The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (18 page)

After a while the car was aired out well enough, so the kids sat inside with the doors open. They were still mulling over everything that had happened in the park. “It’s ridiculous that you got into trouble for getting that key, Winston. You got us out of there! You’re a hero!”

“What about me?” Jake said.

“Who, you?” Mal said. “The cheater got away!” He gave an exaggerated snort of digust. “Getting yourself beat up isn’t heroic.”

Jake laughed and took a playful roundhouse swing at him.

Winston didn’t feel much like a hero. He’d retrieved the key, sure, but he felt bad about getting Bethany’s team kicked out of the park. If only that security guard had helped Jake catch the cheater instead of chasing Winston for stealing a key! Then everything would be fine, and nobody would have gotten into trouble except the man in the green jacket, the one guy who deserved it.

He looked off toward the park entrance. Mr. Garvey still wasn’t coming, but he saw Bethany and her team heading in their direction. “Guys, look,” he said.

“More happy kids enjoying a fun-filled day of puzzles,” Mal said. He was being sarcastic, of course. Bethany, Elvie, and Giselle all looked miserable. For once they were trailing behind their teacher, who was storming ahead, presumably to her car.

Winston watched them for a moment, then said to his friends, “Come on.” The three of them got out and walked over to the girls.

“Did they let you solve the puzzle before kicking you out?” he asked, a false cheerfulness on his face.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Bethany, not stopping. “We’re quitting the game.”

Winston was astonished. “You’re what? Why? Because we got in trouble for stealing the key?”

Bethany shook her head. “Because of what that cheater had. Your teacher said my name was in his assignment pad.” She stopped now and faced him. “Is that true?”

“Mr. Garvey told you that?” Winston asked. Well, duh—of course he had.

“Is it true?” Bethany said again.

Winston could only nod agreement. “Yeah, it’s true. My name was in there, too.”

“It was?” Bethany looked surprised. “Your teacher didn’t say that.”

Giselle was looking at Jake’s face. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll live.”

“Did the cheater hit you?”

Jake tried a smile. “Not as hard as the sidewalk did.”

“Wait a minute,” Bethany said. She pointed at Winston. “Your name was in that book, but you guys aren’t quitting?” She looked at all of them, her eyes shining with accusation.

“Uh, no,” said Mal. “I don’t think we are.”

“But that’s not fair!” Giselle said, spinning around to face Miss Norris. “We shouldn’t quit, either!”

Miss Norris once again hadn’t realized that her girls had gotten away from her—in this case, they had stopped while Miss Norris marched onward to her car. Now she came back, looking frustrated. Her red hair was frizzier than ever—it looked like she had recently received a moderate electric shock.

“Girls, I’m done talking about this. Stay with me. Don’t you understand what’s happening? I’m taking you home right now.”

“We’re quitting for no good reason,” said Bethany.

“There’s some strange man out there who means us harm,” said Miss Norris, as firmly as Winston had ever heard her speak. “I wouldn’t call that no reason.”

Bethany groused, “I don’t understand how my name could be in his stupid book. I wasn’t even supposed to be here today. I was supposed to go to a wedding. But we couldn’t go because my father got sick. So I came to this instead. Now my whole team has to quit because I’m here.”

“Wait a minute,” Winston said. “When did your plans change?”

“Yesterday. After dinner.”

“So you didn’t know you were going to be here until last night?” Bethany nodded. “Pretty much.”

Miss Norris began leading her girls away again. Winston was processing a whole new line of thought. He wished he could stop time for a little while—just hit the pause button and sit here on the ground, thinking about what Bethany had told him. She wasn’t supposed to be here, yet her name was in the cheater’s memo pad. What did that mean?

He had to ask some questions before the girls were taken away forever. He chased after them. “Miss Norris,” he called. “Were you the one to break the code? The invitation to the puzzle contest?”

Miss Norris looked at him. “Our vice principal did it, mainly. I was there. We didn’t know what it was. A bunch of teachers helped out in the staff room.”

“Did you call the phone number?”

“No, the vice principal did.”

“But you heard him do it,” Winston persisted.

Miss Norris took a deep, annoyed breath, unsure where this was going or why she was allowing herself to be interrogated by a twelve-year-old. But she said, “Yes, I heard him make the phone call.”

“At that point, you didn’t know who was going to be on the puzzle-solving team, right? The vice principal didn’t give any names out.”

“No. He just said the name of our school into the answering machine. We didn’t figure out who was going to be on the team until later. May I ask why you’re asking?”

Winston said, “I’m trying to figure out how the cheater knew who would be here today. Bethany says that
she
didn’t know she was going to be here until last night. But the cheater had her name. It doesn’t make sense.”

Miss Norris nodded, as if agreeing. But she said, “It also doesn’t matter. This has gotten a little too dangerous, and I have a responsibility to these girls.”

“We’re not afraid,” said Bethany. “Are we, Elvie?”

“I’m a little afraid,” Elvie said in a quiet, serious voice. “It’s creepy that there’s this guy out there doing all these things, and it’s terrible what he did to Jake.”

Jake’s hand went up to his black eye at the mention of his name.

“You see?” said Miss Norris.

“But I still don’t think we should quit,” Elvie concluded. “That’s what the cheater
wants,
you know. He wants us to quit. So I don’t think we should.”

Miss Norris was quiet for a moment, as if she couldn’t immediately find a response to Elvie’s logic. Then she shook her head and said, “It doesn’t matter. We’ve been kicked out of the park, and we never solved this puzzle. So we can’t win anyway. Let’s go.”

Winston again considered giving them the answer to the Ferris wheel puzzle. Somehow, he didn’t think Miss Norris would appreciate that.

But then he said, “Wait! You can still solve this puzzle!” The girls and their teacher turned and looked at him. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of this sooner: Winston dug a piece of paper out of his pocket. Yes. All the words from the Ferris wheel, written in a circle. It was everything they needed. He extended the paper to Miss Norris. “Look. You don’t need the Ferris wheel at all. All the words are written right here. I can’t tell you the answer because I guess that would be cheating. But you can still solve the puzzle.”

Miss Norris looked at Winston’s extended arm, then took the piece of paper from his hand.

Sensing a crack in her teacher’s resolve, Bethany said, “It’s my name in that book, and I don’t want to quit. The boys aren’t quitting, and neither should we! And if we can solve this puzzle after all. . . . Miss Norris, please! Let’s keep playing!”

Miss Norris looked at the paper. She glanced up at Winston, her expression somewhere between suspicious and hopeful. “You’re giving this to us?”

“It’s my fault you got kicked out of the park,” Winston said.

“It’s Bethany’s fault,” Miss Norris said. “She followed you.”

“I’m sorry,” said Bethany. “I shouldn’t have run away. But please don’t make us quit. We’ll listen to you from now on. We’ll be good.” Elvie and Giselle nodded in fervent agreement.

Miss Norris did a poor job suppressing a smile, and Winston knew the girls had won. “Get in the car,” their teacher said. “If we all stay together from now on, we’ll keep playing. If you run away from me again, that’s it. We’re going home. Also, you have to solve this puzzle, of course,” she added, waving Winston’s piece of paper.

The girls jumped up and down. Giselle said, “We will! Let’s go!” They all danced their way through the parking lot. Bethany looked over her shoulder and beamed at Winston. That was thank you enough.

As the girls walked down a row of cars to Miss Norris’s sedan, Jake said, “Oh man. She totally likes you, Winston.”

Winston didn’t know what to say to that and was almost relieved when a voice behind them said, “I thought I told you boys to wait by the car!” Mr. Garvey was suddenly marching toward them. He looked beside himself with exasperation. Winston and his friends flinched. Mr. Garvey said, “I thought I threatened dire, drastic consequences if you boys were not by the car when I arrived.”

“The car’s right there,” Mal said, pointing.

“Yes. And you’re
here
. Thank you for making my point for me. Let’s go. We have a lot of work to do yet.” He marched back to his car, the boys following.

“What were you doing back there?” Jake asked.

Not turning around, Mr. Garvey announced, “I thought I had a responsibility to tell the other teams about the cheater.”

“You sure scared Bethany’s teacher,” Winston said. “They almost quit.”

Mr. Garvey stopped. “Almost?” he said. “She said she was taking her girls home.”

“They changed their minds,” Mal said.

They all saw it, right then. Mr. Garvey knocked his fist against his leg and shook his head—an expression of frustration. Winston and his friends traded a few charged looks.

Winston said to Mr. Garvey, “Did you
want
them to quit?”

Mr. Garvey tried on a smile. “I didn’t try to talk them out of it, if that’s what you mean.” He looked at his car. “You boys left all four doors wide open,
and
the trunk. That’s just great.”

Mal said, “We were airing it out.”

Mr. Garvey shook his head and got into the driver’s seat. Winston took the passenger seat next to him. “Did anybody else quit?”

“Hmm?” said their teacher, starting the car, not looking around.

“Did any of the other teams quit when you told them about the cheater?”

Mr. Garvey said carefully, “Two other teams decided this fellow maybe made things a little riskier than they preferred. Mal, Jake, get in the car already!” Mal and Jake slid in, troubled looks on their faces.

“Who else quit?” Winston asked.

Mr. Garvey backed up, and the car bounced in the grassy field. He said, “That private school that dresses so fancy, what’s their name? The ones we met in the maze.”

“The Demilla Academy?”

“That’s right,” said Mr. Garvey. “Their teacher agreed that his students’ safety had to be considered. So they bowed out. So did another school, New Easton Junior High. A girl on that team apparently had her own run-in with our friend. Frightened her quite badly.” That, Winston knew, would be Krissy Huang, who’d been locked in the bathroom.

Jake asked, “Did you show them that stuff to warn them about the cheater, or to get rid of the competition?” There was a sharp tone in his voice.

There was a brief snarl of traffic at the exit. Mr. Garvey used the opportunity to look at Jake in the backseat. “I did the responsible thing. I told them about the cheater and that he had some of our names and license plate numbers. That’s all. Now, let’s move on to the next puzzle, and let’s win this contest. Shall we?” He turned around in the driver’s seat and zoomed out of the amusement park, as if hoping to leave this conversation back in the parking lot.

The boys got the message, and a strange, tense silence filled the car. Winston watched the road go by. Mr. Garvey was right . . . sort of. They had to tell the others about the cheater and the notes he’d taken. But he had the vague idea that Mr. Garvey did more than that. Winston could easily see him presenting the memo pad in such a way as to convince teams to quit the race. Three teams out of ten had given up after Mr. Garvey spoke to them. Bethany and the other girls had changed their minds soon after, but still. Mr. Garvey sure had a talent for getting teams to drop of out of the game.

He wants us to quit, you know.
That’s what Elvie had said, regarding the cheater. And she was right. Who would be happiest about seeing teams drop out of the race? The cheater . . . and whoever the cheater was working with.

Was there a chance that Mr. Garvey was working with the man in the green jacket?

No. No. Stop it, Winston told himself. For heaven’s sake—their team had been the very first hit by the cheater, when they were given the back-tire wedgie. Mr. Garvey wasn’t working with the cheater. That was insane.

But Winston was sure that his teacher tried to frighten other teams into dropping out of the contest. And that meant, for at least a few minutes, his goals and the goals of the man in the green jacket had been the same. Winston glanced at his teacher and decided that bringing up this observation wasn’t a very good idea.

“Where are we going now?” Mr. Garvey asked. “Where’s the next puzzle?”

“Oh, right. I’ve got it, hang on.” Mal had the computer and busied himself pushing buttons. “Now we’re supposed to go to a police station! A precinct back in Glenville.” He recited the address.

“A police station?” Mr. Garvey mused. “What on earth kind of puzzle could Simon put there?”

“Maybe they’ll put us in jail,” said Mal, “and we’ll have to break out.”

“How far behind are we now?” Mr. Garvey asked. “What does that computer say about who’s winning?”

Mal pushed more buttons and let out an excited gasp. “We’re coming up on puzzle number four, right?” he said. “Listen to this! Nobody has solved it yet.”

The air in the car filled with a new urgency. They could catch up. They were, in fact, catching up.

“It must be really hard,” said Winston.

Jake said, “Brendan Root and those guys . . . they must have been there for half an hour or more by now.”