“Let me guess,” I said. “You play a dancing ghost.”
“Ha!” Mr. Copabianco laughed. “How did you know? Yes, yes! I dance…”
“… and you glow,” Mila added.
“Yes, yes,” Mr. Copabianco said, clasping his hands together. “You should come see me—dancing and glowing, glowing and dancing! It’s wonderful!”
An idea danced in his eyes.
“Let me show you,” Mr. Copabianco said.
He set up a light projector and aimed it at a wall. He rubbed more glow powder on his legs and sleeves. He put on a ghostly mask.
Then he turned off the lights.
The room grew dark. And our janitor, Mr. Copabianco, started dancing. Mila and I joined in, too. We danced around like crazy ghouls. Halloween was coming. All the pieces fit into place. Another mystery was solved.
Don’t miss this special sneak peek at a brand-new, never-before-published JIGSAW JONES MYSTERY:
The Case from
Outer Space
When Joey and Danika find a mysterious note tucked inside a book, all signs point to a visitor from outer space. Yikes! Can Jigsaw solve this case, when the clues are out of this world?
Chapter
1
A Knock on the Door
Call me Jones.
Jigsaw Jones, private eye.
I solve mysteries. For a dollar a day, I make problems go away. I’ve found stolen bicycles, lost jewelry, and missing parakeets. I’ve even tangled with dancing ghosts and haunted scarecrows.
Mysteries can happen anywhere, at any time. One thing I’ve learned in this business is that anyone is a suspect. That includes friends, family, and a little green man from outer space.
Go figure.
It was a lazy Sunday morning. Outside my window, it looked like a nice spring day. The sky was blue with wispy clouds that looked like they had been painted by an artist. A swell day for a ball game. Or a mystery. Maybe both if I got lucky.
I was standing at my dining room table, staring at a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle. It was supposed to be a picture of our solar system. The sun and eight planets. But right now it was a mess. Scattered pieces lay everywhere. I scratched my head and munched on a blueberry Pop-Tart. Not too hot, not too cold. Just right. As a cook, I’m pretty good with a toaster. I began working on the border, grouping all the pieces that had a flat edge. Sooner or later, I’d work my way through the planets. The rust red of Mars. The rings of Saturn. And the green tint of Neptune. I’ve never met a puzzle I couldn’t solve. That’s because I know the secret. The simple trick? Don’t give up.
Don’t ever give up.
My dog, Rags, leaped at the door. He barked and barked. A minute later, the doorbell rang. Ding-a-ling, ding-dong. That’s the thing about Rags. He’s faster than a doorbell. People have been coming to our house all his life. But for my dog, it’s always the most exciting thing that ever happened.
Every single time.
“Get the door, Worm,” my brother Billy said. He was sprawled on the couch, reading a book. Teenagers, yeesh.
“Why me?” I complained.
“Because I’m not doing it.”
Billy kept reading.
Rags kept barking.
And the doorbell kept ringing.
Somebody was in a hurry.
I opened the door. Joey Pignattano and Danika Starling were standing on my stoop. We were in the same class together, room 201, with Ms. Gleason.
“Hey, Jigsaw!” Danika waved. She bounced on her toes. The bright beads in her hair clicked and clacked.
“Boy, am I glad to see you!” Joey exclaimed. He burst into the room. “Got any water?”
“I would invite you inside, Joey,” I said, “but you beat me to it.”
Danika smiled.
“I ate half a bag of Jolly Ranchers this morning,” Joey announced. “Now my tongue feels super weird!”
“That’s not good for your teeth,” I said.
Joey looked worried. “My tongue isn’t good for my teeth? Are you sure? They both live inside my mouth.”
“Never mind,” I said.
“Pipe down, guys!” Billy complained. “I’m reading here.”
“Come into the kitchen,” I told Joey and Danika. “We’ll get fewer complaints. Besides, I’ve got grape juice. It’s on the house.”
“On the house?” Joey asked. “Is it safe?”
I blinked. “What?”
“You keep grape juice on your roof?” Joey asked.
Danika gave Joey a friendly shove. “Jigsaw said ‘on the house.’ He means it’s free, Joey,” she said, laughing.
Joey pushed back his glasses with an index finger. “Free? In that case, I’ll take a big glass.”
Chapter
2
One Small Problem
I poured three glasses of grape juice.
“Got any snacks?” Joey asked. “Cookies? Chips? Corn dogs? Crackers?”
“Corn dogs?” I repeated. “Seriously?”
“Oh, they are delicious,” Joey said. “I ate six yesterday. Or was that last week? I forget.”
Danika shook her head and giggled. Joey always made her laugh.
I set out a bowl of chips.
Joey pounced like a football player on a fumble. He was a skinny guy, but he ate like a rhinoceros.
“So what’s up?” I asked.
“We found a note,” Danika began.
“Aliens are coming,” Joey interrupted. He chomped on a fistful of potato chips.
I waited for Joey to stop chewing. It took a while. Hum-dee-dum, dee-dum-dum. I finally asked, “What do you mean, aliens?”
“Aliens, Jigsaw!” he exclaimed. “Little green men from Mars—from the stars—from outer space!”
I looked at Danika. She shrugged, palms up. “Maybe,” she said. “You never know.”
I took a long swig of grape juice. “You mentioned a note,” I said to Danika.
She sat tall, eyes wide. “It’s very mysterious, Jigsaw. That’s why we came to you.”
“Narffle-snarffle,” Joey mumbled, his mouth still full of chips.
I leaned back in my chair. I shoved my hands into my pockets. They were empty. Business had been slow. I was a detective without a case. “Let me make a phone call,” I said.
I never work alone. My partner’s name is Mila Yeh. We split the money down the middle, fifty-fifty. Mila has long black hair. She’s crazy about books. And she’s my best friend on the planet. Together, we make a good team.
I asked Mila to meet us in my tree house. She said she’d be over in five minutes.
It took her three and a half.
Mila lived next door. And she was as quick as a rabbit.
As usual, Mila was singing. I knew the tune, but the words were different:
“Twinkle, twinkle, little mystery!
How I wonder what you are!
Could you really be up there?
Do Martians wear … underwear?”
“You’re funny,” Danika said. She beamed a warm smile in Mila’s direction.
Grinning, Mila sat down, crisscross applesauce. We gathered in a snug circle. There was no choice. My tree house wasn’t exactly a palace. I am not complaining. But I don’t go up there on windy days. Mila’s eyes were active and alert. They moved from Joey to Danika, before settling on me. “Aliens, huh?” Mila asked.
“From outer space,” Joey said.
“Uh-huh,” Mila replied. If she thought Joey was crazy, Mila was too nice to say it out loud.
I took out my detective notebook. I opened to a clean page. With a blue pen, I wrote:
THE CASE FROM OUTER SPACE
CLIENTS: Joey and Danika
CLUES:
I left the last part blank. I didn’t have any clues. I wasn’t even sure I had a case. But it was better than nothing.
“Maybe we could start from the beginning,” Mila suggested.
“Hold on.” I slid forward an empty coin jar. “We get a dollar a day.”<
br />
Joey and Danika exchanged glances. “We have one teensy-weensy problem,” Danika said.
Uh-oh.
“No money,” Joey confessed.
“We’re flat broke,” Danika said.
“That’s the worst kind of broke,” I sighed.
“Maybe we could trade?” Joey offered. He reached into his back pocket. His hand came out holding a hunk of smelly orange glop. “I’ve got some cheese!”
Mila leaned away. “You keep random cheese in your back pocket?”
“My front pockets were full,” Joey explained.
I was afraid to ask. We were all afraid. No one wanted to know what was in Joey’s front pockets. A frog? A hard-boiled egg? Last week’s bologna sandwich? Anything was possible.
There was still the problem of payment. I did not liking working for free. It was bad for business. But I needed a mystery the way a fish needs to swim … the way a bird needs to fly … the way a three-toed South American tree sloth needs to hang upside down.
“Okay,” I decided. “We’ll look into it. No promises.”
“Thanks, Jigsaw,” Danika said.
“You can still have my cheese,” Joey said. He held out the orange glop as if it were a pirate’s treasure.
Mila coughed. “That’s nice of you, Joey. Just hold on to it for now. For safekeeping.” She turned to Danika. “Let’s see that note.”
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The Case of the
Glow-in-the-Dark Ghost
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Read more Jigsaw Jones Mysteries by James Preller
The Case from Outer Space—New!
The Case of the Smelly Sneaker
The Case of the Bicycle Bandit
The Case of the Glow-in-the-Dark Ghost
The Case of the Mummy Mystery
The Case of the Best Pet Ever
The Case of the Buried Treasure
The Case of the Disappearing Dinosaur
The Case of the Million-Dollar Mystery
About the Author
James Preller is the author of numerous books, including the acclaimed novels The Fall, Bystander, and Six Innings, and the Scary Tales and Jigsaw Jones series. He travels throughout the country visiting classrooms and book festivals. He lives in Delmar, New York, with his wife and their children.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1 In the Tree House
Chapter 2 Cassandra’s Warning
Chapter 3 The Cap’n and Me
Chapter 4 Another Witness
Chapter 5 Footprints
Chapter 6 A Message from Mila
Chapter 7 The Plan
Chapter 8 The Great Escape
Chapter 9 To Spy a Ghost
Chapter 10 The Suspect
Chapter 11 Finishing the Puzzle
Chapter 12 Dancing in the Dark
Sneak Peak: The Case from Outer Space
Other Books By James Preller
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 by James Preller
Art used with permission from Scholastic
A Feiwel and Friends Book
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
mackids.com
All rights reserved.
Illustrations by Jamie Smith
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e-mail at [email protected].
First Feiwel and Friends edition 2017
eBook edition August 2017
Originally published by Scholastic in 2004
eISBN 978-1-250-11019-0
The Case of the Glow-in-the-Dark Ghost Page 3