Philip and the Case of Mistaken Identity and Philip and the Baby (9781597051095) Read Online Free PDF Page B

have any eyes! How did she drive
her car that day if she can’t see?”
    “Who can’t see?”
    “The grandmother can’t see!”
    “Why not?”
    “ You said she doesn’t have any eyes. You
just said it.”
    “What are you talking about? Of course she
has eyes. She has eyes to see, but no ‘I’s’ to spell.”
    “What! Why would she spell with her
eyes?”
    “You’re confusing me.”
    “ I’m confusing you ?” Philip
took a deep breath, his stomach in a giant knot. Very slowly he
said, “Did you find the phone number of the grandmother?”
    “Yes.”
    “How?”
    “Y.”
    “ Because I want to know! All right! I want
to know!”
    “I told you. ‘Y’.”
    “No... you... didn’t... tell... me... why.”
Philip was speaking slowly, trying to keep his temper. “You didn’t
tell me anything!”
    “I told you everything. Now listen. The
grandmother spells her name with a ‘Y’. ‘D-Y’. She doesn’t have any
I’s in her name. Get it? You looked under ‘D-I’ and I looked under
‘D-Y’.”
    Philip stared at Emery and rubbed his
stomach.
    “Hungry?” Emery asked.
    “No, I’m not hungry,” Philip shouted. “You’re
making my stomach hurt.”
    “How? I didn’t do anything.”
    “Just tell me the number again.”
    “243-6885.”
    Philip took a pencil from the end table and
wrote the number down.
    “Okay,” he said. “You call it. Come on into
the kitchen.”
    Emery followed, took the phone, and punched
in the number.
    “It’s ringing,” Emery whispered.
    Philip nodded.
    “Oh, hello. May I speak to Janie? Oh, she
isn’t there? Me? Oh, you can tell her that Philip called. Bye.”
    “Why did you say I called?”
    “I’m you, remember?”
    “Oh, yeah.”
    “So there is a Janie,” said Emery.
    “Who answered?”
    “Sounded old. Must have been the
grandmother.”
    “Let me call her, too,” said Philip.
    “Why?”
    Philip glared at Emery. “Don’t start ‘whying’
me again,” he warned.
    “For what reason do you want to call?” Emery
said, giving a sharp nod.
    “We’ll just be sure. Move. This time she
should say wrong number.”
    Philip moved to the phone and dialed.
    “Oh, hello. May I speak to Joanie, please?
What? She’s out? Where’d she go? I mean I’m sorry I missed her. Can
you tell her that Emery called? Thanks. Bye.”
    Philip and Emery stared silently at each
other for a moment.
    “Maybe she has two names,” said Emery.
    “Are you sure the girl you saw was the same
one we saw at the supermarket?”
    “Positive.”
    “There’s only one thing to do,” said
Philip.
    “You’re right. Into disguise.”
    Philip nodded, ran upstairs to get something,
and the boys went back to Emery’s house to put on their
disguises.
     
     

 
     
     
     
Seven
    “You didn’t tell me how I look,” Philip said.
He and Emery were standing in the supermarket parking lot, looking
through a metal fence at the house where the girl and her
grandmother had gone on Saturday. Philip had run up to his bedroom
and brought two baseball caps with him from his house. He wore one
cap in a normal fashion, the brim sticking out over his eyes. The
other hat was on backwards, the brim jutting out over the back of
his neck.
    “Why don’t you like your derby? The picture
didn’t have two people with deerstalker hats on.”
    “Maybe if it was a real derby. But an inside
out baseball hat with white lines and air holes...” Philip just
shook his head. “Now I have my own deerstalker hat.”
    “It looks okay. I still think you should have
put on the freckles and the eyebrows,” said Emery, adjusting his
empty glasses.
    Philip shook his head. “I told you. That red
pencil takes too long and it’s too hard to get off. I hate rubbing
spit all over my face. If we’re going to follow the girl and talk
to her, I don’t want to look like Bozo the clown. A fake ear and a
fake nose are enough.”
    Their plan was to watch the house. When the
girl left, they would follow her. When they