four and a half minutes they arrived at the bazaar Harry leaped out of the car and pounded down the steps Max ran after him Inside he spotted Harry standing in front of two large tables covered with mystery books He and his grandfather loved reading mysteries THAT LOOKS LIKE A GARBAGE BAG TO ME Fill a bag only 5 00 said the sign Harry pulled out a huge green bag The lady standing next to him frowned Wait just a minute here That looks like a garbage bag to me Harry grinned Madam the sign says Fill a bag Well this is a bag The lady scratched her head Harry snapped open the bag It was so big you could fit a moose in it One hundred and sixty-four mysteries got jammed inside Harry and Max drove to Harry’s house in the country Max smiled when he saw it It was the kind of house every kid loves old and spooky looking with black shutters and vines crawling around the windows As they pulled into the driveway water drops began to plop on the windshield Then the rain came down in buckets It didn’t stop for a week Forced to stay inside Max and his grandfather ate tons of popcorn and read mystery books dozens of them
SOMEONE WAS CRYING The sun finally came out on a Saturday morning Max slipped into his jeans and T-shirt and went outside Harry didn’t believe in lawn mowers so the grass was almost as tall as Max He waded through it until he came to a tree Grabbing the lowest branch he began climbing Higher and higher he went Suddenly he heard a sound Someone was crying The sound was coming from behind him Max climbed back down and headed toward some bushes He parted them and stepped through Standing in front of him was a run-down house smaller than Grandpa Harry’s with an old wooden sign that said The Monroe Detective Agency The Monroe Detective Agency
CHAPTER 2 THE OLD POOP NEVER SOLVED ONE MEASLY CASE Max rushed into the kitchen and found Harry swinging on a hammock that was hanging in the big bay window Grandpa you never told me you were a detective Harry shoveled a spoonful of cereal into his mouth You never asked I’m asking now Fair enough I was never a detective Max Harry reached over and lifted a can of whipped cream off the table then settled back in the hammock How do you explain the sign What sign The Monroe Detective Agency sign Oh that sign said Harry My brother Larry was a detective Max looked impressed But Harry shook his head He wasn’t very good he went on The old poop never solved one measly case Really
Really Harry shot whipped cream over his cornflakes The whole town laughed at him Newspapers wrote about him They called him the bumbling detective It broke his heart That’s how he died of a broken heart Why did no one ever tell me you had a brother who died He never left so I don’t think of him as dead Max’s eyes widened Well he’s dead said Grandpa Harry but his ghost still haunts the detective agency CRYING GHOSTS HAUNTED DETECTIVE AGENCIES Max pulled up a chair and sat beside his grandfather Your brother Larry is a ghost Yup And he haunts the detective agency in the backyard Yup Harry shot some whipped cream into his mouth then set the can back on the table Sometimes he hangs around the house But mostly he sits in the coach house bawling his eyes out I heard crying That’d be Larry He likes to have a good cry around this time of day Max shook his head Crying ghosts haunted detective agencies He was talking to himself now I’ll wake up any minute and everything will be normal
