Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers (2 page)

“They do?” said Chief Brown.

“See for yourself,” Encyclopedia urged.

Chief Brown studied the four words—
Nom Utes Sweden Hurts
. He shook his head and passed the notebook to Mrs. Brown again. “Can you figure it out?”

“Nom
is a shortening of
nominative
, a grammatical term,” stated Mrs. Brown, who had taught English and other subjects in high school.
“Utes
are an American Indian tribe. Sweden is a country in northern Europe.
Hurts
is ‘hurts.’ ”

She lifted her gaze to Encyclopedia and shook her head.

“I can’t figure it out,” she confessed.

“Davenport disappeared right after the holdup,” Encyclopedia reminded her. “As Dad said, Davenport and Nolan must have hidden the stolen jewelry. Probably not more than a week or so ago, Nolan changed the hiding place.”

“You think that he tried to tell Davenport by phone and failed to reach him?” Mrs. Brown asked. “So he wrote the four words as he was dying?”

Chief Brown nodded. “We’ll find Davenport
now that we know his address.”

“He’ll learn he has been left the palm-tree nursery,” Mrs. Brown said. “And the four words will tell him where the jewelry is hidden!”

“Right,” Encyclopedia said. “The code is simple, especially as it’s written on a sheet from a calendar. Davenport will understand it easily. Still, it wouldn’t make much sense to someone who isn’t looking for a hiding place.”

“Leroy!” Mrs. Brown exclaimed. “What do the four words mean?”

“You already guessed, Mom. They tell where the jewelry is hidden.”

Mrs. Brown looked ready to explode with impatience.
“Where?”

Encyclopedia smiled.

“Why, under the fifth word,” he said.

WHAT WAS THE FIFTH WORD?

(Turn to
this page
for the solution to The Case of the Fifth Word.)

E
ncyclopedia helped his father solve mysteries year-round. During the summer, he helped the children of the neighborhood as well.

When school let out, he opened his own detective agency in the family garage. Every morning he hung out his sign:

The first customer Monday morning was Becky Regan. Becky was only nine, but already she was collecting chinaware for her future house.

“What does
etiquette
mean?” she asked.

“Simply put, it means having good manners,” Encyclopedia answered.

“I’d rather have my cup,” Becky said. “Bugs Meany took it.”

“Uh-oh,” Encyclopedia murmured. “Bugs, Bugs.”

Bugs Meany was the leader of a gang of tough older boys. They called themselves the Tigers. They should have called themselves the Steel Clocks. They were always giving some little kid a hard time.

“Are you sure it was Bugs?” Encyclopedia asked.

“Of course I am,” Becky said. “How could I be mistaken? Bugs looks so much like himself.”

Encyclopedia needed a second to shake that one off.

Becky said, “I’d just bought the cup at the flea market. Bugs stopped me on my way home and faked me out.”

She explained. At first Bugs had laughed and said he’d get her a violin to go with the cup. When Becky told him the cup might be valuable, he stopped laughing.

“Bugs talked me into trading the cup for his crash course in etiquette,” Becky said. “He claimed that in a week I’d know how to use forty-three different pieces of silverware.”

“When did Bugs learn to count to forty-three?” Encyclopedia said. “Besides, he wouldn’t know a fish fork from a lobster dancing.”

Becky nodded ruefully. “I’ve been thinking the same thing.”

She laid a quarter on the gas can beside Encyclopedia. “I want to hire you. Get back my cup.”

“The first step,” Encyclopedia said, “is to go and see Bugs.”

“You go,” Becky said. “Bugs might get mad and use me for a door knocker. That’s too much exercise for a small person like me.”

It took some doing, but Encyclopedia got Becky to go along. She had to identify the cup.

The Tigers’ clubhouse was an unused toolshed behind Mr. Sweeney’s Auto Body Shop. Bugs was alone. On an orange crate next to him was a white cup.

“Th-There it is,” Becky said.

Bugs growled, “Make like the Wright brothers and take off.”

“Maybe we should let sleeping bugs lie,” Becky whispered nervously. “I only paid twenty cents for the cup.”

“Stay close,” Encyclopedia whispered back. “I’ve dealt with Bugs before.”

To the Tigers’ leader he said, “I heard about your course in etiquette.”

Bugs sighed. “How rumors do get around! So many people have inquired about the course that I’m thinking of starting one. With us Tigers as teachers, the return of good manners to America would no longer be in doubt.”

He picked up the white cup by the handle and daintily curled his little finger.

“I’d teach you how to take tea with the President,” he said, glancing at Becky. “You’d be in demand everywhere.”

“Spare me the society news,” Becky retorted, moving quickly behind Encyclopedia.
“You fooled me with your phony course in etiquette. Hand over my cup!”

“What cup?” Bugs said.

“The one you’re holding,” Becky cried.

Bugs’s nose went up as if seeking fresh air. “I’m afraid you’re quite mistaken, miss. This is
my
cup.”

“You’re lying!” Becky screamed.

Bugs looked pained. “My dear young lady, you are clearly in need of instruction. Never say, ‘You’re lying!’ Practice etiquette. Be polite.”

Before Becky could say anything at all, Encyclopedia stepped in.

“Where did you get the cup, Bugs?” he said.

“From Fu Chee,” Bugs replied.

“Who is he?” Becky snapped.

“Fu Chee owned the Chinese restaurant on Fullerton Avenue,” Bugs answered.

“The restaurant closed down last year,” Encyclopedia said. “It’s now a doughnut shop.”

“True,” Bugs said sadly. “This was Fu Chee’s own teacup. He gave it to me when I ate at his restaurant the day before it closed.
I was the only customer ever to finish his shrimp in lobster sauce without taking some home in a doggy bag. He said he’d never forget me.”

“Encyclopedia, question Fu Chee,” Becky urged.

“You better have the plane fare,” Bugs warned. “He moved to Utah.”

Becky kicked the ground. “With Fu Chee gone, I can’t prove I’m telling the truth,” she whispered to Encyclopedia. “Darn it! Bugs outsmarted us.”

“Bugs outsmarted himself,” Encyclopedia corrected. “Fu Chee didn’t give him the cup.”

HOW DID ENCYCLOPEDIA KNOW?

(Turn to
this page
for the solution to The Case of the Teacup.)

B
ugs Meany had one goal in life. It was to get even with Encyclopedia Brown.

Bugs hated being outsmarted all the time. He dreamed of pounding Encyclopedia like a fence post, after which the detective could wear his socks as earmuffs.

Bugs never used muscle, however. Whenever he was tempted, he remembered Sally Kimball, Encyclopedia’s junior partner in the detective agency.

Not only was Sally the prettiest girl in fifth
grade, she could do what no kid thought possible—blister Bugs’s bluster.

Whenever they fought, Bugs ended up on his back, panting like a hot chicken.

“Bugs claims you always hit him first, when he isn’t looking,” Encyclopedia said with a grin. “You never give him a chance to warm up his fighting blood.”

“He doesn’t need to warm up,” Sally replied. “He’s got permanent sunstroke.”

“Bugs hates you as much as he hates me,” warned Encyclopedia. “He’ll get even any way he can. You know his favorite saying.”

“ ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try something sneaky,’ ” Sally said. She jabbed the air—
pow, pow, pow
. “Let him try, the big ape!”

Her eyes widened. Bugs Meany had stepped into the Brown Detective Agency.

“Why not bury the hatchet?” he purred.

He laid a dollar bill beside Encyclopedia and didn’t ask for change.

“Be at my house tonight at eight o’clock sharp,” he said. “I’ll leave the front door unlocked and the lights off so you won’t be seen. Wait for me in the living room.”

The detectives were speechless.

Bugs glanced around quickly.

“Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone,” he cautioned. “It’s top secret. The safety of Idaville may depend on you.”

Encyclopedia started to say no thanks. But Sally was already on her feet.

“We’ll take the case,” she agreed.

“How come?” Encyclopedia asked after Bugs had left.

“Bugs is up to something, and I want to know what,” Sally declared.

Encyclopedia was still uneasy at eight o’clock. Bugs’s house was silent and dark.

The detectives slipped through the front door and turned into the living room. The shades were drawn. Encyclopedia could see less than a yard ahead of him.

Suddenly, things happened.

First, a crash sounded in the living room near Encyclopedia. Then footsteps thumped on the stairs.

The lights flashed on. Officer Friedman stood in the doorway with his hand on the switch.

“Bugs, are you okay?” he called.

Bugs groaned. He was lying facedown among pieces of a broken yellow vase. The pieces were scattered over the floor from his head to his feet.

The neck of the vase, wrapped in a rag, lay on his right. Near it was a hard hat.

Bugs staggered up, holding the back of his head. “There are your burglars!” he cried. “Read ’em their rights!”

“Make sense, Bugs,” Encyclopedia demanded.

“Bugs told me his house has been robbed twice in the past month,” Officer Friedman said. “The robbers took stuff children might steal.”

“Yesterday I heard these two talking in the Brown garage,” Bugs said. “Ms. Muscles was saying, ‘His folks are out of town, and Bugs stays at the Tigers’ clubhouse until nine. We can clean out the place in an hour.’ ”

“When Bugs told me what he had overheard,” Officer Friedman said, “I decided to hide upstairs.”

“Bugs hired us to come here!” Sally protested.

“One of them must have sneaked up behind me and hit me on the back of the head with the vase,” Bugs said. “Thank heaven my hard hat cushioned the blow.”

“Do you often wear a hat indoors?” Officer Friedman inquired.

“It’s my thinking hat,” Bugs said. “I wear it at night, when I think my hardest.”

Sally exploded. “What can you think about besides a bagel? Your brain is made of cream cheese.”

Bugs put his hands in his pockets as if searching for a reply.

His eyes lit up. “I was figuring out why a stomach doesn’t digest itself. When I come up with the reason, the President will probably name a park after me.”

“If anything is named after you,” Sally retorted, “it will be a waste site.”

She turned to Officer Friedman. “Dust the vase for fingerprints.”

The policeman shook his head. “There won’t be fingerprints. That’s why the rag is wrapped around the neck of the vase. It’s where it was held.”

“Can’t you see Bugs is trying to frame us?” Sally exclaimed.