Read Online The Case of the Piggy Bank Thief by Martha Freeman - Free Book Online

and Stephanie were telling about the gold they found with their gadget. That’s when my stomach started to hurt, remember?”
    â€œI remember, but, Tessa—”
    â€œâ€”So anyway, I picked it up and brought it inside and washed it off and then, because I never saw one like it, I made yellow crayon rubbings—I couldn’t find a gold crayon—and after that—”
    â€œTessa!”
    She blinked. “What?”
    â€œI don’t think it counts as confessing unless first you admit it really was your fault.”
    Tessa looked surprised. “Who made that rule?”
    I didn’t have an answer, so I asked another question. “Why did you go and put the gold coin in your piggy bank, anyway?”
    Tessa looked at me like I was crazy. “
Duh
, Cammie. Because a piggy bank is where a person keeps coins!”
    â€œSo,” I said, thinking out loud, “it wasn’t the two dollars and twelve cents in the piggy bank that the thief wanted. And it wasn’t an antique piggy bank withpimples, either. It was a gold coin that might be worth a million dollars. In that case, the question is: Who besides you knew what was in the piggy bank?”
    Tessa waved her arms the way she does. “If I knew
that
, I could’ve solved the case myself, Cammie! But that’s just it. Nobody knew. Honest, I didn’t tell a soul!”

CHAPTER TWENTY

    I had one more question for my sister. “Since all along you knew where the gold was, why did you act like you thought Wen Fei and Stephanie had it?”
    Tessa turned pink. “I feel bad about that,” she said. “But I figured if you and Nate suspected them, you wouldn’t suspect me. And then I thought I could get the gold back myself before anybody got in real trouble.”
    â€œYou realize now we have to tell the grown-ups?” I said.
    Tessa said, “I know,” and if I’d been smart, I would have marched her to the kitchen to tell Granny right away.
    Only—call me a wimp—I couldn’t do that to my very own sister. So for a while she and I both sat there in our bedroom being dejected.
    Then I had an idea. The piggy bank had been in Tessa’s laundry hamper, right? Which meant it smelled more or less like Tessa. And since that was true . . .
    It was a dumb idea, and it would probably neverwork. But: (a) it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try; and (b) it was an excuse to put off Tessa’s execution.
    I explained, and Tessa was so totally relieved not to have to confess right away that she said, “You’re the best sister
ever
!” and gave me a big, clingy hug.
    â€œBut, Tessa”—I undid the hug—“if this doesn’t work, we go to Granny. Deal?”
    Tessa nodded solemnly. “Deal.”
    Half an hour later, full of grapes and vegetable soup, we were back in our room, this time with Hooligan. We had borrowed him from Mr. Ng.
    â€œOkay, Cammie,” Tessa said, “I’m ready! Now what do we do?”
    I opened my mouth to answer . . . and realized I didn’t know. I’d gotten the idea that we could use Hooligan to track a piggy bank that smelled like Tessa from books I’ve read. I mean, Hooligan has to be at least part bloodhound; Dad says he’s part every kind of dog.
    The thing is, what I remembered was the idea, not the details. I hadn’t exactly been taking notes when I read those books.
    Then I looked at Tessa and Hooligan, who were looking back at me with total faith. Since I couldn’t let them down, I had only one choice: Fake it.
    â€œWhat we do first is . . . uh, we give Hooligan something to smell that smells like the piggy bank,” I said.
    Tessa looked doubtful. “Like dirty laundry, you mean?”
    I tried to sound confident. “Totally.”
    Tessa wrinkled her nose. “If you say so.” She went over to her laundry hamper, opened it and pulled out