“ You kids keep out of my yard!" Tony and Juan looked up. Old man Kaufman stood on his back porch, shaking his fist at the two boys. Juan forced a friendly smile. "Sorry, Mr. Kaufman," Juan said. "We tossed our ball over your fence by accident. I think it landed in your garden." "I said go!" Mr. Kaufman yelled, his face red with anger. Kaufman grabbed a broom from the porch and started to run after the boys. Tony and Juan sprinted back to the fence and jumped over it to the safety of the alley. "What a grouch!" Juan panted, as he and Tony stopped to catch their breath. "Tell me about it," Tony said. "You're lucky to live two blocks away. I have to put up with Kaufman as a neighbor." "So?" Juan replied. "I'm the one who lost a baseball! What …show more content…
It was Kaufman! "Run!" Tony hissed. Too late. A beam of light from a flashlight knifed from Kaufman's porch across the yard, landing on Tony's blinking face. 9 Tony sat at his kitchen table. He wished he could have been hiding under it. Juan's parents had just left after coming to pick up their son. Now, old man Kaufman sat at the table opposite Tony, sipping a cup of coffee. Tony's parents stood nearby. Although they were acting very nice, Tony knew that as soon as Kaufman left their smiles would disappear. "I'm sorry if I've been a bad neighbor," Kaufman said. "Privacy is important to me. Writing isn't easy, so I don't like to be distracted." "We understand," Tony's mom said. "And congratulations on selling your first book." "Thanks," he said. "With the money I've earned, I was able to send my poor mother on a long vacation. Goodness knows she deserved it. And at last I was able to afford a computer." Tony looked at Mr. Kaufman with suspicion. "What about the bone I found buried in your garden?" he asked. "Promise you won't tell the police?" Mr. Kaufman asked. "It's against the law to bury your pets in your yard. But when our old dog Poochie died five years ago, it broke mother's heart. We had to keep the old boy nearby." Tony was still not convinced. "I saw you in the library today," Tony said. "You were reading some interesting stuff." "I was doing research for my next"book," Mr. Kaufman said. "This one will be a murder mystery." He smiled at Tony. "I think I've got an inspiration," Kaufman said. "It's going to star a boy detective!" Even Tony had to smile as the three adults broke into