Judy Moody, Girl Detective (9 page)

Judy was miles away when she heard Jessica Finch bark from across the table, “Hey, my lunch! Somebody . . . Judy Moody stole my lunch for real this time!”

“Me too!” said Matthew.

“Me three!” said Jordan. The whole third-grade lunch table stared at Judy with googly eyes.

Judy popped up out of her chair and peered into Jessica’s pink piggy lunch box. “Was it a baloney sandwich?” she asked.

“Fail. Guess again,” said Jessica.

“Did you have a baloney sandwich?” Judy asked Matthew.

“Nope.”

“Did you have a baloney sandwich?” Judy asked Jordan.

Jordan shook her head
no.
“But somebody spilled my salad all over.”

“Somebody smushed my hummus sandwich,” said Matthew.

“And somebody spilled all the apples out of my Apple Curry Turkey Pita!” Jessica Finch squeaked.

“What are you guys? The Health-Nut Lunch Club or something?”

Jessica looked at Matthew and Jordan. “We’re the Tofu Triplets.” Jessica was so not kidding. Judy laughed, and milk sprayed out her nose.

“We bring healthy stuff for our lunches and share. Today I brought an organic chocolate-chip cookie for everybody,” said Jessica. “And now mine is G-O-N-E, gone! All that’s left are a few lousy crumbs.”

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” Judy teased.

“Mine’s gone, too,” said Matthew.

“Me three,” said Jordan.

“And we know who stole them.” All three of the Tofu Triplets pointed at Judy Moody. “Give us back our cookies, you crummy cookie crook!”

“Crumbs to that. Why would I steal a chocolate-chip cookie when I have my own right he —” She lifted up her sandwich. She searched under her napkin. “Aye-crumba! Somebody stole
my
cookie, too.” Something strange was going on at Virginia Dare School. And getting stranger by the minute.

“Jessica, did you have your lunch box with you at all times today?”

“Some detective,” said Jessica. “Mr. Todd told us to drop our lunches out here before going to the library, remember? Anybody could have gotten into them.”

“I bet it was a fifth-grader,” said Jordan.

Wait just a Nancy Drew minute. Was the green van back at school again? Were the bad guys training Mr. Chips to steal chocolate-chip cookies now? But why? Maybe the cookies were just practice. Part of Mr. Chips’s training. Today they were teaching him to sniff out chocolate-chip cookies. Tomorrow — diamonds and jewels and stuff?

Nancy Drew was always vexed by her cases. Judy Moody was vexed
and
perplexed. Which was just a fancy-Nancy way of saying
stumped
.

Or was she?

“Jeepers! I think I’ve got it!” Judy cried. All she needed now was one more clue. One more piece to solve the puzzle and crack this case wide open. And that clue could only come from one person — mailman Jack Frost.

The rest of the day, Judy Moody was on double-triple pins and needles. As soon as the bus dropped her off, she raced down the street to find Jack Frost.

“Hi, Jack Frost!” Judy called.

“So we’re friends again?” Jack Frost teased.

“Chums,” said Judy, nodding. “One question.”

“Shoot,” said Jack Frost.

“Okay, think back to yesterday. Was there anything else, anything in your lunch besides a baloney sandwich?” Judy had her pad and pencil ready.

Jack Frost scratched his head. Jack Frost stroked his beard. “Well, let’s see. There was a carrot . . .”

“Uh-huh, uh-huh. What else? What else?”

“A box of raisins . . .”

“AND?”

“Oh, yes. A super-scrumptious, ooey-gooey chocolate-chip cookie. I had my heart set on it, but all that was left were crumbs.”

“Holy jeepers!” Judy screeched. At last, she, Judy Moody, had a break in the case. She knew just how Nancy Drew felt when she cracked the secret code, “Blue bells will be singing horses,” in
The Password to Larkspur Lane.

Judy raced home to bake cookies. Before you could say I-spy-with-my-eagle-eye, flour was flying and butter was becoming batter.

“Do I smell chocolate-chip cookie dough?” Stink asked, peering into the bowl. “Sweet! Can I help?”

“Yeah, you can help by not eating all the chocolate chips. These are super-important detective cookies. Find-Mr.-Chips cookies. Crack-the-case cookies.”

When the cookie sheets were full, Mom put the cookies in the oven for them. “Stink, we’re ready for Phase One. Go get the fan.”

“The fan? What for?”

“We’re going to set a trap. Since we can’t seem to get to Mr. Chips, we’ll get him to come to us. With chocolate-chip cookies. Chocolate-chip cookies are the key to this case.”

“You mean we’ll blow the cookie smell outside, and Mr. Chips Super-Sniffer will sniff out the cookies and break free and come running?”

“Right into our arms,” said Judy.

“Then the bad guys will come running after Mr. Chips to catch him?”

“Right into Officer Kopp’s arms,” said Judy.

“Genius!” Stink said. Stink turned on the fan.

In no time, Judy and Stink heard a noise outside. They went running to the front door. It was Rocky and Frank.

“We thought you were Mr. Chips!” said Judy. She explained her Master Catch-a-Thief Cookie Plan.

“How do you know it’ll work?” asked Rocky.

“It worked on you, didn’t it?” Judy said with a grin. “Time to call 1-800-MR-CHIPS and tell Officer Kopp to come quick if he wants to catch some bad guys.”

“And tell him to bring backup,” said Agent Pearl. “Just in case.”

Phase Two: Judy piled a mountain of hot-out-of-the-oven cookies on a plate. Rocky and Frank took some and made a trail of cookie crumbs leading down the sidewalk, around the corner, across the driveway, and right up to the tent.

“If we don’t catch Mr. Chips, at least we’ll catch a bunch of ants,” said Stink. Stink always had ant farms on the brain.

“Stink, we’ll hide in the tent with the rest of the cookies and wait for Mr. Chips. You take Frank’s walkie-talkie and hide in the bushes out front. If you see the green van, call us and say ‘Chips ahoy!’ That’s the secret code.”

“Cool beans,” said Stink. “Wait a sec. No fair. How come you guys get to be in the tent with cookies, and I have to be in the bushes all by myself without cookies?”

Judy held up the other walkie-talkie. “You can talkie to us any time you feel lonely.”

Stink grabbed two cookies.

“Hey!” Judy barked. “Give those back.”

“Rule Number One: Never solve a crime on an empty stomach.”

The Master Catch-a-Thief Cookie Trap was set. Now all they had to do was wait.

“Breaker, breaker, this is Adam-12,” said Stink. “Do you copy me? We got a possible Beetle Bailey.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a green VW Bug,” said Stink.

“A Bug is not a van, Stink.”

They watched and waited, waited and watched some more.

“Breaker, breaker,” said Stink. “Come in, breaker. You read me?”

“Roger that,” said Judy.

“Rocky’s mom is taking out the garbage. Over.”

“Oops, I was supposed to do that,” said Rocky.

“We’ve got an
S
-as-in-
Saturn,
Q
-as-in-
quark,
U
-as-in-
underwear, I
-as-in-
I-Don’t-Know, R
-as-in-
rock, E
-as-in-
Easter-Bunny, L
-as-in-
loser.
”

“A what?” Frank asked Judy.

“S-Q-U-I-R-E-L. I think he might mean
squirrel.
Learn to spell, Stink.”

They waited some more.

“Beetle Bailey still parked. Cat burglar on a fence. Over,” said Stink.

“Repeat. Did you say burglar?”

“It’s just a cat.”

“No green van?”

“Negatory on the van. Just a crow picking at some leftover road pizza.”

“So we just sit here?” asked Frank.

“My butt’s asleep,” said Rocky.

“Stakeouts are boring,” Stink said over the walkie-talkie.

“NOT,” said Judy. “This is as exciting as one time in
The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion
when Nancy Drew chased a wild leopard and trapped him in the garage with a calm-down pill hidden inside a piece of meat.”

“Chips ahoy! Chips ahoy!” crackled Stink. “Movement in bushes across the street. I think I see something furry.”

Judy sat up, on alert. Frank and Rocky peered out the tent flap.

“Negatory. Scratch that. Just the cat burglar again.”

Still more waiting.

“Chips ahoy!” Stink called again. “Got your ears on? I think I see a tail.”

“A doggy tail?”

“False alarm. Just the
S
-as-in-
Saturn. Q
-as-in —”