Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf Read Online Free PDF

dog!”
    She buffs another claw and says, “Then you’re just going to have to start
getting
some ideas, aren’t you, Samantha?”
    I took a deep breath and let it out as I said, “Mrs. Landvogt, look. I spent the whole night chasing around for Marique. Nobody saw her … there was no sign of her anywhere. Now we find out that someone’s dognapped her. Don’t you think you should call the police?”
    The paper flew open in my face. “They’ll kill her!”
    “But—”
    “And I’m not going to pay fifty thousand dollars for something that already belongs to me!”
    “But—”
    “You …!” She clenched her claws and vacuumed air through her nostrils. “You are going to find her and you are going to bring her home.”
    “I could try …”
    She studied me a minute. “You shall do more than try,you shall succeed!” That smile crept across her face again as she said, “And if you don’t, I’ll have no choice but to tell the authorities about your living situation.”
    All of a sudden it felt like I had a mouth full of Styrofoam. “My living situation?”
    “Don’t play dumb with me, Samantha. I know all about you, and if you don’t want to find yourself on the street, you’ll find my dog and you’ll bring her home!”
    I stood there for a minute with my heart whacking away and my hands going clammy. Finally I tried, “There’s no law against me living with my best friend!”
    She threw her little turban-head back and laughed. “Don’t think for an instant I’m going to fall for that! I know you’re living at the Senior Highrise, so let’s stop playing games, shall we?”
    All of a sudden I was on fire—pure, angry fire. It started in my cheeks and then spread through my body, and as I’m standing there burning up, I look the Crocodile square in the eye and say, “Fine! Go ahead and call! There’s no way that your dog running off was my fault, and if you think you can blackmail me into finding her, you’re wrong!”
    And I’m marching straight for the door when I hear, “Too bad about your grandmother.”
    I froze.
    “I don’t think she’d do well on the streets in the dead of winter.”
    I turned around. “You can’t do anything to her and you know it.”
    The Crocodile studied one of her nails. “Oh? I believeshe’s been violating her lease for over a year now …” She looked straight at me. “With a few phone calls, that little apartment of yours could be occupied by any number of people on a very lengthy waiting list.”
    My mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
    She smiled and said, “Hadn’t you better run along? You have work to do.”
    I turned and walked out. And I slammed the door, all right, but as I stood there in the hallway, shaking, I knew there was no way around it.
    I had to find that dog.

FIVE
    Marissa and I spent the next hour locked in her room, trying to decide how to get me out of the mess I was in. But since I didn’t really want to skip town or murder anybody, I finally decided to start digging for answers at the Pup Parlor.
    Vera was in the middle of hosing down a schnauzer when I came clanking through the Pup Parlor door. She took one look at me, turned off the spray, and said, “Did you find her?”
    I shook my head and said, “No.”
    “I should never have asked you to show her, Sammy, I’m sorry.”
    “It’s not your fault, Vera, I—”
    “But I know what a pain in the neck that woman is! Every time she brings Marique here, she’s got to boss me around. The water’s too cold, I’ve got the blower on too fast, I’m brushing her precious baby too hard. She makes me a nervous wreck.”
    “Holly told me about the business license. Can she do that?”
    Vera wagged the nozzle in my direction. “Lilia Landvogt seems to be able to do whatever she wants.”
    “But you didn’t even touch her dog!”
    The schnauzer shook out all over her, but she didn’t seem to care. She turned the water back on and started spraying him down