Amanda Lester and the Orange Crystal Crisis

  “Whaaaaaaat?!” She reached for a gingersnap. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “Nope,” he said, appearing to be satisfied with the way the wheels moved. “Why do you think he acts so mean to you?”

  “What are you talking about?” she said, chewing. The cookie was really dry. She’d have to get some water ASAP.

  “He really likes you. He’s afraid of being rejected so he acts mean to push you away so you won’t hurt him.” He stuffed the board back in his pack.

  “Give me a break. Wait. He didn’t tell you this, did he?” She was going to need to get up.

  “Of course not. But I know. I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out. And BTW, he’s really jealous of Nick.” He lifted his left leg and rested his foot on the seat, having to scrunch to get his butt out of the way.

  “What do you mean he’s jealous of Nick? How can he be jealous of Nick? Nick is dead, and anyway he wasn’t my boyfriend. I need to get some water.” This was the worst news she had heard all day. Well, not really. Moriarty sailing off with the book and the crystals was much worse, but that was different.

  “He was, and Scapulus knows it. He doesn’t think he can ever live up to the Nick Muffet legend so you’ll never look twice at him. That’s why he’s been trying to act like a tough guy. So he’ll be more like Nick and you’ll like him. I’ll wait.”

  Amanda got up and went to the water fountain. She was absolutely fuming and choked trying to swallow the lukewarm liquid. When she returned she plopped herself down so hard that Simon’s foot fell off the seat. “Nick was not my boyfriend and Scapulus does not have a crush on me. Where do you get these ideas?” she said.

  “Observation,” he said, resettling himself.

  “You’re nuts,” she said. “And by the way, eeeeeeew.”

  “Ew? Oh, I don’t know. I think you guys would be good together.”

  “Aaaagh! I thought you were my friend.”

  “I am,” he said. “And as your friend I think you should go for it.”

  When they were just a few minutes away from the Windermere station, Amanda said, “Your nose is still purple. How are you going to explain that?”

  “Uh, we were practicing our kicks and you accidentally got me?”

  “I don’t think so. That already happened to me. Too suspicious.”

  “Well, maybe I was hit by something falling in an aftershock.”

  “That seems better,” she said. “Although they’re going to ask you why you didn’t report the injury and go to the nurse.”

  “They won’t even notice,” he said. “Too preoccupied.”

  As soon as they returned they went to look for Holmes. He had never answered the text Simon had sent, and they desperately needed his help to destroy the virus formula. It was late but they found him in the Cyberforensics classroom still trying to figure out who had hacked Professor Redleaf’s computer. Tired as they were, they were still so agitated that they fell all over each other trying to tell him what was going on.

  “Is that what you sent that text about?” said Holmes.

  “Yes,” said Simon. “Sorry it was on Amanda’s phone but I forgot mine.”

  Holmes looked from one to the other of them but said nothing.

  “We have to destroy the virus,” said Amanda, hoping he wasn’t too mad. He sure looked it. “We really need your help. We need to hack the Moriartys and find it.”

  “That’s very noble of you,” he said, “but the security of the school is more important than the crystals.”

  Well didn’t that just beat all. Amanda was furious. The crystals were in pain, and by using them Blixus Moriarty could regain the advantage he’d lost. He was incredibly dangerous and thwarting him was way more important than the school’s data, which after all they should have protected better.

  “Look, guys,” said Holmes softly, “I’m very sorry but I can’t help you.”

  “Okay, man,” said Simon. “Thanks anyway.”

  Amanda glared at him and left him to his project. Crazy about her indeed.

  29

  Answers

  The next morning, Sunday, Amphora told Amanda and Ivy she thought she’d overheard Professor Thrillkill saying there had been yet another murder. The body count at the school was growing uncomfortably high and the three girls became extremely agitated. Nigel must have sensed their distress because he kept whining.

  Now Amanda’s hands were so full she didn’t know what to attack next. She still had to finish the film, she needed to find a way to destroy the virus formula, she had to figure out where the Moriartys were, she had to find out more about the Punitori, there was still the mystery of the dead body to solve and the secret compartments to get into, and now this. Fortunately Amphora volunteered to try to find out what was going on with the murder, leaving Ivy and Amanda to work on the other problems.

  Almost as soon as Amphora had set out, Amanda, who was sitting with Ivy in the common room trying to figure out what to do next, received a text: “Nothing,” said Amphora. After another few minutes she got another one: “Asked Rupert to keep ears open. Hasn’t heard.” Amanda looked at Ivy and said, “They must be trying to keep it hush hush, and who can blame them? There have been too many deaths around here.”

  The next text came in about half an hour: “Wrote names of teachers seen alive. Want list?” Amanda texted back, “What about Prof Kindseth?” Amphora texted, “In hospital.”

  In the next few texts Amphora sent the list. After thinking a moment Ivy said, “What about Professor Tumble?” Amanda asked Amphora about the disguise teacher, and the next message she received was, “Oh no. Haven’t seen her.”

  Amanda texted back, “Who would want her dead?” Amphora sent, “Can’t think of anyone.” Then Ivy said she thought the most likely victim was Professor Feeney and had anyone seen her. Amphora texted “No.”

  “It’s got to be her,” said Amanda. “You’re right, Ivy. She was the one I heard talking about the missing book last term.” She texted Amphora and told her what she’d concluded. The next thing she knew, Amphora had run up to Professor Feeney’s office, which was empty. However while she was messing around, Professor Also came in and caught her. Now she was sitting in Thrillkill’s office waiting for him.

  “It’s a good thing Simon doesn’t know about this,” said Amanda.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” said Ivy. “I could collect enough money to pay for a year’s tuition.”

  Amanda smiled for the first time in a while. At least Ivy was joking about her friends’ arguing instead of being annoyed.

  When Amphora returned from Thrillkill’s office she was more upset than she’d been at the news of another murder. “He gave me two weeks’ detention,” she said. “And by the way, there hasn’t been a murder. I got that wrong. Not that I told him I was eavesdropping. I just mentioned that I thought Professor Feeney might be dead, so he called her into his office and she said, ‘Obviously not. Whatever gave you such an idea?’ So I just said I thought I’d heard something.”

  “I’m sorry about the detention,” said Ivy.

  “He was so mad, though,” said Amphora. “He said that that no one had died since Professor Redleaf was killed, and I shouldn’t have been in Professor Feeney’s office without permission, and that if I infringe the rules one more time I’ll be suspended for two weeks like my ‘friend Simon Binkle.’”

  “Oh dear,” said Ivy.

  “I think he has it in for both me and Simon now, if you want to know the truth,” said Amphora. “I hate being lumped together with him. And who is he to threaten me like that? Yes, I shouldn’t have been in there, except that I had to find out. He would have done the same thing. Thrillkill, I mean, although I’m sure Simon would have too.”

  “That’s really unfair,” said Amanda.

  “How would you know?” Amphora said, suddenly turning on her friend. “You always get away with breaking the rules.”

  Amanda was stunned. “I do not. What a mean thing to say.”


  “You lead a charmed life, Amanda,” she said. “You know you do.”

  “Where do you get an idea like that?”

  “You run down to London whenever you please and you never get in trouble. You break clocks and no one cares. You sneak out in the middle of the night—”

  “I do not break clocks,” said Amanda.

  “All right. Your boyfriend then. But you were with him.”

  “He wasn’t my boyfriend and I didn’t like him breaking that clock,” yelled Amanda.

  “Hey,” said Ivy. “People will hear.”

  “He was not my boyfriend,” Amanda said hoarsely. “And I couldn’t believe he did that. He didn’t even care. I thought it was terrible.” Actually, at the time she’d admired Nick for taking matters into his own hands. She hadn’t liked the noise of the clock, so he’d climbed up, grabbed it, and broken it to bits. She’d never seen anyone act so quickly or decisively just to please her and she was thrilled. Not that she’d admit it.

  “Fine,” said Amphora. “Whatever. Anyway, there was no murder, so that’s cleared up.”

  “Look,” said Amanda. “I really am sorry about your detention. It wasn’t fair, but it could have been worse.”

  “I suppose so,” said Amphora. “But if that Wiffle kid says one thing, or Simon . . .”

  “They won’t,” said Ivy. “If they do, they’ll have me to contend with. I think Simon is getting short on money. He’ll watch himself.”

  “I never thought of that,” said Amphora. “He can’t afford to insult me anymore. I like that.”

  Bing! Amanda looked at her phone and discovered that she’d received a text from Editta: “Come to library.” Perhaps she’d learned something about the missing book.

  Amanda, Ivy, and Amphora rushed to the library to find Editta standing there with a card in her hand. “You’re not going to believe this,” she said. She seemed fine—no sign of distress and no evidence that she’d been crying.

  “What is it?” said Amphora, grabbing the card from her.

  “Lemme see,” said Amanda.

  Editta snatched the card back. “It’s the book,” she said. “It’s The Detective’s Bible, and guess who took it: David Wiffle!”

  “No,” said the others simultaneously.

  “Yes,” said Editta. “And look here. He’s even assigned a classification number so that it sits between the codes and scandals books. It was misfiled. I found it by accident. Do you believe this?”

  The girls were gobsmacked. They were thrilled to finally know what the book was and who had it, but they couldn’t for the life of them figure out how any of this had happened. Wiffle? What in the world would he have been doing with the teachers’ book, and how long had he had it and not told anyone? Did this mean he was a mole?

  Last term they had discovered the existence of The Detective’s Bible. In fact the target of the bomber in the class project had been just that, but not the original version. The teachers had stashed a facsimile in the garage. The kids had never dreamed that the real one wasn’t still safe wherever it was hidden.

  Now that they thought about it the whole thing made sense. The answer had been hiding in plain sight. Not that they knew what was in it. They hadn’t been able to decrypt the facsimile, which had been burned almost to bits anyway. They did, however, know that the book was important. They just hadn’t realized how important.

  If David Wiffle had taken the book, surely Moriarty did not have it and there was nothing to worry about. But David was bound to be in trouble. Didn’t he realize what was going on? He could have fixed everything so easily. Why hadn’t he? Something didn’t add up.

  Amanda texted Simon, who joined them at once. He was so glad that they’d solved the mystery that he actually congratulated Editta on her excellent detective work. She was so surprised that she dropped the card and Simon accidentally stepped on it, leaving the tread pattern from his shoe all over it.

  Now the task was to find the Wiffle kid. They split up and looked all over the school. Of course only Simon could search the boys’ dorm, but he didn’t have to. Amanda found David in the gym practicing kicks. While she was waiting for the others she watched him. He had improved since the time he’d kicked her in the nose.

  He caught her watching him and said, “Go away. You’re distracting me.”

  “You’ve gotten better,” she said.

  For a second he forgot himself. “I have?” he said, looking down at his legs.

  “Yes. Nice form.” She made a hand-leg gesture.

  “You’re kidding,” he said. “What do you want? I’m not going in the basements with you.”

  “I have no intention of inviting you to the basements or anywhere else,” said Amanda. She leaned back against the mirror with her arms folded.

  “Good, because I’m not going,” he said. “So what do you want?”

  “Ah, here they are,” she said, seeing that the others had arrived.

  “Them?” he said, looking deflated. “What are they doing here?”

  “We want to talk to you,” said Amanda, motioning to the others to gather round like some kind of gang leader.

  “About what?” said David.

  “About this,” said Editta, shoving the card in his face. Amanda couldn’t believe how she’d come to life.

  “Where’d you get that?” said David.

  “In the library,” said Editta. “Misfiled.”

  “I didn’t misfile it,” said David. “I put it right where it belonged.” Oops. He’d given himself away. Now he couldn’t deny having made the card or filing it.

  “Where’s the book?” said Ivy.

  “Why do you want to know?” said David, glancing from one to the other.

  “Because the teachers are going crazy thinking they’ve lost it,” screamed Amanda. “How could you not know that?”

  “Well, I didn’t,” he said. “And anyway I was trying to protect it.”

  “What’s in it?” said Amphora, stepping forward.

  “I haven’t the faintest idea,” he said. “It’s in code.”

  “The teachers are in a huge dither about it and you’d better produce it fast,” said Ivy.

  “Okay, okay,” he said. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

  “We’ll meet you in the dining room,” Ivy said.

  The kids went to the dining room and poured themselves some tea. After twenty minutes had passed, during which time they’d drunk three cups each, the Wiffle kid hadn’t returned, so Simon went to see what was going on. In about five minutes he and David showed up.

  “What happened?” said Amphora.

  “Can’t say,” said David. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the book isn’t where I put it.” He looked terrified.

  “This is not good,” said Amanda. “Look again.”

  “I already did,” said David.

  “Simon, go with him and make sure he checks everywhere,” said Amanda.

  The two boys went back to David’s room to search some more. Ivy said, “I wonder why there aren’t any copies. Or are there? Why is it so important that the teachers have the original?”

  “I don’t know,” said Editta, “but if there are copies, where would they be?”

  “Good question,” said Amanda. “We’ve scoured the school and we didn’t see any.”

  “They could be anywhere,” said Ivy. “Even hidden inside other book covers.”

  “Good point,” said Amanda. “They’re probably around. But apparently the original is the one that counts.”

  “Weird, though,” said Ivy. “If Moriarty got a copy, wouldn’t it be the same? He’d still have the content, whatever it is.”

  “How creepy,” said Amphora. “You don’t suppose—”

  Ivy did one of her lifting up her sunglasses things and Amphora stopped, but Amanda knew what she was going to say. She was going to say that Nick might have taken it and the Moriartys still might have it.

  David and Simon still w
eren’t able to find the missing book, but David thought he knew of some other places it might be and went off to search them. He seemed to realize how important it was that he produce it, so Simon let him be. No way would a rule-bound kid like that try to get away with something.

  Meanwhile, Editta and Amphora left and Amanda and Simon turned the subject back to the crystals.

  “He’s got ‘em,” said Amanda. “He’s probably torturing them right now. As soon as he strikes them or tries to fill them with too much light they’ll turn red and die. He won’t care.”

  “He’s an awful man,” said Ivy. “I’m sorry, Amanda. I know how you feel about Nick but—”

  “I don’t feel that way about Nick anymore,” said Amanda. Simon and Amphora looked at each other. “What?” said Amanda. “You know I don’t. Ivy!”

  “Of course you don’t,” said Ivy. She didn’t sound like she meant it. “Say, do you think the crystals have DNA? They are alive. They’d have to, wouldn’t they?”

  Amanda and Simon looked at each other. “OMG!” said Amanda. Simon rushed to Ivy and gave her a huge smackeroo right on the lips. Editta and Amphora gaped, but Ivy just smiled. “You’re welcome,” she said.

  Amanda and Simon dashed to the lab, colliding with students and teachers on the way and causing a lot of yelling and cursing. “Call Clive,” yelled Amanda. Ivy and Nigel followed at a slower pace. When they got to the lab, Clive was already there and everyone made a beeline for the dead crystal. They laid it out on the workbench and looked at each other. What were they supposed to do now?

  “How do you tell if the crystals have DNA?” said Amanda.

  “You’re thinking the same thing I am,” said Simon.

  “Of course,” she said. “Maybe the crystals that formed on the dead body absorbed the victim’s DNA.”

  “Bingo!” said Simon. “Boy, I wish Professor Kindseth were here. You know, he still isn’t doing that well.”

  “I know,” said Amanda. “Have you heard anything today?”

  “Uh uh,” he said. “Anyone?”

  “No,” said Ivy. “Not a word.”

  “Me either,” said Clive.

  “Hang on,” said Amanda. “How about that guide the school made for doing laboratory tests? Let’s look it up.”