The Case of the Library Monster (6 page)

I spend the rest of the day thinking about that blue-tongued skink. Now I’m back in Mom’s office. School is out. Mom and Ellie are still here, but all the kids have gone home. This would be a good time to go sniff around the rest of the school.

But I’m supposed to stay here on this pillow. Mom told me to stay.

Mom is typing away at her computer. Ellie is talking to someone on the phone. I could probably sneak away. I wouldn’t have to be gone long. Maybe I could get back before Mom even noticed I was gone.

But when Mom tells me to stay, I’m supposed to stay. That’s the rule.

Well ... sometimes a dog has to break the rules.

With one eye on Mom and Ellie, I keep my body low to the ground ...and creeeeeep past Ellie’s desk, around the corner, and out into the hallway.

Safe!

Then I put my nose to the ground and sniff. I don’t smell anything unusual in this hall ... or this hall ... or this hall ... I go down some stairs ... hey, I’ve never been in this part of the school before.

There are no classrooms down here. Just a dark hallway that smells musty. And some closed doors. It’s kind of scary down here, a place a ghost would hang out. If there was one at this school.

Suddenly, I hear footsteps on the stairs behind me. Slow, quiet footsteps.

I freeze.

There’s no place to run. No place to hide.

Oh! No worries. It’s
Maya
on the stairs.

“Oh!” she says when she sees me. She is as surprised to see me as I am to see her.

I wag my tail. “What are you doing here?” I ask. “I thought all the kids went home.”

She puts her finger to her lips. “Shh!” she says.

I trot along beside her. “Where are we going?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer.

We stop in front of one of the closed doors. There’s a sign on the door, but I can’t read the words on the sign.

Maya reaches into her pocket and pulls out a key. She smells nervous.

“What are you doing?” I ask her with my eyes.

She glances all around. But it’s just her and me down here.

I watch as she unlocks the door. She only opens it wide enough so she can squeeze through.

“What’s in there?” I ask, trying to nose my way in. “Can I come in, too?”

The door slams closed in my face.

I sniff the crack under the door. I smell dirt, dust, mold. What’s in that room? It doesn’t smell like stuff you normally smell around a school.

“Maya!” I scratch at the door. “Come back. Let me in.”

I don’t think she can hear me.

I sniff some more. Now I smell spiders ... mice ... old books ... paint.

“What are you doing in there?” I ask. I wonder if she’s supposed to be in there. Well, she had a key. She probably wouldn’t have a key if she wasn’t supposed to be in there.

I press my ear against the door and listen. I hear banging. I also hear things moving around. Big things. Heavy things.

Then I hear Maya cry out. “Oh, no,” she says. “No! No! No! No! No!”

Uh-oh. That doesn’t sound good. I scratch at the door again. “Maya? What’s wrong?” I sure wish I could open this door.

There’s a voice behind me. “What are you doing all the way down here, Buddy?” Mr. Poe asks. “Does Mrs. Keene know you’re running around loose?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “That’s not important. What’s important is Maya’s in there! I think she could be in trouble.”

Mr. Poe grabs hold of my leash and moves me away from the door.

“Wait!” I say, digging my paws into the floor. “We have to help Maya!”

But the floor is slippery. And Mr. Poe is STRONG. He pulls me across the floor ... up the stairs ... around the corner ... down the hall ... all the way back to the office.

Ellie raises her head when we walk in. She draws in her breath. “I didn’t know Buddy was loose, did you, Sarah?”

“No!” I hear Mom before I see her. She comes out to Ellie’s office and takes my leash from Mr. Poe. “Thanks for finding him. He’s usually much better about staying on his pillow.” She looks at me like I am a Bad Dog.

“No problem,” Mr. Poe says. “Now if only I could find that key to the furnace room as easily as I found your dog.”

“I’ll call the former principal of this school and see if she has any idea where it might be,” Mom says, leaning against the door jamb. “If not, I’ll call a locksmith to come and unlock that door. We’ve got to get in there and check the furnace pretty soon.”

Mr. Poe nods. “Sounds good,” he says. Then he leaves.

Mom points to my pillow. “Lie down, Buddy,” she says.

I go and lie down.

“And
stay
this time,” Mom says, returning to her desk.

I stay. Even though I really, really, really want to know what Maya is up to. Is she in trouble? Does anyone know where she is?

After ten or a hundred minutes, I hear footsteps in the hallway. Running footsteps.

Ellie gets up and goes out into the hall. “No running,” she says.

The running footsteps become walking footsteps. A small voice says, “Sorry.”

Maya?
I sit up.

“Down!” Mom says.

I lie back down. I’m pretty sure that was Maya’s voice I heard. That means she’s out of the secret room. That’s good. But why would she run down the hall? Where is she going in such a hurry?

I hear the door to the playground open and close. I can’t quite see out Mom’s window when I’m lying down, so I stretch my neck as high as I can and watch Maya zoom across the playground.

She calls out to a group of boys who are playing football in the grass. Mom’s window is closed so I can’t hear what she’s saying. But I see a boy stop and turn toward Maya. He’s a little older than she is. She motions for him to come over to her.

It’s too hard to see like this, so I sit all the way up. I watch Maya’s hands move in big circles. Whatever she’s telling him must be very important. Then they race toward the school.

“Buddy!” Mom says.

I drop to my belly.

“STAY!” Mom says.

“Okay, okay,” I say. There’s nothing to see outside right now anyway.

I hear an outside door open and close again. It must be Maya and that boy. I wait, but they don’t ever pass by the office. Are they really inside the school?

I listen. I sniff. I don’t hear or smell anything unusual.

After fifty-eleven minutes, Ellie says goodbye and leaves.

“Stay,” Mom says to me again. Even though I have not gotten up.

Finally, after seventy-twelve more minutes, Mom turns off her computer and reaches for her keys. We must be leaving soon.

“Okay, Buddy,” Mom says.

That means I can get up!

Mom picks up my leash, turns out the lights in her office and the main office, and locks the main office door behind us. As we move down the hall, I am sniffing ... sniffing ... sniffing. But I can’t tell whether Maya and that boy are inside the school or not.

Outside I see my friend Jazzy snoozing in her backyard. Jazzy is a pug. She and I met at obedience school a long, long time ago when I helped her and our other friend Muffin get back to their real humans.

“Jazzy!” I call.

She raises her head. “Buddy! Hi!” She scampers to the fence to greet me.

Mom is not heading to the fence; she’s heading toward the car.

“Did you see a girl that smells like strawberries and sugar?” I ask Jazzy over my shoulder. That’s the best way to describe Maya. The strawberries and sugar smell is much stronger than the monster smell. “She was out here a little while ago. She was talking to a boy.”

“Do you mean Maya? Yes, I saw her. She was talking to her brother, Alex,” Jazzy says.

I wag my tail. “You know them?”

Mom opens the back door for me. “Hop up,” she says.

I pretend I don’t know what Mom wants me to do. “Did you hear what Maya said to her brother?” I ask Jazzy.

“Something about mice,” Jazzy says.

“What about them?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” Jazzy says.

“Did you hear them say anything else?”

Jazzy thinks for a minute. “She also said Felix, Freckles, and Fluffy are gone!”

“Who are Felix, Freckles, and Fluffy?” I ask.

“I have no idea,” Jazzy says.

“Let’s go, Buddy,” Mom says. “In the car.” She pats the back seat. But I am in the middle of a very important conversation.

“Where are Maya and Alex now?” I ask Jazzy.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I saw them go in that door over there.” She tips her head toward the far door at the end of the school. “I don’t think they ever came out.”

I have to find out what Maya and Alex are up to. I yank my leash out of Mom’s grasp and RUN for that door.

“Buddy!” Mom stomps her foot. “Come back here!”

I keep running. Along the way I pick up Maya’s scent. Her brother’s scent, too.

I can feel Mom chasing me across the playground. I know she isn’t happy. But I have to follow Maya and Alex’s trail. I follow it all the way to the school. Unfortunately, the door is closed.

I don’t know why all buildings can’t have a doggy door like I have at my house.

I peer in through the glass. Mr. Poe is mopping the floor.

“Let me in!” I say, scratching at the slippery door. “Please, let me in!”

Mr. Poe comes over and pushes the door open with his hip.

“Grab him!” Mom yells to Mr. Poe. “Grab Buddy!”

Mr. Poe reaches for me, but I leap away before he can grab me. I charge across the wet floor. Sniffing ... sniffing ... sniffing. Uh-oh. I think Mr. Poe has mopped away Maya and Alex’s trail.

No, wait. When I get to a part of the floor where Mr. Poe hasn’t mopped yet, I pick up the trail again. I follow it down the hall, around the corner, around another corner, down the stairs, all the way to that secret door.

I sniff the door. I don’t hear voices or anything moving around inside, but I’m pretty sure I smell those kids in there.

“BUDDY, SIT!” Mom yells as she hurries toward me. “SIT AND STAY!”

I sit.

“Good boy,” Mom says, grabbing my leash.

I pop back up and scratch at the door some more. “PLEASE OPEN THIS DOOR!” I say. “Maya and Alex are in there. We have to find out what they’re doing.”

“What does Buddy want in the furnace room?” Mom asks.

This
is the furnace room?

“I don’t know,” Mr. Poe says. “He must smell something. I wish we could get in there.” He tries the door, but it’s locked.

“Without a key, there isn’t much we can do,” Mom says. “Come on, Buddy. Let’s go home.”

Hmm. I think I have yet
another
new case. On the way home, I think about The Case of Maya, the Missing Key, and the Furnace Room.

Here is what I know about my new case:

Maya and Alex were in the furnace room.