Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Disgusting Sneakers Read Online Free PDF Page A

center,” he said. “It’s only a ten-minute ride.”
    He handed the boys bus fare and went back to his newspaper.
    Encyclopedia tried to comfort Ike. “You’ve got more than an hour before you have to return the pamphlet,” he said encouragingly.
    “Th-That’s all?” Ike gurgled. “Do you think Hewitt would really hit an unarmed little kid?”
    The Suniland shopping center was a strip of five stores along Gelula Avenue. Just Skirts was at the southern end. A sign, CLOSED FOR INVENTORY , hung in the window.
    Ike put his forehead to the glass pane. “There’s no one inside. They’ve quit for the day!”
    Encyclopedia was puzzled. “Over the telephone your mother sounded as if she were coming here to bring back the gray skirt.”
    “I thought so, too,” Ike said.
    “Maybe she changed her mind and went straight to your grandmother’s.”
    Ike whooped. “So she took the shopping bag with her! Encyclopedia, your brain never stops!”
    Ike used a pay phone to call his grandmother.
    Encyclopedia sat down on an iron bench. Something was bothering him. He looked at the store signs hanging below the ceiling of the covered walk.
    Next to Just Skirts was a hardware store.Then came a beauty parlor, a drugstore, and a dry cleaner.
    The detective closed his eyes and did some deep thinking. It took half a minute to come up with the answer.
    He opened his eyes and saw Ike standing by the telephone, clutching his wrist.
    “What are you doing?” Encyclopedia asked.
    “I’m taking my pulse,” Ike whimpered. “There’s no answer at Grandma’s. Mom must have driven her somewhere.” He let out a groan. “What can Hewitt do to me that will make people ask if I was ever dead?”
    Encyclopedia could name a dozen things. He said merely, “Cheer up. I know where your mother is.”
    WHERE?
    (Turn to this page for the solution to The Case of the Missing Shopping Bag.)

The Case of the Disgusting Sneakers
    O n the day of the Disgusting Sneaker Contest, Phoebe Eastwood, last year’s champion, walked into the Brown Detective Agency. She had on shoes.
    Encyclopedia immediately knew something was afoot.
    All year Phoebe had prepared for the defense of her title by wearing the same pair of sneakers. She had them in really disgusting shape.
    “I want to hire you,” she said, laying twenty-five cents on the gas can beside Encyclopedia.“Some girl swiped my right sneaker.”
    Bad as her left sneaker was, her right sneaker was worse. It had two large holes in front. Her toes poked through like stunned tadpoles.
    “I kept the sneakers outside the garage,” Phoebe said. “Mom never allows them in the house. She says the smell would make an elephant faint.”
    All at once Encyclopedia wished he were somewhere else, like somersaulting down a ski jump.
    “Go on,” he said bravely.
    “An hour ago I was sitting in the garage, clipping my toenails, the ones that show through the right sneaker,” Phoebe said. “The door was open, and I noticed a girl running across my yard.”
    “Who was it?” Sally asked.
    “I only saw her back,” Phoebe said. “But she was carrying my sneaker.”
    “Whoever stole your sneaker wants to stop you from winning again,” Sally said. “That means she’s in the Disgusting Sneaker Contest herself.”
    “Then go out to South Park and watch the contest,” Phoebe urged. “Maybe you can spot the thief.”
    Encyclopedia cared less than zero about getting up close and personal with the rottenest sneakers in Idaville.
    Still … duty called.
    As they biked to South Park, Phoebe told the detectives all about the Disgusting Sneaker Contest.
    The event raised money for charity through entrance fees and sponsors. There were only two rules. Sneakers had to belong to the child whose feet were in them, and damage couldn’t be caused by anything but natural wear.
    “The judges grade sneakers on a scale of one to twenty,” Phoebe said. “They look at eyelets, tongues, soles, heels, and overall