The Case of the Plagued Play Read online

  Still, she had the paint chips in her backpack, and that was something.

  She came out of the dressing room and saw Corey helping John and Tim lower the dining room wall to the floor of the stage.

  “Heads-up!” John called out. “The wall’s coming down!”

  After the guys brought down the wall, the other cast members got to work taking it apart. They could use the boards behind the set to build a new dining room.

  Hannah picked a moment when everyone was busy to take Ben and Corey aside.

  “I think I’ve got a good, solid piece of physical evidence,” she whispered. She told them about the paint on Courtney’s sweater.

  Ben smiled. “That’s great. We can analyze it in the lab on Monday. Maybe Miss Hodges will help us.”

  “Did Courtney say anything interesting?” Hannah asked.

  “No,” Ben said. “I tried to work close to her, so I’d be sure to hear everything she said, but she doesn’t really say much. Just stays quiet and does her work.”

  “Well, you said before that she was shy,” Corey pointed out.

  “Yeah, but I thought she seemed more outgoing when she was working on theater stuff,” Ben said. “Maybe I was wrong.”

  “Or maybe now she’s just trying to be invisible,” Hannah said. “If you’d done what we suspect she’s done, would you want everyone talking to you?”

  “So now that we have some evidence, how much longer are we going to stay here helping with the set?” Corey asked.

  Ben thought a minute. “We should probably work a while longer and then leave separately. If we leave too soon, Courtney might suspect that we have what we need and that we’re on to her.”

  “Why?” Hannah asked Corey playfully. “Don’t you like building sets?”

  “It’s all right,” Corey said, “but the brownies are all gone.”

  Chapter 15

  Ben, who was usually an excellent student, had trouble concentrating in his classes Monday morning. He kept thinking about analyzing the paint samples after school. Would the paint from Courtney’s sweater match the paint on the ruined set?

  At the end of forensic science class, Hannah asked Miss Hodges if Club CSI could use the lab after school.

  “No problem,” Miss Hodges said.

  “And will you be around, in case we could use a little help?” Hannah added.

  “Oh, I’ll be around,” the teacher answered cheerily. “Between grading lab reports and planning lessons, I’m always around after school.”

  After the bell rang at the end of his last class, Ben zipped through the halls to the forensic science classroom. Miss Hodges let him in, and Hannah and Corey showed up seconds later.

  “So, what are you working on today?” Miss Hodges asked.

  “Paint samples,” Ben said, digging through his bulging backpack. He pulled a plastic bag out of a pocket and held it up. “I scraped these off the ruined set. Have you got the samples from the sweater, Hannah?”

  She pulled out the plastic bag of hot-pink paint flakes from her backpack and held them up. “Got ’em.”

  “We want to compare the two sets of paint samples to see if they match,” Corey explained.

  Miss Hodges nodded. “Did you notice if they used water-based or oil-based paints for the sets?”

  “Actually, I did,” said Ben. “They used water-based paints. Why?”

  “That’s great. We can probably do an experiment on it,” answered Miss Hodges. She laid a yardstick across the middle of a table. “But first, I’d recommend setting up two separate work areas. It’s very important to make sure you don’t mix the two samples.”

  Ben set his plastic bag on one side of the yardstick, and Hannah set her plastic bag down on the other side.

  They began by comparing the colors of the two samples. To the naked eye, they seemed to match.

  Next they transferred small flakes from each sample to glass slides and then examined them under microscopes. Again, they seemed identical.

  “I think we have a winner,” Corey said as he peered through a microscope.

  “I think we could use more proof,” Ben said.

  Just as he said that, Miss Hodges emerged from the supply closet carrying a beaker and a container of water. “Recognize these?” she asked.

  Corey nodded and smiled, looking satisfied with himself. “They’re those things from that thing we did.”

  Hannah laughed. “Could you be a little more specific?”

  “The thing with the leaves and the ink spots last week,” Corey said. “Paper . . . something.”

  “Paper chromatography,” Ben said.

  “Yes. Exactly,” Corey said, smiling slyly. “Just testing you.”

  Hannah helped Miss Hodges pour a small amount of alcohol into two beakers. Ben cut strips of paper from coffee filters.

  “Since you’ve already done paper chromatography with leaves and pens, you’re well on your way to becoming experts,” Miss Hodges said.

  “Yes,” Ben said, “but with paint samples, wouldn’t it be better to do pyrolysis-gas chromatography?”

  Corey stared at Ben. “Wow,” he said. “How does your tongue manage to wrap itself around those words without getting all cramped up?”

  Miss Hodges smiled. “I’m impressed, Ben. I take it you read up on different methods of chromatography.”

  Ben nodded. “When we learned about paper chromatography, I saw how useful it could be in our Club CSI investigations. So I decided to learn a little bit more about chromatography.”

  “By reading, like, a whole book on it?” Corey asked. “Or a series of books?”

  Ben made a face. He wasn’t that nerdy. He hoped. “No, just an article. Or two.”

  “Well, to answer your question,” Miss Hodges said, “yes, with paint, it could be better to do pyrolysis-gas chromatography. But, tell me, Corey, what do you think the ‘pyro’ in ‘pyrolysis’ means?”

  Corey wasn’t thrilled about being quizzed. When they were in forensic science class, Miss Hodges was their teacher. But when they were in Club CSI, she was supposed to be their faculty advisor.

  Still, he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

  “A pyro is someone who loves fires,” he said confidently.

  “Well, yes,” Miss Hodges said. “ ‘Pyro’ can be short for ‘pyromaniac.’ ‘Pyro’ means ‘fire.’ In pyrolysis-gas chromatography, we use fire, or very high temperatures, to break mixtures down for analysis.”

  “How high?” Hannah asked.

  “Oh, as high as six hundred to one thousand degrees Celsius,” Miss Hodges answered.

  “That’s pretty hot,” Corey said. “Even for Nevada.”

  “And it’s much too hot for a school laboratory,” the teacher continued. “There are real safety issues with pyrolysis-gas chromatography. It can only be done in a professional lab. So even though our results won’t be quite as detailed, since this is water-based paint, we’re going to use paper chromatography on your paint sample. Much safer.”

  Corey remembered something from the first day of forensic science class. “Miss Hodges, don’t you have a cousin who works at a crime lab in Las Vegas?”

  “That’s right,” she said. “Good memory, Corey.”

  “Is there any possibility that he could do that pyro-gas thing for us?” Corey asked. “In the police crime lab?”

  Miss Hodges thought about this. “Well, perhaps,” she said slowly. “But we’d have to send the samples to him, wait for him to get a free moment, and then have him send us his results. It could take two to three weeks. Can you wait that long?”

  The three friends looked at one another. If Nobody’s Home was going to open successfully next weekend, they needed to solve this case and stop the saboteur as soon as possible.

  “I think we’d better just go ahead with the paper chromatography,” Ben said. “We don’t have two weeks.”

  “Yeah,” Corey said. “I agree. Besides, as Miss Hodges said, when it comes to paper chromatography, we�
��re practically experts.”

  Working together, Club CSI and Miss Hodges mashed small chips from the paint samples into powder. Then they used the powder to paint dashes onto the strips of coffee filter paper. The pink pigment stuck to the paper.

  “We’ll do this twice,” Miss Hodges said, “so we have a backup.”

  After Hannah had rubbed the pink powder onto two strips of paper, Ben carefully hung them in the beakers with one end barely touching the water in the bottom of the beakers.

  “Make sure the paint isn’t touching the water,” Miss Hodges reminded him.

  “It’s not,” he assured as he clipped the tops of the papers to pencils resting across the mouths of the beakers.

  “Okay,” Corey said. “Now we wait. My specialty . . . not.”

  While they waited, Miss Hodges went into her office, and the three friends tried to distract themselves with homework, but they couldn’t help sneaking glances at the beakers every couple of minutes. The pink powder was starting to inch its way up the papers, separating into different colors as it rose.

  Finally, Miss Hodges stuck her head out of her office and said she thought they could go ahead and compare the chromatograms.

  The patterns of colors on the coffee filter strips were identical. The two paint samples matched!

  “Looks as though Courtney’s our culprit!” Corey said. He shook Ben’s hand. “Congratulations on solving another mysterious case. You couldn’t have done it without me. Should we go tell Mrs. Gordon?”

  “Maybe we should run our evidence past Miss Hodges and see what she thinks,” Hannah suggested. “Since she’s right here.”

  Corey and Ben agreed. They asked Miss Hodges to come out of her office and hear what they’d discovered in their investigation. Ben told her about the jingling sound on the recording and how it had sounded just like the keys on Courtney’s key ring. Hannah told her about finding the pink paint stains on Courtney’s sweater and how they’d matched the paint on the ruined set.

  “So that proves it. Courtney’s our jerk.” Corey stated.

  “He means saboteur,” Ben said.

  Miss Hodges looked doubtful.

  “Uh-oh,” Corey said. “I think I know what that look means.”

  “You’ve done a good job of investigating this case so far,” Miss Hodges began, “but I don’t think you’re quite ready to make an accusation.”

  “Why not?” Corey asked. “All the evidence points to Courtney.”

  “Well, you’re suggesting Courtney is the one who’s been vandalizing the props and the set. But it seems to me that there are other explanations for your evidence.”

  “Such as?” Ben asked.

  “Just about anyone could have jingling keys,” Miss Hodges said. “Especially if they needed keys to get into the theater early in the morning.”

  “That’s true,” Hannah admitted.

  “And as for the matching samples of pink paint,” Miss Hodges continued, “do you know if pink paint was originally used to paint the set, before the vandalism?”

  Corey, Ben, and Hannah were quiet for a moment as they concentrated. They tried to remember if there was any pink on the set before it was vandalized, but they weren’t sure. They shook their heads.

  “If there was, Courtney might have gotten that same hot-pink paint on her sweater when she was helping to paint the sets in the first place,” Miss Hodges said.

  “And she did call her sweater ‘old,’ ” Hannah piped up. “It’s a shame she didn’t tell me she’d just bought it, after they’d finished painting the set. Then it wouldn’t matter if there was hot-pink paint on the original set.”

  Reluctantly, Corey nodded. As usual, their forensic science teacher was right. But he hated to admit it. He’d really thought they had the case all wrapped up.

  “Sorry to burst your bubble,” Miss Hodges said.

  “That’s okay,” Hannah said. “We want to be sure we’re right before we accuse anyone.”

  Yeah, Corey thought, but how are we going to make sure we’re right?

  Chapter 16

  As they walked out of the forensic science lab, the members of Club CSI were feeling gloomy.

  “I still think Courtney did it,” Corey said.

  “But Miss Hodges is right,” Hannah insisted. “We don’t have enough proof to accuse her.”

  Ben was thinking. “At least we know that the two paint samples match. . . .”

  “Yes, but Courtney may have gotten pink paint on her sweater while she was painting the original set,” Hannah reminded him.

  “Right,” Ben said. “But did she? That’s what we need to find out. Let’s go to the theater. They’re still building the new set for act two, aren’t they?”

  “I think so,” Hannah said.

  “Then come on,” Ben said, quickening his step. Hannah and Corey had to hurry to keep up with him.

  When they got to the auditorium, the door was propped open.

  And they could smell paint.

  Inside, the whole cast, Courtney, and Mrs. Gordon were painting.

  Ben walked quickly down the aisle of the theater and climbed the steps to the stage. “Mrs. Gordon, may we talk to you for a second?”

  “Certainly,” she said, carefully setting her brush on the edge of a paint can. She stood up and led the three investigators into one of the dressing rooms backstage, shutting the door behind them.

  “What would you like to know?” she asked.

  “We were wondering if we could check the original sets to see what colors of paint were used on them,” Ben said.

  “You can check act one’s set,” Mrs. Gordon said. “But all the painted parts of act two’s set are gone.”

  “Gone?” Corey asked, dismayed. “On Saturday it seemed as though you were using the materials from the original set to build the new set.”

  Mrs. Gordon nodded. “Yes, we did use the two-by-fours. But they weren’t painted. The walls—what we call ‘the flats’—were the only painted parts. And we couldn’t use those, so we put them in the trash.”

  “Any chance the flats are still out in the trash?” Hannah asked hopefully.

  “I’m afraid not,” Mrs. Gordon said. “The garbage men hauled away the trash early this morning.”

  That was discouraging. Now they could never get samples from the original set for act two.

  “Is any of the paint left around?” Ben asked. “Hot-pink paint?”

  “No,” Mrs. Gordon said. “I know because I checked before we started painting the new set. I had to buy all new paint. That was one of the reasons I needed additional funds from Principal Inverno.”

  They were hitting nothing but roadblocks. Still, Ben had one more idea. “Was pink paint used on the set for the first act?”

  Mrs. Gordon cocked her head and thought. “I don’t think so. But you’re welcome to look,” she said, gesturing back toward the stage.

  Trying not to attract the attention of Courtney or the cast members, the three friends went back onstage and thoroughly examined act one’s set.

  There was no pink paint on it.

  “That’s good,” Ben said to Hannah and Corey quietly. “But we still don’t know about the original set for act two.”

  They stood there for a minute, thinking. Then Corey’s face lit up. “I’ve got it,” he said. He hurried back over to Mrs. Gordon, who was just dipping her paintbrush back into the can of paint.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Gordon, but could we ask you just one more favor?” he asked, putting on his friendliest face.

  Mrs. Gordon sighed. “All right,” she said, “but if we’re going to be ready to open this Friday, I really can’t have too many more interruptions.”

  She led them back into the dressing room. “Do you have a contact sheet for all the cast members with their e-mail addresses?” Corey asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “May we have a copy of it?”

  Mrs. Gordon hesitated.

  “It’s really important fo
r our investigation,” Corey said. “And unless we figure out who’s been messing with your show, we won’t be able to stop them from doing it again.”

  “All right,” Mrs. Gordon said, reaching for her notebook. “I originally made copies for everyone in the cast, and I’ve got a couple of extras.” She pulled out a sheet and handed it to Corey.

  “Great! Thanks,” Corey said. He turned to Hannah and Ben. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  They followed Corey out of the theater, mystified.

  When they got outside, Ben spoke first. “All right,” he said. “I admit it. I’m stumped. How is a list of e-mail addresses going to help us? We already know who’s in the cast.”

  Corey smiled, pleased to have stumped Ben. “We’ll e-mail all the cast members without telling Courtney. In the e-mail, we’ll ask them if they have pictures of the set before it was messed up.”

  “I get it,” Hannah said. “Then we’ll closely examine their photos to see if there was any matching pink paint on the original set.”

  Ben nodded. “That is an excellent idea.”

  Corey made a slight bow. “Thank you.”

  “Come on,” Ben said. “We can use my computer.”

  He hurried off down the sidewalk. Corey looked at Hannah. “Since when is he the one who runs everywhere?”

  Chapter 17

  Since it was his computer in his room, Ben sat at the keyboard typing the e-mail to the five cast members.

  But that didn’t stop Corey and Hannah from making plenty of suggestions.

  “Tell them not to mention this to Courtney,” Corey said. “We don’t want her to get suspicious.”

  “Yeah, but we also don’t want to accuse Courtney yet,” Hannah said. “So tell them not to mention this to anyone, since this is part of an ongoing investigation.”

  “Tell them that if their pictures are blurry, don’t bother sending them, since that’ll just slow us down,” Corey suggested.

  “But it doesn’t matter if people in the picture are blurry, as long as the set is in focus,” Hannah added.

  As he kept typing, Ben sighed at all these suggestions. Hannah noticed.