Home Alone 3 by Todd Strasser, John Hughes Read Free Book Online Page B

beeper, which she clipped to his waist. "Promise me you'll wear it?"
    "I will." Alex nodded.
    "I'm going to call every half hour," Mrs. Pruitt said. "I'll go on-line with you and hold the connection open all day. I'll have my laptop with me in all my meetings. We'll be connected at all times. I'll also have my cell phone, and you know my fax number."
    "We're wired," Alex said. But he knew she would get busy and distracted at work and probably forget to call. In fact, he hoped that would happen.
    She kissed him. On the forehead, of course. And started to get up. Then she stopped. "Oh, my gosh! Did Mrs. Clovis call? She said she was going to come by before I left for work. She just wanted to make sure that Bradley's name wasn't on that car."
    "She came while you were in the shower," Alex said.
    "Did you give it to her?" his mom asked.
    Alex nodded. "Big time."
    "I hope she felt foolish," Mrs. Pruitt said.
    "It was painful," Alex confirmed.
    "Okay." His mom picked up her laptop computer and briefcase. "Be good. Be safe. And keep an eye on the old place."
    "I have it all covered," Alex assured her.

31
    Alex watched his mom head out toward the garage. It was starting to snow. She got into her car and started to back it down the driveway. At one point she stopped just to wave one last time at Alex. From inside the house, Alex blew her a kiss and watched her head off down Washington Street.
    Then Alex stood alone in the kitchen and looked around. This was it. He was on his own. Unless you included Doris the rat and Stan's parrot.
    For a moment he felt very alone and vulnerable. Through the kitchen window he could see his snow fort in the backyard. He wished he could just crawl inside it and hide. But he couldn't do that and protect his house. Besides, there was more work to be done.
    On the front porch he hid a big puddle of marbles under the welcome mat. He stood some old ski poles on either side of the front steps and strung some yarn in between them. He hid a thin copper wire inside the yarn, then connected the end of the wire to an extension cord, which he plugged into an outlet.
    In the backyard he set up Stan's trampoline under the attic dormer window and over the pool, and put some old Christmas trees on the pool cover. The snow was falling faster now and soon the whole pool cover would be blanketed. It would look like the trampoline was resting on solid ground.
    Then he took some old snow and made the outline of a kidney-shaped pool somewhere else in the yard. He put pool furniture around it to make it look like a pool was there.
    Next it was time to create his own headquarters. He set up the 8-millimeter video camera, as well as two older full-sized VHS models, and wired them all to old televisions in the attic. Now he had his own video security system monitoring all the entrances to the house.
    Pretty good for an eight-year-old.
    He waited for the burglars to arrive.
    First a car pulled up and stopped in the alley behind Alex's house. Alex watched as two men got out. They were both wearing camouflage suits, but Alex still recognized them. One was Jernigan, the driver from the day before, the other was Unger, the one who'd pretended to be an old guy. Alex winced when he noticed that both guys were wearing ammo belts loaded with ammunition.
    The other two burglars must have been on the move, too. Alex crossed to the other side of the attic and looked out the window and down at the street. There they were, walking up the street. Alice had changed out of her torn jogging outfit and was now dressed in a white snowmobile suit. Beaupre was wearing one, too, and carrying a briefcase.
    Alex wondered what their plan was. Were they just going to walk up to the front door and knock?
    Then he saw something he didn't want to see. It was old Mrs. Hess, coming out of her house wearing her housedress and thin sweater.

32
    Peter Beaupre was delighted to see Mrs. Hess come out of her house. The timing couldn't have been better. There was no