Sitting next to Nick in the crime lab the next day, Amanda had an idea.
“What would you do if you discovered a substance you wanted to analyze but you thought it might be dangerous?” she said, drawing imaginary shapes on the lab bench with one hand and twirling her long, bushy hair with the other.
“I guess I’d ask Professor Stegelmeyer for help,” he said, following her artistic efforts with his eyes.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, stopping what she was doing. The twisted hair fell but refused to join the rest.
“You’ve found something? What is it?” He looked eager.
“I’m not sure,” she said, still looking down at the table. “It’s just interesting. Probably nothing, though.” She looked up, saw him watching her, and quickly looked away.
“Tell me,” he said flashing that amazing grin, which she could see out of the corner of her eye.
“Nah, it’s not important.”
“Sure it is. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be talking about it.”
That made sense. She wondered if Professor Ducey would agree. “Maybe you’re right. But if I tell you, you can’t mention this to anyone.”
“Of course not.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” He held up his hand and made himself look very serious.
“Okay.” Amanda bent over and cupped her hand to his ear. “There’s something weird in the cook’s pantry.”
“Weird how?” said Nick, talking to the lab table.
“First of all, it’s on the floor, and the rest of the kitchen is really clean, so I don’t think it’s supposed to be there,” she said, uncupping.
“Oh, well, that’s probably nothing. I’m sure the cook will clean it up. Anyone can spill something.” He ran his hand over the beaker in front of him.
“No. I don’t think so. It doesn’t look like a normal ingredient.”
“Why not? What does a normal ingredient look like?” He looked over at a glass-fronted cabinet filled with various liquids. “Like those?”
“No. It’s this pink powder,” she said.
“Pink?”
She knew it sounded frivolous. She hoped he’d take her seriously. “Pink. Powder.”
“I’m sure there are ingredients like that.” She could see that she was going to have a hard time convincing him.
“Name one.”
“Uh . . .”
She couldn’t think of any either. “Want to go see? I’ll bet you there aren’t any.” She started to get up.
“I suppose it could be some kind of cleaner.”
“I don’t think it is. There’s no cleaner in the pantry. Only food.” She sat back down.
“Maybe the cook’s assistant was cleaning in there and left some residue. I think you’re getting a bit carried away, to be honest.”
Was she? Wasn’t everything at Legatum significant?
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe this is part of the class project. Do you think so?”
“So that’s what you’re thinking. I suppose it could be, but since the kitchen is off limits it isn’t likely. They said it would be obvious, and if you can’t go someplace it isn’t obvious, is it?” He really had a logical mind. She wished she’d thought of that.
“You’re right. What was I thinking?” She slumped in her chair.
“Look, if it would make you feel any better, I’ll go there with you and we can grab a sample.”
“You’d go against the rules like that?”
“Sure. You did. Rules are made to be broken,” he said, grinning.
“You don’t think it’s rat poison and we’ll kill ourselves, do you?” Legatum could make you really paranoid. On the other hand, she’d known of cases back home that were just that weird and didn’t want to take any chances.
“No one would put rat poison in a pantry. At least not here. Can you imagine what the parents would do if someone got sick from rat poison in the kitchen?”
“Good point.”
“We’ll go later.” She knew he was humoring her but she didn’t care. Maybe they’d find something. You never knew.
“Okay. Thank you.”