Riley Mack and the Other Known Troublemakers Read Online Free Page B

in your pockets?”
    â€œHe’s helping me clean up,” said Mr. Karpinski.
    â€œThat’s my job,” said the police chief. “Cleaning up this town’s trash.”
    â€œDo you, by any chance, mean me, sir?” said Riley. On the inside he felt himself beginning to get mad, but another of his many mottoes was to never let his anger show. He smiled in a friendly way at the chief.
    â€œIf the shoe fits, wear it.”
    â€œYou’re mixing your metaphors.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œTrash, shoes. You should dance with the horse you rode in on.”
    The chief fumed. “Karpy, is my coffee ready?”
    â€œYes, sir.”
    â€œGood. And gimme four of those doughnuts.”
    â€œRight away, chief.”
    The chief swaggered toward Riley.
    Riley kept smiling. He wasn’t afraid of the big blowhard just because he had a badge pinned to the chest of his shirt—a shirt that was straining at the buttons. His dad always told Riley, “Fear gives a small thing a big shadow.” It would give a blob like Chief Brown a shadow the size of a blimp.
    â€œWho vandalized this store, Mr. Karpinski?” Chief Brown asked, gesturing toward the broken cardboard display. “Was it Riley Mack?”
    â€œNobody ‘vandalized’ the store,” said the manager as he plunked four doughnuts into a white paper bag.“Somebody accidentally knocked over a candy bar display.”
    Now the chief glared over at Jamal Wilson. “Was it the black boy?”
    â€œNo,” said Karpinski.
    â€œYou sure? Black boy looks kind of shifty to me.”
    â€œI told you—”
    â€œWhat about the big drooling idiot? The one they call Mongoose.”
    â€œMongo.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œMy nickname is Mongo, sir.”
    â€œYour name will be whatever I tell you it is, son.”
    Mongo hung his head. “Yes, sir.”
    Riley had heard enough. “It was me, okay? I bumped into the cardboard thingy and knocked it over. It was an accident.”
    Happiness filled Chief Brown’s face. He looked like he had just eaten six meatball hoagies and seven bags of chips. “Son, there is no such thing as an accident when a known troublemaker such as yourself is on the loose. Let’s go. You’re coming with me.”
    â€œWhat?”
    The chief laid his big whopping hand on Riley’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “Congratulations, Riley Mack. You just won yourself a free ride in the backseat of my police car.”

6
    JENNY GRABOWSKI WATCHED THE POLICE car cruise up Main Street with its roof lights swirling.
    Judging by the silhouettes she saw inside the car, the driver was a bloated beach ball of a man, his stomach seemingly attached at the belly button to the steering wheel. The criminal, seated calmly in the backseat, appeared to be very short, with a crown of shaggy hair. Jenny shook her head and hoped the big man hadn’t hurt the little one, the way big humans so often hurt smaller creatures.
    Jenny Grabowski had just turned twenty-two and had a soft spot for weak and innocent creatures. That’s why she loved her new job at Mr. Guy’s Pet Supplies, theshop directly across the street from the First National Bank of Fairview. Truth be told, she thought cats and dogs, guinea pigs and parakeets were sometimes better company than people.
    Before she started working at Mr. Guy’s, Jenny had volunteered at the Humane Society’s animal shelter, where the veterinarians had encouraged Jenny to apply for vet school in the fall. Jenny already had three cats at home, walked her neighbors’ dogs for them whenever they went on vacation, and always carried bread crumbs in her pockets to feed the pigeons over in Sherman Green Park. And she never stepped on ants.
    Her boyfriend, Andrew, was an even bigger animal nut. He’d once strapped himself to a supermarket lobster tank with bicycle chains, demanding that the fish department