The logic class was taught by an energetic young man, Professor Ducey. He wore large black-rimmed glasses and sported a crew cut, and bore an uncanny resemblance to the rocker Buddy Holly. Amanda knew about Buddy Holly because her grandparents were big fans of fifties music and they were always playing his records. For some reason she thought Professor Ducey looked like a surfer, even though he didn’t have a “bushy bushy blond hairdo” like the Beach Boys, another of her grandparents’ favorites.
“In this class you will learn how to build a case,” said Professor Ducey, looking way more pleasant than either Professor Stegelmeyer or Sidebotham. “Deduction, inference, and abductive reasoning will be our tools. By the time you’ve completed this introductory course, you will be able to call all your suspects together in the drawing room and get the murderer to admit his crime. Ha ha ha!” He rapped the table and enjoyed his own joke. Amanda couldn’t decide if he was a lunatic or endearing. No, she knew. He was both.
“In building a case, you must research all the elements of the crime and keep your mind open. You do not want to jump to conclusions. Gather your evidence first and be as thorough as possible. Of course you will learn to do this in your other classes. Then you begin to put together the puzzle. One thing you must do is distinguish truth from the appearance of truth, so you will need to be skeptical. Doubt everything until you can prove it to your satisfaction.”
“Professor,” said a voice in the back. Amanda turned to look. It was Nick. “Isn’t abduction an invalid form of logic?”
Whoa. Good looking, creative, nice, and brainiac too. Amanda turned back to the teacher, eager to hear his answer, even though she had no idea what abduction was. It sounded like a made-up word.
“Not invalid, Mr. Muffet, but tricky,” said Professor Ducey bounding around the room. He seemed to know Nick’s name already. Amanda wondered if he magically knew hers as well. “With abductive reasoning, you are looking not only for a logical conclusion, but the best logical conclusion. As with inductive reasoning, you make a conclusion based on information you have. However with inductive reasoning, you reach but one conclusion, which may or may not be valid. With abductive reasoning, you are looking at more than one conclusion that may or may not be valid and attempting to select the best one. Phew. That was confusing.” He laughed again.
Amanda liked a person who could poke fun at himself but she had no idea what he’d just said. She stared at him blankly, then turned to look at Ivy, who was sitting there with her mouth hanging open.
“For example,” continued Professor Ducey, smiling, “let’s say you have eight suspects, all of whom have motive and opportunity. However only one of them is in a desperate situation that would have caused him to snap. With abductive reasoning, you would consider him most likely to have committed the crime. You see?”
“But isn’t that a bit simplistic, Professor?” said Nick in a way that wasn’t smug at all.
“Why do you say that, Mr. Muffet?” Professor Ducey looked interested.
“Because a person who engages in careful planning is just as likely to commit a crime as someone who’s impulsive.”
“Ah, that is possible. It depends on the nature of the crime, doesn’t it? I didn’t specify, and Mr. Muffet was correct to call me on that. A murder committed as a result of momentary passion is not the same as a calculated attempt to take possession of a victim’s money, for example. Both types of suspects may be desperate, but one is more organized than the other. I’m glad we had this discussion in our first class because it demonstrates how important it is to look at all the information, not just pick and choose that which supports your thesis. Nicely done, Mr. Muffet.”
Nick sat back with a grin on his face. Amanda couldn’t help thinking that if it had been that Wiffle kid, the grin would have been obnoxious, but on Nick it had a touch of humility about it.
“Now for your first homework assignment, I want you to do the following puzzles in your textbook: Kakuro; Shinro; Fox, goose, and bag of beans; Stained glass; Monkey and banana; Balance puzzle; Sudoku numbers 8, 12, 23, 37, and 246.”
Wow, who knew that logic was going to be fun? Amanda loved doing Sudoku, nonograms, and logic mazes. And Professor Ducey was so cool! This class would be a blast, except all that stuff about adhesives, er, abductive reasoning, was really confusing. Still, she was already looking forward to the next session.