reluctantly. He had no more desire to talk to Mr. Murdock than Andi did, but he was, after all, the person who had taken the picture.
He dialed the Murdocks’ number and, to his relief, got the answering machine.
“Murdock residence!” Mr. Murdock’s voice roared at him. In the background he could hear Barkley yapping nervously and a woman’s voice calling, “Please, dear, try to sound a little more welcoming!”
“Leave your message at the sound of the beep,”Mr. Murdock snarled, ignoring his dog and wife as if neither existed.
The beep was so long in coming that it was obvious that the Murdocks had a lot of messages on their machine. Bruce wondered if they had stopped answering the phone because of an overload of calls from members of Concerned Citizens for Clean Neighborhoods.
When the beep did finally come, he said, “I’m Bruce Walker, the photographer who took the picture of you and Barkley. If you ever call us again, please ask to speak to me, not to my little sister. We’ve discussed the situation with our legal advisor, and she says there’s nothing you can sue us for.” He paused, uncertain about how to end the one-sided conversation. He didn’t like to be rude and just hang up, but he didn’t want to make idle chitchat either. He compromised by saying, “Have a nice day.”
Despite the barrage of sales for the issue about Barkley, sales for the following issue were disappointing. Even regular customers weren’t eager to purchase the newspaper, because they had now subscribed to
Dogs’ Home Journal,
a new publication on Connor and Jerry’s subscription list.
“Half of their money goes to charity,” people told the children, although when asked which charity it was, they didn’t seem certain.
“What a horrid thing for those boys to do!” Andi cried angrily. “We were here first! Jerry and Connor are copycats!”
“That’s how business works,” Tim said. “They saw we were on to something good and jumped on the bandwagon. There’s nothing illegal about that, though it is sort of crummy. And it sure is messing up our sales.”
“I’m sure Jerry’s the one behind it,” Bruce said. “I bet Connor doesn’t even know about it. He’s probably gotten so busy with all his volunteer work that he’s let Jerry take over the business. That must be what Mr. Gordon meant when he told me Connor’s no longer selling magazines.”
He phoned Aunt Alice to ask what she knew about
Dogs’ Home Journal.
“Nothing specific,” she said. “Just that it sounded like a nice magazine when Jerry described it. He came by a few days ago with a new subscription list. I told him I have all the reading matter I can keep up with, or I
will
have as soon I start getting
Happy Housekeeping.
It’s certainlytaking a long time for that subscription to be activated.”
Bruce typed the title
Dogs’ Home Journal
into an Internet search engine and didn’t come up with any matches. However, the word “dogs” took him to dozens of message boards for people who liked to chat about their pets. One of them wanted to know how to make her own flea powder. Bruce helpfully posted an excerpt from Andi’s article and added the fact that it came from
The Bow-Wow News.
Somebody else then asked, “Is that newspaper online?” and Bruce responded, “Not yet.” Then, before he hit the SEND button, he impulsively added, “Watch this board for further developments.”
When he described the exchange to Tim, his friend’s freckled face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“What a great idea!” he exclaimed. “We can build a Web site! My dad has one for his business, and I’m sure he’ll let us use his domain name and Internet provider.”
The girls were not so enthusiastic.
“Aunt Alice suggested we put our paper online,” Andi said. “But I don’t understand what good it will do us if everyone reads it for free.”
“I don’t either,” said Debbie. Today she was dressed in her second disguise, the one she
He dialed the Murdocks’ number and, to his relief, got the answering machine.
“Murdock residence!” Mr. Murdock’s voice roared at him. In the background he could hear Barkley yapping nervously and a woman’s voice calling, “Please, dear, try to sound a little more welcoming!”
“Leave your message at the sound of the beep,”Mr. Murdock snarled, ignoring his dog and wife as if neither existed.
The beep was so long in coming that it was obvious that the Murdocks had a lot of messages on their machine. Bruce wondered if they had stopped answering the phone because of an overload of calls from members of Concerned Citizens for Clean Neighborhoods.
When the beep did finally come, he said, “I’m Bruce Walker, the photographer who took the picture of you and Barkley. If you ever call us again, please ask to speak to me, not to my little sister. We’ve discussed the situation with our legal advisor, and she says there’s nothing you can sue us for.” He paused, uncertain about how to end the one-sided conversation. He didn’t like to be rude and just hang up, but he didn’t want to make idle chitchat either. He compromised by saying, “Have a nice day.”
Despite the barrage of sales for the issue about Barkley, sales for the following issue were disappointing. Even regular customers weren’t eager to purchase the newspaper, because they had now subscribed to
Dogs’ Home Journal,
a new publication on Connor and Jerry’s subscription list.
“Half of their money goes to charity,” people told the children, although when asked which charity it was, they didn’t seem certain.
“What a horrid thing for those boys to do!” Andi cried angrily. “We were here first! Jerry and Connor are copycats!”
“That’s how business works,” Tim said. “They saw we were on to something good and jumped on the bandwagon. There’s nothing illegal about that, though it is sort of crummy. And it sure is messing up our sales.”
“I’m sure Jerry’s the one behind it,” Bruce said. “I bet Connor doesn’t even know about it. He’s probably gotten so busy with all his volunteer work that he’s let Jerry take over the business. That must be what Mr. Gordon meant when he told me Connor’s no longer selling magazines.”
He phoned Aunt Alice to ask what she knew about
Dogs’ Home Journal.
“Nothing specific,” she said. “Just that it sounded like a nice magazine when Jerry described it. He came by a few days ago with a new subscription list. I told him I have all the reading matter I can keep up with, or I
will
have as soon I start getting
Happy Housekeeping.
It’s certainlytaking a long time for that subscription to be activated.”
Bruce typed the title
Dogs’ Home Journal
into an Internet search engine and didn’t come up with any matches. However, the word “dogs” took him to dozens of message boards for people who liked to chat about their pets. One of them wanted to know how to make her own flea powder. Bruce helpfully posted an excerpt from Andi’s article and added the fact that it came from
The Bow-Wow News.
Somebody else then asked, “Is that newspaper online?” and Bruce responded, “Not yet.” Then, before he hit the SEND button, he impulsively added, “Watch this board for further developments.”
When he described the exchange to Tim, his friend’s freckled face lit up like a Christmas tree.
“What a great idea!” he exclaimed. “We can build a Web site! My dad has one for his business, and I’m sure he’ll let us use his domain name and Internet provider.”
The girls were not so enthusiastic.
“Aunt Alice suggested we put our paper online,” Andi said. “But I don’t understand what good it will do us if everyone reads it for free.”
“I don’t either,” said Debbie. Today she was dressed in her second disguise, the one she
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