The Powder Puff Puzzle Read Free

weed came up.
    The woman nearly fell over.
    “My cat,” said Dawn. “He’s in your house.”
    “On your windowsill,” said Jason.
    The woman stood up quickly. “Goodness,” she said. She brushed her hair out of her eyes again.
    She started to run to the house. “Poor Blacky,” she said.
    Dawn and Jason ran after her.
    “No,” Dawn told her. “His name is Powder Puff.”
    The woman stopped at the back door. She turned the knob. “I’m coming, Blacky,” she called.
    She looked back at Dawn. “How did your cat get into my house?”
    Dawn put one shoulder up. “He jumped into a car.”
    “Somebody else was driving, though,” Jason said.
    “I should hope so,” said the woman. She stepped into her kitchen. “Here, Blacky. Mommy’s here.”
    Dawn stood on tiptoes.
    She looked into the kitchen.
    She watched the big black cat come down the hall.
    He jumped into the woman’s arms.
    “You’re safe now,” the woman told him.
    She turned to Dawn and Jason. “Please get your cat off my windowsill. Get him out of here. I don’t want him to hurt Blackie.”
    Dawn looked at the cat.
    He was all black. Almost.
    He had one white ear.
    He didn’t have a white tip on his tail, though.
    Dawn pointed. “I thought that was my cat.”
    “I think I’d better sit down,” said the woman.
    “I think we’ll look somewhere else,” said Dawn.
    “Some detective you are,” said Jason.

CHAPTER 6
    J ASON WAS RIGHT, Dawn thought.
    She was a terrible detective. Yucko.
    She marched up to her bedroom.
    It was hot up there.
    Hot as an oven.
    Powder Puff was stuck somewhere.
    He was probably hot as an oven too.
    Too bad cats didn’t swim. She’d take him to Emily Arrow’s pool when she found him.
    No. She shook her head. She’d keep him home, just the way Noni said.
    She lay down on the floor.
    She looked under her bed.
    It was dusty under there.
    She was supposed to clean it.
    She always forgot.
    She pulled out a box.
    It was a polka-dot box.
    A Polka Dot Private Eye box.
    She opened it up.
    It was time to think hard about being a detective.
    It was time to find Powder Puff.
    She took out her polka-dot hat.
    It was a little big.
    She put it on anyway.
    It made her feel hot.
    She felt as if a hippopotamus were sitting on her head.

    A big fat one.
    She looked inside the box.
    A fake mustache.
    Fake eyeglasses.
    A magnifying glass.
    Nothing that would help.
    She pulled out the Polka Dot Private Eye Book.
    She took it outside with her.
    Jason was waiting on the lawn. He was waving his stick back and forth.
    “Take that,” he yelled.
    “Aren’t you worried about Powder Puff?” Dawn asked.
    “Sure I am. I’m trying not to feel bad. That’s why I’m playing. I’m fighting a guy with a sword.”
    He held the stick over his head. “The kind of guy who wears that tin stuff.”
    “You mean a knight,” Dawn said. She pushed her hat up. “We don’t have time to play.”
    She sat there another minute. Then she opened her book.
    “Some of this is just junk,” said Jason.
    He was looking over her shoulder.
    “It is not,” said Dawn. “It’s great stuff.”
    “I don’t see anything about a missing cat,” said Jason.
    “Here’s what we need,” said Dawn. “Scene of the crime.”
    “What?”
    “That’s where it happened. That’s where the cat got lost. It’s called the scene of the crime.”
    “What does it say?”
    “Too bad you can’t read better,” said Dawn.
    She looked back at him. “It says to write down everything you can remember.”
    She hopped up.
    She went into the kitchen. A pencil was on the counter. She scooped it up.
    She took a piece of Noni’s THINGS TO DO TODAY paper too.
    Noni wouldn’t mind.
    Outside she began to write.
    1. Red car . . . mess.
    2. Lady with mousetail . . . gray . . . carrying heavy box. Carrying pole.
    3. Powder Puff jumped in car.
    She chewed on the pencil. “That’s all I can remember.”
    “What did the lady look like?” Jason asked. “Beside the