Smashie McPerter and the Mystery of the Missing Goop by N. Griffin

Author:N. Griffin [Griffin, N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9190-5
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2016-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

“Look at the top of the sign.”

Smashie looked at the sign, which lay flush against the wall of the market. “I don’t see anything,” she confessed. “Except hinges.”

“Exactly,” Dontel whispered. “And that means . . .” He snaked his fingers under the bottom edge of the sign. “You keep watch.”

Smashie looked around the parking lot. No one was looking in their direction.

Dontel lifted the edge of the sign. The hinges creaked. He drew in his breath sharply.

“What?” cried Smashie, and came around to look.

But there was nothing there. Nothing, except a piece of tape to which a scrap of paper was still stuck, clearly torn off from a larger sheet that had been fastened there.

“We’re too late,” said Smashie. “Somebody already got what was taped there!”

“We are too late,” Dontel agreed. “But we were right, Smashie! These thefts were never about the goop!”

Smashie nodded. “The jars are clues to something much bigger! It was about secret messages the whole time!”

“Yes,” said Dontel. “But what are the secret messages? What do they say?”

“And why use our goop to send clues? Maybe we have another enemy who really does want to wreck our musicale as well as be involved in intrigue!”

But before Smashie could start up her imagination on the topic, the doors to the TrueYum flew open. “Are you two ever coming in with that cart?” Grammy demanded. “Or do you want Mrs. Marquise to walk around with her arms full of tomatoes for the next half hour while you chitchat?”

The shopping over, Smashie and Dontel were in the Marquises’ kitchen, working on the brownies.

Smashie slapped her forehead. “I completely forgot to ask you. Why didn’t you let me take the jar from under the basketball bin? Why did you want to leave it there?”

“Because,” said Dontel, cracking the first egg into the bowl, “it was placed there so carefully I knew it was meant for someone. It was no accident.”

“But who could it have been meant for?”

“The code receiver,” said Dontel.

“I know that,” said Smashie. “But who could that be?”

“I have no idea,” Dontel admitted. “But we can watch to see if another one appears there under the indoor basketball bins again. Maybe we’ll even catch who comes to collect it in the act!”

“We would have to have a hot pursuit!” Smashie’s mind filled with the image of her and Dontel racing after the suspect, arms pumping, legs churning, and finally grabbing the collar of the perp and turning him or her over to the authorities. Or at least to Ms. Early. And then maybe she would be so proud of Smashie that she would let her sing in the musicale! Smashie’s Investigator Suit looking so much like an Officer of the Law Suit would be good for catching a perp like that. Though, she supposed, now that the kids were onto that particular suit, she couldn’t wear it again.

“Who do you think left the jar there?” said Smashie. “Charlene’s mom? She’s the one who makes the goop and puts it in the jars and labels them.

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