rattled at the thought of losing the money, she blurts out that the real hero is someone else, and when Mr. Grembly is led in, she calls him by his first name, though the two claim to be strangers. Under stress, Grembly's stutter returns, the same stutter Emily heard from the masked thief at Jenkins Market. Emily lays it out: there never was a ball cap hero. Grembly played both thief and rescuer, always leaving the goods behind so nothing was truly stolen, while his partner Waldroff collected donations for a hero who would never appear, money the two could quietly drain away. When Polehaus reveals that a search warrant has already sent officers to look for the kabuki mask and a ripped tweed coat, Grembly sighs, "I told you this wouldn't work, Jan," and Waldroff asks for her lawyer.

The mask is found, the pair confess, and every donor gets their money back. Emily admits they could never have cracked the case without Buck, and Matthew can't resist the last word: with a partner like him, you get more bang with a Buck.