The Kids From B.A.D.
	Stories by Allen Morgan
	detective story collection
	no illustrations
	six stories - 128 pages

Burglars (part 5)

Mike and John took the two burglars through the house, pointing out the various items of interest. The burglars took everything on the list. John pretended to be very curious about how they did it. He asked a lot of questions and managed to look happy about the whole thing. Mike kept looking sicker and sicker as he thought about what his father was going to say when he got home the next day.

When they were upstairs in the study he finally got a chance to whisper to John while the burglars were unhooking the cable from the colour TV. "What are we going to do? They're stealing everything."

"If we could think of a way to use that phone on your father's desk we could call the cops and get some help," John whispered back. Mike looked over at the phone. It seemed a long way away.

"They're watching us too close," he began, but just then they were interrupted.

Sam came over with the list in his hand for a short consultation. "Looks like we got just about everything now," he told them. "Only we ain't got the jewelry yet. That in the bedroom?"

Mike looked at John. John nodded to him.

"It's in the bottom drawer of the dressing table," Mike said.

"Now that's real nice of you to tell us all this," said Sam with a smile that turned crooked along the edges. "And seeing as how you're being so helpful and all, I guess we can tell you something interesting." He leaned over and whispered. "We found a safe."

"A safe?" exclaimed Mike. "We don't have a safe."

"What he means," said John quickly, "Is that we don't have a safe on our list."

"Well, we found one. In the closet. Jake and me were thinking, maybe we should give you a special lesson in safecracking. We'll show you what to do." He led Mike and John over to the closet. "In there, at the back."

Mike and John went into the closet. Slam! Sam banged the door shut as soon as they were inside and turned the key in the lock.

"Hey, what are you doing?" John cried. He tried to push the door open but it wouldn't budge. It was locked tight.

"That's rule number three," Sam called from the other side of the door. "Don't trust nobody, especially not other crooks."

He and Jake laughed as they left the room to get the jewelry from the dressing table.
Mike and John worked at the door for a couple of minutes but it wouldn't open. John was furious.

"The dirty rats! They lied to us. They aren't going to split with us at all. I bet they had this planned from the start."

"What did you expect?" said Mike. "They're crooks."

"But crooks aren't supposed to lie to other crooks. That's double-crossing. If we were real crooks they'd be in big trouble."

"But we aren't real crooks," said Mike. "We're detectives."

"They don't know that," insisted John. "They're going to pay for this all right. If only we could get to that phone."

He bent down and tried to look through the keyhole but it was blocked and he couldn't see a thing. But when he realized what was in the way he started to smile.

"Maybe things aren't so bad after all," he said, grabbing Mike's arm. "Maybe things are just fine. They left the key in the other side of the keyhole."

Mike squatted down and took a look. Then he shrugged. "The key's still in there all right, but that doesn't do us any good. We can't reach it if it's outside."

"But we can!" John said. "I know just how to get it. I saw it once in an old movie. All we need is some cardboard."

Mike groped around in the darkness at the back of the closet and found an old shoe box. John flattened out the lid and slid it under the door so that most of it was sticking out under the doorknob. Then he took a coat hanger, straightened it out and poked it through the keyhole. The trick worked perfectly. The key fell out and landed on the cardboard. John slid the cardboard back under the door. In less than a minute he and Mike were out of the closet.

John went right to the phone and dialed the police. "This is John Jenkins of the Barton Avenue Detectives," he whispered. "We've got a burglary case here." He told the sergeant the whole story as quickly as he could and gave him the address. "Remember, we're still inside the house," he finished. "Just bring your guys around to the back door and wait there. We'll send the burglars out to you. And don't make any noise while you're waiting. We don't want to give away the plan."

Mike signaled to John that the two burglars were coming back down the hall. John hurriedly hung up and grabbed two cigars from the box on Mr. Thayer's desk. He stuffed one of them into Mike's mouth. "Light up," he whispered. "Act natural."

continue on to part six of Burglars story

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