Pete gripped the wheel of the Ark. After he abandoned the Cadillac at the scenic lookout a week ago, the police had towed it to an impoundment lot. It had cost Pete $80 to bail it out that morning — cash he really hated to lose since he’d already returned the $4000 in bribe money to Powers. Now the Ark was taking his friends to the Shoremont basketball play-off game. “I don’t want to talk about the Porsche, okay?” Pete said.
“Okay,” Kelly said, and waited a beat. “But just tell me why this Michael Anthony guy blew it up.”
Pete groaned.
“John Powers probably had him pay someone to blow it up,” corrected Jupe from the back seat. “It was really Powers’ car to begin with.”
“But why blow it up?”
“Because Barry Norman knew we were getting close to him,” Jupe explained. “It was a totally avoidable mistake on our part. When we were tailing Barry Norman, we thought we were keeping our distance. However, when you’re driving a $45,000 sports car and tailing the person who owns it, you have to stay back an extra long way. We just weren’t careful enough. After the meeting yesterday, Norman admitted to me that he saw the car parked at his country club when we followed him. So he took us on a wild-goose chase.”
“Really?” Pete said. “So that’s why he drove to Costa Verde College — just to make us think maybe he was working for Bernie Mehl. I guess that’s why he never called me that Saturday — when you made me stay home all day waiting, Jupe!”
“I’ll bet he saw the car when you were parked near his office building, too,” said Bob.
“Yes,” Jupe said with a sigh. “Similar mistake, similar results. That’s why Norman never showed up that afternoon. In fact, the whole time we were waiting for him, he was watching us. And busily dialing his friendly neighborhood explosives expert on his car phone, I suspect. Norman would never admit that he masterminded the car bombing. But I’m fairly certain he followed us to the party. Then some pyrotechnic genius planted the bomb, made the phone call to Pete, and pushed the button on a remote control. Pretty elaborate scare tactics, if you ask me.”
“Overkill?” Bob asked.
“Ouch.” Jupe winced.
“I like the romantic part about this case,” Kelly said.
“What romantic part?” Pete said, looking confused. “I mean the beautiful young woman having lunch with Barry Norman. And then she turned out to be John Powers’ daughter! That’s so... so... cinematic!”
“Yeah, well, according to what Norman told me yesterday,” said Jupe, “there’s going to be bloodshed when Powers finds out Norman has been dating his daughter. Especially since that’s what tipped the whole case for us.”
Pete pulled into a parking space in the Shoremont College parking garage. He quickly went around to Kelly’s door and yanked it open on the second try.
“Maybe it just needs a little work on the hinges,”
Bob said encouragingly.
“Yeah, with a jackhammer,” Pete moaned. “Come on, you guys. The case is closed. And this game is going to be wild,” Kelly said, trying to change the subject. She hustled the guys toward the front doors of the Shoremont gym.
But as they pushed through the crowd to their seats in the bleachers, Jupe and Bob continued to go over the details of the case.
“The most embarrassing part,” Jupe admitted, “came yesterday toward the end of the meeting in Harper’s office, when I told Duggan that Walt Klinglesmith was one of the guys on the take. It turns out I was wrong. Walt has a lot of money — and expensive pens — to throw around for a very good reason: His parents own a chain of stationery stores.”
Bob laughed sympathetically.
“It’s going to be a weird game tonight, I’ll tell you that,” said Pete. “With Cory Brand, Tim Frisch, and four other guys suspended, it’s like Shoremont put its best chances to win on a bus.”
“Yeah, and without Jupe as the parrot, school spirit is going to be a total washout, too,” Bob chimed in.
“Jupiter Jones, don’t tell me you quit just because the team’s going to lose!” Kelly said indignantly. “That’s against the cheerleaders’ code!”
“He didn’t quit. He was politely fired when they found out he was an impostor,” Bob explained.
Finally the foursome found their seats — midway up in the bleachers and right at center court. Great seats, courtesy of Coach Duggan.
“Well, guys,” Pete said as soon as Jupe sat down, “who’s getting the dogs, the drinks, and the pop-corn?”
“Will someone split a hot dog with me?” asked Jupe.
“You need a new diet,” Bob said with a laugh.
Then suddenly Jupe saw the Shoremont cheerleaders warming up on the sidelines. “I’ll go for the food,” Jupe volunteered, quickly pushing his way against the traffic, heading back downstairs. When he got to the bottom, he stood staring at Sarah, rehearsing the words he had practiced about fifty times with Bob. “Would you like to go to the movies?” Eight words, seven of them with only one syllable. What was the problem? Jupe felt ready... sort of.
He waved to Sarah and she came over.
“Hi, Jupe,” she said. She looked surprised to see him.
“Uh, hi. What do you think about the movies?”
Sarah’s pretty face turned puzzled.
Jupe cleared his throat. “I mean, you go to the movies, don’t you? That is... ” Eight words, seven with only one syllable. Why couldn’t he say them?
“Jupiter, I want to thank you for helping the school and for being our parrot. Boy, when I heard that you’re in high school and a detective, well, I thought, wow, what a surprise. And then I thought about it some more, and said, nothing would surprise me about Jupiter.”
Jupe took a deep breath. “In that case, would you like to, uh... ”
Sarah broke the silence. “Maybe when you get to college we’ll run into each other sometimes.” She smiled, touched his arm, and walked away.
Well, that was that, Jupe thought as he ordered the hot dogs, popcorn, and drinks. His chance to date a charming college girl was gone. Poof. There were no rewards for solving this case — not for anyone. Shoremont was going to lose, Pete was stuck with the Ark, Jupe was going back to Rocky Beach High...
Splash! Jupe heard the drinks spill, but all he saw was purple. Slowly he realized why — he had run right into Coach Duggan, who was wearing his purple Shoremont jacket and cap. Coach Duggan was now also wearing the cola Jupe had been carrying.
“I’m terribly sorry, Coach Duggan,” Jupe started to say.
The coach’s blue eyes didn’t blink. “Don’t worry about it, Jupiter,” he said. “Cola settles the stomach. In fact, I ought to get some for the guys in my locker room. They’ll need all the help they can get. You know, a few of them haven’t played more than sixty seconds this season, but they’re ready to do their best.”
“Well, good luck, Coach,” Jupe said.
The coach nodded. “You know, Jupe, I wanted to thank you personally for what you’ve done for me. I’m going into a play-off game minus some of my best players. We don’t stand a snowball’s chance of winning. But you know what? I feel good about it. I was innocent in Boston, and now I think everyone knows that I’m innocent here. I owe it to you — you’ve helped clear up both my reputation and this game.”
“Well, it was nothing, really,” Jupe said modestly.
Coach Duggan started to walk away, but then he turned back to say just one more thing.
“But you know what’s going to be harder than replacing those players, Jupiter?”
Jupe shook his head.
“Finding an MVP like you!”
Jupe looked confused. “Most Valuable Player?”
“Most Valuable Parrot. You were the best!”