The View from the Cherry Tree - Softcover

Roberts, Willo Davis

 
9781481439947: The View from the Cherry Tree
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1481439944 ISBN 13: 9781481439947
Verlag: Aladdin, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

This bestselling classic mystery from Willo Davis Roberts about a boy who witnesses a murder is “taut with suspense” (Booklist, starred review).

Though Rob saw Mrs. Calloway fall to her death, strangled by the leather strap of her binoculars, he wants to believe that it was an accident. He wants to pretend he didn’t see the hands that pushed her out of her window.

Then a flowerpot almost falls on him. And three bullets just miss him. And someone tries to poison his food.

When he tries to tell his family that he thinks there has been a murder, they are too busy with his sister’s wedding to care. Will Rob be the murderer’s next victim?

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Willo Davis Roberts wrote many mystery and suspense novels for children during her long and illustrious career, including The Girl with the Silver Eyes, The View from the Cherry Tree, Twisted Summer, Megan’s Island, Baby-Sitting Is a Dangerous Job, Hostage, Scared Stiff, The Kidnappers, and Caught! Three of her children’s books won Edgar Awards, while others received great reviews and other accolades, including the Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award, the California Young Reader’s Medal, and the Georgia Children’s Book Award.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The View From the Cherry Tree

One

From his perch in the cherry tree Rob Mallory could see into the houses on either side. It was the Mallorys’ tree, but it was closest to Mrs. Calloway’s house; right up against it, as a matter of fact, and one of the numerous causes of problems with their neighbor.

It was into Mrs. Calloway’s dining room that he was looking; behind him, at home, female voices came through the open windows. He couldn’t understand what they were saying because they were all talking at once, but he knew, anyway. Something about the wedding. All anybody talked about these days was the wedding, like there was a law, or something, that made other subjects forbidden.

The day was warm enough for even Old Lady Calloway to open her windows, and the slight breeze stirred the heavy lace curtains so that he caught glimpses of the inside.

He had lived next door to Mrs. Calloway for nine of his eleven years, but he’d never been inside her house. When he was little, he’d believed the stories the older kids told, about how she caught kids and ate them, like the witch in Hansel and Gretel. Now he didn’t believe that anymore, but he wouldn’t have gone inside her house for anything.

Mrs. Calloway’s rug was dark red, which ought to have been pretty, but it wasn’t. He couldn’t tell if it was dusty, but he imagined it smelled funny, the way the old lady herself did. The furniture was all old and funny looking, too, very dark and depressing.

As he sat with his back against a big limb, eating cherries and spitting out the pits, he saw Sonny creeping across the lawn toward Mrs. Calloway’s house.

Sonny was twenty-two pounds of the ­meanest cat in the country.

Rob watched with interest as the cat approached the corner of the Calloway house. Mrs. Calloway hated cats, and Rob was supposed to keep Sonny away from her place, but what sense did that make? You couldn’t police a cat all the time.

Sonny made the leap from lawn to limb in one long bound, sitting below Rob in the cherry tree for a moment, then inching out toward the blowing curtains in Mrs. Calloway’s window.

Rob knew perfectly well that he ought to stop him. The old lady would have fits if Sonny landed in her dining room. That was his mother’s phrase . . . somebody was always “having fits,” or about to. He’d never actually seen it happen, and he couldn’t think of a ­better place to see it than with Mrs. Calloway.

Sonny crouched at the end of the limb, his tail twitching, then still. The muscles bunched under the black pelt as he prepared to attack the curtains. And then Rob missed the action because out front a car horn sounded and he let it distract him for just a second. When he looked back, the curtains were still flapping, but Sonny was gone.

He waited, hoping something would happen. Like the old lady would start yelling, and maybe she’d froth at the mouth when she had her fit. That’s what dogs did. He’d never seen one, but he’d heard about it.

The car horn was just old Max, and now he was coming around the side of the house toward the back door. You’d think Max would quit coming around all the time, now that Darcy was getting married to Steve.

Old Max was twenty-one, and for a grown-up he wasn’t bad. He had a sense of humor, which was more than some of the rest of them had.

Rob threw a cherry pit, but it was too light; it fell short, so he pitched a whole cherry. The second one hit Max between the eyes.

Max paused, looking upward into the tree and stepping off the sidewalk. “That you, Robbie?”

“I’m a frog prince.”

“No kidding. You do look sort of green at that, but I thought it was the reflection of the leaves. Where is everybody?”

“If you mean Darcy, she’s having something altered. It’s an emergency. Everything’s an emergency at our house these days.”

“Yeah. Okay if I go on in?”

“If it’s not, they’ll throw you out,” Rob said. “That’s what happens to me. It’s not my fault they run around in their underwear, but they expect me to know when to open a door.”

Max considered, nodded, said “Thanks,” and rapped on the back screen door before entering the porch. “Anybody home? Are you all decent?”

There was a chorus of voices; his sister Teddi answered the door and let Max in.

Rob waited a little longer for something to happen in the Calloway house, then gave up. Maybe the old lady was taking a nap. She often took a nap, right when people wanted to use their mowers or play their stereos or something. No matter when you needed to make a noise, she was taking a nap.

He pictured Sonny stalking through the odd-smelling house, finding the bedroom, and leaping onto the old lady’s chest. That would give her a fit, all right, if twenty-two pounds of cat landed on her!

He’d been eating cherries for half an hour, but he needed more than that. Cherries weren’t very filling. He wondered if they were ever going to have dinner. It was time somebody started cooking something if they were.

He slid down as far as he could go and then dropped onto the grass, his tennis shoes making no sound. Going in, he slammed the screen door, expecting someone would say something, but they were all too busy. Rob sighed. Nothing happened the way it was supposed to around here anymore.

The kitchen was empty. There wasn’t anything cooking, no good smells coming from the oven. He opened the refrigerator door and debated whether it would be worth it to cut a slice off that cold ham. It was all fancied up and they’d be able to tell if he cut it. Usually his mother was fairly reasonable about such things, but these days it was hard to tell. He decided he’d better leave it alone and settle for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The dining room was full of women, but they’d let old Max in, so they must all be dressed. Rob licked the oozing jelly from the edges of his bread and stood in the doorway, looking them over.

His older sister Darcy was the one getting married. You’d think she was a queen, or something, the way everybody waited on her and catered to her. Darcy had dark hair and blue eyes, like Mrs. Mallory, and while she just seemed like old Darcy to him she must be pretty because all these guys kept coming around, even after she was engaged to Steve. She was standing on a chair while her mother pinned a hem in her dress.

“Don’t get that on anything, Robbie,” Mrs. Mallory said. “And somebody answer that telephone.”

Teddi, her long hair swirling as she spun, stretched across Max to reach the instrument on the table near the doorway. Because she was the one moving, Rob looked at her.

Teddi wasn’t as pretty as Darcy, but he liked her better. Of course she was closer to his own age, being only six years older, and she didn’t look down on him quite as much as the others did.

Teddi picked up the telephone and answered it.

“Yes? Mallory residence. Oh. Yes, Mrs. ­Calloway.” She winced, holding the receiver away from her ear. “Yes. Yes. Yes, I understand. Yes, I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She looked at her mother, rolling her eyes until...

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Verlag
Aladdin
Erscheinungsdatum
2015
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1481439944
ISBN 13 
9781481439947
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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