Local seventh-grade sleuth Samantha "Sammy" Keyes is not an easy kid to get a hold of. If she's not putting out fires or planting baby-monitor listening devices, if shes not tracking down missing valuable from her church's coffers or helping a troupe of flamboyant nuns in purple spandex and feather as raise money for the homeless, then she's running from the law. Specifically, Officer Gil Borsch.

Borsch has been on the force a long time and he's got a nose for trouble, and to him, Sammy Keyes spells trouble with a capital "T." We asked Sammy about that when we happened to spot her beating the heat with a frozen yogurt down by San Luis Creek.

Tribune: So what's the deal with Officer Borsch, anyway?

Sammy Keyes: Oh, him. Well until recently I thought he was a real jerk, and he thought I was a juvenile delinquent.

Tribune: Until recently?

Sammy Keyes: Yeah. After the deal with Moustache Mary's cabin and Lucinda's pig and all, well, I wouldn't say we're cured or anything -- more like we're in remission.

Tribune: Whoa. Did you say Moustache Mary? Who is that?

Sammy Keyes: Actually, she was a pioneer woman who crossed the plains in a wagon train. Women weren't allowed to come West without a man, and since she really wanted to come, she cut her hair all off and made a moustache out of part of it and joined anyway, pretending to be a man.

Tribune: Seriously?

Sammy Keyes: yeah, only about 10 days into the trip, the others found out, and when things started getting rough they blamed everything on Mary. (They) said she cursed the expedition.

Tribune: That's interesting, but what's that got to do with Office Borsch?

Sammy Keyes: Well, it's got more to do with Lucinda, and it's on account of Lucinda that Office Borsch came to ask for my help.

Tribune: And Lucinda is?

Sammy Keyes: Moustache Mary's great granddaughter. She's really, really old and all hunched over and frail looking, but when you start talking to her you realize she's sharp. Sharp like paper. Her best friend is a 200-pound pig named. Penny. She dresses her up in a big black bow and takes her everywhere with her.

Tribune: So how do they connect to Officer Borsch?

Sammy Keyes: Well, Penny disappeared.

Tribune: So Officer Borsch asked you to solve the case of the missing pig?

Sammy Keyes: Well, not exactly. There was also the bit about the New Year's party and everything was going on there.

Tribune: Such as?

Sammy Keyes: (Sighs) Such as all these kids dancing on the Edge of the World.

Tribune: You're losing me, Sammy.

Sammy Keyes: You know how you're going along in your life and you think you know where you're going, and then you wake up one day and you find yourself in a place you never thought you'd go at all? It's like, how did you get there? And you feel lost and everything seems strange and dark and you don't know how to back up or which way to turn? I call that the Edge of the World. And at this party, all these kids were dancing on the Edge. They were smoking and drinking and doing drugs. I'm talking some of these kids were my age. And they were all acting like it was so cool and making me and my friends feel like we were real stupid for not wanting to step over the Edge with them. Hudson says ifs not really an edge, ifs more like a slope, but you get the idea.

Tribune: Hudson?

Sammy Keyes: My best friend. Well, aside from Marissa, that is. He's 72 and I swear he knows more than Merriam Webster.

Tribune: Back to Officer Borsch -- so he asked you to help him with what, busting a party?

Sammy Keyes: No!

Tribune: Then what?

Sammy Keyes: (Scrapes out her yogurt cup and eyes me with a shake of her head.) It's too complicated. And really, I've got to get going. I'm supposed to be packing for a trip down to Hollywood.

Tribune: Hollywood?

Sammy Keyes: Yeah. Marissa and I are going down to shake some bubbles out of the GasAway lady's head.

Tribune: The GasAway Lady?

Sammy Keyes: That would be my mother.

Tribune: Oh.

Sammy Keyes: Exactly.

Fortunately for this reporter, Sammy's adventures with Moustache Mary, Officer Borsch, and Penny the Pig have been recorded in Sammy Keyes and the Curse of Moustache Mary, and her adventure with Marissa in Hollywood is detailed in Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy.