Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack Read Online Free

Sasha, no.”
    Marissa moves in closer. “She was out all week, did you notice that?”
    “I’m sure Lars did,” Holly says with a snicker. “Those two are gross.”
    We all nod, ’cause Lars and Sasha like to sneak off behind the buildings around school and give each other splotchy purple necks.
    “He’s that tall guy?” Casey asks.
    I nod. “The one with the whooshy hair.”
    Billy does an extreme hair whoosh, then says, “I’m so smart you be whooshin’ you were me!”
    We all laugh, and then Holly says, “What I hate isthat he acts like everyone else is dumb, but he’s not even that smart.”
    Marissa nods. “Sasha is, though. That girl is scary smart.”
    We’re all quiet a minute, and then Dot says, “Why would they raise
peacocks
?”
    Holly shrugs. “Maybe they sell the feathers?”
    We walk along a little more, and finally Casey asks what everyone else is thinking. “So is that where we’re heading? To the peacock farm?”
    “Let’s do it!” Billy cries. “Maybe we can still catch Justice Jack!” Then he adds, “And maybe I can take down the King of Clubs and ride shotgun in the High Roller!”
    Casey snorts. “And be what—the Billy Club?”
    Billy leaps into the air. “Yeah! I’d be an awesome sidekick!”
    Marissa rolls her eyes like, Oh, don’t I know!
    “So wait a minute,” I say. “Are we walking up to Sasha’s, or sneaking up?”
    “Sneaking?” Dot says over her shoulder. “With this beast?”
    I laugh. “Good point.” Because the whole time we’ve been walking, Nibbles has been zigging and zagging, sniffing at the ground like a hound, dragging Dot along.
    We’re at the main road now, so we hang a left, then cross over when we see a signpost that’s near a group of three mailboxes.
    “This is Shady Lane,” Marissa says, looking up at the sign. “Are we sure about this? Even the name sounds iffy.”
    The road is dirt and dark. It goes downhill, thendisappears off to the right, but there are six of us, two flashlights, and a
dog
, so what’s to worry about?
    “Stamos is at one-eleven,” Casey says, shining a light on one of the mailboxes. “The others are two-fifty and three-fifteen, so theirs’ll be the first property.”
    “Let’s do it!” Billy says.
    So off we go down Shady Lane.

FOUR
    We’ve barely taken the first turn on Shady Lane when an eerie cry cuts through the darkness.
Errr-eeeeerw!
    “What’s that?” Marissa gasps.
    Then we hear it again, but from another direction.
    Errr-eeeeerw!
    And again from right behind us.
    Errr-eeeeerw!
    “That sounds like a cat caught in barbed wire,” Billy says. “Here, kitty, kitty!”
    Errr-eeeeerw!
    “That’s no cat!” Marissa squeals.
    Errr-eeeeerw!
    “We’re surrounded!”
    “By peacocks,” Casey says, shining his flashlight on a big bird that’s under an oak tree to our left. But this bird doesn’t have long, gorgeous feathers and a blue neck like the one Justice Jack was carrying.
    It’s … brown.
    “I think that’s a pea
hen
,” Holly says.
    Now, instead of lunging toward it like you’d expect a dog to do, Nibbles hightails it behind Dot and buries hisfurry face in her legs. Then he just stands there quivering like a big ol’ scaredy-cat haystack.
    We spend a minute staring at the bird, and finally Dot says, “Do you think we should try to catch it?”
    “Let’s do it!” Billy says. “Peace offering to the Sashanator!”
    “We need a peace offering?” Casey asks.
    I eye him. “Wouldn’t hurt.”
    So Billy takes off his jacket and hands it to me. “Go for it, Sammy-keyesta!”
    “Me?”
    “You don’t want me to do it—I’ll blow it.”
    “No, you won’t!”
    “Aw, just do it.”
    Casey offers to give it a try, but at this point I would have felt stupid letting him take over, so I creep up and blanket the bird with Billy’s jacket.
    “You did it!” Billy cries when I have the thing wrapped up and in my arms. “A good deed, indeed!”
    “You sound like Justice