Pet Shop Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Henry and I will check on Grayfellow,” Jessie told Violet, Benny, and Soo Lee. “You three can go see if you can meet the monkey and the new parrot.”
    When the younger children got close to the crowd, they heard Mrs. Tweedy. “No, I’m sorry. These animals are not for sale. We’re just caring for them until they go to a proper home at the zoo. Now please, step back so they don’t get frightened.”
    After the customers left, Mrs. Tweedy called the children. “Come on over, Soo Lee, Violet, Benny. Let me introduce you to George and Rainbow. George is a woolly monkey. Rainbow is a macaw. They’re both from South America.”
    George was sitting on Mrs. Tweedy’s shoulder. He gazed down at the children with his huge brown eyes. “Yip, yip,” he said.
    “Yip, yip,” Benny said back.
    Soo Lee was more interested in the new parrot.

    “Rainbow looks like all the colors in my crayon box. Blue, yellow, red, green, orange, purple.”
    Mrs. Tweedy smiled. “Indeed, she does have the colors of a crayon box. Rainbow is quite beautiful. Imagine her flying through the rain forest. I hated to trim her wings this morning, but I had to. I was worried she’d fly far away and go searching for her real home.”
    Violet could see how nervous Rainbow was. The large, long-tailed bird walked back and forth in her cage. “How did Rainbow and George get here from the rain forest?” Violet wanted to know.
    Mrs. Tweedy’s eyes grew shiny and sad. “Mr. Fowler said they were probably brought into the country illegally and bought by someone who couldn’t care for them. Whoever it was dropped them off in front of my shop last night. Poor Rainbow. Most parrots sold in shops are born and bred here. They are used to being indoors and don’t mind it. But Rainbow and George came from a real forest.”
    “Are George and Rainbow homesick?” Soo Lee asked. “I get homesick for Korea sometimes.”
    Mrs. Tweedy smiled. “I think they are homesick, Soo Lee. They belong outdoors again. Mr. Fowler said he has made arrangements for them to go to a zoo that has a tropical area. They will be more at home there.”
    While Mrs. Tweedy spoke with the younger children, Henry and Jessie tried to calm down Grayfellow. “Go home. Go home,” he repeated.
    “I guess when he saw someone at the little door, he wanted to go out,” Jessie said. “I’ll fetch some seeds to quiet him down. I can’t tell who opened the door, can you?”
    Henry shook his head. “All I know was that the person was wearing a light-colored jacket or shirt. About half the people in the shop have something like that on, including me! Even Mrs. Tweedy does.”
    “Who else is wearing a light-colored top?” Henry asked Jessie when she returned with a handful of bird food.
    “Mr. Fowler, Mrs. Doolittle, the old woman who told Benny how to comb Doughnut. She seems nicer now that Mrs. Tweedy is here,” Jessie said. “She has on a light-colored sweater. But I don’t think she’d let Grayfellow out. All she does is complain about how everybody else treats the animals.”
    Henry held out a large seed for Grayfellow. The parrot plucked it from Henry’s hand. He cracked it open in no time at all.
    “Who else is in the store?” Henry asked. “I thought I spotted that boy Arthur.”
    Jessie nodded. “He was in the store, but he had on a dark blue denim jacket. I tried to say hi to him, but he ran out. He’s so shy.”
    By this time Grayfellow was up on Henry’s hand. “Watch. Watch,” the bird said.
    Henry laughed. “No, you don’t, Grayfellow. You’re not going to take my watch apart.”
    “He does love shiny things,” Jessie said. “I wonder why that is with parrots.”
    “He’s finally settling down,” Henry said when he heard the bell on the shop door jingle. “We got here just in time. Grayfellow could have gotten out again.”
    Henry and Jessie headed to the bird area in the back of the shop. Violet had already filled Rainbow’s water bottle and food