Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Soccer Scheme Read Free Page B

nights ago,” Ms. Moore said. “Ben Considine, who cleans after hours, found it in the restroom. The book was by the sink. He said the book smelled slightly of tobacco. When he opened it, he saw the hole.”
    â€œDo you suspect Ben?” asked Sally.
    Ms. Moore shook her head. “Ben has been with us for years. The hole was clearly made by a cigarette being snuffed out. Ben doesn’t smoke.”
    â€œHave you any idea who did it?” Encyclopedia inquired.
    â€œI’d have to guess,” Ms. Moore answered. “It rained that day, worse than today. No one came into the library except four teenage boys. They use the library once in a while. They checked out books on racing cars and drivers. They stayed about thirty minutes. I think it was one of them.”
    Ms. Moore showed the detectives the burned book. “What sort of person would do such a thing?” she said bitterly.
    Encyclopedia examined the hole.
    â€œDoes it tell you anything?” Sally asked hopefully.
    â€œNot so far,” the boy detective said. “Do you have the boys’ names, Ms. Moore?”
    â€œI can get their names off their library cards,” Ms. Moore said.
    She used the computer and showed the printout to the detectives. On it were four names: Chris Wilder, Oscar Lane, Gary Silver, and Frank Cloud.
    The detectives had seen them in town. They were not troublemakers.
    â€œDid anything unusual happen in the library since the hole was made?” Encyclopedia asked.
    â€œI can’t say,” Ms. Moore replied. “While the boys were here, my two assistants, Ms. Catlin and Ms. Hawkins, were in the office. They were checking in books returned in the book drop. None of us watched the boys. Wait, there is something else.”
    She drew a folded sheet of paper from her desk drawer. “I received this in the mail today.”
    The top two lines on the sheet were:
    He burned the hole in the book.
    To find out who, have a look.
    Written below in block letters were three words, PURPLE MONTH ORANGE.
    â€œI can’t see that the three words have anything to do with the burned hole. They don’t make sense,” said Ms. Moore. “I think it’s an attempt to throw us off the track.”
    â€œPerhaps it’s a code,” Sally said.
    â€œPossibly,” Encyclopedia said.
    â€œMonth,” Ms. Moore mused. “Months have holidays. Is there a holiday with purple and orange colors? Then again, the code may have to do with food. Grape jelly is purple, and oranges are orange. The words may be about a holiday or food.”
    â€œAre there any holidays about food, Encyclopedia?” Sally asked.
    â€œI only know of two, Picnic Day in Australia and Peanut Sunday in Luxembourg,” Encyclopedia said.
    â€œAustralia? Luxembourg? Good grief, that’s reaching a little too far, isn’t it?” Ms. Moore objected politely. “The code may have to do with poetry some way or other. Rhyming book with look may be a clue.”
    â€œI can’t see that the three words have anything to do with the burned hole. They don’t make sense,” said Ms. Moore.
    â€œThat’s it!” Encyclopedia exclaimed. “The words purple, orange, and month don’t tell us who wrote them. They tell us who burned the hole in the book.”
    WHO BURNED THE HOLE?
    ( Click here for the solution to “The Case of the Hole in the Book.” )

The Case of the April Fools’ Plot

    Every morning Chuck Tweedle delivered the Idaville News around the neighborhood on his bike. He slung the newspaper to the front doors with great skill.
    In the week since April Fools’, however, the newspaper landed several feet from the doors. One homeowner, Mr. Miller, complained the loudest, but only about the delivery on April Fools’.
    Encyclopedia and Sally decided to learn more from Chuck himself. The detectives found him sitting on the front steps of his house huddled in