Ivy and Bean Take the Case (3 page)

“Yikes!” squawked Bean, flopping over like a pancake.

It was Ivy, leaning over her. “What're you doing?”

It's hard to be tough while you're lying flat on your back, but Bean tried. “I'm cracking a case.”

“You're what?” asked Ivy.

“It means solving a mystery,” Bean said. She sat up. “I'm practicing to be a private investigator. P. I. for short.”

“Pi?” Ivy said. “3.1415—”

“No, not that one. P. I. stands for private investigator. You know, someone who solves mysteries. Like Al Seven.”

“Al who?” asked Ivy.

So Bean explained everything about Al Seven and
Seven Falls
. For a while, Ivy thought Al Seven
was
seven, but soon she understood.

Bean told her about how Al Seven found clues and rubbed his face. She told Ivy about how Al Seven snuck after people and spied on them and asked them the hard questions. How Al Seven spied on Sammy La Barba and saw him put money in a mailbox. And then about how Al Seven gave all the money to a girl named Lola.

“Why'd he do that?” asked Ivy.

Bean shrugged. “Don't know. But then he sits in his car for a long time and then the police come and some newspaper guys, and he's a big hero. But he doesn't care, and he walks off alone in an alley.”

“Wow.” Ivy was impressed.

“So,” Bean said. “I'm going to be a P. I. and I'm going to solve mysteries.”

Ivy looked around Bean's front yard. “What mystery are you solving now?”

“The Mystery of What's Under the Cement Rectangle,” Bean answered.

“Hey!” Ivy said. “I've always wondered about that!”

“That's what makes it a mystery,” said Bean. She rolled over and looked into the hole again. “I was trying to see into it, but
it was too dark, so now—” She hooked her finger into the hole. “Ew. It's slimy.” But Al Seven wouldn't let a little slime stop him, and neither would Bean. She pulled. The cement rectangle made a scraping sound. Just as she thought: It was a lid. She pulled harder. More scraping. She pulled really hard. The cement rectangle popped upward.

“Wow,” said Ivy, bending over the rectangle in the grass.

Underneath the cement lid, down below the grass, there was a rectangular space full of slime. In the middle of the space stood a gray machine with a dial on it. Pipes came from its sides and disappeared into the ground.

“Hey, look at that!” It was Sophie S. from down the street, bending over Bean. “I always wanted to know what was under there.”

“The Mystery of What's Under the Cement Rectangle has now been solved,” Bean said. It felt good to have an answer.

Sophie S. peered down into the hole. “You think the same thing is inside all of them?”

“There's only one way to find out,” said Bean the P. I.

All around Pancake Court, rectangular cement lids lay beside slimy cement holes.

“I don't think it counts as a mystery,” said Prairie. She was nine. She argued a lot.

“Sure it does,” said Bean. “It was the Mystery of What's Under the Cement Rectangle. I solved it.”

“I feel a lot better now that I know for sure there aren't monsters in there,” said Sophie S.

“It's not mysterious,” argued Prairie. “It's just pipes in the dirt.”

The nerve! Bean made her eyes into slits. “Look, I'm almost a private investigator, so I know about what's a mystery and what's not.”

Prairie made a snorty sound. “Hey, Dino!” she called as he zipped by on his skateboard. “Guess what Bean and Ivy are doing?!”

He skidded into the grass. “What?”

“We're solving mysteries,” said Bean firmly.

Dino looked around. “What mysteries?”

Bean looked at Prairie. “The Mystery of the Sleeping Mailman.”

+ + + + + +

“Shh!” whispered Ivy.

They tiptoed down Ivy's driveway and stuffed themselves behind a bush. Very carefully, they leaned out and looked toward the mail truck parked at the curb. Inside, the mailman was lying across the two front seats. His eyes were closed. His mouth was open. He had earphones in his ears.

“I don't see what's so mysterious about him,” said Prairie. “He's just sleeping.”

“He does it every day,” whispered Bean. “He whizzes around Pancake Court, parks in front of Ivy's house, and falls asleep for two
hours. Why does he sleep in the middle of the day? It's a mystery.”

Prairie looked doubtful, but Bean didn't wait for her to argue. She moved silently to a tree near the mail truck and beckoned for Ivy to follow her. One by one, Ivy and Sophie S. and Dino and Prairie came to her side. Together, they watched the mailman breathe in and out.

Bean remembered how Al Seven had given a big sigh and walked toward Sammy La Barba. Bean pulled down her hat, gave a big sigh, and walked toward the mail truck.

Silently, she stood at the open door of the truck.

The mailman breathed in and out.

Silently, the other kids gathered around her.

The mailman breathed in and out.

Silently, Bean bent down to look at the mailman. What was the matter with him?

The mailman breathed in and out.

Silently, the other kids bent down to look at the mailman. What was the matter with him?

The mailman's eyes clicked open. He screamed.

+ + + + + +

“But now we know,” Bean was saying. “We didn't know before, and now we do.”

“He's just tired because his baby cries all night!” said Prairie. “It's not very mysterious,” agreed Dino. Ruby and Trevor, who lived down the street, nodded. They'd come outside when the mailman screamed, but they didn't think a sleepy mailman was mysterious either.

Ivy's cheeks got pink. “Look! No one knew why he slept in his truck. Now we know. The mystery was solved by Bean, P. I.”

Prairie shook her head.

“Fine,” said Bean. “I'll solve my next mystery alone. With Ivy.”

“What's the mystery?” asked Sophie S.

“I can't tell you, but it's a good one,” said Bean, crossing her arms.

“A really good one,” added Ivy. “Very mysterious and strange.”

“Strange?” said Sophie S. “Really?”

Bean frowned. It wasn't exactly strange.

“Yeah!” said Ivy. “So strange it would make your hair stand on end.”

Trevor made an I-don't-believe-you noise. “What is it?”

“So mysterious that your skin would crawl,” Ivy went on. Bean looked at her, worried. Their skin probably wouldn't crawl, exactly. “So incredible—”

“WHAT?” yelled Trevor, Ruby, and Prairie at the same time.

“The Tengs!” Bean shouted. “What do they keep locked behind their fence?”

There was a silence. “I've always wondered that,” said Trevor.

+ + + + + +

It was a beautiful garden. There were flowers everywhere, roses and big blue things that Bean didn't know the name of. There was a cherry tree with shiny red cherries on it. There was a stone lion and a table and a white bench where the Tengs' cat snoozed in the sun.
There were even artichokes with purple tops growing on stems. Bean had never known that artichokes grew on stems. It was pretty. It was nice.

But it was not mysterious.

Or strange.

Or incredible or skin-crawling.

Bean climbed down the chair on top of the other chair on top of the table. Slowly, she turned to face Ivy, Sophie S., Dino, Prairie, Ruby, and Trevor.