Smart Dog by Vivian Vande Velde Read Free Book Online

their food and Amy said, "Sean and I need to talk—alone," Chris left them alone, though it was almost unheard of for fifth-grade boys and girls to sit together. Sometimes they shared a table—there were almost always boys, for example, wherever Kaitlyn Walker sat—but even then the girls clustered at one end and the boys at the other.
    But Amy directed Sean to one of the tiny tables in the corner that only sat three or four.
    Several of their classmates gave them knowing looks, and the kissy lips started again.
    "Here." Amy reached into her pocket to get the dog tag that said BIG RED . She also handed him a fistful of change, her entire savings, because she wasn't good at saving. "Will this be enough for you to get another collar for your dog?"
    Sean shrugged. "Yeah, sure," he said in a way that made Amy suspect that collars were probably more expensive than she would have guessed. "Thanks for the tag back," Sean said. "My parents haven't noticed yet about the collar being gone, but with the tag, I can get a new collar at the mall and just say I thought it was time for a different one. Good thinking."
    Amy refused to take credit where it wasn't due. "No," she admitted, "I haven't been thinking well." She leaned in closer. "Some girl, a student from the college, was putting up fliers in our neighborhood, and there I was in the front yard playing with Sherlock, for all the world to see."
    Sean waved away someone who looked ready to come sit with them. He lowered his voice. "Did she recognize him?"
    "Sherlock isn't sure." Amy lowered her voice, too. "He said that this girl—her name is Rachel—was one of the nicest ones there, but I figure she can't be all that nice if she's helping this Dr. Boden track him down."
    "Maybe Dr. Boden has made it a class requirement," Sean said. "You know: 'If you want to pass, hand out these fliers ...'"
    Amy liked that Sean seemed willing to believe the best about people. Still, she shrugged. "Anyway, she kept saying how much Sherlock looked like the dog she was searching for, and then right before she left, she goes like this to him"—Amy gestured to show scratching under a dog's chin—"which apparently is something Sherlock likes. Sherlock says he tried not to wag his tail, but even from where I was standing, I could tell he liked it. The thing is, we don't know if this Rachel does that to all dogs."
    "Lots of dogs like it," Sean said, "so lots of people do it."
    It was a little reassuring. A very little. "Anyway," Amy continued, "I spent the rest of the night listening for the doorbell to ring. I kept waiting for her to show up with the professor—or the police—to demand the college's property back. Of course, my parents wouldn't know not to admit we'd only had the dog since that afternoon, and they'd be sure to blab all about the poor little boy"—she gestured to Sean and came close to knocking over her milk carton—"whose family was moving into an apartment that wouldn't allow pets. That's when I thought about the dog tag. Dr. Boden would demand to call the phone number on it. And—unless we were lucky enough that you were the one to answer the phone—your parents would say that they weren't moving, and that your dog was right there with them, except that somehow her collar and tags were missing. So I figured I'd say that I threw the tag away at school. I don't think anybody—even a determined scientist like Dr. Boden—would go through all the garbage Dumpsters here searching for one tiny piece of metal no bigger than a quarter."
    "Hard to know for sure," Sean said. He didn't put her on the spot by asking what she'd say if anyone asked
why
she'd taken the tag to school to throw it out. In his heart, she guessed, he too must suspect that if Dr. Boden saw Sherlock, he wouldn't believe her story for a moment, no matter what.
    Sean tried to shoo away someone else who was approaching their table, but this person wouldn't be put off.
    Minneh Tannen pretended not to see Sean and