The Case of the Lemonade Stand

Bugs Meany hated being outsmarted by Encyclopedia all the time. He longed to get even. But every time he thought about giving Encyclopedia a mouth full of knuckles, he remembered Sally Kimball.

Sally was Encyclopedia’s junior partner. She was also the prettiest girl and the best athlete in the fifth grade. What’s more, she had done what no one—boy or girl—thought was possible. She had punched out Bugs Meany.

Bugs was trying to bully a little boy out of his bicycle the first time Sally knocked him silly. There was nothing Sally hated more than a bully.

“You need help,” Sally said, dusting Bugs’s chin with a straight right.

Bugs walked around like a boy who didn’t know whether he was walking or riding. “I hope she isn’t asking me to dance,” he blubbered. Her punch had knocked him silly.

“Bugs doesn’t like you any more than he likes me,” Encyclopedia warned Sally. “His brain is working overtime on revenge.”

“I’m not worried about anything he thinks up,” Sally said. “His picture should be in the dictionary next to the word birdbrain.”

The detectives were biking to the baseball field at South Park to watch their friends Fangs Liveright and Pinky Plummer play a Little League game. It was a hot ride.

“Let’s stop for a cold drink,” Sally said, spotting Sonia Easton’s lemonade stand.

“Good idea,” Encyclopedia agreed.

Sonia’s lemonade stand was an Idaville landmark. She used it to raise money for the children’s wing at the local hospital. Every year, she tried to top the year before.

“Two lemonades, please,” Sally said, putting two dimes down on the counter.

“You’re just in time,” Sonia said, pouring two icy glasses of her famous thirst quencher. “I’m about to close up shop for a week. We’re going to visit my cousins in Tallahassee.”

“Won’t that hurt business?” Encyclopedia asked.

“Not this year,” Sonia said, pointing to a stack of coins and bills on the shelf behind her. “I’m way ahead of last year already.”

Sally’s forehead wrinkled in concern. “That’s a lot of money to have sitting around. Shouldn’t it be in a bank?”

“It’s more than three hundred dollars!” Sonia said proudly. Then she explained. “The TV station was just here to do a story about me for the news. That’s the only reason the money’s here. Otherwise I keep it in the First National Bank.”

Suddenly Sonia’s eyes narrowed and she scowled. Encyclopedia looked over his shoulder. Bugs Meany was strolling by, listening to their conversation.

“That Bugs Meany,” Sonia said. “He’s never bought one glass of lemonade from me. But the minute the news crew showed up, he tried to get his ugly mug on television.”

Sally shook her head. “Lucky he didn’t break the camera.”

A few minutes later, Sonia’s mother came outside to hurry her along. Encyclopedia and Sally helped her carry her lemonade supplies into the house before they locked the stand’s shutters and closed the side door Sonia used to get in and out.

Encyclopedia didn’t think about Sonia again until early the next morning. He was eating his breakfast and reading about Fangs’s home run in the Idaville Morning News when the phone rang.

The voice on the other end was high-pitched and muffled.

“Encyclopedia?”

“Yes,” Encyclopedia answered.

“I forgot the money!”

“Who is this?” Encyclopedia asked.

“It’s Sonia!” she said in a panicky voice. “I left all the money in the lemonade stand by accident. It’s not safe!”

Encyclopedia strained to hear. Sonia’s voice was barely understandable.

“I want to hire you to get it and keep it safe for me,” she begged. “I called Sally already.”

Encyclopedia was about to agree when the line went dead. A few minutes later, Sally coasted to a stop by the back door.

“Did Sonia call you?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Encyclopedia, heading for his bike. “It was a terrible connection, but it sounded like she left all that money sitting inside the lemonade stand.”

“We have to get it out of there before someone steals it,” Sally said.

Encyclopedia hopped on his bike and pedaled as fast as he could. Keeping up with Sally wasn’t easy.

Sally pulled up alongside the lemonade stand and waited for Encyclopedia. He arrived a couple of minutes later, huffing and puffing.

“When did you get your pilot’s license?” he asked, joking.

Sally shook her head. “You were driving way under the speed limit,” she answered.

As soon as he could breathe, Encyclopedia understood why Sonia was so panicked. The lemonade stand’s front shutters had a padlock, but the side door didn’t have any kind of lock at all. Anyone could walk in and take the money.

He pushed the door open and stepped inside. “Did you bring a flashlight?” he asked Sally.

“No, I didn’t think of it,” she said, stepping in behind him and blocking the light from the door.

Encyclopedia took another step. The next thing he knew, a big fisherman’s net dropped on top of him, trapping him inside. Sally struggled behind him. She was trapped, too.

Someone ran out from behind the stand and yelled at a passing police car. “Help, Officer! I’ve caught a couple of dangerous thieves.”

Encyclopedia recognized the voice. It was Bugs Meany.

“I should have known Bugs was behind this,” Sally muttered.

Encyclopedia watched Officer Muldoon walk toward them. The police officer helped Encyclopedia and Sally out of their trap.

All the while, Bugs was chattering in the background.

“The son of the police chief stealing money from sick kids,” Bugs said, shaking his head sadly. “It’s a disgrace!”

“What exactly were you doing here so early in the morning, Bugs?” Encyclopedia asked.

“I heard you two plotting to rob this place at the ball game last night,” Bugs sneered. “Do you think I could stand by and let that happen? I waited all night for you to step into my trap. I caught you red-handed.”

“Help, Officer! I’ve caught a couple of dangerous thieves!”

“He’s trying to frame us!” Sally said, rubbing her ankle. “We weren’t going to steal the money. We were protecting it from people like him.”

“People like me?” Bugs asked with a surprised expression. “I’m not the one trying to steal money from sick children.” He turned to Officer Muldoon. “Call me as a star witness in the court case,” he said. “Someone needs to lock these two up and throw away the key.”

“Someone needs to give you a case of lockjaw,” Sally said, making a fist.

Officer Muldoon eyed her sternly, and then turned to Bugs. “Tell me exactly what happened,” he said, pulling out his notebook.

“I always suspected their little detective business was a front for a crime ring,” Bugs said, puffing out his chest. “Then last night I heard them plotting to rob the lemonade stand. Money that was supposed to go to sick kids in the hospital.”

Bugs put his hand over his heart. He seemed ready to weep phony tears down to his feet. “I knew no one would believe me over the police chief’s son. So I laid a trap and hid here all night long. Sure enough, first thing this morning they crept in and grabbed the money. I caught them red-handed.”

“Bugs Meany, that’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told,” Sally said, stamping her foot. “And you’ve told plenty of whoppers!”

Bugs ignored her and focused on Officer Muldoon. “I don’t want a parade or a medal,” Bugs said. “I just want those poor, sick kids to get every penny of that money.”

He pulled a dime out of his pocket and added it to one of Sonia’s neat stacks. “Here’s another contribution from me.”

“These are very serious charges,” Officer Muldoon said. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to bring you all downtown and let your father sort it out, Leroy.”

Sally was furious. “Encyclopedia,” she cried. “Don’t let Bugs get away with this!”

“He won’t,” Encyclopedia said calmly. “I can prove that Bugs is lying.”

 

HOW?

 

(Click here for the solution to “The Case of the Lemonade Stand.”)