Read Online Sammy Keyes and the Runaway Elf by Wendelin Van Draanen - Free Book Online Page A

“It’s hanging in the bathroom.”
    I took the key and asked, “Do you want anything else? Your slippers? Your lipstick?”
    She pulled the sheets up around her. “Doesn’t matter,” she said, and rolled over.
    I tiptoed out and practically tripped on Elyssa sitting on the floor around the corner. She stood up and said, “How do you know her?”
    “She’s my grandmother’s neighbor.”
    “Oh.”
    Just then Mrs. Keltner came up, so I asked, “Why is Mrs. Graybill here?”
    She cleared her throat a bit and said, “She isn’t well, dear.”
    “But what’s
wrong
with her?”
    Mrs. Keltner let out a little sigh. “Sometimes when people get older they need a little help caring for themselves. That’s why she’s here, and that’s why we’re here.”
    “But …”
    She eyed Elyssa like maybe I shouldn’t be talking about this anymore, and then said, “Thanks again for bringing Elyssa over.” She stuffed some money in my pocket. “I’ll see you tomorrow, all right?”
    Now, it’s not that I didn’t need the money. I didn’t
want
the money. I took it out of my pocket and stuffed it right back in her nurse shirt. “See you tomorrow,” I said, then called to Elyssa, “Don’t let Shane put any paint in Snowball’s water dish!”
    She giggled. “I won’t!”
    I was on my way outside when Mrs. Keltner called after me, “Sammy! I almost forgot to ask you …” She came hurrying toward me. “You were on the dog float—do you by chance have any idea who threw those cats into the parade?”
    “Um … I don’t know, maybe.”
    She looked over both shoulders like she was afraid someone would hear. “If you do, you need to tell Officer Borsch.”
    “Why?”
    “Gil is a very proud man, and I’m afraid they’ve been roasting him down at the station. There’s this one fellow down there that I know from the time my husband was on the force. Andy’s a real instigator, and he takes things too far. Apparently he had a huge poster made of Gil falling off the horse and hung it up in the ready room, and he brought in a cake that said ‘Giddy-up!’—childish stuff like that.”
    I had to look away to keep from busting up. I wanted to say, Giddy-up! and fall down laughing, but instead I bit the inside of my cheeks and got busy toeing at the ground.
    “I think Gil would feel a lot better if he could produce the people who threw the cats. He’s got a lead that they were a group of girls about your age—have you heard anything?”
    I almost just said no. I mean, Officer Borsch is someone I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. At least that’s what I’d always thought. But here I was, able to do just that, and suddenly I
wasn’t
so sure. Finally I looked up at her and said, “I’ll see what I can find out.”
    She smiled and said, “Oh, that would be wonderful!”
    I hurried outside and stood there for a minute taking in deep breaths, trying to flush the lilacs out of my nose. A picture of Heather sweating under Officer Borsch’s light-bulb went dancing through my brain, and it left a strange taste in my mouth. Like eating lima beans and licorice.
    I shook off the thought and told myself to get going. I had lots of work to do and not much time. I took out the notes I’d made at the Landvogt mansion, then ranacross Main Street to a gas station. On the posted map I found Braxton Way—it was a cul-de-sac a few blocks east of College Street, about half a mile away.
    So off I went to visit Paula Nook and her hairless mutt, Ribs. And I guess I was so busy thinking about what I was going to say if she answered the door that I wasn’t really noticing the scenery—or the pickup truck parked in front of Paula’s home. Not until the dog inside the cab about broke his nose trying to charge through the window to get me, that is.
    I jumped and ran, and as I looked over my shoulder it hit me—there was only one dog in the whole world that looked like that. I went back to the cab, and sure enough, it was