Free Alligator Action by Ali Sparkes Page A

GAH!
    Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.
    CRSSHHSZZZZ—kesheeek—ssheeeeek—sheeeek.
    Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
sssssssssssss
    â€œWhat does ‘CRSSHHSZZZZ—kesheeek—ssheeeeek—sheeeek’ mean?” Danny murmured.
    â€œNothing good,” Josh said.
    â€œMaybe we should just tell Mom and Dad everything when they get back from shopping,” sighed Danny.
    â€œBut they’ll never believe us, either!” Josh said.
    â€œNot all the stuff about her S.W.I.T.C.H.ing us into spiders and frogs and snakes and stuff. Just that we think she’s in trouble,” Danny said.
    â€œAnd then what?” Josh asked. “They’ll call the police who will break into her house—
boom
—
crash
—
fizz
—mangled people! If only Petty wasn’t so paranoid about people being out to get her!”
    â€œYeah,” Danny said. “But it looks like someone
did
get her.”
    Josh and Danny frowned at each other over Piddle’s head. They were thinking of the same thing. The Mystery Marble Sender. The person who had been messing with their minds for weeks now, sending clues to get them to find marbles . . . but not just any marbles.
    â€œWe knew something
big
was going to happen next, after we got that fifth marble,” Josh said. “We knew there was only one more to go. And that the Mystery Marble Sender would soon dosomething. Because there was no way he was just giving us clues to find all the marbles, with the secret code to MAMMALSWITCH formula, free. He wants something. And I think it’s Petty—or what’s in Petty’s genius head.”
    â€œWell, if she’s been kidnapped,” Danny said, “I think
we
might get the ransom note. Probably quite soon . . . I mean, there’s nobody else to send it to, is there? She’s got no family.”
    Piddle suddenly got up and tore out of the den, yapping loudly. He ran down the side passage and around to the front of the house. This usually meant somebody was coming in through the gate. Josh and Danny, still worried and gloomy, scrambled out of the bush and went down the side passage to see who was there.

    They saw nobody at the gate or the front door—or anywhere around the garden. But Piddle was still flinging himself against the garden wall. Mom and Dad had arrived, though. Dad was in the kitchen, sorting out the groceries, and Mom was watching Chatz TV. The sound of the show drifted through the front room window. Mom and Jenny liked to watch it most afternoons, although Josh and Danny couldn’t imagine why. It was mostly people shouting angrily at each other in front of a studio audience. Still, Mom was watching it now and obviously hadn’t been interrupted by anyone at the door.
    â€œShut up, Piddle!” Danny called, and the little dog gave one last disgruntled
wuff
and then ran back down the side passage. Josh stood very still. Across the low wall, he could just make out somebody standing silently on Petty’s front step.
    â€œCome on,” he said, grabbing Danny’s arm and leading him round to Petty’s. A dark-haired young woman in a grey suit stood with her back to the door, holding a briefcase. She clearly did not expect anyone to open the door. She smiled tightly atthem as they walked up the path.
    â€œYou must be Josh and Danny Phillips,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

The young woman opened her case and took out a brown envelope. “I am Petty Potts’s lawyer,” she said, in a businesslike voice. “And it is incumbent upon me to place this directly into your hands herewith.”
    â€œYou what?” Danny said.
    The lawyer sighed and checked her watch. “It was my client’s instruction that nobody else should see this,” she said, waving the