Amanda Lester, Detective Box Set

by Paula Berinstein

  The next thing she knew she was lying on the ground and the noise had stopped. Simon was bending over her looking concerned, and Nick was nowhere in sight.

  “What happened?” she said. Her head felt like it was going to explode.

  “Nick’s helmet. You’re wearing it,” said Simon. “The noise is gone now, right?”

  “Yes, but what about Nick?” she said. If he were experiencing what she just had, he’d be passed out somewhere too, maybe even dead.

  “He took off,” said Simon. “We don’t have a helmet for him.”

  “He can’t!” said Amanda. “We need him to talk to Hugh.”

  “We’ll have to worry about that later,” said Simon.

  “What’s going on out there?” she moaned.

  “Come on, let’s find out,” said Simon.

  He began to sneak toward the castle, pulling Amanda along with him. The battle between the teachers and Taffeta’s gang was raging. Darktower was screaming at the top of his lungs—for what reason Amanda had no idea, since it wasn’t accomplishing anything. Professor Ducey was shooting, as was Professor Snool, Legatum’s former weapons teacher, who had come from who knew where and was stepping on Professor Xerxes’s foot, saying, “My shot.” This behavior seemed to anger Professor Xerxes no end, and he elbowed Professor Snool and said, “No, it’s mine, you twit.” That annoyed Professor Snool, who grabbed Professor Xerxes by the wrist, pulled him close, and screamed, “GET.OUT.OF.MY.WAY!” Then he shoved the new teacher as far away as he could, which wasn’t all that far, since Professor Xerxes was built like a tank.

  Unfortunately the scuffle didn’t have the desired effect. Rather it irked the other teachers, and soon they were all scrabbling with each other, saying, “That was my shot,” and “You’re aiming that all wrong,” and “Go find your own castle.” Amanda was aghast. These people were supposed to be setting an example, teaching the kids, protecting them, and here they were acting like a bunch of two-year-olds. Finally she got so fed up with all of them that she ran out onto the field and screamed, “You should be ashamed of yourselves!”

  That got their attention. The teachers whirled around and stared at her. And then, about three seconds later, they started squabbling again, this time worse than before.

  “I give up,” she said, and ran back to the shelter of the trees. And then she heard a shriek.

  She turned around to see that Holmes had fallen to the ground. It looked like he’d been shot! She ran back toward him and found him lying in a mud puddle clutching his shoulder, which was bright with blood.

  “Scapulus!” she screamed.

  “I’m okay,” said Holmes. “It just grazed me.”

  “You’re bleeding!” she yelled.

  “I’m fine, Amanda. Get out of the way.”

  “No! You’ve got to get back to shelter. And your shoulder—here.”

  She took off her jacket and tried to wrap the wound with it. It was an awkward proposition because of the location of the bullet hole and the bulk of the garment. She tried to tie the jacket onto Holmes but she couldn’t get it to stay. Finally she pressed on it and said, “Can you get up?”

  “Of course I can,” said Holmes.

  But he couldn’t. He was too weak and his legs kept collapsing.

  “Somebody help!” Amanda yelled. Simon, Clive, and Binnie came running. Stray shots were coming in their direction, and they stayed as low to the ground as they could. “Can you lift him?”

  “We’ve got him,” said Simon.

  With Amanda still pressing on the jacket, the other three lifted Holmes and carried him awkwardly back to the trees. Amanda could see that he was trying not to grunt, but she heard a bit of oofing here and there. At last they got him back to the car and laid him across the middle seat.

  “Hang on, Scapulus,” said Amanda, digging in her bag. “I’m calling an ambulance.”

  “I don’t need one,” said Holmes.

  “Are you kidding? You’re all bloody.”

  “Amanda—”

  “Hello?” she said into her phone. The dispatcher asked her what the emergency was, where she was located, and who was calling. “Dandy Castle. A gunshot wound. Amanda Lester.” The dispatcher said the ambulance would be there within a few minutes.

  “I really wish you hadn’t done that,” said Holmes. “Say, why are they still shooting out there? Isn’t that thing supposed to freak them out?”

  Then there came a scream and everyone looked up. “What is it?” said Amanda.

  Simon and Clive ran to the edge of the trees. “Professor Also’s been hit!” yelled Simon. “And what’s Binnie doing out there?”

  “What?” said Holmes. “I thought Binnie came back with us.”

  “Ssh,” said Amanda. “Just rest.” Then to Simon, “Is she all right?”

  “Binnie? Yeah, she’s fine.”

  “Not Binnie, you bozo,” said Amanda. “Professor Also.”

  “I think she’s okay,” said Simon. “Her vest stopped the bullet.”

  “Thank goodness,” said Amanda. “Have they hit anyone inside yet? Say, why are they still shooting?”

  “That’s what I said,” said Holmes.

  “Simon, why isn’t the machine working?”

  “Who says it isn’t working?” said Simon.

  “Look with your own eyes,” said Amanda. “They’re still shooting.”

  “Oh. So they are. I don’t get it. You heard all that noise.”

  “Don’t look at me,” said Amanda. “I didn’t invent the thing. Can’t you adjust it remotely?”

  “No. There wasn’t time to get fancy.”

  “Well what are we going to do now?”

  “I’m going to have to go out there and fix it,” said Simon.

  “I’ll go,” said Clive.

  “It’s too dangerous!” said Amanda. “You’ll be killed.”

  “Can’t be helped,” said Simon.

  Suddenly Binnie appeared, all bedraggled. She was screaming and screaming and wouldn’t stop. Amanda rushed to her and held her. She was panting as if she’d just run a marathon. “Professor Ducey!” she sobbed. “He’s been shot and I think he might be dead!”

  29

  Turning Point

  Amanda couldn’t believe her ears. Surely Professor Ducey, Legatum’s most wonderful teacher—well, almost, if you didn’t count Professor Kindseth—couldn’t be dead. What did Binnie know anyway? She wasn’t that good in their dead bodies class. She wouldn’t know a dead person if she saw one. Amanda ran over to the logic teacher and felt for a pulse. There was one, very thready. He was alive, but just barely. She knelt down and started to compress his chest. One, two, three, four . . .

  “Make it stop, Simon!” she screamed, but she hadn’t realized that would cause him to run out into the middle of the battle and try to fix the machine, or that Clive would go with him, or that Binnie would follow the two of them and that the bullets would fly around their heads like angry bees. But there they all were, in the thick of things, Punitori and Legatum teachers screaming, Professor Ducey down, and Taffeta at a window laughing her head off.

  And there was Simon at the device, sticking his head into the plastic blanket, twirling this and jiggling that, and Clive was behind him yelling, “Have you tried this?” and “Have you tried that?” and Binnie was yelling, “Get close to the wall so they can’t hit you,” and Professor Buck was making ready to charge the place all by himself and suddenly everything changed. The machine started working and Gavin, Philip, Hugh, and three thuggy-looking guys ran out of the castle holding their ears and suddenly Professor Ducey was breathing.

  Amanda could see Professor Darktower take out his phone and start talking to someone, then rush to the nets they had piled up and, with the other teachers’ help, throw them over Taffeta’s gang and Hugh. Even as they were securing their prisoners, the teachers were arguing over whose captives they were, Legatum’s or the Punitori’s. Amanda couldn’t believe that with Professor Ducey practically dead
they could still be acting so petty.

  When Clive turned off the machine and the prisoners stopped holding their ears, they were hopping mad, especially Hugh. “You’re an idiot,” he said to Clive. “There are much more elegant ways to do that.”

  “Shut up, Moriarty,” said Simon.

  “What’s the matter, can’t little Clivey speak for himself?” said Hugh.

  “Don’t talk to him like that,” said Binnie.

  “What do we have here, a love interest for rock boy?” said Hugh. “You’re awfully tall, lady. Sure you’re not his grandmother?”

  Binnie fumed and said, “You’re pathetic.”

  “Oh, I hope so,” said Hugh, but then he seemed to run out of steam and Amanda couldn’t imagine why he’d let an insult like that go. Maybe he’d been hanging around David Wiffle so long he’d lost his ability to craft a good zinger.

  Amanda joined the group guarding the prisoners and looked Hugh up and down. “You’ve got a choice now,” she said. “Get hold of your dad and tell him to admit he faked the whole magician thing, or go to jail. It’s up to you.”

  “What are you on about, Nicky’s girlfriend?” said Hugh. “Don’t you know I can do anything?”

  “Suit yourself,” said Amanda. “The police are on their way. All we have to do is wait. By the way, you do know that with your history they’ll put you in solitary, most likely for a very long time.”

  Hugh snorted. “I’m alone all the time anyway. Big deal.”

  “With no electronics,” said Amanda.

  A look of horror crossed Hugh’s face. Amanda wanted to burst out laughing. She had finally gotten to the little devil and it felt good. But it felt even better when they heard the sirens in the distance and Hugh panicked. Apparently the thought of being deprived of his precious computer was scarier to him than being locked up alone for who knew how many years. He should have been more careful, Amanda thought. Now she had the upper hand.

  “You wouldn’t,” said Hugh.

  “It isn’t up to me,” said Amanda.

  “They can do that?” said Hugh.

  “Ask your dad if you don’t believe me.” It was working. She had him now.

  “Okay, okay, call off your dogs,” said Hugh.

  “Call off your dogs?” she said. “What kind of junk have you been watching?”

  “Shut up,” said Hugh. “I’ll do it. Just don’t hand me over.”

  “I’m afraid it’s too late to stop the police from coming, Hughie. However, if you do what I ask I’ll hide you.”

  “How can I trust you?” he said.

  “You don’t have any choice. What’s the number?”

  “I can’t tell you that,” said Hugh.

  “Okay. It’s all the same to me.”

  The sirens were getting louder. The police were almost there.

  “Okay, it’s . . .” He gave her the number and she punched it in. Then she heard Blixus’s voice. “Blixus!” she taunted. “I’ve got someone here who wants to talk to you. And I suggest you do what he says or he’ll be arrested. The police are about sixty seconds away.”

  “Amanda Lester, is that you?” Blixus said. “How did you get this—”

  She gave Hugh the phone. “Hi, Dad,” he said.

  She could hear Blixus loud and clear. “Hugh? What are you doing with that girl? Where have you been?”

  “It’s complicated,” said Hugh.

  “She said you have sixty seconds. What’s going on?”

  “If you don’t admit that you faked the magic stuff, I’m going to be arrested,” said Hugh.

  “I can’t do that,” said Blixus. “I’m finally getting my revenge. I’m ending those detectives once and for all.”

  “Dad, if they arrest me I won’t have access to my computer,” said Hugh.

  “Hm,” said Blixus. “We can’t have that. What’s the alternative? If I do what they want.”

  “Nicky’s girlfriend will hide me,” said Hugh. “I won’t be arrested.”

  “Thirty seconds,” said Amanda.

  “Did you hear that?” said Hugh.

  “Twenty-five,” said Amanda. “Oh, and the recorder is on. All you have to do is admit what you’ve done. We’ll take care of the rest.”

  Blixus didn’t miss a beat. “I, Blixus Moriarty, framed Liam Halpin and faked the artifacts at the Penrith archaeological dig and the Aberystwyth cave. Alfie Kingsolver is no more a magician than I am. The DNA in the cave was fake.”

  “Why did you do it?” said Amanda. She was surprised that he wasn’t arguing with her. He’d obviously got the message.

  “To kill logic,” said Blixus. “To end the detectives. I did it to ruin them so they could never operate again.”

  “That’s it, bye bye,” said Amanda, and pressed the off button.

  “But you didn’t—” said Hugh.

  “Come with me, idiot,” said Amanda.

  She nodded at the teachers, who lifted up the net and watched him get free. Then she pushed him and said, “Run!”

  “Do you have an umbrella?” he said.

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” said Amanda. “Just get out of here. The police are getting out of their cars over there.” Sure enough they were—about ten of them. “I hope you catch pneumonia,” she yelled after the boy, who was running toward the woods.

  He turned around and laughed. “You and Holmes are such losers. Do you really think this is over?”

  When Amanda played Blixus’s confession for the others they were pleased, but some of them thought the price was too high.

  “You let that monster go?” said Professor Also.

  “I had no choice,” said Amanda.

  “You’re going to have to work hard to convince me of that,” said Professor Snool.

  “We can argue about this later,” said Simon. “We’ve got to get Taffeta out of there. I wonder why she didn’t come out.”

  While several of the police rounded up the prisoners, the rest of them entered the castle to apprehend Taffeta, but after a long search they declared that she wasn’t there. Satisfied that they’d done all they could, they left with their prisoners.

  “I just don’t understand how you could let Hugh go,” said Clive.

  “We’ll get him back,” said Amanda. “We’ve done it before and we can do it again.”

  “We don’t always win,” said Clive. “Look at Professor Ducey.”

  The kids walked back to where a couple of medical techs were loading the logic teacher into an ambulance. One of the paramedics looked at her and said, “We hope the paralysis will be temporary. Shot nicked the spine though.” Amanda was shocked. What paralysis? But the guy wouldn’t say any more. She felt so sick to her stomach that she ate a gingersnap. And then someone said, “Where’s Professor Snaffle?”

  “I don’t know,” said Simon. “I forgot all about her. Maybe she went back to Scotland. I see Also and Buck and Snool, but I don’t see her.”

  “Well, she can’t have disappeared into thin air,” said Amanda. “I guess she left.”

  It wasn’t until they were halfway back to Legatum that Amanda remembered Nick. After he’d left his helmet with her and taken off she hadn’t seen him again. But wasn’t he supposed to talk to Hugh, to convince him to get Blixus to recant? The whole thing was his plan in the first place and that was his role in it. And yet they’d managed without him.

  Where could he have gone? Surely he’d be watching from a safe distance and would have returned when Clive stopped the machine. Or had he feared that the Punitori would turn him in? Yes, that must have been it. He’d seen them and realized it wasn’t safe. But he’d said he was willing to go to jail to make things right, so why hadn’t he come forward? Had he chickened out? Or had he lied in the first place? Could it be he was still in league with Blixus after all and had fooled her yet again?

  Amanda sent him a text, but no answer came. She didn’t know whether to worry for him or about him.

  Clive wasn’t the only one who thought
letting Hugh go was a bad idea. The whole way back to Legatum Holmes kept berating Amanda for doing what he called “a very foolish thing.” He pointed out that now all three Moriartys were on the loose again, because after all, where was Nick when he was supposed to have showed up to help? Furthermore, how did she know that Blixus’s message would do any good? The public would probably see it as a joke. She was way too trusting and no good would come of any of this. By the time they got back to the school she wanted to deck him despite his injury.

  Her feelings about him changed after he went to see the doctor though. Dr. Wing pronounced him lucky and said that if the bullet had gone just a slightly different way it would have penetrated his neck and he’d be paralyzed, or dead. She told herself that he was being a pain because he cared and forgave him everything.

  When they got back to the school Simon said, “I’m going to plead guilty.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Amanda.

  “It’s my fault Professor Ducey was shot,” he said. “I’m going to take my punishment.”

  “How is it your fault?”

  “I didn’t test the machine well enough.”

  “If you didn’t, then it’s my fault too,” said Clive. “Gosh, I guess it is. This is terrible.”

  “It wasn’t your fault, either of you,” said Amanda. “They had no business being there. You weren’t to know.”

  “No, Scapulus was right,” said Simon. “We should have tested better.”

  Amanda glanced at Holmes. He was just lying there in pain, so she couldn’t tell what he thought of Simon’s remark.

  “You did the best you could,” said Binnie. “This is a dangerous business.”

  “But Professor Ducey!” said Simon.

  “I think this was Nick’s fault,” said Clive.

  Amanda was stunned. Mild-mannered Clive seemed to be turning into Simon or something. How could he say such a thing?

  “Why are you blaming him?” she said. “He wasn’t even here.”

  “The whole scheme was his idea,” said Clive. “And he didn’t even do what he said he would. If it hadn’t been for him, none of us would have gone to the castle.”