The Case of the Beagle Burglar

by Nancy Krulik

  Just then, some guy threw a Frisbee. Scout leaped up excitedly.

  “Frisbee!” Scout barked. He ran off.

  Elizabeth and I watched as Scout leaped up and tried to beat another dog to the Frisbee. But the other dog sprung up faster and gripped it in her mouth.

  I shook my head. Scout had the attention span of a flea. He’d run off the minute he smelled a hot dog on the ground, or saw a ball go flying by. Dogs just aren’t made to be detectives. There was no way this was going to work. We weren’t getting Leo’s plans back. He was going to be mad at me forever.

  “I bet Scout gets us a lot of clues,” Elizabeth said.

  “Doubt it,” I muttered under my breath. Elizabeth might know a lot about solving mysteries, but I knew a lot about dogs. If you asked me, all Scout was getting was a couple of good sniffs of other dogs’ butts.

  A few minutes later, Scout padded back to where Elizabeth and I were sitting.

  “Okay, see that dog over there, the one with the really long tail?” Scout asked.

  I looked over toward the water bowl in the middle of the dog run. There was a brown and white dog with big floppy ears and a really long, fluffy tail.

  “Yeah,” I said quietly, so only Scout and Elizabeth could hear me.

  “Well, he was walking his human on Pig Path Road when …”

  “Wait a minute,” I stopped him. “Who was walking who?”

  “He was walking his human,” Scout repeated. “What? You thought it was the other way around? Are you kidding? I’m the one walking in front. And you’re the one stuck picking up the poop.”

  It was hard to argue with logic like that.

  “He says he saw Leo through the window of some store near the yellow bathroom on Pig Path Road,” Scout continued. “Leo was talking to some guy with three legs.”

  “Three legs?” I repeated. “That dog’s crazy. There isn’t a person in the world like that.”

  “What’s he saying?” Elizabeth asked me in a voice that was louder than it should have been.

  A few people turned around to look at us.

  “Wait until we get out of the dog park,” I whispered to her.

  Elizabeth nodded. “Gotcha.”

  Elizabeth and I walked Scout—or maybe he walked us—out of the dog park. When we got to a quiet spot, I told Elizabeth, “Scout says a dog saw Leo near the yellow bathroom on Pig Path Road.”

  “Heavenly Scoops has a yellow bathroom,” Elizabeth said. “But how would a dog know about that? Dogs aren’t allowed in ice-cream shops.”

  Still, Elizabeth wrote down the clue. She stared at it for a minute. “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

  “Wait, it gets weirder,” I said. “The dog said Leo was talking to some guy with three legs.”

  “That really doesn’t make any sense,” Elizabeth said.

  Elizabeth chewed at the end of her pen. I could tell she was mad that she was having trouble with this mystery. Any other time, I would be happy that something had stumped the Brainiac. But not today.

  “I think we should go over to Pig Path Road now,” Elizabeth said finally.

  Elizabeth seemed pretty sure of herself. So I did the only thing I could do. I followed her. I figured if anybody could find a guy with three legs who hung out near a yellow bathroom, it was the Brainiac.

  Because it sure wasn’t me.

  Chapter 12

  “A fire hydrant?” I asked Elizabeth as she and I stopped outside Heavenly Scoops a few minutes later. Then I thought about it. Elizabeth was right. The hydrant was yellow. To a dog, this was a bathroom.

  Just then, a cocker spaniel walked over to Elizabeth and me. “Is this a line for the bathroom?” he asked me. “Can I cut in front of you? Please?”

  “When you gotta go, you gotta go,” I said. I moved out of the way.

  I had to hand it to Elizabeth. She wasn’t just a human genius. She was a dog genius, too.

  Except for one thing.

  “How could a hydrant steal homework?” I asked her.

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes and shook her head. She sighed. “The hydrant didn’t steal anything. Someone who was around here when Leo was did. Someone with three legs.”

  Now it was my turn to sigh. A man with three legs. You didn’t have to be a Brainiac to know that was impossible. “Will you get serious?” I asked.

  But apparently Elizabeth was serious. She had her notebook and pen all ready to take notes. “We have to interview people to find out if they saw anything. Where should we start?” she asked.

  I didn’t have to think hard about that. “Heavenly Scoops,” I suggested.

  “You remember seeing someone there?” Elizabeth asked hopefully.

  “No. But I could use a vanilla cone.”

  Okay, now Elizabeth looked really mad. She shook her head and her red squiggly worm hair bounced all around. “We have more important things to worry about than food, Jack.”

  I couldn’t help it. I love ice cream.

  “You’re back again,” the guy behind the ice-cream counter said as we walked in. He didn’t sound happy to see me. Hmmm … I wondered why. Could he be the thief?

  Elizabeth looked over the counter and read his name tag. “Hello, Albert,” she said. “You remember Jack?”

  “It’s hard to forget a kid who samples seven flavors and then decides on vanilla,” Albert said with a frown.

  Oh, so that was why he was sorry to see me!

  I really had done that. It’s a trick I learned. You get almost a whole extra scoop by the time you try all those free samples.

  “Do you remember anything else about yesterday?” Elizabeth asked Albert. “Like the kid who was with Jack?”

  “Yeah. He got a strawberry cone with sprinkles,” Albert answered.

  “Was there anyone else in here at the same time?” Elizabeth asked.

  Albert thought for a minute. “A lady with a baby came in just as they were leaving.”

  “A lady with a baby,” Elizabeth repeated as she scribbled on her notebook. “Did that lady happen to have three legs?”

  “Is this some sort of joke?” Albert asked her. He looked around. “Am I on TV?”

  “No, I need to know,” Elizabeth told him.

  “Are you guys gonna order ice cream or what?” Albert asked. I could tell he was tired of answering weird questions.

  Elizabeth stuck her notebook back in her backpack. “I doubt a mom would take the time to go into Leo’s backpack. She’d be too busy watching the baby,” she said. “Come on, Jack. We’ve learned all we can here.”

  “But I didn’t get my ice cream,” I said.

  Elizabeth shot me a look. I wasn’t going to be sampling any flavors today. I followed her back out onto the sidewalk.

  Elizabeth looked into the windows of the nearby stores—the Sealed With a Kiss card shop, the Thai Tanic Asian restaurant, the Sofa So Good furniture store, and Mr. Hammersmith’s hardware store.

  Elizabeth chewed on her pen for a minute. “Three legs,” she muttered. Suddenly, her eyes grew wide. A big smile formed on her lips. “Aha!” she exclaimed “Now I understand exactly what that dog meant!”

  “Well, that makes one of us,” I said. “I still don’t get it.”

  Elizabeth charged toward Mr. Hammersmith’s store with her nose pointed straight ahead. She looked like a redheaded dog following a scent.

  I had no idea what she was up to. I’d figured out how to think like a dog. But I still had no idea how to think like a Brainiac.

  There was only one way to find out what Elizabeth had in mind. I had to follow her and hope she knew what she was doing. Because if she didn’t, we could be in big trouble.

  Chapter 13

  Mr. Hammersmith was at the cash register when we came in. When he saw us, he limped over.

  Elizabeth pointed to his cane. “See?” she whispered. “Three legs.”

  I had to admit it. Elizabeth was right. To a dog, a cane would seem like a third leg. But still …


  “Mr. Hammersmith?” I began. “Why would a grown-up—”

  But Elizabeth shot me a look that shut me up quick. She obviously didn’t want Mr. Hammersmith to hear me say he could have stolen Leo’s plans. Not yet, anyway.

  “What can I do for you kids?” Mr. Hammersmith asked. “More materials for your science fair projects?”

  “We don’t need anything for our projects,” Elizabeth told him. “But Leo does.”

  Mr. Hammersmith looked around quickly. “Leo? Where is he?”

  A bead of sweat formed on Mr. Hammersmith’s forehead. It ran down between his eyes and onto his nose. And then it dripped to the floor.

  “It’s raining!” a voice shouted. “Anyone got an umbrella?”

  I looked down just as a cockroach scurried under a stack of wood.

  “Leo’s not here,” Elizabeth replied. “We’re helping him.”

  “I don’t understand,” Mr. Hammersmith said nervously.

  “We’re … um …” It was hard for me to get the words out. I’d never accused a grown-up of stealing before. But I had to, for Leo. “We’re looking for Leo’s science fair plans.”

  “They aren’t here,” Mr. Hammersmith said quickly … a little too quickly.

  Elizabeth began to walk around the store. She stopped at a table with a motor and some wires on it.

  “Well, well. What do we have here?” She sounded a lot like a TV detective. “A motor from a kit kids use to make robots. Now why would a grown-up have something like that?”

  “It has nothing to do with Leo!” Mr. Hammersmith breathed heavily. “I’ve wasted enough time on you two. Now get out of here.”

  But Elizabeth wasn’t going anywhere. “We’re not leaving without Leo’s plans,” she told him.

  “This is my robot,” Mr. Hammersmith insisted angrily. “I’ve been working on it for months. I can prove it. I have a letter from a toy company. They were interested in my robot way before your science fair was announced.”

  “I’d like to see that letter,” Elizabeth told him.

  “It’s in the back,” Mr. Hammersmith said. “It might take me some time to find it.”

  “We’ll wait,” Elizabeth said.

  That didn’t sound like such a good idea to me. But I wasn’t going to admit I was scared. Not in front of a girl. So I gritted my teeth and tried to sound tough.

  “Yeah, we can wait,” I told Mr. Hammersmith. “We have lots of time.”

  It was a good thing we had all that time, because Mr. Hammersmith spent a while in the back room. When he finally came out, he had a letter in his hand.

  “Here’s my proof. The Five Star Toy Company has been interested in my robot for a while now.” He handed us the letter.

  “See?” Mr. Hammersmith said. He sounded really happy to be proving us wrong. “Now why don’t you two just get out of here?”

  November 31

  Dear Mr. Hammersmith,

  Thank you for your submission of the plans for a robot that cleans kids’ rooms. I think kids will love it. Our company is very interested in making the robots and selling them. Please let us know when you have a working model. I am sure we will all become very rich from your invention.

  Sincerely,

  Chip Modello, The Five Star Toy Company

  That was weird. It sure seemed like Mr. Hammersmith could be guilty, the way he was sweating and acting all nervous. But this letter proved that Mr. Hammersmith had the idea before Leo. Which meant we were back to square one. We had no suspects. We had no motives. And worst of all, I had no best friend.

  Elizabeth looked more closely at the letter. Suddenly, she gasped.

  “This letter is a fake!” she said. “And I can prove it.”

  Chapter 14

  “You can’t prove anything,” Mr. Hammersmith said.

  Elizabeth ignored him. “Jack, look at the date on this letter. Do you see anything weird about it?”

  “‘November thirty-first …’” I read out loud.

  “Exactly,” Elizabeth said. “Remember the poem, Jack? ‘Thirty days has September …’ ”

  “ ‘April, June, and November’!” I shouted. “There is no November thirty-first!”

  “You were in a hurry when you printed out this letter back there, Mr. Hammersmith,” Elizabeth told him. “You made a big mistake. A mistake no toy company executive would make on an official letter.”

  Mr. Hammersmith glared at us. More sweat dripped off his nose onto the floor. But this time it only landed on a box of nails.

  Elizabeth wasn’t giving in. “Hand over those plans,” she demanded.

  “Why should I?” Mr. Hammersmith said.

  I was wondering the same thing. How were two kids going to get a grown-up to hand over anything?

  “Because if you don’t, we’ll tell every kid in school what you did,” Elizabeth answered. “And they’ll tell their parents. Your business will be in big trouble.”

  Man, she was smart. I never would have thought of that.

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he said. But he sounded like maybe he thought we would.

  “Wouldn’t we?” Elizabeth asked him.

  Mr. Hammersmith looked from Elizabeth to me and back again. He was scared. Of us! Two third graders had just scared a grown-up. How cool was that?

  “Fine,” he said finally. “If I give you the plans, will you keep this a secret?”

  “As long as you don’t try to sell that robot anywhere,” Elizabeth told him.

  “Darn kids,” Mr. Hammersmith muttered under his breath as he pulled the plans out of a drawer and handed them to Elizabeth.

  Then he gave her a really, really mean look. Worse than any look I’d ever seen. Even Trevor had never looked that mean.

  But Elizabeth just smiled and walked out of the store, with the plans in her hands.

  Wow! Elizabeth was really keeping her cool.

  Me? I was shaking in my sneakers. Any minute now I thought I might puke. But I held it back. I was pretty sure puking on the sidewalk wasn’t something real detectives did.

  My heart didn’t stop pounding until I was three blocks away. I couldn’t believe what had just happened.

  “We did it!” I shouted.

  “What did you do?” asked a squeaky voice. I looked up and saw Zippy and Zappy looking down at me from a tree branch.

  “Not you again,” I groaned.

  “Who are you talking to?” Elizabeth looked up. “Oh. Those two cute little squirrels.”

  “They’re not cute,” I told her. “They’re mean. They call me Big Head.”

  Elizabeth laughed.

  “It’s not funny,” I told her.

  “Ready. Aim. FIRE!” the squirrels squeaked.

  “Let’s get out of here!” I shouted.

  Acorns blasted out of the tree. Elizabeth and I scrambled to get away.

  “Wow! It’s a good thing they didn’t have anything bigger to throw at us,” Elizabeth said. “Imagine if they were bouncing baseballs against our heads instead of acorns.”

  Bouncing balls.

  Wow. Suddenly, I had a great idea. I knew exactly what I was going to do for the science fair.

  “Thanks, you guys!” I called back to Zippy and Zappy. “You just solved my other problem.”

  “What problem?” Elizabeth asked me.

  “My science project,” I said. “I’m going to test what makes balls bounce. Like, do hard rubber balls bounce higher than soft ones?”

  “And what about if a ball is frozen?” Elizabeth asked me. “Or hot? How will that make it bounce? And what about the size? And …”

  Elizabeth was really getting into this. She even sounded impressed. Wow. I’d come up with a science project that the Brainiac liked. And I’d come up with it all by myself.

  Boing. Another acorn whacked me in the head.

  “Heads up!” Zappy shouted.

  Okay, almost all by myself.

  Still, I was pretty proud. Proud enough to feel like I deserved a double dip of choc
olate chunk ice cream in a waffle cone. Which I would definitely get for myself—as soon as I was brave enough to go back to Pig Path Road. But that wasn’t going to happen today. Even the thought of a double dip cone wasn’t enough to make me want to risk seeing Mr. Hammersmith again so soon.

  Chapter 15

  “Apologize to Scout,” I told Leo, when Elizabeth, Scout, and I brought his robot plans to his house.

  “Why?” Leo asked. “It’s not like he’s going to understand me.”

  “He’ll know you’re saying something nice from your tone,” Elizabeth said. Then she winked at me. Oh man. Why did she have to do that in front of Leo?

  Luckily Leo didn’t notice. He was too busy apologizing to Scout.

  “Sorry, Scout.”

  Scout gave Leo a big, soggy dog lick on the nose.

  “Yuck!” Leo said. “His breath smells gross.”

  “Not to other dogs,” I told him.

  “There’s one thing I don’t get,” Leo said. “How did you two wind up doing this together?”

  Uh-oh. Was Elizabeth going to spill my secret?

  “Jack and I both like solving mysteries,” she said.

  Phew. Luckily, the Brainiac is good at keeping secrets.

  She was also right about how we liked solving mysteries. Sure, the Brainiac was annoying, and it had definitely been scary talking to Mr. Hammersmith, but it had been exciting, too.

  “We’re in the detective business,” I told Leo.

  “You did a good job,” Leo admitted. “But I still don’t know how Mr. Hammersmith stole the plans without me noticing.”

  “Your hands were full of the supplies,” I explained. “Mr. Hammersmith pretended to be slipping the instructions into your backpack. But he just gave you the receipt. You couldn’t tell because you were wearing your backpack behind you.” I smiled proudly. I’d figured out that part all by myself.

  “I still can’t believe Mr. Hammersmith stole my plans,” Leo said.

  Elizabeth shrugged. “That’s the thing about mysteries. Sometimes the person who did it is the one you least expect.”