Philip and the Thief (9781619500648) (6 page)

Philip took a quick peek Jason’s way. Jason
had his head down, his eyes on his desk. Philip turned back to Mr.
Greif, afraid Jason would notice him staring.

“
If anyone has anything to tell me,
now’s the time.”

No one said anything.

“
If it’s too hard for you to do like
this, I would like you to write a note and make sure it gets to me.
You can put it in my mailbox in the main office when no one’s
looking if you choose, but I hoped we could get this cleared up
this morning. Anyone?”

The room stayed quiet and Philip’s mind
raced. Should he get Jason into trouble or not? What should he do?
He had to decide quickly. He could feel Emery looking his way.

Mr. Greif went on. “Well, I’ll hope someone
tells me something soon.” He turned to leave.

“
Philip,” whispered Emery excitedly.
“Hurry up. Tell on him.”

Philip didn’t know what to do. The principal
stopped at the doorway. “I’ll be back after lunch one way or
another,” he said.

Philip looked over at Jason, who had sunk
even lower and rested his head on his arms. He looked very
unhappy.

Philip popped to his feet. “Wait,” he
said.

Mr. Greif turned and said, “What is it,
Philip?”

Everyone looked Philip’s way. He felt very
embarrassed, but he had begun and now he had to finish.

“
I think I can tell you what happened
to Mr. Ware’s money.” Philip’s eyes were drawn toward Jason, who
had lifted his head and looked Philip’s way.

“
Yes, Philip?” said Mr.
Ware.

“
I think I know who has your money,”
said Philip.

Philip could feel the eyes of everyone in the
room on him. Most of all he could feel Jason’s gaze.

“
You know who has my money?” said Mr.
Ware.

“
Yes, Philip?” said Mr. Greif. “Who has
Mr. Ware’s money?”

Philip took a hard swallow and said, “You
have it, Mr. Ware.”

“
Me!”

The class got noisy and everyone, children
and grown-ups alike, looked at Philip as if he were crazy.

“
Quiet, children,” said Mr. Greif.
“Please explain what you mean, Philip.”

Philip cleared his throat. He wished he could
get a drink of water. “Well, Mr. Ware, would you get the book about
the Greek myths?” Philip pointed. “The big one with Pegasus on the
cover. Right, that one. Now look inside it.”

No sooner had Mr. Ware opened the book than a
white envelope dropped out. The class gasped. Mr. Ware picked up
the envelope and opened it.

“
It
is
my money!”

The class got
really
noisy.

Mr. Greif held up his hand and slowly the
class quieted. “Philip, how in the world did you know where to find
the money?”

The way everyone looked at Philip now felt
different from the way they’d looked at him a moment ago. He was no
longer crazy, but the boy who held the solution to the mystery.

Philip cleared his throat and swallowed. “I
solved some mysteries lately. Emery lost a candy bar and a
Superball and I found them.”

“
What candy bar?” Emery
whispered.

“
A neighbor of mine lost a book of
stamps and I found it. My mother lost five dollars. I didn’t find
it, but my mother did. In all of these mysteries, people just
forgot things. Emery forgot his candy bar.”

“
What candy bar?” Emery
whispered.

“
Then his mother forgot where she put
the Superball. My neighbor forgot where she put her stamps, and my
mother forgot where she put her money. They were all doing one
thing, but were busy thinking about something else. When I figured
that out, I thought about the day the money disappeared. Mr. Ware
was looking through his books. I remembered he had the Greek myth
book in his hands when Tyler’s mother came to the door. He put the
book away. When the book disappeared, the money disappeared. Mr.
Ware didn’t read us the Greek myth book, so he probably didn’t open
the book again. Like the other mysteries, he was doing one thing,
got interrupted, and lost something. I made a guess he probably put
the envelope into the Greek myth book without even thinking about
it.” Philip sat down.

“
Why, Philip,” said Mr. Ware after a
moment, “that is amazing. You thought this all out by
yourself?”

Philip nodded.

“
Well,” said Mr. Greif, “I suppose we
all owe Jason an apology. Jason, both Mr. Ware and I are sorry for
having suspected you. I will call both your parents as soon as I
get back to my office, but you really shouldn’t bring so much money
to school. It only leads to trouble.”

Jason looked at Philip. Philip noticed and
turned away quickly, hoping the whole mysterious episode had come
to an end.

Chapter Thirteen

“
What candy bar?” Emery asked, rushing
up to Philip when Mr. Ware dismissed the class at three o’clock.
Philip had been too busy at lunch telling his story over and over
to the kids in class for Emery to get him alone. “What candy bar
did I lose? Do you still have it?”

“
I ate it,” said Philip. “You left half
a candy bar on my bureau and it fell down behind the back. I
figured out what happened to it. So I found it and ate
it.”

“
Oh, I remember. I didn’t want it. It
fell under the bed and got all dirty.”

Philip stopped walking. “Dirty? Why didn’t
you throw it away? Why’d you put it on my bureau?”

Emery shrugged. “Forgot. Did you really eat
it?”

Philip nodded.

“
Yuck,” said Emery and repeated, “It
fell under the bed.”

“
I cleaned it. It was clean when I ate
it.”

Emery made a sour face and said, “I doubt it.
Oops, here comes Jason.”

The three boys paused and stood uncomfortably
quiet for a moment.

“
Philip,” said Jason. “You can play my
Pearl Quest game tomorrow at lunch if you want.”

Philip said, “Thanks,” and Jason walked
off.

“
Now he’s your friend,” said Emery. “He
won’t bother you anymore. I hope he remembers I’m in the detective
agency, too. Then he’ll be my friend.”

“
You kept telling him you quit.
Remember?”

“
Oh, yeah,” Emery said
gloomily.

The boys walked a while, and then Emery
asked, “Did you really figure out the mystery like you said?”

“
Yeah. Grownups always forget where
they put things.”

“
I know. My mother was taking care of
the two babies and started looking for her glasses. She looked a
long time. Know where they were? On the top of her head. I had to
tell her where when she asked me what I was laughing about. She got
mad because I didn’t tell her right away, but I thought it was too
funny to tell. She sent me to my room.”

The two boys reached Emery’s house.

“
Want to come over later?” Philip
asked. “We can play outside. It’s not so cold today.”

“
I’ll ask my mom. I’ll call
you.”

Philip finished the walk to his own house.
When he got inside, his mother hung up the phone.

“
Hi, Mom.”

“
That was Mr. Ware, Philip. He told me
you’re quite a detective, figuring out the classroom mystery about
the missing money. Tell me about it.”

Philip happily told his mother the
whole story; how when he’d awakened in the morning, the answer
popped into his head. He left out the part about spending time
deciding what to do. He knew if he
didn’t
reveal what happened to the missing money,
everyone would continue to think Jason was the thief and maybe he
and Emery would get their wish—no more Jason in the
class.

Philip remembered, though, how gloomy
Jason looked when he talked about how his mother and father both
suspected him of stealing the money. Philip knew what
that
felt like. He didn’t tell his
mother, though, about his not wanting to let Jason feel as badly as
she’d made him feel when she suspected him wrongly. It was too
personal.

“
Well, this certainly is a proud day,
Philip. Wait until your father hears this story. I’ll bet he’ll
want to celebrate with a dinner at the Shake Shack and ice cream
afterwards.”

Philip smiled. His father
would
like the story. After all, his
father had helped him get started in the detective
business.

“
The Shake Shack and ice cream sounds
good,” Philip said through his smile.

“
So go get your homework
done.”

“
Can we invite Emery along? He’s part
of the detective agency, too. At least I think he is.”

“
Sure,” his mother answered. “Give him
a call.”

“
Okay,” said Philip. He hung his coat
in the closet and started toward the telephone. It was no mystery
to him that tonight was going to be a very special
night.

The End

About the Author

John Paulits is a former teacher in New York
City. He has published five other children’s novels, four about
Philip and Emery, as well as two adult science fiction novels,
HOBSON’S PLANET and BECKONING ETERNITY. His previous Gyspy Shadow
book, PHILIP AND THE SUPERSTITION KID, was voted best children’s
novel of 2010 in the Preditors and Editors readers poll.

WEBSITE: http://www.johnpaulits.com/

FACEBOOK:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=750790110&ref=search