The Rival Detective

by Walker Styles

  “Exactly,” Rider agreed. “We are going to need Ziggy’s help.”

  “But he’s in jail,” Westie said.

  “Not for long,” Rider said with a wink.

  A PRISON (SNACK) BREAK

  “Rider, you cannot really be considering this!” Westie said as the P.I. Pack van pulled up outside the Pawston Pound.

  “I most certainly am,” Rider said. He handed black suits and masks to his teammates. “We all know Ziggy is innocent, but we need his help to prove it. That means breaking him out of the pound.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Rora asked. “There are guards everywhere.”

  “We’re going to walk in the front door,” Rider said. “Good thing we know a pup on the inside.”

  “We do?” Westie asked.

  “We do.” Rider pointed. Sitting at the front desk watching TV was Frenchie, the nice but bumbling French bulldog.

  The P.I. Pack watched from the van until Frenchie fell asleep a few minutes into his night shift. “Time to go,” Rider said, pulling on his disguise.

  Dressed in all black, the three dog detectives slinked along the shadows and then tiptoed in through the front door. Quickly and quietly, they moved like cats until they found their friend sleeping in his cage.

  “Ziggy, wake up!” whispered Rider.

  Ziggy stirred awake and rubbed his eyes. “Rider? Is that you, or is this a dream?” he whispered. “Did you bring any snacks? The food is terrible in here.”

  “Same old Ziggy,” Rora said as she reached for the door.

  “Wait! If you open this door, the alarm will go off,” Ziggy warned. “You should go before you get caught.”

  “We’re not leaving without you,” Rider said. “Westie, Phase One.”

  Westie pulled out an oversize magnet. “Stand back, Ziggy. My Magno-Bender will bend those bars!”

  Bzzzzzzz!

  A moment later, Ziggy was free. His tail wagged as he hugged his friends. “Thanks, guys, but for real, do you have any snacks? I’m starving.”

  “Rora, Phase Two,” Rider said.

  “You’ll like this one, kid,” Rora told Ziggy. She pulled out a round ball of fur and placed it in Ziggy’s cell. Then she pressed a button, and the ball inflated like a balloon until it was the same size as Ziggy. Rora put it on the cot and covered it with a blanket. “Now no one will notice you’re missing.”

  “That’s brilliant!” Ziggy said.

  “All right, Westie,” said Rider. “Bend the bars back, and let’s get out of here. We have a cheesy crime to solve.”

  The four friends hurried back the way they’d come. Frenchie was still sound asleep and snoring at the front desk. Once they were in the van, all of the P.I. Pack breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  “I can’t believe we actually pulled it off!” Westie said.

  “Only thanks to your invention and Rora’s smarts,” Rider said.

  “It’s good to have you back, Ziggy,” Rora said.

  “It would be better if you’d brought me some snacks,” Ziggy whimpered as his tummy gurgled loudly.

  “Well, let’s start looking for one,” Rider said. “I hope you’re in the mood for cheese.”

  FONDUE FACTORY

  “Uh-uh! No way!” Ziggy complained from the back of the van. “I am not going back into the sewer!”

  “Luckily, we don’t have to,” Rider said. “The last place we saw the Big Cheddar was on Bark Avenue. We can’t sniff out the trail, but you can.”

  The P.I. Pack drove to the back of the Little Kiddie Yarn Barn. Ziggy’s nose picked up the scent instantly. “Mmmm, this delicious cheddar reminds me of nachos,” Ziggy said as he drooled a little. “Any chance I can eat the Big Cheddar when we find it?”

  “How many times have we told you, kid,” Rora said, “you can’t eat the evidence?”

  Ziggy’s stomach grumbled as the young pup started giving directions. He hung his head out the window, letting his fur fly back and his tongue lap in the wind. After a while, Ziggy said, “Take a right here. The yummy smell is stronger than ever. We’re close!”

  They had arrived at an old warehouse outside the city. The P.I. Pack parked, changed outfits, and snuck up the fire escape. Once they were on the roof, they peeked through an open skylight window.

  “Are those rats?” Westie asked.

  “They are,” Rora said. “Rats in cooking hats, cooking in vats. Talk about a tongue twister.”

  Down below were dozens of rats—including the sewer rats Rider had questioned before Wolf Growler arrested Allie Gator. They were all wearing white chef’s hats. Some were cutting up blocks of cheese. Others were slicing giant loaves of bread, and some were standing over the large vats, stirring the melting cheese.

  The head rat chef was in the center of the room. He was reading the stolen book of fondue recipes from the library. Next to him was another chef holding the missing arms of CleoCatra. He was using the arms to stir the cheese.

  “It’s a fondue factory!” Ziggy said. “I must be in cheddar heaven. You don’t mind if I sneak down and have a little bite, do you?”

  “Keep your eyes on the prize, Zig,” Rider said. “We need to catch the real crooks so you don’t go back to jail.”

  “Oh, that’s right.” Ziggy frowned. “Well, let’s get down there and arrest them.”

  “Not yet,” Rora whispered. She pointed. Down below, in the center of the swarm of chef rats, was Rotten Ruffhouse. He was holding the Big Cheddar and looking at his watch. “Rotten’s waiting for someone. It must be the real mastermind. Let’s watch to find out who is behind all this.”

  A moment later, Detective Wolf Growler walked in, and instead of arresting Rotten Ruffhouse, he shook his hand and smiled. “I see you have the Big Cheddar.”

  “I do,” Rotten said. “Do you remember our orders?”

  “I do,” Growler said. “We’re going to melt this cheese down into fondue and sell it back to the richest of the rich here in Pawston for ten times the price.”

  “Exactly,” Rotten said.

  “Gang, I think we’ve heard enough,” Rider said. “Who’s ready to stop some bad guys?”

  PAW! RIGHT IN THE KISSER!

  “Rats, Rotten, Growler, you are all under arrest!” Rider shouted from the skylight above the room. The P.I. Pack swooped down to the factory floor on ropes.

  “Oh, rats!” Rotten yelped. “I mean, rats, run for it!”

  All the rats with their tiny chef’s hats began running around in circles. Rotten made a beeline for the nearest exit. Only Wolf Growler stood his ground.

  He scowled at Rider. “You are going to ruin everything! I was supposed to come in and take your place. I would have been known as the best detective in Pawston! I would have had fame and money and all the kibble a dog could ask for!”

  “That’s not why we work for the law,” Rider said. “We do it for truth, justice, and honor! Those are three things you don’t have.” Rider tackled Growler. The two detectives wrestled and rolled next to the vats of melted cheese.

  “Well,” Ziggy added, “I do it for the kibble, too.”

  “Less talk, more action, kid,” Rora said as she flipped over an empty basket onto several rats and trapped them.

  “I can’t believe I finally get to use my Ratcatcher 2000!” Westie said. His invention launched small sticky nets at the whiskered criminals.

  Ziggy joined the fight too. He stepped on the tails of two rats. Then he dipped a piece of bread into the fondue next to him and ate it. “Hmmm. Needs more salt. Where’s the head chef?”

  Ziggy quickly found the rat ringleader. He was cowering behind the stolen cookbook. “Why’d you do it, chef? I thought cooks made good things and crooks made bad things?!”

  “The Big Cheddar was my final ingredient. I wanted to make the biggest—and tastiest—fondue of all time!” the head chef said. “I would have been famous!”

  “So you stole the cheese and the cookbook,” Ziggy said. “But why did you steal the CleoCatr
a arms?”

  “Oh, that,” the head chef said. “I just don’t like cats.”

  While the P.I. Pack rounded up the rats, Rider and Growler were still wrestling near the vats of steaming, bubbling cheese. It looked like Growler was winning. “Heel, you old dog,” Growler snarled. “I am younger than you, stronger than you, and even smarter than you. Face it, Woofson. I have the upper paw.”

  “I’ll show you what an upper paw looks like,” Rider said. With one quick move, Rider knocked Growler down.

  “PAW! Right in the kisser,” Rora said. “Nice job, Boss.”

  “Where’d you learn to fight like that?” Ziggy asked.

  “Before I was a detective, I was a boxer,” Rider said with a wink. “Trust me, kid. I always have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

  As the detectives looked over all the rats they’d caught, they realized Rotten had gotten away again.

  “I swear that dog has nine lives,” Rider said.

  “Don’t worry,” said Rora. “We’ll get him next time.”

  “I’m not worried,” Rider said. He walked over to Growler and cuffed him. “Tonight we’ve brought some cheesy justice back to Pawston instead of letting things go bad. Am I right, ‘Detective’?”

  Growler whimpered, and Rider smiled.

  CHEDDAR LUCK NEXT TIME

  The police, the mayor, and the rightful owner of the Big Cheddar were amazed when they arrived at the warehouse.

  “Once again, Pawston can’t thank you enough, Detective Woofson,” the mayor said.

  “All in a dog day’s work,” Rider answered.

  “I want to thank you too,” said Chip Chipper, the owner of the Chinchilla Cheese Shop. “You and your friends are welcome to free cheese any time.”

  “Any time?!” Ziggy asked as he reached for the Big Cheddar. “How about now?”

  “Ziggy!” cried Rider, Rora, and Westie. “Don’t eat the evidence!”

  As the police force escorted the rats and the rival detective to jail, Wolf Growler shook his paw-cuffed fists at Rider. “I’ll be back! Bark my words! You can’t keep a bad dog down!”

  With the real culprits arrested, Allie Gator was released. She ran over to Rider and shook his paw. “I’m free! You saved me, Detective Woofson! How can I ever repay you?”

  “With snacks!” Ziggy said.

  Rora and Westie rolled their eyes.

  “Really, Ms. Gator, no thanks needed,” Rider said. “Justice is its own reward.” The detective looked around at his friends and his admirers. At the beginning of this case, it seemed like the city might not need him anymore, but once again, Rider Woofson had proved that he was one of a kind.

  “That no-good, goody-two-shoessss detective ruined my planssss again,” Mr. Meow yelled at Rotten Ruffhouse. “How doessss he do it?”

  “If you ask me, your plan was kind of cheesy anyway,” Rotten said, laughing.

  Mr. Meow hissed at his henchdog and dug his claws into a chair.

  “I wassss so closssse. I would have made billionssss from selling that fancy fondue. Plussss Rider would have been replaced by Wolf Growler. And with Growler under my control, I would have been unsssstoppable. But no, Woofson and his band of bratssss had to ssssave the day. It’ssss not fair!”

  “Maybe you’ll get him next time,” Rotten said with a shrug. Then, under his breath, he added, “If you’re lucky.”

  “I heard that!” Mr. Meow snapped. “Oh, I’m not done yet. I still have an even bigger crime in store for those “Pee-Yew” Pack stinkerssss. And this plan will be absolutely magical.”

  Then Mr. Meow threw his head back and cackled with evil delight.

  CHECK OUT RIDER WOOFSON’S NEXT CASE!

  “Are you kidding me????” Ziggy Fluffenscruff barked. “David Geckom is the number one player in the soccer league. He’ll totally get voted MVP this year!”

  “Kid, I wish you were right, but you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Rora Gooddog said with a laugh. “Lion L. Messy has won it the last two years in a row. Maybe third time’s the charm.”

  Ziggy and Rora were dog detectives and members of the Pup Investigators Pack. They didn’t always see eye to eye, but they did have two things in common: They both loved to solve crimes, and they both loved soccer—especially their hometown team, the Pawston Dynamos!

  “I’ve never seen you two this excited about the same thing,” Rider Woofson noted. Rider was their boss, and the leader of the P.I. Pack. “What are you talking about?”

  “Bow-wowza, Boss! This is only the most important sport in the history of the planet!” Ziggy said, his tail wagging excitedly. “Soccer!”

  “This weekend is the big championship match between the Pawston Dynamos and the Catskills Cougars,” Rora added. “Ziggy and I both have front-row seats.”

  WALKER STYLES grew up reading kids’ books, so it makes sense that he’s writing them now. And when he isn’t writing books, he’s out solving mysteries around the city of Manhattan, where he lives. Just the other day, he lost the book he was reading. Following all the clues, Walker deduced the couch ate it! (Well, the book was under the couch cushions. Still, mystery solved!)

  BEN WHITEHOUSE is an illustrator based in Birmingham, UK. He has previously worked in the animation industry as a character designer, animator, and stop-motion puppet maker before finding his feet within the world of illustration. You can visit him at stopmotionben.com.

  RiderWoofson.com

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  First Little Simon hardcover edition September 2016

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  Also available in a Little Simon paperback edition.

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  Designed by Laura Roode. The text of this book was set in Courier Std.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Styles, Walker, author. | Whitehouse, Ben, illustrator. | Title: The rival detective / by Walker Styles ; illustrated by Ben Whitehouse. Description: First Little Simon paperback edition. | New York : Little Simon, 2016. | Series: Rider Woofson ; 5 | Summary: “Rider is faced with his greatest challenge yet, a rival detective. This new private eye is causing a stir in Pawston by solving mysteries and stealing the P.I. Pack’s thunder”—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2015050741 (print) | LCCN 2016014900 (eBook) | ISBN 9781481471084 (hc) | ISBN 9781481471077 (pbk) | ISBN 9781481471091 (eBook) Subjects: | CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | Detectives—Fiction. | Dogs—Fiction. | Animals—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Readers / Chapter Books. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / General. | Classification: LCC PZ7.1.S82 Ri 2016 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.S82 (eBook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at http://
lccn.loc.gov/2015050741