Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set

by Paula Berinstein

  “Let’s keep going,” said Amanda, grabbing both boys’ hands and continuing on toward the supposed end of the first rainbow.

  “Take pictures,” said Clive, reaching for his phone.

  “Yes,” said Amanda, retrieving hers and shooting video as they ran. It was going to come out awfully bumpy.

  “What’s that?” said Simon.

  “OMG,” said Amanda, eyeing something shiny in the dirt some hundred yards away from them. “Is that gold?”

  Now they could see the end of the first rainbow and there was indeed gold underneath it. However, before they could reach the spot they saw men removing the gold on wheeled carts.

  “Follow them!” yelled Simon, stepping on his skateboard.

  The other two grabbed their boards from their backpacks and took off, but by the time they reached the end of the rainbow, or at least where the end had been, because the whole thing was gone, the men had disappeared and the sky had cleared. There wasn’t a rainbow in sight.

  “Which way did they go?” said Simon.

  “I think that way,” said Clive, pointing off to the left.

  “No, it was the other way,” said Amanda, pointing right.

  “I thought they went that way,” said Simon, pointing straight ahead.

  “Let’s split up,” said Amanda, and wheeled to the right. Behind her she heard the boys zoom off.

  It wasn’t easy to skateboard around the zoo. There were so many obstacles, like visitors, for one thing, that Amanda wouldn’t normally have attempted it. It wasn’t allowed anyway. But the opportunity was too important to ignore, so she dodged this way and that. In the end, though, she gave up, grabbed her board, and ran. Unfortunately the men with the gold were nowhere to be seen. They seemed to have gone the way of the rainbows, vanishing into thin air.

  She texted Simon and Clive but they didn’t answer. Probably still looking, or maybe they’d even found the mysterious gold men. She wasn’t sure what to do, so she decided to return to the last place they’d been together and wait.

  People were beginning to calm down, but an awful lot of them seemed to be leaving now so it was slow going getting back to the entrance. When Amanda got there the place was so clogged that she was pushed this way and that and had to fight her way to the edge of the walkway. From that vantage point she scouted for Simon and Clive, but all she could see was bobbing heads and strollers. The hubbub was loud but at least the animal cries had ceased.

  She texted both boys again and told them where she was but got no answer. The people continued to stream by her but she recognized none of them. Then after about twenty minutes she heard Simon’s voice coming out of the crowd.

  “Amanda,” he called. “Is that you?”

  “Simon! Where are you?”

  “In the middle of all these people. Is Clive with you?”

  “No. I’ve been alone here forever. Didn’t you get my texts?”

  “Oh, sorry. I was trying to find those guys, and then I could barely make my way back.”

  First Simon’s head and then his skinny body emerged from the mass of people. He sidestepped a young woman with two tiny boys in tow and stood disheveled in front of Amanda.

  “Did you find them?” she said.

  “Nope. You?”

  “No. Maybe Clive did. He didn’t answer me either but he must be on his way back. Unless he found them, of course. Ooh, do you think he did?”

  “Dunno. If he did, he might be a while.”

  “You don’t think they’re dangerous, do you?” She was still searching the crowd. No Clive.

  “Don’t see how. They’re just workmen collecting something.” He scanned the crowd. She didn’t know why she bothered to look. Simon could see so much better. He was way taller than she was.

  “Gold, Simon,” said Amanda. “They’re collecting gold.” For a moment she thought she saw their missing friend, but no. It was some very tall little kid with his parents.

  “Optical illusion,” said Simon. “You sound like Editta.” He was blocking her view. She moved to the right.

  “I suppose you’re right,” she said. “Except for the leprechaun coins.” Was that Clive? Here he—oops, no. It was a girl with short hair. Nuts.

  “Don’t tell me you think those guys were collecting leprechauns’ treasure at the end of the rainbow?” said Simon. “Come on.”

  “No, of course not. That would be ridiculous. So what are they anyway?” Why was that boy staring at her? No, wait, he was looking at something behind her.

  “The leprechaun coins? Party favors.”

  “They’re real gold, Simon.”

  “Billionaire party favors? I don’t know. Just forget about them. They’re not anything.”

  “You don’t think the hacker could be making them, do you?” Was that him? Nope. Fooled again.

  “How’s he going to do that?” said Simon, blocking her view again.

  “I don’t know. Turning rainbow energy into a solid?”

  “Can’t be done,” said Simon. “Not without nuclear power or something.”

  “Okay. You know best. Say, where’s Clive already?”

  “Do you remember the time we got separated at Euston Station and you couldn’t find me? And then you had me paged?”

  “Yes. That was Scapulus’s idea,” said Amanda. “You’re saying we should page Clive?”

  “Yes. If we can get to the information kiosk over there.” He pointed toward a small blue booth. It reminded Amanda of the Tardis in “Dr. Who.”

  “It’s thinning out a bit,” she said. “I think we can make it.”

  “Maybe one of us should go and one stay here in case he comes back,” he said.

  “Okay. I’ll wait here.”

  Within about two minutes Amanda could hear the loudspeaker blare, “Mr. Clive Ng, please come to information kiosk. Mr. Clive Ng.” Obviously Simon had made it there.

  She sat and waited, and in about thirty seconds Simon reappeared, examining his phone.

  “No answer,” he said. “You?”

  She checked her phone. “Nope. You’d think he would have heard that, though. It was really loud.”

  “Yes,” said Simon. “He should be texting us any second.”

  But he didn’t. They must have sat there for another twenty minutes. Amanda was getting more and more panicky. It was obvious that something bad had happened to Clive. Had the rainbows been a come on to get them to the zoo? What did the hacker want with Clive?

  Then Simon’s phone finally rang. He listened for a moment and turned to Amanda. “It’s Clive. Hey, man, where are you?” He held the phone to his ear, looked at Amanda, and moved the phone so they both could hear. There was a bunch of squawking coming out of the speaker.

  “Clive?” said Amanda.

  More squawking, and then the phone went dead. Simon dialed back but got no answer.

  “Did he say anything?”

  “No. This isn’t good,” said Simon. “We have to figure out where he is and go get him.”

  He phoned Holmes and asked if he could hack Clive’s GPS. Holmes tried, but he called back and said that Clive’s phone must be off. Simon and Amanda thought the squawking might have come from the bird section of the zoo and went off to check, but Clive wasn’t there.

  “We’re going to have to tell Thrillkill,” said Amanda. “He has better resources than we do.”

  “Agreed,” said Simon. “Let’s phone him and head back.”

  30

  There’s Something About Mavis

  By the time Simon and Amanda returned to the school, they had concluded that Clive had been kidnapped. That brought to eight the number of people missing: Clive, David, Editta, Philip, Gavin, Despina, Hill, and Jeffrey. Of course there were also the three Moriartys, but they weren’t exactly missing, just gone. Add to those the three murders—Wink, Crocodile, and the farmer—and the situation was appalling. Amanda wondered when Thrillkill was going to notify Clive’s family and what he would say. She hoped Clive’s
parents wouldn’t join the revolt too, or worse, start their own lawsuit.

  It turned out that Green and Bullard Ng were upset, of course, but they kept their cool and expressed complete confidence in the headmaster. They knew their son and were sure he’d find a way out of whatever jam he was in. Amanda didn’t exactly breathe a sigh of relief, but she was glad that Clive’s family wasn’t creating yet another crisis.

  Everyone was beginning to think that Blixus was behind all the crimes, if crimes they were. His grudge against the detectives in general and Thrillkill in particular was just too strong for him not to be. In addition, the man was so greedy that if there was a way to profit from the discovery of Camelot, he’d find it. Of course if he’d become so powerful that he could manipulate matter, the detectives might not have a chance against him. Amanda didn’t want to think about the awful things he might do. She got the fleeting idea that Simon might even join up with him just for his help fixing the earth’s tilt, but she knew that was crazy.

  She went to her room and opened the video she’d shot at the zoo. If she hadn’t seen the rainbows with her own eyes she’d never have believed they could behave that way. The entire sky was filled with color and movement, the sound a riot. If she hadn’t known all that glory had been created by a dangerous hacker she’d have thought it beautiful.

  She should show the video to Holmes. It might provide important clues in his search for the hacker. She didn’t feel like talking to him, but she was going to have to meet him about the film anyway. She texted him.

  “Was going to text U,” he said. “Can we meet?”

  “Y,” she sent back, and the next thing she knew she was sitting at their spot in the dining room drinking tea.

  “I tried hacking Clive’s phone,” he said. “No luck. I’ll keep at it.”

  “Thanks, Scapulus. Maybe you can show us how to do that next term—if there is one.”

  “Happy to,” he said. “And if we have anything to say about it there will be. We’re going to fix all this, Amanda. I know it.”

  “On that note, I have something to show you,” she said, and produced the video from the zoo. Holmes stared at it and asked her to play it over about a dozen times. Watching him watching it made her think of Nick and his Explosions! game. The rainbows were like explosions. Could Nick be the one creating them?

  Holmes looked up and said, “Incredible. It’s like a light show against the sky, but it’s more than that. See the way the rainbows are hitting those trees? They’re actually moving the leaves. They’re dangerous.”

  “Are they laser beams?” she said.

  “I don’t know. They have elements in common with them, but lasers are coherent, which means they’re narrow. Hang on a second.” He thumbed his phone. “Hm, not necessarily. There’s a Gaussian beam laser that spreads light out. See?” He showed her a diagram depicting a conical laser beam.

  “Oh, that looks like it could be it, except that he’s bending the beams. Or she is. They’re arced.”

  “Yes, which means that this light isn’t any kind of laser we know of. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’ll model these in 3D. That might help explain what’s going on.”

  Amanda thought Holmes’s idea was brilliant. She was good at 3D stuff. Should she offer to help? Finding the hacker was so important, but it would mean spending more time with him. He might even be offended.

  As Amanda was pondering her dilemma Amphora wandered in. Holmes cheered up and said, “Hey, would you look at this?”

  Amphora drew close to Holmes and watched as he played the video a couple of times. She seemed to be reveling in being near him. Was she flirting? Of course she was. She flirted with everyone. Amanda wished she’d give him some space.

  “Come sit here,” she said, patting the chair next to her.

  “I’m fine,” said Amphora.

  That set Amanda off. “Scapulus,” she said, “would you like me to help you model the explosions?”

  Holmes looked up. “You, help me with the animation?”

  “Of course. You know I know how to do that stuff.”

  “Yes, you do,” he said enthusiastically. “That would be great. Thanks.”

  Amphora huffed, moved over to the chair Amanda had indicated, and sat down.

  “I’m good at designing,” she said. “I’m very aesthetic.”

  Holmes gave her a look and said, “That you are.”

  This flirting between the two of them sent Amanda into paroxysms of jealousy. She knew she shouldn’t feel that way—she had no claim on Holmes—but she wanted to scream.

  “Scapulus,” she said. “I have an idea for our film.”

  Amphora looked daggers at her and said, “Hm. You’re just at the idea stage, are you?”

  Amanda ignored her. “Would you like to hear it?”

  “Yes, of course,” he said. “You have good ideas, Amanda.”

  The compliment so enraged Amphora that she huffed again and said, “I have ideas. Would you like to hear them?”

  Amanda almost laughed out loud. Amphora was digging her own grave. What could she possibly suggest about the film that Holmes would want to hear?

  Amphora sat back and said smugly, “I think you should scare the teachers half to death.”

  Holmes looked like he was thinking over the idea and then said, “Why?”

  “They’re tough,” said Amphora. “You have to hit them in the gut or they won’t listen.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Amanda, mentally weighing her own theory. If there were holes in it, Amphora would skewer her.

  “Why not?” said Amphora. “You’ve seen how Professor Buck and Professor Sidebotham are.”

  Amanda couldn’t help herself. “Professor Buck and Professor Sidebotham are completely different from each other,” she blurted out.

  “Well, of course,” said Amphora, “one is a man and the other is a woman.”

  “Not that,” said Amanda, growing impatient. “Professor Sidebotham is resilient. Professor Buck isn’t.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Amphora. “Professor Buck is one of the toughest teachers here.”

  “On the outside,” said Amanda. “Not on the inside.”

  “What, you think Professor Buck is a big teddy bear? Get real, Amanda.”

  “No, I don’t think he’s a teddy bear. I think he’s a scared little boy.”

  “That’s quite a theory,” said Holmes. He seemed fascinated. Amanda was glad. She was winning the argument and getting one over on Amphora at the same time. “Care to elaborate?”

  “Bah,” said Amphora. “Stuff and nonsense.”

  She got up from the table, batted her eyelashes at Holmes, and sashayed out of the room. Amanda wanted to gag. She was glad to see the back of her.

  “Tell me more,” said Holmes. His liquid eyes were wide with interest.

  Amanda did her best to ignore his charms and explained her thinking about the Realists being resilient and the Punitori fragile. Holmes sat back and thought for a very long time, staring off into the distance. Finally he took a last gulp of his tea and said, “Brava, Amanda. I think you’re right.”

  “You do?”

  “I do. That’s why I—” He gave her a longing look.

  “That’s why you what?”

  “Nothing. Sorry. I do want to tell you, though, that I’ve been thinking about that musical idea of yours and I think you’re right. It sounds crazy, but I think we could pull it off. Music speaks directly to the emotions. Thrillkill might not see it at first, but I think we can convince him with a little demonstration. My only concern is whether we have the time to write all those songs.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about that,” said Amanda, not even trying to suppress her grin. Holmes was full of surprises. No wonder she adored him. “I’ve got it covered.”

  The next thing that happened was the teachers announcing that they had learned more about Mavis Moriarty’s background. Everyone was so interested that Thrillkill called the e
ntire school together and squeezed everyone into the Holmes House common room, which was farther away from the construction than the others and less dusty. All the teachers and many students attended, despite its being summer. Quite a few students were pitching in, trying to help the school out of its difficulties.

  “As you know,” said Thrillkill, standing in front of the group, many of whom were sitting on the floor for lack of space, “Mavis Moriarty was born Mavis Jamm. This much we know. Until now, however, that’s almost all we’ve known about her. We examined her arrest record: nothing until this past April, which we all know about. School records, traffic tickets, social media, all clean. We’ve interviewed her former neighbors. They had nothing to say except for mentioning two of her old boyfriends, neither of whom seems to be Wink Wiffle or anyone connected with us or Blixus Moriarty. We tracked down her family. Of course they refused to speak to us.

  “Finally, however, we found someone who was willing to talk—a waitress who once worked with Mavis. You can thank Professor Scribbish for persuading her.”

  Figures, thought Amanda. The dishy professor could melt just about any woman.

  “You won’t find this surprising, but when she was working at the restaurant, Mavis killed someone. Our former cook, the late Mrs. Dump, witnessed the murder and blackmailed Mavis. That was what she was holding over her, and that was why Mavis ended up cooking all the meals. It was part of their deal. Apparently Mrs. Dump helped her dispose of the body in return for hush money.”

  Actually Amanda was surprised. She knew Mavis was capable of murder, but for some reason it was hard to picture her working as a waitress. She wasn’t sure why. When she’d first met the woman, she’d been an assistant in a kitchen. Now that she knew Mavis was Nick’s mother, though, those jobs seemed so pedestrian. A criminal with Mavis’s abilities should have been something else—a nightclub owner or a cat burglar, perhaps.