Judy Moody, Girl Detective - Megan Mcdonald [17]
They waited some more.
“Beetle Bailey still parked. Cat burglar on a fence. Over,” said Stink.
“Repeat. Did you say burglar?”
“It’s just a cat.”
“No green van?”
“Negatory on the van. Just a crow picking at some leftover road pizza.”
“So we just sit here?” asked Frank.
“My butt’s asleep,” said Rocky.
“Stakeouts are boring,” Stink said over the walkie-talkie.
“NOT,” said Judy. “This is as exciting as one time in The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion when Nancy Drew chased a wild leopard and trapped him in the garage with a calm-down pill hidden inside a piece of meat.”
“Chips ahoy! Chips ahoy!” crackled Stink. “Movement in bushes across the street. I think I see something furry.”
Judy sat up, on alert. Frank and Rocky peered out the tent flap.
“Negatory. Scratch that. Just the cat burglar again.”
Still more waiting.
“Chips ahoy!” Stink called again. “Got your ears on? I think I see a tail.”
“A doggy tail?”
“False alarm. Just the S-as-in-Saturn. Q-as-in —”
“Stink, you have the right to remain silent,” said Judy.
“Chips ahoy!” hissed Stink. “CHIPS A-HOY!”
“He’s like the boy who cried chips ahoy,” said Frank.
“No way are we falling for that again.” Just then, Judy heard a new sound. A sniffing, snuffling sound. A panting, pawing sound.
Is it? Was it? Could it be?
All three faces peered out the front tent flap.
Holy jeepers! MR. CHIPS!
Judy held out a cookie. “Good boy! C’mere, Mr. Chips.” In one leap, Mr. Chips jumped right into the tent and on top of Judy, knocking her over. Cookies went flying. Mr. Chips’s tail was wagging five miles a minute. Judy hugged that wiggling ball of fur and kissed that puppy on his wet nose.
“Mr. Chips!” said Rocky and Frank. “Who’s a good boy? You are. Oh, yes, you are!” Mr. Chips rolled over, paws in the air. They tickled his tummy.
“Chips ahoy! Chips ahoy!” Stink was still yelling. “Come in, breaker. Do you read?” Finally, he came rushing into the tent, where the little brown furball was licking Judy, Rocky, and Frank from head to toe.
“Told you!” Stink cried.
“Where’d you go, boy?” Rocky asked in between doggy kisses. “I wish you could tell us where you’ve been.”
“You’re safe from the bad guys now, Mr. Chips,” said Frank. “You didn’t see the green van, did you, Stink?”
“Nope. Not even a piece of rope or a bite of baloney sandwich.”
“How’d you break away from those bad guys?” Judy asked. “Who’s a smart doggy? You are.”
“Breaker 1-9. We got a bear coming. With a gumball machine.”
“Stakeout’s over, Stink. You can talk normal now,” said Judy. Just then, she saw the black-and-white that had pulled into the driveway, lights flashing.
“Officer Kopp!” cried Judy as he crossed the yard. “Look who we found!”
“Where did you get off to, boy?” Officer Kopp asked, snapping a leash on the puppy. Mr. Chips leaped into Officer Kopp’s arms, wagging his tail and licking him like he hadn’t seen him in a year.
After all the How-Did-You’s and Where-Have-You-Been’s and Don’t-Ever’s, Officer Kopp asked, “So, how’d you find this guy?”
“Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy,” said Judy. “We set a chocolate-chip cookie trap.”
“Good idea,” said Officer Kopp.
“So did you bring backup?” Stink asked. “To catch the bad guys in the green van?”
“Yeah, we were onto them the day Mr. Chips stole the dog bone from Speedy Market,” said Frank.
“At first, we thought they were dognappers,” said Judy.
“Yeah, like they took Mr. Chips for reward money,” Stink added.
“Then a Nancy Drew lightbulb went off in my head, and we followed a ton of clues all over town and figured out that they’ve been training Mr. Chips to steal stuff. They’re teaching him by making him sniff out chocolate-chip cookies.”
“First it’s cookies, then diamonds,” said Stink.
Officer Kopp chuckled. “Hmm. That’s some mighty interesting detective work, and you sure cracked the case. But I’m afraid there haven’t been any reports at the police station about any diamonds gone missing.”
“See?” said Judy, turning to her fellow detectives. “Not only did we rescue Mr. Chips; we also stopped those