Show Time by Sue Stauffacher Read Free Book Online

Especially when everybody is always bringing it up?”
    “Easy.” Marcus tugged the bottom of Keisha’s ear. “Just turn off your brain. That’s the off switch right there.”
    “Ha, ha. There’s my grandma. Gotta go.”
    Keisha gave Marcus a backward wave as she ran down the front walk before hopping into the truck.
    “I’m starving, Grandma. Did you make something sweet for after dinner?”
    “I did. I made pumpkin spice cake.”
    “Can I have a little when we get home?”
    “We’re not going home yet,” Grandma said. “We’ve got to make an emergency stop.”
    “Really? Please don’t. I’m
so
hungry.”
    “Heavens to Betsey Johnson, Keisha Carter. I knew you would be.” Grandma handed Keisha a square of pumpkin spice cake wrapped in wax paper. The smell of nutmeg and cloves erased the yucky memory of warm egg salad sandwich.
    “This will tide you over while we swing by the college. A squirrel broke into the president’s office today and caused pandemonium at Holmdene Hall.”
    “How?” Keisha tried to picture a fat, bushy-tailed squirrel scurrying through the big double doors and into the president’s office.
    “Dropped right from the ceiling, swung on the chandelier and knocked over the president’s family portrait. At least that’s the way his secretary reported it. Ms. Pontell. She’s one of those high-pitched-jump-on-a-chair screamers, and we all know they sometimes miss the most obvious clues. The little guy didn’t hang around long.” Grandma held tight to the wheel and concentrated on getting the big truck down a narrow street lined with cars. It had snowed four more inches the night before, and the roads were slippery.
    “You should relax, Gram. You’ll turn better,” Keisha said through a mouthful of cake.
    But Grandma wasn’t listening. She loved a big to-do. “A real halls-of-higher-learning hullabaloo,” she said happily.
    “If the squirrel didn’t stay around, where did it go, do you think?”
    “Well, it didn’t leave by the front door. Ms. Pontell said it disappeared into thin air. That’s what they want us for. To figure out the point of entry and seal it up.”
    The truck tires crunched up the main drive to Mt. Mercy. As they were getting out, a woman rushed outside without a hat or coat on. She was as tall and straight as a pencil.
    “Oh, thank heavens you’re here. I wanted to clean all surfaces right away, but President Kellogg said I should leave them untouched. I’m Ms. Pontell.”
    Keisha and Grandma watched Ms. Pontell shiver and waited to hear more.
    “So we didn’t destroy the evidence, you see. Follow me, please.”
    She led the way into the president’s office, a big room filled floor to ceiling with dark-paneled walls and tall bookcases. “It’s a rodent, I told him. Plain and simple. Cuter, maybe, but a rodent nevertheless …” She stopped to draw in a big breath. “Putting its grimy little paws on the presidential family portrait! Who knows where those paws have been?”
    At the far end of the room, Keisha almost missed the man sitting behind the massive desk. He turned in his chair and tilted his head to the side. “These arethe squirrel catchers, I presume, Ms. Pontell?”
    “Yes, President Kellogg. I’m so sorry to interrupt. What a day.”
    “That will be fine. Thank you, Ms. Pontell.”
    The president stood up. He was a short man, with a round face and round glasses and hair that traveled from one side of his head to the other. Tucked into his tweed coat, he looked a little like an owl to Keisha. Or maybe it was the way he stood there blinking at them.
    “So this is where the breaking and entering occurred?” Grandma strode across the room with her hands clasped behind her back.

    Keisha and President Kellogg watched as Grandma examined the room, running her hand across a bookshelf, gazing up at the chandelier, then down at her feet, where the picture had crashed to the floor. Careful not to walk in the broken glass, Grandma