Sophie the Zillionaire (6 page)

S
ophie ran to find her mom. She was in her own room, down the hall.

Sophie’s mom looked up as she burst through the door. “Sophie! Hi! Have you seen Daddy’s business cards?” she asked.

But Sophie did not have time for questions!

“Mom! We’ve been robbed!” she said.

Her mom shook her head. “Now, what would robbers do with Daddy’s business cards?”

Sophie shook her own head very fast. “No, Mom. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking
about
money
! I’m talking about robbers coming in and taking
that
!”

She waited for her mom to call the cops. But her mom did not reach for the phone. So Sophie picked it up.

“Do you call 911 for bank robberies?” Sophie asked.

“Hold on!” said her mom. She took the phone from Sophie and set it down. Then she sat on her bed and pulled Sophie beside her. “What makes you think there has been a bank robbery here?”

“Well …,” Sophie said. It was very simple. “My horse bank was under my bed this morning. Now it is not. I did not touch it. So it must have been robbed. Did you lock the door when you went out today?” she asked.

“I didn’t go out. I’ve been home all day with Max,” her mom said.

“Oh.” Sophie bit her lip.
Hmm.
That made robbing her bank tricky. “Well, did anyone come over?” she asked.

Sophie’s mom shrugged. “Just the cable guy, and Cole, Max’s playdate.”

“Aha!” Sophie held up her finger. “Then the robber is one of
them
!”

“But!” Sophie’s mom held up her own finger. “Max and Cole played outside. And I was with the cable guy the whole time he was here.”

“Oh,” Sophie said. She bit her lip again.

Just then, something grabbed her foot! It came from under the bed.

“
Ahh!
” Sophie yelled.

The robber! He must have been hiding!

Sophie looked down. But there was no robber.

There was just Max.

“Come here, Maxie!” Sophie’s mom said. She scooped him up, but he wriggled away.

Sophie’s mom got up to follow the trail of graham cracker crumbs he left behind him. But first she turned to Sophie. “Honey, I’m sorry your bank is missing. But we were not robbed today. Trust me. You’ll find it,” she said.

Sophie sighed. That was easy for her to say.

S
ophie kept looking. But horse banks did not jump up and run off by themselves. She knew that for a fact.
Magic
horse banks, maybe. But Sophie’s was not magic. She was pretty sure of that.

So who had taken it?

Sophie sat on her bed and tried to think.

Who knew where she hid her bank?

Who knew it was so full?

Who would want to take her money?

That was just when Hayley walked in.

Aha!
Sophie thought.

“Where were you this morning? Between the hours of seven-thirty and eight?” she asked.

Hayley shrugged. “I don’t know. Eating breakfast?” she said.

Sophie crossed her arms. “A likely story!”

“You were with me,” Hayley said.

Oh … yeah.

“And after that?” asked Sophie.

“After that, I brushed my teeth. You were with
me then, too. Then we went to school. What’s with all the questions?” Hayley asked.

Sophie jumped down, pulled up the bed skirt, and pointed. “I was robbed! My bank is gone!”

“Oh. That’s too bad.” Hayley shrugged again.

Sophie looked up at her. “That’s too bad for
you
, you mean!” she said.

“How?” Hayley asked.

“Because I was going to give you that fifty dollars. For your penny drive,” Sophie said.

“Really?” Hayley’s eyes got big.

Sophie nodded. “Uh-huh. But now I can’t be rich
or
give! It’s just not fair!”

“Well, are you sure it’s gone?” asked Hayley. She got down next to Sophie, beside the bed. Together, they peeked under the bed skirt again.

“Sure I’m sure. See? Nothing but my boot and crumbs and dust,” Sophie said.

“Gross!” Hayley said. “You know, you shouldn’t eat under your bed.”

Sophie frowned. “I don’t!” she told her.

“Then how did crumbs get there?” Hayley asked.

Sophie shrugged. She did not know.

Then, all of a sudden … she did!

Sophie jumped up. Fast!

“
Max!
” she yelled.

Sophie ran to Max’s room. He had a graham cracker in one hand. It was making lots of crumbs. And he had Sophie’s horse bank in his other hand! His cowboy doll was riding it.

“Max! That’s
my
horse bank!” Sophie reached down and took it away.

Max started to howl. Of course. But Sophie did not care that much. She was used to it.

“What’s going on?” their mom called from the hall.

Sophie covered her ears. “I just solved the Missing Horse Bank Mystery!” she yelled.

S
ophie learned two things that day.

One was that it was much better to keep things on her shelf than under her bed.

And the other was that she was good at solving mysteries. Very good, in fact.

So good that maybe that should be her name — Sophie the Snoop!

Hmm …

It was hard to pick!

“Sophie the Giver” was nice. And when Sophie gave Hayley the fifty dollars, her mom and Hayley made a very big deal about it.

“Mom, look what Sophie gave me for my penny drive!” Hayley said.

“Sophie! That is so generous! What a wonderful way to spend it!” her mom said.

Sophie and Hayley wanted to take fifty dollars to the bank to trade it for pennies. Right then. But their mom said it was fine to give the bill “as is.” After all, fifty dollars was the same as five thousand pennies. And five thousand pennies would be very hard to carry. Plus, who knew?
That might be more pennies than the bank had, Sophie thought.

On the other hand, snooping was fun. And “Sophie the Snoop” would look so good on a business card.

Then Sophie thought about how her dad was missing his business cards now.

Oops.
Maybe she should have asked for them first. As soon as he got home, Sophie would give them back to him.

But as soon as he got home, her dad gave
her
something instead.

“Surprise!” he said to Sophie and everyone else.

Then he passed out some other cards. They were big and shiny and colorful.

Sophie’s mom crossed her arms. “Are these what I think they are?” she asked.

Sophie’s dad grinned. “If you think they’re scratch-off lottery tickets, then yes!” he said.

Sophie’s mom rolled her eyes.

But Sophie did not. What she did was start scratching — very hard!

She did not care about being rich anymore. But still, it wouldn’t be bad. Then she could give away more money. And buy a real detective hat!

All she had to do was match three numbers. How easy was that?

She scratched off two
100
s!

Then two
1,000
s!

Then a
2
.

And a
5
.

And a
20
.

And another
100
?

Yes!

No.

It was just a
10
.

Sophie looked at her lottery card again. And again. But there were no threes of anything.

Too bad. Her mom was right about the lottery. It wasn’t a very good way to make money after all, she guessed.

Then, suddenly, her mom started jumping. She hugged Sophie’s dad and waved her card.

“I won fifty dollars!” she cried.

No way!
Sophie thought.

“Congratulations!” Sophie’s dad said. “What are you going to buy?”

Sophie’s mom grinned and shook her head. “Nothing! I’m going to give it to Hayley’s penny drive — just like Sophie,” she said.

Sophie felt tingly from her bangs to her toes. More people were giving. All thanks to her!

Now — back to
snooping
…

If she could just find another mystery to solve!

Sophie’s new name is right around the corner. Could this one be a perfect fit?

Take a peek at Sophie’s next adventure…

W
hat a day!
Sophie thought.

Because today was the day she was
something.
And that something was Sophie the
Snoop.

Yes!
That was who she was from now on.

More than anything, Sophie wanted to be extra-special. To be extra-great at …
something.
She had tried to be great at
everything
at first. But that was hard. So then she had tried to be great at one thing. Like being a hero. Or being honest. Or being rich. But that was hard, too.

Then, suddenly, it came to her in a great big
whoosh.
Sophie was great at solving mysteries. She was a natural snoop!

First she solved the Missing Horse Bank Mystery, just like that. (The thief had been her little brother, Max.)

Then she solved the Mystery of the Missing Business Cards. (Of course, that wasn’t really a mystery.
Sophie
had taken her dad’s cards. But he never would have found them without her. That was a fact.)

Now Sophie the Snoop could not wait to solve her next case — whatever it was!

So she was very ready when her mom called out, “It’s almost time to go to school. Hey! Who left the toilet seat up?”

Sophie tiptoed to the downstairs bathroom — the scene of the crime. (She knew that snoops tiptoed, so she had to. But she did it very fast.)

“This is a case for Sophie the Snoop, Mom!” she cried.

Sophie looked around the bathroom and found a clue almost right away. It was the mug she had painted for her dad’s birthday. She picked it up off the sink.

“Aha!” she said.

Sophie flashed her mom a smile and headed for the kitchen. Her dad was waiting by the
toaster for something to pop up. Sophie tiptoed up behind him and shouted, “Gotcha!”

Her dad turned, surprised, and saw the mug. He sighed and held up his hands. “Sure enough. That’s my mug. Guilty as charged,” he told her.

Sophie smiled. She crossed her arms. “No case is too tough for Sophie the Snoop!” she declared.

Finding the right name isn’t easy!
See what else Sophie tries out….

Just like Sophie,
LARA BERGEN
would love to find a name that describes her perfectly … but for now she’ll settle with being
the
author of this great series and many other books for children — and, before that,
the
proud editor of many more. She lives in
the
Big Apple, New York City, with
the
best husband and two children in the world.