Crime in the Cards (14 page)

“Dig in,” she said. “You guys deserve it—not that I didn't help, you understand.”

“You were great, Iola,” Joe said as he sat down on the couch beside her. He gave her hand a friendly squeeze.

“I can't believe that Mr. McCool was behind the whole thing,” Daphne said, ruffling her short red hair.
She picked up a mug of chocolate and took a swig.

“We knew that Kestenberg couldn't be the brains of this scheme,” Joe said. “McCool was the only one who fit all the requirements for the counterfeiting mastermind.”

“As a printer, he could produce the counterfeit cards on one of his small presses after his workers had gone home. Plus, his part-time job at school gave him access to the keys he needed to help Kestenberg steal cards from Daphne's locker, Mr. Pane's desk, and other places.”

“What a rotten thing to do!” Callie said. She leaned across the coffee table and got herself a sandwich. “Getting fired and going to jail are too good for him!”

“They'll have to do, though,” Frank said. “At least he and Kestenberg will be out of circulation for a long time. Creature Card officials can start getting the fake cards out of tournament play, too. I imagine it will take the police a while to figure out which cards belong to whom and who needs to get reimbursed for the crimes, though.” He picked up a mug of cocoa and sighed. “I'm sure that Kestenberg and McCool resold a lot of those cards, too—either in person or over the Net. They're probably gone for good.”

“So Kestenberg put Chet's Bargeist in my locker?” Tim asked.

“Yeah,” Joe said. “He wanted to create a diversion and stir things up. Kestenberg did the legwork because McCool was too careful to do any of it himself.
As a teacher, he'd have been pretty conspicuous lurking around in the school corridors.”

“Whereas, lurking was Kestenberg's modus operandi,” Iola said. All of them laughed.

“Do you think you'll get your cards back, Daphne?” Callie asked.

Daphne took a sip of her drink. “I hope so,” she said. “But if I don't . . . Well, I got a lot of the replacements I needed from Ron Felix, anyway.”

“So that was you we saw buying cards in the waterfront park last Thursday night. You were the skull-masked player at Gerry's game, too, weren't you?” Joe said.

Daphne shrugged. “I might as well 'fess up,” she said. “The tournament's over anyway, so there's no need to keep it secret any longer. You guys nearly caught me during Friday's cycle chase, too. If I hadn't known about that bridge . . .”

“Too bad Kestenberg eluded us that night,” Joe said. “He must have taken a secret way out of those hills after he dumped his demon mask. We were left chasing you and Gerry.”

“McCool and Kestenberg's plan was good,” Frank said. “Lucky for us that they were in a rush to get their fake cards on the market. When the shop's lens broke and they had to borrow the school's, it put extra pressure on them. They got careless and didn't notice the small stain on Chet's White Knight and Coyote cards.” He smiled. “Without Chet's love of ketchup, we might never have tumbled to their scheme.”

Joe nodded. “The thefts kept all the gamers too paranoid to cooperate with each other. Plus, Gerry was a perfect fall guy in case anyone tumbled to Kestenberg's thefts. Gerry didn't know anything about the counterfeiting, but Kestenberg used him to pass along stolen and phony cards.”

“Too bad Gerry wasn't paying more attention,” Callie-said. “These crimes might have stopped a lot sooner if he had been.”

“Is he still in the hospital?” Iola asked.

“No, they released him this morning,” Joe said. “Kestenberg didn't hurt him too badly. He took the day off from school, though.”

“Who can blame him?” said Daphne. “There are a lot of gamers with counterfeit cards because of him. He might want to hide out for the rest of the semester.”

“Speaking of hiding out,” Callie said. “Where's Chet?”

“He had a phone call,” Iola replied. “He said it was important.”

Just then Chet came dashing into the room, a broad smile creasing his freckled face. “Guess what?” he said breathlessly.

“What?” the others replied in unison.

“I just got off the phone with Troy King from Creature Cards,” Chet said. “As thanks for helping break up the counterfeiting ring, he's sending me and Pete our own Bone Leviathan cards—the same card they gave out as a prize at the tournament.”

Daphne leaned her head back and said in mock
horror, “Argh. I can't stand it. Even when Chet loses, he wins!”

“I can't wait for the next tournament,” Chet said. “Whether I get my old cards back or not, I should have a really killer deck by then.”

“Chet,” Joe said, “I'm all for your enthusiasm, but could you take it easier this time? Your last deck nearly got us all killed!”