Free Who Stole Halloween? by Martha Freeman Page A

negligent owners and about Halloween’s ear mites. She did not tell him about Mr. Lee, I noticed. She still thought I was crazy to suspect he might be stealing cats for his exotic pet business.
    â€œStill no sign of a ransom note, though?” Bub said.
    â€œMom said Kyle seemed anxious,” I told him. “But he didn’t say anything about a ransom note. And I guess none of the other cat owners did either.”
    Yasmeen and I were finishing our soup when we heard the doorbell ring. Officer Krichels? Al,the delivery man? It could even have been Dad. “Come on in, it’s open!” Bub called, and into Bub’s house walked the last person we wanted to see, Sophie Sikora.
    I looked at Yasmeen, who looked at me, and our identical expressions said,
Oh, no
.
    On her way in, Sophie bumped the recliner, which made Luau
mrrrrrow
. When she got to where we were sitting at the table, she ran into that, too. It’s a good thing our bowls were almost empty, or there would have been a couple of soup tsunamis right into our laps.
    â€œHey, Bub!” Sophie greeted us. “Hey, Yazzie and Al! What’s the haps?”
    Nobody calls me “Al.” And my dad is the only person allowed to call Yasmeen “Yazzie.” We both opened our mouths to set Sophie straight, but she kept right on talking. “
I
just fixed Billy’s remote control jeep,” she said. “Mrs. Jensen paid me, too. It was a whole
lot
she paid me, but I can’t tell you how much, because you’d be
so
jealous, and my mom says I shouldn’t brag, even though my dad says it’s okay provided you havesomething to brag
about
, like I do, because I’m so good at fixing stuff, so how much she paid me was ten dollars.”
    Bub set a bowl of soup in front of her, and she started shoveling. For a moment I understood what my mom means when she talks about “blessed silence.” But soon she slurped the last of her soup and started in again.
    â€œDid you notice how Bub’s doorbell worked so good when I rang it?” she said. “I’m the one that fixed it. Bub didn’t pay me though, but I’m not saying I care, because some people don’t have money like the Jensens do. My family has a lot of money because my dad earns thousands and thousands every year—I forget how many thousands—only my mom says the Jensens have an ungodly amount of money.
Ungodly
is a word that means ‘even more than us.’ My mom also says—”
    â€œSophie?” Bub’s expression was patient.
    â€œYes, Bub?”
    â€œSometimes the things mom says are best left with mom.”
    It took a second for that to sink in. ThenSophie said, “You mean I should shut the heck up?”
    Bub nodded.
    Sophie shrugged. “Okay.”
    I got up and took Yasmeen’s and my bowls to the kitchen. When I came back to the table, Bub was twiddling his thumbs, a sure sign he was thinking.
    â€œHave you got an idea about the case?” I asked him.
    He nodded. “Ah, yup. But I don’t know what good it’s gonna do you. Think a bit—except for Kyle’s, what do the missing cats have in common?”
    â€œThe owners were negligent,” Yasmeen said.
    Bub nodded. “So it seems like your thief is particularly after cats that aren’t well taken care of. Now, why would that be?”
    Of course I knew about the coincidence. But I hadn’t thought much about what it might mean. And there was the problem that Kyle’s cat Halloween didn’t fit the pattern. Maybe because Halloween was stolen by a different thief? Butthen I thought of something else. “Kyle’s little sister didn’t think
he
was taking good care of Halloween either!” I said. “Maybe she told other people, and—”
    Bub nodded. “She was happy enough to tell the police.”
    â€œSo,” Yasmeen said, “it might be that the thief isn’t