Chapter 15

Jeremy was sitting on the edge of his bed, deeply engrossed in reading.

When something yellow and fuzzy smacked him in the side of his face.

He jumped and sputtered in surprise and dropped his book in the process.

He shook his head and saw his sister leaning against the doorframe, an oversized plastic

bag hanging by her side and a smug expression on her face. He looked momentarily furious and

reached over to grab whatever it was she had thrown at him, as if his intention was to throw

a back and this time much harder. He almost jumped out of his skin when he realized that the

fluffy thing clenched in his fist was actually Mr. Fluffers. He sat frozen in amazement for a moment,

his eyes staring deeply into the glass beads that served his eyes for the stuffed rabbit.

Abigail reached silently into the bag and pulled out

mix up the doggy and smacked Jeremy in the face with him as well, partly to bring him to his

senses and mostly because she might not ever get another opportunity to do so. Her brother stared

at her in astonishment and for once in his life he seemed to be unable to speak.

Abigail reached into the bag again, closing her fingers around something that felt like boo the red horse.

She spoke calmly and tried to stick to the high ground, as Timothy had suggested.

Do you have any idea how much time, money, and effort could have been saved

if you did not find it necessary to lie to your own detective?

I didn't lie, Jeremy protested weakly, but they both knew it wasn't really true. And she threw

boo the red horse at his head and he caught it mid-air. They were all on the list.

They were at the bottom of the list, Abigail howled, and the rest of the list was just padding

so you didn't have to tell your sister that you wanted your bunny back.

...