Read Dial M for Mongoose for Free Online

us to the skin.
    Ring-ah-ring-ah-ring-ah-ring!
The fire bell blared.
    "This flippin' school," said Mrs. Crow, hunching her shoulders against the spray. "What's next? A rain of cockroaches?"
    I took her wing. "This way!"
    We squished out onto the grass.
    "I'll go get Mr. Zero," said Natalie. She spread her wings and flapped off.
    "I suppose I should tell the fire department which building is burning," grumbled Mrs. Crow. She pulled a cell phone from her fat red purse and waddled off, tapping buttons.
    What did that leave for me? The dangerous stuff.
    I edged closer to the blaze. Pure heat beat against my face and body, like I was stepping into an
oven (and one without fresh cookies, to boot).
    "Hello!" I shouted at the two-story building. "Is anybody in there?"
    No response.
    "Hello? Anyone?"
    Still no answer. Maybe all the students were safely out on the playground. For once, things would go the easy way.
    I glanced behind me. Kids stood at a safe distance, gawking. Nothing like a blaze for break-time entertainment. Might as well waltz on over and join them.
    I had almost reached the group. Then I heard a sound that chilled my blood.
    "Helpity-help-help!" someone cried. It came from the building.
    "Who's that?" I shouted.
    "It's—
koff!
—mu, mi, mo, me!" It sounded like a dame. I knew of only one dame who talked like her sentences had gone through a blender set on
mixed-up.
    "Popper?" I called. "Where are you?"
    "Inside the—
koff koff!
—clickety-clockety-classroom!" cried Popper. "I'm stickety-stuck!"
    Dang and double dang.
    I scoped out the high windows of the burning building. They were open, and flames crackled from two of them. Smoke poured from a third. And
in between those billows, a yellow-green froggy face peeked out.
    Popper.
    "Hang on, short stuff!" I yelled. "I'm coming!"
    I tugged off my soaking-wet trench coat and wrapped it around my shoulders and face. Then I beat feet, straight for the inferno.
    Fire sirens screamed in the distance.
    Funny what passes through your mind in an emergency. As I approached the building, running low and fast, I thought about Popper.
    She was a pain-in-the-neck third grader who'd befriended us on a case, and we'd been paying for it ever since. She was a loudmouthed, overenthusiastic, triple-talking tree frog.
    And she was in trouble.
    I leaped directly onto the wall of the burning building.
    Not a good idea.
    "Whoa! Hot-hot-hot!" I cried, sounding more like Popper than I cared to admit. Scuttling up the wall as quickly as a grasshopper on a griddle, I made straight for the window.
    "Here!" shouted Popper. "I'm—
kaffity kaff koff!—
here!"
    I reached the windowsill and sucked in a great lungful of smoke. It felt like I'd stuck my head into an

    active volcano. The heat swallowed me like a hungry python after a fast.
    I hacked and coughed. My eyes watered.
    "What—
koff!
—are you—
koff koff!
—stuck on?"
    Popper grabbed my shoulder. "This caba-aba-abinet!"
    Squinting through the smoke, I could just make out the problem. Popper's face and arms hung out the window, but one leg was pinned to the inside wall by a supply cupboard that had fallen against her.
    Oh, boy.
    Disobeying my every instinct, I thrust my arms and head into the burning room. I gripped the top of the cabinet, anchored my feet against the outside wall, and pushed.
    It didn't budge.
    "Kick your—
koff!
—leg, peewee!" I said."One ... two...
koff koff koff !
"
    She kicked, I shoved, and at last the tall cabinet tilted back enough for Popper to snatch her leg out from under.
    Whump!
The cupboard thunked back against the wall. Flames licked up its side, dancing nearer.
    Yikes.
    Popper dove out the window.
    Time for this detective to make like a grocery checker and bag it.
    I tried to squirm backwards, but I felt weaker than a kitten's threat.
    "Unh! Aargh!" I thrashed around. My head was spinning. Too much smoke.
    A deafening wail tore at my ears. Were my classmates