The Magician's Bird (7 page)

“How's Misti doing?”

Laurie shielded her eyes against the sun and peered into the school yard. “I don't see her. She must be close to finished, though. She was really going crazy with that glue gun.”

After she'd shown them the article, Misti had stomped off to the shed to start gluing the trapdoor back together. Laurie just hoped that there would still be some way inside once she'd gotten done gluing everything in sight.

Bud just grunted. Laurie stared at him for a long minute and then smacked him on the knee.

“For Pete's sake, Bud, snap out of it, okay? We'll fix this.”

Bud nodded. “You know, this LeFranco stuff, trying to clear Maria Tutweiler's name?” he started, and then hesitated. Laurie raised her eyebrows at him. “It's just . . . it's going to take a lot of time.”

Laurie shrugged. “Yeah. But we need to do it.”

“It's going to take time away from the scavenger hunt. I mean, a lot of time.”

Laurie rolled her eyes at Bud. “Bud, seriously. The scavenger hunt?”

Bud frowned. “Yeah?”

“That scavenger hunt is pretty much dead in the water at this point, right? I mean, Betty Abernathy isn't going to let us do
anything
.”

Bud grinned. “You figured that out too?”

Laurie shook her head. “I figure, we keep pretending we're doing it, to throw her off, right? And so we don't lose access to the school.”

“Right, and we'll do what we can with it.” Bud gave a sly nod.

“But we've got to focus on the important stuff. Saving
Maria Tutweiler's butt,” Laurie finished.

“Again,” Bud added.

“AGAIN.” Laurie smirked. “So, do you think you can meet up after dinner?”

“What, tonight?” Bud sat up. It felt like the stairs had left a permanent indentation in his back. “I think so. Why?”

“Good. We need to start doing a little investigating ourselves. Find out what LeFranco is talking about and who that guy was she supposedly killed. Then we'll meet back in the secret room.” She laughed a dry, barky laugh. “I mean, it's secret for a reason, right? Maybe there's evidence in there that we can use to clear her. But first we have to have the facts.”

Bud nodded. It was something, at least. “Got it. We'll have her cleared in no time.”

Headline in the
Daily Herald,
competitor of the Morning News

“I didn't want to say anything in front of Laurie, but maybe we should take another look at Hamilton Junior High?”

Laurie stopped on her way past the kitchen and listened. She'd been in the den, trying to find whatever she could on Alphonse Marchetti and Maria Tutweiler's nefarious past, but there was only so much she could get printed out with her brother, Jack, bugging her to let him get online to play World of Warcraft. It's pretty much impossible to get any secret investigating done when someone's hovering over your shoulder.

Laurie clenched the few pages she'd managed to print in her fists and edged closer to the kitchen door.

“Are you serious?” Laurie's mother sounded like she was putting dishes in the dishwasher. “We went through this last year. We're a family of proud Tuckernuck Cluckers. You don't really think she's a murderer, do you?”

“Of course not.” Laurie's father sounded grim. “But it doesn't matter what I think. It matters what the people in the town think. That school was just getting back on its feet. If people decide not to send their kids there . . .”

“Which is exactly what you're doing.” Laurie's mother shut the dishwasher with a bang. Being a Tuckernuck Clucker was something she took seriously.

“No, I just don't want to be caught by surprise if the school shuts down suddenly. We don't need that stress
again. It's summer now, so it's a good time to be thinking about this kind of thing.” Laurie's dad paused. “It's not like she doesn't have friends at Hamilton. Kimmy goes there, and they used to be best friends.”

Laurie stifled a snort. Used to be was right. She and Kimmy hadn't been close ever since Kimmy joined up with the popular crowd at Hamilton. As much as Laurie had begged to go to Hamilton last year, it was the last thing she wanted to do now.

“Well, I hope you're wrong. I can't imagine people will believe one silly article.”

Laurie could hear her mother opening the refrigerator. “Who wants pie?” her mom yelled from the kitchen.

Laurie unfroze and quickly hurried past the door and up the stairs. “I do!” Laurie called down, once she was safely in her room. It was a lie, though. The way her stomach was churning, she didn't think she'd be able to eat a single bite.

Bud was waiting for the pages he'd found to finish printing when his dad came up behind him. He was watching the printer, which was super slow, so he didn't even realize his dad was there until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“What's this you're looking up?”

Bud almost hit the ceiling, but he managed to smile back at his dad. He didn't want to come off like a jumpy freak, even if he was one.

“Oh, I was just looking up some stuff.”

His dad picked up the papers from the printer. “Alphonse Marchetti?” His dad looked confused. “This isn't for the scavenger hunt, is it?”

Bud shifted uncomfortably. “I was just looking him up because of that stuff in the paper. You know.”

“I must've missed that article.” Bud's dad frowned. Bud wasn't surprised, actually. They didn't get the
Morning News
, and Bud sure as heck wasn't about to suggest that his dad read the article about his school's murderous founder.

“Oh, it's stupid. Just some stuff about Maria Tutweiler, you know.”

Bud's dad's frown deepened. “No, I don't know. Is it something I should see?” He turned and called into the other room. “Flora? Did you see an article today about Maria Tutweiler?”

Bud groaned inwardly. Flora Downey was the music teacher at Tuckernuck Hall, and she and his dad had been seeing each other since the beginning of the year. Which
meant that Bud had been seeing her, too. A whole lot of her. Way more of her than he wanted to.

Flora Downey came into the office from the living room, carrying a couple of foreign artsy-type DVDs. She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts. Bud tried to avert his eyes. There was just something very wrong about seeing a teacher in shorts.

“You're not taking that article seriously, are you, Wally?” Miss Downey rolled her eyes. “It's ridiculous.”

“What? What did it say? It looks like I'm the only one who didn't read it.” Mr. Wallace gave a half smile, but Bud could tell he was concerned. He was always concerned when it came to school stuff.

“Just some ridiculous accusations, claiming she's responsible for everything from the stock market crash to the Kennedy assassination to the Great Chicago Fire.”

Bud was glad she'd put it that way, instead of listing the things Maria Tutweiler had actually been accused of doing. It sounded crazier Miss Downey's way.

“She wasn't even alive for all of those,” Bud said, fixing his eyes on Miss Downey's sandals. Sandals that exposed her toes. A kid should never have to see a teacher's toes.

“Exactly.” Miss Downey smiled at Bud. “Now, which
of these do you want to see?” Miss Downey held up two super-serious-looking movies with pictures of gloomy people on the covers. One was in Swedish and the other one was in Japanese. Bud sighed. Family movie night was going to kill him.

“They both look really good,” Bud's dad said. “But what about this article? Is this going to hurt Bud's future, if colleges associate him with a criminal?”

“Of course not. It's just muckraking, that's all it is. Nothing to worry about.” Miss Downey smiled. “Guess I get to be the deciding vote. Swedish it is!”

Note from Mrs. Wanda Pinkerton to Mr. Mel Pinkerton

Quote under a
Life
magazine photo of the magician Alphonse Marchetti

“All of my secrets are within the Marchetti Bird.
She can tell you all the tales of my life.”
Alphonse Marchetti

Bud looked at the
Life
magazine printout that Laurie had made and shook his head. “Why can't anything be straightforward with this guy? What the heck is this supposed to mean?”

Laurie shrugged. “He was a magician. Magicians are supposed to be mysterious.”

“I guess. Did you mostly find out stuff about the bird, then?” Bud handed the printout back to Laurie.

Laurie nodded. “Pretty much. Did you find anything out about the murder?”

Bud made a face. “Yeah. It's pretty gross.”

“Great.” A murder was bad enough, but a gross murder was going to be hard to take. Laurie had a weak stomach when it came to that kind of thing.

Laurie leaned up against the shed. “Misti's coming, right?” It was starting to get dark outside, and the whole yard was looking a little spooky. She wasn't used
to seeing the school except in full daylight, and there seemed to be more shadows than there should've been.

Bud wasn't worried about the shadows. He was just happy he wasn't watching another Swedish movie about people who didn't seem to do anything but have long discussions and die. He'd seen enough of those to last a lifetime.

“She'll be here. She said something about a bedazzling accident. She might be a little late.”

Laurie stared at him. “A bedazzling accident? What's that?”

“Beats me.” Bud said, watching something moving in the distance. “Wait, I think that's her.”

Misti appeared at the edge of the school yard. She didn't look happy.

Laurie sucked in her breath. “Wow. I think I know what a bedazzling accident is.”

Misti was wearing a big gray sweatshirt with her shorts and T-shirt, and it looked like a crafts store had exploded all over it. Laurie could see sequins, lace, glitter, lamé, and a bunch of other things she didn't even know the names of. It wasn't a look that even Misti could pull off.

“Not a word,” Misti said, stalking past them and
jerking open the door to the shed.

“I wasn't going to say anything, I swear.” Laurie bit her lip. Giggling would not go over well right now.

“Believe it or not, I got off lucky. My sister Tiffi got a jumpsuit.
A JUMPSUIT.
I don't even know how my mom managed to find one. We're planning to spill grape juice in the near future.” Misti inspected the trapdoor. She'd glued a big piece of scrap plywood over the hole, so it looked terrible, but not like a secret passageway. “The hot glue seems to have done the job, though.” She gave Laurie a small smile. “Maybe Maria Tutweiler has some spare clothes in there.”