“Why?”
“To talk to our new client. Someone clearly needs our help, and better us than Lestrade.”
Shelby laughed at my confused expression. “What did I say when I knocked on your door? It doesn’t get old being right. But what does get old is when people doubt me. Even you.”
She handed me another piece of paper, this one with our science homework on it. Before I could ask her why she was showing me this, I saw it. It was so slight that it made perfect sense that I missed it before. The homework had the same printing inconsistency as the letter.
“Yes, Watson, it appears that Mr. Crosby has something to hide, indeed.”
CHAPTER
11
This was a bad idea.
Even if the letter was something Crosby had written or received, and Shelby was convinced it was, that didn’t mean he needed our help. Or even wanted it. He was a teacher. We were his students. There were certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed.
But none of that was going to stop Shelby.
As much as I was itching for a case and something new to write about, there was no way this was going to end well.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I said for the fortieth time that morning as we walked into school. “Maybe we should write him a letter or something.”
Shelby paused before entering Crosby’s classroom. Whoa, was Shelby actually going to listen to me?
“Feel free to stay out here,” she said before opening the door and walking in.
No. Of course she wasn’t.
I sighed and followed her. Like I was going to miss whatever was about to happen.
Mr. Crosby looked up from his desk, and I swear there was a flash of panic on his face. He quickly put a friendly smile in its place. “Well, good morning, Shelby and John. What can I do for you?”
Shelby strode over to his desk. “I understand some adults may consider it awkward to ask a preadolescent for help, but I’m here to assist you with your little problem.”
Mr. Crosby’s eyes darted to me, then he cleared his throat. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is this about yesterday’s assignment?”
Shelby sat down in her usual seat at the front of the classroom, while I sat next to her. “Let me explain to you what I do, Mr. Crosby. I help people. Granted, they usually come to me so this is a rather unorthodox start, but you clearly seem to be in a situation that requires my assistance. Am I right?”
Mr. Crosby glanced again at me.
“You can trust Watson, Mr. Crosby. He’s been surprisingly adequate in helping me on occasion.”
Gee, thanks, Shelby.
Mr. Crosby hadn’t moved a muscle since we walked in.
“I think there’s been some mistake,” Crosby said, but there was panic in his eyes.
“I see that your watch is still missing, which is a shame,” Shelby said as she folded her hands on the desk. “Not only because it’s a precious family heirloom, but it is worth a considerable amount. Around five hundred dollars last time I checked.”
One time, years ago, Dad and I were driving home to the base in Kentucky through woods when he slammed on the brakes. There was a deer in the middle of the road that was frozen with fear, eyes wide. Mr. Crosby had the exact same expression on his face now.
“Finding a stolen watch is a rather easy task, Mr. Crosby.” Shelby glanced at the clock. “You’ve got two minutes before I walk out of this room, and my skills will be accompanying me.”
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Crosby finally broke. “It’s not that simple.”
“Even better,” Shelby said as a smile spread on her lips. “I like my cases with a few twists and turns.”
While the thought of a complicated case gave me a headache.
“Listen, the last thing I wanted to do was get you involved, but you should probably know what’s going on since it concerns you.”
WHAT? How did Mr. Crosby’s missing watch have anything to do with Shelby?
However, if this news surprised Shelby, she didn’t show it. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “Tell me everything.”
“I guess I should start at the beginning,” Crosby said as he unlocked a drawer in his desk. He handed us a few pieces of paper.
The first one was an e-mail sent to him a week before school started.
Dear Mason,
Congratulations on your new position at the Harlem Academy of the Arts. I must inform you that if you don’t fail one of your students, Shelby Holmes, I will be forced to contact the administrators and tell them what a horrible teacher you were and get your position revoked. Do it as soon as possible before it’s too late for you.
Ms. Semple
Who was this Ms. Semple, and what did she want with Shelby? Why would she want Shelby to fail a class? It didn’t make sense. And it didn’t mention a watch.
“This is out of character for Ms. Semple,” Shelby replied with furrowed brows as she examined the letter closer.
“How do you know this Ms. Semple person?” I asked.
“She’s the headmistress at Miss Adler’s School, where Mr. Crosby taught before coming here.”
“Okay, but how do you know her? Or I guess I should ask, how does she know you?”
Shelby shrugged. “I went to Miss Adler’s for first grade and stayed two years before transferring here.”
“You did?” I’d assumed Shelby had always gone to the Academy.
“I must’ve just missed you there,” Mr. Crosby replied.
“I’m surprised you hadn’t heard of me when you arrived,” Shelby boasted. “I found the school to be a little too uptight for me. But oh how Ms. Semple had begged me to stay. They kept throwing scholarship money at me and bumped me up yet another grade, but there wasn’t anything they could do to keep me.”
“Wait a second,” Mr. Crosby said with a laugh. “I do remember when I got there they talked about this girl who aced her entrance exam. That was you?”
“Did they happen to mention that I found a mistake on their ‘exam’ as well?” Shelby used air quotes when she said the word exam, her opinion of the difficulty of the exam pretty clear. “Amateurs. They’re lucky they even got me to attend in the first place, let alone grace them with my presence for two years. But it looks like Ms. Semple wants me back. How desperate for her to resort to blackmail.”
Mr. Crosby cleared his throat. “Well, I took care of it. I went straight to Principal Loh when I received this letter. I told Ms. Semple that I would not bow down to her threats.”
“You spoke with her?” Shelby asked.
“No, I replied to her e-mail. I wanted all of this to be in writing. Listen, I’ve always been an upstanding person, and feel like I’ve proven myself to be a good teacher.”
“You have!” I piped in.
“You’ve been competent,” Shelby replied with a sniff.
(I mean, honestly, that’s a compliment coming from her.)
“So that’s it?” I asked, wondering why he would tell us this if it had been taken care of.
“No,” Shelby replied. “That’s not it. After Mr. Crosby informed Ms. Semple he wouldn’t fall for petty blackmail, she stole his watch. Do I even need to ask if I’m right?”
Crosby slumped in his seat. “I returned from lunch yesterday to this letter on my desk.” He handed us another letter.
Mason, I don’t think you realize how serious I am. Fail Shelby Holmes or you’ll never see your watch again.
“I went in my drawer and it was gone.”
“This was why you were going to contact Detective Lestrade,” Shelby stated to Mr. Crosby’s surprise.
“Yes, I was going to talk to her today. This has gotten out of hand. It’s not simply the watch, which is very important to my family. I’m not going to give in to blackmail.” Crosby grimaced. “This has all been so confusing. I don’t understand why Ms. Semple would go through all of this just so I would fail you. Do you really think this is all so you’d
go back there?”
“Well, it was a coup for Miss Adler’s when I decided to attend. Every school wanted me after my test scores. I’m not surprised she’d go to such lengths to get me to return. As if a school could fail me in anything.”
That was true, since schools didn’t grade on things like humility.
While Shelby seemed pretty pleased with herself, it didn’t add up to me. “But why would she blackmail Mr. Crosby instead of coming to you directly? Even if you failed science, and then, for some reason, had to leave the Academy, it wouldn’t necessarily mean you’d go back there.”
“Never underestimate a headmistress scorned.”
Shelby’s ego, which was always higher than average, was above and beyond now. “I don’t know, Shelby. It seems like a bit much,” I said.
Shelby glared at me, more so than normal, which I assumed meant that I’d offended her. Although it was kind of nice to give her a taste of her own medicine. But I knew my questions poked holes in her theory: Why would the head of a school resort to blackmail? And wouldn’t she blackmail Shelby? Why involve Mr. Crosby?
“I realize this must be very hard on you, Mr. Crosby.” Shelby sat up straighter in her seat. “But let me assure you that I’ve got this.”
“No, no,” Mr. Crosby said as he stood up. “I will not have you get involved. I’ll talk to Detective Lestrade, and it will be taken care of.”
Shelby began to laugh. “You think Detective Lestrade will get to the bottom of this? It would be my absolute pleasure to retrieve your watch.”
“I can’t have you—”
“Give me until Monday afternoon.”
“What do you mean? Do you know where the watch is?”
“This should be fairly easy.” Shelby got up from her chair and began pacing the room. “When one has an item of value, especially one involved in blackmail, they want to keep it near them. Ms. Semple most likely has it with her at school. While I am currently unaware of the location of her safe, she certainly has one in her office. That would be the most logical place she’d keep the watch. She wears a key to something around her neck; it must be to a safe.”
“How do you know that?” Mr. Crosby asked.
“Because I pay attention. Although Ms. Semple is a lot more cautious than you have been. It’s not surprising that someone knew how to get to your watch. You practically wave around your key ring with the red plastic key cover to denote which one opens your desk drawer.”
“But I had my keys on me,” Mr. Crosby argued.
“Pfft! ” Shelby rolled her eyes. “Your desk drawer lock is a joke.”
Mr. Crosby looked at Shelby with great concern. “So you’re saying that Ms. Semple came in here yesterday and picked my lock while I was at lunch.”
Shelby shook her head. “She couldn’t risk getting spotted. She probably had some help. Oh! Maybe it’s even someone on the inside.” Shelby continued to walk around the room with even more manic energy. “Yes, this was exactly what I needed. Please, Mr. Crosby, you have to give me a couple days to come up with a plan and retrieve your watch. Let me at least do that. I want nothing more than to best Ms. Semple’s plan. Then after I’ve been successful, you can talk to Lestrade about Semple’s letters.”
I couldn’t help but think that Shelby also wanted to best Detective Lestrade. And, okay, I was looking forward to having a case (and something to write about), even though I was still uneasy about a few things. Mostly that this wasn’t as simple as Shelby made it seem. I had so many questions, but Shelby’s enthusiasm for the case was starting to spread.
“I don’t know …” Mr. Crosby looked pained.
“Come on! I’ve been itching for a good undercover case.” Shelby was bouncing back and forth on her heels.
“Undercover?”
“Yes! As you know, we have Monday off next week for teacher in-service. Since Miss Adler’s is a private school, class will be in session. I’ll pay her a visit then and retrieve your watch. I’ll have it in your hands in no time!”
“No, no.” Mr. Crosby shook his head. “I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not. I’m volunteering my services. After all, shouldn’t I be involved since this has to do with me? You wouldn’t be in this mess if I weren’t such an amazing student.”
All Mr. Crosby could do was nod in agreement.
She stood in front of him. “I insist on helping you, Mr. Crosby. Let me make this right. I’ll return your watch by Monday afternoon. After that, I’ll even go with you to discuss the blackmail situation with Detective Lestrade. Then you and I can both put Miss Adler’s behind us. Deal?”
Shelby extended her hand across Mr. Crosby’s desk. It took a moment for Crosby to finally shake it. “Deal. As long as you know what you’re doing.”
Shelby raised her eyebrow at him for even questioning that.
“And please be careful. I realize you have special skills and that you want to be involved, but you are just a student.”
“But I’m not just a student,” Shelby said with a smirk. “Ask Ms. Semple.”
“You really want to do this?” he asked with a shake of his head.
“Of course! What’s better than going undercover at the very school that’s desperate to have me and getting your watch back?”
Mr. Crosby started laughing. “Okay, okay. But be careful. Both of you.”
I gave him a smile since I was still confused about several things, except that on Monday we’d be extracting a watch. All right, I was getting excited. I’d never gone undercover before. My mind was buzzing with all the different ways I could write about our adventure.
“Now, Mr. Crosby, while I am volunteering my services, going undercover does incur some expenses.” She batted her eyelashes at him.
“Oh, of course.” Crosby took out his wallet.
This was new. I’d never seen Shelby take cash before. She preferred to be paid in chocolate. But I guessed if she was going to go undercover at some fancy girls’ school, she was going to need some expensive items.
“Twenty should do, for now.” She held out her hand while Mr. Crosby gave her the bills. “Mark my word, Mr. Crosby, your watch will be returned in no time.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate it.”
“Just one more thing, Mr. Crosby,” Shelby said as she was heading out the door. “You may want to fix the toner in your printer.”
CHAPTER
12
I couldn’t wait for school to be over so we could come up with a plan for Monday. Well, that was what I was hoping. But as Shelby and I made our way home, she was completely silent. Every once in a while, she’d mutter something under her breath. I wanted to pepper her with questions, but figured she needed some time to put everything together.
Once we got to our block, she kept walking. “Ah, Shelby?” I called after her, but she didn’t turn around. I jogged to catch up with her. “Where are you going?”
“Need to talk to …,” she mumbled. At least I think that was what she said. So I deduced we were on our way to talk with one of Shelby’s contacts.
Most of her contacts were people in our neighborhood, although one time we met with a bookie in a really scary part of town. To my relief, she bypassed the 125th Street subway and kept walking downtown.
After a couple more blocks, I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “Is it really going to be that easy to retrieve Mr. Crosby’s watch?”
Shelby snorted, and we crossed 120th Street. “Yes. Ms. Semple won’t be expecting some sweet lil’ ol’ fourth grader on a school tour to take her down. This is going to be fun, Watson.”
Again, Shelby and I have very different definitions of the word fun. Although I was looking forward to this. It could be fun.
“But won’t you need a parent to go with you?” When I got a tour of the Academy, Mom was with me. She did everything regarding school, actually. All I had to do was show up.
“While some kids may require a parent to chaperone them to a school inter
view, I’m going by myself. I’ll write a letter as my alter ego’s mother saying that I’m a fiercely independent young girl, whose decision to attend is mine alone, therefore I’ll be doing the interview on my own.”
“Is that really going to work?”
“It did when I originally went there.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Wait a second. You did your interviews for first grade by yourself?”
Shelby kept walking. “Of course I did. Did you think I was really going to have my parents decide where I was going to attend school?”
Yes. Yes, I did. Because that’s what every single other child from the beginning of time has done when it came to first grade. Not like I had a choice of where I was going to go to school at that age, since there was only one elementary school on the post. But still …
“What’s Ms. Semple like?” I asked. I kept picturing a villain from some movie: evil laugh, smoking a cigarette from some long holder, petting a hairless cat on her lap. She had to be horrible to do something like this, right?
Shelby scrunched her face as if she was putting something complicated together. “Single woman in her midfifties, has been in the academic world all her life: first as a student, then a teacher, and now as headmistress. Never married, but always considered her students to be her own children. I will admit that I do find this behavior rather against her character. However, as I’ve learned so many times prior to this case, appearances can be deceiving.”
“How are you going to find out where the safe is?” I asked.
“Oh, that part will be easy. The better question, Watson, is how am I going to get Ms. Semple out of her office so I can steal the watch?”
“Do you know how you’re going to get that key from her necklace?”
“I don’t need the key. I’m going to pick the lock.”
“You really know how to pick locks?” I’d assumed she was simply bragging when she made that comment about Mr. Crosby’s desk lock. (I should’ve known better by now.)
“How else do you expect me to retrieve something from a locked compartment? Ah, finally,” Shelby said as she looked up at a small storefront with a blissful expression.