Dial M for Mongoose Read Online Free PDF Page B

from our client. The two janitors were loading the last of the debris into the back of a truck. The badgers were hauling off a Dumpster. Two more Dumpsters stood nearby, stuffed with more junk than a greedy kindergartner after Halloween.
    "So what's news, mongoose?" I said.
    Ms. DeBree paused and wiped grime off her forehead with a spotless handkerchief. "It's one mystery, for sure," she said. "The wood is good, the floor seemed solid, but somehow it all collapsed into a hole."
    "Weird," said Natalie.
    The mongoose scratched her head. "Yeah. Almost
like we built the building over a hole and it finally fell in." She shook herself. "But that's cuckoo."
    Natalie and I climbed down into the crater that used to be a classroom. Nothing to see but a hole. Hard to detect much from that.
    We scrambled back out.
    "Hey, that hole reminds me of something," I said.
    "Your grades?" Natalie smirked.
    "Nope, that digger." I went over to Ms. DeBree, who was loading a last chunk of wall into the truck. "Did you hire a bad-tempered mole in a hard hat to clean up around here?"
    Her eyebrows drew together like two caterpillars crossing swords. "A mole? No..."
    Mr. Dooty slapped his forehead. "Oh, I'm such a dum-dum. I forgot to tell you. Mr. Zero asked me to get someone to haul off the dirt piles, like I don't have enough to do around here. Was that okay?"
    The mongoose nodded, but her face stayed as glum as the last kid to be picked for the softball team.
    "Cheer up," said Natalie. "Look on the bright side."
    "What bright side?" said the janitor, stepping into the truck cab.
    Natalie waved a wing. "We've already had a stinkbomb, two thefts, and a classroom cave-in. What else could go wrong?"
    What else? Only a foolhardy detective would ask
what else?
And unfortunately, that's exactly what we were.

9. Hot Friggety Frog
    The next morning, things at Emerson Hicky were quiet but tense, like a classroom where nobody's done the homework and the teacher's asking for volunteers.
    No fresh thefts, no exploding Dumpsters. But the whole school seemed to be holding its breath. Word of the latest happenings had spread, and students and teachers were looking over their shoulders.
    My old pal, Bo Newt, was absent. Nobody knew why. Was this something sinister, or just a day of playing hooky?
    "Where's Bo?" I asked Bitty Chu."Is he sick? It's not like him to skip school for anything less than a circus or a skateboarding festival."
    "Why should
I
care?" she said. "He's a smart aleck."
    "Yeah, but he's
our
smart aleck."
    I brooded about my missing pal. And the knowledge that Parents Night was coming the next day didn't help my mood any.
    At recess, only the little kids carried on with the same gusto as usual. Natalie and I tried to rustle up some clues, but we were as luckless as the only chicken at a fox family reunion.
    "Could the Stinkers have tunneled under that classroom?" I asked.
    Natalie preened her shoulder feathers. "Not their style. And can you picture Erik Nidd trying to dig with all those legs?"
    "Good point."
    We eased along the edge of the grass.
    "What about Jerry Dooty?" said Natalie.
    "What about him?" I scanned the clumps of kids engaged in soccer, tetherball, and quiet conversations.
    "He
is
a gopher," said Natalie. "Maybe
he
undermined the building."
    "So he could clean up the mess he made?
Bzzzt
—I'm sorry, wrong answer."
    Natalie touched my arm with a wing tip, stopping me. "Okay, hotshot, I know where we might get an idea who sunk the classroom."
    "Where?"
    She pointed to Mrs. Crow, who was waddling up the hallway. "
She
knows which teacher's classroom collapsed. Maybe that teacher can give us a lead."
    "Mrs. Crow!" I called. "Can we talk?"
    She narrowed her eyes. "What's in it for me?"
    Before I could tell her, fate got in the way—again.
    With a loud
ka-whompf!
flames burst from the next building down the hall.
    The sprinklers above us exploded into action with all the enthusiasm of an un-housebroken puppy, soaking the three of