Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack Read Online Free Page A

Jack,” I tell him as we head out again.
    “Justice Jack is awesome!” Billy cries.
    “Justice Jack is a nutcase,” I mutter.
    Now, it turns out that Dot’s dad was right—there’s no missing the Stamos place. But that’s not because of the big red barn or the tall chain-link fencing or the line of large metal containers. It’s because Justice Jack and his goofy dirt bike contraption are in the middle of the long dirt driveway surrounded by a swarm of men with nets.
    Big nets.
    On long wooden poles.
    The men are obviously mad. Like, one wrong move and
—presto
—those nets’ll become pitchforks. But what makes me go “Uh-oh” is the
policeman
standing next to a squad car parked near the dirt bike.
    “Is that Officer Borsch?” Marissa asks.
    I nod. “You’d think getting married would have given him a life.”
    Billy laughs. “He’s too old to have a life, Sammy.”
    “Hey, when I’m his age, I plan to have a life!”
    Casey gives me a smarty-pants grin. “We’re here, too. Are you saying we don’t have a life now?”
    I blink at him, then march forward. “Let’s just deliver the bird and find Sasha.”
    “Wait—now you
want
to find Sasha?” Marissa asks, chasing after me.
    “Uh … I think I’ll stay back here with Nibbles,” Dot calls, and Holly decides to keep her company.
    So Marissa, Billy, Casey, and I head toward the congregation, and when Officer Borsch sees us, he does a double take. “
Sammy?
What in the world are
you
doing here?”
    “Uh … we caught one of the birds, and—”
    Justice Jack leaps forward and his head whips back and forth between Officer Borsch and me. “Commissioner, did you say
Sammy
?”
    You know those people who are gum chewers, and when they hear or see something shocking, the only way you know they’re actually shocked is that they stop chewing? Their eyes don’t bug, they don’t jump back like,
Whoa
, they don’t gasp or faint or even say, What?
    They just stop chewing their gum.
    Well, that’s exactly what Officer Borsch is like, only he’s not a gum chewer.
    He’s a tooth sucker.
    So now instead of freezing mid-chew, he freezes mid-suck.
    Which, let me tell you, is not a pretty sight. His left cheek is pinched up, his already squinty left eye is stuck in super-squint, half of his lip is arched up, and you can see a sliver—just a little sliver—of his coffee-stained teeth.
    “Commissioner!” Justice Jack cries again. “Is this or is this not”—he turns his masked weirdness on me—“Sammy Keyes?”
    I take a step back with my blanketed bird, and before I can stop my mouth from being stupid, it tells the truth. “Yeah, I’m Sammy, but—”
    He turns to Officer Borsch, who’s still frozen in mid-suck. “
This
is the person who’s been giving evildoers a nonstop tour of Fist City? BAM! POW! ZAP!” he cries, punching his fists through the air. He looks at me again. “That’s been
you
?”
    “I didn’t
hit
anyone,” I tell him, taking another step back.
    “But you black-eyed the Mob! Uncovered a meth lab! Busted up a dogfighting ring! Cuffed those counterfeiters! Brought down a blackmailer! Cemented a gangster in a wheelbarrow!”
    “Stop it!” I cry, because even though I
had
done all those things, it’s not like I’d done them in one day. And hearing him list them like that was really … embarrassing.
    Then finally,
finally
, Officer Borsch snaps out of it and steps between us. “Who she is is none of your concern,” he tells Justice Jack, then faces me and lowers his voice. “I didn’t tell him any of this. He’s got a police scanner and no life.” He rolls his eyes. “Unless you call
that
having a life.” Then he adds, “Probably a good idea for you to get out of here.”
    But Justice Jack has already moved around Officer Borsch. “All this time I thought you were a man!” he says to me. “Who’d expect Sammy to be a woman, let alone a
girl
? Not me! But it doesn’t matter! You’ve inspired me, man!