Dog Whisperer by Nicholas Edwards Page A

anything.”
    â€œAnd so,” Emily’s grandmother said, “it just happens to smell like spray paint around here?”
    Neither of the boys said anything.
    Emily’s mother had grabbed a flashlight on her way out the door, and she shined it on the house, where they saw words like “Witch!” and “Go Away!” spray-painted across the front. “Well, it looks like you two are going to have a lot of cleaning up and repainting to do, starting first thing tomorrow,” she said calmly.
    â€œNo way,” one of the boys said. “You can’t make us.”
    â€œMaybe not,” Emily’s father, who had just caught up to them, said. Then, he pointed at the patrol car pulling up in front of the house. “But, they certainly can.”
    Once the two police officers, Officer Peabody and Officer Jarvis, had been told about what was going on, Officer Peabody waved up into the tree.
    â€œHello, Rex,” she said. “Who’s that you have with you?”
    â€œMy cousin Joe,” one of the boys muttered. “Down from Bangor.”
    Officer Peabody turned to Emily’s mother. “When does Mrs. Griswold come home from the hospital?”
    â€œTuesday,” Emily’s mother said.
    Officer Peabody nodded. “Well, okay, then, that gives us a few days to get ready, then.” She motioned for the two boys to climb out of the tree. “We’re going to call your parents, and then go down to the station, and have a nice long talk about respect and good manners, and arrange for you and your cousin Joe to be very busy this weekend fixing this house up until it looks perfect. Understood?”
    Rex and Joe nodded glumly.
    â€œCome on, boys,” Officer Jarvis said, opening the back door of the squad car.
    When they started to move, Zack barked sharply.
    â€œEmily, ask Zack to stand down, okay?” Officer Peabody said.
    Stand down? Emily looked at her blankly.
    Officer Jarvis smiled. “It means that he did a great job, but we’ll handle it from here.”
    Oh. Okay. Emily nodded, and whistled once to get Zachary’s attention.
    He looked over, wagged his tail, and then sat down next to her.
    â€œGood boy,” she said, and patted him on the head.
    â€œ Very good boy,” Officer Peabody said, and also patted him.
    When the police officers had left with the two boys, Emily’s grandmother shook her head.
    â€œMy goodness,” she said. “We had to come all the way to Maine to see an actual crime !”
    Emily’s grandfather nodded. “That was very exciting. We never get to see crimes at home.”
    It was funny to think that they had to leave New York to find criminals.
    When they got home, Emily’s father actually locked the back door—which they almost never did.
    â€œThat was all pretty interesting,” he said. “But now, I think it’s time for presents and cake.”
    Emily certainly wasn’t going to disagree with that .
    So, they all trooped into the den, where her grandparents had stacked a bunch of brightly wrapped packages. She got totally great gifts from them, including various pieces of new hockey gear, all of which she immediately tried on. Starting in November, her parents had finally agreed to let her play hockey in a beginner’s league, and she was really looking forward to that. She could already skate pretty well, but hockey was going to be an entirely new experience. Her father had asked that she please not be a goalie, so that he wouldn’t have to watch people slam pucks directly at his little girl, and that seemed reasonable enough to her. Besides, it would probably be more fun to skate around, than to be stuck inside the net all the time.
    â€œYou certainly look fearsome,” her grandmother said, sounding a little bit thrilled by the concept.
    Emily nodded happily. Her helmet even had cool flames painted on it and everything! “I’m going to be