They had chosen cool gifts though. Ivy had given her a book of Irish folktales and said on the card that she hoped they would inspire her filmmaking. Amphora had given her a beautiful bracelet. Editta’s package contained, surprise, surprise, a good luck charm. Simon’s outsized package contained one of his adapted skateboards, which she thought especially nice for all the effort he’d put into it. Owla, Prudence, Dreidel, and Clive had selected thoughtful gifts as well. Even the gremlins had participated. Alexei had contributed a statue of a peacock, and Noel had picked out a Lucite vase. Amanda suspected that both items had come from the basement. Still, she was chuffed.
Suddenly Holmes entered the room, empty-handed. Amanda didn’t remember seeing a gift from him, so he obviously wasn’t giving her one. He made a beeline for the food and piled a plate high, saw Amanda in the corner, and left. Left! Without even so much as a “Happy birthday.” What was up with him now? She didn’t even want to guess. From now on, everything weird that happened would be due to spores. That was the only explanation that made sense and she wasn’t going to waste valuable brainpower looking for another one.
Then David Wiffle stomped up to her and said, “Your friend is in trouble now. I told on her.”
“What do you mean?” said Amanda, hugging her new skateboard.
“You can’t ride that,” said Wiffle. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I can too, and since when do you care about my well-being?” said Amanda.
“I don’t,” he said. “I mean it’s too dangerous for the people who aren’t skateboarding. They get nervous when they see you coming and run into each other and stuff.”
“That’s ridiculous,” said Amanda. “What did you mean about telling? Who are you talking about?”
“You know who,” he said. “That tall roommate of yours who thinks she’s so great.”
“Amphora? What did you say?”
“I told Professor Buck that she had been in the kitchen with the cook and used school supplies to make an illegal cake.”
Amanda was gobsmacked. Illegal cake? What was he, the cake police?
“You little weasel,” said Amanda. She felt like bonking him over the head again but knew she couldn’t get away with that twice. “What is wrong with you? She was just trying to make me a nice surprise.”
“That cook is going to be fired,” he said.
“You wouldn’t,” said Amanda. “You didn’t!”
“I did,” he said. “You don’t get it, do you? If you break the rules, criminals can get in. You should know that better than any of us.” He smirked. “It was breaking the rules that got your criminal boyfriend into the school.”
“Shut up!” she yelled. “It wasn’t my fault.”
“Aha, so you admit you let him carry on his nefarious activities. It was your fault.”
“Was not, was not, was not,” yelled Amanda. “You’re a hateful little prig and you’re going down, David Wiffle.”
“What’s going on here,” said Ivy, materializing with Nigel in tow.
“He’s an idiot,” said Amanda.
“Nuh uh,” said Wiffle. “You’re the idiot.”
“Shut up!” screamed Ivy. Everyone turned around and stared at her. Wiffle laughed in her face and clomped out of the room yet again.
“Are you okay?” said Ivy.
“Yeah,” said Amanda. “I sure hate that guy though.”
“You know,” said Editta, suddenly appearing, “he isn’t such a great detective. Last term his house came in last on the school project. They thought the target of the garage bomber was Professor Pickle and it wasn’t. If he’s so smart, how did he mess that up? He blamed us for contaminating the evidence, but if he was any good he’d have realized that we didn’t and would have solved the mystery just as well as we did.”
Amanda gaped. This was the most she’d heard from Editta since last term. What had brought this on? She looked at Ivy, who was also gaping.
“Plus his grades aren’t all that good,” Editta continued. “I heard him and Gordon talking and neither one of them did all that well in their classes last term. So much for his little rules. They haven’t gotten him very far.”
Suddenly Simon came running in. He stopped in front of the group and motioned to the door with his head.
“What?” said Amanda.
“Uh,” said Simon, “I was just wondering if you’d like a cup of tea.” He looked at Editta, then back at Amanda.
“There’s tea here, Simon,” said Amanda. “Over there.” She pointed to a large teapot, which was sitting on the beverage table.
“There’s other tea in the dining room,” he said.
“Yeah, so?” said Amanda, who was still not happy with him for disrupting her party.
“Just come with me for a second,” he said.
“I’ll go,” said Ivy. “It’s getting a bit noisy in here.”
“Okay,” said Simon. “Come on.”
He practically pulled Ivy out of the common room. Editta looked at Amanda and said, “What’s up with him?”
“Spores,” said Amanda.
22
The Whatsit
Ivy was back in about two seconds with Simon trailing behind her. “I hope you had a fun party,” she said. “Now it’s time to go.”
“Yeah,” said Simon. “You need to do that whoozit thing.”
But they needn’t have worried about trying to sneak Amanda out of there. Editta wasn’t listening.
“Oh,” said Amanda. “Right, the whoozit thing. Would you excuse me a moment, Editta? Thank you so much for the lovely good luck charm. I’m going to find a chain for it and put it on right away.”
“You should,” said Editta. “It will help you a lot.”
Amanda noticed that Editta was wearing one just like it around her neck. Somehow it wasn’t doing her a whole lot of good, but Amanda would wear it to please her friend anyway.
Ivy and Simon hustled Amanda out of the common room, and checking around to make sure no one could hear, they told her that Simon had discovered that the crystals were formed from the virus-treated sugar!
“OMG,” said Amanda. “That makes perfect sense. We found them where the cook put the sugar, or nearby anyway.”
“The slime mold must have moved it around some when it was eating the stuff,” said Ivy. “That’s why the crystals formed where they did. The earthquake put tremendous pressure on the remaining sugar. There was a lot of heat too, kind of like how diamonds are formed. That’s what did it.”
“I found the virus in them,” said Simon. “I used the smartphone microscope Professor Kindseth and I made, and there it was.”
“You realize what this means, of course,” said Amanda. “Any place the pink sugar was there could be crystals.”
“You’re right,” said Ivy. “I hadn’t thought of that. There could be some at the Moriartys’ sugar factory.”
“Right,” said Amanda. “It’s a good thing they’re in prison and can’t go back there. Although wait a minute. The earthquake wasn’t strong enough in London to make crystals.”
“No,” said Simon, “but the explosion and the fire were.”
“Oh no!” said Amanda. “I hadn’t thought of that. There could be crystals there. Do you think the crime scene investigators found them and—no. I saw the list of evidence. There was nothing about any crystals.”
“Maybe they didn’t find them,” said Ivy. “They could be buried.”
“Yes!” said Amanda. “We need to go see.”
“I wouldn’t worry,” said Simon. “The Moriartys aren’t going to be able to get them. The police caught them before they’d have time to find them, and they’re still in prison. If there are any crystals they’ll be sitting there for a long time.”
“But just for the sake of argument, let’s say the Moriartys—or their associates—did find the crystals,” said Amanda. “It wouldn’t take them long to discover their properties. They’d want to exploit them. And they wouldn’t care that they w
ere living things. They’d take what they could get and just kill them.”
“But then they’d have nothing,” said Ivy. “That wouldn’t be in their interests.”
“Yeah, it would,” said Amanda. “Because they’d try to make more. And if they succeeded, they’d be breeding this wonderful new life form just so they could abuse and kill it.”
“You’re right,” said Simon. “Technically, that would be genocide.”
“Wow,” said Ivy. “It would.”
The situation was so serious that the three friends wondered if they should tell Thrillkill after all. They knew they’d have to tell Amphora. It wouldn’t be fair to leave her out. Editta? Probably not—at least not now. Amanda almost wished they could confide in Professor Kindseth, but that was out of the question. In the end they decided to keep the news to themselves for a while, but they’d have to get to London to explore the ruins of the factory as soon as possible.
They walked back into the common room, where the guests were dispersing. Rupert Thwack had indeed showed up and after wishing Amanda happy birthday, cleared the food with his assistant’s help. The décor gremlins insisted on putting the room back in order, and in no time had restored it to its previous state.
Now Editta was the only guest left, and out of the blue she made the oddest comment.
“You know,” she said to Amanda, “the charm I gave you will help keep you from losing things. I should have given one to Mrs. Bipthrottle in the library. That way they wouldn’t have lost that book.”
Amanda and Simon looked at each other. “What book?” said Amanda.
“The one from the library,” said Editta.
“You can check books out of the library,” said Simon. “That doesn’t mean they’re missing.”
“This one is,” said Editta.
“You mean a reference book?” said Ivy.
“Yes,” said Editta. “The ones you can’t check out.”
“That isn’t unusual, is it?” said Simon. “Maybe it’s on one of the desks. Does it matter?”
“Oh yes,” said Editta. “Lots. You see, I counted all the books in the library on the twenty-third of March and there were 4,273. Then when I got back from the break I counted them again. There was one missing. There’s a cage area that has a key to it and you have to get permission to go in. I didn’t go inside because I could see to count from the outside. But there was definitely a book missing. I could see where it went. The only way you’re allowed to take books out of there is if you fill out a special card. I did it once. But there weren’t any of those cards on file. I looked three times.”
“Why is this so important?” said Ivy.
“The books in the cage are there for a reason,” said Editta. “They’re super important, and in a lot of cases, rare. They have to protect them.”
“So are you saying you think this book is critical to the detectives, or just to the curriculum?” said Amanda.
“The detectives,” said Editta. “Have you ever looked at what’s in there? There are a lot of important secrets in those books.”
The three others looked at each other. Well, Ivy didn’t, but she sat up straight and they knew that meant the same thing. Secrets. Of course. The missing book was the whatsit!
They got up and ran to the library, pulling Editta along with them. “What are you doing?” she said.
“Just come with us,” said Amanda. “Show us the place where the book is missing.”
“There,” she pointed when they had reached the cage. There was a large empty space on the top shelf of the bookcase farthest from the cage door.
“Well spotted,” said Simon. “I never would have noticed that.”
“As I said, I counted them,” said Editta. Amanda wondered if Simon was regretting teasing her about all that counting. “I knew from that first. Then I went back and saw the spot.”
“And there’s no checkout card?” said Ivy.
“Uh uh,” said Editta. “Look, here’s the place where they go.” She led them to a small metal box marked “Special Collection.” It was empty.
“But there must be a catalog card for it,” said Amanda. “All we have to do is look by the classification number. It should be somewhere between HV and QA.”
“Weird them still using a hard copy catalog,” said Simon.
“I’ll say,” said Amanda. “But in this case it should help us.”
The four of them went to the card catalog, which was really two catalogs. One was arranged by main entry, that is, author, or if no author, title. The other went by subject. They opened the drawer in the latter that held cards for the middle of the alphabet, which covered HA through QZ. Then they checked the cards for the books on either side of the empty space. There was no card between them, not for H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, or Q. They even looked at a few cards before and after the place where the card should have been. Nothing.
“Oh great,” said Amanda. “There’s no card.”
“We might be able to guess the topic, though,” said Editta. “The book on one side is A History of Codes and Ciphers and the other is A History of Scandals. Oh dear, that doesn’t make any sense. I have no idea what it could be.”
“Let me think this through,” said Amanda. She considered the books on either side. They were both history books, but on two very different topics. What could the connection be between scandals and codes? Of course. They both had to do with keeping and revealing secrets. A code protected a secret, and a scandal made it public. There were those secrets again. They were a big deal to the detectives. Everything seemed to revolve around them.
“Maybe the book has to do with secrets,” she said. “That would make sense. Secret communications are vital to detectives. So are breaking criminals’ codes. That must be what it is, and if it falls into the wrong hands the criminals will know how we formulate our codes. But why would such a book be in the library, where anyone, including Mavis Moriarty, could find it? If it’s that important, wouldn’t it be under lock and key, and if it isn’t important enough, why are the teachers panicking?”
“I don’t know,” said Ivy. “Those are good questions.”
“If it is about that,” said Simon, “Scapulus could help. Codes are his thing. It’s too bad he isn’t speaking to us anymore.” He looked right at Amanda. She was not going to comment. She was not about to tell him about her aversion to the Holmes family. Only Nick knew about that, and she shouldn’t even have told him. Let them think what they liked.
“But here’s another question,” she said, ignoring Simon. “Do you think it was stolen? It could have been lost. That wouldn’t be such a big deal, would it?”
“I don’t think we have any way of knowing what happened to it,” said Simon. “But we have to assume the worst. We have to figure the Moriartys have it. Anything less wouldn’t be such a disaster.”
“The Moriartys again,” said Amanda.
As they left the library, they ran into Holmes. “Hey, old lady,” he said to Amanda.
“Excuse me?” she said, glaring at him.
“You’re over the hill now,” he said unkindly.
“No more than you,” she said.
“Yeah, but I’m a guy,” he said. Ivy’s mouth dropped. Even Simon looked askance at him.
“So what?” said Amanda.
“So guys can get as old as they want and no one cares,” said Holmes. What in the world was up with him? This didn’t sound like him at all.
“That party was lame,” he said. “You need to have a real party, off-campus. You know, a wild party with beer and cigarettes. None of this namby-pamby stuff.”
“Have you lost your mind?” said Ivy. “Have all those aftershocks gotten to you, or are all those ones and zeros warring in your head?” This didn’t sound like Ivy either.
“Do I take that as a no?” said Holmes.
“You do,” said Amanda.
“Suit yourself, Goody Two-shoes,” he said, and left.
“What was all that about
?” said Amanda.
“I have no idea,” said Ivy. “He’s usually so nice and polite.”
“I think—” said Simon.
Just then Amphora appeared. Her eyes were wild and she looked like she’d just seen another dead body.
“Are you all right?” said Amanda.
“No,” said Amphora. “I just overheard Thrillkill. The Moriartys have escaped!”
23
Phone Calls
The Moriartys out of prison? They’d joked about it, even half considered it, but Amanda had never actually believed it could happen. Blixus and Mavis Moriarty were considered the most dangerous criminals around. They were in a high-security facility. There was no way.
“What are you talking about?” said Amanda.
“The aftershock,” breathed Amphora. She could barely catch her breath. “It damaged the prison so much that they escaped.”
“This is terrible,” said Ivy. She moved closer to Nigel and hugged his neck.
“We have to find that book,” said Simon. He stood up and started to pace.
“What if it isn’t the whatsit?” said Amanda, rising as well. She walked over to the window and looked out, but nothing registered. This definitely would not have been the time for one of Professor Sidebotham’s quizzes. She couldn’t have said what the weather was or whether it was night or day. “If we look for it and it isn’t, we could just be wasting time.”
“You don’t suppose Blixus already has it, do you?” said Amphora, following Simon with her eyes. “The thing went missing before he was caught.”
“Oh great,” said Amanda, whirling around to face the others. “If you’re right and he’s out, he could be on his way to get it right now.”
“I don’t think we have any choice,” said Simon, slowing down. “We have to find him, the missing book, or both.”
“That’s a good point,” said Ivy. “If we’re worried about the whatsit falling into his hands, we need to see what he’s got. If he doesn’t have it, we’re probably safe.”
Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set Page 56