Sam the Man & the Secret Detective Club Plan Read online

  “I think owls do,” Sam said.

  “That could be a problem,” Gavin said. “Maybe we should promise to be quiet as lizards. Owls don’t eat lizards, do they?”

  “I think we should be quiet now,” Sam said. “For practice.”

  Sam grabbed the envelope that said Rashid on it and took it over to Rashid’s desk. Rashid wasn’t there yet, so Sam put the envelope on his seat. Even if Rashid didn’t see it when he sat down, he would feel it. Sam had sat on an envelope once and wriggled and squirmed all the way through dinner until he realized there was something under his bottom. Envelopes, it turned out, could be surprisingly uncomfortable.

  After they’d delivered the three envelopes, Sam sat down at his own desk and pulled out his spelling book. But he couldn’t concentrate because he wanted to see Rashid, Will, and Marja open their envelopes. Would they be excited to join a club? Would they want to be detectives? What if they said no, that this sounded like the stupidest club ever?

  It had never occurred to Sam that anyone would think his club was stupid. He started to chew on his pencil, which is what he did whenever an idea made him nervous. Maybe he should have talked to Annabelle first. She knew a lot more than he did about what was stupid and what wasn’t.

  Just when Sam was starting to think that his stomach hurt and he might need to go to the bathroom, Will turned around in his seat, which was three desks up and two desks over from Sam’s, and gave him the thumbs-up sign. See you at recess, Will mouthed without actually making any sound.

  Sam’s stomach stopped hurting. Even if Rashid and Marja said no, Will had said yes. That meant they would have four people in their club. And once they got rich from solving mysteries, Rashid and Marja would be sorry they said no. They’d be begging Sam to let them join.

  Well, maybe Sam would, maybe he wouldn’t. It would depend on what kind of mood he was in.

  Walking outside for recess, Sam felt nervous again, but in a good way. He bet that if Will wanted to join their club, Marja and Rashid would too. Halfway across the blacktop he looked over and saw a group of people standing by the monkey bars. There was Gavin, Emily, and Will—and Rashid and Marja! But that’s only five people, Sam thought. Weren’t there supposed to be six?

  Oh, yeah—he was the sixth, Sam realized, running to the monkey bars. He kept forgetting that.

  “Everybody’s in!” Gavin called as Sam got close. “Now we’re trying to decide on a name.”

  “How about the Ace Detective Club,” Rashid said. “Our motto could be ‘No mystery too big or too small.’ ”

  “Why would we call it the Ace Detective Club?” Gavin asked. “I don’t know anyone named Ace. We should call it Gavin and Sam’s Detective Club, since we’re the ones who started it.”

  Will shook his head. “I think that’s a terrible idea. It makes it sound like the rest of us don’t count.”

  “Besides, it doesn’t sound very professional,” Marja pointed out. “I think we should have a name that sounds professional.”

  “Okay, how about the Second-Grade Sleuths?” Gavin asked. “Or the Dangerous Detectives Society?”

  “How about we just call it the World’s Best Detective Club?” Sam said. “Our motto could be ‘We’re on your case.’ ”

  “I think that’s a good name,” Emily said, and everyone else nodded.

  “I like it that we’re the world’s best,” Rashid said.

  “I’ve always wanted to be the world’s best at something,” Will said.

  Sam liked the idea of being the world’s best too. He guessed it would probably be more true to say that they were their school’s best detective club, or the second grade’s best detective club. But his dad always told him to set goals and dream big. Besides, if they worked hard and found lots of clues, maybe they would become the world’s best detective club.

  All they needed was a really good case to crack.

  * * *

  Chapter Five

  * * *

  The World’s Best Bird-Lovers’ Club

  “So when we call ourselves the World’s Best Detective Club, are we saying that we’re the best detectives?” Gavin asked at their first meeting. “Or that we have the best club?”

  “I think it should be both,” Marja said.

  “Especially since Mrs. Haynie let us use the conference room for our meetings,” Emily added. “Nobody else’s club gets to meet here. That means we’re the best.”

  It turned out that Mrs. Haynie was the world’s biggest bird lover if you didn’t count Emily Early. She’d actually clapped her hands and jumped up and down two times when Sam asked if their bird-watching club could meet in the library.

  “I adore birds!” Mrs. Haynie had told him. “I am the birdiest of bird lovers.”

  On the one hand, Sam thought this was good news. Their club could meet in the library conference room, which had a nice round table and a watercooler. Mrs. Haynie said they could drink all the water they wanted during their meetings if they brought their own cups.

  On the other hand, Sam thought that if Mrs. Haynie discovered they were really a detective club, she’d be supermad and probably a little disappointed.

  Sam liked Mrs. Haynie. He didn’t want her to be mad or disappointed.

  “I think we should spend at least five minutes every meeting talking about birds,” Sam told everyone at their first meeting. “Just so Mrs. Haynie doesn’t get suspicious. Also then it won’t seem weird that our bird-watching club holds meetings inside instead of outside where there are actual birds.”

  “Good point,” Emily said. “I know lots of topics we could discuss. Like why birds have beaks instead of teeth, for instance.”

  “Why do birds have beaks instead of teeth?” Rashid asked. “I never even thought about that.”

  “Evolution,” Emily said. “They probably used to have teeth back when they were dinosaurs. But now they don’t. Some people think it’s because teeth were too heavy and made it hard to fly.”

  “So how do they chew up worms if they don’t have teeth?” Gavin asked. “Do they just slurp them down like spaghetti?”

  “Their digestive system grinds the worms up,” Emily explained.

  “So they swallow, and then they chew?” Gavin asked.

  “Something like that,” Emily said.

  “Does this club have a president?” Will asked. “Because I think we should have a president.”

  Everybody looked around the table at everybody else. Sam thought Emily should probably be president. She was the smartest, plus she knew the most about birds. Still, the club had been his idea, so he felt weird about letting Emily be in charge.

  Plus, this really wasn’t a bird-watching club.

  Sam had almost forgotten that.

  “Maybe Emily and Sam should be co-presidents,” Gavin suggested. “Emily could be in charge of bird information, and Sam can be in charge of detectiving.”

  “Detectiving?” Sam asked. “Is that a word?”

  “I don’t think it is,” Gavin admitted. “But I don’t know the right word to describe what we’re going to be doing.”

  “Spying?” Rashid said.

  “Sneaking?” Marja said.

  “Snooping?” Will said.

  “I don’t know what you call it,” Emily said, which Sam thought was nice. Sometimes really smart people didn’t like to admit they didn’t know something.

  “We’ll just call it being detectives,” Sam decided. “That’s what I’ll be in charge of.”

  “So what’s our first big case, Mr. Detective President?” Gavin asked.

  Everyone looked at Sam. He took a sip of water, then cleared his throat.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I was hoping someone would steal something so we could find it, but so far I haven’t heard about anything getting stolen.”

  “Hutch lost his jacket on Monday,” Rashid said. “Maybe someone stole that.”

  “He left it on the bus,” Marja said. “He always leaves his jacket on t
he bus, and then the next day he goes to lost and found, and it’s always there.”

  “You can find all kinds of good stuff at lost and found,” Gavin said. “Like if you forgot your pencil? You can just go to lost and found and grab one. Mrs. Mason doesn’t even ask you any questions, like, ‘Are you sure that’s your pencil?’ ”

  “One time I went to look for my hat, and I saw a backpack that looked like a cat,” Rashid said. “I mean, it was furry and it had a tail and everything. It wasn’t real though.”

  “Is it still there?” Sam asked. He could feel the little spark of a plan forming in his brain.

  “I saw it last year,” Rashid said. “So it’s probably gone now.”

  “They give all the leftover stuff away at the end of the year,” Emily said. “To charity.”

  “Even the pencils?” Gavin asked.

  “I guess so,” Emily said. “But maybe they give the pencils to the teachers so they’ll have extras when school starts again.”

  “I think I have our first case,” Sam announced, and everyone leaned forward.

  “Is it the case of the missing pencils?” Gavin asked.

  “Sort of, but not really,” Sam said. “I think we should go to lost and found and look for the most interesting things they’ve got. Then we’ll see if we can find who the stuff belongs to.”

  “We’ll be heroes!” Marja said. “I wonder if people will give us rewards.”

  Sam liked the idea of rewards. Getting a reward would be almost as good as getting paid to solve a case.

  “A job well done is its own reward,” Gavin said, shaking his finger at the rest of the group. “That’s what Grandpop says.”

  “I’d rather have candy,” Marja said.

  “Getting a reward would be nice,” Sam said. “But just solving a mystery would be nice too.”

  “Because solving mysteries is fun,” Emily added.

  “Exactly,” Sam said. He looked at the clock on the wall of the conference room. “Okay, we’ve got seven minutes left until recess is over. Who wants to go to lost and found and get started?”

  Everyone raised their hands.

  “All right then,” Sam said. “We’ve got a plan.”

  * * *

  Chapter Six

  * * *

  Dog Earrings and Stuffed Snakes

  The lost-and-found closet was in the main office, near Mrs. Mason’s desk. Mrs. Mason was the school secretary. She was famous for wearing a different pair of dog earrings every day. Today, Sam noticed, she was wearing her Dalmation earrings. He could tell they were Dalmations from their black ears and black spots.

  “I like her cocker spaniel earrings best,” Gavin whispered as they walked into the main office. “They have real fake fur on them.”

  “How may I help you?” Mrs. Mason said, peering at them from over her glasses. “Please don’t tell me you’re all sick and need to go home.”

  No one said anything. Sam realized as the person in charge of detecting he should probably be the one to speak. But what should he say?

  “You’re not here because you’re all in trouble, are you?” Mrs. Mason asked. Sam had a feeling she was kidding, but it was impossible to tell. Mrs. Mason wasn’t the sort of person who used a lot of facial expressions.

  Everyone looked at Sam. He guessed he better act presidential before they all got in trouble.

  “We were wondering if we could look in the lost-and-found closet,” he said.

  “Did you lose something?” Mrs. Mason asked. “Tell me what it is and I’ll tell you if it’s been turned in.”

  “Not exactly,” Sam said. “We just kind of wanted to . . .”

  Sam wasn’t sure how to end that sentence. How could he say what they wanted to do without letting Mrs. Mason know about their club? Everyone had agreed that keeping the World’s Best Detective Club a secret was a good idea. Besides, if they said they had a detective club and wanted to solve mysteries, Mrs. Mason might say they weren’t allowed to have a detective club at school without getting the principal’s approval. Maybe they would have to agree to follow school rules that would make having a club no fun.

  Emily stepped forward. “Our teacher, Mr. Pell, has been talking to us about being good community members,” she told Mrs. Mason. “We thought we could help our fellow students by figuring out who some of the things in the lost-and-found closet belong to.”

  “But only the interesting lost stuff,” Gavin added. “Not the pencils.”

  Mrs. Mason ignored Gavin and turned to Emily. “That’s a very nice idea. Do you know someone who has lost something?”

  “No,” Emily said. “But we thought maybe we could pick a few things and try to find their owners.”

  “Sort of like we were solving a mystery,” Sam added, thinking maybe this is what Mr. Stockfish meant by hiding in plain sight. If he pretended they were pretending to be detectives, then Mrs. Mason might never guess they really were detectives. “But not really like solving a mystery. I mean, that’s not why we’re doing this or anything.”

  “Shhh!” Marja shushed from behind him.

  Mrs. Mason gave Sam a suspicious look. “Why don’t you children pick out three items and see if you can track down their owners. If you can’t find them by Friday, return the items to the closet.”

  The members of the World’s Best Detective Club all nodded. Emily turned to Sam. “Why don’t you and I pick the things?”

  “Since you’re the presidents and all,” Gavin added.

  “Shhh!” Marja shushed him.

  Sam didn’t know if a shusher was a good thing for a detective club to have or not. Every time Marja shushed someone it made it seem like they were keeping secrets.

  On the other hand, sometimes someone really needed to tell Gavin to shush.

  Sam and Emily walked over to the closet. Sam opened the door. There were approximately ten thousand things inside, most of them jackets and hoodies.

  “What if there’s nothing interesting?” Sam whispered to Emily.

  “Don’t worry,” Emily whispered back. “There will be.”

  “If you could find the owners of some of those jackets, I’d be eternally grateful,” Mrs. Mason said from her desk. “It drives me crazy when parents don’t write their children’s names in their jackets.”

  Just then the phone rang. “You kids keep it down, please,” Mrs. Mason said. “This is an important call.”

  “We will, Mrs. Mason,” Gavin said. “We promise. We’re very good at keeping quiet.”

  “Shhh!” Marja said.

  “Let’s take one jacket, just to make Mrs. Mason happy,” Sam whispered to Emily.

  “That’s a good plan, Sam,” Emily whispered back, pulling out a red rain jacket with a small soccer ball patch sewn on the front. She handed it to Sam, who handed it to Will, who handed it to Marja, who handed it to Rashid, who handed it to Gavin.

  “Why do I have to carry everything?” Gavin asked.

  “Shhh!” Marja said.

  Sam stuck his hand inside the pile of jackets and hoodies, feeling around for something more interesting. He hoped nobody had lost their pet snake. That idea made him want to pull his hand back, but he figured any lost snakes had probably slithered over to the cafeteria to get something to eat. He pushed his arm farther in and wriggled his fingers. Something poked him in the wrist. Sam grabbed it and pulled it out.

  “What is it?” Will asked from behind him. “Is it something good?”

  It was a black metal box with a handle. It had a lid with a clasp, and the clasp was locked with a small combination lock. Sam shook the box. Something rattled inside.

  “It sounds like rocks!” Rashid said.

  “Or gold!” Marja said.

  “It’s probably just somebody’s lunch money,” Emily said. “But you never know.”

  Sam handed the box to Marja, who handed it to Will, who handed it to Gavin.

  “You pick the last thing,” Sam told Emily.

  “Okay,” Emily said. She r
eached her hand into the closet. She wriggled it around and moved her arm up and down.

  “There really are a lot of jackets in here,” she said.

  “It’s a disgrace,” Mrs. Mason said from her desk.

  “Oh, I feel something fuzzy!” Emily exclaimed.

  “I love fuzzy!” Marja said.

  “Everybody loves fuzzy,” Rashid said.

  “I sort of like smooth stuff better,” Will said.

  “I can’t tell what this fuzzy thing is,” Emily said. She started to pull. “Maybe a stuffed elephant? I think I’ve got its trunk.”

  She pulled some more. And then she pulled even more.

  “It’s a snake!” she yelled after she’d pulled the whole thing out.

  Sam backed away from the closet. “A snake? A real snake?”

  “Not real,” Emily told him. “Stuffed.”

  “It’s a million feet long!” Marja yelled.

  “Cool!” Rashid and Will yelled.

  “I think I’m going to need help holding that,” Gavin yelled.

  “Would everyone please stop yelling?” Mrs. Mason stood up, still holding the phone to her ear. “Oh, the snake!” she said, when she saw what was in Gavin’s arms. “I’d forgotten that was in there. It’s been there since the second week of school. How do you lose a six-foot-long stuffed snake? That’s my question.”

  Sam thought it was a good question.

  He hoped that they were going to figure out the answer.

  * * *

  Chapter Seven

  * * *

  The Looking-for-Clues Blues

  “So let me get this straight,” Annabelle said after dinner that night. “You have a jacket, a box, and a snake, and you don’t know who they belong to.”

  Sam and Annabelle were sitting on the couch watching a TV show. When Annabelle told Sam that the show was about flipping houses, he couldn’t wait to see someone throw a house up into the air and make it turn upside down.