Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief Read Online Free

and if I give him the name I made up maybe he
will
remember, and then I’ll be in some major trouble, when the lady croaks out, “What did you say?”
    I mumble, “He was wearing gloves.”
    Officer Borsch says, “
Who
was wearing gloves?”
    I try to shrink a few inches. “The man I saw on the fourth floor taking money out of a purse.”
    The lady yells, “See!”
    Officer Borsch squints at me. “And how did you happen to see someone on the fourth floor stealing money out of a purse?”
    Now you have to understand, Officer Borsch isn’t the kind of man it’s easy to lie to. He’s big. He’s Mikey, all grown up and in a very bad mood. His hair’s done with Crisco, and his shirt is so tight it looks like he’s trying to press it from the inside out. On top of that he’s nosy. Very nosy. When he gave me that ticket for jaywalking, he must’ve asked me a hundred questions that didn’t have a thing to do with jaywalking. And I thought I was so smart, answering every single one of them with a lie. I remember throwing the ticket away in a Dumpster, feeling like I’d just hit a home run, and now here I was—face to face with the Borsch-man, on the verge of getting thrown into Juvenile Hall.
    â€œI asked you a question!”
    â€œHuh? Oh! Ummmmmm...” I look around and can tell—everyone knows I’m trying to think up a lie. So I blurt out, “I saw him through binoculars.”
    â€œBinoculars?” he says. “From where?”
    I try to sound real calm. “From across the street.”
    Officer Borsch squints even harder. “You want to tell me you could see someone clear up on the fourth floor from across the street?”
    I nod and he blows air out of his mouth like a deflating balloon.
    â€œLeave her alone!” The lady moves in a little closer to me. “Go ahead, honey, tell me what you saw.”
    I look at her for a minute, thinking that four thousand dollars is an awful lot of money and that if it were mine, I sure would want it back. Finally I say, “I was visiting my grandmother in the Senior Highrise. I was bored, so I started looking around with binoculars and I saw some guy taking money out of a purse.”
    She grabs me by the shoulders and I can feel her little fingernail galaxies digging into my back. “When? When did you see this?”
    â€œAbout an hour ago.”
    She yells at Tall ’n’ Skinny, “What did I tell you?” then turns back to me. “And honey, what did this man look like?”
    â€œHe had brown hair and a brown beard, and he was wearing black gloves and a black jacket.”
    Officer Borsch pushes the lady aside. “Was he tall, was he short?”
    â€œKind of medium.”
    â€œWhat kind of jacket was it?”
    â€œIt was straight with big pockets.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, ‘straight’?” he asks.
    â€œYou know—it wasn’t puffy, it was straight.”
    â€œHeavy?”
    â€œKind of medium.”
    He shakes his head. “‘Kind of medium’—oh that’s a real good description.”
    Well, let me tell you, I didn’t like the way he was rolling his eyes and talking down to me. He was treating me like a stupid little kid, and I’m not a stupid little kid. So when he sighs and says, “Could you at least tell me, was he skinny or fat?” I point to Tall ’n’ Skinny and say, “Well, he wasn’t as skinny as him...” then I point to the Borsch-man, “...and he sure wasn’t as fat as you.”
    The lady just busts up, but Officer Borsch doesn’t think it’s too funny. His neck gets kind of red and he puts his face right next to mine. “Look, little girl, we’ve had five burglaries in this vicinity in the past two weeks. We don’t have time for your wisecracks. If you know something, tell us. If you don’t, or if