Chapter 8

Chapter 8 My phone rang. "Hello," I said. "Flytrap Detective Agency. Do you have a BIG DEAL mystery?" "You'd better believe it's a BIG DEAL, Mr. Flytrap!" said a crazy voice. "Are you kidding me? It's big, all right! It sure ain't small, I'll tell you that!" "My name is Inspector Flytrap!" I said. "If your mystery is really that big, maybe I should come over and see it for myself."

"See it? Flytrap, you need to come down here to Koko Dodo's Cookie Shop and smell it! Take one whiff and you won't have to ask if it's a BIG DEAL!" This guy really is crazy, I thought, but he did seem to have a BIG DEAL mystery. I decided to take the case. "Nina, get the skateboard," I said. "There's a BIG DEAL mystery down at Koko Dodo's Cookie Shop!"

"Big deal," said Nina. But I think she was secretly excited. She loves cookies. The cookie shop was all the way across town, so Nina pushed me to the subway. I hate taking the subway because I'm afraid of getting stepped on. When you're a plant, getting stepped on isn't a joke. Luckily, I found a seat next to a sloth reading a newspaper. He never moved.

As soon as we got out of the subway, I noticed a strange smell. "That doesn't smell like fresh-baked cookies," I told Nina. Nina pushed me down the street to the cookie store. The smell got worse and worse. A dodo was waiting for us out front. "I'm Koko Dodo," said the dodo.

"My name is—," I began, but Koko Dodo kept right on talking. "Do you smell that? That smells like a BIG DEAL, doesn't it? Huh? Yeah, yeah, it does!" I wanted to hold my nose, but I don't have one. "Is that smell coming from inside your cookie store?" I asked. "How dare you!" snarled Koko Dodo. "The only smell that comes from inside my shop is from freshly baked cookies made using super-secret recipes from my great-great-great-grandpop's super-secret cookbook! I have super-secret recipes for over 300 different kinds of cookies, and they all smell good." "Do you have a super-secret recipe for cookies with dead flies in them?" I asked. "Of course not!" shouted Koko Dodo. "Too bad," I said. "OK, if the smell isn't coming from inside your store, then where is it coming from?"

"From up there! On the roof!" I looked at the roof. There was a very big shoe up there. It was as big as a bathtub. "Big heel," said Nina.