Brownie and the Dame by C. L. Bevill Read Free Book Online

recipe that cooks all over Pegram County had been attempting to steal for decades on account of its mouth-watering characteristics.) There was also corn on the cob, potatoes au gratin, and pecan pie. He went to bed that night full and dreaming not of sugar plums, but of absent spatulas and funny-goings-on that perplexed his brain in wonderful spine-tingling ways.
    The next morning, Brownie returned to the gumshoe persona with great glee. There was a single hiccough when he bounded into the bathroom and bounced off the clear plastic wrap that had been spread over the bathroom door. Someone had taken the time to neatly frame the door in plastic where Brownie wouldn’t see it before he went in. He fell on the floor and looked stupid for a minute until he comprehended the problem. “Haha,” he said, but on the inside he thought, Dang, good trick. I’ll have to remember that .  
    He looked around for a giggling offender, but no one was about. He wondered if Janie was already front and present. When he was finished brushing his teeth and dressing, he went downstairs and found that Willodean had already dropped Janie off at the mansion. Janie yanked Brownie aside without ado.
    “I got suspects and also another missing item,” Janie told him. “We’ve got to follow up. That’s what it says in all the good police manuals.”
    “You get to read police manuals?” Brownie asked. “You dint go upstairs earlier, did you?”
    “Duh, everyone in the family is a cop except Grandpa. I’ve practically got some of them memorized. And no, I haven’t been upstairs. Why do you ask?”
    “Never mind about that. Okay, sister, give me the skinny,” Brownie drawled. They gathered for their impromptu information-sharing session in the library.
    “There’s a man named Bryan McGee who has a missing item,” Janie said. She looked around and found a large desk. A moment later, she dug through the drawers and located a phone directory. Plunking the book on the top of the desk, she paged through to the M’s. “There it is,” Janie said and pointed a finger to Bryan McGee’s name. “Get to the crime scene as soon as possible. That’s the key.”
    “I know that road,” Brownie said. “We can walk to it from here. Did your source say what was missing?”
    “No, Miz Mary Lou said that Bryan called up yesterday morning and chewed her out on account that the police hadn’t instantaneously figured out that something was missing from his house.”
    “We need a map of Pegram County and push pins,” Brownie announced. “We need to map out the pattern. Doubtless there will be a pattern, and we kin discover what the similarities are.”
    Janie nodded. “I like the way you think, Brownie, except I don’t think I would have shocked Matt Lauer on national television.”
    “He was asking for it.”
    “He didn’t ask for it.”
    “Did you see his face? When I said I built the stun gun from scratch, he didn’t believe me. He thought I was making it up.” Brownie was still outraged about that.
    Janie cocked her hip and rested a hand on it. Today’s t-shirt proclaimed “Support your local police! (Leave fingerprints.)” She tilted her head at him. “So what? That didn’t mean you had to shock him.”
    “Shore it did,” Brownie said. “Now he won’t be all doubtful when a fella tells him how it is. Bet he never looks at a ten-year-old the same way. Betcha.”
    “There is that,” Janie said. “You want to go see Mr. McGee now? I think Miz Demetrice won’t miss us if we’re gone less than an hour or two.”
    “Now you’re on the trolley, dollface.”
    * * *
    Forty minutes later Brownie rapped on Bryan McGee’s door. He didn’t know anything about the man except the day before he had spoken vehemently to Mary Lou Treadwell on the emergency line. The subject had been something missing from his residence, but he did not say what it had been. Brownie also recollected Cousin Bubba speaking about Bryan having a Ford truck that