The Case of the Lost Boy by Dori Hillestad Butler, Jeremy Tugeau Read Free Book Online Page B

room ... down the hall ... and out to the parking lot. They don’t even let me say goodbye to all my new friends.
    But then it hits me: I have just escaped from the P-O-U-N-D !
    And I wasn’t even trying to.
    Maybe adopting these people is not such a bad idea. I have crossed off this part of my plan: Escape from the P-O-U-N-D . Now I am one step closer to finding Kayla and Dad.

2
My Name Is King
    “What’s the matter, honey?” Mom asks the boy on the way to their house.
    I am in the back seat, and they are in the front. I spot a French fry on the floor. I LOVE French fries. They’re my favorite food!
    “I thought you wanted a dog,” Mom says.
    “I just want to go home,” Connor grumbles. “Back to our real house in California.”
    Mom grips the steering wheel extra-tight. “I know you miss your dad and your friends,” she says. “But we’re going to be happy here in Minnesota, Connor. You’ll see. Your dad and I will watch for sales on airplane tickets. We’ll send you back to California for a visit as often as we can afford to.”
    Connor stares out the window.
    I don’t know where California is, but it must be far away if you have to fly there in an airplane. Connor must miss his dad as much as I miss Kayla. I put my paws up on his seat and lick his ear to show him I understand.
    Mom pushes me down. “You stay in the backseat, boy,” she says.
    “I will,” I tell her with my eyes. But she is driving, so she doesn’t notice. She probably wouldn’t understand even if she did notice. Most humans her age don’t understand Dog at all.
    “We need to come up with a name for him,” Mom tells Connor.
    I already have a name. But Mom and Connor don’t know that.
    “What do you think of Buddy?” Mom asks.
    Buddy? That’s a wimp’s name! My name is King. K-I-N-G. I am the King of Crime-solving. That’s what Kayla says. And she is my queen.
    “Don’t you think Buddy is a good name for a dog that’s going to go to school?” Mom asks. “We want him to be everyone’s buddy.”
    I put my paws back up on the front seat. “Tell her no,” I say to Connor. “Tell her you want to call me ‘King.’”
    Connor shrugs. “Whatever,” he says. Then he turns around and looks at me. I think he wants to pet me.
    “Go ahead,” I tell him. I stretch my neck closer to him. “You can pet me.”
    But he just sits there. I can’t tell whether he understands me or not.
    We drive a little farther, and then my nose starts to twitch. Something smells familiar.
    I can see it through the front window. It’s the park! The park where Kayla takes me to play detective. You’d be surprised how many mysteries there are to solve in a park.
    I stare out the side window. I check out the kids who are playing ball ... and the kids who are playing on the climbing toy ... and the kid who is reading on the bench.
    None of them is Kayla.
    Mom turns at the corner. We are close to my house. Very close.
    Mom pulls into a driveway, and I am going crazy inside myself. Kayla, the other Mom, and Dad live in the Carrs’ old house, just behind this one. What luck! I can to go back to my house and look for clues.
    “Look,” Mom says as she opens the door for me. “He knows this is his house already.”
    No. My house is the one behind this one .

    Now I know why I smelled my neighborhood on Connor and Mom. They live in my neighborhood. I can tell they haven’t lived here very long, though. There are boxes piled everywhere. I sniff at a couple of them. Laundry soap. Electric stuff. And ... something else I can’t quite make out.
    “Are you hungry, Buddy?” Mom asks. She shakes some dry food into a bowl.
    Oh, boy! FOOD!!!
    And it’s good food, too. Big colorful pellets. A blend of wonderful things like chicken, fish, and liver. Much better than those little brown pellets they had at Barker Bob’s. And way better than the mushy stuff at the P-O-U-N-D .
    They also have a nice big bed for me. Oops. Maybe not.
    Mom grabs me by my