Read Online Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! by Polly Horvath - Free Book Online Page A

this is just some fox’s idea of a joke, we cannot know. Nevertheless, whatever it is, we must put a stop to it. But why would they want your parents? And what are all these confounded squiggles on the file card?” asked Mr. Bunny.
    So Madeline explained about her uncle and how the foxes obviously needed him for decoding.
    â€œWe must get on the case immediately. We must find your parents before the foxes, uh, get hungry, and we must find out if such an evil factory has already been built and, if it has, run those foxes out.”
    â€œHow will you do that?” asked Madeline.
    â€œOh, we have a special antifox SWAT team, but before the Bunny Council will send them out, we must know where the foxes are. There have been too many false alarms when bunnies only thought there were foxes about. It’s a form of bunny hysteria. Now the council makes you present solid evidence.”
    â€œAnd fill out ninety-three requisition forms,” said Mrs. Bunny.
    â€œThat’s why Uncle didn’t want to call Ottawa,” said Madeline. “The requisition forms. He said we must solve this mystery ourselves, and we were about to when he fell into his coma.”
    â€œVery bad luck there,” said Mr. Bunny, clucking his tongue.
    â€œBut good luck to have found us,” said Mrs. Bunny.
    She and Mr. Bunny put on their fedoras and spent the rest of the afternoon pacing the garden, trying to think of what to do next. They were very disappointed to find that sporting fedoras, while fashion-forward, did nothing to inspire their detecting brains.
    Periodically Madeline would call out, “Do you have an idea yet?” and Mr. Bunny would reply, “Shhh, patience, you must give the fedora time to work.”
    In the end, Mr. and Mrs. Bunny had not an idea between the two of them, but they did not want to tell Madeline this. They could see that what she needed most was hope.
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Mr. Bunny. “The germ of a seed of a spore of an idea begins. We must let it grow overnight.”
    â€œReally?” said Madeline. “That
does
sound promising.”
    â€œYes, it does, doesn’t it?” said Mr. Bunny, feeling pleased with his big fat lie. “Dinnertime approaches. We would invite you to stay with us, but, of course, you won’t fit into the guest room.”
    â€œSo perhaps we should all rejoin after my hat club meeting tomorrow,” said Mrs. Bunny as she headed into the house with the dirty cups and saucers. “Now, we should escort you home so you can get some rest. Tomorrow will be very busy.”
    What a long day it has been, Madeline thought. I can hardly stand the thought of those thirty-seven hills. Then she noticed the Smart car in the driveway.
    â€œYou have a car!”
    â€œWe
have
a car,” said Mrs. Bunny, coming out and wringing her paws. “We just don’t know how to start it.”
    â€œWe don’t know how to start
this
kind of car,” said Mr. Bunny.
    â€œWell, I’ve seen KatyD start hers lots of times before,” said Madeline. “Give me the keys and I will see if I can show you what she does.”
    â€œKeys?” said Mr. and Mrs. Bunny.
    â€œThe car keys,” said Madeline.
    The Bunnys looked at her blankly.
    â€œYou need keys to start a car. The keys go into this little hole right here on the side of the steering wheel.”
    â€œOh, I hope there’s room for them, what with all the parking coins,” said Mrs. Bunny, giving Mr. Bunny a look.
    â€œDo you know where the keys are?” asked Madeline.
    â€œNo, you see, we inherited the car with the house,” said Mrs. Bunny.
    â€œWell, in my experience people quite often keep them hanging on a hook in the front hall,” said Madeline.
    Mrs. Bunny hopped into the house and came back out right away with a set of keys hanging from one paw. “Exactly where you said they’d be!”
    â€œYou would make a fine