Selby's Shemozzle Read Free Page B

suspected there was something wrong with that money. It was all too easy.’
    Selby watched as police officers searched the house from floor to ceiling, even cutting open mattresses and ripping pillows apart, trying to find the plates.
    â€˜They won’t find anything, because there’s nothing to find,’ Selby thought. ‘But the Trifles could go to jail for years and years and years just because they had my stash of cash.’
    Selby blinked back a tear.
    â€˜I know,’ Selby thought. ‘I’ll write a letter to the cops and tell them what really happened. But I won’t sign it so they won’t know who I am.’
    Selby thought again.
    â€˜That’s silly. They won’t believe it. I guess I’m just going to have to go to the police station and tell them. I’ll be giving away my secret
(sniff)
and I may have to go to jail
(sniff sniff
) but at least they’ll have to let the Trifles and Melanie and Postie go.’
    â€˜Hey! Look what I found under the house!’ one of the police officers said, holding up Selby’s dog suit disguise. ‘These people are weird.’
    Selby started out the door just as another police officer ran a metal detector up and down the walls.
    â€˜Now hang on,’ Selby thought. ‘Somewhere in Bogusville there must be the real forger. All I have to do is find him and then call the cops. Hmmm,’ Selby hmmmed. ‘Where do I start? I’ll make a list of the most honest, helpful and friendly people in Bogusville.’
    It was a cunning dog that crept into the Trifles’ study and opened the drawer marked ‘Bogusville Council’. In it was a file folder called ‘Awards’.
    Selby read through the list of all the people who had been given awards for tidiness, cleanliness and all the other nesses that Bogusville gave awards for.
    One name came up time after time — Mavis Deeds.
    â€˜Oh, isn’t that sweet that she got all those awards,’ Selby thought. ‘She was so nice. I used to see her walking along Bogusville Creek. She always stopped to pat me. It couldn’t be her. Hang on! What am I saying? Maybe it
was
her. I used to see her near where I found the biscuit tin. No, she was too nice. But hang on again! She’s got to be my first suspect just
because
she was so nice. But wait — she can’t be the one because she died last December.’
    Selby looked down his list of names again.
    â€˜She died last December!’ he said out loud (and almost
too
out loud). ‘That’s when the money stopped. It was her! It absolutely had to be her! I wonder if that old house of hers has been sold yet?’
    â€˜Hey! Who nicked my metal detector?’ a police officer cried. ‘Come on, guys, a joke’s a joke! Give it back.’
    It was a window-lifting dog that climbed into Mavis Deeds’ empty house and scanned its walls with a borrowed metal detector. And it was avery happy dog that heard the
beep beep beep
on his headphones.
    Selby grabbed a (borrowed) hammer and with a
crash thump bang
made a hole in the wall.
    â€˜The plates!’ he yelled. ‘I’ve found them!’
    â€˜Thank heavens someone found those money-printing plates and called the police,’ Mrs Trifle said to Dr Trifle when they got home. ‘And to think that the forger was that sweet little old lady, Mavis Deeds. She was the very last person I would have suspected.’
    â€˜Do you really think that was her real name?’ Dr Trifle asked.
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜She never married, did she?’
    â€˜No, I don’t believe so.’
    â€˜And she always called herself Miss Deeds.’
    â€˜Miss Deeds?’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘Oh, I get it.
Mis
deeds are
bad
deeds, aren’t they? I guess that was her little joke on us.’
    â€˜So she,’ Selby thought as he curled up for a nap, ‘was the Laughing Lady after all.’

Selby and the Chocolate