The Case of the Wilted Broccoli

by William Hertling

  She looked next to her. Linden was pointing at the stage.

  The big projector screen had come down, and the projector flashed white on the screen. Principal Winterson stood to one side of the screen. "One of the science-fair projects this term was of particular importance. Some of you may have heard that we had certain problems with the cafeteria food and students were taken ill. Thanks to the deductive skills of Willow, Elon, and Linden, the mystery of the school lunches was solved. Their science-fair project was an autonomous drone." Here even Mrs. Winterson stumbled slightly over the unusual words. "They used this drone to trace the food supply chain back towards its source. In doing so, they identified criminal activities. They used their drone to record an instrumental video that led to an arrest by the police. Without further ado, I'd like to show you this video, and afterwards you may ask them any questions you like about their project."

  With that, the room lights dimmed, and the video started. The video began with a short test flight of the drone. The Silver Dragon flew in their yard. It turned toward their workshop window, and for a few moments, they could see the reflection of the drone in the dark window. Then the drone zipped around the yard and their tree.

  "I remember that," Linden said. "The day we had the practice flights!"

  The video skipped forward to the scene of the Bannon Foods warehouse. The auditorium grew hushed as they listened to the roar of the quadcopter's four rotors as it dove into the warehouse and dropped onto the tall dry-goods stack. The video played out in its entirety, the crowd gasping at times, quiet as others, laughing as it swooped to escape toward the end. When Mr. Hutchins downed the drone with the thrown broom there were outcries of anger and booing. Then the video ended, and the room lights came back up.

  "Thanks to the scientific and detective work of Willow, Elon, and Linden we once again have the local, fresh, good food we were promised," Mrs. Winterson said. "You'll find them in the back row if you have any questions. Thank you and enjoy the science fair."

  With a last squeal the microphone was silenced and the crowd turned and faced them at the back of the room.

  "I wanna see," a kid yelled, and ran toward them. Within seconds, they had a crowd surrounding them.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ON THE SATURDAY morning after the science fair, Willow went to Atlanta's house. The human hair swing was set up in her backyard under a covered patio.

  "It's a really good swing," Willow said. "It was a brilliant project."

  "Thanks," Atlanta said. "It turns out that both of our projects were big hits at the science fair."

  "It's funny how things worked out." Willow kicked higher. "You had the idea, but then got too sick for most of it. My brothers and I built an amazing drone, but it was destroyed before the fair."

  "Things don't always work out the way you expect. Now it's my turn on the swing."

  Willow jumped off, her feet skidding across the floor. "I'm really glad you're better."

  "Me, too. Thanks for fixing the school lunches."

  A few weeks passed, and they heard nothing about getting their drone back. One day, Mrs. Winterson called them into the office, and told them the trial would be starting the following week. Willow, Elon, and Linden would be called as witnesses.

  The trial started on a Tuesday morning. They dressed up in their best clothes and their parents took them to the courthouse. Because they were supposed to be in school, the kids testified first in the morning, then had to go back to school.

  Miss Berry and Mrs. Winterson were gone for three days, leaving the kids puzzled over what was happening. But on Friday morning, when they entered the cafeteria, Miss Berry was back behind the counter serving breakfast.

  "Miss Berry, what happened?"

  Miss Berry looked up from the tray of orange juice boxes she was putting out. "It turned out to be exactly as Elon had said in Mr. Bannon's office." She sighed and took a breath. "When Tom Bannon's father died and Tom inherited the business, he didn't know much about operating it. He testified that he depended on Mr. Hutchins, who had worked there for many years, to explain how things worked."

  "And?" Willow said.

  "The state lawyer investigated and found Mr. Hutchins hadn't had much money until about eight months ago. Then during the testimony it came out that Mr. Hutchins hadn't saved for retirement. What little he had was poorly invested. He wanted to retire, but couldn't. He started skimping on some of Bannon's smaller customers, but when we gave them the school contract for local food, Mr. Hutchins saw his opportunity to make even more. He was sure Tom wouldn't know enough to figure it out."

  "I knew it!" Elon said.

  "He also figured that kids wouldn't appreciate expensive food," Miss Berry said. "But he knew restaurants did. So he took the local foods that were supposed to be for Mt. Hood Elementary, and sold them to restaurants, without telling Mr. Bannon. The restaurants paid a lot of money, not knowing they were getting stolen food, and Mr. Hutchins kept it all."

  "Where'd he get the food for our school?" Linden asked.

  "Mr. Hutchins still needed to make the deliveries to hide his crime, so he looked around for really cheap food. He found a company in California that was selling excessed foods." Here Miss Berry swallowed deep, then continued in a whisper. "Food that were supposed to be served to farm animals because it wasn't good enough for people. He bought that junk, getting weekly deliveries in the early morning when no one else was around." She went back to a normal voice. "It was much cheaper than fresh food, so Mr. Hutchins was making thousands of dollars every week. For a long while no one had noticed. Until you three figured it out. Good job."

  The bell rang, and the sound of six hundred kids running for class sounded out.

  "Thanks, Miss Berry," Willow said as they ran to class.

  That evening at home the phone rang.

  "I got it," Elon yelled, running for the kitchen. "Hello?"

  "Hi, it's Tom Bannon," the voice said.

  "Hi, Mr. Bannon." Elon wasn't sure if Mr. Bannon would be angry. Was he in trouble?

  "Mr. Hutchins is going to jail."

  "I heard. I hope you're not in trouble," Elon said.

  "No, no." There a soft chuckle from the other end of the line. "I actually wanted to say thank you. If it wasn't for you three, Mr. Hutchins could have gone on longer, more people would have gotten sick, and Bannon Foods and I could have gotten into bigger trouble. So I really appreciate you solving this mystery."

  "You're welcome," Elon said.

  "But the judge said I have to buy you kids a new drone. Will a thousand dollars cover it?"

  Elon's eyes went big. A thousand dollars? They could build a supersized drone. But he didn't want to be dishonest. "It's too much, actually, Mr. Bannon. The first drone only cost about two hundred."

  "Ah... Well, I'll send you a thousand dollars, and you can keep the rest as a reward."

  Holy cow, a thousand dollars. Elon barely heard the rest of the conversation. Finally, after saying good-byes, he got off the phone and ran looking for the other kids.

  "Willow, Linden, have I got some news!"

  THE END

  THANKS

  Dear Reader,

  Thanks for buying The Case of the Wilted Broccoli. I hope you enjoyed it.

  I'm an independent author. That means I don't have a big publishing company with a marketing department to help sell my books. I'm dependent on you, the reader, to tell others about my books.

  If you like The Case of the Wilted Broccoli, please tell your friends or parents, ask your school library to buy a copy, or post a review online. Thank you!

  Visit www.williamhertling.com if you'd like to learn more about my books, or subscribe to my monthly newsletter to find out when new books are released.

  If you're looking for my books in stores, I write children's fiction under Will Hertling and books for adults and teens under William Hertling.

  Sincerely,

  Will Hertling

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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  Thank you to my children for prompting me to write this novel, and continuing to remind me to work on it even as I was distracted by other projects, and for your patience.

  Thank you to Erin Gately, as always, for your extensive support watching kids so I can write, reading and providing feedback, and general enthusiasm.

  Thanks also to Maja Carrel Herrera for her support.

  Thanks to the Wine Writers critique group for their incredibly helpful feedback on this and other projects: Catherine Craglow, Cathy Heslin, Shana Kusin, Amy Seaholt, and David Melville. Thanks also to Dr. Shana Kusin for medical advice.

  Thank you to Maureen Gately, for your wisdom, knowledge and general excellence in all things design, print, and publishing related. I would be lost without your guidance.

  Thanks to M.S. Corley for the cover design and illustration, Steve Bieler for copy editing, and Kiersi Burkhart for manuscript feedback.

  A big thank you to the kids who provided feedback: Abby, Ella, Gifford, Jake, Liam, Luc, Luka, Roland, and Rowan. Thanks also to their parents who helped with the process: Amelia, Brain, Dawn, Grace, Petar, Rebecca, and Brian. (Last names intentionally left out to protect their privacy.)

  My apologies if I've missed anybody. Any errors that remain are my own.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  William Hertling is an award-winning science fiction writer, and the author of the Singularity series of novels for teens and adults: Avogadro Corp., A.I. Apocalypse, and The Last Firewall.

  A computer programmer and social media strategist, he lives in Portland, Oregon.

  The Case of the Wilted Broccoli is his first novel for children.

  To contact the author:

  Web: www.williamhertling.com

  Email: william.hertling@liquididea.com