The Case of the Sleeping Dog by Donald J. Sobol Read Free Book Online Page B

and Kitty arrived.
    A pie in a green-and-brown dish rested on an empty orange crate by the door.
    “That’s my pie,” Kitty said with relief. “Thank goodness Bugs hasn’t eaten it yet.”
    At the sight of Encyclopedia, Bugs’s face twisted into a sneer. “Well, well, look what crawled out of the Dumpster!”
    Encyclopedia was used to Bugs’s greetings. “Kitty claims you stole her key lime pie,” he said calmly. “She was taking it to her grandmother.”
    “Little Red Riding Hood here has a shortage of brain cells,” Bugs snarled. “No kid in her right mind dares call Bugs Meany a thief.”
    He threw back his head and roared, “I am overcome by unspeakable fury!”
    Kitty retreated a step. “I just remembered,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be here.”
    Encyclopedia held her firmly by the arm.
    “Kitty claims you were going to trade her a magic flashlight for the pie,” he said to Bugs.
    “The key lime pie you see before you I baked myself,” Bugs retorted. “I am a master baker and a master at making things disappear.”
    “Come off it, Bugs,” Encyclopedia said.
    “Once I went too far, I confess it,” Bugs said. “I made a pack mule invisible. The only way I could find him was by the smell of hay on his breath.”
    “Cut the comedy and let’s see some writing disappear,” Kitty challenged.
    Bugs grinned. He led them into the clubhouse and handed Kitty the sheet of paper on which she’d signed her name.
    He laid the sheet on an old stool. He took two flashlights from a shelf and shut the door.
    It became black as coal inside the toolshed.
    He shined a flashlight with a red bulb on the sheet.
    Kitty gasped. “I don’t see my name anymore!”
    Bugs turned off the flashlight and turned on the other one. Under its white light, Kitty’s name appeared clearly.
    “You switched papers in the dark!” Kitty blurted out.
    “No way,” Bugs said. “I used a bulb rubbed red with a ruby from Baghdad, city of mystery. It makes writing disappear! To make the writing appear again, I used a bulb rubbed white with a sacred altar stone from ancient Egypt.”
    “Baloney,” said Kitty.
    “That does it!” Bugs bellowed. “Forget the trade! I’m keeping the pie
and
the magic flashlights. Now scram before I bend you out of shape!”

    “I don’t care to end up looking into my own ear,” Kitty muttered to Encyclopedia. “Let’s scram.”
    “Not without your key lime pie,” Encyclopedia replied.
    How did Bugs make the
writing disappear?
    (Turn to this page for the solution to The Case of the Invisible Writing.)

The Case of the Stolen Fan

    B ugs Meany hated being outsmarted by Encyclopedia all the time. He longed to get even.
    The Tigers’ leader dreamed of pressing the detective’s belly button until his ears rang. But Bugs never used muscle. Whenever he felt like it, he remembered Sally Kimball.
    Sally was Encyclopedia’s junior partner in the Brown Detective Agency. She was also the prettiest girl in the fifth grade and the best athlete.
    What’s more, she had done what no little kid had thought possible. She had punched out big, bad Bugs.
    The first time they had fought, Bugs had gone into his famous fighting stance. “This won’t take long,” he had boasted.
    It hadn’t.
    Sally had walloped him—once.
    Bugs had spun around and sat down. His eyes had glazed over, and his eyelids had started fluttering like moth wings.
    “Remind me to get in touch with my lawyer,” he’d moaned.
    Sitting in the detective agency, Encyclopedia told Sally, “Bugs doesn’t exactly love me, and you’ve driven him crazy. He thought he owned the neighborhood till you flattened him a few times. He won’t rest until he gets even.”
    “Bugs is too dumb to get even,” Sally snapped. “Ask his Aunt Eve. He still can’t spell her name backwards.”
    “Don’t sell him short,” Encyclopedia warned quietly.
    A sudden squeal of tires and a slam of metal nearby tore the air.
    Sally jumped to her feet.