Philip and the Thief (9781619500648) (3 page)

“
You mean right now? He just bought
it?” Philip asked.

“
Yeah. It cost thirty dollars,” said
Tyler. “He showed everybody two twenty dollar bills he said his
father gave him, and then he went to the store and came back with
the game.” A small electronics store stood across the street from
the schoolyard.

Jason looked up and saw Philip. “People who
can’t afford Pearl Quest start detective agencies,” he said, a mean
smile on his face. Jason’s crowd laughed and followed him to
another part of the schoolyard.

“
I’ve had it,” Emery announced. “I’m
quitting the detective agency. People keep laughing at
us.”

“
Emery, come on. Don’t quit being a
detective,” said Philip. “I won’t have any fun alone.”

“
I don’t have any fun being teased,”
said Emery. “Do you like being teased?”

“
No, but they’ll stop.”

“
Jason won’t,” Emery insisted. “He’ll
have something to say whenever he sees us. I’m
quitting.”

“
Why do you have to be such a baby?”
Philip snapped, angry at Jason for spoiling his fun.

“
I’m not a baby,” Emery snapped back.
“I just don’t like being teased. You’re a baby. You cry more than
me.”

“
I don’t cry.”

“
Yes, you do. I saw you. Remember when
you . . .”

“
Oh, Emery, shut up,” Philip said and
walked away. He stood by himself until the bell rang and everyone
lined up to go back inside for the afternoon.

Chapter Five

Mr. Ware stood in front of the class with his
arms folded as the children settled into their seats. To Philip,
Mr. Ware looked angry. He’d seen the same expression more than once
on his mother’s face. Philip scanned the quiet classroom and knew
from the faces of his classmates he wasn’t the only one who thought
the teacher looked angry.

“
Boys and girls,” said Mr. Ware. “I
don’t even want to think about what seems to have happened in our
classroom.”

Philip listened closely.

“
I had an envelope on my desk this
morning when I went out into the hall to talk with Tyler’s mother.
When I came back into the room, I couldn’t find the envelope on my
desk. I spent the rest of the morning looking for it, and now I’ve
spent the entire lunch period looking for it. It isn’t here. I
would hate to think anyone in our class would take something off my
desk, but I don’t know where else it could have gone. Maybe one of
you picked it up by mistake.” He held up a long white
envelope.

“
It looked like this.” The teacher
paused, but no one said anything. “It had some money in it.” The
class buzzed a moment. “It had forty dollars in it.” This shocked
the class into silence. “If anyone did take it off my desk by
mistake, please put it back any time. You won’t get into trouble
because I’m sure you made a mistake. You don’t have to be
embarrassed about taking it by mistake.” He paused, but no one
moved. “If you can’t return it in front of everyone, I understand.
You can put it back when the room’s empty. I’ll leave the door
unlocked tomorrow morning. Come early or do it at lunch, but I
would like the envelope back by tomorrow after lunch at the
latest.”

Philip’s mind raced as Mr. Ware turned to the
blackboard and wrote an assignment for the class. A missing
envelope with forty dollars in it! Finally, a real mystery!
Philip’s stomach dropped as the sight of Jason playing with his new
Pearl Quest game exploded into his mind. Philip turned to look at
Jason. Lots of heads turned and gave Jason a glance. Jason didn’t
seem to notice. He busily drew pictures in his notebook. When he
looked up, he seemed surprised to find so many people staring at
him. Philip couldn’t turn away quickly enough, and his eyes locked
onto Jason’s. He heard Emery’s voice whisper, “You better stop
looking at Jason. The teacher’ll see, and Jason won’t like it.
He’ll do more than tease us.”

Philip dove back into his notebook and began
writing down the math problems from the board. Missing money. Jason
spending thirty dollars at lunch. Would anyone tell on him?
Probably not. Everyone would be afraid to, Philip guessed. He knew
Jason’s father didn’t live with him any longer, and Jason always
claimed his father gave him money to spend. Mr. Ware would never be
able to prove Jason took the money. Philip paused as he worked and
peeked again at Jason, horrified to see Jason still looking his
way. Philip spun his head back to his work, but the mystery of the
forty dollars stayed on his mind all afternoon.

At three o’clock he and Emery started home
from school. When they reached the first corner, two blocks from
their street, Jason approached them.

“
Why’d you keep looking at me when the
teacher said somebody stole his money?” he asked.

For a moment Philip felt frightened,
but he noticed how different Jason sounded now. He sounded worried;
very worried; maybe even frightened. He obviously didn’t want to be
thought of as a thief. Well, he was a thief, Philip knew. As he did
his school work after lunch, Philip thought about the mystery and
remembered how Jason was the only one to get out of his seat when
Mr. Ware left the room. He got out of his seat when he came to
tease him and Emery about their detective agency. So he
had
to be the thief. It couldn’t be
anyone else.

Before Philip could answer, Jason said, “I
didn’t take the money. I had money from my father. I bought my new
game with my own money. Everybody looked at me like I stole the
money, but I didn’t take it.”

“
Bad luck you brought your money to
school today,” said Emery.

“
Yeah,” said Philip quickly. “You had
bad luck is all. Nobody told the teacher about you having the
money, though.”

“
Somebody will. I know they will.” He
looked at Philip.

“
Come on, Emery,” said Philip. “Let’s
go home.” He and Emery walked away quickly.

“
It better not be you. You better not
tell on me,” Jason called after them. “Either one of you. You
better not.”

Chapter Six

When Philip reached home, his mother had a
message for him.

“
Mrs. Moriarty called,” she said. Mrs.
Moriarty was Philip’s favorite neighbor. She lived alone and was
always very friendly—and generous—to Philip. “She got your flyer,
and she has a mystery for you to solve.”

Philip’s eyes opened wide. “She really does?
What is it? What happened?” He tossed his book bag on the sofa next
to his mother, who sat with little Becky in her lap, feeding her a
bottle of milk.

“
Your book bag, please. It goes up in
your room.”

“
I know. I will. What’s her
mystery?”

“
She didn’t say, Philip. I told her
you’d walk down to see her when you got home.”

“
Great. I’ll go now,” said Philip,
running out the door.

Behind him he heard his mother call, “Your
book bag . . .” but he kept on going.

As he hurried down the street, he thought of
Emery. Should he stop by and get him? No, Philip decided. Emery had
quit being a detective. Why should he share this real mystery with
someone who didn’t really want to be a detective? He didn’t need
Emery. He would solve this mystery all by himself.

Philip rang Mrs. Moriarty’s doorbell. When
Mrs. Moriarty opened the door, she smiled at him. “Boy, do I need
you.”

Philip walked into the warm house. It felt
good to finally take off his coat.

“
Here, give it to me,” said Mrs.
Moriarty.

“
No, no. I know where to hang it,” said
Philip. He wasn’t usually so careful about hanging up his coat, but
Mrs. Moriarty moved slowly, and Philip didn’t want to wait for her
to hang up the coat and come back. He wanted to hear about the
mystery now.

Mrs. Moriarty sat on her sofa and when Philip
returned she offered him a Hershey Bar. Philip liked Mrs. Moriarty
because she was the only grownup in the world who liked candy as
much as he did. “Take one, Philip,” she said. “Me, too. It will
help us to think.”

Philip took the Hershey Bar from Mrs.
Moriarty and ripped off the paper.

“
What’s your mystery?” asked Philip,
chomping into the chocolate.

“
Well, little man, I got your flyer
yesterday. I have it hanging on my refrigerator. I never thought
I’d need a detective so quickly. Well, I went to the post office
today and bought a book of stamps, and after I bought the stamps I
went to the drug store for a pack of batteries and these Hershey
Bars. I came home and emptied my purse of the stamps and put
everything I bought on the dining room table. Then I went to answer
the phone. It always rings at the worst times. When I got back, the
batteries and candy were there but no stamps. I’ve looked all over
the house. Nothing.”

“
And you want me to find the
stamps?”

“
I do, indeed.”

Philip and Mrs. Moriarty looked at each
other.

“
Now what?” asked Mrs.
Moriarty.

Philip thought back to his finding the
Snickers behind his closet and finding Emery’s Superball—his two
most successful cases. “Let me look around first,” said Philip. It
would give him some time to think.

“
I already looked everywhere I can
imagine,” said Mrs. Moriarty to Philip’s back as he bent over and
looked behind a living room chair.

“
Where did you say you put everything
down?”

“
On the dining room table.”

“
Oh. I guess I should look in there,
then,” Philip said.

“
It would be a better place to look
than the living room, I think,” Mrs. Moriarty said with an
understanding smile.

Philip circled the big shiny wooden table. As
he walked, he thought. Stamps couldn’t roll like the Superball into
some hole, but they could blow somewhere. “Did you have the windows
open?” Philip asked.

“
Too cold. I had the windows closed,”
said Mrs. Moriarty.

Philip nodded. The table sat right out in the
open, so the stamps couldn’t fall behind anything like Emery’s
candy bar did.

Philip stopped walking around the table and
looked at Mrs. Moriarty. “All you did was go to the telephone?”

“
I came in. I put everything down, the
stamps, the batteries and the box of candy.”

“
A box! You bought a whole
box?”

“
Twenty-four bars. Twenty-two now. Then
I picked up the box to take it to the kitchen and put it in the
refrigerator. The phone rang. I put the box down and answered the
phone. Then I put the candy and batteries away, but couldn’t find
the stamps.”

Philip walked into the kitchen. When he
walked out again, he had a wide smile on his face and held his
hands behind his back.

“
Don’t tell me . . .” Mrs. Moriarty
began.

“
Ta-da! Your stamps,” said Philip
grandly and, like a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat, he
produced the tiny book of stamps.

Chapter Seven

“
Philip! How did you do that?” asked
Mrs. Moriarty, genuinely amazed at Philip’s success.

“
I listened to what you said. The
stamps had to be somewhere. When you said you bought a
box
of candy, I got an idea. Maybe
you put the box down on
top
of
the stamps. And you did. You bent the stamp book cover when you
scrunched the stamps in your purse. One stamp got unpeeled a little
and the sticky part stuck to the bottom of the candy box. When you
put the candy box into the refrigerator, the stamps went with
it.”

“
Philip, that’s wonderful. How very
clever of you. You have real talent. Have you solved any other
mysteries?”

“
I found a lost candy bar and Emery and
I . . .
I
figured out what
happened to his Superball. Today we had a mystery in
school.”

“
And did you solve it?”

Philip shook his head slowly. “No.”

“
Tell me about the school mystery, but
first go and get yourself another Hershey Bar. You deserve one.
Bring me one, too.” She laughed and added, “You know where the box
is.”

Philip obeyed happily. He enjoyed the way
Mrs. Moriarty treated him like a real detective. After he handed
Mrs. Moriarty the candy bar, he told her the story of the teacher’s
forty dollars.

“
Wow!” Mrs. Moriarty exclaimed. “Forty
dollars is a lot of money. Did the teacher catch the
thief?”

“
No one got blamed yet, but someone’s
probably going to tell on Jason. He spent thirty dollars at lunch
on a new Pearl Quest.”

Mrs. Moriarty tilted her head. “A Pearl
Quest?”

“
You know. A game.” Philip bounced his
thumbs up and down.

“
Oh, one of those. Is Jason the kind of
boy who might steal?”

Philip thought a moment. “I think he is.”

“
Then his buying a new game is
suspicious,” said Mrs. Moriarty.

“
After school he told me and Emery he
bought the game with money his father gave him.”

“
Do you believe him?”

Philip shrugged. “He always has money.”

“
Did you piece together the teacher’s
actions like you did mine? Let me see you do it. I’ll bet you can
solve the teacher’s mystery right here and now.”