was definitely one of the weirdest things he had ever done in his long history of crimebusting. But Jupe didn’t care. He felt invulnerable in the costume as he left the locker room and walked onto the gymnasium floor.
A cheer went up the moment the Shoremont fans saw the parrot. Jupe could see them all watching him, waiting to see what kind of acrobatics he would do.
Sweat began to bead on his forehead. Could he really go through with his plan? He paused on the sidelines, not sure how to begin. Meanwhile both teams were warming up on the court.
Finally Jupe took a deep breath and ran out into the center of the gym floor. The crowd cheered.
“Uh — oh! Uh — oh!” Jupe called out in a harsh parrot’s voice. “You lose! You lose!” He jumped around and pointed to the Costa Verde players, who stopped taking practice shots to see who was making that sound.
“Give up! Quit now!” Jupe the parrot cried in a shrill voice. “Quit now! You lose!”
The Shoremont crowd started laughing and cheering. A moment later they picked up Jupe’s cry.
“
The Costa Verde players looked stunned. One of them started to come after Jupe. But Jupe ducked and dodged, which made the crowd laugh even more. Then Bernie Mehl, the Costa Verde coach, came onto the court to tell his players to settle down and ignore the parrot.
But no one else wanted to ignore him. They loved him! Jupe jumped around some more, feeling bolder. Whatever the parrot said, the crowd echoed it. Jupe was leading more cheers than the cheerleaders!
When the game started, Jupe had to stay on the sidelines. But that didn’t stop him from shouting his comments into the game.
“Uh — oh! Watch out! You lose, number 32! You couldn’t even slam-dunk a donut!”
The crowd roared with laughter.
“Hey, number 52! Give up! Give up! Babies dribble better than you!”
Nora, the captain of the Shoremont cheerleaders, pulled Jupe aside.
“Be careful, Jupe,” she said. “The Costa Verde players are giving you some mean looks.”
“Who cares?” Jupe said. The show-off in him couldn’t seem to stop. Every time a Costa Verde player missed a shot, Jupe would jump up and yell “Bird-brain! Uh — oh! Birdbrain!”
At the end of the game the score was Shoremont 64 — Costa Verde 60, but Jupe felt like the real winner. All the cheerleaders rushed over to thank him. Sarah, with the short dark hair, gave him the biggest smile. Jupe was practically floating!
Jupe quickly changed out of his costume and hurried to meet Bob and Pete in the garage. He stepped off the elevator and saw them standing by someone else’s car.
Pete’s probably forgotten where he parked, Jupe laughed to himself.
“Hey, you guys,” Jupe called. “Did you hear me tonight? I’d have to say that an appropriate description would be ‘devastatingly funny’ ”
“Yeah, we heard everything you said.”
Jupe froze. That wasn’t Pete and Bob. It was two Costa Verde players!
The two guys came at Jupe fast. There was nowhere to run — and no one around to hear him yell.
One guy grabbed Jupe, pinning his arms behind his back. The parrot costume fell to the concrete floor. The other guy grabbed Jupe’s face and twisted his head around sideways. When Jupe cried out, the guy stuffed dirty sweat socks into Jupe’s mouth.
The damp cotton smelled terrible and tasted worse Jupe thought he was going to gag or throw up — and then choke on his own vomit.
“Now what do you have to say, Mr. Parrot?”
In the light of the garage Jupe saw that these guys were numbers 32 and 52 — the Costa Verde basketball players he’d made fun of the most.
Jupe tried to scuffle with them, but they were too strong. They pushed and dragged him toward a low wall at the edge of the garage. “Let’s hear you smart off now!” number 52 taunted Jupe. Then in one quick, terrifying move, they hoisted Jupe up and shoved him over the wall!
Suddenly Jupe was dangling in midair, held by his legs, looking down at the street three stories below. His arms flailed but nothing came out of his mouth except muffled screams.
I’m going to die, Jupe thought. They’re going to drop me on my head — splat. That’s it. I’m dead. Any minute now, I’m dead.
“Come on — say something funny! Who’s the bird-brain now?” number 52 said with a laugh.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the two guys slowly pulled Jupe back up. They dropped him on the floor and walked away.
“
That’s all that Jupe needed. He leaped at number 32, giving him a judo chop on the back of his neck.
“Behind you, Pete!” Jupe shouted.
The first guy had picked himself up and was sneaking up on Pete. But suddenly, to Jupe’s surprise, Bob came flying from the top of a car and tackled the guy from the side.
When the Costa Verde players saw that it was three against two, they decided to call it quits. They ran down the garage ramp and disappeared.
“You okay, Jupe?” Bob asked. Jupe was bent over, his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
Jupe nodded and wiped his wet forehead on his sleeve. “They were just telling me what a great job I did as the parrot.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Pete said, helping Jupe to the car.
Pete opened the driver’s side door of the Ark and started to get in. “Hey, look at this!”
There on the leather seat was an envelope.
“Don’t touch it,” Jupe said. “Fingerprints.”
“I gotta find out what’s in it,” Pete said, reaching into the glove compartment. He pulled on a pair of driving gloves to open the envelope.
“More money,” said Bob, seeing the cash in Pete’s hands.
“And another note,” said Pete. He unfolded it and Jupe read it aloud.
“Play for Shoremont next fall and you will enjoy the sweetness and the rewards of victory!”
“I like this case, Jupe,” Pete said the next morning, throwing his long legs up and across his kitchen table. He sliced most of a banana into his third bowl of breakfast cereal.
Jupe pushed away his half-eaten bowl of cereal and began eating half a sticky bun. “I don’t find
“But what’s even more irritating is that we’re making no progress on the case. Last night I went over the note and the money we found in your car with everything but an electron microscope. Effort — one hundred percent. Results: zip. I didn’t find one clue as to who sent it to you.
“Our next move is to investigate the typewriter in Duggan’s office to see if the typeface matches the two notes you’ve gotten. But right now all we’re sure of is that somebody knew you were at the game and knows what your car looks like.”
Pete leaned farther back in his chair and wiped his mouth. “I can finish a whole bowl of cereal in the time it takes you to answer a question,” he said, smiling.
Jupe frowned at the criticism. “Just what is it you like so much about this case?”
“I liked the look on the bank teller’s face when I deposited the three thousand dollars last Monday. Today when I deposit a thousand more, she’s really going to flip.” Pete popped the unsliced remainder of the banana into his mouth.
