Alligator Action (2 page)

“Eerrrm,” Danny said. “Well . . . it's kind of secret!”

“Is this a prank call?”

“NO! It's just that . . . she's a genius scientist who can S.W.I.T.C.H. humans into spiders and frogs and snakes, and we're her assistants, and we have to keep it secret . . . and . . .”

“Young man, prank calls put other people's
lives at risk! If we hear from this number again, there will be trouble. I'm hanging up now.”

CLICK. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

“That went well, then,” Josh said, who had heard it all on speakerphone. “I told you it'd be no good! Nobody is going to believe us!”

Danny slumped down in the hallway and hung up the phone with a sigh. Josh was right. How could they ever explain what was really happening? Nobody would believe the truth—that their next-door neighbor was not just a slightly dotty old lady but, in fact, a genius scientist who had developed an amazing S.W.I.T.C.H. spray that could turn people into creepy-crawlies and amphibians and reptiles. He and Josh knew it was true—because they
were
the people Petty had S.W.I.T.C.H.ed. More times than they could count.

“Come on,” Josh said, peering at the computer print-out in his hand. “Let's go down to the den. We need to think.”

They walked out to the garden and found their way into the rhododendron bush. Piddle, their pet terrier, ran in behind them and sat between Josh
and Danny, wagging his tail energetically, hoping for a ball game.

Danny took the computer printout from his brother and anxiously scratched his spiky blond hair as he read Petty Potts's last diary entry.

When it looked as if Petty still hadn't come back to her house after three days in a row, he and Josh had gotten so worried that they'd gone to check in the parking lot at Princessland—the girls' toys and frocks superstore over which Petty rented an attic—the location of her new secret laboratory. They had spotted Petty's old station wagon there. So they'd crept through Princessland
to the lobby at the back and used the only S.W.I.T.C.H. spray they had—GeckoSWITCH. They had shrunk down to agile lizards and crawled through a gap under the locked door that led to Petty's lab.

In the lab, as soon as they'd S.W.I.T.C.H.ed back to boys again, they could see signs of a struggle . . . and Petty's diary entry still on her computer! She had been speaking her diary into a microphone—using a special program to convert her voice into words on-screen. It was the very last bit which had horrified Josh and Danny.

. . . my S.W.I.T.C.H. formula saved a life today! Josh, Danny, and Charlie ended up .W.I.T.C.H.ing into green anacondas to rescue one of the girls from Charlie's school after she fell into the river.

But all of this pales into insignificance against more Mystery Marble Sender news. We found another marble at the zoo! And there's something about Mystery Marble Sender's note . . . the list of shopping errands on
the end . . . that has tickled my memory. The yellow jacket—it's something to do with a yellow jacket. And warts. . . I can almost see someone wearing a yellow jacket and tackling their fungal feet . . . but who? Is it my destiny to find out?

Hmmm . . . destiny . . . Wait. Shhhh! What was that?

Who's there? Josh? Danny?

What?! Hey! What do you think you're—

NO! DOOF! GAH!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

CRSSHHSZZZZ—kesheeek—ssheeeeek—sheeeek.

Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
sssssssssssss

“What does ‘CRSSHHSZZZZ—kesheeek—ssheeeeek—sheeeek' mean?” Danny murmured.

“Nothing good,” Josh said.

“Maybe we should just tell Mom and Dad everything when they get back from shopping,” sighed Danny.

“But they'll never believe us, either!” Josh said.

“Not all the stuff about her S.W.I.T.C.H.ing us into spiders and frogs and snakes and stuff. Just that we think she's in trouble,” Danny said.

“And then what?” Josh asked. “They'll call the police who will break into her house—
boom
—
crash
—
fizz
—mangled people! If only Petty wasn't so paranoid about people being out to get her!”

“Yeah,” Danny said. “But it looks like someone
did
get her.”

Josh and Danny frowned at each other over Piddle's head. They were thinking of the same thing. The Mystery Marble Sender. The person who had been messing with their minds for weeks now, sending clues to get them to find marbles . . . but not just any marbles.

“We knew something
big
was going to happen next, after we got that fifth marble,” Josh said. “We knew there was only one more to go. And that the Mystery Marble Sender would soon do
something. Because there was no way he was just giving us clues to find all the marbles, with the secret code to MAMMALSWITCH formula, free. He wants something. And I think it's Petty—or what's in Petty's genius head.”

“Well, if she's been kidnapped,” Danny said, “I think
we
might get the ransom note. Probably quite soon . . . I mean, there's nobody else to send it to, is there? She's got no family.”

Piddle suddenly got up and tore out of the den, yapping loudly. He ran down the side passage and around to the front of the house. This usually meant somebody was coming in through the gate. Josh and Danny, still worried and gloomy, scrambled out of the bush and went down the side passage to see who was there.

They saw nobody at the gate or the front door—or anywhere around the garden. But Piddle was still flinging himself against the garden wall. Mom and Dad had arrived, though. Dad was in the kitchen, sorting out the groceries, and Mom was watching Chatz TV. The sound of the show drifted through the front room window. Mom and Jenny liked to watch it most afternoons, although Josh and Danny couldn't imagine why. It was mostly people shouting angrily at each other in front of a studio audience. Still, Mom was watching it now and obviously hadn't been interrupted by anyone at the door.

“Shut up, Piddle!” Danny called, and the little dog gave one last disgruntled
wuff
and then ran back down the side passage. Josh stood very still. Across the low wall, he could just make out somebody standing silently on Petty's front step.

“Come on,” he said, grabbing Danny's arm and leading him round to Petty's. A dark-haired young woman in a grey suit stood with her back to the door, holding a briefcase. She clearly did not expect anyone to open the door. She smiled tightly at
them as they walked up the path.

“You must be Josh and Danny Phillips,” she said. “I've been waiting for you.”

The young woman opened her case and took out a brown envelope. “I am Petty Potts's lawyer,” she said, in a businesslike voice. “And it is incumbent upon me to place this directly into your hands herewith.”

“You what?” Danny said.

The lawyer sighed and checked her watch. “It was my client's instruction that nobody else should see this,” she said, waving the brown envelope, “and that it should be handed directly to you two and nobody else. That's why I've had to stand around in this doorway waiting for you to come along.”

“It's a letter for us?” Danny queried.

“The clue is on the envelope!” snapped the lawyer.

“No need to be snarky,” Josh said, taking it from her. “When did Petty ask you to give us this?”

“She didn't ask me,” the lawyer said, closing her case with a click. “She left me instructions many weeks ago to deliver this to you two if she ever failed to call me and check in. Most weeks she makes a phone call on a certain day and gives me a code word, so I know all is well. If she doesn't make that call, I have to wait forty-eight hours . . . and then deliver this to you. Well . . . she hasn't called, it's been forty-eight hours . . . and here I am. Now, if you don't mind, I must be on my way to another client. Good-bye.” Her heels clicked away down the sidewalk, and then she was out of sight.