by N. Griffin
“That’s from my hat, all right,” Alonso confirmed.
Siggie nodded, too, silent.
“Why didn’t you say anything before, Dontel?” asked Jacinda. “We had that awful indoor break!”
Dontel looked grave. “I didn’t make the connection until much later. And I wanted to make sure I was being fair. I knew I needed to be scientific and compare the kinds of fuzz, and I didn’t have an actual sample from Alonso’s hat. With just my piece of fuzz I was afraid it was all just, just — what’s that called, Ms. Early?”
“Circumstantial evidence,” Ms. Early supplied.
Smashie was impressed. “That is wonderful Investigator Language, Ms. Early!” she said. “I am going to add that to our list.” She turned to Dontel. “But why didn’t you say anything to me, at least? I would have helped!”
“Things were too crazy,” said Dontel. “I only made the connection between the two kinds of fuzz while we were running back from Mr. Bloom’s trailer,” said Dontel. “And I was more excited about investigating Willette at that point. And then we messed up so bad accusing Willette —” He glanced at Willette.
“Don’t worry. We’re good,” she said.
Dontel continued. “I wanted to be extra sure. I didn’t want to wreck someone else’s reputation and make everyone even madder at me or Smashie. And then we were involved in making our cameras, and Smashie figured out about Billy, and everything heated up again pretty fast. There was no time to investigate about the hat, too. I’m sorry, Smash. I wanted to tell you.”
“I wish you had,” said Smashie, somewhat miffed. Then she remembered her own solitary thoughts about Mr. Carper and smiled at him. “But I guess it makes us even.”
Dontel grinned back. “I guess it does,” he said.
“I’m glad I confessed,” Siggie admitted. “It’s bad, but it would have made me feel even worse if I hadn’t and you guys did some kind of trial on me.”
Ms. Early sighed. “What a day,” she said.
“Ms. Early?” said Charlene. “May I please hold Patches?”
“Yes,” said Ms. Early. “You may.”
Charlene opened the cage and took Patches in her cupped hands. She stood before the class. “Smashie and Dontel,” she said, “Patches would like to thank you, too.”
Smashie gulped.
“Come on, Smash,” said Dontel. “Let’s go up there.”
“Won’t you say hello to him, just this once, Smashie?” pleaded Willette.
Patches quivered.
“I will stay right beside you,” said Dontel. “You don’t have to touch the feet.”
“Well,” said Smashie. “I guess Patches has had a tough couple of days.”
“Forced to conceal stolen goods and all,” said Cyrus.
“More Investigator Language!” Smashie cried.
“And forced to be stolen goods, too,” said Joyce.
“All right,” said Smashie. “I will try.”
Room 11 watched as she and Dontel made their way up and stood in front of the little hamster.
“He’s not all the way awful, right, Smashie?” asked Dontel.
Smashie looked at Patches. Still the same beady eyes. Still the same chicken feet.
Even so, she thought, he is kind of brave. It must have been scary having Mr. Carper snarling around and hiding pointy things near him. Not to mention spending hours in an oatmeal container.
Smashie extended a hesitant forefinger and stroked Patches, once, on the head.
“Yay!” shouted Room 11.
“You do love him!” squealed Jacinda.
Smashie opened her mouth, then caught Dontel’s eye and shut it again.
“Well,” she said, “I think what I do is respect him. And my grammy says that goes a long way.”
Dontel grinned at her, and she beamed back.
“It surely does,” said Ms. Early. “All right, Room 11. Time to go home.”
“We sure worked hard today,” said Dontel as he and Smashie walked home from their bus stop. Some of Smashie’s pouches had come off her macramé sash, but she didn’t mind. They had served their purpose.
“We sure did,” said Smashie. “We are a very excellent team.”
“Slap my hand with your hand, Smash.”
They slapped hands.
“Let’s show our grandmas our Investigation Notebooks,” said Smashie. “They will love our Investigator Language list.”
“Also how we figured everything out,” Dontel agreed.
“Then we can staple together the pages of notes we took about this whole investigation and put them in a folder marked Cases Solved!”
“I like the sound of that,” said Dontel.
“Homework tonight is using our pinhole cameras,” said Smashie. “Want to do the picture taking together at my house?”
“Sure,” said Dontel. “We can practice for the TrueYum circular.”
“I know just what we can photograph,” said Smashie.
“What?” said Dontel. “Our after-school snack?”
“No,” said Smashie. “Us. With vegetables. In our Successful Investigator Suits.”
“But we don’t have Successf —”
“I know,” said Smashie happily. “We will have to get to work.”
And they did.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2015 by N. Griffin
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Kate Hindley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2015
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014944799
ISBN 978-0-7636-6145-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-7636-7017-7 (electronic)
Candlewick Press
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Somerville, Massachusetts 02144
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