The Very First Case

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1 News Flash!

  Chapter 2 Welcome to Pawston Elementary

  Chapter 3 Slime Time

  Chapter 4 Meatball Mania

  Chapter 5 Tex-Mex Mess Up

  Chapter 6 Things Go Bananas!

  Chapter 7 The Banana Plan

  Chapter 8 Hoodwinked

  Chapter 9 Case Chase

  Chapter 10 The First and Final Case

  About the Author and Illustrator

  News Flash!

  Flash! A large camera snapped a picture of the P.I. Pack office as if it were a true crime scene. The photographer was a kangaroo. He hopped around the office, taking more pictures. Flash! Flash!

  “Hey! What’s hopping—I mean, happening around here?” Westie Barker asked. The furry inventor pointed to a sign. “This area is top secret! Who are you?”

  “It’s okay, Westie,” said lead detective Rider Woofson. “This is Scoops Hopper. He’s a reporter from the Pawston Paw Print. He’s writing a story on the P.I. Pack.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Scoops said. He held up his camera and snapped another picture. Flash!

  Westie rubbed his eyes. “I wish I could say the same.”

  “Don’t mind Mr. Science,” said a scruffy pup. “He’s camera-shy.”

  It was Ziggy, the team’s youngest detective. “Not me though! Snap away. What kind of story are you doing about Pawston’s greatest detectives? Is it about the time we battled Icy Ivan, the evil Penguin Prowler? Good thing I brought my appetite. I saved the day by eating my way out of an Ice Cream, You Scream trap!”

  Rider opened a cabinet drawer and took out a case file. He showed the reporter a picture of Icy Ivan and Ziggy, after he ate all the ice cream.

  “Yes, well, you’re not the only hero here,” Westie added. “Don’t forget about the case of the Mountain Goat Bandit. That sneaky thief could climb anything. In fact, he tried to rob the tallest building in Pawston. Too bad for him, I invented the Super Slip-Up. It’s the world’s most slippery stuff. The Mountain Goat Bandit slipped and slid all the way to prison.”

  Rider pulled out another case file to share with the reporter. Westie’s hand-drawn map showed a path from the top of the building to the inside of a jail cell.

  “This is great!” Scoops took another picture. “Wow, I am very impressed.”

  “You should be,” Ziggy said. “I am very awesome.”

  “Ahem, I think the reporter was talking about me,” Westie noted.

  “Actually, I was talking about the files from your past cases,” the kangaroo reporter said. “I’ve never seen such perfect organization.”

  Rider smiled. “A good detective must be organized. It’s important to have access to every file at a moment’s notice. You never know when something from the past will pop up again.”

  “So you have every file for every case you’ve ever worked?” Scoops asked. “Even your very first case?”

  Rider walked over to another file cabinet and opened it. He pulled out a very old folder. “Take a seat, Scoops. You’re going to love this story. It started way back, when we were in elementary school.”

  Welcome to Pawston Elementary

  Rider Woofson stared out from his favorite spot. From here, he could see the crowd walk through the halls on their way to class. This was Pawston Elementary School. Every day, hundreds of students carried their backpacks, lunches, and notebooks, behaving as good students should.

  But this school also had a darker side. That was where Rider came in. He wanted to be the greatest puppy detective in the school—maybe in the whole city.

  Even before the morning bell, Rider already had a case.

  The young detective spotted his first clue. It was a trail of pencil shavings. As he walked down the hall, a teacher named Mr. Quick stopped him. “Rider, what are you doing? Your classroom is on the other side of the school.”

  “I’m on a case,” Rider said. “There’s been a report of missing pencils in math class. Mrs. Plus gave me a hall pass.”

  Rider showed Mr. Quick his hall pass. Then he continued on the trail. The pencil shavings led to a closed door. Rider was about to open it when another dog stepped out of the shadows.

  “Don’t bother. It’s locked,” she said. The dog had curly hair and held a magnifying glass.

  “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Rider asked.

  The dog introduced herself. “I’m Rora Gooddog, and I’m working on a case. Some students are missing their erasers.”

  Rora pointed to the floor. “I followed a trail of pencil shavings to this door. Where there’s a pencil, there’s always an eraser.”

  “Wow, I’m looking for missing pencils!” Rider said. “Maybe we should work together?”

  Rora nodded. “Let’s go.”

  Rider and Rora put their ears to the locked door. There were strange clacking noises coming from the other side. Then there was a loud snap!

  “How do we get in?” Rider asked.

  Rora held up a giant set of keys. “The principal gave me these. All of the teachers are mad about grading tests that have wrong answers scratched out instead of erased.”

  She opened the door quietly. Inside, a group of bullies were taking turns trying to break pencils with other pencils. Tiny wooden shards were scattered all over the floor.

  THWACK!

  One bully snapped a pencil in half. “I win! Give me the eraser as a trophy.”

  “Looks like we found a secret pencil-fighting club!” whispered Rora. “What a terrible waste of school supplies.”

  She started to rush in, but Rider grabbed her arm. “Wait, we should report this to the principal’s office. We solved the mystery—they can handle the bullies.”

  “Good idea,” said Rora.

  They ran to tell the principal, who broke up the pencil-fighting club immediately.

  “Thanks, Rider and Rora,” the principal said. “I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ll hear from you two detectives.”

  Slime Time

  A week later, Rider and Rora were outside eating lunch. They had been searching for a brand-new mystery to solve, but everything at Pawston Elementary was quiet . . . too quiet.

  Suddenly, a group of students began screaming, “GROSS!” and ran away from the science room.

  A wave of green slime oozed out of the windows.

  Quickly, Rider and Rora made their way to the science room to find the source of the mess. They stepped carefully to avoid the green ooze in the halls.

  A giant volcano stood in the middle of the classroom. It spewed wave after wave of the gross goo, like green lava that splatted everywhere. Next to the volcano was a small white dog wearing a lab coat and goggles. He was holding a giant magnet on a fishing rod.

  Rider pointed. “Look! It’s our first super-villain! Let’s stop him!”

  The detectives dove over the ooze toward the mad scientist.

  “Freeze right there, Dr. Slime!” Rider shouted.

  “Yeah, no more mess for you, you messy dog,” Rora added.

  The pup waved back to them. “Dr. Slime? No, I’m Westie Barker, and I’m trying to stop this volcano with my Super Soaker-Upper.”

  He held up the invention. “If I don’t use it now, our whole school is going to get very icky and very sticky.”

  Rider looked unsure, but this Westie Barker might be their only hope. “Okay, but no funny business.”

  Westie nodded, and then he flipped a switch on the fishing rod. The magnet charged to life as he cast it into the sea of ooze. To Rider’s surprise, the magnet began to soak up all the green slime.

  “It worked!” Westie cheered.

  “Yes, it did,” Rora said. “Now,
who would build a slime volcano in the first place?”

  Westie hung his head sadly. “Maybe someone like me? You see, I’m an inventor, and I built this volcano. Then things got a little out of control.”

  “A little?” asked Rora. “More like a lot out of control.”

  Rider laughed. “Well, at least your Super Soaker-Upper worked.”

  Then the detective rubbed his chin. “Hmm, would you like to join forces with us? I’m Rider, and this is Rora. We solve crimes and could use an inventor like you—even if things do get a little out of control sometimes.”

  Westie smiled. “Count me in.”

  Meatball Mania

  The school cafeteria was a great place to find mysteries. Rider, Rora, and Westie sat at their table trying to figure out what was in the Soup Surprise of the day.

  Rider braved a whiff. “It smells like your volcano slime.”

  Westie tried to smell his soup but knocked over the bowl.

  The Soup Surprise spilled onto the floor and all over a tiny lunch lady who was walking by their table.

  “Careful,” snapped the lunch lady. She was wearing an apron three sizes too big and a hairnet that covered her entire head.

  “Sorry!” Westie apologized, but the tiny lady huffed and walked into the kitchen.

  “That’s one angry lunch lady,” Rora said.

  “Hmm, if that’s a lunch lady, I’ll eat my hat,” said Rider.

  “You’re not wearing a hat,” said Westie.

  “Then I’ll get one,” Rider said with a wink. “All great detectives have a cool hat.”

  “You’ll buy a hat just to eat it?” Rora asked.

  Before Rider could answer, a scuffle broke out from the kitchen. A panda bear in an apron burst through the cafeteria. He was holding a giant pot of pasta and meatballs. The tiny lunch lady from before was clinging to the panda’s apron.

  Then a real lunch lady shouted from the kitchen. “Nab those noodle-nabbers!”

  “We will stop those spaghetti stealers!” Rider cried out as the detectives jumped into action. The giant panda hurled meatballs at them, and one hit Rider in the face. “This is gonna be a messy mystery.”

  Westie pressed his belt buckle. It transformed into a large robot paw that swatted the meatballs away. Unfortunately, the meatballs smacked into other students. Splat! Splat! Splat!

  “Sorry!” Westie cringed.

  “Focus on catching the bad guys, Westie,” Rora said.

  Finally, Rider snagged a noodle and made it into a lasso. He tossed it, but he only caught the tiny lunch lady. The panda bear escaped with the lunch special.

  “Aha! Got you, thief!” exclaimed Rider. He pulled off the tiny lunch lady’s hairnet and apron to reveal a scrappy little puppy dog.

  “Bow-wowza!” the young puppy barked. “I’m not the thief.”

  Rider lifted up the hairnet. “Then why were you wearing a disguise?”

  The puppy let out a groan. “That’s because I’m undercover, and you have to wear a good disguise to catch bad guys in the act!”

  Rider still didn’t believe him. “I think we caught you red-handed.”

  “Oh, that’s just pasta sauce.” The puppy looked at his paw and licked it. “Listen, I’m Ziggy Fluffenscruff, and I’ve been after the Lunchtime Bandit for weeks. He’s gotten away again, thanks to you. What am I going to eat for lunch now that all those yummy meatballs are gone?”

  “Do you like Soup Surprise?” asked Westie.

  “Yuck!” Ziggy made a gross face. “Who are you anyway?”

  Rora put her arm around Ziggy. “We’re the ones who are going to help you catch the Lunchtime Bandit.”

  Tex-Mex Mess Up

  The next morning before school, Ziggy told his new friends about the Lunchtime Bandit.

  “He always strikes at lunch and steals the special of the day.” Ziggy’s stomach growled. This case was already making him hungry. “I’ve asked around, and he’s not one of the cafeteria cooks.”

  “No, he’s a cafeteria crook!” Rora said.

  “Exactly! And I love food more than anything,” Ziggy said as he licked his lips. “We need to stop him before he strikes again. Today’s special is my favorite . . . bean burritos!”

  “Time for a plan,” Rider said.

  “Ooh, I have an idea,” Westie said. “Let’s replace the good beans with rotten beans. That way, if we don’t catch him, we can follow the stinky smell to wherever he’s hiding!”

  The young pups did just that with the help of the cafeteria workers.

  At noon, the Lunchtime Bandit showed up and grabbed the pot filled with bad beans. When he made a run for it, Rider jumped out to block the exit. “Not so fast, Bandit. Drop those beans, and put your paws up!”

  “Whatever you say,” the huge panda said with an evil laugh. Then he threw the disgusting beans right out the window.

  Mrs. Turtle decided to have class outside that day. Her favorite student was named Ronald Ruffhouse. He was a total teacher’s pet. He always studied and was always very polite. Every time Mrs. Turtle asked a question, Ronald raised his hand.

  “Now, Ronald,” Mrs. Turtle said, “I’m sure you know the answer, but let some of the other students have a turn.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Turtle,” Ronald said. He put his hand down politely.

  It was a perfectly normal day for Ronald, until a shower of stinky beans plopped all over him.

  Suddenly, a giant panda ran out of the cafeteria with four puppies chasing him. The panda pointed at Ronald, who was covered head to paw in beans, and said, “Ew. Those beans have gone bad. Rotten luck!”

  Ronald looked like he was about to burst into tears, but all his classmates were laughing and chanting, “ROTTEN RUFFHOUSE! ROTTEN RUFFHOUSE!”

  “Oh no!” cried Rora. “The Bandit tossed our trap on that poor pup!”

  “Whoa! That stinks!” said Ziggy as he darted by the bean scene.

  “Keep focused on the Bandit!” Rider huffed as he ran, but the pups could not keep up with the panda.

  “He’s too fast,” puffed Rora as she and Westie slowed down. “Who knew pandas could run like that.”

  With the Lunchtime Bandit gone and their bean plan ruined, the pups huddled up. It was time for a better plan.

  Things Go Bananas!

  The junior detectives returned to the scene of the crime. Rider used his magnifying glass to look for clues. “To solve this case, we have to think like a criminal.”

  “First, we need to figure out how he snuck in,” Rora said.

  Ziggy nodded. “The Bandit uses disguises. Yesterday he was a lunch lady. Once he dressed as a milkman. Another time he pretended to be a baker. The other day he dressed as a giant elephant delivering tiny pickles. He could be anybody!”

  “How do you know these things?” asked Westie.

  “I keep my ear to the ground,” Ziggy said with a wink.

  “I bet he came in through the skylight!” Rora said, pointing upward. “Bad guys love skylights.”

  “It’s locked,” said Rider. “I checked it already to make sure.”

  “What if he used an army of micro-bots to sneak inside and steal the food,” said Westie. “That’s what I would do.”

  “Nice try, but we saw the Bandit steal the food himself. Not any robots, small or big,” Rider noted.

  “Drats,” Westie said. “I was hoping someone would invent micro-bots. That’d be cool. Hmm, maybe I should invent them!”

  “After we’ve solved this case,” Rora said.

  Ziggy noticed a cafeteria worker moving dozens of boxes of bananas. The boxes were all around the kitchen. “Hey, Miss Lunch Lady! What’s with all the bananas? I didn’t see anything on the menu about banana pudding.”

  “No idea,” said the lunch lady. “Someone left them here, but we didn’t order them. It looks like we’re going to have a banana menu tomorrow. We’re making banana pudding, banana cake, and banana meatballs.”

  “This is the work of the Bandit!” Rider
said. “I bet he’s craving bananas and wants you to cook up a bunch of treats for him to steal!”

  “I refuse to cook for that no-good thief!” said the lunch lady.

  “Would you do it if your meal could help us catch the Lunchtime Bandit?” asked Rider. “I have a plan. It’s bananas, but it just might work.”

  The Banana Plan

  Westie was covered in tape from head to tail. “If this doesn’t get the Lunchtime Bandit’s attention, then nothing will.”

  The pups had decorated the entire school with signs for the biggest banana split ever. Students were talking about it. Teachers were talking about it too.

  Even the principal was talking about it—and nothing surprised the principal!

  Rider, Rora, and Westie walked to the cafeteria.

  “Okay, everyone, keep your eyes peeled,” Rora said with a snicker. “Get it? Like banana peels.”

  Rider smiled. “Let’s be serious. We need to catch this thief, and we can’t afford to slip up. Now where’s Ziggy?”

  Just then a giant banana jumped at the pup detectives. It was Ziggy and he was so excited. “Guess what? They are giving out these banana costumes to every student to celebrate our big banana split,” he explained. “Pretty cool, right?”

  Sure enough, the hallways were filled with banana costumes. Banana fever had taken over the entire school.