THE PEANUT-BUTTER BURGLARY
PUBLISHED BY WATERBROOK PRESS
12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
The characters and events in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental.
eISBN: 978-0-307-76920-6
Copyright © 2002 by Becky Freeman
Illustrations copyright © 2002 by David Austin Clar
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York.
WATERBROOK and its deer colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc.
v3.1
To my fun nephew Tyler,
who loves Blue Bell ice cream,
fishing for bass,
laughing out loud,
and reading good mysteries!
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
1 Pantry Thief
2 Cat Burglar?
3 Not the Usual Suspects
4 Peanut-Butter Clues
5 Runaways
6 Putting Four Heads Together
7 Hot Off the Press
8 Marco’s Big Idea
9 Back-Room Investigation
10 Hideaway Home
11 Intruders!
12 Back to Life
13 Goin’ to the Cabin-Chapel of Love
The Twiblings’ Activity Pages
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gratitude to Erin Healy, the world’s best editor; Greg Johnson, the world’s best agent; and my husband and kids, the best family a “crazy” writing woman could ask for! Also to Stephen Arterburn for his enthusiasm for this project, to the WaterBrook and Children of Faith gang, and to David Austin Clar for the terrific artwork that brings the Camp Wanna Banana characters to life. Finally, to the Creator of All, for the gift of imagination and storytelling!
1
PANTRY THIEF
Marco Garcia walked out of Tall Pines Elementary School and shaded his dark eyes against the bright springtime sun. His eyes caught Chad Riggs, a new kid in school, riding off on a brand-new, bright blue mountain bike toward Whispering Pines Estates, where the fanciest houses in Tall Pines were built. Chad was wearing the most popular (and most expensive) brand of jeans and basketball shoes. Marco felt a twinge of jealousy wash over him. Some kids just seem to have everything.
Marco turned to his twin sister, Maria, who was walking beside him. “I wonder what it would be like to be able to have anything you wanted,” he said.
Maria nodded and smiled. She hugged her books to her chest and asked, “What would you buy?”
Marco thought a minute. “A mountain bike like Chad’s, to start with.” He ran his fingers through his thick black hair until it stood up crazily. “And cool tennis shoes to replace these ratty old ones. Then I’d buy Mama and Papa a red Corvette so they wouldn’t have to drive that rickety ranch truck everywhere. And I’d buy us all a big house—one with white columns and lots of big rooms and fancy furniture. My room would be huge with space to spread out and watch my own cable TV and play video games and do research on my high-speed computer.”
“Hmmm,” answered Maria thoughtfully, absent-mindedly twisting a strand of her long dark hair. “It would be fun to have all that stuff, but I like our little house at Camp Wanna Banana. I think our attic bedrooms are like cozy squirrels’ nests. What I’d really like is to be able to buy all the books I wanted, anytime I wanted to buy them!”
Marco shook his head. Maria and her friend, Joy, were always talking about books, books, books. Not that Marco didn’t enjoy a good book as much as the next kid. But he wasn’t at all interested in the sissy girl stuff his sister liked: Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, American Girl. Yuck!
“Yeah,” said Marco, “I’d buy all the books I could read on how things work. You know, the human body, stars, plants, animals, machines …”
“You really like medicine and science and stuff, don’t you?” Maria asked.
“Yep.”
“Think you’ll be a doctor or scientist someday?”
“I don’t know,” Marco answered seriously. “I might just continue my work as an ace detective. It allows me to use the great variety of stored-up knowledge in my brain.”
Maria laughed out loud. Marco frowned. Ever since Marco and his best buddy, Jake Bigsley (who was also Joy’s twin brother), decided to form the Dos Amigos Detective Agency last year, it seemed to him that Maria and Joy never took them seriously.
Just then, Jamie Klem came running up to the twins, breathless, her blond braids flying behind her. Jamie and her big family of ten had moved to Arizona from Georgia last fall in time for the new school year. Marco loved listening to her Southern accent. He could hardly believe real people talked like she did!
“Hey, y’all, Miss Nellie’s got chocolate peanut-buttuh ice cream todaaay,” Jamie drawled sweetly. “Jake and Joah are waitin’ for you at the café. They told me to run tell y’all to hurry up on ovah befoah it’s all gone!”
“Thanks, Jaaaaime,” Marco answered, playfully trying to mimic the way Jamie stretched out her words. But she didn’t even seem to notice; she was already on her way back to Miss Nellie’s Café.
Marco and Maria walked the two blocks from school over to Tall Pines’s town square in front of Miss Nellie’s place. Her popular café was on a corner of the square. Miss Nellie, a pretty lady in her thirties, kept long benches outside in front of the glass windows to the café, where old folks could “set a spell” or young kids could sit and wait for their rides home from school if they weren’t riding the bus. Next to the café was Andy’s Art Studio. The shades were drawn, and a hand-printed sign on the locked door read, “Gone to Texas to visit the grandkids. Will reopen June 1. See you then!” On the other side of the art studio, at the end of the small block, was Henley’s Hardware.
Because both sets of twins lived near each other, their parents often took turns carpooling the Twiblings, as Mrs. Bigsley called the foursome, back and forth to school, church, and sports activities. The Garcias and Bigsleys worked odd jobs during Camp Wanna Banana’s off-season to make ends meet, but most days at least one of them was able to pick up the kids after school. Today, Mr. Garcia would pick up the foursome after shoeing a neighboring rancher’s horses, but he would be about twenty minutes late. The twins never minded when their parents ran late, especially if it meant time for ice cream at Miss Nellie’s. Their parents never worried about them in the quiet little town of Tall Pines, where good-hearted (if sometimes nosy) townspeople watched over the square near the school. In fact, Marco’s mother would often say, “In a small town, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can be sure everyone else does!”
Marco glanced at his watch. J
ust enough time to go in for a scoop! he thought cheerfully.
Marco glanced at the café window and noticed several colorful country quilts, a rocker, and a couple of hay bales arranged in front of a sign that said, “Come on in, put your feet up, and enjoy today’s homemade goodies!” Miss Nellie changed the window display every month. “I like to keep the place bright and interesting,” she would say. “Keeps the customers curious—and coming back for seconds!” Miss Nellie was the most energetic businesswoman in town and one of the nicest grownups Marco had ever met.
He paused to open the door for Maria and nodded to Mr. Henley, who was coming out of Miss Nellie’s place with his orange tabby cat, Pumpkin. The pet acted more like a dog than a cat, gallantly padding out the door behind her owner, who was headed back to his hardware store.
As Marco and Maria entered the cool shop, they heard a commotion of conversation going on behind the counter.
“Now who did this to my fresh coconut cake?” Miss Nellie was pointing in frustration to what was once an elegant three-layer cake. The few kids who had gathered on barstools paused from licking their ice-cream cones and craned their necks to see the dessert. Marco and Maria joined Jake and Joy at the end of the counter for a look. It seemed as though someone had gnawed a big hunk out of the side of Miss Nellie’s sweet specialty.
“And this isn’t the only odd thing that’s happened today,” Miss Nellie said, throwing her hands up helplessly. “I’m missing a gallon—a gallon!—of milk and a bowl of homemade tuna salad from the refrigerator. Now I can be absent-minded sometimes, but this is ridiculous. I couldn’t possibly have misplaced all that!”
Jake Bigsley peered over the top of his double-dip cone, fixed his large blue eyes on Marco and said, “This looks like a job for—”
“—los dos amigos!” Marco finished. Then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a notebook and pen. “Miss Nellie,” he said, “don’t worry. Jake and I, here, we’ll get to the bottom of this milk, cake, and tuna crime.” Marco began to jot down some notes.
Jake nodded in agreement, his blond hair bouncing and swaying like wisps of wheat. “Marco and I will make sure that, once again, it will be safe for you to walk to your own refrigerator.”
Marco caught a glimpse of Joy and Maria looking up at the ceiling. He heard Maria whisper, “Oh, brother,” and then Joy respond with, “You mean, oh, brothers.”
Marco went over to Jake and put a firm grip on his friend’s shoulder and squeezed. “Ignore them. This is just the sort of lack of respect we have to put up with to keep the streets safe for old women and young children.”
Miss Nellie cleared her throat. “I certainly hope I don’t fall into the category of being an old woman, Marco. I may be an old maid, but I’m not an old woman!”
Everyone laughed out loud. “No ma’am,” Marco explained quickly. “You’re not old at all! I mean, you’re a grownup and all, but you’re … I, uh, well … That was just a saying I heard on a TV detective show.” Miss Nellie may not have married yet, but she was beautiful, inside and out, and everyone knew it. She was definitely not old. In fact, her strawberry blond curls made her look like a high-school girl when she let her hair down. But usually she piled up those wild pretty curls on top of her head. When she wore it that way, she reminded Marco of the women who wore high-neck lace collars in old-fashioned pictures he’d seen in books about the Wild West. Marco thought she was very pretty.
“Well,” Miss Nellie said as she dusted off a barstool with her apron and sat down, “what can I do to help you gather clues?”
Marco tried to recover from his embarrassment. “I, uh … I’d like to ask you a few questions first,” Marco explained. “I’ll need to find out the names of everyone who has come into the store today, then I’d like to examine the evidence—the cake. Can we have permission to take it to our Secret Cabin Clubhouse to give it a good looking-over?”
“Sure,” said Miss Nellie. “I sure can’t sell it to customers now! I’ll pack it up in a cardboard box, and then we’ll get to those questions of yours.”
Marco could hardly wait to get started, but he tried to hide his excitement. After all, this was serious business. Even so, he had to admit, there was nothing he and Jake Bigsley loved more than a good mystery.
Except maybe chocolate peanut-butter ice cream.
2
CAT BURGLAR?
Jake and Marco walked in the door of a small log cabin on the south side of Lake Willapango. This secluded area of Camp Wanna Banana wasn’t far from the Garcia house, and the twins had discovered this old, abandoned house nearly a year ago. During summer camp, the cabin became the nature center with kids of all ages crawling all over the place. But Jake and Joy’s dad, who owned the camp, allowed the Twiblings to use it as a Secret Cabin Clubhouse the rest of the year.
The cabin was only one room, but it had a little kitchen area with refrigerator, sink, table, and chairs, as well as a fireplace and an old sofa bed placed between two rocking chairs in the living area.
Marco placed the large cardboard box on the wooden table and carefully pulled out the cake with the plate attached.
“Got your flashlight?” Marco asked, looking expectantly at Jake.
“You bet,” answered Jake, digging around in his emergency backpack. “Here you go.”
Marco shone the light all around the cake and then held the beam steady in one place.
“See that?” he asked.
“What?” asked Jake.
“Those tiny little reddish hairs, about an inch long.”
“Verrrry interesting,” commented Jake, leaning in for a closer look.
“Whoever ate this cake had really short red hair,” Marco said as he reached for his clue book and recorded the information.
“Marco, there’s something else odd about this,” Jake noted aloud.
“What?”
“Well, look at the teeth marks on the icing. The bite size is very tiny and the teeth holes are small—not much bigger than a thick needle would make.”
“Yeah,” said Marco, “good observation, amigo. And look at those long, smooth indentations around the edge of the frosting. Something with a small tongue licked this cake.”
Marco added the information to the clue book, then looked up. “So what’s your conclusion, Jake, based on the clues we have so far?”
“Well,” said Jake, as he raised one eyebrow to indicate a flash of profound insight. “Looks to me like a tiny red-headed baby must have crawled up on the cabinet and started eating and licking Miss Nellie’s cake while her back was turned. Then he must have crawled away on the floor and out the door.”
Marco smiled. Jake tried hard, but he didn’t always make sense. “Jake, I don’t think a baby could climb up on the cabinet like that. Even if he could, I think Miss Nellie or the mother would have noticed. Babies aren’t exactly the quietest things.”
“Then who do you think it was, Mr. Genius Scientist?” Jake asked, sounding slightly offended.
Marco thought for a minute.
“Hey, Mr. Henley came by Miss Nellie’s today, remember?”
“Yeah,” said Jake. “But he doesn’t have red hair or little tiny teeth or a little bitty mouth.”
“Noooo,” said Marco, “but Pumpkin does!”
“That’s right!” said Jake. “Pumpkin must have helped herself to a hunk of coconut cake while Miss Nellie and Mr. Henley were visiting. Mystery solved!”
“Not so fast,” answered Marco. “As smart as Pumpkin might be, and as much as she loves milk and tuna, I don’t think she could have opened the fridge and hauled off a gallon of milk and a bowl of tuna salad. Unnoticed.”
“Hmmm,” Jake agreed. “Sounds like we’ve got some more detective work to do.”
“Let’s go back to Miss Nellie’s tomorrow after school and ask her some more questions. We just don’t have enough clues to go on yet.”
Jake nodded. Then after a short period of silence he said, “Marco?”
“W
hat Jake?”
“Do you think this cake is completely covered in cat germs?”
Marco knew that his friend loved sweet treats, and the smell of the coconut frosting was tempting both of their hungry tummies.
“Better not eat the evidence, buddy,” Marco said, lightly slapping Jake’s back. “Let’s put the cake in the freezer and then head to my house. Mama’s making sopaipillas!”
“Those little puffy bread things you fill up with honey and butter?” Jake asked hopefully.
“Sí, señor,” Marco replied.
And with that, they set off in search of a snack. The mystery would have to remain unsolved until tomorrow.
3
NOT THE USUAL SUSPECTS
The next day, after school, Jamie Klem invited Maria and Joy to go with her family to the library. The Klems’ giant, old avocado-green station wagon was just big enough to carry everyone.
After waving good-bye to their sisters, Jake and Marco headed straight to Miss Nellie’s Café. They had exactly twenty minutes before Mr. Bigsley would be there to take them home.
“Hey, Jake,” Marco asked, “do you ever wish you were rich?”
“Oh yeah,” Jake answered. “You mean rich like Chad Riggs must be?”
Marco nodded. “I love my parents, but we never have enough money to buy the really cool stuff—the cool jeans, new bikes, you know. The good stuff. Name-brand stuff.”
“I know,” Jake agreed. “Our dads didn’t exactly pick the world’s best-paying jobs when they decided to run a camp for kids. Dad’s doing some carpentry work over in Whispering Pines Estates on some of those big new houses, and Mom gives piano lessons on Saturdays now to help pay some of our bills.”
“Yeah, my dad’s shoeing horses, and Mama is selling her homemade tamales to the Tall Pines Deli,” Marco sympathized. “Do you ever wish your dad would get a job that pays more, with a suit and a big paycheck and everything?”
“Sometimes,” Jake answered. “But our dads love us, and they do things with us—like riding horses and playing ball and just hanging out and talking. I just think maybe I’m rich in other ways.”
The Peanut-Butter Burglary Page 1