Who Stole Mr. T? (Leila and Nugget Mystery Book 1)

by Deserae Brady

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Acknowledgements

  The Abominable Snow Dog

  Turtlenapped

  The Wicked Witch of West 73rd Street

  Private Eye

  Smudge

  The A-Team

  Spies

  Weirdy Beardy

  Turtle Soup

  Thunk

  Authors' Note

  About the Authors

  Other Books by Dustin Brady

  Who Stole Mr. T?

  Leila and Nugget Mystery #1

  Dustin Brady

  Copyright © 2017 Deserae and Dustin Brady

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1544741960

  ISBN-13: 978-1544741963

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Special thanks to April Brady for the cover and interior illustrations. You can follow April’s artwork on Instagram: @aprilynnart.

  The Abominable Snow Dog

  POOMF!

  Kait laughed as her friend Leila’s dog Nugget dove headfirst into the snow again. “That’s soooo funny! He acts like he’s never seen snow before!”

  “It snowed a few times last year, but I don’t think he remembers,” Leila said. “He was just a puppy.”

  Nugget pulled his head out of the snow pile and looked at Leila and Kait. His face was one big snowball.

  “He’s the Abominable Snow Dog!” Kait giggled.

  Leila had to laugh. Nugget did look funny. “Come on Mr. Abominable,” she said. “We’ll never finish our walk if you keep this up.”

  Nugget tilted his head at Leila, thought about what she’d said for a second, and — POOMF! — dove again.

  “I think Nugget likes snow days even more than we do, and he doesn’t even go to school!” Kait said.

  Leila wasn’t too sure about that. She hadn’t been able to think about anything except for what she’d do on her snow day ever since she’d first heard about the possibility of a storm earlier that week. Leila never paid attention to the news when her parents watched, but the second the weather guy had said “snow,” her head popped up from her book like Nugget’s does whenever he hears the word “treat.”

  “Did he say something about a snowstorm?” Leila asked.

  “Eight to twelve inches in some parts of the viewing area,” TV weather guy said.

  “Eight to twelve inches?!” Leila squealed.

  “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched,” Leila’s mom warned.

  Oh, the chickens would be counted. That week, the only thing that Leila and all the other students in Mrs. Pierce’s third-grade class could talk about was their snow day plans. A lot of kids were going to the Memphis Road sledding hill. A few wanted to make money by shoveling driveways. The Heather Lane crew — Leila, Kait and their friend Javy — were going to have a snowball fight and build an igloo and make homemade snow cones and pull each other around on sleds and then maybe build a snowman or at least a snow dog. It was going to be quite a day.

  The night before the big day, Leila’s mom warned her about getting too excited. “They’re always wrong about the weather, you know,” she said.

  “I know,” Leila replied.

  “It hasn’t even started snowing yet.”

  “I know.”

  “Just plan on going to school tomorrow. That way it’ll be a nice surprise if you get off.”

  “I know.”

  “Goodnight, Leila.”

  “Night mom.”

  Leila’s mom shut off the light, and Leila lay awake for an hour thinking about how great the snow day would be. She finally drifted off to sleep, and the next thing she knew, something small and furry was rolling all over her bed.

  “Nugget!” Leila’s dad hissed. “Get down! Sorry honey, I just took him out, and…”

  Leila didn’t hear the rest because she’d just felt the dog with her hand. He was wet. And cold. She opened her eyes to see Nugget’s snow-covered face two inches from her nose. “Is it a snow day?!” Leila interrupted.

  “It’s 6:15 in the morning,” Leila’s dad said with a smile.

  “IS IT A SNOW DAY?!”

  “Yes, it’s a snow day. Now why don’t you go back to bed?”

  Leila picked up Nugget and danced around her room. “Snow day! Snow day! Snow day!” Nugget licked her face, then ran to the heat vent to get warm. Leila couldn’t fall back asleep because today was a snow day and snow days are the best days. She ran downstairs an hour before she’d normally wake up, devoured breakfast, then read a mystery book until her mom said it was OK to call Kait.

  “Did you hear?!” she shouted into the phone.

  “YES!” Kait yelled back.

  “Call Javy!” Leila said. “I’ll bring Nugget to your house, and then we’ll walk to Javy’s.”

  Leila and Kait had gotten about ten steps into their walk before Nugget started his snow-diving routine. At this pace, they’d never get to Javy’s.

  “It’s OK,” Kait said. “Javy might not even be awake yet. He didn’t answer the phone.”

  “Why wouldn’t he answer the phone?!” Leila asked. “Doesn’t he know how much we have to do today?”

  Kait stopped and stared at a piece of paper taped to a telephone pole. “Oh no,” she said.

  “What is it?” Leila asked as she leaned in to read the sign. “Ohhhh noooooooooo.”

  “MISSING!” the sign said over a picture of a turtle.

  NAME: MR. T

  REWARD: ALL MY MONEY ($15.75)

  CALL: 216-509-2212

  ASK FOR JAVY MARTINEZ

  Turtlenapped

  Javy reached his house the same time Leila, Kait and Nugget did.

  “Javy!” Kait yelled when she saw him. “What happened to Mr. T?!”

  Javy slumped his shoulders and looked down. Nugget eyed the leftover fliers in his hand. “I don’t know,” Javy said. “I haven’t seen him since I woke up this morning.”

  Nugget jumped and grabbed one of the fliers. He started wagging his tail, waiting for Javy to chase him. Javy just looked sad. Nugget stopped wagging his tail.

  “Don’t worry! We’ll help you find him!” Kait said. “Right, Leila?”

  “Oh, uh, yeah of course!” Leila said, a little worried about what this search might mean for the snowball fight.

  “Really?” Javy asked. “That’s great you guys! Come in.” Javy opened the door and — CRASH! — knocked over a pile of boards inside the kitchen. “Yipes!” he said. “I’m so sorry!”

  A construction worker with a big, wooly beard shook his head and helped Javy pile the boards back up. “My parents are getting the kitchen remodeled today,” Javy explained to Leila and Kait as he finished stacking. “We’ll have to be careful in here.”

  The kids picked their way through the maze of tools and wood until they got to a side room attached to the kitchen. “Here’s Mr. T’s winter home,” Javy said.

  Javy’s family had turned their pantry into a turtle paradise. The walls were covered with pictures of Javy’s family posing with Mr. T and drawings of the turtle dressed in funny costumes. A wooden box piled high with dirt and moss took up every inch of floor space. The box held a small pool, a heat lamp, a few rocks and logs, but no turtle.

  “What do you think happened?” Leila asked.

  Javy looked at the two workers in the kitchen and lowered his voice. “Come to my room, and I’ll tell you,” he said.

  The kids kept their boots on until they reached the dining room so they wouldn’t get soggy socks from all the snow that had been tracked into the kitchen, then they turned into
Javy’s room. As soon as Nugget saw the carpet, he started pushing himself all over the floor to dry himself off. Kait started to take off her coat before thinking better of it. “It’s cold in here,” she said.

  Javy nodded. “My dad likes to see how late in the year he can go without turning the heat on,” he said. “He must be trying to beat his record.”

  “So when was the last time you saw Mr. T?” Leila asked, eager to find this turtle so they could get back on schedule with the snow day plans.

  Javy plopped onto his bed. “Last night, he was in his home. I said goodnight and went to sleep. When I woke up this morning — poof! He was gone! I looked all over the house, but he’s nowhere.”

  “What do you think happened?” Kait asked.

  “I think he escaped,” Javy said. “Sometimes we let him out so he can walk around the house. But when you do that, you’ve got to keep an eye on him. The construction guys have been going in and out of the house ever since they got here early this morning. I think they left the door open, and Mr. T ran away.” Javy buried his head between his knees.

  Kait moved closer and tried to make Javy feel better. “I mean, Mr. T is a turtle,” she said with a smile. “He probably didn’t RUN anywhere.”

  Javy sniffed a few times. “You know what I mean. I just don’t know why he would want to leave in the first place. He hates the cold!”

  Leila sat up. Javy had just reminded her of the book she’d been reading earlier that morning — The Ice Cold Case. It was a mystery that took place at a frozen pond (she’d picked it out in honor of the snow day). The detective in the book figured out that the thief was a raccoon by following prints in the snow. “If Mr. T went outside, we should be able to follow his tracks in the fresh snow, right?” Leila asked.

  Javy perked up. “Oh yeah! That’s a great idea!”

  Leila left Nugget in the room so he wouldn’t mess up the tracks, then led the way to the side door. She was feeling great about her plan until she looked down. The snow by the door was almost packed solid with footprints from the kids, the workers and Javy’s parents. There was no way they could find turtle tracks in this mess. “Let’s follow some of these away from the house where the snow isn’t so packed,” Leila suggested.

  The biggest clump of tracks went down the driveway, so the kids followed those first. Unfortunately, they all ended at the bright red construction van parked at the end of the driveway. Next, they got excited when Kait spotted paw prints cutting across the front yard, but then Leila reminded everyone that’s where they’d just walked with Nugget. Finally, they followed a set of prints that Javy guessed belonged to his dad going to the garage, but they didn’t find any turtle tracks that way either.

  “That’s it,” Javy said. “He must have gotten out before it started snowing. That was a good idea though, Leila.”

  “Bark! Bark!” Nugget had just spotted the kids through the bedroom window, and he seemed real upset that he hadn’t been invited to the search party. He pressed his face up to the window, making a heart-shaped fog with his nose.

  “OK, OK, we’re coming,” Leila said as she walked toward the window.

  Kait, who’d been following close behind, grabbed Leila’s arm. “Leila! Look!” She pointed to a single set of suspicious footprints that walked through Javy’s backyard, to the back patio door, then left again into the neighbor’s yard.

  “Javy,” Kait said. “What if Mr. T didn’t run away at all?”

  “What do you mean?” Javy asked.

  Kait’s eyes were wide. “What if he got turtlenapped?!”

  The Wicked Witch of West 73rd Street

  Kait gasped. “If Mr. T got turtlenapped, then this is a real-life mystery!” she exclaimed. Kait was trying to hide her excitement about the idea of a mystery in front of Javy, but the sparkle in her eyes gave her away.

  Javy looked down. “I don’t care about a mystery,” he said. “I just want my friend back.”

  “Oh, we’ll get him back,” Kait said. “You know why? Because you’re standing next to the best detective in town.”

  Javy looked up, surprised. “Leila?” he asked.

  Leila gave Kait a weird look. “Detective? What are you talking about?”

  Kait ignored her. “Leila’s read basically every mystery book, so she knows all the tricks. Just the other day, she helped me solve the mystery of my missing Halloween candy.”

  “I reminded you that you ate it all,” Leila said.

  “See, isn’t she good? She’ll catch the turtlenapper before lunchtime!”

  “Could you?” Javy asked hopefully.

  Leila knew she was no detective, but she did very much want to find Mr. T in time to at least build an igloo. “We’ll do our best,” Leila said.

  Kait squealed. “What do we do first?!”

  Leila looked at the suspicious footprints. “We should probably follow these, right?”

  “See?” Kait said to Javy. “Just like a real detective!”

  The gang followed the footprints from Javy’s back door, through the yard, past a row of bushes and into the neighbor’s yard. Javy stopped when he saw which house the tracks had come from. “Mrs. Crenshaw.” He shook his head. “I should have known.”

  “She doesn’t like Mr. T?” Leila asked.

  Javy pointed to the row of bushes they were standing next to. “These are Mrs. Crenshaw’s rose bushes,” he said. Then he pointed to a short wire fence next to the bushes. “And that’s Mr. T’s summer home. Every year, Mr. T figures out a way to eat half of Mrs. Crenshaw’s roses through his pen, and every year she gets sooooo mad.”

  Leila scrunched up her face. “Mad enough to break into your house and steal your pet?” she asked. “That’s pretty mean.”

  “Oh, she’s mean all right,” Kait said. “SO mean! Remember that business I started a couple years ago? The one where I sold cool fall leaves?”

  Leila remembered Kait’s grandma giving her a quarter for some leaves Kait had found, which is not exactly a business, but she didn’t argue. “I remember,” Leila said.

  “Well, Mrs. Crenshaw yelled at me for picking leaves off her tree! Can you believe it?”

  “It is her tree,” Leila pointed out.

  “It was the FALL!” Kait exclaimed. “They were going to FALL off in a couple days anyways. She’s like a witch, she’s so mean!”

  “That’s not nice to say about someone,” Leila said. “It just sounds like she wants to keep her trees nice.”

  “Yeah, so she can use them for witch things,” Kait mumbled.

  “I wouldn’t say she’s a witch,” Javy said, “But she’s lived behind us ever since I was little, and I don’t think she’s come over even once. Don’t you think it’s suspicious that she shows up the very morning that Mr. T goes missing?”

  Leila had to admit that it did seem odd.

  “So how are we going to catch her?” Kait asked. Then her eyes lit up. “Do we get to spy?!”

  Leila knew how much Kait loved spying on people, but she had a better idea. “How about we just ask her?” she said.

  Kait made a face. “I’m not going over there,” she said.

  “Come on. I’ll bring Nugget,” Leila said.

  Leila went back inside and got Nugget, who was more than happy to pounce in the snow again. Leila tugged on the leash to keep him moving. “Don’t worry buddy,” she said. “Soon we can play in the snow all we want.” That gave her an idea. Maybe they could play in the snow and solve a mystery at the same time! She made a snowball and called Kait’s name.

  “What?” Kait asked as she turned around.

  PIFF! It hit her square in the chest.

  Kait giggled and threw a snowball at Javy. Javy did not join the fun. “Sorry guys. I wish I were in the mood to play, but I don’t really feel like it right now. Why don’t you two have a snowball fight, and I’ll talk to Mrs. Crenshaw myself?”

  Leila felt bad for taking Javy away from his search. “No Javy, we’ll help you. Right Kait?”

/>   Kait dropped the big, juicy snowball she’d been building. “Right. Of course.”

  Since Mrs. Crenshaw lived behind Javy and the kids felt she might get mad at them if they tromped through her backyard, they walked around the block to get to the front door.

  “What do we say when we get there?” Javy asked.

  “YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!” Kait yelled. “Then we handcuff her.”

  “We’re not arresting anyone,” Leila said. “Let’s just ask her if she knows what happened to Mr. T.”

  “If she did take him, won’t she just lie?” Javy asked as they rounded the corner onto W. 73rd St.

  “If she tries to lie, she’ll mess up and we’ll catch her. That’s what always happens in the books,” Leila said, even though she had no idea how to catch someone in a lie.

  “All I know is, if she answers the door riding on a broom, I’m running back home before she can get me,” Kait said.

  Leila rolled her eyes as she turned up Mrs. Crenshaw’s driveway. “Be nice,” she said. She scooped up Nugget right before they got to the door. She’d learned a long time ago that a small, waggly-tailed dog can make even the meanest adults nice.

  Leila took a deep breath to gather her courage. The house was old and a little creepy. She stood in front of the door for a second and knocked. The door opened after just one knock, and a tall, skinny woman with straight, gray hair came to the door. She was holding a broom.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  Kait stared at the broom for a moment before running off the porch.

  Private Eye

  Leila’s face turned red. She did not expect her friend to be so embarrassing. “We’re looking for his turtle,” she finally said. “Can you help us?”

  Mrs. Crenshaw looked at Leila and Javy, and then at Nugget, who even someone like Mrs. Crenshaw would have to admit looked pretty cute with his tongue sticking out. “Come in,” she said.