The Girls Take Over (15 page)

It was raining so hard that Caroline felt like a duck. Everything squished—her socks, her shoes, her boots, the rubberized sleeves of her raincoat. She almost felt as though, if she flapped her arms, she would quack.

As they walked the two blocks to the school, however, the rain began to slack off, and by the time they got there, it had stopped entirely. Still, their effort was hardly worth it, for just as Wally had said, they noticed a policeman sitting in a squad car at the edge of the playground, watching the building. One outdoor light shone above the front entrance. There was a big sign at the bottom of the ladder to the roof saying KEEP OFF and a banner waving from the rooftop that read YES, THE PRINCIPAL IS HERE. There was no way to check, with a policeman there. Besides, the sign was probably right. No one was going to be able to climb up on the roof, and they might as well go back home.

“Well, I guess that settles that,” said Beth. “Heck,” said Wally. “This isn't any fun.”

But Josh put one finger to his lips, and they all crept closer to the squad car, keeping to the shadows.

The rookie, Officer Clay, was talking on his police radio to someone back at headquarters: “Yeah, I think we can wrap it up for the night. Kelly's sound asleep up there, and nobody's been by for the last forty minutes
or so. I think the rain's put a damper on things, lucky for us …. Okay, I'll drive by every half hour, but I think we'll have a peaceful night …. Sure, I'll do that …. Roger.”

The seven kids stood dejectedly back in the bushes and watched Officer Clay drive away. The headlights made a wide arc across the playground as the car turned and headed toward the street.

“This is a bummer!” said Jake. “He's up there, all right.”

“We're all dressed up with no place to go,” said Beth.

“Well, there's nothing to say we can't take the long way home,” Eddie suggested. “We could walk into the business district and see if they've changed the movie for next week.”

“Yeah, we could check the ice cream shop, see if they've posted the new flavor for May,” said Wally.

“Or go as far as the bookstore and see what books Mike Oldaker has in his window,” said Beth.

They turned and trooped back down the bush-lined path leading out to the sidewalk, but Caroline, who was last in line, saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her stop. She stared through the darkness until she was sure she saw what she thought she had seen.

“Wait!” she whispered to the others.

Everyone turned, but when they saw Caroline motioning quickly for them to come back, they crowded around her, not making a sound.

What everyone
thought
they might see was the principal crawling out of his tent on the roof and sneaking down the ladder to go home. What they saw instead was two men creeping around the corner of the school building and making their way over to the ladder.

“Whoa!” whispered Jake. “What have we
here
?” “Maybe they're plainclothes policemen hired to stand guard over Mr. Kelly all night,” said Beth.

“Then why would Officer Clay say he'd stop by every half hour?” Eddie questioned.

None of the kids made a sound as one of the men began to climb the ladder and the other man looked around nervously below. From behind the bushes the Hatfords and the Malloys watched with open mouths as the man on the ladder reached the roof, climbed on, and made his way over to the tent.

“Do you think we should yell and wake up Mr. Kelly?” Wally asked.

“If it's a plainclothes policeman just wanting to make sure he's all right and we wake up the principal, we'll probably have to spend another day cleaning toilets at the police station,” said Caroline.

“I don't know,” said Beth, sounding uneasy. “What if they're going to hurt him?”

“Why would they do that?” Wally wondered aloud. But then he said, “If it looks like a fight, we'll yell that the police are on the way.”

There was just enough light in the sky, now that the rain had stopped completely and the moon was out, to see the man on the roof get down on his hands and
knees and crawl halfway inside the tent. A minute later he slowly backed out, and when he stood up, he appeared to be holding a pair of trousers. He waved them at the man on the ground below.

“He's got the principal's pants!” breathed Wally. “They're going to steal his clothes!”

But it didn't seem to be the pants the man wanted. He put his hand in one pocket of the pants and then the other. Finally he waved something shiny at the man on the ground below, put the trousers back in the tent, and climbed back down the ladder.

“Shhh,” Jake warned the others. “Don't let them know we're here. Let's see what they do next.”

What happened next was that the men went around to the front entrance of the school and, with the shiny something they had taken from the principal's pants— keys—they opened the door, closed it noiselessly behind them, and disappeared inside.

Twenty-two
And the Winner Is …

“I
'll bet they're going to rob the school!” Jake said excitedly. “Did anyone get a good look at either of them?”

“One had dark hair,” said Caroline.

“No, he was wearing a cap,” said Eddie.

“He was short,” said Jake.

“He was tall!” said Beth.

“They were both tall,” said Caroline.

“No, they weren't. One was tall and one was short,” said Eddie.

“And one was fat,” said Caroline.

“They both were fat,” said Josh.

Jake flung back his head. “What kind of witnesses
are
we, anyway?”

“Well, they were both wearing white Nikes,” said Wally.

Everyone turned and stared at him.

“How do you know
that
?” asked his brothers.

“I just paid attention,” said Wally.

“Should we climb up there and wake the principal?” asked Beth.

“No,” said Josh. “What if they've got a gun? Officer Clay won't be back for a half hour. We've got to go home and get Dad.”

Suddenly the hour after midnight seemed about as exciting as it could get. They all ran back out to the street and raced to the Hatfords' house. After Jake let them in with his key, he said, “Wally, go upstairs and wake Dad.”

“What?” said Wally. “Why
me
?”

“Just because,” said Jake. “Josh and I are going to write down all the different things we think we saw, and we have to do it while our memories are still fresh.”

It always happened this way, Wally thought. He always seemed to get stuck with the stuff nobody else wanted to do. It might be exciting telling Dad about the man stealing the principal's keys, but it sure wouldn't be any fun waking him up. Their father was a deep sleeper, and if anything except a police beeper woke him up, he was liable to be grouchy.

Wally went up the stairs, stepping extra hard on the second from the bottom step, which always made the loudest squeak, hoping that might wake his dad.

His parents' door was closed, and he tapped lightly
once. Then twice. When nothing happened, he knocked really hard.

The bed squeaked, like someone turning over; then he heard his mother's voice: “Who is it?” She sounded sleepy.

“It's Wally,” he said, and opened the door a crack. “Can I come in?”

“What's the matter, Wally?” she asked.

Wally came over to the bed. “The Malloy girls are downstairs,” he said. “Caroline saw something. We all did.”

Mrs. Hatford rose up on one elbow. “What do you mean, Caroline saw something? You know the imagination that girl has! Wally, it's almost two in the morning!”

“We saw some men go in the school.”

Mr. Hatford gave a loud grumbling snort. “Whuzzat?” he said.

“It's Wally, dear,” said his wife. “All the kids are downstairs, and they think they saw something.” She turned back to Wally. “So how do you know they weren't teachers?”

“I don't. But they sneaked up on the roof after Officer Clay left and took the keys from the principal's pants. We watched them. Then they took the keys and went inside the school.”

Mr. Hatford threw off the covers and swung his feet over the side of the bed.

“Where are they now?”

“They're still in the school, I think.”

Wally's father reached for his robe and, with Wally and Mrs. Hatford behind him, hurried down the stairs to the kitchen, where the other kids were sitting. He bellowed like a bull when none of the six could give him a good description of the men but was pleased that Wally had noticed their white Nikes.

Everyone listened as they sat around the kitchen table with Mr. Hatford as he made a call on his police radio.

“Bogdan?” he said. “My kids say two men stole the principal's keys and are over in the school right now. Do you read me?”

The police radio crackled. “Roger,” said Sergeant Bogdan. “Officer Clay is only two blocks away from the school right now. I'll send him over.”

“You may need a backup,” said Mr. Hatford. “My guess is they're after the computers. I can be there in three minutes.”

“Won't be necessary. I've got Frank only a mile away. We've got it covered. Stay right there, Tom. We may want more information from those kids.”

Mrs. Hatford made cocoa for everyone while Jake and the others described everything they had seen. Minutes went by.

Then the radio crackled again.

“Can the kids give us a good description of the men?” asked Sergeant Bogdan.

“Fat, thin, tall, short, dark hair, cap … you
name it,” said Mr. Hatford. “No two of them can agree. But both men
were
wearing white Nikes.”

There were the sounds of several voices now. Officer Clay's radio was transmitting as well. There were shouts. More noise. More shouts. And finally Officer Clay announced that he and Frank Miller had cornered two men in the computer room in the school library and had them under arrest.

“So what have you got?” Mr. Hatford asked.

This time Frank Miller answered. “Well, there are two middle-aged men, medium height, pudgy, white—”

“What about hair?” asked Wally's father.

“Both of 'em bald as a cue ball,” came the answer. Mr. Hatford laughed. “So much for the star witnesses.”

“But one had on a cap,” said Officer Clay.

“I
said
he was wearing a cap!” said Eddie.

Now it was Sergeant Bogdan again. “You said Caroline Malloy saw him first. Is she still there, by chance?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Hatford.

“Put her on, would you?”

Mr. Hatford showed Caroline how to use the police radio.

“Hello?” she said.

“Good job, Caroline,” said Sergeant Bogdan. “You've got a sharp eye to catch what you saw in the dark, and saved the school a heap of money. They had four computers all stacked up, ready to go.”

“Thank you!” said Caroline airily, in as queenlike a
fashion as she could manage. But then she surprised everyone when she said, “It was the boys who knew what to do, though. It was Jake who said we should go get his dad.”

“Well, all of you get the credit, then. I can almost forgive what you did to my police station,” Sergeant Bogdan said, laughing. “You kids get some sleep now. It'll all be in the news tomorrow.”

“But … but … shouldn't we stay up and wait for the photographer?” Caroline asked in dismay.

Sergeant Bogdan laughed again. “I'm not waking up any photographer over
these
two losers,” he said. “I'll call in a report myself, but you'll get your name in the paper along with the others, don't you worry.”

The next day it was indeed in the news. And when the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls got to school, there was the principal sitting on the roof in his pajamas, eating his Wheaties. He was reading the morning paper, which contained the story of all that had happened while he was asleep. Again and again that day Caroline and her sisters and Wally and his brothers had to tell about the excitement of the night before, and even Mr. Bailey asked questions about it at baseball practice.

After dinner that evening, as the Hatford boys were doing their homework around the dining room table, the Malloy girls rang the bell. Wally answered.

“We've got news!” Caroline said as the girls trooped in.