The Serial School Purse Snatcher had a head start. No hay problema. There was a trail of green guacamole in the snow.
I followed the tiny blobs of green around the corner. But that’s where the trail ended.
“Did you see where he went?” Mr. Vaslov asked, catching up with me.
I shook my head. “He just disappeared.”
“Put on your snowshoes, Freddie,” Mr. Vaslov said. “They might help us.” With my Zapato Power snowshoes,
I was ready to chase the purse snatcher through the snow. But I had to find him first.
“Look closely for guacamole.” Mr. Vaslov peered down at the white ground.
We walked down the block toward the bus stop. That’s where we saw another spot of green.
“Do you think the thief got away on the bus?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Let’s keep looking.”
Behind the bus stop was a park.
We saw some footprints going around the trunk of a big tree.
“What’s that?” I pointed at a mound of snow.
“We’ll find out!” Mr. Vaslov said.
When we got there, we saw someone had made a snow cave, just like Gio had on the sledding hill. But instead of kids playing inside, there were stolen purses. We saw a yellow purse, a pink one, and a third one that I figured belonged to Erika’s grandmother.
“The thief’s hideout!” Mr. Vaslov whistled. But where was the thief? I turned around to see a tall, thin man in a blue coat running toward the bus stop. And the bus was coming down the street!
I ran around him in circles, smoke flying everywhere. Just like a snowplow, I pushed enough snow to lock him into a snow jail.
“Hey! Where did this come from!?” the man shouted.
Mr. Vaslov ran up. “That’s our thief all right. He has guacamole on his jacket.”
We heard sirens and saw a police car pull up in front of the school. “Go tell the officers where we are,” Mr. Vaslov said. “Tell them to bring shovels.”
“Sure thing!” I said, pressing the button on my wristband.
Maria, Gio, Erika, her grandmother, my mom, and just about everyone else from Building D came to watch Officers Chen and Sanchez arrest the Serial School Purse Snatcher.
“How long did you think you could get away with this?” Officer Chen asked as he handcuffed the thief.
The Serial School Purse Snatcher hung his head so no one could see his face.
“Starwood Park is safe again,” Mom said.
Mr. Vaslov quietly patted me on the back.
After that, we all went back to the gym to have lucky green cake.
“Yum,” Gio said, licking his fingers. “This is as good as guacamole. Green must be a good color for food.”
The next morning, Maria, Gio, and I went to the sledding hill with all the other kids from Starwood Park. The sun was so bright, we hardly got cold.
Mr. Vaslov came too with some clean trash can lids so we had more sleds to share. That put everyone in an extra good mood, even Erika. She didn’t say a mean thing all day. In fact, at the top of the hill, she told Gio and me to go down the hill first.
“How come?” I asked, just to be sure she wasn’t planning to crash into us or anything.
“I owe you one,” she said, popping a purple bubble.
So we zoomed down the hill in front of Erika, cheering all the way.
