Free The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper by E.L. Konigsburg Page A

have to ditch his father, too. Someday. After he had finished Emerson, high school, and college.
    Why would his father hire two detectives when he already had Andy? He could easily handle security at the wedding. He could recognize a shoulder holster now. He could tell one even if the person were also wearing a tuxedo and suspenders.
    Of course, when he was famous, he wouldn’t have to be involved with rough-’em-up types. He would just make appointments to solve famous but dignified murders.
    He went up to his room and saw the pysanky on his desk. He took the basket and put it in the trash. Very carefully. Then he took down a piece of drawing paper and drew dragons. He drew (maybe) a hundred dragons, all chasing each other around the page and off it. In one corner a dragon was sitting at a table eating (supper) and in another corner two were driving a car. He colored the car gray.
    Andy stopped at Edie’s the next day after school, even though he usually didn’t on Fridays. He had thought about it the whole night and the whole morning and the whole day at school, and he had to do something. He would give her back the Easter eggs. (He had taken them out of the wastepaper basket the night before, immediately after he had made up his mind. Or maybe immediately before.) Today he would tell Edie that she was dismissed. He would go it alone for a while. He would return the pysanky. Edie would be fired, and that would be that. After all these weeks she still had no idea of what a cool detective really did. Or how a sidekick worked. He certainly didn’t need her talking about life and art and dragons instead of helping with his training. Even though sidekicks weren’t supposed to help with the training, they certainly weren’t supposed to discuss life and art and dragons. And he certainly didn’t need her yelling
Catch!
and leaping into cars and makinghim follow. Of course he had had to follow, how else could he have gotten home?
    Edie answered the door and began talking a stream. “I bought more rice, and I stayed up until two o’clock in the morning finishing. And laurel is bay leaves, so I bought some at the same store I got the rice, and I found a penny from the year that Mary Jane was born, and do you want to hold or pour?”
    â€œI want to talk to you.”
    â€œSure, Andy,” Edie said. She dropped everything and sat with her hands folded across her lap, ready to listen. “What do you want to talk about, boss?”
    â€œThis business of your being my sidekick.”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œWell, you’re ruining my reputation as a cool detective.”
    â€œI thought that a person had to
have
a reputation before he got it ruined.”
    â€œThat may be so,” Andy replied, “but if you insist on being the punch-’em-up, fast getaway,
Catch!
type, I can’t go along with it. My style is to be cool and smooth. You can’t solve a mystery if you don’t stay cool.”
    â€œBut you can’t find one if you do,” Edie answered. “You have to find the mystery before you can solve it. Sometimes finding it is all there is. Sometimes you never solve it.”
    â€œThat’s not so. I’ll be the one detective who can.”
    â€œMaybe,” Edie said, “but I doubt it. You’re trying to be a detective for the same reason that I started carryingSister Henderson. We’re both looking for the same thing. We’re both on the same trail, but I know where I’m going.”
    â€œJust where are you going?”
    â€œRight now, I’m going into the kitchen to clean this penny with copper cleaner. I think it’s much nicer to put a shining penny into a wedding pillow. Will you pour?”
    â€œI came here to fire you.”
    Edie said, “Later.”
    So Edie held the bag, and Andy poured the rice into the pillow after she had put in the penny and the laurel. “I’ll have it all sewn up and