Judy Moody, Girl Detective by Megan McDonald Read Free Book Online

“Well, the mail won’t deliver itself.” Jack Frost hopped back into the truck and started it up. “Let me know if you find that sandwich!” he called.
    “See?” said Stink. “The rope is just one of those stinky red fish.”
    “Red herring,” said Rocky and Frank at the same time.
    “Herring, schmerring. I rest
my
case,” said Judy. Just then she realized that the mail truck had started off down the street. “Wait! What was that old lady’s name? How do you spell it? And what street does she live on?”
    But it was too late. Jack Frost’s taillights were already turning the corner.

The next day, she, Judy Moody, was in a mood. An UN-detective mood. A bummed-out, not-Nancy-Drew mood. Not one clue so far had led to finding Mr. Chips. Nancy Drew made it all look so easy-peasy even if she was in an avalanche or being strangled by a python. But what if Judy Moody, Girl Detective, never cracked the case? What if Mr. Chips never made it home?
    Mystery UNsolved. Judy wondered if Nancy Drew ever had an unsolved case. She didn’t think so. Rule Number One: Never give up!
    Judy sat at the third-grade lunch table. In between bites of peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich, she made a list of suspects in her detective notebook:

    The trail had gone cold. The green van had been at school again this morning, but it was gone by lunch. The toilet in the girls’ bathroom was fixed. And Jack Frost was just delivering mail, like he did every day. Even old Mrs. S. was probably just some nice old lady like Mrs. Abby Rowen in Nancy Drew #1,
The Secret of the Old Clock.
Some nice lady who liked to recycle.
    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