The afternoon sun beamed down on the busy schoolyard. Around me, every kid ran, chased, screamed, and enjoyed recess. Every kid except me, that is.
Smasher McGintley had me cornered. Cameron and Carter kept a lookout.
“You think you’re smart, don’t you, detective?” Smasher growled. “You think you have me all figured out?”
“Not at all,” I said. “You’re a very complex person.”
Who would have guessed that the meanest kid in school had a soft spot for a family of homeless raccoons?
Once we’d lured Smasher out of the bushes, she’d confessed to everything.
She’d arrived at school early on the first day. She saw Smoky the raccoon and her babies making the mess in the kitchen. The raccoons grabbed the morning snacks and dragged them into the air vent. They had been hiding there ever since the storm knocked down their tree in the schoolyard.
Raccoons are nocturnal, so Smoky and her cubs slept in the roof during the day. They came out the next night and looked for more food in the kitchen.
Smasher didn’t tell anyone about the raccoons. She came by the kitchen in the morning before school to check they were okay.
She was peeking through the window when Glitch took a photo of the kitchen the second time the raccoons made a mess. That’s why we saw the bit of red hair in the photo. Then she spotted Glitch’s motion sensor when she opened the kitchen door this morning. She reached around the doorway and knocked the sensor to the ground, wrecking it before the camera took any photos.
And now she was going to wreck me because I’d figured it all out.
“You’re just a twerp detective,” she said. “I warned you to stop snooping around.”
“But it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?” I said. “No one thinks you’re the Snack Snatcher. In fact, Principal Rainer is impressed that you helped the raccoons. She said you have a kind heart.”
That made Smasher even more mad. Behind her, Cameron and Carter snickered. She glared at her goons. Their smiles vanished. Smasher turned back to me.
“You’d better not repeat those words to anyone else. Got it?”
I nodded real fast to show her I got it.
“This isn’t over, Myron Matthews,” she said. “Keep me out of your mysteries.”
She turned to go. Her two snickering goons followed.
“Myron!” Hajrah’s head popped out from around the corner. “There you are! I’ve been looking for you. Hurry up! You’re going to miss the fun.”
“Stand back, kids.” Mr. Harpel ushered us away from the tall oak tree on the far side of the schoolyard.
Mr. V. and a woman from the Animal Rescue Service placed a large cage at the foot of the tree. Smoky and her two babies peered out from behind the bars.
“They look so scared,” Hajrah said.
“They’re just a little nervous,” said the woman from the Animal Rescue Service. Her name was Melanie. She’d helped Mr. V. get Smoky and her babies down from the roof. “They’ll be fine once we get them to their new home.”
Glitch moved around to the other side of the tree with her camera.
“Everyone smile!” she said as she snapped another photo.
“Ready?” Mr. V. asked.
We all stood back and Melanie opened the cage door. Smoky came out first. Her cubs followed her. The mama raccoon sniffed her way to the tree and scrambled up the trunk. Her babies were right behind her. High above us, the raccoon family climbed along the branches.
“I think they like their new home!” Hajrah said.
“It will be a new beginning for all of them.” Mr. Harpel smiled.
I looked at all of us gathered around the tree—my new teacher and my new friends. And my first new mystery solved. A few days ago, I didn’t like any of this new stuff. But I was wrong.
New beginnings weren’t so bad after all.