فصل چهلم

chapter-40

“Aha! Are you saying, Katherine Kelly, that you stole the blueprints?” demanded Elliott, hands clasped behind his back as if he were addressing the jury on the TV show Law & Order.

“What? No! No way. I would never steal anything from Mr. Lemoncello! Or give anything to the Krinkle brothers. I don’t care where they live. Those two old guys are weird. And their games stink. I didn’t do it.” “So why’d you turn green like that?” asked Akimi.

“Because,” said Katherine, “I think I might’ve accidentally given the real thief the combination to the safe. We were in such a rush in the second leg of the race because we wanted to win that flight in Mr. Lemoncello’s private jet.” “Awesome ride,” said Angus.

“Excellent cookies,” added Kyle. “Baked right on the plane.” “You’re kidding,” said Andrew. “You guys got free cookies?” “Boys?” said Abia. “I believe Katherine was attempting to tell us how the floor-safe combination was stolen?” “Right,” said Kyle. “Our bad.”

“We were in such a rush,” said Katherine, “we left our backpack in the bookmobile. Remember, Elliott?” “Vaguely.”

“Well, I had dumped my notebook in that bag along with the clues and junk. Since I have trouble remembering stuff, I always write everything down.” “Even R-E-A-D?” said Elliott skeptically.

“Yes. Sorry. I have what they call ‘working memory difficulties.’ Anyway, the driver of our bookmobile in the second leg was a college girl named Jessica.” “We had her for the first leg,” said Kyle. “Wait! When we came back from North Carolina, we saw her zipping up your backpack.” “She told us she wanted your sandwiches,” added Abia.

“I think she wanted to steal more than our lunches,” said Katherine. “I think she is the one working for the Krinkle brothers! I checked with Ms. Waintraub, the research librarian. She told me that Jessica quit her job and left town right after we all came back from North Carolina. Ms. Waintraub found it interesting that Jessica, a student at Alexandriaville State College, was originally from New York City but had booked a plane ‘home’ to Kansas City.” “Did she have a last name?” asked Abia.

“Yes. Bennett.”

“Whaaaaat?” said Angus. “She’s related to Mrs. Maplebutter?” “It looms as a possibility,” said Abia.

“A very large one,” said Kyle. “Maybe the whole family is working for the Krinkle brothers.” Akimi tapped her lPad. “Found her Facebook page,” she said. “Jessica Bennett. Two days ago she put up a post: ‘Get ready for my grandmother’s biggest starring role ever!’ ” “Okay, okay,” said Elliott. “I was wrong. Sorry, Katherine.” “That’s okay,” said Katherine. “She stole your sandwich, too.” —

Kyle and Akimi were selected to be the ones to tell Mr. Lemoncello the news. A robotic butler escorted them up to the second floor of the mansion and Mr. Lemoncello’s reading room.

He was curled up on a floating beanbag chair, reading Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

“Um, Mr. Lemoncello?” said Kyle.

“Just a minute,” said Mr. Lemoncello, riveted by the pages of his novel. “I think this plane is about to crash.” “It’s kind of important.”

“So is a pilot who just had a heart attack!”

“We know who stole your game plans,” blurted Akimi.

Mr. Lemoncello snapped the book shut. “I’m all ears, except for my nose and, of course, my eyes.” “It was one of the bookmobile drivers. Jessica Bennett.” “I see.”

“We’re pretty sure she’s related to the actress pretending to be Irma Hirschman.” “My, what a felonious family.”

“Jessica stole the combination out of Katherine Kelly’s backpack during the second leg of the Fabulous Fact-Finding Frenzy,” said Kyle.

“Then,” said Akimi, “she drove over here while you were at the library, open-sesame’d your front door…” “You really might want to consider a better security system out there, sir,” suggested Kyle.

“Duly noted. Do go on, Miss Hughes.”

“She waltzed into the dining room and found the floor safe—because Katherine was so afraid she might forget its location, she drew a diagram in her notebook.” “The same notebook Jessica found in the Wright brothers backpack,” added Kyle.

“So,” said Akimi, “Jessica grabbed the blueprints, dashed off to the airport in Cleveland, and grabbed the first flight she could to Kansas City—home of the Krinkle brothers.” Mr. Lemoncello nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose the Krinkle brothers were paying her more for stealing game ideas than I was giving her for driving a bookmobile. I know they paid Benjamin Bean a fortune.” “Who’s Benjamin Bean?” asked Kyle.

“My first employee. I hired him right after Family Frenzy became such a huge, unexpected hit. I was going to follow it up with a sensationally fun picture-drawing version of charades that I called the Wondermous Whoop Dee Doodle game. If your team couldn’t guess the answer from your sketches before the sand dial ran out, you had to sit on a whoopee cushion.” “Wait a second,” said Akimi. “Don’t the Krinkle brothers have a game called Whoop Dee Doodle?” Mr. Lemoncello nodded. “It’s their biggest hit. Has been for decades.” “And they stole it from you?” said Kyle.

“Yes. Stealing other people’s ideas is, more or less, the Krinkle brothers’ business model.” “Well,” said Kyle. “You have to stop them or they’ll keep on doing it.” Mr. Lemoncello grinned. “I already told you, I can’t. No one would believe me or my lawyers. That’s why I’m counting on you kids to do the research! You have all the training and skills you need. Now you simply need to trust yourself, trustees! Because I already do.”