Judy Moody, Girl Detective (6 page)

“What’re you doing to Officer Kopp’s flyers?” Stink asked.

“Fixing them,” said Judy, coloring in blue eyes on the picture of Mr. Chips.

Stink tilted his head, reading upside down. He was trying to figure out the words Judy had just added. “‘Have you seen this goo?’”

“‘Have you seen this
dog
.’”

“Oh. Your
D
looks like an
O.
”

“Stink, a good detective can read backward and upside down.” Judy colored in a black letter
R.

“‘Drawer’?”
Stink asked, squinching up his face.

“‘Reward’!”
said Judy. “We have to offer big bucks so that anyone who has seen Mr. Chips or has any information on his whereabouts will call the police. Rule Number One of being a good detective is don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

“You mean Rule Number
One Gazillion
!” said Stink. “So, whoever finds Mr. Chips gets a reward, not a drawer?”

“Yep.”

“So if I find him,” Stink asked, “I get the money?”

Judy ignored him. She wrote in $23.80.

“Whoa,” said Stink. “Twenty-three dollars and eighty cents. That’s a lot of money. How’d you come up with $23.80?”

“That’s all you had in your piggy bank, Stink.”

“You broke my bank?” Stink ran into his room and grabbed his piggy bank. “That’s weird. My bank’s not broken. . . . And the lock is still on,” said Stink. He put the piggy bank up to his ear and shook it. Empty.

“The Mystery of the Missing Money,” said Judy.

“You picked the lock! With one of those Nancy Drew bobby pin thingies.”

“You can’t prove it, Stink.”

“No fair! You can’t just keep taking my stuff. First it was my president dollars, then my dino-bug pins. Now this. That’s called stealing. It makes you just as bad as Snarky, Snuffy, and Stingy — those Nancy Drew bad guys.”

“For your information, it’s Snorky, Sniggs, and Stumpy.”

“Whatever. It’s still my money.”

“Well, you stole a whole bag of my gummy mice. Just think, Stink. If you find Mr. Chips, you can win back your money.”

“But that money’s already mine! I shouldn’t have to win it back.”

“It’s for a good cause,” Judy reminded him. “If you ask me, that lock was just asking to be picked.”

“Give it!” said Stink, holding out his hand.

“ROAR,” said Judy, handing over the money. Now she had to think of something else to offer as a reward. Something good. Something anybody would want a whole big bunch. She looked around her room at her collections. At last she had an idea.

Before you could say
Sign of the Twisted Candles,
Judy and Stink, with tires full of air, were speeding on their way to Speedy Market to hang up flyers. Judy’s old turquoise bike wasn’t
exactly
a Nancy Drew blue roadster convertible. But the wind did whip her messy hair around, and the October sun warmed her cheeks.

Judy and Stink met Rocky and Frank outside the market.

“We already hit Fur and Fangs and Screamin’ Mimi’s,” said Frank.

“And the bakery, the bowling alley, and the birthday party store,” said Rocky.

“Rare!” said Judy.

Inside Speedy Market, tons of people and a reporter and lights and cameras were crowded around, and the store manager was talking to some cop. Not just any cop.
Of
f
icer
Kopp!

“I’m not kidding ya,” Mr. Keene, the manager, told Officer Kopp. “That little guy headed straight for the pet food aisle like nobody’s business. Crazy pup grabbed a bone worth $2.79. I yelled, ‘Drop it!’ Did he drop it? No, sirree. He ran right out the front door before anybody could catch him.”

“Sorry about the bone, Mike,” said Officer Kopp. “I’ll pay you back.”

“That’s one smart pup. How he knew which aisle had the dog treats . . .”

“Is that all the suspect seems to have taken?” asked a lady reporter.

“Suspect? He’s a dog, for crying out loud,” said Mr. Keene.

“Did you get a look at the shoplifter?”

“Yeah,” said Mr. Keene. “Brown and hairy.” He turned to Officer Kopp. “I guess you could say instead of taking a bite
out of
crime, he took a bite
into
crime.” When he laughed, his round belly shook where his shirt had popped a button.

The reporter turned to the camera and spoke into her puffy microphone. “A thief remains at large after a daring heist in the pet food aisle of the local Speedy Market,” she said. “You might say the four-legged man’s best friend was too
speedy
for this market manager.” She fake-smiled at the camera. “Cut!”

Judy followed Officer Kopp out of the store. “Do they think it was Mr. Chips?” she asked.

“All anybody saw was a streak of brown and a tail, but it must have been him. Keep looking!” Officer Kopp called as he hopped into his black-and-white and headed out of the parking lot, lights flashing.

Judy and her best chums (the Nancy Drew word for friends) searched all over the parking lot of Speedy Market — under cars, behind a tree, in the Dumpster. They asked every shopper they saw, “Did you happen to see a little brown puppy with big paws?” But the answer was always no. Until . . . a lady with funny glasses pointed to the back corner of the parking lot. “Those guys in that van had a dog.”

“Where? What van?” asked Judy, snapping her head around.

“Was he brown?”

“Was he cute?”

“Was he Mr. Chips?”

Just then, a dark green van peeled out, tearing through the parking lot, tires squealing. Judy and her friends jumped out of the way. The van swerved out of the parking lot without stopping. “Stop! Thief!” Judy yelled, but the van sped off down the street before she could make out the letters on the license plate.

“Did you see that? It’s gotta be them — the bad-guy dognappers!” Judy was breathing fast and pointing down the street. “This is SO just like Nancy Drew mystery #1,
The Secret of the Old Clock.
”

“How is this like some old clock?” Rocky asked.

“C’mon, guys. You read the book.”

“No, we didn’t,” all three boys said at the same time.

“First of all, there’s a dark van. Second of all, there’s this girl named Judy. She’s trying to cross the street and she almost gets hit by a moving van and she falls off a bridge and Nancy Drew has to rescue her and it turns out the bad-guy jewel thieves stole an old clock and stuff.”

“I thought you said the jewel thieves were in
The Mystery of the Brass Bound Trunk
,” said Stink.

“And
The Mystery at Lilac Inn
and
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
and —”

“Wow, Nancy Drew must have more jewels than the queen of England!”

“She doesn’t get to keep them, Stink.” Judy took out her notebook. “So, did anybody see anything? Like a license plate?”

“The first three letters were K-G-B,” said Rocky.

“K-F-C,” said Frank.

“K-L-F,” said Stink. “Or E-L-F.”

“Great,” said Judy, putting her pencil behind her ear. “So we know who took Mr. Chips. Some secret bad guys who eat chicken and look like elves.”

“I think the one guy did have pointy ears,” said Stink.

“ROAR,”
said Judy. “What about the van? Did it say anything on it?”

“Flush ’n’ Flo?” said Stink.

“Push and Go,” said Rocky.

“Flash and Glo,” said Frank.

“Toilet emergency!” said Stink.

“Stink, not now.”

“It had the words
Toilet Emergency
on the side. I saw. For real. No lie.”

“Stink’s right,” said Frank.

Judy chewed on the end of her pencil. “Toilet emergency. Flush ’n’ Flo. So they must be like those guys that fix toilets and stuff. RARE!”

“The super-bad guys are plumbers?” Frank asked.

“That’s just their cover,” Judy explained. “Everybody knows that international jewel thieves can’t ride around in a van that says
Jewel Thieves.
”

“The phone number was like 1-800-UN-DOG,” said Rocky.

“‘UN-DOG’?” said Judy. “Are you sure it didn’t say ‘UN-
CLOG
’?”

“1-800-UNDER-DOG!” said Stink.

“Great,” said Judy. “Let’s all take an Underdog Super Energy Pill and find a phone booth and change into superheroes. Then we’ll find Mr. Chips.”

“Hip, hip, hip, and away we go!” yelled Stink.

“I know,” said Frank. “Let’s stake out the supermarket till they come back.”

“Yeah, we know Mr. Chips is hungry, right?”

“Yeah, ’cause why else would a cop dog steal a dog bone?” Frank said.

“I can’t believe Mr. Chips is a shoplifter,” said Rocky.

“I don’t think Mr. Chips is the thief,” said Judy. “I bet these guys are so bad, they’re not even feeding him, so poor Mr. Chips has to steal his own food!”

“He’s still gonna have to arrest himself for breaking the law.” Frank cracked himself up. Rocky and Stink cracked up, too.

“This isn’t helping us find Mr. Chips,” said Judy.

“Rule Number One,” said Stink. “A good detective always keeps a sense of humor.”