The Magician's Bird (13 page)

Bud shook his head. “No. Not there.”

“You'd better not be saying what I think you're saying,” Laurie warned.

“Laurie, she lives
right next door
to LeFranco. She
obviously
doesn't like him. She'd be glad to help! Plus, you can tell from her questions today—she's done research too!”

Misti looked from Bud to Laurie. She'd never seen Laurie look so ticked off. She looked like she might accidentally set the room on fire with her laser-beam eyes.

“Who are we talking about here?”

“Calliope,” Laurie growled.

“I'm leaving it up to Laurie,” Misti said. “But she does seem a wee bit pushy in class.”

“Ha! Wee bit?” Laurie ranted. She had been arguing for what felt like a million years. And the worst part was, at the edges of her mind, she was afraid Bud might have a point. “Bud, look, here's the thing. Even if she doesn't mess everything up, she'll know about the room! Do you want her to know about the room?”

“Lightbulbs,” Misti said quietly.

“Of course not, but I don't see that we have any options! Do you?” Bud really didn't get the whole thing Laurie had with Calliope. Sure, she was irritating, but that was mostly because Calliope had a thing for Bud. It wasn't his fault that she had a crush, so he tried to be nice to the poor kid.

“The lightbulbs,” Misti said again.

“Misti, what the heck?” Bud said. She'd been ranting about the stupid lightbulbs all day.

“They don't change themselves,” Misti said. “Do you really think that lightbulbs that someone put in decades ago would still work? I don't.”

They all stared at the lightbulbs in the fixtures overhead. “Oh, crud,” Bud said.

“We won't be able to keep this secret forever,” Misti
said. “Not if the lightbulbs are changing.”

Laurie sat down again. “Do ghosts change lightbulbs, Misti?”

Misti looked doubtful. “I don't know if they do.”

Bud, Laurie, and Misti closed the trapdoor and peered out of the shed to make sure the coast was clear.

“Just think about it, Laurie. Calliope likes me. I think
she'd go for it. Don't you want to take LeFranco down?”

Laurie nodded slowly. Bud smiled and made a dash across the yard.

Misti bumped Laurie sympathetically. “It won't be that bad, maybe,” she said. “But it's up to you.”

“Maybe you're right.” Laurie gave her a weak grin. “Now get home, before your mom decides to bedazzle your whole wardrobe.”

Misti gasped and hurried out of the shed without checking.

Laurie giggled. That had just been a joke, but apparently the threat of bedazzlement was a bigger risk than she'd realized.

She peered out into the empty yard and set her jaw. She knew what she had to do.

Text message from Laurie Madison to Bud Wallace

Note stuck to door of shed

Laurie crept down the stairs and sat on the bottom step in her entryway. She could hear her parents in the other room. Or sort of hear them. She'd caught the words “Tuckernuck,” “bird,” and “Tutweiler,” so she knew they were talking about the murder. But beyond that, it was hard to say.

Laurie hadn't managed to piece together much more when she heard her brother creep down the stairs after her. Jack sat down next to her. “What are we listening to?”

“Shh!” Laurie hissed. She was supposed to be asleep, but she didn't think she needed to worry about him busting her, since Jack was supposed to be asleep too. “They're talking about the newspaper articles.” She hesitated. “I think.”

“Then come on,” Jack whispered, silently getting up and creeping across the hall. “Dining room's better for eavesdropping. There's a vent.”

Laurie hurried across the hall to where Jack was kneeling next to the vent between the living room and the dining room. “Listen,” he mouthed.

Laurie nodded. Her parents' voices were much clearer here. She couldn't believe she was just now finding that out.

“Fine, let's say she did it. She's a terrible person. But even if she is a murderer, that won't shut the school, will it?” Mrs. Madison's voice sounded strained. “It seems so ridiculous!”

“Well, ridiculous or not, I talked to Trinity Harbaugh's father at the grocery store and he's sending her to Savannah Heights next year. And he said Linda and Ray Silver are doing the same thing with Sam.”

“That's just crazy!”

Laurie could hear her dad pacing. “Is it? These people . . . you saw how quick they were to hop on the Tuckernuck bandwagon when Laurie found the treasure. And now they're just as quick to believe the worst.”

Laurie stared at her brother in horror. Sam Silver and Trinity Harbaugh? If kids dropped out of the school, it wouldn't matter how much LeFranco was lying. He'd win anyway.

Jack shook his head, his mouth set in a grim line. “Sorry, kiddo,” he said, punching her lightly on the shoulder.

Laurie shook her head violently. “It's not over!” she hissed.

Jack gave her a long, solemn look. And then he forced
himself to smile. “Sure. You're right. It's not over till it's over.”

But he didn't sound like he believed it. And Laurie wasn't sure she believed it herself.

Bud was in the basement, waging a dinosaur war against his dad's model revolutionary troops, when he heard his dad call him. Sure, he was probably getting a little old for plastic dinosaur battles, but he'd just gotten the dinosaurs back not long ago, and he was constantly amazed at how much they would've changed the Revolutionary War.

“Bud, Flora's leaving! Come say good-bye!”

Bud put his triceratops in the boat crossing the Delaware and started up the stairs.

“BUD!”
his dad called again.

Bud opened his mouth to yell back that he was coming when Miss Downey's voice stopped him.

“That's okay, Wally, let him stay down there.”

Bud hesitated. If she didn't care if he said good-bye, he sure wasn't going to bother. But he didn't want to tick his dad off either.

“No, he should—”

“I meant to mention, Wally. Principal Winkle has
called a special meeting tomorrow for some of the teachers.” Flora Downey sounded like she was measuring every word. It gave Bud a cold feeling down his back.

“What about? Is it serious?”

“It could be. It's about the charges in the paper. Apparently a lot of parents are taking it seriously. Betty Abernathy told me that the whole future of the school is in doubt.”

“What, again? This is ridiculous!” Bud's dad sounded confused. “Over a couple of articles? It's only been a couple of days!”

“Apparently a couple of days is all it takes for the public to turn on you. And Walker LeFranco has them eating out of his hand. That Marchetti Bird—it's silenced most of the doubters. Once he gets it to work, the whole town will be in his pocket.”

“Well, maybe that won't happen.” Bud's dad sounded doubtful.

Miss Downey snorted.

Bud cringed. Teachers shouldn't snort. She might as well just fart and burp the alphabet and be done with it. “Wally, he has the Marchetti Bird. It's only a matter of time before he gets it to sing, and then it'll be all over. That bird is legendary.”

“Well, that's just insane. Until it does, I refuse to worry about it. I've wasted too much time worrying about things that weren't important, and I just made Bud's life miserable. I refuse to do it again.” The door to the basement jerked open. “BU—Oh! Bud, there you are. Flora is heading home.”

Bud gave his dad a weak smile and trooped the rest of the way up the stairs.

Note from Calliope Judkin to her backup

“Forget it.” Calliope folded her arms. “I'm not agreeing to anything.”

“Come on, Calliope!” Bud tried not to look at Laurie and Misti. This whole Calliope thing was his idea, and if it tanked, he'd look like an idiot.

Calliope rolled her eyes at him. “One—you want me to join your little gang or whatever, but you're not willing to give details until I agree and swear myself to secrecy, which as a reporter, is a
STUPID
thing to do. Two—you won't even tell me what it's about, except that you want to take LeFranco down, and excuse me, I am doing a fine job of that on my own.” She sighed. “Look, guys, I can see why you'd need my help, okay? For whatever little thing you're doing. But here's the big question. Why in the world would I need you?”

Misti tapped Bud on the shoulder. “Huddle.” She nodded her head at Calliope. “Excuse us for a second.”

Misti dragged Bud and Laurie a few feet away while Calliope waited, impatiently tapping her foot.

“This isn't going to work, Bud. We can't say, ‘Hey, join
us for this secret thing, so we can do this other secret thing that we can't tell you about until you agree, but seriously, it's really cool.'
NO ONE
would agree to that.”