Amos and the Chameleon Caper (4 page)

She nodded. “It wasn’t easy. Grimes hardly ever leaves the front area.” She held up a key card.

“What are you two up to now?” Amos eyed them suspiciously.

“I asked Tiffany to sort of borrow
Grimes’s passkey so we could get into thirty-five-B and take a look around.”

“We can’t break into that lady’s apartment.”

“Sure we can, Amos.” Tiffany sat down beside him. “We’ve got it all worked out. I’ll watch the front entrance. When I see her, I’ll phone Dunc, who will be waiting in the fourth-floor lobby. Then he’ll run down and knock on the apartment door three times as a warning.”

“Hold it. If you’re at the entrance and Dunc is by the lobby phone, who’s going to search the apartment?”

They both looked at him.

Amos held up his hand. “No way. Forget it. Did you see the size of that blond guy? He could squash me with one hand. It’s absolutely out of the question.”

“We understand, Amos. Don’t we, Tiffany?”

Tiffany nodded. “Perfectly. Of course, you might be giving up the chance of a lifetime.”

“I know,” Amos snorted. “The chance of
having my face flattened or swallowing all my teeth.”

Tiffany went on, “I was just thinking about what a hero you’d be when you got home. You know, if you were responsible for the capture of one of the world’s most elusive criminals. That girl Dunc told me about—Melissa—she’d probably go nuts. But I’ll understand if you’d rather not.”

Amos sat up. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. I just said it would be rough.”

Dunc winked at Tiffany. “Okay, here’s the plan.…”

Dunc waved to Amos from the end of the hall. Amos took a deep breath, inserted the passkey, and opened the door. The apartment had about the same layout as Tiffany’s, except there were no pictures or personal items anywhere. It almost looked as if no one lived there.

Amos crept past the kitchen and down the hall. The first bedroom door was open. A weight set stood in the corner, and a couple of suitcases were waiting by the door.

Amos made his way to the next bedroom. He opened the door and reached for
the light switch. When he did, he touched a cold hand.

He tried to scream but it came out as a squeak. Then he noticed that the hand was attached to the arm of a mannequin. The room was full of them, all wearing different wigs and clothes. A large table stood in one corner with plastic faces, wig stands, and different kinds of makeup spread out across the top.

Amos was trying to decide what Dunc would want him to take for evidence when he spotted the alligator purse by the closet. He snapped it open. Inside was a sparkling diamond necklace.

He put the purse on his arm and started out of the room. Then he saw it—a nose with a wart on the end sitting on the makeup table.

Amos folded his arms and thought about it. “It would serve the two of them right if I slipped out of here and they wound up watching this room all night.”

Using some gooey plastic glue, he pasted on the nose. In the top drawer of the makeup table he found eyebrows and
lips. The bottom drawer had moles, ears, and scars. He pasted on fuzzy black eyebrows, fat red lips, and big floppy ears. When he was through with his face, he chose a short black wig. He barely had it in place when he heard the front door opening.

Someone walked down the hall and opened the bedroom door.

“Amos, are you in here?”

“Sure, Dunc. Right behind you.”

Dunc turned. Amos was standing beside the mannequins holding the purse.

Dunc touched his face. “Amos, is that you?”

“How do you like the new look?” Amos grinned.

“You mean you’ve been in here playing all this time? I was getting worried that something had happened to you.”

Amos tried to pull the nose off. It was stuck. “I wasn’t playing. I was … experimenting.”

Dunc looked around. “Look at all this stuff. It looks like the backstage of a theater.”

Amos pulled at one of his oversized ears. “Can you give me a hand here, Dunc?”

Dunc opened the closet. It was full of expensive clothes, paintings, and jewelry. “You’ve done great work, Amos. There’s enough stuff here to put the Chameleon away for life.”

“Yeah, sure. Say, could you help me with these lips? I can’t seem to get them—”

“Shhh!” Dunc held his finger up. “I hear something.”

The front door of the apartment opened again, and they heard voices.

“It’s them,” Dunc whispered and scrambled inside the closet. “Hide!”

Amos moved behind the mannequins and froze.

The bedroom door opened. “I’ll get it for you, Wanda.” The big man with the mustache sauntered into the room and looked around. He scratched his head. “There it is.” He moved to Amos and pulled the purse off his arm. The man frowned and gave him a closer look. “Boy, these disguises
of yours are getting uglier and uglier.”

“What’s that, George?” The redhead stepped into the room.

“Nothing. I was just saying that maybe you need to lighten up on some of these getups. That one over there is the worst yet.”

The woman looked at Amos. Her green eyes flashed. “You idiot. That’s not a dummy.”

Amos’s feet started moving. He was running full blast toward the door. The problem was, he wasn’t going anywhere.

The blond man held him in the air by the collar. “What you want me to do with him, Wanda?”

The woman rested her chin in her hand and studied Amos. “Don’t I know you? Of course I do. You’re one of the boys from the bus station.” She half-smiled. “I never forget a face, you know. It’s my job.” She looked around the room. “Where’s your friend, the polite, nosy one?”

The woman moved to the closet and threw open the doors. “Oh, now I’m disappointed.
I thought surely you’d have more imagination than to hide in here.”

Dunc shrugged. “You didn’t give us much warning. If you want to go back out, I’d be happy to try again.”

George pulled Dunc out by the front of his shirt and held the two boys dangling in the air. “You want I should toss them out the window, Wanda?”

“Now, George. Is that any way to treat someone as clever as these two?” Wanda tweaked Amos’s pretend nose. “You boys really should be proud of yourselves. No one has ever gotten this close to catching me before. It’s almost a shame you won’t be getting any of the credit.”

“If you really feel that way about it,” Amos said, “you could—”

“Shut up.” The big man shook him. “Let Wanda think or I’ll stuff you down the garbage disposal—a piece at a time.”

Amos winced. “That won’t be necessary.”

Wanda clapped her hands. “I’ve got the most delicious idea. Tie them up, George. We’re packing.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’ll pull one last job in this town—maybe rob a bank or something—and arrange it so these two get blamed. While they’re explaining, we’ll have plenty of time to get away.”

George stuck out his lip. “It’d be easier to toss them.”

Wanda patted him on the arm. “I know. Maybe next time. For now, be a dear and put them in the other room. I’ve got to get ready.”

George sighed. “You’re the boss.”

He carried them into the bedroom with the weight set and dropped them on the floor. Then he picked up two sets of heavy barbells and set one on Dunc’s throat and the other on Amos’s.

George pointed his finger at them. “No funny business. You stay put till Wanda says different.” He pulled the door shut behind him.

“Can you move?” Dunc asked.

“I can hardly talk. How much do these things weigh, anyway?”

“I’d say about three hundred pounds apiece.”

Amos shifted so that his Adam’s apple didn’t hit the barbell every time he spoke. “I don’t suppose you have a backup plan?”

“I didn’t exactly figure on this.”

“Great. We’ll be the youngest bank robbers in history. I wonder if Melissa will wait for me.”

The door burst open and cameras started flashing.

“Dunc, are you all right?” Tiffany knelt down beside them. “When you didn’t answer the phone, I got worried and called the police.”

“What about me?” Amos squirmed underneath the barbell.

“Amos?” Tiffany pulled his wig off. “What are you doing in that disguise?”

“It’s a long story. If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind asking one of those police officers to get these things off us?”

A reporter took one end of the barbell that was on Amos, and a policewoman
lifted the other. Then they did the same for Dunc. The two boys stood up.

Dunc rubbed his throat. “Thanks.” He looked at Tiffany. “Did they get the crooks?” He ran to the hall and saw a policeman snap handcuffs on George and lead him down the hall. “Where’s Wanda—the Chameleon?”

The policewoman shook her head. “Sorry, son, when we got here she was gone. Don’t feel too bad, though. Thanks to you kids, we recovered several thousand dollars’ worth of stolen goods.”

Dunc scratched his head. “Gone? How’s that possible? She was here the whole time. We never heard her leave.”

“The only people here when we broke in were the big guy and you two boys—oh, and the cleaning lady. But she’s gone now.”

Dunc and Amos looked at each other. “The cleaning lady!”

“It’s too bad you guys have to go home. I can’t remember when I’ve had so much fun.”

Dunc gave his suitcase to the man behind the ticket counter. “We had a great time too, Tiffany, but school starts Monday, so I guess we better get back.”

“I don’t care if I never go home.” Amos slumped in his chair.

“What’s wrong, Amos? Dunc and I gave you all the credit for finding the jewels and stuff. They even put your picture in the paper. You’ll be a hero when you get home.”

“Some hero. I saw that picture. I looked like Dopey from the Seven Dwarfs. Melissa won’t even know it’s me.”

“That reminds me.” Tiffany touched his face. “Does it still hurt where we had to use the kitchen knife to pry your nose off?”

“Only when someone touches it.”

“Well, here’s our bus.” Dunc took the tickets out of his pocket and moved to the door. “Write and let us know how you like Washington.”

“I’ll do that. Maybe you guys can come up there and see me next year.” Tiffany waved at them until they went through the door to where the bus was waiting.

Dunc stepped up into the bus and stopped so suddenly that Amos ran into him. “Hey, watch it,” Amos said. “Don’t forget that my face hurts.”

Dunc stared at the bus driver. She had bright red hair and green eyes. She winked at him, pulled the door shut, and started the engine.

“Find a seat, boys—it’s gonna be a long ride.”

When Dunc Culpepper and his best friend, Amos Binder, first see the parrot in a pet store, they’re not impressed—it’s smelly, scruffy, and missing half its feathers. They’re only slightly impressed when they learn that the parrot speaks four languages, has outlived ten of its owners, and is probably 150 years old. But when the bird starts mouthing off about buried treasure, Dunc and Amos get pretty excited. Let the amateur sleuthing begin!

Dunc and his accident-prone friend Amos are up to their old sleuthing habits once again. This time they’re after a band of doll thieves! When a doll that once belonged to Charles
Dickens’s daughter is stolen from an exhibition at the local mall, the two boys put on their detective gear and do some serious snooping. Will a vicious watchdog keep them from retrieving the valuable missing doll?

Dunc and Amos are researching the Civil War cannon that stands in the town square when they find a note inside telling them about a time portal. Entering it through the dressing room of La Petite, a women’s clothing store, the boys find themselves in downtown Chatham on March 8, 1862—the day before the historic clash between the
Monitor
and the
Merrimac
. But the Confederate soldiers they meet mistake them for Yankee spies. Will they make it back to the future in one piece?

Dunc and Amos meet up with a new buddy named Lash when they enter the radical world of skateboard competition. When some-body
“cops”—steals—Lash’s prototype skateboard, the boys are determined to get it back. After all, Lash is about to shoot for a totally rad world’s record! Along the way they learn a major lesson:
Never
kiss a monkey!