Strike Three, You're Dead by Josh Berk

Author:Josh Berk [Berk, Josh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-98736-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2013-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Standing out there in the hot sun spit-shaking and squinting like cowboys felt pretty good. Like we might really have a chance to solve this thing. But then a police car went screaming by, and the sound of the siren sort of popped my bubble. I thought of all the crime-stopping power in just one of those vehicles. Radios. Fingerprinting kits. Handcuffs. Weapons. We didn’t have cars, we had bikes. We didn’t have guns, we had our bare hands. We didn’t even have mustaches. What kind of detectives could we be? Besides that, Maria was probably grounded. Mr. Bonzer certainly didn’t look happy looming in the door of the library, shielding his eyes from the sun and staring out at us.

“You going to come back to work anytime today?” he shouted at her.

“I was hoping to take the rest of the day off,” she said. “If that’s okay.”

“I’m going to have to have a talk with your mother about all this,” he said. “You know that, right?”

“Come on, Uncle Alan,” she said. We laughed. There’s nothing inherently funny about being named Alan, of course, just that anytime you learn a grown-up’s name you never knew before, it’s hard not to laugh. If he wasn’t just Mr. Bonzer, the library guy, but rather Alan, somebody’s uncle … well, it makes a person seem more human somehow. “I’ll mow the lawn for you,” Maria said. This also made me laugh. Mainly because I was picturing Bonzer sweating all over a lawn mower.

“Okay,” Bonzer said, sort of quickly. He probably hated mowing the lawn. He dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief. “I’ll let you take the day off to go do whatever business you’re doing with these gentlemen.” He pointed toward the three of us. We certainly looked like classy gentlemen. Other Mike was picking his nose (with both hands at once), and Mike was kicking the bike rack with the toe of his raggedy sneaker. I was actually behaving like a perfect gentleman. Maybe farting a little. “As long as you stay out of trouble,” Bonzer said like he doubted it.

“You got it,” we all said at once, Maria too.

“Great,” he said, wiping sweat off his forehead again. “Cerberus has become Brahma.”

“Um, what?” Maria asked.

“Cerberus is a three-headed monster, Brahma is a four-headed god. Instead of the three of you guys acting as one, now you’re a four-headed beast. What dangers hath I wrought?” he said. Then he smiled. Librarians are sort of weird.

It was cool that Maria could have the day off with us, but I still wasn’t sure where to begin. We stood in silent awkwardness in front of the library for a few moments. Luckily, Maria wasn’t one to keep silent for long.

“Oh man, I can’t believe you were there, in the booth, at the game when this went down, Lenny!” she said, turning to face me.

“Yup,” I said, looking away. “I totally was.” And then I didn’t know what else to say.

“So did you notice anything

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