Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set

by Paula Berinstein

  “We can and we are. I’ll explain later. All I can say right now is that this is really important and I’ve got to find Simon.”

  “Where are you?” he said.

  “Tube station,” she said, not wanting to be specific.

  “Well, then, why don’t you page him?” said Holmes.

  Slap to head. Why hadn’t she thought of that? Now what was she going to say? He obviously thought she was the biggest idiot on the planet. Why she cared she didn’t know, but for some dumb reason she felt embarrassed.

  “That’s a good idea,” she managed to squeak out. “I’ll try that.” She felt she needed to acknowledge what had just happened but had no idea what to say. Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut, but the silence on the other end was getting to her. “Thank you, Scapulus. I, uh, I think you’re good at a lot of things.”

  “Thanks, Amanda, but I get it,” he said.

  This was not the result she’d been hoping for, but she just said “Sorry” and hung up.

  She found the information booth and asked for the attendant to page Simon Binkle. Before she could say another word, the woman had picked up a microphone and bellowed, “Mr. Simon Binkle. Please come to the information desk. Mr. Simon Binkle.” It was really loud. Amanda felt even more embarrassed. The woman sat back and stared at her as if she were a space alien.

  “Uh, thanks,” said Amanda.

  Within about thirty seconds Simon came bounding up. “What happened?” he said.

  “I don’t know,” said Amanda. “Where have you been?”

  “When I came out of the gents’ I couldn’t find you, so I waited but you didn’t show up. I went to text you, but I forgot my phone when I went back for the clothes, and then when I found a pay phone I couldn’t remember your number. It’s in my phone but I don’t know it by heart.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said. “I was right there, just where we said to meet.”

  “Well, I didn’t see you.”

  “I didn’t see you either.”

  He seemed to take her paging him for granted because he didn’t mention it. All he said was, “Let’s board this tube and get to the factory. We’ve lost a lot of time.”

  When they got off the tube the neighborhood was deserted, as you’d expect on a Saturday. It was now around noon and they had a lot of ground to cover, so they got onto their boards and skated the rest of the way

  When they arrived at the wreckage Amanda burst into tears. Despite the fact that she was still furious with him, she couldn’t bear to look at the place where Nick had died. Yes, he had lied to her, led her on, and done terrible things, and yes, it was probably the fictional person she really missed. But they’d been so good together. Not that she’d ever forgive him. Not in a million years. She still wished she could scream at him. In fact if Simon hadn’t been there she’d have done just that.

  “Go on,” said Simon, watching her face. “Do it.”

  She sniffled but didn’t look at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Yell at him,” he said. “It’ll feel good.” He motioned toward the wreckage with his chin. How did he know?

  “You don’t think—” she said.

  He shook his head. “Do it.”

  Amanda faced the wreckage, took a deep breath, and screamed, “How could you leave me, Nick Muffet?” That was weird. She hadn’t meant to say that. She’d meant to take him to task for lying to her, kidnapping her father, and almost killing him. For laughing at her.

  She was breathing hard and her heart was pounding. She turned to Simon. “I’m done,” she said. “Let’s look for the crystals.”

  The place was still sticky from the sugar meltdown and there were dead ants all over the place. There was also a huge amount of charred wood and Amanda could still smell a faint burning odor. It was going to be rough searching for the crystals in that mess. She wished she’d thought of a way to keep her shoes from sticking. Then she remembered the evidence bags. They might just fit over them. But when she slipped a bag onto her right shoe, she found that it was too small. If only they’d thought to collect some plastic shopping bags. Oh well. They’d have to clean their shoes later.

  They started picking through the mess with Amanda videoing as they went. She opened a channel and streamed the signal back to Clive so he could make comments. He was chuffed and kept asking her to direct the camera here and there. The work was tedious, and at the rate they were going it would take them hours to comb through the rubble, but they couldn’t think of a way to make the search go faster.

  “Maybe the crystals we brought will sense their countrymen,” said Simon, giggling.

  “You know,” said Amanda, “that’s not such a bad idea. Think they’d be able to spot them?”

  “It’s worth a try,” said Simon. “Are you getting this, Clive?” Amanda checked her screen and nodded. He extracted a crystal from his backpack and held it out. Nothing. “That doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “Maybe it will blink when we get close, assuming there are crystals here in the first place.”

  She removed a crystal from her stash and held it out, with the same result. “Tell you what,” she said. “For the next ten minutes, I’ll look on the ground and you hold out the crystal. It’s pretty hard to do both at the same time.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” said Simon. “I’ll attach the crystal to my shoe so I can see it when I look down.” He put the crystal in an evidence bag and threaded a shoelace through it, making sure the cord was short enough that the crystal didn’t flop around. “What do you think?”

  “Looks good to me,” said Amanda. “Clive, did you hear Simon? We’re relocating the scout crystal to his shoe. Let’s roll.”

  “Cool,” said Clive.

  They sifted and lifted and dug until their backs were sore, but they didn’t find anything. Then, after quite a while spent in this futile activity, Simon stopped abruptly and said, “It’s working.”

  “What’s working?” said Amanda, searching a particularly dense bit of wood and plaster rubble.

  “It’s blinking.”

  “What?” she cried. “Let me see.” Sure enough, the crystal attached to Simon’s shoe was blinking its apricot color off and on. “Do you think there are crystals near here? Maybe it’s just trying to say that it likes you or something.”

  “Getting hot,” said Clive.

  “Dunno,” said Simon. He moved the crystal around until it blinked faster. “There!” he said, stepping into some mud. “I can see something.”

  He grabbed the small trowel he’d stowed in his backpack and dug gently. The crystal on his shoe blinked so fast it looked like a strobe. The color deepened slightly as the crystal got more excited. Amanda thought it looked really cool with Simon’s purple nose. She made sure to get a good shot of the two of them. She wanted to try that combination in disguise class.

  “Nice camerawork,” said Clive.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Soon Simon had unearthed two perfect crystals. The one on his shoe had settled down and reverted to its normal state, but when he put them close together the scout crystal went back to blinking. Whether because that was the way it communicated with the other crystals or to show its happiness Amanda didn’t know.

  “Is that amazing or what?” she said. She bent close to Simon’s hand to look carefully with both eyes and camera. “They’re like their own Geiger counters.”

  “Yes and no,” said Simon. “Obviously they don’t blink just because they’re near each other. I suspect this one did because it knew we were looking for the others and wanted to let us know we were close.”

  “They’re like dogs,” said Amanda. “The blinking is their wagging tail.”

  “They’re pretty amazing,” said Simon. He bagged the crystals and put them in his pack. “You do realize what this means, though?”

  “What?”

  “Professor Pole’s theory is correct. The force of an explosion does create the crystals, but only if the virus-treated su
gar has been there.”

  “It’s surprising they’re not pink,” said Clive. “I’ll look into it.”

  “You’re right,” she said. “But what this also means is that Moriarty might have found them. We have no way of knowing how many crystals are still here, or might have been. And yes, Clive, I thought of that too.”

  “You’re probably right,” said Simon. “But let’s keep looking. Maybe we’ll discover something else. I mean besides more crystals.”

  A couple of times Simon’s warning crystal blinked but they didn’t find anything. “Do you suppose there were crystals here and they know it?” he said.

  “If they can sense that, they’re even more amazing than we thought,” said Amanda. “But how are we supposed to be able to tell? They don’t leave a residue, do they?”

  “I don’t know,” said Simon. “It doesn’t seem likely. We can try swabbing and analyzing what we find in the lab. But it’s hard to know where to take a sample.”

  “I can tell from the video,” said Clive. “Hold still.”

  What was Clive talking about? “Can you zoom in with the sensor crystal and see if it blinks really hard?” she said.

  “Let me see,” said Simon. He swept the crystal slowly over the place he suspected it was pointing to. “The speed of the blinking is changing. See? Here it goes faster.” He positioned the crystal over a place where it looked like the soil had been worked. The crystal blinked frantically. He moved it near another spot that looked undisturbed. The crystal slowed down. “And here it doesn’t go so fast. If I didn’t know better, I’d say there were some crystals here at one time.”

  “Okay, let’s swab that,” said Amanda. “But isn’t that weird?”

  “I’ll say,” said Simon. “Of course we have no proof of what’s causing the changes in speed. It might be something we haven’t thought of. But we should know more when we get these samples into the lab.”

  “I really think there were crystals here,” said Amanda. “There was a ton of the pink sugar—way more than at Legatum. You can’t tell me that the explosion didn’t turn all that residue into crystals.”

  “You’ve got a point,” said Simon. “It does seem odd that we haven’t found more.”

  “He’s got them,” Amanda said. She was a hundred percent sure that Blixus had found the crystals and removed them. If he hadn’t missed the few they’d found they might never have known, either.

  “You’re probably right,” said Simon. “And the worst thing is that he probably knows about their special properties. Why else would he have taken them?”

  “What is he going to do with them?” said Amanda.

  “There are organisms on the crystals,” said Clive. “Parasites, I think.”

  Amanda and Simon looked at each other. “What?” they said together.

  What indeed would Blixus Moriarty do if he had the crystals? Amanda just knew he would find a way to make them into weapons. He might turn them into energy storage devices, but doing that would kill them. Either way the crystals would die, leaving Legatum with the only live specimens in the world. She was growing very fond of the little creatures and did not want to see them hurt. Of course she didn’t like the idea of Moriarty coming up with new weapons either. But what was this about parasites? How could Clive tell, and what did it mean?

  The other immediate problem was the book. It was possible that it, too, was hiding somewhere in the rubble, but because it was only one thing and the crystals potentially many, it would be way more difficult to find. Now they had three tasks ahead of them: the book, the rest of the crystals, and the virus formula. Oh, and the parasites, whatever they were.

  “What are we going to do about the book?” Amanda said to Simon, who was still sweeping with the sensor crystal. “We don’t have a book Geiger counter to tell us it’s here.”

  “I think we have to assume that Moriarty has it,” said Simon. “If it’s here, fine—no one has it, and no one can hurt Legatum. But if he’s got it he can do a lot of damage, or so it seems. We need to find him first, and then the book.”

  “I think you’re right,” she said. “So where do we look? We have no idea where he is or where he’s going.”

  “Let’s approach this logically,” said Simon, still sweeping. “Where does he live? Does he have a flat? A house? A relative he can go to?”

  “I’m sure Thrillkill would have a good idea,” said Amanda. “Obviously that’s off the table. I wish Professor Kindseth were out of the hospital. He’d probably help us.”

  “He’s doing better,” said Clive.

  “I’m not so sure he would,” said Simon. “He is a teacher. He can’t betray the other teachers. Oh, good. Thanks, Clive.”

  “By helping us?” she said. “All we’re trying to do is get their stupid book back for them. And save the crystals. How is that betraying anyone? Thank goodness. Can he have visitors, Clive?”

  “Not yet.”

  “You and I don’t think it’s a betrayal,” said Simon, “but I don’t think they’d see it that way.”

  Amanda thought for a moment. “I wish there were a place to sit down,” she said. “I’m tired.”

  “How about the curb along Factory Road?” he said. “We’d have to walk down a ways, but that would work, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes, good idea. Do you mind?”

  “Nope. I could stand to sit down for a minute too,” said Simon.

  “‘Stand to sit.’ Cool,” said Clive.

  Simon put the sensor crystal away and the two of them waded out of the debris, which reached halfway down the street, or so it seemed. At last they found a nice stretch of curb and plopped down.

  No sooner had her butt touched the concrete than Amanda remembered something. “OMG. How could I have forgotten? One time when the common room was done up like an ocean liner, Nick said he liked sailing. Maybe his dad has a boat.”

  “Good thinking,” said Simon. “The river is right there. Let’s check it out. “You still there, Clive?”

  “Yup,” said Clive. “Take me to the river.”

  Getting to the Thames was not the easiest thing with all that wreckage between them and it. They would either have to go through or around the mess, and in either case they might be blocked when they got near the water. But eventually they agreed that it would be faster to go around, even if the route was longer.

  When they got close they were disappointed to find that there was a solid fence in their way. Simon said they should climb over it, but Amanda peeked underneath and said that the ground dropped off precipitously on the other side.

  “At least I can climb up and take a look,” he said.

  “Show me,” said Clive.

  “Sorry, Clive,” said Amanda. “Can’t.”

  Simon scaled the fence in about two seconds—Amanda wasn’t sure how—and was looking at the river. “There’s a dock down a ways,” he said. “Uh oh.”

  “What?” she said.

  “I think I see him on a boat,” said Simon.

  “OMG,” she said. “We have to get there.”

  “You’re right. There’s no way to get there from here. We’ll have to find another spot. Come on.”

  He dropped down from the fence, grabbed Amanda’s hand, and pulled her back to the street. He was running so fast she could barely keep up with him. “Skateboards,” she yelled.

  He stopped for a moment and said, “Right,” then pulled his skateboard out of his backpack and started going like the wind. In a few seconds she’d caught up with him, still videoing, and within another minute they found themselves with a clear view of the boat and Blixus Moriarty, who was talking on his phone. The boat was about fifty feet long and looked very old. Amanda wondered if it had once been a fishing boat—or still was. She couldn’t imagine the Moriartys casting nets over the side and hauling up tuna or whatever fish lived here. Simon started down toward the dock, but she stopped him.

  “Listening devices,” she said. “If we stay here he won’t see us.”


  “What listening devices?” said Clive.

  “Good idea,” said Simon. “Tell you later, Clive.”

  But even using the listening devices there was too much background noise and they couldn’t hear anything Blixus was saying. Neither of them read lips either, nor did Clive, so that was out.

  “Do you think he’s going off somewhere?” said Amanda. “If he has the book and ends up in Norway or France or something, we’ll never get it.”

  “The Thames leads to the North Sea,” said Simon. “Maybe he’s heading for the Netherlands.”

  “Or Germany,” said Amanda. “Oh dear, oh dear.”

  “He might be planning to head up the English coast,” said Simon, “or around the south coast to the west of the country.”

  “You’d know better than me,” she said. “I’m not familiar with those places.”

  “I’m not sure it matters,” said Simon. “Even if we knew, how could we follow him?”

  “I think we need to sneak on board,” said Amanda.

  “Yes!” said Simon. “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “Take me,” said Clive.

  “The only thing is, how are we going to get on the boat without anyone seeing? It isn’t that big. And what will we do if we get caught? You can’t skate off a boat.”

  “Yes,” said Simon. “We need to think this through.”

  They stood there for a second and then Amanda said, “Maybe we should wait until it gets dark.”

  “Okay,” said Simon. “But even then, how are we going to find the book or the crystals?”

  “The crystals will be glowing and might be easy to spot,” said Amanda. “But on such a small boat it’s likely we’ll run into Blixus, and Mavis if she’s there too.”

  “And they might be in a drawer or something anyway,” said Simon.

  Suddenly they saw Blixus get off the boat, untie it, and jump back on. The boat was leaving the dock! He was escaping and they had no idea where he was going. Amanda started to run after him, but Simon caught her and shook his head. He was right. There was no way they were going to catch up, and even if they did Moriarty would probably just tie them up. They were sunk. And for all practical purposes, so was Legatum.