by Nancy Krulik
“I do not!” I told him.
Scout laughed so hard he snorted.
“You ‘do not’ what?” Elizabeth asked me.
Oh yeah, right. Like I was going to tell her what Scout had just said.
I changed the subject instead. “How do we solve this mystery?” I asked her.
“We start by interviewing anyone who might have seen the crime,” she said. “Just wait until I get my pen and notebook out.”
I tried not to laugh as Elizabeth pulled a rope, a bottle of water, a swim cap, a Ping-Pong paddle, and, finally, a pen and a notebook out of her backpack.
“What’s all that junk for?” I asked.
“You never know what’s going to happen,” she explained. “I like to be prepared.”
I couldn’t imagine when anyone would need rope, water, a swim cap, and a Ping-Pong paddle, but that wasn’t the mystery we were solving now.
“You can start interviewing the dogs now,” Elizabeth told me.
As long as I was here, and Elizabeth already knew I could talk to dogs, I figured it couldn’t hurt.
“Did you guys see Leo yesterday?” I asked.
“He was at our house,” Scout told me.
“Other than at our house,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We already know he was there.”
“I was just trying to help,” Scout said. “Sheesh.”
“I saw Leo on Pig Path Road yesterday. He was talking to some guy with little ears,” Biscuit told me.
“Now that’s a clue!” I shouted excitedly. I turned to Elizabeth. “Write that down.”
“Write what down?” Elizabeth asked. “All I heard was ‘ruff, ruff, arroo!’ ”
“Biscuit saw Leo talking to some guy with little ears,” I translated. “They were on Pig Path Road.”
“It’s not much to go on,” she said. “We need more information.”
Just then, Biscuit’s owner, Charlie, poked his head out the front door. “Biscuit, food!” he called out.
Biscuit raced into his house without even saying good-bye.
I turned to Elizabeth. “I told you they weren’t going to be much help.”
“They gave us one clue,” Elizabeth noted. “We just need some more pieces of the puzzle.”
I hoped she was right. Right now I should have been tossing a ball around with Leo. But instead, I was talking to dogs and hanging out with the Brainiac. This was not my idea of a good way to spend a Saturday.
Chapter 8
Elizabeth and I walked Scout back to my house. We sat down under the oak tree in my front yard and tried to figure this thing out.
“We have to go over all the clues,” Elizabeth said. “Did Scout take anything out of Leo’s backpack?”
“Just a calculator,” I said. “But I got it out of his mouth and put it back, and he swears he didn’t take anything else,” I told Elizabeth.
“I believe him.” Elizabeth petted Scout on the head. “But someone took the plans.”
“Maybe it was her,” Scout suggested. He pushed his snout toward the far side of the lawn, where a slinky gray cat was happily licking her paws. “There’s something really sneaky about Shadow.”
“Just ignore her,” I told Scout. “She has nothing to do with this.”
“Ignore me?” Elizabeth asked angrily. “I’m the only one here who knows how to solve a mystery, remember?”
“I wasn’t talking about you,” I explained. “I was talking about that cat over there.”
“She looks sweet,” Elizabeth said.
“Did she say ‘treat’?” Scout barked excitedly.
Treat was one of the human words Scout understood no matter who said it. But that wasn’t what Elizabeth had said. Sometimes Scout only heard what he wanted to hear.
“Sorry, Scout,” I explained. “Elizabeth says Shadow looks sweet.”
Scout gave me a funny look. “I thought you said this girl was smart.”
“Where else did Leo go with that backpack?” Elizabeth asked impatiently.
“School, his house, the hardware store, here,” I replied.
“You want to play ball, Jack?” Scout asked suddenly. He was jumping up and down. “I see a ball in the bushes.”
I shook my head. “Not now, Old Stinky Breath.”
Suddenly, Scout stopped jumping and barking.
“I don’t think dog breath stinks at all,” he told me.
“What would you expect from someone who says hello by sniffing butts?” Shadow, the gray cat from next door, purred. She began to slink her way over to us.
“At least I don’t bathe in spit,” Scout told Shadow.
“It’s called grooming.” Shadow licked her paw.
“Grooming in spit,” Scout growled.
“He’s got you there, Shadow,” I said with a laugh.
“Jack, come on,” Elizabeth said. She sounded annoyed. “I can’t understand Scout and Shadow, remember? If you don’t tell me what they’re saying, I can’t help you. And if I don’t help you, you’ll never solve this mystery.”
Elizabeth was acting like such a know-it-all. But she was right. There was no way I could find Leo’s plans on my own.
“Okay,” Elizabeth said. “Now, you’re sure you and Leo didn’t go anywhere else?”
“I’m sure,” I said. “We only went to the hardware store and here.”
“Wait a minute,” Shadow interrupted. “Wasn’t Leo carrying one of those delicious frozen creams when you got to the house?”
Wow! Leave it to a cat to remember ice cream. “Oh yeah,” I told Elizabeth. “We stopped at Heavenly Scoops before we came here. But Leo didn’t open his backpack. We just got the cones and came right here.”
“Someone could have slipped the plans out of his backpack without him noticing,” Elizabeth said. She wrote Heavenly Scoops on her list. “I figure the crime happened somewhere on Pig Path Road, since that seems to be the only place other than here that Leo went.”
“But who on Pig Path Road could have done it?” I asked her.
“That boxer said he saw Leo talking to someone with little ears on Pig Path Road,” Elizabeth said. “Who do we know with little ears?”
“My sister Mia’s friend Sam has little ears,” I said.
“Was Sam on Pig Path Road when you were?” Elizabeth asked me.
I shook my head.
“Then he can’t be a suspect,” she said. “A suspect is someone who had the opportunity to steal the plans. And someone who had a reason to steal them. That’s called the motive.”
Boy, what a know-it-all.
“I know what a motive is,” I told her. “It was on our vocabulary list, remember?”
“Of course I remember,” she said. “I just wasn’t sure you would.”
“Okay, Brainiac,” I said, using the nickname just because I knew it would make Elizabeth mad. “If you’re so smart, who would have a motive to steal Leo’s plans?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “It would have to be someone really stupid. Using someone else’s plans would be cheating. If you got caught, you’d get an F.”
Cheating. That was it! I knew exactly who had stolen the plans. And I’d figured it out before the Brainiac!
“I know someone who had an opportunity and a motive,” I said.
“Who?” Elizabeth asked.
“Tell us! Tell us!” Scout barked.
“Trevor,” I said. “He cheats all the time. And he was at the hardware store.”
“But how would he know Leo had the plans with him?” Elizabeth asked me.
I looked down at the ground. That one was my fault. “I told him Leo was doing a great project, and we were there buying supplies for it.”
Elizabeth wrote that down.
“Trevor’s got a big head,” I continued. “It makes his ears look small. Just like Biscuit said.”
Elizabeth laughed. “He does have a massive head,” she agreed.
“So we’ve solved the mystery?” I asked excitedly.
“Not exactly,” E
lizabeth said. “We still have one more thing to do.”
“What’s that?” I wondered.
“We have to interrogate the suspect,” she said. She sounded very official—almost like a real detective.
Uh-oh. I knew that meant I was going over to Trevor the Terrible’s house—with only Elizabeth the Brainiac to protect me.
“It won’t be so bad,” Elizabeth told me.
I gulped. That’s what people always say in movies—right before the bad guy leaps out of the basement and gets them!
This was going to be bad. I just knew it.
Chapter 9
“Hi, is Trevor home?” Elizabeth asked Trevor’s mom as she opened the door that would lead to our doom.
“Sure,” his mom said. “He’s in the kitchen working on his science project.”
His project! Yeah, right. Trevor was working on Leo’s project. No matter how scared I felt, I wasn’t turning back. I had to catch Trevor, for Leo’s sake.
We followed Trevor’s mom toward the back of the house. Suddenly, we heard someone singing, badly.
“You are my sunshine. My only sunshine …”
Was that an animal? I didn’t think Trevor had a pet.
“You make me happy when skies are gray …”
No. It was definitely a human voice. Trevor’s voice. But why was Trevor singing?
“Trevor, you have company,” his mom said as we walked into the kitchen.
Trevor stopped singing. He didn’t look happy to see us. I didn’t blame him. We were about to catch him cheating. And we’d already caught him singing.
“I’ll leave you kids alone,” Trevor’s mom said.
I didn’t want her to go. Trevor would be nicer with his mom around. But it was too late. She was gone. It was just Trevor the Terrible, the Brainiac, and me.
“What do you two kissy faces want?” Trevor asked us.
That was why I didn’t want to spend my Saturday with Elizabeth. The last thing I needed was people thinking I liked her. I had to set Trevor straight. Now.
“We are not kissy faces!” I shouted. “We’re … uh … detectives!”
Trevor started to laugh. “Yeah, right. Where are your magnifying glasses and flashlights?”
“Jack and I have special investigative tools,” Elizabeth told him.
I was impressed. Investigative tools. That sounded really cool and detectivelike. Much better than saying, “Some dog said you had small ears.” Which I would never say to anyone—especially Trevor!
“Your mom said you were working on your science project,” Elizabeth said. She looked around the kitchen. “All I see are a bunch of plants.”
“And all I heard was your singing,” I added.
Trevor turned red. I could tell he hadn’t wanted anyone to hear him singing.
“That’s my project,” he told us. “I’m singing to some plants and not to others. I’m trying to figure out if music helps plants grow faster.”
Trevor’s lousy singing would probably kill plants, but I didn’t say that. You don’t say things like that to a kid like Trevor.
“And you came up with your project on your own?” Elizabeth asked him.
Whoa. It was pretty brave of the Brainiac to just come out and ask.
Trevor definitely didn’t like it. He stood up taller so he towered over us. Then he squeezed his lips together really tight. His eyes closed into angry slits.
I could feel my hands starting to sweat.
“Why? Did somebody say I didn’t?” Trevor bunched his hands into fists.
I couldn’t tell if he was going to hit us or just stand there looking scary, but I started backing toward the door just in case.
“No,” I told him. “Nobody said anything about you.”
That was the truth. No one had actually said Trevor had stolen Leo’s robot plans. Biscuit had just said Leo talked to someone with small ears. And I had only said that Trevor had cheated off of Leo before. That had made Trevor a suspect. But it wasn’t enough to convict him.
Chapter 10
“Trevor definitely had a good alibi,” Elizabeth said as we walked back to my house from Trevor’s.
“A good what?” I asked her.
“Alibi,” Elizabeth repeated. “It’s an explanation that proves you’re not guilty. And since Trevor isn’t making a robot, we can assume he’s not the thief.”
“Which means we’re back at the beginning.” I was in a rotten mood. And not just because Trevor had turned out to be innocent. I was mad because he had an idea for his science project. So did Elizabeth. And once we found Leo’s plans, he would, too. That left me as the only one without a clue as to what I was going to do.
“Dig, dig, dig. Digging all day long. That’s why I sing a digging song.”
Suddenly, I heard someone singing. Oh no! Was Trevor the Terrible following us? Quickly, I looked around.
But Trevor wasn’t there. And the sound wasn’t coming from behind us. It was coming from below.
“Dig, dig, dig. Deep into the ground. Turn that dirt into a mound.”
I spotted a mound of dirt on a nearby lawn. It wasn’t Trevor singing after all. It was a mole.
“I was sure it was Trevor,” Elizabeth continued. “He has such small ears.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Of course, compared to Biscuit and Scout, everyone has small ears. Dog ears are mostly long and floppy.”
“You’re right,” Elizabeth said. “Animals see things differently than we do.”
“Yeah, and it’s not just dogs,” I told Elizabeth. “I saw these pigeons yesterday. They were talking about being at a restaurant. To me, it just looked like they were pecking at a bagel on the sidewalk. But to them, a restaurant was any place to eat.”
“Exactly,” Elizabeth said.
“So basically, someone with small ears can be any human,” I continued. “Or it could be a dog with small ears. ”
Elizabeth nodded and hit herself on the forehead. “I wish I’d figured that out sooner.”
We were back at my house now. I wasn’t feeling any better than I’d been when we left. We still had no idea who had stolen Leo’s plans. Worse yet, we didn’t have any suspects. Unless …
I stared at Elizabeth. “You know, you were on Pig Path Road yesterday,” I pointed out.
Elizabeth stared at me, surprised. “Are you kidding?” she asked. “Why would I steal Leo’s plans? I already have an idea for a project.”
Hmm … What reason would the smartest girl in the school have for stealing Leo’s plans?
“You always want to have the best project,” I realized.
“I always do,” she corrected me.
“But this time, Leo had a plan for a great project,” I said. “Maybe you were eliminating the competition.”
“Good thinking,” Elizabeth told me.
I smiled proudly.
“Except for one thing,” she added.
My smile drooped.
“I never saw Leo,” Elizabeth said. “You told me you heard him calling you. I didn’t even hear his voice. I never got close enough to him to steal anything.”
Bummer. The Brainiac had outsmarted me again.
“You’re right,” I said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Elizabeth said. “You were thinking like a detective. That’s the only way to solve a mystery.”
But even the Brainiac wasn’t going to be able to solve a mystery with no clues. “I guess we’re never going to find out who stole Leo’s homework,” I told her.
Just then, Scout ran toward us, his tongue hanging excitedly out of his mouth. “Did you catch the thief?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Sorry, Scout. It wasn’t Trevor. And he was our best suspect. Actually, he was our only suspect.”
Scout buried his head in his paws. His ears and tail drooped.
“Someone else must have seen Leo on Pig Path Road,” Elizabeth said.
“Well, if they did, they’re not talking,” I said.
Elizabeth
looked at me kind of funny. I hoped she wasn’t going to start batting her eyelashes again.
Luckily, she didn’t. She just said, “The witnesses might not be talking to most people. But they will talk to you.”
Huh? I couldn’t understand half the things the Brainiac said.
Elizabeth sighed like she couldn’t believe how stupid I was. “Don’t you get it? There are always dogs walking on Pig Path Road. One of them must have seen Leo’s plans being stolen. You just have to find a dog who saw the thief in action.”
“Why would someone steal with a dog right there?” I asked. “Thieves don’t want witnesses.”
Elizabeth shot me her annoying know-it-all smile. “People figure animals can’t say anything even if they do see something. The bad guys don’t know about people who can talk to animals.”
Okay, so maybe she did know it all. But that didn’t make her any less annoying.
“We have to go where the dogs go,” Elizabeth told me. “The dog park.”
Scout’s ears perked up. Park was one of the words he understood no matter who said it.
“I like that girl,” Scout barked. “She’s smart.”
The Brainiac was definitely smart. And she was good at mysteries. But I was the one who was going to have to talk to a bunch of animals in the middle of a dog park.
Sure, the Brainiac and Scout were both smiling. They weren’t the ones who were about to make fools out of themselves in front of strangers. Unfortunately, that person was me.
Chapter 11
There were a whole lot of people in the dog park when we got there. I knew every one of them would think I was nuts if they saw me talking to a bunch of dogs. And I didn’t need any more people making fun of me. I got enough of that from Trevor.
“I can’t talk to the dogs here,” I told Elizabeth. “These people will think I’m crazy.”
“You don’t have to talk to the dogs, Jack,” Elizabeth said. ”Scout will talk to the dogs. You’ll just listen.”
As I unclipped Scout’s leash, I looked around to make sure no one would hear me talking to him. Then I whispered, “Go find out if any of those dogs saw anyone taking anything from Leo.”
