by David Lewman
“I doubt she’d get fired for that,” Ben said.
“So,” Hannah said slowly, “you’re saying Mrs. Gordon decided to sabotage the play herself, to make it look like someone was messing with the props. That way, it wouldn’t be her fault when the played failed. It’d be the fault of whoever was messing with the props.”
“Which is her,” Corey said, nodding enthusiastically. “Only nobody knows it. And she pretends she doesn’t know where the missing props are, even though she’s the one who hid them.”
“Hmm,” Ben said, considering Corey’s theory. “That’s pretty out there, but I guess it’s possible.”
Miss Hodges stuck her head out of her office. “Pardon me for eavesdropping,” she said apologetically. “I should have closed my door. I like to respect your privacy when you’re working on an investigation.”
“That’s okay,” Hannah said. She was always happy to hear Miss Hodges’s opinions. “Did you hear what Corey was saying about Mrs. Gordon?”
“Yes, I did,” Miss Hodges said. “And while I admire your thoroughness in considering every possibility, I really think you’re headed down the wrong track with this one.”
“Why do you say that?” Ben asked.
Miss Hodges leaned against the frame of her office door. “Because I’ve heard Mrs. Gordon talking about Nobody’s Home in the faculty lounge. She really wants the play to succeed. It means a lot to her. She says the cast members have worked very hard, and they deserve to have a huge success in front of big, enthusiastic audiences.” She laughed. “Every day she reminds us to buy tickets and to bring our friends and family to see the play. I bought my tickets weeks ago.”
Ben grinned. “Well, that’s pretty convincing. I think we can safely take off Mrs. Gordon from our list of suspects.”
Hannah nodded in agreement. But Corey hated to completely give up on his theory.
“I don’t know,” Corey said. “I don’t think we should eliminate her just because she’s a teacher. Teachers can do bad things too. No offense,” he added quickly.
Miss Hodges smiled. “None taken. And I’m not saying take her off the list of suspects because she’s a teacher. I’m saying that based on what I’ve heard her say about the play, I’d put her at the bottom of your list.”
By the time Club CSI finished their fingerprint analysis and hurried over to the auditorium, rehearsal was letting out.
John was one of the first cast members out of the theater, and Hannah took him aside. “We checked all the fingerprints on your script,” she said, handing it back to him.
“And?” he asked nervously.
“Only yours,” she said. “No one else has touched it.”
John smiled, looking relieved. “So that means no one took it from the locker room and copied it?”
“Looks that way,” Ben said. “If they did, they were wearing gloves the whole time. And that seems pretty unlikely.”
“That’s great,” John said. “Thanks.” He looked at his script. “I was kind of worried about not having my script to study today. But it was okay. I remembered all my lines. I guess I actually know them!”
“So we’re fresh out of suspects,” Hannah reported. “You don’t know anyone who’d want to ruin the play, do you?”
John shook his head. He was grateful to Club CSI for reassuring him that no one copied his script, and he said he’d definitely think about it.
As the other cast members emerged from the auditorium, Corey noticed something weird. They were smiling. All of them.
Kelly ran up to Hannah. “Rehearsal went so well! We ran through the whole play, and no props were missing!”
“Really?” Hannah asked. “That’s fantastic!”
“Maybe Mrs. Gordon was right,” Kelly said. “Maybe everything that had gone wrong was just coincidence. And nerves.”
The other cast members agreed. They were ready to call the case closed. They left the auditorium laughing and grinning.
“Maybe there never really was a case,” Corey mused, watching them go. Hannah nodded.
“Maybe,” Ben said, thinking. “Then again, tomorrow is their final dress rehearsal. If someone really wants to sabotage the play, that’ll be their last chance.”
“But what are we supposed to do about it?” Corey asked. “We can’t watch the theater all night and all day.”
“We can’t,” Ben said, “but a camera could.”
Chapter 8
So, you’re saying we should set up a camera here in the auditorium?” Hannah asked, gesturing with her arms opened wide.
“Exactly,” Ben said, folding his arms decisively.
Hannah and Corey thought about this. “Well,” Hannah said, “I guess it couldn’t hurt anything.”
“Or cost anything,” Corey added. “Except maybe batteries.”
Hannah pulled out her phone from her bag and looked at it. “My phone has a video camera. But it would run out of charge.”
“That’s why we need a really good digital camera,” Ben said. “One that’s plugged in. And one with a lot of memory.”
“Where can we get a camera like that?” Corey asked.
Ben smiled. “I just happen to know the president of the AV club,” he said proudly.
“Are we supposed to be surprised that you know the president of the AV club?” Hannah asked.
“What’s ‘AV’?” Corey asked. “Anti-vegetable?”
“Audio visual,” Ben explained.
“There’s a club for that?” Corey asked.
“Come on,” Ben said. “If we hurry, we can probably still catch Peter in the AV room. He usually stays late after school checking all the equipment.”
Ben pulled on his backpack and started to go.
“Wait,” Hannah said. “I’m not sure we can just set up a camera without permission. In fact, I’m not even sure we can get a camera without a teacher’s permission. We should ask Mrs. Gordon.”
Ben hesitated. He knew Mrs. Gordon didn’t believe anyone was trying to sabotage the play. What if she said no? Then again he was pretty sure Hannah was right about needing permission.
“Okay,” he agreed reluctantly. “Let’s ask her.”
They found Mrs. Gordon backstage putting props in place for the next day’s run-through. Everyone else had left. She looked up, surprised to see the three students there.
“Yes?” she asked. “Did you need something?”
Corey believed in getting right to the point. “We want to put a camera in here overnight and during the day tomorrow,” he said.
“Why?” Mrs. Gordon asked.
“So if anyone messes with the props, we’ll have it on record,” Corey explained.
Mrs. Gordon sighed. “I appreciate your trying to help make sure that Nobody’s Home is a success. But I never did think anyone was trying to sabotage the play. And today’s rehearsal went very smoothly—not a single missing prop.”
“But what could it hurt to have a camera running?” Hannah asked. “If nobody does anything, then you’re right. And if someone does do something, we’ll see who it is. And then you’ll be able to stop them before they ruin your opening night.”
Mrs. Gordon thought a minute. “All right.”
“Great!” Corey said. “Also, could you put that in writing so we can check out a camera?”
Mrs. Gordon laughed. “Fine. I’m an English teacher. I like putting things in writing.”
Peter, the president of the AV club, carefully read every word of Mrs. Gordon’s note.
“Well,” he said. “She says you need a camera, but she doesn’t say what for.”
He wasn’t sure he trusted these three seventh graders who’d come barging into the AV center so late in the afternoon. Peter was in eighth grade, and he took his position as the president of the AV club seriously.
“We need it for our investigation,” Ben explained.
“Not a class?” Peter asked.
“No,” Hannah said.
“Technically, I’m onl
y supposed to release the equipment for class projects. There’s also a form the teacher’s supposed to fill out. She’s not supposed to just write a note,” Peter said, holding up the piece of notebook paper Mrs. Gordon had written on.
He didn’t want to be mean or anything, but the AV equipment was worth a lot of money. Principal Inverno had stressed that when he put Peter in charge of signing it out.
Ben put on his friendliest face. “Right, but, unfortunately, we don’t have time to get the form and have Mrs. Gordon fill it out. She’s about to leave, and we need to set up the camera right away.”
“For your investigation,” Peter clarified.
“Right, for our investigation,” Ben said, nodding.
Peter still stood there looking at the note, thinking.
“Look, can you either give us the camera or tell us to get lost, because I’m starving,” Corey said, patting his stomach.
Peter laughed and pushed his black hair out of his eyes. “Okay, you can have a camera. But be careful with it. These cameras cost a lot of money.”
He pulled out a set of keys and opened a closet door. Then he turned on a light, stepped into the closet, and came back out holding a small digital camera.
“Can we have a power cord, too?” Ben asked.
“And a tripod?” Hannah added.
“And a carrying case?” Corey chimed in. “A really cool one. Like, maybe black leather.”
Peter sighed.
Back in the theater, Ben finished positioning the camera on the tripod. He’d set it up toward the back of the auditorium, aimed at the stage. They had debated where best to put the camera. It was a hard decision to make because the props had gone missing from both backstage and the actual stage. In the end they decided that putting the camera at the back of the auditorium was best. This way they could see the whole stage and it would give them the best chance to capture anyone who might enter the auditorium when they weren’t supposed to.
“There,” Ben said, looking through the camera one more time. “You can see the whole stage. It’d actually be better to have several cameras.”
Hannah grinned. “Oh, yeah, like your friend Peter would’ve given us several cameras. He parted with this one like it was his puppy.”
“Don’t exaggerate,” Corey said. “We just have to remember to feed it, walk it, and clean up after it.”
Mrs. Gordon came out from backstage and peered into the auditorium. “All done? I’m ready to go.”
“All done,” Hannah said. “If anyone messes with anything on this stage, we should catch it.”
“And more important, we’ll catch the culprit,” Corey added.
Chapter 9
At lunch the next day, Corey, Ben, and Hannah were surprised to see John approaching their table with a tray full of food. “Mind if I sit down?” he asked.
“Not at all,” Corey said. “Have a seat.”
John sat down next to Ben.
“What’s up?” Hannah wondered.
“Remember how you asked me to think about who might want to ruin our play?” John asked. “Well, I’m not sure anyone actually is trying to sabotage the play anymore, but I remembered something last night that might be useful.”
He drank from a bottle of water, looking around to see if anyone in the noisy cafeteria was listening to their conversation.
“This might be nothing, and I don’t want to accuse someone who’s innocent,” he continued, “but I’m in Mrs. Gordon’s English class. And there’s this kid in the class named Mark who was really jealous when Theo’s play got picked.”
All three members of Club CSI leaned forward. This sounded promising.
“He got an A on his play, but Theo got an A+. And I remembered that when Mark found out I’d been cast in the play, he said something to me about how it should have been his play that got chosen. He seemed mad about it.” When John finished talking, he took a bite of his sandwich and chewed.
“That is interesting,” Ben said.
“Very interesting,” Hannah agreed.
“What does this Mark kid look like?” Corey asked. “Is he here in the cafeteria right now?”
John looked around. The cafeteria was crowded with kids laughing and eating. “There he is,” John said. “On the other side of the room. Sitting by himself at that long table. He’s got brown hair and a blue shirt.”
Corey started to twist around in his seat to look.
“Don’t be so obvious!” John hissed. “I really don’t want him to know I’m talking about him.”
Corey slowly turned around, pretending to look down at the floor for something he’d dropped. Eventually, he looked up and across the room. He saw a brown-haired boy eating by himself, reading an English textbook. Ben and Hannah saw Mark too.
“I’m going to go eat with Tim,” John announced. “We’re running lines together.”
“Okay,” Hannah said. “Thanks for the lead. Break a leg at the final dress rehearsal this afternoon.”
“Thanks,” John replied, picking up his tray and walking away.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Corey admonished.
“What wasn’t?” Hannah asked.
“Telling him to break his leg.”
Hannah giggled. “That’s how performers say ‘good luck.’ ”
“Oh,” Corey said. “Performers are weird.” He stood up.
“Where are you going?” Hannah asked.
“To talk to our new suspect,” Corey answered.
Ben held up his hands. “Wait, not so fast. Shouldn’t we talk about this before we just run over and question him?”
Corey looked slightly exasperated. “Normally, yes. But the dress rehearsal is tonight. We might not get another chance to find out if Mark is the guy who’s been ruining everything. Come on. Lunch doesn’t last forever . . . unfortunately!”
Corey started to walk across the cafeteria. Ben and Hannah had no choice but to jump up and follow him over to the table where Mark was sitting alone.
“You’re Mark, right?” Corey asked.
The thin eighth grader looked up from the textbook he was studying, surprised to see three seventh graders standing in front of him.
“Yeah,” he said suspiciously. “Who are you?”
“I’m Corey, and this is Hannah and Ben. We’re Club CSI.”
Mark thought for a second and then nodded. “I’ve heard of you guys. You solve mysteries around school.”
“That’s right,” Hannah said in her friendliest voice. “We thought maybe you could help us with something we’re working on.”
“Sure,” Mark said, shrugging. “Whatever.”
The three investigators sat down. Since they hadn’t had a chance to discuss the approach they were going to take with Mark, they weren’t sure what to ask him first. Corey decided to get straight to the point.
“You’re in Mrs. Gordon’s English class, right?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Mark said.
“Did you write a play for her class?” Corey continued.
Mark brightened a little. “Yes, I did. A comedy. Got an A, too.”
“But she didn’t pick your play to be the school play,” Ben said, following Corey’s lead. They might as well be direct.
“So what?” Mark said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not just as good. May be better.”
“What do you think of Nobody’s Home?” Hannah asked.
Mark shrugged again. “I don’t know.”
“Did you read it?” Corey asked.
Mark shook his head. “No. Why would I? I didn’t audition or anything. I’m a writer, not an actor. And they’re being pretty secretive about it. What’s it about?”
The three investigators exchanged a quick look. If Mark didn’t even know what the play was about, how could he have sabotaged it? And he sounded as though he was telling the truth.
“Are you going to see it?” Hannah inquired.
Mark frowned. “Nah. I’m really not interested.”
“Not inter
ested or too jealous to go?” Corey asked. Sometimes it worked to push people’s buttons.
“Not interested,” Mark said firmly. He shoved his book into his backpack and stood up. “Is this how you solved those other crimes? By asking a bunch of stupid questions?”
They were losing him. Corey decided to just go for it. “Did you mess with the props?”
Looking disgusted, Mark slung his backpack over his shoulder. “You mean the props for the show? No, I didn’t mess with them. Why would I do that? Now, stop messing with me.”
He walked away.
Ben looked at Hannah and Corey. “Well, what do you think?”
“His body language said he was telling the truth,” Hannah said. “He didn’t fidget, and he looked us right in the eyes.”
Corey nodded. “I believed him.”
“I doubt he could have faked telling the truth that well,” Hannah added. “He said he wasn’t an actor.”
“He could have been acting when he said that,” Corey suggested. Hannah shot him a look. “But, yeah, I don’t think he was faking either.”
Ben took in a long breath of air through his nose and then blew it out. “Agreed. He’s jealous, but I don’t think he did anything about it.”
The question still was, did someone else?
After school that day, they had their answer.
Chapter 10
It was the beginning of rehearsal. Ben was unplugging the digital camera when they all heard it.
A scream.
“Where’d that come from?” Hannah asked, looking around the theater.
Ben pointed toward the stage. “There!”
Corey was already running down the aisle toward whoever screamed. He didn’t bother with the stairs. He jumped onto the stage and ran behind the set that had already been put in place for the first act.