The Powder Puff Puzzle (3 page)

It was time to think hard about being a detective.

It was time to find Powder Puff.

She took out her polka-dot hat.

It was a little big.

She put it on anyway.

It made her feel hot.

She felt as if a hippopotamus were sitting on her head.

A big fat one.

She looked inside the box.

A fake mustache.

Fake eyeglasses.

A magnifying glass.

Nothing that would help.

She pulled out the
Polka Dot Private Eye Book.

She took it outside with her.

Jason was waiting on the lawn. He was waving his stick back and forth.

“Take that,” he yelled.

“Aren’t you worried about Powder Puff?” Dawn asked.

“Sure I am. I’m trying not to feel bad. That’s why I’m playing. I’m fighting a guy with a sword.”

He held the stick over his head. “The kind of guy who wears that tin stuff.”

“You mean a knight,” Dawn said. She pushed her hat up. “We don’t have time to play.”

She sat there another minute. Then she opened her book.

“Some of this is just junk,” said Jason.

He was looking over her shoulder.

“It is not,” said Dawn. “It’s great stuff.”

“I don’t see anything about a missing cat,” said Jason.

“Here’s what we need,” said Dawn. “Scene of the crime.”

“What?”

“That’s where it happened. That’s where the cat got lost. It’s called the scene of the crime.”

“What does it say?”

“Too bad you can’t read better,” said Dawn.

She looked back at him. “It says to write down everything you can remember.”

She hopped up.

She went into the kitchen. A pencil was on the counter. She scooped it up.

She took a piece of Noni’s THINGS TO DO TODAY paper too.

Noni wouldn’t mind.

Outside she began to write.

1. Red car . . . mess.

2. Lady with mousetail . . . gray . . . carrying heavy box. Carrying pole.

3. Powder Puff jumped in car.

She chewed on the pencil. “That’s all I can remember.”

“What did the lady look like?” Jason asked. “Beside the mousetail?”

Dawn squinched her eyes shut.

She tried to remember.

“She was long and skinny,” she said after a minute. “She was carrying a pole. . . . Hey.” She picked up the pencil.

She began to write again.

4. Lady with mousetail . . . eating jelly cookie.

Dawn pushed her polka-dot hat up. “Put your stick away, Jason. I know what we have to do.”

“N
ONI,”
D
AWN YELLED.
“Where are you?”

Noni didn’t answer.

Dawn ran into the house. She raced upstairs. “Noni?”

Noni popped her head out the bathroom door. “I’m trying to fix the sink. The water keeps dripping.”

“Could I have some money?” Dawn asked.

Noni put her head on one side. “Why? How much?”

“For two jelly cookies. One for me. One for Jason.”

“You want to walk to the bakery? On this hot day?”

Dawn nodded.

“Good,” Noni said. “You can stop at the hardware store too.”

“It’s too hot,” Dawn said.

Noni raised her eyebrows.

Dawn laughed.

“Get me a washer, please,” Noni said. “It’s this round thing.” Noni held up a small plastic piece.

“I guess so,” Dawn said.

Noni reached into her pocket. She pulled out two dollars. “I want the change back,” she said. “Count it carefully.”

Dawn raced down the stairs.

She waved the money at Jason.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Jason followed her down the street. “Let’s get ice cream instead.”

Dawn slapped her head. “Jason. The mouse lady didn’t buy ice cream. She bought a jelly cookie. We have to go to the bakery.”

Jason stuck out his lip. “Maybe she likes jelly cookies. I like ice cream better.”

Dawn sighed. She sat down on the sidewalk. “Listen, Jason. We are going to the bakery. We are going to ask the man if he knows the lady.”

“The lady with the mousetail,” Jason said. “Right?”

“Right.”

“Good,” said Jason. “After that we’ll get ice cream.” He grinned at Dawn.

Dawn started to laugh too. Then she looked up. “Yucko. That house.”

Jason looked up too.

It was the house with the ladder.

Now someone was standing on the ladder. The painter had on a white hat. It had red stripes.

“Horrible green paint,” said Dawn.

“Like spinach,” Jason said.

Dawn tapped his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

They crossed the street. They turned the corner.

At Linden Avenue they stopped at the bakery. They looked in the window.

The sign said: CALVIN’S CAKES

A bunch of sugar cookies were piled in front.

A strawberry cake was in the back.

A wedding cake was in the middle.

“That wedding cake was here last week,” said Dawn. She pressed her nose against the glass.

“It was here the week before that too,” said Jason.

“Noni said it’s just cardboard,” Dawn said. “She said they stuck some icing on top.”

“I’m never going to get married,” Jason said.

Inside, Calvin was putting a jelly cookie into his mouth. “Best cookies in the world,” he said.

“We wanted to ask you—” Dawn began.

“About the lady with the mousetail,” Jason said.

Calvin put another cookie in his mouth. “No mice around here.”

“No,” said Dawn. “A lady. She has a long ponytail down her back. Did she come in here this morning?”

Calvin shook his head. “Sorry. I wasn’t here. I slept late. Maybe my helper knows.”

“Larry,” he called to the back. “Who was here today?”

Larry poked his head out. “Bernie stopped in for a roll. So did Mrs. Simon. Mrs. Best bought a loaf of rye bread. Two or three boys came in. Then the painter.”

Calvin nodded. “Larry has a good memory.”

“Oh,” said Larry. “The gas station man came in too.”

Dawn sighed. “Have you seen any lost cats?”

“No.” They shook their heads.

“Want to buy some cookies?” Calvin asked.

“No, thanks,” Jason said before Dawn could answer. “We’re going to get ice cream.”

They went outside.

Dawn could hear Calvin talking to Larry. “My cookies are better than ice cream.”

Dawn looked back. “I like your cookies too. I just can’t eat them right now.”

She felt like crying.

Suppose they never found Powder Puff?

“Y
OU CAN EAT
A little ice cream,” Jason said. “You don’t even have to chew it.”

“Well . . .” Dawn began. “I guess . . . Maybe.”

They went into the ice-cream store.

Jason bought a two-stick orange ice-pop. Dawn bought a one-stick pop.

She’d buy another stick for Powder Puff if she found him.

They went outside again.

“Now what?” Jason asked. Orange ice dripped down his arm. He licked the bottom of the stick.

“Now I don’t know,” said Dawn. “I can’t think of one thing.”

“Maybe we should go in Emily Arrow’s pool,” he said. “We’ll think better if we’re nice and cool.”

Dawn shook her head. “I have to keep looking.”

They crossed Linden Avenue.

They started down the street.

“I’m all sticky,” Jason said. “It feels terrible to be sticky and hot.”

Dawn nodded. She ate the last of her ice. She was still thirsty. When she got home she’d ask Noni for a drink. A drink of ice-cold water.

Noni.

“Hey,” Dawn said. “We forgot.”

Jason looked at her.

“I’m supposed to get something for Noni.”

She dug in her pocket. “It’s a little round thing. It looks just like . . .”

She reached into her other pocket. “It’s called a . . .”

She put her shoulders up in the air. “Can’t find it.”

“We’d better go to the hardware store anyway,” Jason said. “We can ask Bernie about it.”

They rushed back to Linden Avenue.

They turned in at the hardware store.

Bernie was behind the counter.

He was talking on the phone.

Dawn and Jason stood there waiting.

They waited a long time.

“We could be here forever,” Dawn said.

“Let’s look around,” said Jason. “Maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for.”

They went toward the back of the store.

The aisle was piled high. Pails. Circles of rope. Boxes of nails.

Dawn banged her knee on something. “Look,” she said. “Snow shovels.”

Jason lifted one. “I wish it were snowing right now,” he said. “I’d lie down in it. I’d roll around. I’d . . .”

Dawn turned to the next aisle.

Cans of paint were piled almost to the ceiling.

She looked at the sign.

GREEN PAINT

BOX OF TWO CANS

HALF PRICE

No wonder that painter was painting the house green, Dawn thought.

Bernie came down the aisle. “Hi, Dawn.”

“That’s not such a great color,” Dawn said. She pointed to the paint.

Bernie laughed. “I know. The painter bought some this morning, though.”

“I need something for Noni,” Dawn said.

“What?”

She raised one shoulder. “I don’t know. She needs it to fix the sink.”

Bernie scratched his head. “A washer, I guess.”

She followed him down the aisle.

She stepped over a paint roller.

She took the washer Bernie gave her.

She waited for Jason to come to the front of the store.

Then they started for home again.

Noni was in front of the house. She was waiting for them. “You forgot to take my washer.”

“Don’t worry,” said Dawn. She held up the new washer.

“Good job,” Noni said.

Dawn opened her mouth. “Hey, Noni. Jason. I just thought of something.”

Noni smiled. “What?”

“I think . . . maybe . . . I know where Powder Puff is.”

D
AWN DIDN’T WAIT
to tell them about it.

She went into the kitchen.

She stood on a stool.

“What are you doing?” Noni asked.

Dawn grabbed a bag of potato chips. She waved them in the air. “Just in case,” she said.

She jumped off the stool.

Noni sighed. She put the stool back. “You have to put things away when you’re finished.”

Dawn reached up. She gave her a kiss. “Next time.”

She raced out the door. “Come on, Jason.”

Noni popped her head out. “Where are you going?”

“Not far,” Dawn yelled back. “Not far at all.”

They went down the street.

“Where are we going?” Jason asked.

Dawn turned the corner. “Right here.”

“Right here?”

Dawn stopped to take a breath.

She pointed.

“I don’t see anything,” said Jason. “Not one thing.”

“You see a house,” said Dawn.

“A yuck green spinach house,” said Jason.