The Puppy Problem Read online

  “Hold your nose,” Laura said. “His room is gross. He never washes his clothes.”

  Nancy didn’t hold her nose. But she did hold her breath. She felt kind of scared, sneaking into someone else’s room.

  “See what I mean?” Laura said as she swung open Sam’s door.

  Nancy nodded and gulped. There were T-shirts and socks all over the floor. Sam’s bed was piled high with dirty clothes. Nancy wondered how he could sleep on it.

  Laura picked up a pair of old black high-tops.

  “These are the ones he wears every day,” she said. “Except today he’s wearing sandals.”

  Nancy looked at the shoes. They had black laces.

  “Where are his in-line skates?” Nancy asked Laura.

  “In the closet,” Laura said.

  She pointed to a large walk-in closet on the far side of the room.

  “Can we?” Nancy asked, staring at the closet door.

  “Sure,” Laura said.

  Nancy and Laura opened the closet door and stepped inside.

  “Here they are,” Laura said, lifting one of the heavy skates. “But they’re blue. With green-and-blue laces.”

  Nancy nodded. Then she knelt down to look at a row of shoes that were lined up along the back wall of the closet.

  One pair of brown loafers—no laces.

  One pair of white high-tops—white laces.

  One pair of old, torn green basketball shoes—with dirty green laces.

  And one pair of gray leather running shoes—with bright blue laces.

  “No luck,” Nancy said, glancing up at Laura. “Does he have any other shoes?”

  “No,” Laura said. “Except his football cleats. And they’re all black. The laces are black, too.”

  “Okay. Let’s go,” Nancy said.

  But before Laura could move out of the closet, the door suddenly slammed shut with a bang.

  “Hey, let us out!” Laura cried. She pushed on the door with all her might. But it wouldn’t move.

  They were trapped!

  7

  Caught in the Closet

  Help! Help!” Laura screamed. She pounded on the closet door, but it wouldn’t open.

  Nancy stumbled to the door, tripping over Sam’s shoes. She tried to push the door open, too.

  “I can’t turn the knob,” Nancy cried. “It’s stuck!”

  Nancy and Laura pounded on the door as hard as they could. But it didn’t budge.

  Then all at once, Nancy and Laura heard a mean-sounding laugh coming from the other side of the door.

  “Ha ha ha, you little brats!” Sam’s voice said. “Serves you right for snooping in my room. I’ll never let you out!”

  “Open the door, Sam,” Laura shouted. “Right now!”

  “No way,” Sam snapped. “You’re trapped! Forever!”

  “I mean it, Sam. Open up or I’ll tell Mom!” Laura said.

  The room was silent for a moment. Then the door jerked open. Sam stood there in a pair of tan shorts, a sweaty T-shirt, and his sandals.

  “Oh, yeah?” he said. “Well, I’ll tell Mom that you were spying on my stuff and snooping in my room! Now get out of here, you little twerps.”

  “Don’t be mad at Laura,” Nancy said. “It’s my fault. I’m trying to find out who’s been stealing food around here.”

  “So?” Sam said.

  “So, I saw you take a cookie in the park yesterday,” Nancy said.

  “So?” Sam said. “I knew one of those kids at the picnic. He’s in my math class. We always take each other’s cookies at lunch. It’s a joke between us.”

  “Oh,” Nancy said. She cleared her throat. “But how about last night? Did you climb the fence into the Tangs’ yard and steal some food from them, too?”

  Sam laughed his nasty-sounding laugh. “I wasn’t even home last night,” he said. “I was at the movies with a bunch of friends.”

  “Oh,” Nancy said again, blushing.

  “Get out of here, Laura,” Sam said, grabbing his sister by the arm. “You too, Detective Drew.”

  Nancy and Laura were silent until they were back outside.

  Then Nancy let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry if I got you into trouble.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Laura said. “That was fun! I love sneaking around—especially in his room. Want any more help?”

  “No thanks,” Nancy said. “Not right now. I’ve got to take my dog home.”

  “Okay,” Laura said. “But come back later and we can snoop around some more.”

  As soon as Nancy picked up the leash, her puppy started jumping and pulling. She wagged her tail as if to say, “Come on! Let’s get out of here!”

  Nancy walked to the end of Laura’s driveway. The puppy pulled to the left.

  “That’s not the way home, silly dog,” Nancy said.

  But the puppy kept pulling to the left. Finally Nancy gave in.

  “Okay,” she said to her puppy. “We’ll take the long way home. We’ll go all the way around the block.”

  Why not? Nancy thought. Her puppy probably wanted to sniff everything. That’s how dogs learned their way around a new place.

  Nancy walked a short way down the block. Then she saw Kenny Bruder in his front yard.

  As soon as he saw Nancy, he called, “Hey, Drew, can I pet your dog? Can I teach her some tricks?” He came running toward Nancy.

  “No tricks yet,” Nancy said. She pulled her dog back, so that Kenny wouldn’t scare her.

  Kenny bent down and started to pet the chocolate Lab right away. The puppy licked Kenny’s face. Then she began biting Kenny’s shoe.

  “Hey,” Kenny said. “She’s chewing my shoe. Make her stop.”

  Nancy started to pull back on the leash. But all of a sudden, she saw something. She saw what the puppy was chewing on. Nancy’s heart started to beat fast.

  “Pull her away,” Kenny said. “She’s chewing up my shoelaces!”

  “I know,” Nancy said, staring right into Kenny’s eyes. “She’s chewing your shoelaces. And they don’t match!”

  8

  Sniffing Out the Truth

  One of your shoelaces is brand-new, and plain white,” Nancy said. “The other one is old, and it’s black- and white-striped.”

  Kenny pulled his foot away from the puppy. His shoelace came untied.

  “So what?” Kenny asked, bending down to retie it. “My shoelace broke.”

  “I know,” Nancy said. “And I know where it broke, too. At my house—when you were stealing chocolate chip muffins!”

  “I didn’t,” Kenny said quickly. “I don’t even eat chocolate. I’m allergic to it.”

  That’s true, Nancy thought. But if he didn’t steal the muffins, how did his shoelace get stuck in our screen door?

  “I have proof,” she said to Kenny. “Right here in my pocket.” Nancy pulled out the torn piece of shoelace.

  “See?” Nancy said. “It matches one of your laces exactly. This proves you were in our kitchen on Friday.”

  “Uh . . . well, I was,” Kenny said. “But only because I thought I heard someone call my name. I opened the door, but no one was there. So I left.”

  Nancy didn’t believe him. But before she could say anything, the puppy tugged on the leash and broke free.

  “Stop! Come back!” Nancy called. She chased the puppy around the house and into Kenny’s backyard.

  Kenny followed Nancy.

  The puppy ran straight to a toolshed in the backyard. She jumped on the shed door, barking and scratching to get in.

  “Don’t go in there!” Kenny yelled.

  Nancy followed her dog up to the shed and put her hand on the door handle.

  “Don’t! Don’t open it!” Kenny shouted.

  “Why not?” Nancy said, turning to stare at Kenny.

  Kenny didn’t answer. What’s he trying to hide? Nancy wondered.

  Before Kenny could stop her, Nancy yanked the shed door open.

  Eagerly, her puppy dashed inside. T
hen Nancy saw what the puppy was sniffing.

  A brown paper bag. A bag of groceries!

  “Mrs. Ratazchek’s groceries! I knew it!” Nancy said. “The minute I saw your shoelaces, I knew you were the thief!”

  Nancy whirled around and put her hands on her hips. She glared at Kenny, who hung his head.

  “Yeah,” Kenny said. “Okay. I took the chocolate chip muffins. And those groceries from Mrs. Ratazchek’s car.”

  “And the hamburgers from Mr. Tang’s backyard?” Nancy asked.

  She glanced to the right, toward Laura McCorry’s house. Laura’s house was only a few doors away. Dave Tang lived right behind Laura. Kenny could get there easily.

  “Yes,” Kenny admitted. “I took the hamburgers, too. But how did you know about that?”

  “Never mind,” Nancy said. But she couldn’t help smiling to herself. She felt pretty proud. She knew about everything he’d done.

  Or did she?

  “Is that all?” Nancy asked. “Is that all the food you stole?”

  “Yes, honest,” Kenny said. He stared at his feet, then looked at Nancy with pleading eyes. “Please don’t tell,” he said. “Please?”

  “Why did you do it?” Nancy asked.

  “It wasn’t for me,” Kenny said. “It was for my dog.”

  “Your dog?” Nancy asked. “But you don’t have a dog.”

  “Well, he’s really a stray,” Kenny said. “I call him Butch. I fed him, so he would stay.”

  “Oh,” Nancy said, nodding. She knew which dog Kenny meant—the tan stray.

  “Butch was following me the other day, when Mrs. Ratazchek came home,” Kenny went on. “She went in the house. While she was gone, I took the bag of groceries.”

  “That’s why there were dog footprints on the driveway,” Nancy muttered to herself. “Butch was with you.”

  “Huh?” Kenny asked.

  “Never mind,” Nancy said. Then she glanced at the bag of groceries in the shed. “But the bag is still full,” she said.

  “Full of paper stuff,” Kenny said. “Napkins and paper plates and stuff like that. And one box of macaroni. The only food in there was a package of hamburger meat.”

  Nancy looked more closely and saw that Kenny was right. There were a lot of paper goods. But the bag also had a dark red stain from the meat juices.

  “That’s what my dog smelled,” Nancy suddenly realized. She bent down and gave her puppy a hug. “Good dog,” Nancy said. “Good job, sniffing out the clues.”

  The puppy wagged her tail and licked Nancy on the nose.

  “I fed the meat to Butch the other day,” Kenny said. “But then I ran out of stuff. So when I saw those muffins at your house, I took them.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t have. Chocolate is bad for dogs.” Nancy thought for a moment. Then she said, “And then last night you stole the four hamburgers.”

  Kenny nodded. “Please don’t tell,” he said again. “I want to keep Butch so badly. And it’s working. He stays with me all the time now.”

  Nancy looked around the yard.

  “Where is he now?” she asked.

  “I locked him up in the garage when I saw you coming,” Kenny said. “Are you going to tell my mom?”

  Suddenly Nancy heard a screen door bang on the back of Kenny’s house.

  “She doesn’t have to tell,” Mrs. Bruder said as she came out the door. “I just overheard everything you said.”

  “Oh, no,” Kenny said. He smacked his head with his hands.

  Mrs. Bruder came over to Kenny. She bent down and put her arm around him.

  “Kenny,” she said, “I’m very sorry and upset to hear that you’ve been stealing food.”

  “But, Mom—” Kenny started to say.

  “No, let me finish,” Mrs. Bruder said. “I’m also very sorry that I didn’t understand how much you wanted a dog.”

  Kenny looked at his mom. “I’m sorry I took the food,” he said. “But I really like Butch. And he likes me.”

  “Well,” Mrs. Bruder said. “The first thing we need to do is return all these groceries to Mrs. Ratazchek. And you’ll tell her you’re sorry.”

  Kenny nodded again.

  “I’ll give you some money to pay for the hamburger,” Mrs. Bruder went on. “And then you need to apologize to Hannah Gruen about the muffins. And to Mr. Tang.”

  “Okay,” Kenny said quietly.

  He started to pick up the bag of groceries from the shed. But his mother stopped him.

  “Wait a minute,” she said. “First you’d better let Butch out of the garage. I’d like to meet this dog—since he’s going to be living with us from now on.”

  Kenny’s face lit up. “Really? You mean it? We can keep him?” he cried.

  “Yes,” his mother said. “If no one claims him. Of course, we’ll have to take him to the vet, to get him some shots.”

  Kenny made a face. “Yuck. I hate shots,” he said.

  Nancy laughed. “Don’t worry,” she said, smiling. “Dogs don’t mind too much.”

  Nancy picked up her puppy’s leash.

  “Well, I’d better go,” Nancy said.

  “Thank you, Nancy,” Mrs. Bruder said. “You’ve been a big help.”

  Nancy smiled. She was glad she had solved the mystery—and helped Kenny get a dog.

  But mostly she was glad that she could prove to Hannah that her puppy hadn’t eaten those muffins after all.

  Nancy ran home and burst in through the kitchen door.

  “Guess what?” she said to Hannah and her father. “I caught the muffin thief!” Nancy quickly told them the whole story.

  “Well, that explains it,” Hannah said. “See? I knew your puppy wasn’t guilty after all!”

  Nancy and her father laughed. Then the puppy ran up to Hannah and started wagging her tail.

  Hannah bent down to pet her.

  “You wouldn’t eat my chocolate chip muffins,” Hannah cooed to the puppy. “No, you wouldn’t. You’re not a chocolate chipster—even if you are a chocolate Lab.”

  “That’s it!” Nancy cried.

  “What?” Hannah asked.

  “Her name,” Nancy said. “Chocolate Chip! And we can call her Chip for short. Come here, Chocolate Chip. Come here, Chip.”

  Instantly the puppy ran to Nancy, wagging her tail.

  “See? She likes that name,” Nancy said, beaming.

  She picked up the puppy and cuddled her in her arms, hugging her tight.

  “Chip, you’re the best dog in the whole world,” Nancy said. “And thank you, Hannah. You thought of the perfect name.”

  Then Nancy put her puppy back in her crate so she could rest. It had been a big morning. The puppy seemed tired.

  Besides, there was something important Nancy wanted to do.

  She ran up to her room and took out her special blue notebook. She opened it to the next clean page.

  Then she wrote:

  This weekend I got a new puppy and solved the Mystery of the Missing Muffins. I also found out how it feels to be accused of something you didn’t do.

  Guess what? It doesn’t feel good.

  From now on, I’m going to think really hard before I accuse anyone of anything. (Especially Ralph Caruso!)

  P.S. My puppy helped me sniff out the clues. She’s the best dog in the whole world. I bet she’ll help me lots more when she grows up!

  Case closed.

 

 

  Carolyn Keene, The Puppy Problem

 

 

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