The Case of the Mystery Meat Loaf

by David Lewman

  It seemed as though Club CSI’s investigation of the meat loaf mystery had come to another screeching halt.

  Then something occurred to Corey. “Both times?”

  “What?” Mrs. Collins asked, confused.

  “Did you boil the gravy both times?” he asked. “Remember? You made two batches. Didn’t you have to make more gravy for the second batch?”

  “Yes,” Mrs. Collins said slowly, looking away.

  Ben thought of something. “And the first time you told us you had to make a second batch of meat loaf for the swim team, didn’t you say you had to quickly make a second batch?”

  Mrs. Collins’s eyes darted around. “I don’t remember. I don’t think so.”

  Hannah said, “Maybe they rushed you. You were in a big hurry, so you didn’t bring the second batch of gravy all the way to a boil.”

  “No!” Mrs. Collins protested. “That’s not right! I am always careful with my cooking!”

  “Then what happened, Mrs. Collins?” the principal asked quietly. “It seems like you need to tell us something. . . .”

  Mrs. Collins thought a moment. She let out a big breath. “All right. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I made those people sick. But you won’t have to fire me. I’ll resign.”

  “Mom!” Ricky cried. “No! You can’t resign.” He stepped closer to his mom. “It’s okay. Tell them the truth.”

  His mom looked sternly back at him. “I already did! I told them the truth!”

  “No, you didn’t,” Ricky said. He turned back to the principal, Miss Hodges, and Club CSI. “I made the second batch of gravy.”

  “Ricky, don’t,” his mother pleaded. “You’ll get in trouble!”

  “Wait a minute,” Corey said. “You can cook? You? Ricky?”

  Ricky nodded. “Of course I can. It’s no big deal. My mom taught me.”

  “So you made the second batch of gravy?” Hannah asked. “The one that made people sick?”

  “Yeah,” Ricky admitted. “But I didn’t know it was the gravy that did it until just now.”

  He fiddled with the strings on his hooded sweatshirt. “I came down at the end of lunch period to help my mom clean up, like I do lots of times. But she was still cooking. She said the swim team was going to eat late, so she had to make more of the meat loaf. I said I’d help, and she said I could make the gravy.”

  His mom touched his arm.

  “I didn’t know it had to boil,” he said. “It didn’t have any meat in it. I thought it just had to warm up. I thought you could eat tofu raw.”

  “You can,” Hannah said. “But not if it’s been contaminated. Tofu’s never completely raw. There’s some cooking in the process of making it. It’s just that it’s too easy for bulk tofu in water to end up with bacteria on it.”

  “And for people who eat it to end up with bacteria in them,” Corey said.

  The principal frowned at him. He didn’t want to be reminded. He’d had a rough few days. “Sorry,” Corey apologized.

  Ricky faced the principal. “I’m sorry I made you sick, Principal Inverno. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear.”

  Principal Inverno thought for a minute, then nodded. “No, I know you didn’t. In fact, you were just trying to help your mom out when she was busy. And that’s very admirable.”

  Mrs. Collins looked hopeful. “So he’s not in trouble?”

  The principal shook his head. “No, he’s not in trouble.”

  Ricky and Mrs. Collins smiled.

  “But,” the principal added, “he shouldn’t be helping you out in the kitchen without anyone knowing about it. If you need help, we can talk about getting you some. But Ricky is a student here, not an employee.”

  “So the whole disaster wasn’t Miss Hodges’s fault at all,” Hannah said. She just wanted to make sure everyone was clear about this. She liked her new forensic science teacher, and she didn’t want her to be in trouble, either.

  “No, it wasn’t,” Principal Inverno agreed. He turned toward Miss Hodges. “The problem was with the gravy, and your recipe didn’t even include gravy.”

  “Gravy’s a good idea, though,” Miss Hodges said, moving to stand next to Mrs. Collins. “As long as you boil it.” She smiled.

  “I’m impressed with the job your students did investigating this situation,” the principal said. “You’ve obviously inspired them. I think you must be doing a good job of teaching forensic science. Did you help them with their investigation?”

  Miss Hodges smiled at Club CSI. “Nope,” she said. “They did it all on their own.”

  “Yay, us!” Corey said.

  “Well, now that that’s settled, I think we all need to get to class or to work,” Principal Inverno announced.

  He started toward the door.

  “Principal Inverno?” Ben said, raising his hand.

  “Yes, Ben?”

  “There’s just one more thing. . . .”

  Jack stared at the stack of papers on the little beat-up desk in his crowded office at Stan’s. Bills. Invoices. Letters from the bank.

  He thought about his grandfather working in this same office, back when Stan’s was the only place to buy groceries for miles around. There were plenty of customers back then. But not now. Every week it seemed as though fewer customers came into the small neighborhood grocery store. How much longer could they hold on?

  There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Jack said.

  His cashier, Roberta, stuck her head in. “There are some kids here to see you.”

  “Kids?” he said. “I hope they’re not looking for a contribution or something.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “They’re the same ones that were here the other day asking about tofu.”

  Jack clenched his jaw and then smiled. “Oh, right. I remember them. Tell ’em to come on in, if they can all squeeze into my palatial office.”

  Roberta pulled her head back out of the doorway. Jack stood up and faced the door.

  Hannah, Corey, and Ben came in and said hi. Jack greeted them warmly.

  “What can I do for you? Do you need more information on tofu?”

  He gave them a big smile. Hannah shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “We just thought we’d let you know how our investigation came out.”

  Jack looked puzzled. “Investigation? Oh, that’s right. That’s what your club is all about—CSI.”

  “Right,” Corey said. “After you told us you sent Mrs. Collins over to the new health food store for more tofu, we went over there and talked to the owners.”

  “They seem like a nice couple,” Jack said pleasantly.

  “Oh, they are,” Ben agreed. “Maybe too nice.”

  “Too nice?” Jack asked. “I didn’t think it was possible to be too nice in this business. The customers really appreciate it.”

  “The customers like it,” Corey said. “But sometimes when you’re too nice, you make mistakes hiring employees.”

  Jack’s left eye twitched. Just a little. But Ben noticed it.

  “I see what you mean,” Jack said. “But we’ve all made mistakes hiring people. That’s just part of running a business. If you go into business when you grow up, you’ll find that out for yourselves.”

  He sat down in his chair and then turned back to the paperwork on his desk.

  “Well,” he said, “I’m sorry to hear they hired someone incompetent at the health food store. They really should be more careful. Thanks for coming back to let me know that’s where the bad tofu came from.”

  “Actually,” Ben said, “we didn’t say anything about bad tofu coming from an incompetent employee.”

  Jack shrugged. “Well, that’s what you were implying.”

  Ben nodded. “You’re right. It was a bad employee who sold Mrs. Collins the contaminated tofu. His name’s Jim.”

  Jack looked a little impatient. “Okay, kids. That’s great. Now, if you’ll excuse me . . .”

  “Jim looked really familiar to me when we met hi
m,” Ben said. “But I couldn’t figure out where I knew him from.”

  Jack sat very still.

  “I thought about it for quite a while, trying to remember where I’d met him before,” Ben continued. “Then it came to me: I’d never met him before.”

  Jack smiled a tight smile. “I guess we all make mistakes.”

  “It wasn’t that I’d met him,” Ben said. “It was that he reminded me of someone. Not just the way he looked. The way he talked and moved too.”

  Ben paused. “He reminded me of you.”

  Jack took a deep breath through his nose.

  “Because he’s your brother,” Ben continued.

  Corey pointed at the old family photo on the wall. “That’s him right there, when you two were kids. He grew up, but the bones in his face didn’t change completely. You can tell it’s Jim.”

  “You said he moved away, but he didn’t,” Hannah said. “He stayed here in town.”

  “And you sent him to work at the new health food store, because it was ruining your business,” Ben said. “You wanted him to sabotage their reputation.”

  Jack stood up again. He didn’t look friendly anymore. He looked angry. “Now look . . . ,” he said in a low, threatening voice.

  But as he took a step forward, Principal Inverno crowded into the office. “Okay, we’ll take it from here, kids. Good job.”

  Ben, Hannah, and Corey stepped just outside the office, so there was room for a police officer to come in.

  “The police?” Jack said in disbelief. “You’ve got the police in on this?”

  “Yup,” Corey said. “Once they heard what your brother, Jim, had to say about your plan to ruin the health food store, they were real eager to meet you.”

  “Besides,” added Principal Inverno, “you’re not the only one with a brother.” He turned to the police officer. “Go ahead, bro. Do your job.”

  After school that day, Club CSI met in the science lab at school. “I’d say our first case was a huge success,” Corey announced.

  “I agree,” Hannah said.

  “Second the motion,” Ben said, laughing.

  Miss Hodges stuck her head out of the small room off the lab that she used as her office. “Need anything, Club CSI?”

  “No, thank you, Faculty Advisor,” Hannah said, smiling.

  “Actually,” Corey said, snapping his fingers, “can you bring us some snacks next time?”

  “Corey!” Ben and Hannah said at the same time.

  But Miss Hodges didn’t mind. “I’d be happy to. I can make some tofu chocolate-chip cookies!” she said with a wink.

  Everyone laughed, and Miss Hodges grinned at her students. “On a serious note, I’m tremendously grateful for your help in clearing my name. So thank you. Okay, carry on.”

  She went back into her office and then closed the door.

  “You know,” Corey said, “word’s spread through the whole school about how we investigated the meat loaf attack and how we figured out who did it and how our investigation even led to a couple of arrests.”

  “I know,” Hannah said. “I’ve heard people talking about it. And pointing at us.”

  “We’re famous!” Corey said. “And I always thought I’d be famous for my basketball skills!”

  “I’ve had a bunch of people come up to me, asking if they can join the club,” Ben said. “What do you think?”

  “I think that means we are definitely not a geek club!” Hannah said with a smile.

  “Totally,” Corey added. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got basketball practice.” He grabbed his backpack and headed for the door. “See you tomorrow.”

  “See you,” Ben said. “Have a good practice.”

  But Hannah didn’t say anything. She seemed to be lost in thought.

  “Um, hello? Hannah? See you tomorrow?” Corey said.

  “Oh,” she said. “Right. See you tomorrow.”

  “What were you thinking about?” Corey asked.

  “I was thinking about how I can hardly wait,” she confessed.

  “Until what?” Ben asked.

  “Our next case!”

  David Lewman never ate meat loaf from the school cafeteria, but he took his mother’s meat loaf sandwiches to school lots of times, and they were delicious! David has written more than sixty-five books starring SpongeBob SquarePants, Jimmy Neutron, the Fairly OddParents, G.I. Joe, the Wild Thornberrys, and other popular characters. He has also written scripts for many acclaimed television shows. David lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Donna, and their dog, Pirkle.