Philip and the Sneaky Trashmen (9781619502185) (8 page)

“
I don’t know. I guess
not.”

Philip glanced toward Mr. Sorino’s
porch. “You remember everything I told you?”

“
I guess so.”

“
Can you remember three
numbers?”

“
Sure.”

“
Then remember
seven—four—two.”

“
Seven—four—two. Okay.
What’s that?”

“
I’ll tell you later. Look
there he is.
Yah!
He
is
wearing Aunt Louise’s pants! The guy must be a
weirdo.”

The boys watched the truck driver and
Mr. Sorino chat a moment before the truck driver got into his
truck, backed it onto the street, and drove away.

Emery turned to Philip. “You sure about
this?”

Philip shook his head. “No.”

“
Oh, great.”

“
Let’s go.”

The boys crossed the street.

“
Be cheerful,” Philip
whispered. “Don’t act suspicious.”

As they stepped onto the sidewalk, Mr.
Sorino saw them and waved. “Hi, boys. Got any news for
me?”

“
Some,” said Philip. “It’s
not trash day yet, but there’s an old TV outside.” He gave Mr.
Sorino Leon’s address. “That’s Leon’s house—you remember Leon,
right?”

“
Of course. Gordon’s good
friend.”

“
Yeah, him. His family just
got a brand new TV. Gigantic. They put their old one outside. I
think it still works. You won’t even have to fix it.”

“
Oh, really. The new one’s
gigantic, eh?”

“
Gigantic,” both boys
chimed in.

“
Oh,” said Philip as if
he’d forgotten something. “And Leon said he can’t help you for a
couple days. Tomorrow his whole family’s going away overnight to
Hershey Park.”

Mr. Sorino nodded slowly. “Overnight,
eh? I see.”

Philip tapped Emery on the arm and
said, “We gotta go. We’ll keep an eye out for stuff for
you.”

“
Oh, here,” said Mr.
Sorino. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash.
“Here’s a dollar for each of you. You keep bringing me news like
today’s. It really helps.”

Philip and Emery pocketed the money and
walked away.

“
I’m going to miss getting
this money,” said Emery. “Now what?”

“
Now, we gotta report my
aunt’s pants.”

“
You think the police are
going to care about your aunt’s pants? Aunt’s pants. It sounds
stupid just saying it.”

“
When we tell them the
other stuff, they will. I hope.”

“
So where’s a
policeman?”

Philip looked around. “I don’t
know.”

“
We better not wait until
one comes by. It could be too late then. Maybe we better go to
headquarters.”

“
Headquarters? Where’s
headquarters?”

“
You know where. Two blocks
from the big mall.”

“
Oh, yeah. That’s pretty
far.”

Emery shrugged. “We walked to the mall
before.”

“
I guess. Okay. Forward
march.”

Twenty minutes later, the two nervous
boys entered the police building. Uniformed officers walked around
behind a low railing. Benches lined the wall outside of the
railing. An officer gazing at a computer screen sat at a desk just
inside the front door. He looked their way and said,
“Yes?”

The boys took tiny,
shoulder-to-shoulder steps toward the desk.

Emery pointed at Philip. “He wants to
talk to you.”

Philip gave Emery a quick, uneasy
glance.

“
And what would he like to
talk about?”

“
His aunt’s pants,” said
Emery.

The officer frowned. “His aunt’s
pants?”

“
The truck driver has
them,” Philip blurted.

The officer pushed the computer
keyboard back.

“
The truck driver has your
aunt’s pants? Your aunt’s wearing
something
, I hope.”

Philip’s face turned red as he tried
his best to explain. “It’s not just my aunt’s pants. It’s about
Leon’s television. His new television.”

The officer turned to a woman in
uniform walking by. “Sandy. Sandy.” The officer wiggled his fingers
to beckon her. “These young fellows want to speak with someone
about his . . .” The officer pointed at Philip. “. . . aunt’s pants
and his . . .” The officer pointed at Emery. “. . .
television.”

“
Not
my
television,” said Emery, waving
his hands. “My cousin Leon’s television.”

“
His cousin Leon’s
television. Would you, please?”

Officer Sandy chuckled and said, “Come
with me boys. Let’s see what you have to say.”

Philip and Emery followed the officer
through a swinging gate and down a hallway into a small office,
where they saw a large table and six chairs.

“
Sit,” Officer Sandy
invited.

The boys sat and folded their hands
atop the table as if they were in school.

“
Go on,” Officer Sandy
urged, smiling. “Start talking.”

Philip and Emery nestled beneath Mrs.
Logan’s bushes next morning.

“
Could you sleep good last
night?” asked Emery.

“
No, and I’ll sleep even
worse tonight.”

“
I wish we could sneak out
of the house and watch.”

“
Yeah, me, too. Imagine one
of our mothers finding out we were missing in the middle of the
night, though. She’d call the police. Sirens would be clanging. It
would be a mess. No way anything happens if
that
happens.”

“
I guess. You think the
police lady believed us?”

“
Us? I did all the
talking.”

“
So. I went with you,
didn’t I?”

Philip showed what he
thought of Emery’s help with a loud, “
Pffft.”

“
What if Leon’s family
doesn’t go away?” asked Emery.

“
Doesn’t go! They better
go. He said they’d go.”

The boys looked at one
another.

“
Let’s check,” said
Philip.

They scrambled out from under the
bushes and rushed the three blocks to Leon’s house. When they
reached the house, they stood down the block on the other side of
the street behind a tree.

“
Uh oh,” said Emery. “The
car’s still there.”

“
It’s early. Maybe they
didn’t leave yet.”

“
Maybe.” They stood quietly
a moment before Emery had a thought. “Maybe Leon got sick. Maybe he
jumped off his bed again and broke his head open.”

“
He’s not that
dumb.”

Emery gave him a doubting
look.

“
At least I don’t
think
he’s that
dumb.”

“
Why don’t we go ask him if
he’s still going? We can tell him we came to say good-bye.
Ohh!
Look!”

Leon’s family—Leon, his father, and his
mother—filed out of the house. Leon did some strange kind of dance,
but stopped when his father shouted at him—a shout so loud the two
boys could hear it.

“
He’s goofy all the time,”
mumbled Philip.

The two boys watched them get into the
car. They heard another roaring shout from inside the car, but
couldn’t figure out who did it or why.

“
Leon drives everybody
nuts,” said Emery.

The car drove away from them and turned
the corner. The boys stepped out from behind the tree.

“
Well,” said Philip.
“They’re gone. Now, we just have to wait.”

~ * ~

“
What are you doing up so
early, Philip?” his mother asked next morning. “Put that phone
down. It’s only eight o’clock, too early to bother Emery. His
mother may still be sleeping.”

“
He’s got two little
sisters, Mom. He says his mother never sleeps.”

“
Well, maybe.”

“
He’s awake. I know he
is.”

Just then Philip’s baby sister Becky
gave a hungry screech from the living room.

“
I’m coming. I’m coming,”
Mrs. Felton called and walked quickly away, a bottle of warm milk
in her hand.

Philip punched in Emery’s number and
waited for him to pick up.

“
Emery, you
awake?”

“
I’m talking to you, aren’t
I?”

“
You hear anything
yet?”

“
Nope. You?”

“
Nope.”

“
Well, if you do, call me
again. I want to know.”

“
Okay.”

The morning crept along oh so slowly.
Philip tried to watch TV, but his mind wandered to Leon’s house. He
thought about playing with Becky, but she dropped off to sleep as
soon as she’d been fed. He went up to play Candy Crush on his
computer, but couldn’t stay interested. Then the front doorbell
rang.

Philip got on his hands and knees at
the top of the steps so he could peek downstairs. His mother
answered the door and stepped back in surprise. Officer Sandy
entered.

~ * ~

Officer Sandy allowed Philip to call
Emery, who showed up, out of breath, two minutes later. Philip
could see his mother didn’t know what to make of a visit from the
police, but he felt better when Officer Sandy assured her he wasn’t
in any trouble.

“
Can I please know what
this is all about now?” Mrs. Felton asked when Emery
arrived.

Officer Sandy briefly described
Philip’s trip to headquarters two days before.

Philip kept his eye on his mother’s
face until she turned his way. Then he spun his head in the other
direction.

Officer Sandy continued. “The boys gave
us the license number of the truck. Philip memorized three numbers,
and Emery memorized three numbers.”

“
Seven-four-two,” Emery
cried proudly.

“
We followed up and found
out that a very suspicious character owned the truck, which made us
believe a bit more what the boys had told us.”

“
You didn’t believe us?”
cried Philip.

“
We always have to check
our information,” explained Officer Sandy. “We would never think
you’d lie to us, but anybody can be mistaken.”

Philip’s astonishment subsided, and
Officer Sandy went on.

“
So we did what Philip
suggested. And sure enough, around two in the morning, the truck
pulled into your friend Leon’s driveway. Two men, the truck driver
and your Mr. Sorino, broke into the house through the back door and
a few moments later carried out the new TV the family bought. We
caught everything they did on tape.”

“
They’re cooked,” Emery
shouted.

Philip happily turned to his mother.
“Mom, Mr. Sorino didn’t really want old TVs to fix. He didn’t
really want broken stuff. He really wanted us to tell him who threw
stuff away. He knew if somebody threw away like an old TV, it was
because they just got a new TV. One he could steal. That’s what
happened to that house a couple blocks over. Remember?”

“
I remember. I remember,”
Philip’s mother said, looking at her son in
astonishment.

“
We
told Mr. Sorino about that house throwing away their old TV,”
said Philip, his voice rising. “We even gave him the house’s
address!”

“
Tell them about your
aunt’s pants,” said Emery.

“
I knew they stole stuff
because they stole Aunt Louise’s pants—the black
satin
pants.” He glared
at Emery.

Emery sniffed dismissively.
“
You
knew?
I
knew. I told you. You
didn’t know anything. You kept telling me she sat in her
pants.”

“
If you didn’t explain it
so stupid . . .”

“
If you didn’t understand
it so stupid . . .”

“
Boys, boys,” interrupted
Officer Sandy. “Philip, tell your mother about the stolen
pants.”

Philip complied.

Emery jumped in the moment Philip
stopped. “Then, when Leon told us about the new art set his mother
bought for him, we figured out why Mr. Sorino wanted us to tell him
about stuff we saw in the trash.”

“
We
figured out?
I
figured out,” Philip said hotly. “You didn’t know
anything.”

“
Yes, I did.”

“
No, you
didn’t.”

Officer Sandy cautioned the boys again.
“Philip, tell your mother about the art kit.”

“
Leon said he knew his
mother got him a new art kit because he saw his old, used-up art
kit in the trash. When he said that,
I
figured it out.” He tossed Emery a
look. “Mr. Sorino wanted to know what people threw away, so he
could figure out what they just bought. If they threw out the old
TV, it meant they bought a new TV, and he went to steal
it.”