by Laura Wood
“It’s not your fault, Marvin,” broke in Miss Baxter, twisting her hands, “it’s mine. How could you have foreseen this? I am the one responsible for the collection while it is here at the school. It’s all my fault!” Puddles of tears shone in her dark eyes.
Inspector Hartley cleared his throat. “Right, well, before we get ahead of ourselves, I need you to tell me more about this glass case. What’s so special about it?”
Marvin wiped his hand across his forehead. “Well, as to that,” he said, “I suppose you’ll be needing to talk with my wife, Doris. She invented it. But she’s out in the grounds with the rest of the circus crew.”
“The … circus?” said Inspector Hartley, for the first time not looking completely sure of himself.
“Yes,” said Marvin. “There was supposed to be a performance in the big top after the speeches here, but that’ll all be cancelled now.”
“Right,” said the inspector, frowning. “Well, carry on about the box, will you? Explain the best you can.”
Marvin nodded again. “Like I said, Doris invented it – brilliant, she is.” He smiled mistily for a second. “She’s a scientist, you see. The box isn’t made of glass at all; it’s a kind of plastic she invented. It’s solid, but if you get it wet, it goes sort of weak and stretchy like cling film. I have a little flask of water in my pocket, and during the trick I pour some on my hand without people noticing. Then I can push through the cabinet, you see. When you pull your hand out, the plastic seals back up without leaving a mark.”
“But that’s … extraordinary!” said Inspector Hartley, his pen flying across the paper.
“Yes,” said Marvin, smiling, “she’s a genius, my wife – used to work for the government. Still consults sometimes. Very hush-hush, of course,” he added, tapping the side of his nose and seeing the inspector’s eyes widen.
“And who else knows about this box?” he asked.
“Only me and Doris,” said Marvin slowly, “and Miss Baxter, of course. Couldn’t have done the trick without explaining it to her first.”
“Miss Baxter?” The inspector raised his eyebrows at her, but his face was kind.
She nodded. “Yes, Marvin explained it to me, but I told no one else. Although…” she trailed off.
“Yes?” the inspector prodded.
“Well, Doris gave me some papers to look over that explained the process, just to reassure me, you know … it was very kind of her. But I’m afraid they were rather scientific and I couldn’t make head nor tail of them. In the end, Marvin brought the case to my office and showed me. Like you, I thought it was extraordinary. Like magic, really.” Miss Baxter smiled at Marvin and he grinned back.
“And were these papers ever out of your sight?” asked the inspector, snapping everyone back to attention.
“I-I left them on my desk for a few minutes,” Miss Baxter said reluctantly, “while I went to the kitchens to check on the food for the event. But like I said, you’d have to be a pretty good scientist to be able to make sense of them in the first place.”
“Miss Susan!” I burst in, unable to contain myself any longer.
“Who?” Inspector Hartley turned his frown on me.
“Miss Susan. The chemistry teacher. She could read it,” I said quickly.
Inspector Hartley turned to Miss Baxter, who shrugged and then nodded. “Well, yes, I suppose she could. But really, Poppy, why on earth would you think Miss Susan had anything to do with this?”
“I don’t think,” I yelled, dramatically, “I know! And I can prove it!” I pointed at the case. “Look!”
They all huddled around, looking at where I was pointing.
“What is that?” frowned Miss Baxter.
“It’s a pearl,” I said triumphantly, in my best crime-solving voice, “one which, I deduce, has come from the pearl watch that Miss Susan was wearing this very evening!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
You can imagine my surprise when all that my dramatic announcement received was a mild “I shall look into that” from the inspector.
“I very much doubt that Miss Susan had anything to do with this,” said Miss Baxter slowly. “I really don’t think—”
I cut her off. “But she disappeared at the same time as the ruby!” I shouted. Were these people blind? I was handing them the criminal on a silver plate and no one seemed to care.
“Thank you, Miss Pym,” said the inspector gently. “I will look into it further. Now, it has been a very tense evening; I suggest you go off to bed.”
“Yes, Poppy,” said Marvin, wrapping me in a hug, “you go and get some rest. We’ll talk about it all in the morning, don’t worry.”
“But … but…” I stuttered, furious that no one seemed to be taking my accusation seriously.
“Yes, Poppy,” said Miss Baxter firmly and with a slight frown. “Off to bed now, and I don’t want to hear any more of this nonsense about Miss Susan.”
Reluctantly I trudged from the room. As I was leaving, my keen bat ears overheard the inspector speaking in a low voice to Marvin. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to remain at the school until we reach some conclusions about the case. We’ll need you to come down to the station as well. You were, of course, the last one to handle the ruby…”
I felt myself turn hot and cold, and as I emerged into the hallway in which several police officers were still interviewing people, the whole room seemed to spin. Marvin was a suspect, and it was all my fault! I had convinced him to help me flush out the villain and now the police thought that he had stolen the ruby himself!
But amidst my rising panic a feeling of calm descended on me, and my mind became as clear and sharp as a glass of lemonade. If the police weren’t going to solve this case, then I, Poppy Pym, would take matters into my own hands. I hurried out into the night. I had to find Ingrid and Kip – there were plans to be made.
We made the most of the chaos caused by the robbery, staying up late to scheme. They had both listened, wide-eyed, when I told them about Miss Susan having left the party so suddenly, and the pearl left behind, matching the ones on Miss Susan’s watch. When I got to the bit about the details of the magic trick being indecipherable to anyone who didn’t know a lot about science, they were as convinced as I was, and we knew we had to come up with a strategy. It would be dangerous, and it would mean breaking a lot of rules, but we knew what we had to do.
Early the next morning the school was still crawling with police officers and the great hall was marked off with blue-and-white police tape. Ingrid and I crept outside to meet Kip, waiting under one of the big trees in front of the girls’ dorms until we heard Kip’s signal. The signal had been Kip’s idea because, he said, “That’s what they always do in the books.” Even though we didn’t really need a signal in the first place, and Kip’s “bird call” sounded more like a cat with the hiccups in the second, I knew what he meant, and it gave me a little thrill of excitement that we were behaving like such top-class detectives. In my mind I was already picturing the celebration when we caught Miss Susan. There would be medals, and a party, and Miss Baxter’s smiling round face would say, “How lucky Saint Smithen’s is to have a hero like Poppy Pym to save us all!” Unfortunately I was interrupted from this excellent daydream by Annabelle and her friends.
“Oh, look!” sang Annabelle. “There’s Poppy Pym. I knew there was something wrong with her. Looks like her weird family are just a bunch of thieves.”
Before I could say anything, Ingrid swept forward, her face red and her fists clenched. “YOU TAKE THAT BACK, ANNABELLE,” she hissed furiously.
“Oh no.” Annabelle batted her eyelashes. “Have I hurt your little friend’s feelings? What are you going to do about it, Ingrid? Cry?”
There was a pause and Ingrid’s fists unclenched. She smiled. “No, Annabelle. Poppy’s worth a hundred of you, so you didn’t hurt her feel
ings and you’re not going to make me cry. You’re just annoying. Like a fly. A buzzy. Little. Insignificant. Fly.” Every word that she spoke was like a needle-sharp jab. “So why don’t you just buzz off and irritate someone else,” Ingrid finished with a flourish. Annabelle stood silently, her mouth hanging open until Trixie tugged her along by the arm and the group disappeared around the corner.
I wanted to cheer and sing but I turned to Ingrid, wide-eyed. “I can’t believe you just said that, Ingrid! You’re amazing.”
Ingrid smiled at me. “What are best friends for?”
I think I could have cried like a big baby right there and then, but just at that moment Kip arrived, not, like Ingrid and me, in his school uniform, but in what appeared to be a pair of green pyjamas with twigs and leaves stuck to them. He had also painted his face green. Ingrid and I goggled at him.
“What … what are you wearing, Kip?” asked Ingrid, faintly.
“It’s camouflage, dummy!” said Kip, preening in front of us. “Made it myself … sneaky, huh?”
“But, Kip,” I said carefully, “what are you going to camouflage with? We’re going to be inside.”
A look of irritation skipped across Kip’s face like a cloud across a green sky. “Oh. Yeah,” he said, scratching his head with one of his twigs. “Well, I’ll just be … an indoor plant or something.” His eyes warmed up again. “Yeah, that’s it … hide in plain sight and all that. Brilliant.”
Ingrid rolled her eyes, but I didn’t want to waste any more time so I just nodded and we all set off.
I was starting to feel really nervous as we went back inside and wound through the hallways towards Miss Susan’s room. Kip kept hugging the walls, trying to look as invisible as a boy dressed as a tree in a girls’ dormitory can look. We got to the room and I tapped gently on the door. No answer.
“Good,” I said. “She must have gone down to breakfast. She is usually down there by now.” I pulled out my hairgrip and was about to use it to pick the lock the way The Magnificent Marvin had taught me to get myself out of a pair of handcuffs during a routine. Instead I found the door was unlocked and with a gentle push it swung open.
The three of us stood very still. “Maybe if it’s open that means she’s coming back soon…” said Ingrid, looking worried.
“We’ll just have to be quick,” I said with more confidence than I felt, still imagining myself as a hero.
Ingrid and I slipped inside and shut the door. The three of us had already agreed that Kip would wait outside and be the lookout. As soon as the door closed behind us, I knew we had made a terrible mistake. I took one look around Miss Susan’s neat and tidy room and felt like we were the criminals. I turned to Ingrid.
“This isn’t right,” I whispered. “We should just go and talk to the police again.”
Ingrid nodded. “Yeah, this feels really bad.”
Just as we were about to head back out to the hallway, we heard Kip’s loud voice on the other side of the door.
“OH, HI, MISS SUSAN!”
Ingrid and I gasped and looked at each other in horror. What should we do now?
“Kip!” I heard Miss Susan exclaim. “What are you doing here in the girls’ dormitory? And why on earth are you dressed like a tree?”
“OH, MISS SUSAN, IT’S YOU, MISS SUSAN OUT HERE RIGHT NOW … MISS SUSAN” Kip yelled.
“For heaven’s sake, Kip, stop screeching like that and answer me. What are you doing here?”
“WHAT AM I DOING HERE? YES. RIGHT. WHAT AM I DOING HERE? ERRR … I AM HERE FOR A VERY GOOD REASON. THAT IS BECAUSE … ERRR … I’M LOST!”
I smacked the palm of my hand against my forehead. Ingrid and I looked around desperately for somewhere to hide and I spotted a tall wardrobe, which I pointed to. Ingrid nodded.
“NO. WAIT. I’M NOT LOST. I … NEED YOUR HELP … WITH SOMETHING.” I could hear Kip floundering, panicking as he tried to remember the plan to get Miss Susan away from the door.
“Really, Kip,” I heard Miss Susan say crossly, “I don’t have time for this nonsense right now. Go downstairs and have some breakfast or you’ll be late for lessons. Miss Baxter will hear about this.”
And as the door handle started to turn, Ingrid and I leapt into the wardrobe, sliding the door closed just as we heard Miss Susan enter the room. I felt Ingrid squeeze my hand. We were trapped!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
From behind the door I could hear Miss Susan moving around the room and humming to herself. It was dark and stuffy inside the wardrobe. I hardly dared to breathe, and from the short, stifled gulping sounds Ingrid was making next to me I could guess that she felt the same way.
I strained my ears and could hear a rustling noise coming from the room outside. Miss Susan stopped humming and I heard her sigh with pleasure. “There you are,” she crooned, “my prize!” I felt Ingrid’s nails digging into my arm. “Oh, you’re so shiny and beautiful,” Miss Susan continued, and she sounded so happy. “It’s a shame I can’t put you out on display, but I must hide you somewhere. Now, where shall I keep you?” I could hear her moving over to the wardrobe. I screwed my eyes up tight, and by now I could feel Ingrid’s fingernails leaving big holes in my arm.
The footsteps stopped in front of the wardrobe, and I knew it was now or never. We had caught the culprit red-handed, and we just needed to get out of this in one piece. As the wardrobe door slid open, I crossed both my fingers, desperately hoping Kip had gone to get Miss Baxter and Inspector Hartley as planned. In one swift move I pushed forward and jumped out, shouting in my best Dougie Valentine voice, “We have you surrounded! Surrender, criminal!”
Miss Susan screamed, jumping back from the wardrobe in shock, and a trembling Ingrid came tumbling out behind me.
We all looked at one another in horror. Miss Susan was obviously horrified because two strange people had just jumped out of her wardrobe, and we were horrified by the dawning realization that what Miss Susan held in her hand was not the ruby scarab. It was a large gold trophy.
With perfect timing the door burst open and there stood Kip, his green face paint smeared, his cheeks puffed out as he tried to catch his breath, and behind him Miss Baxter and Inspector Hartley looking completely horrified as well.
“WHAT is going on??” shouted Miss Susan, clutching her trophy and staring wildly around her.
There was a long and terrible pause, and I felt the blood draining from my face.
“We … we thought you had stolen the ruby,” I managed, trying very hard to look Miss Susan in the eye as my face went from ghostly white to burning, burning red.
“Me?” Miss Susan looked stunned.
There was a horrible pause.
“It’s all been a terrible misunderstanding,” said Miss Baxter, disappointment stamped all over her face, “and you children have behaved dreadfully. I am shocked. Shocked! Breaking into a teacher’s room, well, it’s …” She trailed off, and I could hear Ingrid sniffling behind me. I felt sick with shame.
“We … we knew it was a bad idea as soon as we walked in … the door was open … but we … we couldn’t do it – truly – we were just about to leave when Miss Susan came back. And then we … well, we panicked,” I stuttered, hanging my head. I couldn’t believe any of this was happening. How could I have done such a terrible thing? With a sinking feeling it dawned on me that I might be expelled, and that worse still, so might Kip and Ingrid. All because of my stupid plan. I had disgraced myself, and worst of all I had dragged the two best and most loyal pals in the world down with me. My stomach churned and my head was spinning.
Miss Susan was still looking at us with a dazed expression. “And why did you think I had stolen the ruby?”
“You disappeared when the ruby did, and you were wearing a pearl watch … there was a pearl left behind in the case. And … and the plans for the magic trick needed a scientist. And then we heard … w
e heard you talking about your prize…” I trailed off, gulping as tears threatened to spill out of my brimming eyes.
Miss Susan went over to a chest of drawers, opened them, and pulled something out. She came back and held the object up. It was her watch, and it was clear there was not a single pearl missing.
“The detective already asked me about my watch this morning and, as you can see, it is all in one piece,” she said quietly.
I looked over at Inspector Hartley, who was watching the scene with his eagle eyes, and felt another wave of tears rising inside me. I clenched my fists and dug my fingernails into my palms, determined not to cry in front of him.
“As for where I disappeared to…” Miss Susan said slowly.
“Elaine!” interrupted Miss Baxter furiously, and I realized Elaine must be Miss Susan’s name. “You don’t need to say anything else. It is absolutely nobody’s business but your own.”
“No, no,” said Miss Susan with a wave of her hand. “It is silly to be so secretive about it. I was embarrassed, you see. The truth is …” She raised her head, and her pale cheeks were stained red. “… I’m a ballroom dancer,” she said in a strong, clear voice.
Of all the things I had been expecting her to say, that was not one of them. I felt my mouth drop open. “W-what?” I asked
“I’m a ballroom dancer,” she repeated. “Well, technically an amateur. It’s a hobby. I sometimes sneak into the gymnasium to practise in the evening – that’s where I was coming back from when I found you on the night of the power cut. Last night was the big local competition and we had to leave the exhibition early. Michael …” Miss Susan blushed again. “… I mean, Mr Grant … and I were partners and we won. We won this beautiful trophy.” She pointed to the gleaming golden cup. “For the tango,” she added, picking up a photo off the night stand. It was Miss Susan and Mr Grant with the trophy, and they were both wearing amazing costumes. I could feel my eyes bulging and my brain spinning around trying to keep up with this new information.