Ivy and Bean Take the Case (8 page)

“Yeah!” said Ivy. Her face got dreamy. “Or maybe the rope
is
the creature. Maybe it's tying itself.” She looked at Bean. “Like magic.”

Bean nodded. “Maybe it's magic.” She leaned forward to look at the rope. It was either a mystery or magic. Either way was fine. “It's going to get to my house soon.”

“You'll have a mystery in your own front yard,” said Ivy.

A mystery in her own front yard. Right in the middle of her P. I. office. “Al Seven is always wanting to solve mysteries,” Bean said.

“That's what I don't get about him,” said Ivy. “Why does he always want to
solve
them?
You solve problems, but a mystery isn't a problem, so why does it have to be solved?”

“Sometimes it's a problem,” said Bean.

“This one isn't. Nobody's getting hurt or anything. It's a nice mystery.”

Bean nodded. It was true. The rope moved from yard to yard. It wasn't doing anything bad. It came in the night and no one knew who did it, but that made it interesting.

Ivy yawned.

Yawns were catching. Bean yawned, too.

Ivy stood up. “I'm going home.”

“Okay. See you tomorrow.” Bean watched until Ivy closed her door, and then she went upstairs to her own cozy bed.

“You didn't get him!” yelled Trevor when Bean came out of her house the next morning.

“You fell asleep, didn't you?” said Ruby.

“Did you even get up at all?” asked Dino.

They crowded together, waiting for her on the sidewalk.

“I
was
up,” Bean said. “Ivy and I were both up all night, sitting right on the porch there. In the dark. Without a single light,” she added to Trevor.

“Well?” said Prairie. She pointed to the rope on Kalia's mailbox.

“Well, okay, we didn't see who did it,” Bean admitted. “It was very strange and mysterious. One moment it wasn't there, and the next moment it was. We're thinking that maybe it's some kind of white, rubbery creature from another world who comes every night with a piece of rope.”

“And slithers through the bushes without making any sound,” Ivy added, coming up to the group. “And then—”

“Cut it out, you guys!” said Sophie S.

“Yeah, cut it out!” said Dino. He looked mad.

“But it's cool!” Bean said. She tried to explain. “It could be a regular person, but he'd have to be tiny, like a gnome or—”

“A gnome?” asked Dino. “Like a little creepy guy? That's not cool!”

Sophie S. put her hands on her hips. “Listen, Bean, you said you would catch
Mr. Whoever. You
said
.”

“Yeah,” said Trevor and Ruby and Prairie together.

Bean tried again. “But it could be magic! Right here in our own neighborhood! Isn't that the greatest?”

“Zombies are magic,” said Dino. “And then they eat your brains.”

“I think you guys watch too many scary movies,” said Bean. “This is real life. It's our very own mystery, and, it might even be magic.”

There was a silence. Then Trevor said, “If we knew for sure it was magic, it would be okay.”

“But we don't know what it is,” said Ruby.

“And we don't know why it's happening,” said Sophie.

“Right!” said Ivy, waving her hands in the air. “That's what makes it a mystery!”

She and Bean smiled at the faces around them. Nobody smiled back.

“Okay, Bean,” said Prairie after a moment. “If you won't solve the Mystery of the Yellow Rope, then we will.”

Sheesh. They were so serious. “Fine!” said Bean. “I'll solve it, I'll solve it! Meet me in the P. I. office after school.”

+ + + + + +

All day, Bean thought about magic and Al Seven and being a P. I. But most of all, she thought about solving the Mystery of the
Yellow Rope. She thought about it during rug time. She thought about it during Drop Everything and Read. She thought about it during Mad Minute Math. She even thought about it during recess.

By the end of the day, she still hadn't solved a thing. The case was uncracked.

After school, Ivy and Bean walked home. They walked very slowly. Then they walked backward. Then they played Straightjacket, where you could only turn when you ran into something. It took a long time to get back to Pancake Court. The closer they got, the slower they walked.

“What am I going to do?” asked Bean. “I'm supposed to solve the mystery.”

“Maybe you could say that a zombie
did
eat your brains,” Ivy suggested. “Nobody can solve a mystery if her brain has been eaten.”

Dino and Ruby and Trevor and Sophie S. and Prairie were already sitting in the P. I. office on the lawn.

“We've made a decision,” Trevor said as soon as he saw Bean.

“Great!” said Bean. Making all the decisions was wearing her out.

“Our decision is that we should tell the grown-ups,” said Prairie. “They'll never notice on their own.”

“Tell them what?” asked Ivy.

“That some creepy person is tying up Pancake Court!” squeaked Trevor.

What? “That's not what's happening!” said Bean.

“That's a terrible decision!” said Ivy at the same time.

“We have to tell a grown-up,” said Sophie.

“No! They'll get all upset,” said Bean.

She looked over at the bright yellow rope, almost at her yard. “They'll untie the rope and throw it away.”

“They'll catch whoever it is!” said Dino.

“Yeah, and if it's all slithery and white like you said, they'll—” Trevor made a blowing-up sound.

Ivy and Bean looked at each other with wide eyes. Blowing up magical creatures from other worlds? That was horrible. “You'll hurt it!” Ivy cried.

“You said you were going to solve the mystery, Bean,” said Sophie S. “But you didn't. There's nothing else to do but tell a grown-up.”

Bean rubbed her face, for real this time. There had to be a way to keep them from telling a grown-up about the rope, and she needed to think of it in the next three seconds.

Ivy sniffed.

Bean wondered what would happen if she tied herself up in the rope. They wouldn't blow it up if she were inside it. Or would they?

Ivy sniffed louder.

Bean gave her the bug-eyed look. What?

Ivy tapped herself with one finger.

Bean pointed at Ivy. You?

Ivy nodded.

Bean lifted her eyebrows. Really?

Ivy nodded again. Go ahead.

Ivy was the most amazing person in the world. Bean smiled. Okay. She tried to remember exactly what Al Seven had said. “The end isn't always pretty,” she began.

Everyone looked confused. “What?” said Ruby.

Bean sighed. She shook her head. “Friends. They break your heart, I guess.”

“Whose heart?” said Sophie S. “What are you talking about?”

Bean grabbed Ivy's arm and said loudly, “Crime doesn't pay, pal!”

Ivy fell to her knees. “You got me!” she wailed, covering her face with her hands. “It was me! I did it!”

“Did what?” yelled Dino.

Ivy looked between her fingers. “I am Mr. Whoever! I tied the rope!”

“You are?” said Sophie S. and Prairie and Ruby and Trevor together. “You did?”

Ivy nodded and covered her face again. “I did it. I'm sorry!”

“No way,” said Dino.

“Yes way,” sniffed Ivy.

“How'd you get up on my roof?” Dino asked, looking at her with narrow eyes.

“Um—I—uh—”

Bean could tell Ivy was going to say something about flying, so quickly she interrupted, “Ivy has a super-long ladder at her house.” This was true, too.

“I do!” said Ivy. “The painter left it by mistake. It's in the backyard.”

“Didn't you say she was on the porch with you last night?” asked Ruby. “How could she add a new piece of rope when you were sitting right there?”

“When she fell asleep, I snuck off the porch and tied a new piece onto the end. I lied! I lied to my friend!” Ivy buried her face in her hands again.