Laugh Till You Cry (8 page)

Coach Anderson swung open the gate with one hand and grabbed Cody’s arm with the other. Making sure the gate was locked, she marched Cody across the yard toward the students who were hurrying to line up.

“If that’s another bomb threat, you’re in big trouble!” she yelled into Cody’s ear.

He winced and stumbled, trying to keep up with her long strides. He was in trouble, all right. There was no doubt about it.

There had been a second threatening telephone call to the school. The caller’s voice had been muffled, so some of his words were indistinct, but Mr. Carmody insisted that it was the same voice he had heard the first time.

“He said ‘smoke,’ ” Mr. Carmody reported. “I know I heard him say ‘smoke.’ ”

Cody, who’d been detained after all the other kids had been allowed to go home early, faced Mr. Carmody, Mrs. Allen, the school’s short, plump secretary, Coach Anderson, and Jake, who had responded to the police call.

“I didn’t do it,” Cody began.

“That’s what you said last time,” Coach Anderson snapped. “Do we need to get his mother in here?”

“I didn’t do it then, either.”

“Why don’t you tell us what you
did
do?” Jake broke in. “Tell us where you were and why.”

Cody left out the part about the hassle with Hayden. He just said that he had seen Bobby open the door into the basement and go inside, and he had followed.

“I don’t think it could have been Bobby,” Mrs. Allen
interrupted. “Just before lunch he came into the office with a headache and said his cold was worse. I sent him to the nurse’s office to rest and called his mother. She was at her office, but she said she’d come by as soon as she could to pick him up.”

“Did she?” Jake asked.

“I don’t know. Right after that I went to the teachers’ lounge.”

“It
was
Bobby,” Cody insisted. “I saw him.”

“Okay, Cody,” Jake said. “Just give us your story. Tell us the rest.”

“There isn’t anything much left to tell,” Cody said. “I walked through that big room with all the machinery and found a small room way at the end with a desk in it.”

“Did you see Bobby while you were down there?” Mr. Carmody asked.

“No. I didn’t see him at all. But there was another door, and I opened it. It led outside, so I went up the steps to see if Bobby had gone out that way.”

Before anyone could ask, Cody quickly added, “I didn’t see him, so I went back down the stairs. Only the door had shut and locked itself, and I had to come around the block to get back into the school.”

Coach Anderson interrupted, “And that’s where I saw Cody.”

Mr. Carmody scowled at Cody. “You’re trying to tell us you followed a boy who was reported to be in the nurse’s office?”

“He wasn’t in the nurse’s office when I saw him.” Cody felt a tear slide down his cheek, and he rubbed at his face. The situation he was in looked hopeless, but he was too old to break down and cry.

“We need to talk to the nurse,” Jake said. “She can verify whether Bobby was in her office. She was in the
teachers’ lounge eating lunch with me when the alarm went off.”

Jake turned to Mr. Carmody. “Was Bobby out here with the other students after the alarm sounded?”

“The school was cleared of all personnel,” Mr. Carmody insisted.

“I didn’t ask that,” Jake said. “I asked if anyone saw Bobby in the schoolyard with the other students.”

For an instant there was silence.

“Before I leave, I’ll get Bobby’s home address and phone number from you,” Jake told Mrs. Allen. “And, of course, we’ll check the source of the phone call, as we did before.”

Indignantly, Coach Anderson asked, “What are you going to do about Cody Carter?”

“Nothing,” Jake said.

“B-but he’s a s-suspect!” she stammered.

“He told us where he was and why he was there,” Jake said. “There’s no evidence to prove that he was anywhere else.”

Mr. Carmody pursed his lips as he thought. “He was not supposed to be down in the basement. There is a clearly marked
KEEP OUT
sign posted on the door. I’m afraid Cody will have to serve a Saturday detention.”

Coach Anderson nodded agreement and looked partially satisfied.

“So be it,” Jake said. He gave Cody a quick pat on the shoulders and glanced over at a group of teachers who were standing together in a spot of shade.

Cody saw that Ms. Jackson was looking back at Jake and smiling.

“Right now I’ll ask your teachers a few questions. Then I’ll check with the bomb squad to see how soon y’all can get back into the building,” Jake said.

Mr. Carmody looked down his nose at Cody and said, “You are dismissed.”

“Yes, sir,” Cody said. He cut out the side gate and headed for home.

His mother met him at the kitchen door with a finger to her lips. “Shhh. Grandma’s finally been able to get to sleep,” she said. Obviously, the school hadn’t contacted her yet.

Cody flopped into the nearest kitchen chair and leaned on the table, propping up his chin in his hands. “The school got another bomb threat,” he said.

Mrs. Carter sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. “That’s terrible,” she said. “But at least this time no one is blaming you.”

Cody groaned and said, “Mom, that’s not the way it was. I’ll tell you everything that happened, and I want you to believe me. I didn’t make that telephone call.”

“I do believe you,” she said, and she listened while Cody poured out the whole story.

When he finished, he said, “Jake is going to check where the phone call came from, and he’s going to talk to Bobby and his mom and see what he can find out.”

It suddenly occurred to Cody that his mom hadn’t been surprised when he told her about the phone call. “You already knew about the call,” he said. “Did someone from the school telephone you?”

Mrs. Carter shook her head. “No. Hayden and his friends told me. I asked why they were out of school early.”

“Hayden was here?”

“Yes. He and the other boys visited for a while with Grandma. That’s why she’s sleeping now. She loves to have visitors, but they tire her.”

Cody stiffened as the jealous ache returned.
She’s
my
grandma!
he wanted to shout, as if he were a little kid. But, of course, she was Hayden’s grandmother, too.

Mrs. Carter suddenly enveloped Cody in a smothering hug. “Oh, honey, don’t look so unhappy. Grandma is going to get better. I promise. And Aunt Tillie is thinking about selling her house in Arkansas and moving in with Grandma so neither one of them will be alone—maybe by Christmas.”

Feeling guilty because his mother had the wrong idea about what was disturbing him, Cody pulled away. He tried to sort through what she had said. “Do you mean your aunt Tillie will live with us, too?”

“We’ll make sure that Tillie is settled in and Grandma is feeling well and both of them are happy with the arrangement. Then we’ll be able to go home. Of course,” Mrs. Carter said, “that means we have to do our best to help Grandma get well. I know that you and Hayden will cooperate.”

Cody sighed. Why did adults say they knew something when they couldn’t possibly know it? “When the guys were here, what else did they tell you?” he asked.

“Eddie said something about seeing you follow that boy you mentioned, Bobby, but Hayden pulled him out of the kitchen, so I didn’t hear the rest.”

Mrs. Carter smiled at Cody. “But you told me the whole story. I didn’t need to hear it from Eddie.”

“The principal and the coach still think I made the calls, Mom.”

She patted his shoulder. “We both know you didn’t. Sooner or later the real culprit will turn up and the case will be solved.”

Cody remembered what Jake had said about the perps who made these calls. They weren’t always found out. It wasn’t that easy.

His thoughts took a sudden turn. “Mom,” he asked, “what would you do with a two-pound sack of powdered sugar?”

“A sack that big would last a good long time in our house,” she said. “Powdered sugar is good sprinkled on cinnamon toast and dusted on brownies. And I suppose, with that much on hand, I’d find plenty of cookie recipes that would call for it.”

“Would you only use it for cooking?”

“I can’t think of anything else powdered sugar would be used for.” She looked at the clock. “Hadn’t you better get to your homework?”

“I can’t,” he said. “My books are all in my locker, and we couldn’t get into the building because the bomb squad had to examine it.”

“Well, whatever you decide to do, be quiet about it,” she told him. “We don’t want to disturb Grandma’s nap.”

“I’ll do some stuff on my computer,” Cody said. He walked upstairs wondering why he hadn’t thought of a computer search before. Hayden and the other guys weren’t going to use that powdered sugar in cooking. They had something else in mind. Maybe a search engine like Google could tell him what that might be.

He watched as the screen brought up sites with recipes that called for powdered sugar. Only one site differed from the rest. Powdered sugar helped fight mites that infected bees. Hayden, Brad, and Eddie weren’t planning to help bees. Cody was sure of that.

He remembered that the telephone caller had used the word
smoke
, so he typed it into the Search box and hit Enter.

He saw Web sites for antismoking campaigns, smoke detectors, and cigar stores. He stopped when he found a Web site devoted to smoke and bees.

Powdered sugar and bees, smoke and bees? Was there a connection? Cody sighed. If there was, he couldn’t figure it out.

Puzzled, Cody shut down his computer, flopped across his bed, and tried to think. Instead, he fell asleep.

He woke to find his mother gently shaking his shoulder. “Office Ramsey is here to talk to you,” she said.

Cody jumped to his feet so fast he staggered, bouncing off the dresser and desk on the way to his open bedroom door. He hurried down the stairs, trying not to make too much noise, and dashed into the living room.

Not even taking time to say hello to Jake, Cody asked, “Did Bobby confess?”

“Slow down,” Jake said. He patted the sofa cushion next to his. “Have a seat and I’ll fill you in on what we found out.”

Cody immediately sat down, aware that his mother had taken the easy chair near the fireplace. “What was it?” he asked in a rush.

“Bobby left the school just as you said, through the basement door. His mom had already arrived at the school and was waiting for him at the side street, where she had picked him up before.”

Cody scowled, trying to think. “Why didn’t he go out the front doors, the regular way?”

“He claimed he didn’t like having a lot of kids and Mr. Carmody watch him leave. He’d used the door before, and his mom had picked him up there before.”

Cody looked up. “How about the phone call?”

“It came from the same place as the first one. Outside the convenience store.”

“I suppose Bobby and his mom didn’t stop at that store.” Cody slumped, waiting for the answer he knew would come.

“They say they didn’t,” Jake told him. “They went straight home.”

“Didn’t anybody see the person making the phone call?”

“The people at the convenience store claimed they couldn’t. As I told you before, the public telephone is located outside, out of sight of the checkout counter.”

“We’re back where we started,” Cody said.

“Not completely,” Jake answered. “We know that the calls were made when you were away from the other kids, with no one to alibi you. Once could be coincidence. Twice makes me begin to think someone planned it that way.”

Cody sat upright. “You mean I was set up?”

“I didn’t say for sure,” Jake cautioned him. “I just said it was a possibility.”

“Hayden,” Cody said.

His mother leaned forward. “Cody, Hayden is your cousin. You’re imagining things he might do to you. Your last complaint about him was that he planned to shove your head in a toilet.”

“Mom, he
said
he would.”

“Did he do it?”

Cody squirmed. “Well, no, but—”

“See what I mean?” Mrs. Carter said. “Hayden wouldn’t harm you or make threatening phone calls and try to get people to think you made them. Give Hayden a chance to be your friend, and he will be. Please don’t let me hear you say one more word about suspecting Hayden of anything.”

Jake was more direct. He said to Cody, “Do you know for a fact that Hayden saw you go outside to eat lunch or go into the basement?”

“I saw him in the hall, going to the cafeteria, so he might have.”

“I didn’t ask if he might have seen you. I asked if you knew for a fact.”

Cody closed his eyes, trying as hard as he could to remember. Finally, he opened them and shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m not sure where Hayden was.”

“Do you see how silly it is to blame Hayden for everything?” she asked. “It wasn’t you, but it’s not Hayden.”

Jake didn’t give Cody a chance to answer. “Keep thinking about what you heard and saw,” he said. “Something might occur to you.”

“What can you do with a two-pound bag of powdered sugar?” Cody asked.

Jake smiled. “I give up. What?”

“No, this is not a joke. I really need to know.”

Jake cocked his head and studied Cody. “Why?”

Cody quickly glanced at his mother. After what she had said, there was no way he could bring up Hayden.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I was just wondering.”

Jake said, “First of all, you can cook with it.”

“That’s what I told him,” Mrs. Carter said.

“And it’s possible to …” Jake stopped, thought a moment, and got to his feet. “I’ll have to think on it a minute.” Then, as if he were deliberately changing the subject, he said, “By the way, you might like to know that I got a spot on the open-mike schedule at the club for tomorrow night. I’ve worked out a routine about Texas, and I’m using the joke about Texas I bought from you. The musicians in my group actually laughed at it, so I’m hoping the audience will, too. There’s nothing rougher to face than a dead audience. Every stand-up comic hopes and prays that the audience will be with him.”

“What if it isn’t?”

“Then you work to win it over. It’s sort of like what an attorney has to do to win over a jury.”