by David Lewman
“Besides,” Corey pointed out, “Kelly’s the one who brought the case to us in the first place!”
Hannah ran her fingers through her hair. “That’s true,” she said. “But maybe the cast asked her to bring in Club CSI because they knew she was friends with me. She didn’t want to make them suspicious by refusing, so she agreed to ask us. She didn’t think we’d end up figuring out she was the one trying to stop the show.”
“Well, we could check out that possibility pretty easily,” Ben said. “We’d just have to talk to one of the other cast members and see if they asked Kelly to approach us about investigating.”
Hannah frowned. “I hate suspecting Kelly. She’s my friend. If she’s innocent, I want to find out as soon as possible. Why don’t we talk to her at lunch today? Maybe we’ll be able to figure out whether she was at school early yesterday morning.”
“Sounds good to me,” Corey said. “I always like a plan that includes lunch.”
Carrying their trays, Ben, Hannah, and Corey headed toward their usual table in the cafeteria. Ben and Corey sat down, but Hannah set down her tray on the table and remained standing, looking around the cafeteria for Kelly.
“There she is,” she said, spotting her across the room. “I’ll invite her to eat with us.”
“Excellent,” Corey said. “While you do that, I’ll start eating.” He bit into his sandwich with gusto.
“Hey, what happened to mindfulness?” Ben asked.
“I’m saving it for our investigation,” Corey said with his mouth full. “I don’t want my mind to get too full.”
Moments later, Hannah returned with Kelly. Ben and Corey looked for signs of guilt on her face. All they saw was sadness.
Hannah pulled out a chair for Kelly. “We just thought maybe we could talk a little bit about our investigation.”
Kelly looked even gloomier. “What’s the point?” she mumbled. “The play’s canceled.”
“Permanently?” Corey asked.
Kelly pushed the food on her tray around with a fork. “I’m not sure. But it doesn’t look good. Mrs. Gordon has at least canceled the shows for this weekend.” She looked up from her lunch. “It’s so unfair. We put in so much time rehearsing. I’ve been working really hard on this play.”
Ben decided to get to the point of the interview. “Kelly, were you here at school early yesterday morning?”
She didn’t even have to think about it. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m always here early.”
Hannah looked worried. Could her friend have ruined the set? Was she just pretending to be upset about the canceled performances? In rehearsal she’d seemed like a pretty good actress. . . .
“And I had to be here early yesterday morning, anyway,” Kelly continued, “because I met with Mrs. Gordon in her office.”
Hannah looked surprised. “Mrs. Gordon? Why?”
“To go over my lines,” Kelly said. “I’ve danced in lots of recitals and even ballets, but I’ve never been in a play before, and I was nervous about blowing my lines on opening night. So she agreed to practice my lines with me before school.”
Hannah felt much better. If Kelly was with Mrs. Gordon first thing in the morning, then she couldn’t have been in the theater making the sounds Ben had heard on the recording.
They assured Kelly that they’d do everything they could to help the play go on. She thanked them and then went back to sit with her friends.
“So that settles that,” Hannah said. “Kelly was with Mrs. Gordon.”
“Just to be superthorough,” Corey said, “we should check her alibi.”
Just before the end of the lunch period, Hannah, Ben, and Corey found Mrs. Gordon in her office, grading quizzes. She looked up and smiled when she saw who was standing in the doorway.
“Hello, crime scene investigators,” she said. “Did you catch anything on your camera?”
“Nothing definite,” Ben said, “but we might have something to follow up on.”
Mrs. Gordon sighed. “Well, I guess that’s better than nothing at all. Though I’d hoped you’d see who ruined the set, so we could stop all of this.”
“We were just wondering if we could ask you something,” Hannah said.
“Of course,” Mrs. Gordon replied. “What would you like to know?”
“Did you help Kelly go over her lines yesterday morning?” Corey asked.
Mrs. Gordon raised her eyebrows. “Yes, I did.”
“What time?” Ben asked.
The teacher thought a moment. “From about ten to seven until nearly seven thirty.”
Hannah was relieved. Kelly’s alibi checked out.
“Why do you ask?” Mrs. Gordon inquired.
Ben hesitated. He didn’t like to give out information from an investigation while it was still ongoing. “We’re not sure,” he said vaguely. “But it might turn out to be important.” He decided to change the subject. “Are you going to cancel the play completely?”
Mrs. Gordon frowned. “I’m still thinking about that. We’re not performing Nobody’s Home this weekend, but after that, I’m not sure. I’m going to talk to the principal this afternoon and then let the cast know after school what we’ve decided.”
Chapter 13
Ben and Hannah stood outside the auditorium, waiting for Corey after school.
“Where is he?” Hannah fretted. “I don’t want to miss Mrs. Gordon’s announcement.”
“Here he comes,” Ben said, spotting Corey running down the hallway toward them.
He sprinted up and then stopped. “Sorry I’m late. I wanted to make sure it was okay with the basketball coach if I missed the beginning of practice again to go to the rehearsal.”
“This isn’t a rehearsal. It’s just an announcement,” Hannah said. “Come on. Let’s go in.”
She opened the heavy double doors, and they hurried into the theater. Mrs. Gordon was standing on the stage. The five cast members and the stage manager were sitting on the furniture used in the first act. Hannah, Ben, and Corey slipped into seats close to the stage, so they could hear.
“Thanks for coming,” Mrs. Gordon said to the cast. “I wish I was giving you a speech about how great your opening performance is going to be tonight. But, as you know, there was just no way we could have fixed the set in time. You’ve worked very hard on the play, so I’m really sorry we’ve had to cancel your big opening night, as well as this weekend’s performances, just because of someone’s malicious behavior.”
The cast members and the stage manager all looked unhappy. They stared at the floor or up into the space above the stage.
“But,” she continued, “I have some good news.”
That got the students’ full attention. They looked right at Mrs. Gordon. Good news?
“This afternoon I spoke to Principal Inverno, and we agreed that the show should go on.”
The cast members smiled, then broke into applause and cheers. Mrs. Gordon smiled too, but held up her hands for them to quiet down.
“Instead of canceling the play completely,” she said, “we’re just going to postpone it for a week. That’ll give us time to rebuild the set for the second act. The principal managed to find some money in the school’s arts budget to pay for the new set.”
“You mean there’s actually money in the arts budget?” Tim asked. That got a laugh.
“Just a little,” Mrs. Gordon admitted. “It’ll take all of us working together to rebuild the set in time, but I know we can do it.”
The cast cheered again.
“But I’m afraid that’s going to mean working tomorrow, even though it’s a Saturday,” Mrs. Gordon said. “Is that all right?”
They all cheered a third time, though maybe not quite as loudly.
Corey turned to Hannah and whispered, “Does that mean we have to be here on a Saturday too?”
Hannah nodded. Corey slumped down in his seat and sighed.
“I’ll bring brownies,” Hannah said. Corey brightened and sat up straight.
No. No one seemed as though they were feeling any of those things. Everyone seemed happy Nobody’s Home was going to be postponed instead of canceled. And everyone seemed pretty cheery about coming in on a Saturday to help rebuild the set for the second act.
Club CSI didn’t seem to be any closer to catching the culprit than they had been the first day Kelly had asked them to investigate.
The cast members gathered up their scripts and backpacks and then headed out, walking down the steps into the audience and then up the aisle toward the exit. They were talking and laughing, relieved and excited that all their hard work was going to pay off after all.
Club CSI stood up to follow them out. “So,” Corey said. “About these brownies. Will there be fudge? Or nuts? Because I say, why not both?”
Suddenly Ben noticed something.
He heard a sound. A familiar sound.
When Courtney walked by Club CSI as she headed up the aisle, the keys clipped to her jeans jingled. As stage manager, she had a bunch of keys to keep track of—keys to the auditorium, the prop closet, the dressing rooms, the lighting booth . . .
And the sound of those jingling keys was the sound Ben and Peter had heard on the recording. He was sure of it.
Ben gripped Corey’s arm to get him to stop talking.
“Ow,” Corey said. “What?”
Ben raised a finger to his lips. “Listen,” he whispered.
Corey and Hannah froze, listening carefully.
“All right, time to go!” Mrs. Gordon called from the stage. “I’m afraid everyone needs to clear out. See you tomorrow!”
Courtney was gone. Ben turned back to Mrs. Gordon. “Okay, Mrs. Gordon. See you tomorrow. What time are you starting?”
“Eight a.m.,” she answered. “Bright and early.”
Corey groaned quietly. “There goes my Saturday morning sleep.”
Once they were out of the theater, Hannah asked Ben, “What was that all about? What were we listening for? I didn’t hear anything unusual.”
Ben looked around. He wasn’t sure whether or not Courtney was still inside the school. “Let’s not talk here. Let’s go to the park.”
The park was just a couple of blocks away, but by the time they got there, Hannah was about ready to burst.
“Okay!” she said to Ben. “We’re at the park! Talk!”
Ben took off his backpack and sat down on a bench. He unzipped his bag and pulled out his Quark Pad. A while back he, Hannah, and Corey had each received an expensive Quark Pad from the company that made them as a thank-you for their help in discovering a ring of thieves who were stealing them. They all loved their Quark Pads . . . and the tablets always came in handy when they were working on a case.
“I heard it,” he said. “In the theater. I heard the mysterious noise Peter and I found on the recording from the morning the set got ruined. That’s why I had you listen. I wanted to see if you heard it too.”
“The only thing I heard was my stomach growling,” Corey said, pulling out an apple from his backpack and biting into it. “And speaking of growling, Coach’ll be really mad if I don’t get to practice any second now.”
“What was it?” Hannah asked. “What did you hear?”
“As Courtney walked past us, I could hear all those keys on her key ring jingling,” Ben said, pulling up the audio file. “When I heard that, I realized it was the same sound I heard on the recording. I copied the recording onto my Quark Pad. Listen.”
Ben clicked on the play triangle and turned up the volume. Hannah and Corey leaned in close to hear. First they heard a door open. Then footsteps. And then . . .
“Keys jingling!” Corey exclaimed. “So Courtney’s our jerk!”
“No,” Ben said, “she’s our suspect. We don’t really have any strong evidence yet that she’s our saboteur. But she is our suspect.”
“Our lead suspect,” Hannah added firmly.
“Our main lead suspect,” Corey called over his shoulder as he ran off to practice.
Chapter 14
Saturday morning was chilly. “Brrr,” Hannah said as they walked up the school steps. “I should have worn a sweater.”
“Forget the sweater,” Corey said. “Where are those brownies?”
“What brownies?” Hannah asked innocently.
Corey pointed at the plastic container she was carrying. “Those brownies,” he said. “The ones you’re carrying. The ones I should be eating right now.”
“Didn’t you just have breakfast?” Ben asked as he opened the door.
Corey snorted. “Yeah, but there was hardly time for anything. All I had was a bowl of cereal, some fruit, juice, and a piece of toast.” He thought for a second and continued, “Two pieces. Oh, and some yogurt.”
Hannah shook her head as she handed him the brownies. “How do you stay so skinny?”
“Sports, I guess,” Corey said. “I burn a lot of calories. Plus, I try to go easy on sweets.” He pried the lid off the container. “Ah! Fudge!”
“And nuts,” Hannah added.
“You’re the best!” Corey declared as he lifted a gooey brownie to his mouth.
Inside the theater, Mrs. Gordon, the cast members, and Courtney were already onstage. It was kind of weird seeing the English teacher in her Saturday clothes—jeans and a T-shirt.
“Okay,” she began, referring to her clipboard. “The first thing we need to do is pull the light fixtures off the old set.”
“So we can repaint it?” John asked.
Mrs. Gordon shook her head sadly. “No, I’m afraid we’re going to have to rebuild it. We can’t risk having the solution to the mystery bleeding through the new paint. That’d ruin the surprise.”
“Mrs. Gordon?” Ben asked, raising his hand. “Can we help too?”
“Absolutely,” Mrs. Gordon said. “More hands make lighter work.”
“We brought brownies,” Hannah said.
“Then you’re even more welcome,” Mrs. Gordon said, smiling.
“We’re sharing?” Corey asked Hannah, surprised.
“Yes. How many did you expect to eat?” Hannah asked him.
“All of them?” Corey mumbled.
As they headed toward the stage, Corey whispered to Ben, “Why are we going to help build the set? I thought we were just here to observe our lead suspect.”
“I want to get close enough to really see what’s going on,” Ben said. “And hear what everyone’s talking about.”
They climbed the stairs to the stage and pitched in, helping to take off the light fixtures from the ruined set, which used to be an elaborate dining room in the mansion.
It was chilly inside the theater, too—almost as chilly as it was outside. Tessa went into the dressing room and then came back wearing a cardigan.
Then Hannah noticed something.
The cardigan had small paint stains on it. Hot-pink stains. And no one had started painting anything yet.
Hannah really wanted to examine the sweater more closely. Luckily, as Tessa worked on taking the set apart, she warmed up. Eventually, she took off the cardigan.
“Do you mind if I borrow your sweater?” Hannah said, rubbing her arms. “I’m freezing.”
“I don’t mind,” Tessa said. “But it’s actually Courtney’s. I found it in the dressing room, and she said I could borrow it.”
“Oh,” Hannah said calmly, hiding her excitement from learning that the sweater belonged to their chief suspect. “I’ll ask Courtney if it’s okay for me to wear it.”
Tessa smiled. “I’m sure she’ll say yes.”
Hannah carried the cardigan over to Courtney, casually hiding the paint stains in the folds of the material. The stage manager was kneeling on the floor, removing a screw from a
board.
“Um, Courtney?”
She looked up. “Yes?”
“Would it be okay if I borrowed your cardigan?” Hannah asked. “It’s kind of cold in here.”
“Sure,” Courtney said, turning back to the two-by-four. “I keep that old sweater in the dressing room for just this sort of thing. You never know when they are going to blast the air-conditioning in here.”
“Thanks,” Hannah said. She walked away, acting as though she were in no big hurry, even though she felt like running.
Hannah picked up her backpack and slipped into the nearest bathroom, locking the door behind her. She carefully hung the cardigan on a hook. Then she dug through her backpack.
I must have an evidence bag in here somewhere, she thought.
Finally, in the last pocket, she found a small plastic bag. Perfect.
Using a hair clip she found in her bag, she managed to scrape off some of the pink paint from the cardigan into the bag. She didn’t want to remove too much or Courtney might notice. On the other hand, why would Courtney leave incriminating evidence out in plain sight? She must not have realized the paint was on her sweater or, Hannah thought, maybe it was just a coincidence and she had nothing to hide. They’d have to figure out a way to find out.
Hannah sealed the evidence bag and zipped it into her backpack’s smallest pocket. Then she put on the cardigan. It was too small. Hannah was taller than Courtney, who was only in sixth grade. She was taller than Tessa, too, who was in seventh grade, but was one of the youngest seventh graders at Woodlands. Hannah’s arms stuck out of the sleeves. She looked ridiculous.
She took off the sweater. Actually, she didn’t want anyone noticing the paint stains, anyway.
She went back to Courtney. “You know, as I’m working, I’m warming up. Thanks, though.” She held out the sweater. “Should I just hang your sweater back in the dressing room?”
Courtney didn’t even look up from the task she was concentrating on. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
Hannah took the sweater into the dressing room and hung it up, making sure the pink splotches were out of sight. While she was there, she looked around to see if she could find any more evidence of Courtney’s guilt, but she didn’t see anything unusual.