Taffy Sinclair 005 - Blackmailed by Taffy Sinclair (6 page)

W
hen Mom got home she fixed two cups of hot chocolate and called me into the kitchen. The angry look that had been on her face ever since my father first
called to say he needed help w
as gone. That wou
ld have been a relief except now
she looked sad.

"We need to talk about your father," she began soft
ly, motioning for me to sit dow
n beside her at the table. "I know how much it has hurt you all these years never to have the chance to know him. And I know, too, that you've
always dreamed that something w
ould happen to change all that."

She reached over and squeezed my hand as my chin started to quiver. I nodded and watched a big, fat tear splash into my hot chocolate and disappear.

"That's why it's hard to tell you that this isn't that wonderful something you've dreamed of. I'm sorry I lost my temper and said angry things about your father both times when he called, but the fact still remains that it is wrong for him to come here."

She paused. I guess she was giving me time to say something if I wanted to, but I couldn't. The ache in my heart felt like the end of the world.

"I talked all this over with Pink," she went on, "and he's looking for a place for your father to stay. It may take a few days, but in the meantime, it's important for you to understand that your father's coming here is only temporary. He'll be leaving again as soon as possible. I know this is hard for you, Jana," she said gently, "but our life with your father is over for good."

Mom got up and started bustling around the kitchen. I knew our talk was over. I was glad. How could she know how I felt? How could she say that our life with my father was over?

I left my hot chocolate on the table and went to my room. I opened my closet and looked inside. There was plenty of room for his things in it, I thought as I pushed a row of blouses aside. I would make him feel welcome. I would make him want to stay no matter what Mom said.

Next I emptied a drawer out of my dresser for more of his things and then started to pace the floor. I could make everything work out okay. I knew I could if only I could do something about Taffy Sinclair.

The next morning I was pacing the floor once again. I could hardly wait until my four best friends got there for our emergency meeting of The Fabulous Five. I had to talk to them. I was desperate. There had to be something I could do to stop Taffy. My whole life depended on it. I barely heard the phone ring just before noon.

"Jana, it's for you," Mom called.

I frowned. What if it was one of my friends saying she couldn't come to our meeting? Or what if it was Taffy Sinclair with new orders for me and another warning that if I didn't do what she said she would turn me in?

Mom was smiling for the first time since the letter arrived from my father when she handed me the receiver. She had her hand over the mouthpiece. "It's a boy," she whispered. "Maybe it's Randy."

My heart started pounding, and I gave her a tiny smile back. Could it really
be Randy Kirwan? It had to be. Wh
o else would call me? But was Randy calling to say he still liked me or was he going to tell me off for being two-faced?

"Hello?" I said.

"Hi, Jana. This is Curtis Trowbridge."

I couldn't believe it. Not nerd-of-the-world Curtis Trowbridge. I hadn't even thought of him. He has had a
crush on me forever, and he is always following me around and making me miserable. But why was he calling me now? I had so much on my mind. I didn't want to talk to him at a time like this. I crossed my eyes and made a face to signal Mom that it wasn't Randy. She smiled sympathetically and left the room so that I could have some privacy.

"Hi, Curtis," I said. "What do you want?"

"I'm calling about Wiggins's wallet and the stolen lunch money," he said matter-of-factly.

I almost dropped the phone. "What!" I gasped. How could he know? Had he been talking to Taffy Sinclair?

"Take it easy. I don't know who the thief is. That's what I'm trying to find out. Since I'm sixth-grade editor of the
Mark Twain Sentinel,
I feel it's my duty to do some investigative reporting. You know, that's when a reporter investigates a crime and tries to solve it ahead of the police."

"Oh," I whispered, even though I already knew what investigative reporting was. My heart had practically exploded out of my chest when he mentioned the wallet and the lunch money, and I was still recovering.

"I'm questioning everyone in our class to see if I can get some leads."

"Do you have any?" I asked, hopeful that he did have but afraid they might point to me.

"Not yet. But I've just started asking questions. You're the first person I've talked to." His voice got an official sound to it as he went on. "According to my notes, you came in late on the morning of the first crime. Did you see anything suspicious on your way to class or notice anyone lurking in the halls?"

"No," I assured him. "Nobody was lurking when I came through."

"Nobody
. . . lurking," he said slowly, and I could imagine him on the other end of the phone writing that on a notepad. "What about yesterday?" he continued. "Did you go anywhere in the school building after you left the cafeteria?"

I wanted to say no, but I had been seen by too many people to deny it. "Yes," I said softly.

"Where did you go?"

"To the girls' bathroom," I snapped.

"Oh," he said quickly, and I could imagine his face turning red. He didn't say anything for a moment, but then he added, "And you didn't see anything suspicious at the time of either crime? Think, Jana. Even the tiniest thing could be important."

I closed my eyes and thought about Monday morning and how I had stayed late in the girls' bathroom to brush my hair before Randy saw me. There was no one in there but me.
Me and Wiggins's wallet.
And I
hadn't seen a single thing that was suspicious on the way to class. I thought really hard, wishing I could come up with a clue. Nobody wanted that thief to be caught more than I did.

"I didn't see anything either time," I said. "Sorry, Curtis. I have to go now. Bye."

As soon as I hung up, I hurried back to my room and flopped down on my bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about Curtis Trowbridge and his investigative reporting. It scared me to think of him poking around and asking a lot of questions when so much of the evidence pointed to me. He already knew that I was late the morning Wiggins's wallet was stolen. He might think it was because I was taking time to hide it. Now he knew that I was in the school during lunch break yesterday. That meant I didn't have an alibi for either time. Curtis was no dummy. He would figure that out in no time.

What would happen when he questioned other people? Even though she had threatened to turn me in, Taffy might not tell him anything since she couldn't blackmail me anymore if I got caught. But what about Mona Vaughn? She was already mad at me because of all the attention I was getting from Taffy. She would probably think that telling what she knew was a good way to get even.

I jumped up and ran to my dresser, staring at myself in the mirror. "I'm innocent!" I cried. But my father was coming Monday. And with Curtis asking questions, and Mr. Scott saying that they planned to call the police on Monday, I didn't have much time to prove i
t.

My
friends were all talking about Curtis Trowbridge and his investigative reporting when they arrived for our emergency meeting at one o'clock. He had called every single one of them that morning.

"Don't worry, Jana. Taffy will never tell Curtis about seeing you with that wallet," Katie assured me as we went into my room and closed the door. "She would rather blackmail you than see you get in trouble."

"Unless she gets tired of blackmailing her," offered Melanie.

"Thanks a lot!" I shrieked. "Besides, you only know half of it." I dreaded to tell them the rest, but I had to. "I was in the hall at noon yesterday when the lunch money was stolen, and Taffy knows it."

"You're kidding, Morgan," said Beth. "What were you doing in the hall at noon?"

"Yeah," said Christie. "Did you see who stole the lunch money?"

"No," I said glumly. Then I explained about running away from Taffy and hiding in the school until she found me in the bathroom and about Mona Vaughn seeing me in the hall and telling Taffy how nervous I was.

"Mor
gan, you jerk," said Beth." How
could you get yourself into a mess like that?"

"I didn't know that somebody was in the middle of stealing the lunch money when I ran into the school. I was mad and embarrassed about pretending to be Taffy Sinclair's friend."

Nobody said anything for a minute. Everybody was thinking about how much trouble I was in.

Finally Christie asked the question everybody was thinking. "What if Mona tells Curtis what
she saw?"

"Hey, wait a minute," said Beth. "So what if Mona saw you in the hall,
Jana? You saw her there, too."

"Sure, but she wasn't acting nervous. And besides, you have to go through the hall to get to the girls' bathroom. That was where she was going."

"So?" challenged Katie. "Maybe she doesn't get nervous. Who knows? Anyway, it's your word against hers. Who else did you say came in the bathroom while you were there?"

"Stephanie Holg
rem," I said. "And some fourth-
graders."

"Any of them could have done it, and so could anyone else. Nobody said the thief went into the girls' bathroom."

Katie was right. It could have been anyone. Even Taffy Sinclair. What a dummy I was. She had come into the school looking for me and had found me in the girls' bathroom. I thought hard for a moment. An idea was forming down in one of the wrinkles of my brain. An idea about Taffy Sinclair.

"Wait a minute," I said. "When Curtis called, he asked me to try to think of anything suspicious that I saw at the time of either crime, and that's exactly what I did. That's why I missed the most suspicious thing of all."

My friends were all staring at me.

"What are you talking about?" cried Beth. "What did you miss?"

"I was thinking about Monday morning in the bathroom," I said excitedly. "I forgot all about what happened in that same bathroom after school when I was trying to put Wiggins's wallet back. Taffy Sinclair came in! What was SHE doing in there after everyone else had gone home? I had thought at the time that she was probably hanging around to butter up the teachers, but maybe that wasn't it at all. Was she checking to see if the wallet SHE had stolen was still behind the toilet? Had SHE put it there for safekeeping until after school?
Was SHE coming back to get it and take it somewhere where it could never be found?"

Grins were slowly spreading across my friends' faces. "That has to be it!" cried Christie. "Taffy Sinclair is the real thief."

"Then she got attention away from herself by blackmailing you," said Beth.

"That's right," I said. "I was so busy worrying about what she was going to do to me next that I didn't take time to suspect her of the crime."

"What about yes
terday at noon?" asked Melanie.

"That's easy," I assured her. "She must have followed me when I ran into the school and then discovered that she had the perfect opportunity to steal something else and make it look as if I did it. That's why I had to stand around in the girls' bathroom washing my hands about a million times while I waited for her to show up. She was busy taking the money and stashing it somewhere."

I jumped on my bed and started bouncing up and down. My friends all jumped on, too, and we were all bouncing and hugging each other. It was too wonderful to be true. Taffy Sinclair was the real sixth-grade thief.

Naturally, Katie Shannon had to put a damper on things. "Wait a minute," she said. Then she stopped bouncing and got off the bed, turning to face us. "What's her motive? She doesn't need money. Her parents aren't rich, but they're pretty well off. And she has the nicest clothes of any girl in school."

We all stopped bouncing.

"She wanted to blackmail me," I insisted.

"That might be true about the lunch money since she knew she could pin it on you," Katie went on. "But not about the wallet. She was just as surprised to see you in the bathroom after school as you were to see her."

I knew I was frowning, but I couldn't help it. "I don't care," I said. "Taffy Sinclair is the thief, and we all know it. The trouble is, we don't have time to prove it. Mr. Scott said they were going to call the police on Monday if nobody came forward. Now Curtis is doing his best to solve the crime ahead of the police. If he talks to Mona, and then puts that together with the fact that I was late Monday morning—I'VE HAD IT!"

There were nods and murmurs of agreement. "We've got to do something," whispered Melanie. Her eyes were open wide, and I could see that she was just as scared as I was.

"I know," shouted Beth. "We'll frame her!"

"Frame her?" we all asked in unison. I felt little tingles race up my spine. I knew it was against the law to do a thing like that, but it was obvious that Taffy Sinclair was guilty and was framing me. If we framed her, then I would be out of trouble, and she would get what she deserved
.