Andy Russell, NOT Wanted by the Police Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Table of Contents

  Illustration

  Dedication

  Copyright

  Chapter 1 Something Really Strange

  Chapter 2 Armed and Dangerous

  Chapter 3 The Mysterious Light

  Chapter 4 Don’t Turn Off That Light!

  Chapter 5 Andy and the Police

  Chapter 6 Stacy Ann’s Great Idea

  Chapter 7 I’ll Scare Him Out

  Chapter 8 LOOK! LOOK!

  Chapter 9 Trapped in School

  Chapter 10 I’m a Criminal

  Chapter 11 ROAR!

  Chapter 12 There’s Someone in There

  Chapter 13 Elke Bell

  Chapter 14 A Really Good Day

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  For Deborah,

  welcome to our family

  Text copyright © 2001 by David A Adler

  Illustrations copyright © 2001 by Leanne Franson

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

  www.hmhbooks.com

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Adler, David A.

  Andy Russell, NOT wanted by the police / David A. Adler; with illustrations by Leanne Franson.

  p. cm.

  Summary: Andy and Tamika are watching their neighbor’s house while they are away, but when strange and troubling things start happening inside the house, the police do not believe the children.

  [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Neighbors-Fiction. 3. Schools Fiction.] I. Franson, Leanne, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.A2615Ap 2001

  [Fic]—dc21 2001001888

  ISBN-13: 978-0-15-216474-4

  ISBN-10: 0-15-216474-X

  eISBN 978-0-544-20148-4

  v1.0513

  Chapter 1

  Something Really Strange

  “Look what just came,” Tamika Anderson told her friend Andy Russell. “It’s a letter from the Perlmans. They’re in Cotacachi.”

  Tamika started to read from it. “‘Dear Tamika.’”

  Andy interrupted her. He smiled and said, “Cotacachi. That must be near Cognito. Lots of people go there, you know. People are always in Cognito.”

  “Incognito is a word, not a place,” Tamika told him. “When someone is incognito it means he’s trying to keep people from knowing who he is.”

  “Oh,” Andy said. “Is that what it means.”

  “Yes,” Tamika said. “‘Dear Tamika,’” she read again.

  “Maybe the Perlmans are near Clined,” Andy said, “or Telligent. I think there’s a big hill in Clined and an amusement park in Telligent, with a great roller coaster. People say it’s good to be in Telligent. I think that’s because of the roller coaster.”

  Tamika laughed. She rolled her eyes and said, “You know the Perlmans are in South America. Cotacachi is in Ecuador. It’s near Otavalo.”

  “Oh,” Andy said, and smiled.

  “‘Dear Tamika,’” Tamika read again. She waited. When Andy didn’t interrupt her, she went on. “‘We really miss you. We hope your parents are continuing to get better and that you are having fun staying with the Russells. Thanks so much for taking care of our house. And please, thank your friend Andy, too.’”

  “They said you should thank me?” Andy asked.

  “That’s what it says here,” Tamika answered. Then she read some more. “‘We’re doing lots of research and lots of sight-seeing. Cotacachi is beautiful. It’s lush and green. There are plants growing here that I have not seen anywhere else. Market day is fun. We’ve met lots of interesting people here and made some friends. We’re buying interesting souvenirs. We miss you. Love, Miriam and Jonathan.’ Then they wrote, ‘P.S. There’s a big surprise coming to you from South America.’”

  “A surprise,” Andy said. “Maybe she sent us turtles or iguanas or geckos. The Galapagos Islands are in Ecuador and they’re famous for their animals.”

  “Whatever it is, I hope it gets here soon,” Tamika said.

  “Pirates once lived on the Galapagos,” Andy said. “Maybe the Perlmans sent us lots of ancient gold coins or ancient pirates’ eye-patches and wooden legs.”

  Andy put his hand over one eye and hopped around. “Ho, ho, ho,” he said, “and a bottle of orange soda.”

  Tamika put the letter in her pocket. She tugged on Andy’s shirt and said, “Come on, Captain Andy. Let’s check on the Perlmans’ house.”

  The Perlmans’ house is next door to the Russells’. Tamika had lived with the Perlmans for a year, while her parents were recovering from a car accident. Then the Perlmans left to travel to South America for their work, and Tamika moved in with the Russells. She shared a room with Rachel, Andy’s older sister.

  Andy and Tamika were in the Russells’ kitchen. Andy hopped to the cabinet under the sink and took out a large black plastic bag. “Let’s fill their outside garbage can again, so if a thieving pirate looks, he’ll think someone is home.”

  Andy took the lid off the kitchen trash can, reached in, and took out an apple core. He put it in the bag and said, “This is all there was in there. We’ve got to get more stuff.”

  The basement can was empty. Andy found some tissues in the bathroom wastebasket and dumped them into the bag. Upstairs, on his desk, he found some old tests and school papers. “This stuff is real junk,” he told Tamika as he threw the papers into the bag.

  Next they went into Tamika and Rachel’s room. Rachel was sitting at her desk, writing. Andy held the black plastic bag open. “Hop in,” he told Rachel.

  “I’m busy. I’m doing homework.”

  “And I’m collecting garbage.” He took Rachel’s pillow, her pajamas, and some papers from her desk and said, “Thank you.”

  Rachel grabbed her things. “Get out,” she told Andy. “And Tamika, you should find some less annoying friends.”

  Mrs. Russell, who taught math at the local high school, was in her room, sitting at her desk and grading test papers. She gave Andy the morning newspaper to add to his garbage collection.

  “Maybe we’ll find some things outside,” Tamika said, “some supermarket flyers, or papers that blew into the yard.”

  There were no papers in the front or back yards of the Russell or Perlman houses.

  “Hey,” Andy said. “I just thought of something. Why don’t we take the stuff from our outdoor garbage cans and put it in the Perlmans’?”

  Andy took the lids off his family’s two trash cans. They were both empty.

  “Just our luck,” Andy said. “Today must have been pick-up day.” He shook the almost empty plastic bag he was holding and said, “I’ll just put this in the Perlmans’ trash can. It’s better than nothing.”

  They walked across the Perlmans’ driveway and around to the back of the house. Andy took the lid off the garbage can.

  “WHAT!” Andy shouted. “What’s this?”

  Tamika looked in. “It’s garbage,” she said.

  “I know what it is, but what’s it doing here?” Andy took out an empty Oat Bran Toasties cereal box. “We don’t eat this stuff, and even if we did, the garbage was collected today.”

  Tamika’s eyes widened. “Someone else must have put that in there,”
she said. “But Miriam told me we’re the only ones watching the house.”

  “There’s something strange going on here,” Andy said, and shook the Oat Bran Toasties box. “Something really strange.”

  Chapter 2

  Armed and Dangerous

  “I know what’s going on,” Andy said. “There was a thieving pirate in the house. He stole the Perlmans’ books and vases and pictures and menorah and barber’s chair and everything!”

  “Something strange is going on,” Tamika replied. “But I don’t think there’s a thief in the house.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Think about it,” Tamika said. “Would someone break into the house and steal everything and then sit down and eat breakfast? The Perlmans don’t eat Oat Bran Toasties, so if you’re right, the thief brought it, and after he was done, he took out the garbage.”

  “Yeah,” Andy admitted. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “But you’re right about one thing. Something strange is going on here, and we should find out what it is.”

  Andy looked at the cereal box he was holding. He thought for a moment. Then he took the lid off the can again and looked in.

  “Do you know what’s in here?” he asked.

  “Garbage?”

  “No. Clues. Look at all that stuff. Each piece of garbage is like a fingerprint. All we have to do is study this stuff, and we’ll learn a lot about whoever put it in here.”

  Tamika leaned over the can. “These sure are smelly clues.”

  Andy took out an empty bag of ginger-snap cookies, an empty skim-milk container, some used green-tea bags, one large worn army boot, and a Power Spider comic book.

  “Green tea and skim milk,” Tamika said. “It’s health-nut stuff! But why would a health nut throw out just one boot?”

  “He’s a thieving one-legged pirate. That’s why,” Andy said. “But why would anyone read Power Spider? It’s got lousy stories.”

  Andy took the now almost empty plastic bag out of the garbage can. He rolled up his sleeve and reached deep into the bag.

  “Yuck!” he said, and took out some cantaloupe rind.

  “Here, try this,” Tamika told him. She took the bag from Andy and turned it upside down. More cantaloupe rinds, some cantaloupe seeds, a tom T-shirt, an apple core, dirty paper cups and paper napkins, two paintbrushes, a squeezed-out tube of paint, crumpled tissues, and a woman’s purple stocking fell out.

  Andy and Tamika studied the garbage.

  “There’s a man’s army boot and a woman’s purple stocking,” Andy noted. “I’m getting a weird picture in my head of whoever threw this stuff out. Maybe he really is a pirate.”

  “And look at all those tissues,” Tamika said. “He probably has a cold.”

  “Or an allergy,” Andy added. “The Perlmans have been away for two months. The house must be real dusty. Lots of people are allergic to dust. It makes them sneeze.”

  With her foot, Tamika turned over the T-shirt and paint tubes. She kicked some of the tissues. Then she told Andy, “I think we should put everything back into the bag.”

  Andy reached down.

  “EW! Don’t use your hands,” Tamika told him. “That stuff must be covered with germs.”

  “Germs and DNA,” Andy said. “I bet if we took this stuff to a lab, a scientist could make a clone of whoever threw this stuff out.”

  “Great,” Tamika said, “two one-legged pirates. That’s just what we need hopping around.”

  Andy tore the Oat Bran Toasties box into a makeshift cardboard shovel. He used it to clean up the mess. When he was done, Tamika said, “Maybe we should walk around the house to see if anything else looks suspicious.”

  “Aha!” Andy said. “You do think there may be a thief. And I think we should be real careful. Someone who breaks into houses might be armed and dangerous.”

  “I don’t think someone broke in. I just want to be sure. We’ll walk around quietly and look at all the windows and doors, make sure they’re closed.”

  Tamika started toward the back door and Andy pulled on her sleeve. “Maybe we should call the police,” he whispered.

  “And what would we tell them?” Tamika asked. “That we found garbage in the Perlmans’ trash cans?”

  Andy and Tamika walked along the edge of the yard, far away from the house. The windows in the back of the house were all closed. The shades were down.

  “We should try the back door,” Tamika whispered.

  “It’s closed,” Andy said.

  “I know that,” Tamika said. “But one of us should check if it’s still locked.”

  Tamika walked slowly toward the back door. Andy followed her. Tamika quietly tried the back door.

  “Good.” Tamika sighed. The door was locked, just the way the Perlmans had left it.

  Andy and Tamika hurried to the back edge of the yard again. They quietly walked to the side of the house. The windows there were closed, too, but some of the shades were up.

  “I’m not sure,” Tamika whispered, “but I think Miriam had pulled all the shades down.”

  Andy walked very slowly to one of the windows with a shade that was up. He got up on his toes and looked in.

  “Yikes!” Andy gasped and dropped to the ground. “There’s someone in there!”

  Andy and Tamika waited, scared to move.

  “I don’t hear anyone moving around in there,” Tamika finally whispered.

  She got on her toes and looked in, then laughed.

  “You were looking at yourself!” Tamika told Andy. “You scared yourself. There’s a mirror in the study, and that’s what you saw.”

  “I did?” Andy asked. He looked through the window again. He saw his reflection in the study mirror. “Oh, I did,” he said.

  Tamika looked at the room for a long time. Then she told Andy, “Everything is just the way I remember it. The barber’s chair is still there, and all the books and the menorah are there, too.”

  They walked to the front of the house. Andy ran to the front door, tried it, and ran back to Tamika. “It’s locked, too,” he told her.

  The windows on the other side of the house were all closed. The shades there were down. They hurried to the Russells’ backyard.

  “What do we do now?” Andy asked.

  Tamika shook her head and said, “I don’t know. At first I thought all this garbage stuff was silly, but now I think it’s spooky.”

  Andy turned and looked at the Perlmans’ house. Then he smiled and said, “If we go to the police, I could describe the thief. One of their artists could sketch a picture of him. He’s a one-legged man wearing one large boot and a purple stocking. And he drinks skim milk and green tea, so he’s probably skinny.”

  Tamika laughed and added, “And he has a long scraggly beard and an eye patch.”

  “That garbage taught us a lot,” Andy said. “You know, it’s a key to our identity. It really is. And guess what I just thought of—a great idea for a new TV game show! There would be people and piles of garbage, and contestants would have to match the people to their garbage. It would be lots of fun. They could ask the people questions—not what they eat but maybe what their jobs are and things like that.”

  “And the grand prize,” Tamika said, “could be a year’s supply of garbage bags.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Now, let’s get back to the Perlmans’ house,” Tamika said. “What are we going to do?”

  “Maybe we should tell my parents,” Andy suggested. “And we should watch the house day and night. We could take turns, like real detectives.” Andy lifted his hands, bent his fingers in what he thought was a spooky way, and said, “This will be a stakeout.”

  “We should tell your parents,” Tamika said.

  “And I think we should watch the house. The window in my room faces it. We should take turns looking out, probably even late at night. That’s when there’s real trouble. That’s when thieves do most of their work.”

  “OK,” Tamika agreed. “We’
ll tell your parents what we found, and then we’ll take turns watching the house.”

  Andy said, “I hope we really find a one-legged man wearing one purple stocking.”

  “And I hope we don’t,” Tamika told him. “I don’t want anyone spooking around next door. I hope no one went into the house.”

  Chapter 3

  The Mysterious Light

  “Is that you?” Rachel called as Andy and Tamika entered the house.

  “Who?” Andy asked.

  “You,” Rachel answered, and hurried down the steps. “I have to talk to you.”

  “And we have to talk to Mom and Dad,” Andy told her.

  “It’s important,” Tamika added.

  “This is important, too. I didn’t know what to do for the science fair and Ms. Jackson, my teacher, had a great idea. She said I should test Andy’s gerbils and see which one is the smartest.”

  “Where are Mom and Dad?” Andy asked.

  “Dad said he’ll make a maze. I’ll make tags and you could put them on the gerbils, on their tails or maybe on their feet. Then I’ll time them through the maze. I’ll see if one always gets through the fastest.”

  Rachel followed Andy and Tamika as they walked through the kitchen, dining room, and living room.

  “Where are they?” Andy asked. “Where are Mom and Dad?”

  “So, will you let me?” Rachel asked. “Will you let me use your gerbils?”

  “Listen,” Tamika told Rachel, “we have to find your parents. We have to tell them about what we found at the Perlmans’.”

  “If I tell you where they are, will you let me use your gerbils?”

  “Mom! Dad!” Andy called as he pushed past his sister.

  Rachel followed Andy and Tamika upstairs. The Russells weren’t in their bedroom.

  Then they heard some banging.

  “Mom! Dad!” Andy called again. “Are you in the attic?”

  “We’re up here,” Mr. Russell answered.