The Great Shelby Holmes Read Online Free PDF Page B

Shelby slowly. “Tamra, can I speak with you in private?”
    Mrs. Lacy and Tamra went into a room that was off the large living room where we were standing (my guess was that they were going to call the mental ward to haul Shelby away). Shelby sat down on a leather couch while I remained standing, as I was too afraid I’d stain something.
    “Are you okay?” I asked.
    “Of course, Watson, old chum!”
    Old chum? Who talks like that?
    “You seem a little nervous,” I admitted. While I really didn’t know her well, nervous didn’t seem like her style. Overly confident maybe, but not nervous.
    “I do?” Shelby slouched down on the couch. “I’m usually much better undercover, but I’ve never had to be someone’s friend before.”
    “Just be like how you are with your real friends.”
    “Right,” she responded quietly.
    Of course. The nervous laughter. The awkward body movements. Shelby had difficulty pretending to be a fake friend because she didn’t have a lot of real friends. Maybe none at all.
    Sure, everybody in the neighborhood was excited to see her, but they were all adults. Shelby had mentioned how her“contemporaries” didn’t appreciate her talents. Maybe she didn’t have any friends her own age?
    Was deductive reasoning contagious? Because I so had this thing down.
    “You know,” I proceeded cautiously, “I have lots of experience making new friends—one of the talents you get moving around so much. Maybe I can help you?”
    Shelby tilted her chin up. “I don’t need any help. I’m fine on my own, thank you very much.”
    “Listen, Shelby—” I began, but there was a scream accompanied by a loud clattering noise that came from down the hallway.
    Followed by the sound of a barking dog.

CHAPTER
    7
    I was on S helby ’ s heels as she raced toward the noise .
    Upon entering the largest kitchen I’d ever seen, a girl a little older than Tamra was trying to calm down a tiny ball of black fur that was barking at an older white woman wearing an apron.
    “Get that dog out of here!” the woman cried, her cheeks flushed. “How many times do I have to say it: no animals in the kitchen!”

    “Zareen!” A man with a suit on entered the kitchen and snapped his fingers. “Get her out, right now. You know better!”
    Zareen picked up the dog, who turned her incessant barking at me before being whisked away.
    “You found her!” I started saying before I could help myself. “Where was she?”
    “That’s not Daisy,” Shelby informed me. “Daisy is a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. That Pomeranian is Zareen’s dog, Roxy.”
    “And Zareen is—”
    “Tamra’s older sister.”
    “Are you okay, Eugenia?” the man asked the woman, who was shaking considerably from the incident.
    “Yes, Mr. Lacy.” Her voice had some sort of accent. Australian? Scottish? Irish? I had a hard time telling the difference. The woman wiped her hands on her apron and went back to cutting up some vegetables. “I didn’t mean to scream so loudly. I was simply taken by surprise.”
    “I’ll go talk to her,” Mr. Lacy said with a sigh. “Again.”
    “So you’re from Essex?” Shelby asked the woman.
    The woman appeared startled that there were other people in the kitchen. “Oh, why, yes. My, you certainly have an ear for accents. Tell me, my dears, who might you be?”
    “They’re my friends,” Tamra replied upon entering the kitchen with her mother right behind her.
    “Would your friends like a snack?”
    I looked at Shelby, hoping she wasn’t going to say no to another offer for free food. Pizza was one thing, but I was fairly certain that this woman was a professional chef, andthere was no way I wanted to turn down whatever she made in this ginormous kitchen.
    Shelby smiled widely at her. “I’d be delighted to partake in the walnut-fudge brownies you made this morning, please.” She sat herself down at the booth that was in the corner of the kitchen.
    The woman looked around. “How did you know