Playground Detective Read online

  That only leaves one person: Lola. She’s the one who told everybody it was Benny who had put the leaves in Rebecca’s sandwich. She is the main witness.

  ‘Dinner!’ Billie’s mum calls from the bottom of the stairs. Billie locks up her secret notebook and hides the key under her pillow.

  Then she runs downstairs and sits at the table. Billie’s mum is buckling Noah into his highchair. Her dad is still at the kitchen bench, finishing dinner.

  ‘So, how was your day, Billie?’ her mum says, as she cuts up Noah’s food.

  ‘Good,’ Billie says, like she always does. She is too busy thinking to come up with a better answer.

  ‘Anything else?’ Billie’s mum smiles.

  Billie grins and tries a bit harder. ‘We’re doing posters in art,’ she says. ‘On saving the environment. We’re going to put them up around the neighbourhood when they’re finished. I want to ask Alf if I can put one up in his shop.’

  ‘That sounds great!’ Billie’s mum says, sneaking a forkful of food into Noah’s mouth. He frowns and spits it out.

  ‘I do it!’ he says crossly and grabs the fork.

  Billie giggles as she watches him try to spear a piece of meat onto his fork. Finally, he just picks the food up with his hands and shoves it into his mouth.

  Billie giggles as she watches him.

  Just then, Billie’s dad comes to the table carrying a plate of something that looks like fat green caterpillars.

  ‘Ew!’ says Billie. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Dolmades!’ Billie’s dad says proudly. ‘I made them myself!’

  ‘Doll-what?’ says Billie, peering at the strange food in front of her.

  ‘Dolmades,’ Billie’s dad says, picking one up and putting it on Billie’s plate. ‘Vine leaves stuffed with minced lamb and rice. Try one. They’re delicious!’

  ‘Vine leaves?’ says Billie. ‘What, you mean like a grape vine?’

  Billie’s dad nods.

  ‘I didn’t know you could eat leaves,’ Billie says, suspiciously.

  She picks up the little bundle and takes a nibble. Her dad is right. It is delicious!

  ‘Of course you can!’ Billie’s dad laughs. ‘You can eat lots of leaves. Vine leaves, dandelion leaves, nasturtium leaves, mulberry leaves…’

  ‘Mulberry leaves?’ Billie interrupts. Her dad nods.

  ‘You can really eat mulberry leaves?’ Billie says, chewing slowly as an idea comes into her head.

  ‘Sure,’ says her dad. ‘I probably wouldn’t eat them raw, but they’re not poisonous, like gum leaves or rhubarb leaves are.’

  ‘So…’ says Billie. ‘Gum leaves are poisonous, but not mulberry leaves?’

  ‘Uh huh,’ says Billie’s dad, putting another couple of dolmades onto Billie’s plate.

  But Billie is deep in thought. She has discovered another clue!

  The next day at school Billie waits until the afternoon to talk to Lola when her class has sport. She hasn’t stopped thinking about the mystery and the new clues she has uncovered, but it is like her friends have forgotten all about it!

  This week Billie’s class is playing dodgeball. Billie knows that Lola is good at ballet, but she is terrible at dodgeball.

  Just as Billie expected, Lola is the first person to get hit by the ball and has to sit out. Billie is quick to make her move. She sees the ball coming her way and jumps in front of it so it hits her in the legs.

  ‘Billie’s out!’ someone shouts.

  Jack looks over at her in disbelief.

  Billie has never gone out so quickly in dodgeball before!

  Billie shrugs and jogs over to sit next to Lola in the shade. She knows she only has a short time before someone else goes out.

  ‘So, you know how Benny put leaves in Rebecca’s sandwich?’ Billie begins.

  Lola rolls her eyes. ‘I know! Poor Rebecca. That was so not funny!’

  ‘But they were only mulberry leaves, weren’t they?’ Billie says. ‘It’s not like they were poisonous, like gum leaves. She could have still eaten her sandwich if she picked them out.’

  ‘No, they were gum leaves!’ Lola says, frowning. ‘Poor Rebecca had to throw her sandwich out and she had nothing for lunch that day. I had to give her some of my sandwich—or she would have starved!’

  Lola talks very quickly and doesn’t quite look at Billie as she is talking. Suddenly Billie has a thought. She needs to be very careful, though.

  ‘But didn’t Benny have mulberry leaves in his pocket?’ she says. ‘He said he was taking them home to feed his silkworms.’

  Billie watches Lola’s cheeks turn red.

  ‘Maybe they were mulberry leaves then!’ Lola says quickly.

  ‘How should I know? It’s not like I saw them close up. I only saw him from a distance when I was on my way to get a drink.’

  ‘Putting the leaves into Rebecca’s sandwich?’ Billie asks calmly.

  ‘Yes!’ says Lola.

  ‘But you said you didn’t actually see him put them in,’ Billie says. ‘You said you just saw him in the corridor.’

  ‘That’s what I meant!’ says Lola.

  She looks flustered and angry. ‘But he obviously did it, even if I didn’t see him. I mean that’s exactly the kind of silly thing Benny would do.’

  ‘It is the kind of silly thing Benny would do, that’s true,’ Billie says, looking over at the dodgeball court where Benny and Sam are jumping around pretending to be monkeys. ‘But I don’t think Benny did it.’

  ‘Of course he did!’ says Lola. ‘Who else could have done it?’

  Billie looks back at Lola, straight into her eyes. ‘I think you did it, Lola,’ Billie says.

  She knows that if she is wrong this is a terrible thing for her to say. But she has a very strong hunch she might be right.

  Lola stares at Billie with her mouth open. Then her eyes fill with tears.

  ‘It was only a game,’ she sobs. ‘It was supposed to be funny. I didn’t know gum leaves were poisonous!

  Rebecca put them down the back of my T-shirt when we were in the playground so I put them in her sandwich as a joke. I thought she’d think it was funny. I couldn’t believe it when she got so cross!’

  Lola looks desperately at Billie. ‘I was scared I’d get into trouble, Billie. I’ve never been sent to Mrs Singh’s office before.’ Lola’s eyes drop to the ground. ‘Benny gets sent there all the time. I didn’t think he’d get so upset about it.’

  ‘Well, he got into trouble for something he didn’t do, Lola,’ Billie says frowning. ‘I know Benny can be silly and annoying, but that’s no reason for him to be punished when he’s not to blame!’

  Lola hangs her head. ‘I guess so,’ she says quietly. ‘It’s just that I feel like I’ve made such a mess now. I don’t know how to fix it.’

  ‘Yes, you do,’ says Billie, folding her arms across her chest.

  Lola looks up at Billie with terror in her eyes. ‘You mean go and tell Mrs Singh?’ she says. ‘I can’t do that! She’ll be so cross with me for lying. I’ve never got in trouble with Mrs Singh before.’

  Billie feels her heart soften a little when she sees how scared Lola looks.

  ‘I’ll come with you if you like,’ she says kindly. ‘Don’t worry, I’ve been before. It’s not that bad.’

  ‘And believe me, you’ll feel better after telling the truth,’ Billie adds.

  ‘Really? You’ll come with me?’ says Lola, grabbing Billie’s hand. ‘Thank you!’

  Billie nods. ‘On one condition,’ she says. ‘There’s someone else you need to talk to first.’

  Lola sighs. She look over to where Benny is loping around the dodgeball court like a gorilla and giggles. ‘I guess he is kind of funny sometimes, isn’t he?’ she says.

  Billie and Lola wait until Mr Benetto blows his whistle to signal that the game is over. Billie nudges Lola.

  ‘Now?’ says Lola.

  ‘Now,’ Billie says. ‘Before it’s too late.’

  Already the class
is heading back to the classroom to pick up their schoolbags before they go home.

  Lola takes a deep breath. Then she jogs up alongside Benny who is walking back to class on his own.

  Billie watches from the shade of the peppercorn tree. She can’t hear what they are saying but she can guess how Benny is feeling by the look on his face. First he looks furious. Then he looks annoyed.

  Last of all he shrugs and a slow smile creeps across his face. The two of them shake hands and Lola comes running back to Billie.

  ‘Ready to go and see Mrs Singh?’ Billie says.

  Lola nods and the two of them run across the playground together.

  That afternoon, the Secret Mystery Club meet up in their treehouse in Billie’s backyard.

  They are bubbling with excitement.

  ‘So, mystery number three is solved!’ Billie announces proudly, drawing a big cross over the page in her little secret notebook.

  ‘I can’t believe you worked out it was Lola!’ Jack says, grinning.

  ‘And you even got her to confess!’ Alex adds.

  ‘Yeah, Billie, how did you work it out?’ Mika says.

  Billie takes a sip of her lemonade and leans back on the cushions. Jack passes her the plate of lamingtons he has brought with him and she takes one. She chews slowly. She is secretly enjoying the attention.

  ‘Well,’ she begins, ‘like I said, I knew after talking to Benny that it wasn’t him, so I just had to find out who it was. Lola was the only other person in the corridor that day, so it had to be her.’

  ‘But how did you know it wasn’t Benny?’ Alex insists.

  Billie brushes the bits of coconut off her lap. A bird flutters in from a nearby branch and quickly gobbles them up. ‘I can’t say,’ Billie says. ‘I promised him I wouldn’t tell.’

  ‘But we’re your best friends.’ Jack frowns. ‘You can tell us.’

  Billie shakes her head. ‘A promise is a promise.’

  Alex reaches for another lamington. ‘So what happened when Lola went to Mrs Singh’s office?’ he says.

  ‘Mrs Singh said that as long as Lola apologised to Rebecca and Benny she wouldn’t be punished because it was her first time,’ Billie says, rolling her eyes. ‘Can you believe it? Last time I was sent to Mrs Singh’s office I had to pick up rubbish all lunchtime!’

  ‘I remember that!’ Jack laughs.

  Billie grins. ‘In fact Mrs Singh said Lola was very brave to come and tell the truth—like it was her idea!’ she snorts.

  ‘Anyway, it all ended well,’ Mika says. ‘Thanks to you, Billie!’

  Billie smiles. ‘Thanks Mika,’ she says, feeling very proud. ‘Oh, and also, Rebecca felt bad for not speaking to Benny all week.

  So I said that maybe she should work with him in art instead of me. You know, to make it up to him.’

  ‘Poor Benny!’ says Alex. ‘I thought he’d at least be allowed to work with Sam again!’

  Billie flicks the last little bit of coconut off her lap. ‘Oh, I don’t think he’ll mind that much,’ she says, smiling mysteriously.

  ‘Kids! Mika’s mum’s here,’ calls Billie’s mum from the back door. The four of them gather up the remains of their after-school picnic and climb down out of the tree.

  As they head inside, Billie thinks about her day. She feels proud to have solved an extra tricky mystery—and almost all by herself!

  But now what? She wonders how long they will have to wait for their next mystery.

  Mrs Okinawa is talking to Billie’s mum at the back door. She looks very distressed. ‘My beautiful garden!’ she is saying. ‘All that work and now they’re all gone!’

  Mika runs up to her mum and talks to her quickly in Japanese.

  ‘What happened?’ Billie asks her mum.

  ‘Someone—or something—has been stealing Mrs Okinawa’s strawberries,’ Billie’s mum says.

  ‘I said it was probably the birds, but she says that she had covered the whole strawberry patch with netting. It’s very strange. The netting wasn’t even touched, but nearly all the strawberries are gone.’

  ‘Oh no,’ says Billie. ‘That’s terrible!’ She knows how much Mika and her mum love their garden.

  Billie’s mum shakes her head. ‘I wish I had an answer—but it’s a mystery to me!’

  Billie feels a little shiver of excitement pass through her. She looks at Jack, Mika and Alex. By the smiles on their faces, she can see they are thinking the same thing.

  The Secret Mystery Club has another mystery to solve!

  Playground Detectives

  published in 2014 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.

  Text copyright © 2014 Sally Rippin

  Illustration copyright © 2014 Aki Fukuoka

  Series design copyright © 2014 Hardie Grant Egmont

  eISBN 9781743581674

  Design by Stephanie Spartels

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