Sam the Man & the Secret Detective Club Plan

by Frances O'Roark Dowell

“Yeah, I think that’s it,” Sam said. “A long time ago there were Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs and now there are chickens. I don’t really understand how that works though.”

  “It takes millions of years and a lot of slow changes over time,” Mr. Stockfish said. “It’s interesting how different species have changed and adapted over the millennia.”

  “Do you think humans will ever turn into chickens?” Sam asked. “It would be neat if we could lay eggs.”

  “I don’t think it’s very likely,” Mr. Stockfish said, bending over to pick up a piece of bark from the sidewalk. “This bark is shaped a little bit like a dinosaur—a Psittacosaurus, I’d say.”

  “Maybe chickens will turn back into dinosaurs,” Sam said. “That would be so cool!”

  Mr. Stockfish scratched his head. “I think that could cause some problems, Sam.”

  “Yeah,” Sam agreed. “We’d have to build a bigger coop in Mrs. Kerner’s backyard for one thing. Like a humongous coop.”

  When they reached Mrs. Kerner’s back gate, Sam could hear the chickens pecking and squawking. “Just imagine if they were a whole bunch of T. rexes,” he said. “I still think that would be really neat.”

  “I think we’d be in a whole lot of trouble,” Mr. Stockfish said. “What if one of them stepped on us?”

  “I think we’d get stomped,” Sam admitted. “I guess it’s better that chickens are still birds. Did you know that owls eat their prey in one bite? It’s a good thing they don’t eat people. I’d hate to get eaten in one bite!”

  “Me too, Sam,” Mr. Stockfish said, following Sam into the backyard. “For that matter, I’d hate to get eaten in two bites.”

  “Or ten bites,” Sam agreed.

  Come to think of it, even a hundred bites would be bad, Sam thought. There was really no number of bites that would make Sam happy to be eaten by a chicken.

  Sam was hungry when he got home, so he walked into the kitchen to get a frozen waffle. His mom was sitting at the table working on her laptop.

  “Why is there a red jacket hanging in the garage?” she asked. “It smells terrible. Like vinegar and that weird way plastic things smell when they’re new.”

  “It’s just some raincoat I found,” Sam said. “I thought I’d try to make it smell better before I gave it back. But it turns out vinegar doesn’t actually make stuff smell better.”

  “It does if you put it in the washer with soap and a little baking soda,” his mom said.

  “Can we try that?” Sam asked, grabbing a waffle out of the freezer.

  “Sure, we’ll run it through the wash after dinner,” Sam’s mom said. “But where did you find it, and why didn’t you just drop it in the lost and found?”

  Sam didn’t know if he should tell his mom about the detective club or not. She might get excited about Sam being in a club and start making suggestions for fun things Sam’s club could do. Also, she’d ask him every night at dinner, “So what did your club do today?”

  He thought maybe it would be better to tell his mom about the club later, like in a few years. For now, he thought it would be okay to just tell her the sort-of truth. “Some of my friends and I are trying to find who all the lost-and-found stuff belongs to, including the stinky jackets.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Sam’s mom said. “Well, you and I will do what we can to make this particular jacket less stinky.” She turned back to her laptop and started to type something, then stopped. “Oh, I almost forgot. Rashid called and wants you to call him back. I wrote his phone number on the pad by the phone.”

  Sam almost never got calls from anyone but Gavin. He felt important all of the sudden, like the president of a big company. “Can I take the phone up to my room to call Rashid?”

  “Just remember to bring it back downstairs,” Sam’s mom said.

  Sam grabbed the phone and the phone number. As soon as he got upstairs, he sat on his bed and called Rashid.

  “Do you have some news?” he asked when Rashid answered.

  “I did it, Sam!” Rashid whooped. “I cracked the code!”

  Sam was confused. “The code?”

  “The combination! For the lock on the little black box. I did it on try number 279. And you’ll never guess what I found inside!”

  “What did you find?” Sam asked. “Was it something good?”

  “I found another box! And guess what was inside that box?”

  “What?”

  Rashid laughed. “I’m not telling—not until our club meeting tomorrow. But I think it’s going to make us rich.”

  * * *

  Chapter Thirteen

  * * *

  The Mystery of the Box Inside the Box

  “What are you going to buy after we split the money?” Gavin asked Sam on the bus the next morning. “I was thinking about getting a puppy.”

  “You can get a puppy for free from the animal shelter,” Sam pointed out. “You don’t have to be rich.”

  “I know, but then I’m going to build my puppy a puppy mansion in the backyard. I’ll put a TV in it, and a little refrigerator.”

  “Why does a puppy need a TV and a refrigerator?” Sam asked.

  “Oh, that’s for me,” Gavin explained. “I’m going to live in the puppy mansion too.”

  “I wonder why Rashid said that what’s inside the box will make us rich,” Sam said. “Isn’t our job to find out who it belongs to and give it back?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Maybe they don’t want it anymore. Nobody else has wanted their stuff back.”

  “I guess we’ll just have to see what it is,” Sam said. “It might not even be valuable.”

  “Why would Rashid be so excited then?”

  Sam had to admit that was a good question. If the box held an old pencil eraser or a marble collection, Rashid would have said so. That wasn’t the sort of information you kept to yourself. It was too boring to make a good secret.

  “Maybe it’s somebody’s gold wedding rings,” Gavin said as the bus pulled up to school. “Remember how something rattled inside when we shook the box? Maybe one of the rings has a diamond in it!”

  “Maybe,” Sam said.

  Gavin grinned. “I bet if it’s rings, we’ll get a big reward. A million bucks at least!”

  A million bucks seemed like a lot to Sam, but maybe Gavin was right that they were about to get a big reward. Maybe it would be enough to buy a monster truck!

  Sam would look supercool driving around town in a monster truck.

  By the time Sam and Gavin got to their classroom, school was about to start.

  “I guess we’re just going to have to wait until recess to find out how rich we are,” Gavin said as they sat down at their desks.

  “I don’t know if I can wait two hours,” Sam said. “I wish Rashid would just tell us now.”

  It took forever to get to recess. First they had to do math, then they had to do science. Math was subtraction, which Sam didn’t like, but they were doing weather in science, which was neat because it meant they got to go outside a lot to study clouds. Right before recess, they had writing time. In second grade, you had to write a whole book, and when everyone was done, they would read their books to the kindergarteners. Sam’s book was about a boy who ate so many frozen waffles that he turned into a frozen waffle. Usually he liked working on it, but today he was too excited about what was inside the box to focus on his story.

  Finally it was time for recess. The members of the World’s Greatest Detective Club asked for permission to go to the library. Sam wondered if after today they would make Rashid club president because he’d figured out how to open the box and make them all rich.

  “So is it wedding rings with diamonds in them?” Gavin asked as soon as they all sat down at the conference room table. “Are they worth a million bucks?”

  Rashid shook his head. “Not even close. Any other guesses?”

  “I think it’s gold coins,” Marja said. “Like pirate treasure or something.”

  “Where would s
omebody find pirate treasure around here?” Will asked. “Forget the fact that there’s no such thing as pirates.”

  “Actually, there were pirates,” Emily said. “Edward Teach was a famous pirate known as Blackbeard. He was a real person.”

  “Why are we talking about pirates?” Sam asked. “I want to know what’s inside the box.”

  “Yeah,” Gavin said. “Open it!”

  “Open it!” everyone else said.

  “Hold your horses,” Rashid said. “First I need to do the combination.”

  “You locked it back up?” Sam said.

  “Of course I locked it back up,” Rashid said. “I didn’t want the treasure to get stolen!”

  “He said ‘treasure’!” Marja said. “See, I told you it was treasure!”

  “You said it was pirate treasure,” Will pointed out. “That’s different from just regular treasure.”

  “Could you guys be quiet, please?” Rashid said. “I’m trying to remember the combination.”

  Everybody groaned. This is taking a century, Sam thought. He glanced nervously toward the door. Mrs. Haynie didn’t have a story time group this morning. What if she walked in while Rashid was trying to remember the combination? What would they say? That there was a bird in the box? Who kept a bird in a locked box? Mrs. Haynie would never believe that.

  “May I have everyone’s attention, please!” Rashid said after a few more very long moments. “The lock is now off! Any other guesses about what’s inside?”

  “Could you just show us?” Sam asked. “My stomach is starting to hurt.”

  “Mine too,” Will said. “This is making me nervous.”

  Rashid carefully lifted the box’s lid. He pulled out a smaller box. It was navy blue and had a lid on it.

  “See, it’s a jewelry box, just like I said!” Gavin whispered excitedly to Sam.

  “But it’s more like the box my dad gave my mom for her birthday,” Sam said. “It had a bracelet inside it, not a ring. That box is a bracelet-sized box.”

  “Shhh!” Marja shushed them. “Let Rashid talk!”

  “There are actually three things inside this box,” Rashid said as he took off the lid. “Two are the same and one is different.”

  “Two apples and an orange!” Gavin shouted.

  “Shhh!” everyone told him.

  “Here are the two things that are the same,” Rashid said. He lifted two silver coins from the box. “They are John F. Kennedy half dollars.”

  “Are they worth a million bucks?” Gavin asked.

  “No,” Rashid said. “My dad helped me look it up. These were made in 1966 and are in good condition, so they’re probably worth ten dollars apiece.”

  “Do you think twenty dollars makes us rich?” Will asked. “Because my grandma gave me twenty dollars for my birthday, and I’m pretty sure I’m not rich yet.”

  Rashid held up his hand. “I haven’t gotten to the good part.” He pulled a card out of the box. “This is what’s going to make us rich. It’s a Michael Jordan card from his rookie year.”

  “Who’s Michael Jordan?” Marja asked. “And what’s a rookie year?”

  “A rookie year is the first year an athlete plays professionally,” Rashid explained.

  Mrs. Haynie stood at the door. “And Michael Jordan is one of the world’s greatest basketball players,” she continued. “But I’m not sure what he has to do with bird-watching.”

  “Mrs. Haynie, we can explain!” Emily said. “Can’t we, Sam?”

  “We can?” Sam asked.

  Mrs. Haynie folded her arms across her chest. “I certainly hope so, Sam.”

  * * *

  Chapter Fourteen

  * * *

  Sam the Man and the Explanation Plan

  “I’m waiting,” Mrs. Haynie said.

  Sam tried to think of something to say. Sometimes basketball players looked like they were flying, so they were sort of like birds, right? Last week in science, Emily did a report on bird flight patterns and how they were affected by the weather. Did basketball players have flight patterns? Could Sam make up something about basketball player flight patterns? Or how basketball players were affected by the weather?

  He was starting to feel confused.

  Maybe he should just tell the truth.

  “I’m pretty sure that Michael Jordan doesn’t have anything to do with bird-watching,” Sam told Mrs. Haynie.

  Mrs Haynie raised one eyebrow. She looked suspicious. “How about your club?”

  “It doesn’t have a lot to do with bird-watching either,” Sam admitted. “Maybe a little bit, but not a lot.”

  Up until now, Mrs. Haynie had looked mad. But suddenly she just looked sad. She sank into the chair next to Gavin and said, “So you guys were lying to me? You’re not really interested in birds?”

  Emily stood up. “I’m very interested in birds,” she said. “My life list is sixty-seven birds long. And I’ve been telling our club interesting bird information. I think everybody here is at least a little interested in birds.”

  The members of the World’s Greatest Detective Club all nodded their heads, and Sam thought Mrs. Haynie looked a little less sad.

  “Did you know that birds swallow, and then chew?” Gavin asked Mrs. Haynie. “That’s one fascinating bird fact I’ve learned in this club.”

  “That’s a good fact,” Mrs. Haynie agreed, brightning a little bit. “Do you know that some birds swallow tiny pebbles to help them digest their food?”

  “That’s interesting,” Sam said. “See, we really are learning about birds in our club.”

  Mrs. Haynie frowned. “But it’s not really a bird-watching club. So what kind of club is it?”

  Sam looked at Gavin, who looked at Emily, who looked at Will, who looked at Rashid, who looked at Marja, who looked at Sam. Sam looked at Mrs. Haynie. “It’s a detective club,” he told her. “We were trying to keep it a secret, in case we had top secret clues that nobody else could know. But maybe we should have told you.”

  “Because you’re someone we could trust,” said Emily. “Most bird-watchers are very trustworthy.”

  “I’m going to check out seven books about birds today,” Gavin said. “Just to make it up to you.”

  “Thank you, Gavin,” Mrs. Haynie said. “I appreciate that. And I wish you really would start a bird-watching club. I think other students might be interested in it too.”

  “Really?” Emily’s eyes grew wide. “That would be awesome!”

  Mrs. Haynie pointed to the silver half dollars. “So is this one of your mysteries?”

  Rashid nodded. “We found a locked box in the lost and found. I figured out the combination number. Those coins and that basketball card were inside.”

  Mrs. Haynie leaned over so she could see the half dollars and the card better. “You found the Michael Jordan rookie card?” She blinked a few times. “When? Where?”

  “Do you know who it belongs to?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, it belongs to—” Mrs. Haynie began, but then she stopped herself. “Hmmm. If you’re a detective club, then maybe you should investigate for yourself. I can tell you that it was lost two weeks ago, and the person who lost it is very upset. I’m curious though—I know that this person checked the lost and found, but didn’t find the box there. When did you find it?”

  “Last week,” Emily told her. “So maybe the box had been turned in to the lost and found after the person looked for it.”

  “But why didn’t Mrs. Mason give it to the person it belonged to?” Will asked. “She must have known the person was looking for it.”

  “That’s a good question!” Mrs. Haynie said. “What do you guys think?”

  Everyone was quiet. “Maybe the person who turned it in didn’t give it to Mrs. Mason?” Sam said after a moment. “Maybe they just stuffed it into the lost-and-found closet when nobody was looking.”

  “It’s a really messy closet,” Gavin told Mrs. Haynie. “You could shove something in there and it would be lost forev
er.”

  Mrs. Haynie smiled. “You guys are good detectives! I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you the rest of the day to solve the mystery of who the box belongs to. If you solve it, you can give the box back and collect the reward. If you don’t solve it, I’ll give the box back and use the reward money to buy some more bird books for the library.”

  “Just until the end of the day?” Marja asked. “That’s not enough time!”

  “I’m sorry,” Mrs. Haynie said. “But the person these items belong to has been very upset—not to mention in a lot of trouble for bringing the box to school to begin with. He needs to have it returned as soon as possible.”

  “Did you just say ‘he’?” Gavin asked.

  “Did I?” Mrs. Haynie said. “I don’t think so.”

  “You did!” Rashid said. “So there’s our first clue. And I bet he’s in a lot of trouble for losing that card. It’s worth a thousand dollars!”

  A thousand dollars! Sam looked around at the other members of the World’s Greatest Detective Club. Everyone’s mouths had dropped wide open.

  A thousand dollars!

  “It would be worth even more, except one of the corners is bent,” Rashid explained. “Still, that’s a lot of money. How much is the reward, Mrs. Haynie?”

  “Fifty dollars,” Mrs. Haynie said. “Not bad, huh?”

  Sam wondered what fifty divided by six was.

  One of these days he was really going to have to learn how to divide things.

  “Can you give us one more clue?” Sam asked Mrs. Haynie. “This school has four hundred students. If half of them are boys, that means . . . well, that there are a lot of boys.”

  Mrs. Haynie seemed to give this some thought. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you one more clue if you promise to start a bird-watching club that’s open to other students. I’ll be your sponsor. Maybe we could even take a bird-watching field trip one day.”

  “We’ll definitely start a club,” Emily said, jumping up and down. “I bet we could get fifty people to join!”