Colin shifted in his seat. I bit my lip.
“And who is that?” Kip asked.
Ava turned to glance back at me. She smiled broadly. “Maybe you should ask Andi.”
In the front of the room, Dylan’s head snapped up when my name was spoken.
Ava folded her hands on the tabletop like a model student. “And Colin too, since they are always together.”
Colin’s mouth fell open. A phrase that Bethany liked jumped into my head. “Thrown under the bus.” Well, at least I knew what that felt like now.
Kip nodded. “Thank you, Ava. We realize how difficult that must have been to turn in your classmates.”
Yeah, right. Really difficult.
Kip scanned the room. “Where can I find Andi and Colin?”
As if on cue, Colin and I sunk in our seats. The movement attracted Kip’s attention.
“Andi, Colin, stand up,” Madison said.
Colin swallowed hard like an ice cube got stuck in his throat. Slowly we both stood.
Kip frowned. “I’m going to need to talk to both of them now.”
Dylan stepped forward for the first time. “Is that necessary? They are just kids. What could they know?”
“They’ve been seen with Polk recently. That’s the only reason I need to question them.”
Madison folded her arms. “Go on, you two, and talk to Kip. After you are done, Hydrogen will be meeting back here in the lecture hall for the first lab. The chem lab and the second floor are strictly off limits. Dr. Comfrey is here and she will lecture from this room. There will be no more chemical experiments during camp, although that should go without saying.”
Kip walked to the door at the front of the room. “Andi, Colin, come with me.”
Colin and I hesitated.
“I have no time for nonsense,” Kip growled.
Behind me I heard Gavin whisper to Spenser, “Does he remind you of a bear?”
“Yeah,” Spenser whispered back. “A grizzly.”
Great. Colin and I were going to be questioned by a grizzly.
“I don’t have all day,” Kip said. “The sooner we talk, the sooner you can go back to camping or whatever it is you all are doing here.”
Colin’s and my chairs scraped the linoleum flooring as we pushed them under the table. I felt the eyes of the entire camp on our backs as we stumbled down the tiered classroom to the door where Kip stood. Colin went first out of the door, and just before I followed him, I glanced back up to Hydrogen. Ava gave me a broad smile and a wink. Seventh grade would be a killer.
CASE FILE NO. 20
“Let’s go outside,” the security guard said.
Colin and I followed him out of the building through a side door that I hadn’t even known was there. I glanced at Colin and willed him not to say too much about Polk to Kip.
Kip stood under the shade of a maple tree. “Tell me what you know. How do you know Polk?”
“He’s a janitor here,” I said.
“You must know him better than that to have your friend share your names.”
I folded my arms. “Ava is not my friend.”
Kip ground his teeth. “I have no interest in your junior high drama. If she is not your friend, why would she say that?”
“To cause trouble,” Colin said.
The security guard shook his head. “There’s more to it than that. She saw you with Polk.”
“I don’t see why it is any of your business,” Colin said, trying to look tough, but then his glasses slid down the bridge of his nose.
“It’s my business because of the series of disturbing events that have taken place on campus the last several days, most notably the explosion in the chemistry lab. We have reason to believe that someone deliberately tampered with the Bunsen burner with the intention to hurt Dr. Comfrey and the children — meaning you — in that class. It’s a serious offense. We have even more reason to believe that Polk was behind it.”
“Why?” I asked. “Because of your dad?”
Kip stepped back. “Did Polk tell you about it? What is it, something that he is proud of? A tale to entertain little children? He confessed to the crime.”
I let the little children comment slide. “He didn’t confess to any crime,” I snapped. “Polk didn’t tell us. We found out on our own.”
“However you know about it, that doesn’t change that you need to tell me if you know where Polk is.”
“We don’t know.” Sweat gathered on Colin’s forehead. “Honest. We haven’t seen him since last night.”
I suppressed a groan.
Kip jumped on it. “Last night? What were you doing with him last night?”
“Ooops,” Colin whispered.
“He came to a cookout at Colin’s house,” I said. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
“I’ll be the judge of that, and I will call your parents. If you withhold information, you will be banned from this campus.” He glared at me. “You wouldn’t want to do anything that would jeopardize your aunt’s position.”
I glared at him. “My aunt wasn’t even at the cookout. She only saw him for a few minutes at the end.”
Kip sucked on his two front teeth. “Polk is a dangerous man. He has a vendetta against the university and no concern for human life.”
If anyone had a grudge against Michael Pike University, it was Kip, not Polk.
“A vendetta? For being demoted to janitor?” Colin frowned. “Why would he wait forty years to get his revenge?”
“I — I don’t know,” Kip stuttered. His dark brows fused together and looked like a black caterpillar on his face. “I thought I was the one supposed to be asking the questions around here. Why were you two with Polk in the first place?”
“We were giving his dog a bath,” I said.
Kip’s mouth fell open. “What?”
Colin cleaned his glasses on the hem of his T-shirt before putting them back. “Curie had a run-in with a skunk, so we offered to give her a bath. We went to my house. You can call my grandma Bergita if you don’t believe it. She was there. Actually, we gave him two baths. The dog escaped in the middle of the first one and got dirty again.”
Kip’s mouth hung open. “That’s it? You gave his dog a bath.”
“Pretty much,” I said.
“Are you in the habit of giving strangers’ dogs baths?”
“Polk’s not a stranger,” Colin said. “Bergita knows him.”
Kip closed his eyes for a moment. “This is why I don’t work with elementary school children.”
“We are not in elementary school,” I snapped.
Kip ran a hand through his hair. “During the dog bath, did Polk say anything to you about the explosion?”
I shrugged. “Just what Colin already told you about the explosion forty years ago. What’s been happening lately has brought back bad memories for him.”
“I would hate for him to have bad memories. My childhood was full of bad memories because of him, because he allowed my father in that lab alone.”
I stepped back from his anger. “I know your dad — ”
“You don’t know any of it. I was just a baby when my father died. My mother was young and scared and married the first man she could after dad’s death.” He balled his hands into fists. “My stepfather was not a good man.” He blinked as if pushing a memory into the back of his mind. “Excuse me if I don’t feel sorry for Polk’s bad memories. I have a lifetime of my own.”
Colin and I didn’t say a word, but I no longer saw a grumpy security guard in front of me. He was a hurt kid.
Kip pointed at us. “If I find out the two of you are withholding information, you will be sorry.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I don’t know much about being a university security guard, but I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to threaten students.”
“You are not a university student.”
“They aren’t,” Dylan said. “But I am.”
I turned. He stood at Colburn’s side door
and held it open. “Give them a break, Kip. They are just a couple of twelve-year-old kids. They don’t know anything about Polk or about the explosion. And they are late for their chemistry lesson.”
“Fine,” Kip said. “They are free to go.” He pointed at his eyes with two fingers and then at Colin and me. “But I am watching you two.” Kip hiked up his pants and sauntered off.
Colin and I walked to the side door.
“Are you two okay?” Dylan asked.
I nodded.
He gave a half-hearted smile. “Kip is more bark than bite. I wouldn’t worry about him too much. I heard he really wanted to be a cop but injured his back in high school, so this was the closest job he could get.”
“He didn’t take the job because his dad died here?” Colin asked.
Dylan pulled his neck back. “His dad?”
Colin nodded. “His dad, Doug Reynolds, died in a chemical explosion in the lab in 1974. Haven’t you heard that story?”
“I — I have,” Dylan stuttered. “But I didn’t know Doug was Kip’s dad. Small world.” He paused. “You guys go head back to lecture hall. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Where are you going?” I asked.
He laughed. “Do you always ask so many questions?”
“Yes,” I said.
“She does,” Colin agreed.
“Duly noted.”
Dylan watched us as we stepped around the corner toward the lecture hall. When we were out of Dylan’s line of sight, I grabbed the back of Colin’s T-shirt.
“Hey?” Colin asked.
I put a finger to my lips. “Let’s follow Dylan and see where he goes.” I peeked around the corner. “He’s gone.”
Colin and I crept down the hallway. The lecture hall was on the first floor. There were no labs on this floor of the building, only faculty offices, three classrooms, and the main lecture hall.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” a girl’s voice said around the bend in the hallway.
“I think that’s Madison,” Colin whispered.
I nodded and peered around the curve. Madison and Dylan sat across from each other in a small lounge outside of an administrative office.
Dylan folded his arms. “We have to talk about it.”
“No, we don’t. You’ve already talked it to death. You just need to relax. It will all go away soon.”
“Other people are involved.”
“I don’t care.” Madison made a note on her ever-present clipboard. “None of them will get into trouble. Don’t worry so much.”
“I have to worry. I don’t know why you’re not worrying. We have a lot to worry about.”
“No one asked you to get involved,” Madison snapped. “You begged me for attention.”
Dylan’s tan face turned red. The Crayola crayon box would call the color “burnt sienna.” “Because I care about you. I — ”
“If you care about me so much, you will let this go.” She jumped out of her seat. “I have to get back to Helium. I suggest that you return to your group too.” She stared in Colin’s and my direction.
“Eep!” Colin squeaked behind me.
I reached for the classroom door behind us. It was unlocked. Colin and I dashed inside and closed the door just as we heard Madison’s footsteps hurry down the hallway.
“Do you think it’s safe to go back out?” Colin asked.
“I didn’t hear Dylan walk by, but we have to chance it. We have to beat him back to the lecture hall.”
Colin and I tiptoed in the hallway. Placing my hands on the cold brick wall, I peered around the corner. Dylan sat in the lounge with his head in his hands.
“Andi, come on,” Colin hissed.
We ran as quietly as we could to the chemistry lecture.
CASE FILE NO. 21
Colin and I slipped back into the lecture hall. Dr. Comfrey was in the front of the room lecturing on bases and acids as if nothing unusual had happened the day before. Her arm was still in its blue sling and wrapped in a white bandage. A Band-Aid was on her right cheek. She smiled at Colin and me when we entered the room but didn’t interrupt her lesson.
Our whole group was there except Brady, of course, and Dylan.
Colin ripped a piece of paper out of the casebook and wrote on it. When Dr. Comfrey turned her back he pushed the note across the tabletop to me.
“When are you going to talk to Dr. Comfrey?” the note read.
That was a good question. Ava watched me from the other side of the room. I crumpled up the note and shoved it in my backpack. With my luck, Ava would turn in Colin and me for passing notes. After telling Kip about seeing us with Polk, who knew what she was capable of.
Colin frowned.
“Ava’s watching,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth.
Colin’s head whipped around in Ava’s direction. “Not good.”
No, it wasn’t.
A second later, a new note fell on my desk. I glanced around the room for a clue of who might have tossed the note at me. No one was looking my way. I lowered the note below the tabletop and unfolded it. It read, “Hope you enjoyed your talk with Kip. – A.G.”
I swallowed hard, refolded the note, and refused to look at Ava. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
The door near the back of the room creaked open, and Dylan stepped inside. His face was red like he scrubbed it with one of the scratchy brown paper towels from the public bathroom. His appearance made Dr. Comfrey stop talking. “Mr. White, is something wrong?”
Dylan wiped his brow. “Wrong?” he squeaked. “No, nothing is wrong.”
She frowned but didn’t press him further.
As class ended, Dr. Comfrey said, “Just before class, I learned I will be able to go back into my lab tomorrow morning. I’ll be there bright and early tomorrow, cleaning up so that everything is ready for us to have class in that room by your class time.”
“I thought Kip said that the lab was off limits,” Dylan said.
She nodded. “He did, but I received a call from the police that they were done processing the scene, so I can go back inside.” She held up her arm in the sling. “Since I’m a tad incapacitated, if anyone wants to join me tomorrow morning to get the lab back into order, you are more than welcome. I should be here by 7:30.”
No one volunteered.
“I didn’t think so,” the chemistry professor said. “Okay, you are free to go to your next class.”
Throughout the day, Colin and I tried to find a time for us to sneak away and talk to Dr. Comfrey, but Dylan wasn’t buying any of our excuses to leave Hydrogen. Even during lunch, he made a point of sitting next to me. By the time ecology rolled around at the end of the day, I was convinced the counselor was following me.
Colin and I stomped through the woods behind the gymnasium gathering samples for ecology. Each student in our group had a list of samples we were to gather for Dr. Lime. Dylan hovered nearby, kicking over rocks with the toe of his sneaker.
“I got it,” Colin said, holding a reddish-topped mushroom in his hand. “A Fly Amanita. Good thing Dr. Lime gave us these gloves to wear. These are poisonous.” He dropped the sample into his net bag. “That was the one item on my list I thought I might not be able to find. I only have two more left.”
Colin, as usual, was ahead of the rest of the class. Usually, I would be more competitive to find everything on my list too, but I was preoccupied by Dylan’s moody behavior.
Colin held up the bag, so I could have a closer look at the mushroom. “Look how big it is. Do you want to hold it?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Maybe later. I just thought of something.”
“About the toadstool.”
I shook my head. “No. About Polk’s situation.”
He peered into his net bag, which was almost full. “What’s that?”
My bag felt light. He was definitely doing better than I was. “Not counting the crickets running loose in the biology lab, have you noticed that everything that has
gone wrong during camp has something to do with the chemistry lab? The missing items, the explosion.”
Colin slung his net bag over his shoulder. “I had noticed that, but if someone wanted to frame Polk, that makes sense since he was a chemistry professor here.”
“What if this has more to do with another chemistry professor?” I said.
Colin’s brow squeezed together. “Who?”
“Dr. Comfrey, of course. She was the one who was hurt. Maybe she is the target, and Polk was the fall guy.”
“Fall guy?” Colin asked.
“It’s the guy who takes the blame for the crime. Bethany went through this phase a couple of summers ago where she really liked action movies. I’ve seen my fair share. They are full of fall guys.”
Colin pushed his glasses up his nose. “It is an interesting theory, and you could be right. In fact, I think you might be.”
I grinned at him. “Even I have strokes of genius now and again.”
Colin blushed.
“We need to talk to Dr. Comfrey,” I said.
“Okay, Hydrogen,” Dylan yelled. “Let’s take whatever you have back to the lab and show Dr. Lime.”
As we came out of the woods, we saw the chemistry professor leaving the science parking lot in the passenger seat of a blue car. In the sun’s glare, I couldn’t see the driver.
“I guess we aren’t talking to her today,” Colin said.
My net bag of samples hung limply from my hand. “I guess not.”
CASE FILE NO. 22
When Colin and I got home from camp, we found Bethany and Kaylee sunning themselves in folding lounge chairs in our front yard. Both girls wore shorts and tank tops and fiddled with their phones. “Hey, my sister is back from Camp Geek,” Bethany said.
“It’s not called Camp Geek,” I said for the hundredth time.
Bethany waved her hand as if that were only a technicality.
Kaylee dropped her phone on her stomach. “I wish I was better at math and science like Andi. When I got my end of the school year report card, I thought my dad would blow a blood vessel over my grades. I’m lucky to be promoted to pre-Algebra. How humiliating would it be to have to take eighth-grade math freshman year?”
Bethany shivered. “I thought your dad was relaxing more about your grades.”
Andi Under Pressure Page 10
