Tony said, “I’d rather be in the middle of it all, but I see your point. The only thing I know about chocolate is how to eat it.”
Jessica peeled the bags off Sophie, and Sophie did the same for her. After Sophie had taken a flashlight out of one, Jessica opened the door slowly.
Sophie whispered, “It wouldn’t be good if someone came out this way right now.”
When they were sure the passage was empty, Sophie led the way with the flashlight through the passage and up the stairs. Tony pushed the lever, and the panel into the office area opened. Sophie switched off the flashlight and left it on the top stair.
After stepping from the opening into the room, they hurried over to the door, and Sophie slowly opened it. She whispered, “All clear.”
Tony whispered back, “We have to hurry. I couldn’t figure out a good way to ask if there would be a security guard here today. If there is one, we don’t know if that person is going to be passing this way any second.”
All three of them jumped when they heard what sounded like something falling off a desk or a shelf from somewhere in the building. They froze in place.
After a minute with no sounds, Sophie whispered, “Dry off in the restroom first. Then meet in the chocolate storage area. Since they keep some of the chocolate boxes and the papers that go around each piece there, along with the chocolates, we’ll have everything we need.”
Jessica and Tony nodded, then hurried down the hall. Jessica didn’t even break the silence in the restroom. She kept thinking about how easily they could be caught.
Sophie whispered, “We dried off so much in the passageway that I don’t think we dripped anywhere.”
Jessica nodded agreement. She and Sophie hurried down the hallway, past Mrs. Clayton’s desk, and into the factory. They found Tony pacing back and forth in the chocolate storage room.
Sophie took charge. “Jessica, you find all of the chocolates. Tony, you and I will stand guard. Then Jessica and I can put the box of chocolates together.”
Sophie was always very organized at times like these. Jessica didn’t like it when the door closed and she was alone in here, but having two guards was better than one.
She pulled her phone out of the plastic bag she’d had taped to her back and compared the photos of the chocolates that they’d taken with the pieces on the shelves, choosing those they needed and putting them in paper wrappers in the same size box as the one they’d taken home. She found the first few pieces quickly. It took a little longer to find the others because there were so many that were similar.
Jessica soon knew she’d chosen the exact right chocolates and only needed the final piece. It was the most important one, though, because it would have the ruby inside. Even though there were neat stacks of the many kinds of chocolate with no empty spaces, that piece of chocolate wasn’t here. It had been milk chocolate with caramel in the middle and white chocolate lines on top.
Sophie walked in the door, startling Jessica, who clamped her own hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. When she saw it was her cousin, she pulled her hand away. “Sophie, don’t scare me like that.”
“What’s taking so long? We need to get out of here as soon as we can.”
She pointed at her phone. “I don’t see this one.” Jessica gestured at the shelves. “Help me find it.”
Sophie looked at the phone, then went through the pieces on the shelf. “You’re right. I don’t see it either.”
A voice from behind them said, “What’s taking so long?”
Both Sophie and Jessica jumped and squealed.
“Tony Donadio, you are lucky that the door is closed or someone might have heard us.” Sophie shook her head.
Jessica gestured to a shelf stacked with chocolates. “Tony, the piece that had the ruby in it doesn’t seem to be here. But the milk chocolate with caramel inside looks like it, except it doesn’t have white chocolate lines across the top.”
“We can add white chocolate to the plain piece,” Sophie suggested.
“Sophie, we don’t know how to do that.”
“I helped Mom decorate a cake once. It looks like it should be pretty simple. But maybe you should grab a few of those pieces of chocolate in case I don’t get it right the first time.”
Jessica put three onto a paper towel from a roll in there. “Good idea.”
“I help decorate some foods at the deli when we’re getting ready for parties, and this doesn’t look too much different, so I can try too.”
Jessica added one more piece of chocolate to the pile in her hand.
“Okay, let’s finish this up.”
Tony peered out the room’s door, waved them on, and they hurried down to the factory, where they found a couple of glass containers and filled them with some of the warm, melted milk chocolate and white chocolate. Using a small knife, Jessica made a slit in the bottom of one piece of candy. Then Sophie opened a second plastic bag and brought out the ruby. Jessica pushed it inside the slit.
“You know, I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to tell we did this once we’ve put a little bit of milk chocolate on the bottom. I think this is going to look perfect. We do need for it to dry quickly though.”
After Sophie put a small blob of milk chocolate on a piece of plastic, Jessica gently set the piece of chocolate with the ruby inside on top.
Sophie said, “I think if we dip a fork into the white chocolate, we can drizzle it across. It won’t be as good as the equipment they’ve got here, but it will be a lot easier to clean up. Should I go first, Tony?”
Tony said, “If you think you can do it, go ahead. I’ve never said I was an artist. “
Sophie dipped the ends of the fork into the white chocolate, lifted it, and let some of it drip off. Following the pattern on the photo on Jessica’s phone, she swung the fork over the piece of chocolate twice to give it the white chocolate zigzag on top. The first line went perfectly—and then a giant blob fell off the fork.
Sophie groaned. “Let’s get the ruby out of here and into another piece of chocolate.”
“We should have waited to fix the bottom of the piece of chocolate until we knew we had the top right.”
“But then we might mess up the chocolate on top and have to fix the bottom. No, I think we did it in the right order. We have to start over.”
Jessica said, “Tony, you get the ruby out of the piece of chocolate, and I’ll make a slit in the bottom of another piece.”
When that had been done, they sealed the bottom as they had before with new milk chocolate. Then Sophie handed the fork to Tony.
He dipped it into the white chocolate and drizzled it across the chocolate piece and back. All three of them studied the piece of chocolate from different angles. Jessica held her phone up next to it so they could all see it. “What do you think? Is it the same? I mean, exactly the same?”
“Almost,” Sophie said. “The one in the picture seems to start on one corner and end on another corner. Tony’s version isn’t quite on the corner.”
“Do you think we have to be that exact?” Tony asked.
Sophie nodded. “When your uncle explained the pieces of chocolate and how you could tell one from another by the pattern on the outside, he said it was important that each be exactly the same. That’s the word he used. We’d better try one more time.” She looked up at the clock. “We’ve already been here an hour. I hate to try again in case it’s a complete disaster. But I think we better.”
They did everything as before. When it was time for the white chocolate, Tony asked, “Who should do this one?”
Sophie patted Tony on the shoulder. “You got it way closer than I did, so I say we have you do it.”
Tony gave a single nod, and then he went to work. The first line was perfect, but his hand shook, and Jessica could see he was about to freeze up before he swung the fork back to finish it. “You can do it, Tony!” Jessica said.
“Yes, you can,” Sophie agreed.
Tony drizzled the w
hite chocolate across the piece, ending in the corner and lifting the fork away so it couldn’t drip down the side.
This time when they compared it to the original in the photo, it was the same.
“All right, Tony! Now we need for this to dry somehow, fast. Then put this in the box, wrap it, and get out of here.”
Jessica motioned toward the office half of the building. “We passed what I think was a place for workers to have lunch. The chocolate should harden up quickly if we put the piece in the refrigerator in there.”
Sophie picked up the plate with the piece of chocolate on it and carefully carried it in that direction.
“While you’re gone, I’m going to clean up here so no one will think anything’s wrong if they happen to come by.”
“I’ll help her,” Tony said
Jessica set the last piece of the original chocolates on some plastic and crumpled up the paper towel that had somehow gotten a smear of white chocolate on it. “I would normally eat these messed up pieces to get rid of the evidence, but I’m too nervous to eat anything.”
The nearby trash can was empty. “The janitor must have already come, so anything we throw in there will stand out. Tony, I do think we have to eat the chocolate. It’s one for each of us, and then we can put the piece we didn’t need back in the storage room. It’s still perfect.”
Jessica popped the candy in her mouth. Her taste buds decided that it was a good time to eat chocolate after all, proving that there was no bad time for chocolate.
She’d have to tell her mother that the next time she saw her, but she couldn’t let her know what she’d been doing when she’d figured that out because it might scare her. Being on the other side of the world and having her daughter get into all of these mysteries must have been hard for her. It had been hard for Jessica not to have her nearby when everything had happened with their mysteries this summer.
Tony wiped down their work area. Jessica could tell he was used to cleaning at the deli. The counter and sink sparkled, and the floor was clean. Jessica held on to the paper towel. She’d have to take it back with her. Or maybe she could hide it somewhere in the factory where she could find it the next day and throw it away. Trash didn’t mean anything when there was more of it in the trash can.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Heart racing, Jessica turned to Tony. She swallowed hard, then whispered, “Sophie wouldn’t make that much noise. What do we do?”
The two of them glanced around. Mr. Donadio’s big old desk in the corner of the room was the only piece of furniture that wasn’t completely open underneath. She tugged on Tony’s sleeve, and they both hurried over to it and slid underneath, their knees up near their chins.
Someone entered the room and stopped.
Jessica pictured the place they’d just left. The piece of chocolate they hadn’t altered was still sitting out.
The person walked around the room and then got farther and farther away, so he or she must have gone down the hall.
The two of them crawled out from under the desk and peered over the top of it. No one was there. When they stood, Jessica saw that the piece of chocolate was gone. She looked at Tony and back down at the place where the chocolate had been.
He grabbed her by the arm, and they hurried down the hall to the lunchroom where they stepped inside and found Sophie with a scared expression on her face.
Tony said, “You’ll—”
Jessica shook her head. Telling Sophie now would only make her more nervous. She and Tony were nervous enough for the group.
He seemed to understand what she was asking, so he said, “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m sure it’s solid enough now, Sophie. The other pieces of chocolate are in the box. Let’s carefully lift the one with the ruby from the sides with a tissue so we don’t leave any marks on it.” Jessica felt like she was in the middle of an operating room. She carefully picked it up and set it in the empty paper in the box.
“It’s perfect.” Sophie sighed. “I’m so relieved.”
“It’s just like one of the boxes of chocolate that they sell.”
“Let’s take it back to the chocolate room, get a lid on it, wrap it, and put it on Mrs. Clayton’s desk where we found the other box. And get out of here!”
Once there, Sophie pulled wrapping paper off a roll, set it down on a small table, then put the box on top. As she began wrapping it, she said, “Jessica, I’m not sure this will be right if I do it. Are you a good wrapper?”
“I love wrapping presents.” Jessica stepped over and wrapped it carefully, making sure every fold had a professional look.
Sophie paced around the room. “Hurry!”
“I’m trying. But I want this to be perfect.” When Jessica finished, she thought it looked like the first one. “Is it right?”
Sophie nodded. “It’s great. Let’s go.”
With the package in Jessica’s hand, the three of them silently went to the door where Tony opened it and motioned for them to follow him. At Mrs. Clayton’s desk, Jessica glanced around as she set the box where they’d found the other one. There weren’t any shadows nearby.
They hurried down the hall to the office with the secret panel. As the panel closed behind them, Sophie picked up the flashlight and said, “We did it! They’ll never know.”
Jessica hoped that was true, that the bad guys would never figure out that it had been missing.
Tony took the stairs in a hurry. “Now, let’s go!”
Downstairs, they dove into the water and swam out of the boathouse. Jessica was relieved to find everything outside the boathouse as it should be. They swam to the shore and got back into their regular clothes. On the walk to town, Jessica and Tony told Sophie about almost being caught.
Sophie groaned. “We have to be careful. I think we’re almost ready to wrap up this mystery, and we don’t want anyone to figure out what we’ve been doing. That could make it hazardous.”
Mystery Man
ON THEIR WAY TO CLASS Monday morning, Jessica said, “I’m looking forward to today’s class. I hope we’re using dark chocolate today. Saturday’s milk chocolate and the piece I ate yesterday were okay—”
“The milk chocolate is more than okay. I really like it. If today is a dark chocolate day, I’ll have to see if I like Uncle Sal’s version.”
“You like chocolate chips, right?”
Sophie wavered her hand from side to side. “Chocolate chip cookies are okay. But I’d just as soon have a plain cookie.”
Everything in class was pretty normal. Today they shaped pineapple-flavored centers to prepare them for the enrober. Sophie wondered if this recipe was the one that had been stolen. Correction: that Uncle Sal thought had been stolen.
The good news for Sophie was that the chocolates were covered with milk chocolate when the students finished shaping them. Toward the end of class, each student was given a couple of the now chocolate-covered pieces, ones that hadn’t come out of the enrober in perfect condition.
The candy tasted great— it did have fruit, after all, one of her favorite things to eat—but she could taste something more than pineapple. She finished it off in a second bite but couldn’t figure out the secret ingredient.
When they were about to collect Sophie’s backpack and Jessica’s purse, Uncle Sal walked up to them. “Are you ladies enjoying the class?”
“I love chocolate, so I’m having a great time,” Jessica said.
“I’ve learned that I like milk chocolate. Probably never as much as Jessica likes dark chocolate, but it’s made it more fun.”
“It’s the first time we’ve had a class here, and I’m so glad Erma suggested doing it. But any tips you have for making it better are welcome.”
“We’ve had fun, haven’t we, Jessica?”
“Yes! We’ll think about it, Uncle Sal.”
Sophie watched as the last of the other students left through the doors. Right when she thought that maybe she and Jessica could catch up with one and foll
ow them, Uncle Sal asked another question.
“Does everyone else seem to be enjoying the class too? I’ve noticed you speaking to the others. Have they mentioned anything helpful?”
The door snapped to a close, along with their opportunity to follow someone today. Sophie held back a sigh. “I think everyone’s having fun. Don’t you, Jessica?”
“Every once in a while, Dylan looks a little like he’d rather be somewhere else.”
Uncle Sal looked distressed.
“But I think that’s because his mom treats him like a little kid sometimes.”
Uncle Sal laughed. “You may be right, Jessica.”
As he started to turn toward the hall, Sophie pushed aside their rush to leave so she could ask, “Uncle Sal, your pineapple chocolates are super good. But there’s something more than pineapple in them, isn’t there?”
Smiling, he said, “Yes. A secret ingredient.” He paused. “I’ve heard about the mysteries you’ve solved and how you’ve worked with the sheriff, so I think you can keep a secret.”
Sophie glanced in Jessica’s direction. “I can.”
He leaned closer. “Watermelon.”
“Pineapple-watermelon chocolates?” If she hadn’t tasted it first, she wouldn’t have believed that would be good.
He gave a nod. “People love the taste of them. But they don’t think it sounds good.” He shrugged. “So I call them Pineapple Delight and don’t tell them.”
The girls laughed.
Sophie said, “You’re right, Uncle Sal. They’re delicious!”
Still smiling, he turned and went down the hall.
When they were alone again, Jessica said, “That’s a strange combination. Someone would have to steal the recipe to make something that tasted the same and that makes this even more of a mystery. We need to hurry.”
Jessica reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before, Sophie, but today I’m going to take a picture of Mr. P. as he enters his room. It may not be useful, but maybe we’ll learn something about the way he’s standing or his clothes or . . . something.”
The Chocolate Spy Page 11