Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy

by Paula Berinstein

  Chapter 37

  More Questions Than Answers

  Holmes House ended up winning the competition, which delighted Amanda, Simon, Ivy, Amphora, and Editta. Headmaster Thrillkill was so impressed with their performance that he removed Simon’s provisional status and upgraded him to “permanent,” which was a huge relief to just about everyone. Unfortunately, the verdict angered the Wiffle boy and his friend, Gordon Bramble. Their group, Van Helden House, had come in last. They seemed to feel that they had been cheated, despite the fact that they had identified Professor Pickle as the target of the bomb and missed the existence of the Detective’s Bible altogether. Some people couldn’t see the truth when it was staring them in the face.

  After the presentation, the Holmes House team was sitting in the common room, which the gremlins had filled with exotic plants and an aquarium full of tetras. Amanda’s parents had given her some imported chocolate—“imported” being from the U.S.—and the kids were munching it. It was sweet and delicious but Amanda didn’t care anymore.

  “How could they blow up all those cars?” said Amphora, tearing the wrapping slowly so as to savor the treat.

  “They didn’t. Not really,” said Amanda, who had stopped eating halfway through. “Nigel, that isn’t for you.” She grabbed the bar and held it out of the dog’s reach.

  “I don’t follow you,” said Amphora, licking her fingers.

  “They made replicas of everything. You don’t think they’d really blow up all that valuable stuff, do you? Get away, Nigel. Chocolate isn’t good for dogs.”

  “They ruined the garage,” said Ivy. “Nigel, get over here.”

  “Yes, and that’s a pity. But it can be rebuilt. It wasn’t exactly a historical building,” said Amanda. “And of course, the Bible wasn’t the real one.”

  “Wow. Imagine all the time and trouble it took to do that,” said Ivy, ruffling Nigel’s fur.

  “Yes,” said Simon. “There seems to be a lot more to this school than I thought.” He tilted his fedora and put his feet up on a battered table.

  “You got that right,” said Amanda.

  “Of course we all know why Nick stayed in the garage all that time that day when the roof collapsed,” said Ivy.

  “Yes,” said Amanda. “He was looking for the Detective’s Bible.”

  “But how did he know about it?” said Ivy.

  “I don’t know,” said Amanda. “The cook, Mrs. Moriarty, and the doctor weren’t supposed to know anything about it, but obviously either they or someone else found out and told the criminals. The idea of the class project was to simulate a perpetrator who knew. The irony of the situation is that Nick really did know.”

  “What’s in this Bible, anyway?” said Simon.

  “Good question,” said Amanda. “Anyone know anything?”

  “No,” said Editta, “but it’s obviously important. What would happen if it really were destroyed?”

  “I don’t know,” said Amanda. “And we also don’t know where the real book is. But now that the cat’s out of the bag—sorry, Nigel—obviously something is going to come up about it. They can’t just sweep this under the rug, and anyway if they made it part of the project they wanted us to know, right?”

  “Obviously,” said Simon. “But what and why? Or could this just be them feeding us misinformation again? They’re really good at that.”

  “Yeah,” said Amanda. “Thrillkill makes a big deal out of how we need to trust him, but I don’t. Not any of them, even Professor Kindseth.”

  “Professor K seems like a nice man,” said Ivy.

  “That’s the most dangerous kind,” said Simon.

  “So what happened to the detonator?” said Amphora. “Why couldn’t we find it?”

  “Nick removed it,” said Amanda. “He went out the back door. Simon and I found it hidden in the bushes behind the garage.”

  “Why would he do that?” said Ivy.

  “To trip us up,” said Amanda. “They teach them that at that school of theirs. Or they did. Did you know that?”

  “Teach what?” said Simon.

  “They give classes in undermining their enemies. Tampering with evidence is just one of their methods. They’ll do anything to further themselves, even the tiniest things. It’s how they think.”

  “Wow,” said Ivy. “That’s scary.”

  “Yes,” said Amanda. “You can’t take anything for granted around those people. They’re way more insidious than I’d ever imagined. It makes you suspicious of everyone and everything.”

  “I’m so sorry, Amanda,” said Ivy. “I know how much you liked him.”

  “Thanks, Ivy. You want the rest of this? I’ve sort of lost my taste for sweets. I keep seeing Nick’s face every time I look at a piece of cake.” She handed the rest of her chocolate to Ivy, who took a good sniff and popped it in her mouth. “You want to know the most ironic part of all of this? He and I joked about there being a mole on campus. We thought it might be one of the teachers. We even made a bet.”

  “That’s tough,” said Ivy. “What you went through was so traumatic. But you were quick-witted. How did you manage?”

  “As you know, conflict is key to a story. Without it the story doesn’t move forward. Which is why sometimes it’s not so bad getting sent to detention or being yelled at. You never know what can come out of it. Anyway, I decided to create conflict. I got the Moriartys fighting with each other and I got Nick struggling with himself.”

  “That was brilliant,” said Editta reaching for her third chocolate. “This is it. Three is my limit. It’s bad luck to eat more.”

  “I’m going to have five,” said Amphora. “Yes, excellent, Amanda. We’re all really impressed.”

  “Thank you,” said Amanda. “I do have a bit of news.”

  “What’s that?” said Simon.

  “Thrillkill has asked me to teach a storytelling seminar next term. He thinks some of the concepts could be useful to us. I’m really excited about it.”

  “Wow!” said Amphora. “That sounds amazing. I can’t wait. Can we study J.K. Rowling?”

  Amanda thought back to her brief time in Edinburgh, where the famous author lived. Maybe sometime she’d go back and see if she could find her house. “You betcha. Someday I’m going to meet her, too.”

  “By the way,” said Simon, “remember that first day we saw the cook wheeling sugar around? What was that about? That was the good sugar, not the pink stuff, right?”

  “Yes,” said Amanda. “She was taking it around to the driveway the long way so no one would see her. As you know, there aren’t many windows on that side. After she turned south, she’d be going around the front of the school where almost no one hangs out. There was a van parked on the far side of the garage waiting to pick up the stash. That was where she was headed.”

  “But that was a lot of sugar for her to handle,” said Amphora.

  “Yes,” said Amanda. “That was why Nick and his mother helped her. With the three of them carrying both the white and the pink sugar there was enough muscle to move large quantities, even up and down those stone stairs going to the secret room. When they got the white sugar to the factory, it was repackaged and smuggled into competitors’ facilities with just enough of the pink stuff in it to ruin it. That destroyed the competitors’ supplies, and then the criminals could sell the uncontaminated sugar at high prices.

  “Of course the rest of the pink sugar went into making ammunition for those weapons. They processed all three kinds at the factory: the good white stuff, the infected white stuff, and the pink stuff. They had a real problem when that slime mold started eating the pink sugar, though. It almost ruined their plans. It didn’t take a lot of it to make everything work, so they never produced that much. Of course the doctor and the cook were the ones who made it in our very own lab. And by the way, that blood you saw? That belonged to the original dead bodies teacher. He was in on it. They killed him too.”

  “What a racket,” said Simon. “That guy Nic
k turned out to be even more of a jerk then I thought he was.”

  “Not as big a one as I’ve been,” said Amanda under her breath.