Toby Martin: Pet Detective -e

by Barbara Grengs

One by one neighborhood dogs disappear. One by one the ransom notes arrive. When Toby Martin and her best pal, Freddy, discover Toby’s dog is the next intended victim, they become first-rate detectives. Who is the pooch pilferer? Will Toby and Freddy rescue the dogs and capture the criminal?

While Toby is investigating, she is also writing a series of mystery stories in the Sherlock Holmes’ tradition. These stories are critiqued by the delightfully nasty Mrs. Trattles, a hard-nosed, straight arrow English teacher who forces Toby to improve her writing.

978-1-59431-756-9 Young Adult Mystery Humor

Cover art by Judith A. Bergerson www.judithbergerson.com

Also available in RTF and HTML formats.

Chapter 1

Red Herrings

"Welcome to seventh grade English, classss," Mrs.Trattles said, hissing through yellow teeth. "My name is Trattles. It rhymes with battles and that's what you get if you don't hand in your homework." I wondered just how many years she used that line on the first day of school, like probably forever.

Old Trattless/Battless was wearing standard teacher clothes: a denim jumper with an apple stitched on the front, white tee shirt and sandals with socks. The dress was supposed to be loose fitting, but Trattles' bulges and lumps seemed more alive than a sack full of puppies.

I'd heard all about Mrs.Trattles from my older brother, Gary, who survived her class two years ago. She was one tough old lady, making her students work for every point. He also warned me about her seating chart: boy, girl, boy, girl. Talk about an idea from the Ice Age, just like old Trattles herself.

On the morning of my first day of junior high, I slicked back my short, red curly hair and removed my earrings. I picked my first day of school outfit very carefully: blue tee shirt and khaki shorts with sandals, no socks. I was sure she'd take the bait.

"Classsss," she hissed. "Your first assignment is a short worksheet that will tell me just a little about you. Please hand it in before you leave for your next class. Just a reminder…classes are shortened on this first day so don't waste time. I expect you to use your best cursive writing. Five minutes before you are dismissed, I will assign your permanent desk, unless of course, you cannot handle the placement. Then you will be assigned a more appropriate seat. Now settle down and get to work." As she counted out the worksheets, Trattles licked her finger to get a better grip on the papers. Eww, teacher spit. The suspense was killing me.

Getting to Know You

Directions: In your best cursive writing, completely fill out this Getting to Know You exercise. Write at least a few lines for each topic. It is due before you leave today. Now get to work.

Name: Toby Martin. I got my name from my grandma, Eloise Tobias. Sure glad I wasn't named Eloise.

Educational goals: get through all my classes this year with B's and A's and I want to begin my first detective novel.

Occupational goals: Pet detective or maybe a private eye. I want to save pets from pet nappers and unite lost pets with their owners. If I can't do that, I'll work with people. Then I want to write about my capers.

Hobbies: collecting baseball cards, reading detective stories, watching "CSI", writing stories.

Annoying Habits: cracking my knuckles, belching and trying to talk, and saying "you know" and "like" all the time.

Family: One mom, one older brother, one absent dad, aka "Bad Dad." Pops took off when he went to get groceries and didn't return. We've been looking for him on milk cartons ever since. Ha ha! And my basset hound, Watson, named after Sherlock Holmes' foil, John Watson.

Best friends: Freddy, my neighbor, but he goes to a different school that I call Snooty Academy (S.A.) and my dog, Watson, the above-mentioned basset hound who has a weight problem. So does Freddy.

Favorite books: the Sherlock Holmes books and the Midnight Louis books about a black cat that solves mysteries.

Favorite movies: The Maltese Falcon, Ace Ventura, Pet Detective . . .

I was just about to finish that getting to know you exercise when Mrs.Trattles announced that it was time for the boy-girl seating chart. I was ready.

"Heather…Gary…Anne…Mark…Lizbet…Toby…"Mrs.Trattles pointed to desks as she recited the names. When my name was read, the class broke into laughter. "Classss, what's so funny?"

"Mrs.Trattles…" I went up to her and whispered in her ear. She turned bright red, muttered an apology and quickly erased my name and wrote Ken's. Perfect, she took the bait. Mrs. Trattles will spend the entire year making up for her mistake. She'll go easy on me and I'll get an A for sure. I gave her all the clues and she fell for the red herrings. Mystery writer, Toby Martin, strikes again.

Red Herring: a false clue. The word came from the fox and hound hunts in England. To test a dog's ability, a herring was dragged across the trail to confuse the hound. An excellent hound would not be confused and would continue hunting the fox.

Mrs.Trattles is not an "excellent hound." I love it when a teacher fails a test.