The Great Shelby Holmes Meets Her Match

  Okay, even though she was right, Shelby knew my mom. She knew the hours she worked as a doctor. Plus, there were two other buttons, so who cared if the middle one was missing?

  Oh, that’s right. Shelby Holmes cared about every tiny detail. “It’s just a shirt.”

  “Exactly, Watson!” Shelby exclaimed. “It’s only clothes. To you and me. Moira lives in a different world. Everybody at her school, and I venture to deduce in her world, has a great deal of money. Appearances are everything. Her parents have to have the best-dressed child, the smartest child …”

  “But the Lacys weren’t that way.” The Lacys were my only guide into the world of the wealthy.

  “Oh, Tamra would be considered a scholarship student at Miss Adler’s,” Shelby replied with a laugh.

  Are you kidding me? The Lacys had that ridiculous apartment and a private driver and chef and maid and … They had everything.

  “As I said, this is a different world.”

  “Is that why you left?” I asked, because I couldn’t imagine Shelby fitting in with all those girls I saw walking into the school that morning. Not like she could fit in many places, but still. “Did you like it there?”

  Shelby shrugged. “I had wrongly assumed with all of their monetary resources, I’d be given the best education possible. Unfortunately, the students were more concerned with who vacationed where and what country they were going to visit next. If any of them even deigned to acknowledge the scholarship kid, they made fun of me. Which would have been okay if they could’ve come up with anything clever besides throwing around the predictable ‘poor’ and ‘nerd’ insults. That’s why I like the Academy. We’re all poor and middle-class nerds there. Well, not all of us. There are the Tamras, but she’s the exception to the rule.”

  It sounded like Miss Adler’s was a hard place to make friends. I didn’t think it was possible, but I started feeling a little sorry for Moira. “So she’s hung up on the fact that you were the best student?”

  “At this juncture, it appears that could be her motive. It’s obvious she’s jealous of me, and your online reporting has certainly set off a spark.”

  Yikes. I never thought my online posts would ever ruin a case for us. But, hey, at least I had a new reader!

  “Have you read my journal?”

  “I don’t need to read what I’ve lived.”

  “Oh, okay.” I tried to not let her know that bummed me out.

  “But I’m sure it’s adequate, Watson.”

  Gee, thanks.

  “Did you learn anything about Moira during your tour?”

  “Besides the fact that she’s an incompetent guide? She was off by a year on the date Miss Adler’s was founded and that there are three, not two, Pulitzer Prize–winning alumni. Yes, there was one other thing, which is why I’ve returned us here. On my tour I played the role of the guileless prospective student to a T, so I asked her about the cafeteria. Moira told me that she goes home for lunch. So we’re going to wait until she walks home, then we’ll ambush her and get the watch. Plain and simple.”

  Was it really going to be that easy?

  “What if it’s a trap? You said she’s smart, so what if she’s anticipating that we’ll follow her?”

  “Excellent point, Watson! Moira has proven to be a very calculating person, so there is a possibility she told me that fact on purpose.” Shelby seemed weirdly impressed that Moira could be setting a trap. “If it’s a game she wants, we’ll play it. Either way, we’ll get that watch.”

  “But what if she’s expecting us?”

  “We must remain vigilant.” Shelby glanced at her watch. “We have some time before lunch, and there’s no point in keeping up appearances.” She took off her wig, then shook out her hair, which was messier than usual (which was saying a lot). Then, to my horror, she pulled her skirt down.

  “Shelby!” I yelped before realizing she had a pair of shorts on under her skirt.

  “Relax, Watson. You can be so uptight.” Shelby removed her cardigan and put it in her backpack. Then she took off her patent leather shoes and replaced them with a beat-up pair of sneakers.

  I loosened my tie and unbuttoned the top button of my shirt. “You don’t happen to have a T-shirt in there for me, do you?”

  “Certainly not.”

  Hey, it didn’t hurt to ask. I removed my tie and rolled up my sleeves since it was pretty warm for late September.

  As we sat waiting, I thought about how Shelby described the students there. How they picked on her. I kept circling back to the fact that Moira would be going home for lunch. I’m sure Miss Adler’s had a pretty decent cafeteria. She was definitely setting up a trap or …

  “What is it?” Shelby asked. She could always tell when I was figuring something out.

  “What’s the food like at Miss Adler’s?”

  “It was adequate. However, they insisted on serving you both a fruit and vegetable, all organic, of course, and the dessert portion was sorely lacking.”

  I had a feeling the food was awesome.

  “Okay, desserts aside, would you go home for lunch if your house was across the street from school?”

  “Yes,” Shelby replied immediately. “Then I could get some peace and quiet instead of having to block out the incessant babbling in the cafeteria.”

  “Okay, but I wouldn’t. Lunch is when I can chill and talk to my friends. There would only be one reason that I wouldn’t want to eat lunch at school.”

  “The food?”

  “No. Shelby, I don’t think Moira has any friends. Or at least she isn’t well liked.”

  “It goes without saying that she isn’t well liked, Watson. You’ve met her, haven’t you?” she asked with a snort.

  Point taken.

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Shelby took out a candy bar and began devouring it.

  I knew I had to proceed with caution. Shelby didn’t really see the point of having friends so I didn’t want to offend her.

  “I’m simply making an observation about her character. Isn’t that what you always tell me to do? Moira’s probably really lonely. Why else would she put all this effort into … I don’t know … hacking a headmistress’s e-mail and stealing a former teacher’s watch. And that’s just two of the things she’s done. That we know of.”

  I couldn’t imagine someone who was happy causing all this trouble.

  Shelby looked thoughtful for a moment while she chewed on her second candy bar. “You’ve made a valid observation about Moira, Watson. It’s always smart to get inside an enemy’s mind. She’s someone who managed this complex plan solely to best us. She had to hack into Ms. Semple’s e-mail, steal Mr. Crosby’s watch, and then break into Ms. Semple’s safe to put a different watch there for us to steal. What’s most, dare I say, impressive is that she had anticipated our moves. She knew I would disguise myself to get to the watch.”

  “How?” I asked, still trying to wrap my brain around it all. I’d thought Shelby was the only person smart enough to come up with our plan. Moira not only had her own plan, but she also knew what our moves would be and was always one step ahead.

  Shelby looked at the school, her face scrunched up more than normal. “I really don’t know, Watson.”

  Okay, I was officially freaked. I always thought that I’d enjoy it when Shelby was clueless about something, but we needed her to figure this out. And fast.

  We waited outside, mostly in silence, for nearly two hours until the school’s lunch break at 12:15. The whole time we were waiting, we never moved more than a foot from our hiding spot.

  My stomach was grumbling. I’d become used to eating lunch at 11:15 at school. Plus, I was so stressed when Mom was grilling me this morning that I didn’t even finish my toast. Right as I was about to ask Shelby if I could run and get a snack, she pulled me into a crouch. “There she is.”

  Moira walked down the steps of the school as her eyes swept in every direction, presumably looking for us. We squatted behind the s
tone wall, our faces partially obscured so she couldn’t see us.

  Or she could, but wasn’t letting on.

  “Shelby, I have a bad feeling about this.” I knew that we needed to finish our assignment. I really did. And I couldn’t wait to see the look on Moira’s face when we got our hands on that watch. But there was this feeling in my gut that I couldn’t ignore. Shelby knew everything, but she didn’t know what Moira wanted with us, or what was in store once we cornered her.

  “You’re overreacting, Watson. Try to be reasonable: What’s the worst that could happen? We don’t get the watch. Well, we don’t have it now. At the very least, we need to try.”

  One of the many differences between me and Shelby was that she was always practical, while I had an imagination. And right then, there were a million scenarios going through my head.

  And all of them were worst case.

  CHAPTER

  21

  There are over 1.6 million people who live in the borough of Manhattan. And that doesn’t take into account the tourists or the people who commute here for work.

  So you’d expect every street to be swarming with people. And most of the time that’s true. Up in Harlem, 125th Street is full of tourists and street vendors. The avenues are usually busy, too, but sometimes you get that random side street that’s weirdly empty.

  And that’s exactly what was happening on East 73rd Street. It was deserted. There was nobody to hide behind, leaving Shelby and me in plain sight if Moira were to look behind her. Shelby dragged me around the corner so we were hidden on Fifth Avenue.

  “I have a better idea,” Shelby said as she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. She began typing angrily. I stared at her. Shelby never looked up things on her phone. She just knew stuff.

  “Okay, I know where she lives,” Shelby said. “We’re going to go around her, but we need to be fast.” She then began running down Fifth Avenue, toward 72nd Street.

  Now, I’m someone who’s in fairly good shape. I play basketball, baseball, and can run a football, but what Shelby was doing was a full-on sprint. I quickly found myself nearly a half block behind her. The only time she paused was if the light was red. After an exhausting few minutes (it felt like twenty, but was more like four), we stopped on Park Avenue (well, she reached it and I got there about ninety seconds later).

  “Okay,” Shelby said. She wasn’t out of breath, while I was wiping the sweat off my brow and on the verge of hyperventilating. “That’s her building.” She pointed to a fancy apartment building on the corner that did make the Lacys’ look a little less impressive. “We’re going to walk in and wait for her.”

  “What?” I snuck a glance at the building. “There’s a doorman. How are we going to get by him? Are you going to put your Basia costume back on?”

  “There’s no time.” Shelby handed me a tissue so I could wipe the sweat that was running down my face. “Plus, it’s quite simple: we need to pretend that we belong there. People in the service industry, especially at a building with wealthy, entitled tenants, are trained to be extremely accommodating. The last thing they want to do is offend a bratty rich kid. Follow my lead and try to catch your breath.”

  Shelby turned the corner and marched to the front door of the apartment building like she lived there.

  “Let me tell you,” she began in a very loud voice with a hint of a British accent, “I told Daddy that I was not going to tolerate a chef who couldn’t make a proper beef Wellington. Can you even imagine?”

  No, I couldn’t imagine because I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “It’s so difficult to find good help, and we’ve already gone through four maids this month alone. I know we’re new to town, but really?”

  The doorman, who had on a long, emerald green blazer, was facing forward, but his eyes glanced over at Shelby. She stood right next to him. “Well?” she asked impatiently.

  The guy gave her a friendly smile, “Can I help you, miss?”

  “Correct me if I have this wrong, but it’s your job to open the door, right? Must I do everything myself?”

  The doorman’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, stunned at how rude Shelby was being (I was as well, although I was more used to it than this poor guy). He hesitated for a moment, then Shelby pulled out her cell phone. “Daddy is going to love this.”

  “My apologies, Miss …?” He tried to fish for her name as he opened the door.

  Shelby let out an exasperated sigh as she walked into the marble lobby and ignored the guy behind the front desk. He started to talk to her, but then his eyes went to the front door and he stopped talking. The doorman was probably warning him. We walked toward the elevator banks, but then Shelby stepped to the left and had us hide in an alcove where the mailboxes were, and where we had a perfect view of the elevators.

  Less than two minutes later, we heard the front desk attendant greet Moira. We had cut it close.

  “Can you try to control your panting?” Shelby hissed at me. I was breathing hard. Wow, I was out of shape. My hands were also trembling slightly. It was way past my time to eat, and I was getting sluggish. I should’ve asked Shelby for a candy bar, since my blood sugar had to have been low.

  I leaned against the wall and tried to calm myself down while Shelby peeked out to see where Moira was heading. I could hear the ding of the elevator and the doors open and close.

  “Interesting,” Shelby said with squinted eyes.

  “What’s interesting?”

  “Moira’s hand went to the up button when she went to call the elevator, but then she hesitated and pressed the down button instead. She went to the basement.”

  “So she’s set a trap for us?”

  “She’s a very calculating person, but that slight pause makes me think that perhaps she wasn’t anticipating us coming here. Now she knows we did, and isn’t confident about what to do.”

  “How would she know we’re here?”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me if the doorman was agitated after letting us in. He must’ve given us away.”

  He wasn’t the first person to be a little freaked out after running into Shelby.

  “Let’s go,” Shelby said as she walked past the elevators. For a brief moment I thought we were leaving. But she kept walking and went through a door marked Stairs.

  “Be very careful,” Shelby whispered in the concrete stairway. “And quiet.”

  I followed Shelby down a flight of stairs. It was impressive how light she was on her feet. You couldn’t hear her as she quickly descended the stairs, while I had to take each step slowly since my dress shoes had a hard heel.

  When we finally got to the basement door, Shelby needed me to sneak a glance through its small rectangular window since she wasn’t tall enough. I didn’t like what I saw. Or more like what I didn’t see. While the lobby was marble and fancy, the basement was concrete and dark. I could only see some pipes and a couple of doors. Moira wasn’t there.

  Shelby looked at me and furrowed her brow. “Are you feeling okay?”

  I nodded, even though I’d felt better. I figured the sooner we got this over with, the sooner we could leave and be done with Moira. And eat. And get something to drink.

  “You haven’t eaten in five hours. That’s late for you.” Shelby started digging through her bag. “I’ve been so distracted I didn’t realize your blood sugar must be low. I don’t think I have anything in here.”

  “I’m fine,” I assured her, even though I couldn’t believe that the one time I needed sugar, Shelby was out.

  “Maybe you should go upstairs and grab a juice somewhere? I can handle this myself.”

  While it was touching that Shelby was concerned about my health, I was more worried about what Moira would do.

  “Shelby, I don’t want you to be alone. The two of us can easily take care of Moira. Let’s finish this,” I replied.

  Shelby slowly turned the knob of the door, and we made our way into the basement hallway. One of the do
ors was closed, the other open.

  Shelby gave me a nod as we walked toward the open door and into whatever trap Moira had set up for us.

  CHAPTER

  22

  The room was a large concrete box with a huge canister taking up an entire wall and pipes snaking along the other three. It was dark, damp, and a little steamy.

  There was a loud humming coming from the canister, but besides that constant noise it was quiet, except for the clacking of my shoes (as much as I tried to muffle them). Shelby immediately started scanning the room as we passed through the door. I squinted into the darkness, but couldn’t see anything, or anybody.

  Shelby turned around. “Hiding behind the door? Really?” she said with a snicker. “How truly unremarkable.”

  The air was sticky and silent. For a moment, I thought maybe Moira wasn’t there. Okay, so I was kinda hoping she wouldn’t be.

  But after a few more beats, the door squeaked and Moira stepped out from behind it. “That’s rather ironic, since I’m the one who finds herself consistently dissatisfied with you, Shelby. Following me home for lunch? How predictable …” Moira clicked her tongue like she was scolding a small child. “Although everything has gone according to my plan thus far. Of course you’d do exactly what I wanted you to do.”

  The humidity in the room was unbearable. I thought I was sweating before, but now my clothes were almost soaked through. There was even sweat on both Moira’s and Shelby’s brows.

  “I would assume that you’d be used to disappointments by now,” Shelby replied with that smirk of hers. She had deduced something about Moira, and was going to let her have it. “Although I can understand it, with everything you’ve been through. I almost feel bad for you, Moira.”

  Oh, this was good. Here Moira thought she had trapped us, when it was the opposite. Shelby was setting her up for … something.

  “You feel sorry for me?” Moira laughed. “Oh, that’s precious. Thank you for the laugh, Shelby.”