Philip and the Thief (9781619500648) (2 page)

“
Like I helped find my
ball?”

“
You didn’t help find your ball. I
found it.”

“
You wouldn’t have found it if I didn’t
turn on the television.”

“
Anybody could turn on a
television.”

“
Yeah, but I did. So
we
found the ball.”

Philip knew
he
had found the ball alone, by himself, without
Emery’s help, but he figured arguing with his partner was a poor
way to begin his new detective agency.

“
Yeah, right. We found the ball. So you
want to start a detective agency?”

“
Sure,” said Emery. “I’m really good at
finding things.”

Philip bit his tongue and didn’t respond.
“Put the ball in your pocket. Let’s go to my house and talk things
over. It’s quieter there.”

“
Okay,” said Emery and he slipped the
ball into his pocket as the boys headed off.

Chapter Three

When Philip and Emery reached Philip’s house,
they talked over what they needed to do.

“
We’ve got to let people know we’re
detectives,” said Emery. “Otherwise, they won’t ask us to solve
their mysteries.”

Philip frowned at Emery. “I know we do, but
how?”

“
On TV they rent an office,” said
Emery.

For a moment, Philip wondered whether he’d
picked the right partner for his detective agency. “Rent an office?
You think we should rent an office?”

“
They do on TV,” Emery said with a
shrug. “We could put a big sign in the window.” Emery spread his
arms to show how big the sign should be.

“
I don’t know if my Mom’d like a big
sign in the window,” Philip said with uncertainty.

“
Why would she care?”

“
Why would she care? It’s her
house.”

“
Her house is our office?”

“
What office? What are you talking
about?” Philip’s voice began to rise, as it often did in
discussions with Emery.

“
The sign. We put the sign in the
office window.”

“
What office window?” Philip
cried.

“
Our office window.”

“
We don’t have an office. We don’t need
an office to have a sign, do we?”

“
No, but that’s why we should get
one.”

“
Signs are easy to get.”

“
No, I mean get an office,” Emery
insisted.

“
Don’t offices cost money?” said
Philip. “You know they do. And you know how much money we have.
None.”

“
After we get money from our first
case, then we can get an office.” Emery thought things over a
moment. “But we won’t get a case if we don’t have an office. Hmmm.
It’s like the chicken and egg thing you asked me about. Remember?
Which came first; the chicken. . . .”

“
Don’t start with chickens and eggs
again. Please. Look, we can’t get an office and my mother won’t
want a sign in her window, so we’ll have to think of something
else.”

Philip’s father walked into the living
room.

“
Dad,” said Philip. “Emery and I want
people to know we started a detective agency. I . . .” Philip
glanced at Emery. “. . .
we
just solved another mystery at Emery’s house.”

“
What mystery?” Philip’s father
asked.

“
I lost my Superball, Mr. Felton.
Philip and I tracked it down. We asked questions and followed
clues.”

“
Congratulations, fellows.” Mr. Felton
pursed his lips and looked thoughtful. “Why don’t you
advertise?”

Philip and Emery glanced at each other.

“
Advertise?” said Philip.
“How?”

“
Print flyers. Tell people the name of
your detective agency. Give them your phone number. Tell them
you’re available to solve all kinds of crimes. Murders, bank
robberies, kidnappings. The usual things.”

Emery looked uncertain. “Murders?”

“
He’s kidding, Emery,” said Philip
wearily.

“
Only kidding, Emery,” said Mr. Felton.
“You guys can specialize in little mysteries. Sit down and draw
what you think your advertisement should look like. I’ll get it
copied and you can give it out.”

An hour later, both boys went to Mr. Felton
and handed him their separate ideas.

Mr. Felton studied them. He scratched his
chin and looked at the two expectant faces.

“
There seems to be a small problem with
the name of the agency,” he said.

He turned Philip’s paper toward them. It
read, PHILIP’S AND EMERY’S DETECTIVE AGENCY. Then he turned Emery’s
paper toward them. It read, EMERY’S AND PHILIP’S DETECTIVE
AGENCY.

“
Why does your name get to go first?”
asked Philip. “I gave us the idea.”

“
First name ABC order,” said Emery.
“Emery-Philip.”

“
Last name ABC order,” said Philip.
“Felton-Wyatt.”

“
Wait, wait, wait,” said Mr. Felton. “I
have an idea.” He turned one of the papers over and wrote. Both
boys looked over his shoulder and smiled. Mr. Felton lifted the
completed paper and showed it to the boys. He’d written the boys’
names in a circle. Philip’s name started at the bottom of the
circle and curled around the left side of the paper to finish at
the top. Emery’s name began at the top and curled to the right to
finish at the bottom. Mr. Felton had printed the words DETECTIVE
AGENCY in the circle formed by the curling names.

“
Nobody first, nobody second,” said Mr.
Felton. “Everybody happy. Now, I’ll draw an eye above the word
DETECTIVE to show you’re both Private Eyes.
Eye
stands for
I,
which stands for
Investigator,
by the way.” He drew the eye. When he finished, Mrs. Felton
entered the living room. “The boys are starting a detective
agency,” Mr. Felton reported.

“
Good,” Philip’s mother said. “The next
time Philip makes me lose my marbles, he and Emery can go and find
them for me.” She continued upstairs.

“
Your mother plays marbles?” said
Emery.

“
No, she doesn’t play marbles,” said
Philip. “Who would she play marbles with? Your mother?”

“
No, my mother doesn’t play marbles.
She plays diapers.” Emery gave an abrupt laugh. “I don’t even play
marbles. Come to think of it, nobody I know plays
marbles.”

Mr. Felton explained. “She means when Philip
drives her crazy, Emery.”

“
Oh. Like when I make my mother lose
her mind, Philip and I can find it for her,” said Emery.

“
Exactly,” said Mr. Felton.

“
Can we finish the advertisement,
please?” Philip complained.

“
Sure. Is there anything else you want
on the flyer? Decide and when you’re done, I’ll take it to the copy
store and get a bunch for you, and you can give them
out.”

The boys drew masks, guns, knives, and
handcuffs. Emery even drew an Indian.

“
Why’d you draw an Indian?” Philip
asked. “What’s he got to do with being a detective?”

“
I drew it ‘cause I draw Indians good,”
Emery replied with a shrug.

Philip couldn’t argue with Emery’s logic, so
the Indian stayed.

Philip added a couple of sentences at the
bottom, and by the time the boys finished with the flyer darkness
had fallen. December didn’t leave much time for outdoor detective
work. The two boys distributed the flyers Sunday morning and went
home to Philip’s house to wait for his phone to ring and bring them
their first case, but the day passed and no mystery came their way.
Monday morning, the boys headed for school together.

Chapter Four

When Philip took his seat in Class
4-329, he found a paper sticking out from under his desk where he
stored his books. He recognized it right away—one of the flyers he
and Emery distributed the day before. PHILIP’S AND EMERY’S (in a
circle) DETECTIVE AGENCY. At the bottom it read; WE SOLVE
MYSTERIES. YOU LOSE IT, WE FIND IT. Someone had crossed out some
things and added other things. The flyer now read: PHILIP’S AND
EMERY’S DE
F
ECTIVE AGENCY. WE
CAN’T SOLVE MYSTERIES. YOU LOSE IT, IT STAYS LOST. Philip motioned
to Emery whose desk sat across the aisle from his.

“
Did you do this?” Philip
whispered.

Emery shook his head. He looked past Philip
and said, “Uh-oh.”

Philip turned and saw Jason Mahoney walk up
to his desk. The teacher, Mr. Ware, stood in the hall talking to
Tyler Ryan’s mother, who had shown up unexpectedly and much to
Tyler’s surprise.

“
I hear you guys are detectives,” said
Jason with a smirk.

Philip didn’t like Jason. Not too many people
in the class did, but no one dared to let him know it. He never did
his homework and didn’t care what Mr. Ware did about it. He did
very little work in class. He bothered classmates anytime he felt
like it. Nothing stopped him—not scolding, visits to the
principal’s office, or letters home. It seemed he didn’t care about
anything.

“
We’re just playing,” said Emery from
behind Philip.

“
You know you put this on my mother’s
car?” asked Jason, glowering and lifting up the paper on Philip’s
desk. “Did you solve any mysteries yet?”

Emery kept talking. “We found my Superball on
Saturday.”

Some children listening in laughed. Philip
glared at Emery and hoped he would keep quiet.

Tyler walked back inside the room with an
angry look on his face and took his seat. Mr. Ware moved into the
doorway, his back to the class, still talking to Tyler’s
mother.

“
Can you help me find something?” Jason
whispered.

“
Sure,” said Emery. Philip knew Jason
planned to say something stupid.

“
I lost my two front teeth when I was
five. Can you find them for me?” A big grin lit up Jason’s
face.

Some of the children laughed again.

“
It’s none of your business what we
do,” Philip whispered back as soon as he saw Mr. Ware reenter the
room. Jason gave Philip a dirty look and went back to his
seat.

The class focused on Mr. Ware and watched him
search around on the top of his desk. He seemed puzzled, but said
nothing. He lifted his head, frowned, and looked out over the
class.

“
You know what to do,” he said. “You
should be working on your journals, one whole page. It should be
easy to fill up a full page after a weekend. Write down what you
did these past couple days and write in complete sentences, please.
Get to work while I look for something. We’ll start on the class
novel in a little bit.”

The children dug reluctantly inside their
desks for their journals, and one by one they started writing.

“
Make sure you tell all about your
detective agency,” Jason whispered from the lonely corner of the
room where the teacher had moved his desk.

“
Jason, your journal, please,” said Mr.
Ware in a tired voice.

So even Jason put pencil to paper, but only
to draw, and the class worked quietly. Philip noticed, though, that
Mr. Ware continued to search all around the top of his desk, his
face looking increasingly worried the longer he searched.

At lunch, everybody ate quickly and rushed
out of the lunchroom to the schoolyard to play. Emery came up to
Philip. Both boys wore heavy coats they left unbuttoned.

“
I keep getting teased about being a
detective,” said Emery. “A kid I don’t even know from another class
teased me. I don’t like being teased. I don’t want to be a
detective anymore. I quit.”

“
Emery, you’re always like this. Don’t
listen to other people. How do you know we won’t get a mystery to
solve and go right out and solve it?”

“
Who’s gonna give us a mystery to
solve?”

“
I don’t know. Somebody who lost
something. I’ll bet when we get home we got some phone
calls.”

“
Nobody’s gonna call two kids if they
lost something important.”

“
Maybe they lost something
unimportant.”

“
If they lost something unimportant,
why would they care if they ever found it again?”

“
Maybe it was an unimportant thing they
liked a lot.”

“
I don’t think so. I don’t like to be
teased. Can’t we play something else so nobody teases
us?”

“
Like what?”

“
I don’t know, but something else.
Without flyers on cars.”

“
You want to quit because Jason has a
big mouth?”

“
Shhh,” Emery warned and pointed.
They’d walked near a crowd of boys. Jason stood in the middle of
the crowd. Philip and Emery edged closer to investigate the
commotion. Jason held some kind of electronic game in his hands.
Philip noticed Jason’s thumbs dance up and down.

“
Whoa,” cried Jason. “Did you see
that!”

“
What’s he got?” Philip asked Tyler,
who stood next to him.

“
He went across the street and came
back with a Color Screen Pearl Quest,” Tyler answered. “It’s really
neat.”