by Madison, Ada
Now Wendy was in the tower again. She was still holding Barker’s gun by her side. I crawled partway out of the labyrinth of beams, not completely sure I was safe.
“You didn’t mean it,” I said, and I knew she got that I was referring to her struggle with Kirsten Packard and not to her current defensive attack on Big Dog.
“No, I didn’t mean it. I loved Kirsten.”
“I know.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I know that, too. And I’m so grateful that you’re here now. But why did you come? I know it’s not for the money.”
She winced, as if the idea of touching money from the past was disgusting. “I hated that they were so hung up on money that wasn’t theirs. Kirsten certainly didn’t need it.”
I looked at the fraught librarian, her hair a mess. Her eyes had wandered to the opening in the belfry. I realized I was safe from her hand, but she herself wasn’t. I had to distract her.
“Why did you come up here, Wendy?” I asked again. “Did you know I was in danger?”
“I came up to use the practice room one last time. This was my happiest place. I could be myself with no one watching, no one trying to change me.” She smiled, a strange, sweet sight over her deathly black turtleneck sweater. “One very hot day in August, during summer school after my junior year, I came up here and played ‘Let It Snow.’ I knew everyone below was laughing. I loved entertaining people without having to see them, you know?”
“I get it,” I said.
“I was playing today, practice style. Pieces I wrote in music class a long time ago. Then I heard you and Big Dog and I hid, until I realized he was going to hurt you.” She let out a long sigh. “And now I’ve done something good. I’ve saved you.”
The look in Wendy’s eyes was too serene, her posture as perfect as when we first met, her walk slow but determined. She took steps toward the tower opening.
“No!” I said, struggling to extricate myself the rest of the way out of the metal frame that secured the carillon bells. I cut my arm on a broken rod but went forward.
Wendy didn’t stop her slow walk to the window in the belfry.
I made it out of the frame and threw myself at a woman larger than me and taller by a head. I landed on the back of her knees, bringing her down within inches of the tower opening.
“Police!” Cops announcing themselves as they ran up the stairs.
I stayed spread out on Wendy’s back until one of the officers picked me off and another tended to Wendy.
A wave of dizziness came over me when I realized the blood on Wendy was mine. My arm was in worse shape than I thought. I collapsed onto a stretcher that had made its way up the stairs on the backs of EMTs.
I could have sworn I heard the bells ringing out a joyful tune.
A messed-up arm from a gouge by a metal rod seemed a small price to pay for satisfaction on a large scale—having a quarter of a century’s worth of puzzles solved. I was glad it was the HPD’s job and not mine to take care of the disposition of all the parties. Who went with what crime and what punishment should be meted out would take a while to sort out.
We thought we had it straight, but the next morning Bruce and I reviewed the order of things one more time as we sat in my den with mugs of coffee (Bruce) and hot chocolate (me).
Bruce started.
“Wendy catches Kirsten hiding a large bag of money behind a loose stone near the top of the stairs to the belfry,” he said, summarizing Virgil’s report to us after interviewing Wendy.
“Wendy and Kirsten fight over the path Kirsten is traveling, and Wendy accidentally pushes her roommate to her death,” I said. It hadn’t been easy for me to adjust to this scenario after all the others I’d concocted to describe Kirsten’s last moments.
“She calls her teacher and mentor, Ted, and together they decide it’s better for everyone if they let the police think Kirsten jumped.”
“I still can’t get over that,” I said.
“Because you’re honest, because you’re not running for office, because you have no image to protect, and, I guess, because you don’t read those sections of the newspapers where you’d learn that this stuff happens a lot. You’re too busy with more noble pursuits.”
“Let’s move on,” I said.
“Okay, so then the tower is walled off,” Bruce said. “Until a bunch of money nudges it open again.”
“Enter Jenn Marshall, twenty-five years later. She finds the money during a practice session, and decides to hide it in a different place. She splits it up and tapes the packages to the outside of the larger bells.”
“In other words, she knew what she was doing,” Bruce said. “Taking precautions in case the owners came back for it.”
“Pretty daring.”
“And calculating.”
“It looks that way, doesn’t it?” I admitted.
“When the three Nicknames from the diner can’t find the money, they patrol the tower, essentially, trying to figure out what might have happened to it.”
“They probably make several unsuccessful searches of the obvious places,” I said.
“Then Ponytail, the loose cannon in the group, sees Jenn and suspects something. Maybe she goes up empty-handed and comes down with a bundle? Something like that.”
“And he attacks her, grabs her backpack.”
“And bells go off,” Bruce said, demanding a point for his punny humor.
“Einstein can’t deal with Ponytail’s erratic behavior, maybe for decades, and kills him.”
“But he realizes Ponytail didn’t even get any money out of the attack. The backpack is nearly free of cash. So Einstein breaks into your house. Thinking Jenn might have brought you in on her job? He couldn’t have known how unlikely that was.”
“Then I leave Big Dog a message, basically alerting him that I might know where the money’s hidden.” I shook my head in shame.
“You couldn’t have known,” Bruce said.
The review made me tired and I wrapped it up quickly. “Finally, Wendy, who’s been hotel-hopping between Boston and Henley, comes back to atone for her sin and ends up saving me.”
Bruce hugged me and I knew how glad he was of that.
• • •
Ted came to my home later in the morning. It was the first time I saw him since I learned that he’d been my cyberstalker all along.
I’d anticipated this moment and run through many possible responses. “How could you?” “I trusted you.” “I’ll never share a hot plate with you again.”
But at the sight of him, more despondent than I’d imagined, on nearly bended knees, I buckled and accepted a first-time-ever embrace from the chairman of the Physics Department.
Bruce refilled my coffee mug, poured one for Ted, and disappeared.
“I tried my best to keep you distracted and busy without hurting you,” Ted said. “I couldn’t risk having you unearth the past.” He threw up his hands. “What a terrible choice.”
“Then or now?” I asked.
“Both.” He shook his head. “We were all under so much pressure at the time. Kirsten’s losing her way, her father’s campaign, Wendy’s vulnerability.”
“It’s going to take me a while,” I said.
“I understand. Just don’t cut me out of your life. That’s all I ask.”
As aggravated as I was with him, his desperateness twenty-five years ago and his genuine contrition now softened me. It was up to the HPD to make any further judgments.
I pointed to the clock on my kitchen wall. “It’s almost time for the Franklin Hall party,” I said.
“I think I’ll sit this one out if you don’t mind.”
“Good choice,” I said, giving him a conciliatory smile.
• • •
Tuesday was declared a day off from Intersession classes. The administration had covered itself by announcing that the impromptu holiday was in honor of Benjamin Franklin, whose birthday it was. Good planning on the part of all the criminals a
nd sleuths involved? Or a lucky break for the Henley College PR office?
Day off or not, those who cared sat around the lounge of Ben Franklin Hall, the best place we knew to celebrate. Students, faculty, friends, and colleagues was all it took. Plus a cake in the shape of the carillon tower and carillon music pouring forth from Andrew’s laptop.
Virgil graced us with his presence, and we were all sure that it had nothing to do with the fact that Judy Donohue “lived” here. They both wore significant grins today, but specifics had yet to be revealed.
Virgil satisfied our curiosity about the justice system by letting us know that Pete “Big Dog” Barker, who’d lived through Wendy’s two-by-four attack, had worked out a deal where he’d contact Einstein and draw him out using the money as bait.
“The money was from their biggest score,” Virgil said. “No word on the exact amount yet.”
“I practiced up there all the time. I can’t believe I didn’t know about the money,” Andrew said. It was hard to tell whether he wished he’d taken a bite of it or not. “Where’s all that money now, anyway?” he asked.
“Being added up,” Virgil said. “Safe in police custody. Until all the banks across New England that were robbed in that era trip over themselves claiming it.”
“Nice,” said Willa in her uniquely sarcastic way.
We discreetly avoided talk of Jenn, who’d stolen only what she needed, in my decidedly nonlegal view. The day Ponytail attacked her as she crossed campus, her backpack contained only enough for a couple of textbooks for spring semester. I felt bad for Jenn, who wasn’t out to get rich. But her willingness to do anything to survive had already cost her—and others—dearly.
Wendy was under close observation at a hospital in Boston, both by authorities who would decide her fate, and by doctors and counselors who would help her survive. I knew I owed her my life, and I hoped that would go part of the way to having her value her own life from here on. My first trip once I was off serious pain meds would be to visit her.
With everyone relaxed from the warm, comfortable environment, we enjoyed a few rounds of riddles, all of them old and corny.
Then Andrew had a better idea.
“Hey, we should come up with some cool nicknames,” he said.
“Yeah,” Brent said. “Too bad ‘Big Dog’ is taken.”
“And Ponytail,” Lauren said, tugging at her long locks.
“I’m going with ‘Hack,’” Andrew said.
“Too obvious,” Patty remarked.
We tossed around “Binary Dude” and “Prime Geek” (for Andrew), “Rich Cat” (for Willa), and “Biochick” for Judy. “Hypatia” came up for me, until I reminded everyone of her unhappy end.
In the end, none of the nicknames were as satisfying or as colorful as the three that recently made their appearance on our campus.
We turned again to riddles, this time with an offering from Bruce (“Sky Guy” had come and gone for him).
“I have a math riddle,” Bruce said.
“You have a math riddle?” I asked.
“Uh-huh. From one of the MAstar nurses. Actually, from his six-year-old kid.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“What’s the difference between a new penny and an old quarter?” Bruce asked.
We all laughed and shouted a chorus of “Tell us.”
Bruce faked a frown. “Nah, I can tell every one of you math and science geeks already knows the answer.”
“Sorry,” we said, in one form or another.
“That’s okay. I should have known better. You guys have the world’s best teachers.”
The students who knew enough yelled, “Woot, woot,” their voices soaring over the miniature carillon concert that filled the room, and delivered more cake to their teachers. Andrew made sure I got the largest piece.
• • •
On the way home, I leaned back against the passenger seat in Bruce’s car. “I wish I’d been able to pick up the penne and veggies for dinner,” I said.
He smiled. “I did it. And I’ll cook, since your arm is out of commission.”
I rubbed my arm, which was hardly sore at all, thanks to pharmaceuticals. “I don’t know how long it will be before I can do any work,” I whined.
“I’m taking the rest of the week off, so you can have three more days of pampering,” Bruce said, in the nicest tone.
Music to my ears.
FUN(EXERCISES) First, here’s the answer to the math riddle in Chapter 24.
Bruce asks, “What’s the difference between a new penny and an old quarter?”
A: Twenty-four cents!
Sophie Knowles doesn’t expect that everyone will be able to unwind with arithmetic, but she feels that doing puzzles, brainteasers, and mental arithmetic keeps you sharp, and improves your memory and your powers of observation. Here are some samples of puzzles and games that exercise your wits.
Browse in your bookstore, library, and online for more brainteasers, and have some fun!
BRAINTEASER
Here’s a combination of wordplay and number play. What do the items in the following list have in common?
Too bad I hid a boot.
2002
Was it a car or a cat I saw?
111,111,111 x 111,111,111
RIDDLES
1. Here’s an ancient riddle, The Riddle of the Sphinx. (Be aware that metaphors are often used in riddles!) In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who came by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, the Sphinx killed him. And if the traveler answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself. What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?
2. Here’s a cute riddle that physics professor Ted Morrell might introduce when he’s in a good mood: Where does bad lighting end up?
(Hint: It sounds like the place where Big Dog and Einstein are headed!)
MATH PUZZLES
1. Okay, Sophie admits this is not really a puzzle, but a simple algebra problem that might have been taken from your middle-school textbook. But Sophie gets a great deal of pleasure when numbers work out right. She hopes you do, too. Try it!
A car travels at a speed of 64 mph and its fuel consumption is 28 mpg. It has an 11-gallon tank, which was full when it started but at that very moment began to leak fuel. After 112 miles the car stops with a completely empty tank. How many gallons per hour was it losing?
2. A short, easy math puzzle: Move only one digit in the following expression to make a correct equation.
62 – 63 = 1
3. Have a little fun at a party with this calendar “trick.”
Ask a friend to choose four days that form a square in any month on a calendar. Then, ask the friend to tell you only the sum of the four days. Using basic algebra, you’ll be able to tell her which four days she picked.
ANSWERS
ANSWER TO BRAINTEASER
All the items in the list are palindromes—a word, phrase, verse, or sentence, that reads the same backward or forward. Note that 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321. (The answer is a palindrome, though the equation taken as a whole is not.)
ANSWER TO RIDDLE #1
A man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.
ANSWER TO RIDDLE #2
The riddle that Ted might use when he’s in a good mood.
Where does bad lighting end up?
In a prism!
ANSWER TO MATH PUZZLE #1
The Speeding Car
ANSWER: 4 gallons per hour.
SOLUTION:
Distance ÷ Speed = Time for the trip.
The car took 112 miles ÷ 64 mph = 1.75 hours to travel the 112 miles In that time, the car used 112 miles ÷ 28 miles per gallon = 4 gallons of fuel.
The car started with 11 gallons of fuel; thus, 7 gallons
of fuel were lost (leaked) in 1.75 hours.
Therefore, the car was losing fuel at a rate of 7 gallons ÷ 1.75 hours = 4 gallons per hour.
ANSWER TO MATH PUZZLE #2:
The tricky equation
26 – 63 = 1
ANSWER TO MATH PUZZLE #3: Fun with Calendars Let x be the first date your friend chose. (Sophie says not to groan; it’s easy and fun!) The next day will be x + 1, of course. That’s the top row of the square. The first number in the bottom row of the square will be x + 7 (the first date, plus 7 days); the second number in the bottom row of the square will be x + 8.
Forming the equation, we have: x + x + 1 + x + 7 + x + 8 = T (total given to you by your friend).
Simplifying:
4 x + 16 = T
This is as far as we need to go!
You can see that no matter what x (the first date) is, to figure out what it is, simply subtract 16 from the Total, and then divide by 4.
For a method that’s easier to remember, simplify the last equation further, by dividing by 4: x + 4 = T/4
You can find x, then, by dividing the total by 4, then subtracting 4.
Try it and let Sophie know how it goes!
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