Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief Sammy Keyes
Page 13
“So I started thinking—all these burglaries are happening in the same vicinity. Maybe Oscar just cruises around watching and listening to people all day and when he finds out someone’s going on vacation or going to be gone, well, chinga-chinga-chinga he just goes in and makes himself some quick cash. I think that’s probably what happened to Gina.”
Sergeant Jacobson chews on this a minute. “But when did you know it was him?”
So I tell him about planting the money and how Oscar had scooped it up, and then Marissa says, “You know, that money was mine. Do you think I can get it back?”
Sergeant Jacobson nods, then lets out a sigh. “But I’m afraid there will be some red tape.”
“Why?”
“Because I imagine a lot of people will be putting in claims for any money we recover, and there’s no way to prove whose is whose.”
I smile at him. “Marissa’s money will be easy to spot.”
“Oh?”
“I marked it.”
“You did?”
I nod, and they both say, “Well?”
“I wrote ‘I’m the hotel thief’ on both of the bills. It’s tiny, but it’s there.”
Sergeant Jacobson throws back his head and laughs. “Well, that’s certainly another nail in the man’s coffin!” Then he adds, “His name’s not Oscar, by the way. It’s Larry Daniels, and his probation officer from South County’s been looking for him.”
That makes my eyes bug out a little. “Yeah?”
“He’s not somebody I would recommend tackling without backup.” He shakes his head at me. “You’ve got a lot of bubbles in your soda, young lady.”
Just then his phone rings. He snatches it off the hook. “Jacobson here.” He says a lot of “Uh-huh”s and “Good”s, and pretty soon he says, “Excellent!” and gets off the phone.
He smiles at us and says, “They’ve got Mr. Daniels’ friend from the Heavenly in custody.”
“André?”
“No, no. André’s a good man, very cooperative. I’m talking about the man that Mr. Daniels visited.” Then he adds, “André knows our Mr. Daniels as Lew.”
Marissa shakes her head. “So Oscar’s really three people?”
Sergeant Jacobson nods. “The way I piece it together, Daniels would wear the blond wig when he walked around town, a different one when he was on a job, and then the fishing hat and glasses when he was playing Oscar.”
“So who was the guy he visited at the Heavenly?”
“Apparently he’s quite a lowlife himself—long history of lawbreaking and overnighters at the jail house. I don’t think we’ll have any problem getting information out of him, although we might not need it. They’ve found quite a bit of incriminating evidence in that ice cream cart.”
I lean forward. “Like...?”
“A few disguises—one was a brown wig and beard and some black gloves. There was also a stash of cash and a few items of jewelry, including a silver-plated watch.”
“Is it Gina’s?”
“Sounds like it. Suns and moons on the wristband—”
“That’s it!”
Marissa says, “But wait a minute, Sammy. How’d you know he’d be under that big tree?”
“Remember how you laughed at me because those bike tracks didn’t go anywhere? Well, I was chasing around looking for Oscar when these bikes came whipping by me through the dirt. And after I saw their tracks, I knew that the tracks under the tree couldn’t have been made by bikes. They were spaced too regular...too even. Like they’d been made by a giant tricycle or something.”
Marissa says, “Like the ice cream cart.”
“Right!”
When Sergeant Jacobson finally gets everything documented, he shakes our hands and says, “Can I give you girls a lift home?”
Well, I don’t want to have to walk all the way home from East Jasmine so I say, “No, that’s okay.”
He walks us to the front door, and just as we’re going down the walkway, Gina comes sailing up in purple and silver scarves. “Hey,” she calls to me, “I just heard!” She plants a great big kiss on my cheek. “I can’t believe you caught the guy!” She holds me out in front of her and says, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to do your birth chart, that’s what I’m going to do. I’ll even progress it for you!” Then, before I can say, No really, that’s okay, she gives me a hug and runs up the station steps. “Gotta go I.D. my watch and see about my money!”
We watch her swoop into the police station and then kind of shake our heads and laugh. Finally Marissa says, “I’ve got to go get my bike.”
So we head to St. Mary’s, and once we get her bike we sit on the curb for a long time and talk. First about Oscar and everything that had happened, then about people not being what they seem. And when Marissa says, “Yeah, but Oscar’s just one guy! Most people are exactly what they seem,” I break it to her about Rockin’ Rick. And when her jaw gets back into socket about that, I ask her whether she thinks Mrs. Graybill or Officer Borsch could have secret lives as nice people. She just laughs and says, “If Rockin’ Rick looks like a dork, then anything’s possible!”
“What about Heather Acosta?”
“Oooh…” she says. “I take it back!”
We both laugh about that, and then Marissa asks, “You want to come over and spend the night?”
I think about it a minute. “Nah, I want to get home to Grams.”
And I do, even though I know Grams is going to keep me up all night. First she’ll want to hear the whole story. From the top. Then she’ll want to hear it again. Then she’ll pull out her boots and my knitting and while I’m sitting there, tangling up wool, she’ll blame everything on the binoculars and make me promise never to use them again.
A promise she knows I just can’t keep.
Wendelin Van Draanen has been everything from a forklift driver to a high school teacher and is now enjoying life as a full-time writer. The first four books in the Sammy Keyes mystery series have been embraced by critics and readers alike, and Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief received the 1999 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best children’s mystery.
Ms. Van Draanen lives with her husband and two sons in California. Her hobbies include the “three R’s”: reading, running, and rock ’n’ roll.
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“As always, Van Draanen injects some weighty social commentary into the plot’s clever suspense, creating well-rounded secondary characters while she develops Sammy into an intelligent, gutsy, flawed, and utterly likable heroine. . . . Another edgy, affecting page-turner.” —Booklist
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ALFRED A. KNOPF BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Published by
Dell Yearling
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Random House Children’s Books
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Text copyright © 1998 by Wendelin Van Draanen Parsons
Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Dan Yaccarino
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eISBN: 978-0-375-89044-4
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