Taffy Sinclair 005 - Blackmailed by Taffy Sinclair (7 page)

F
raming Taffy Sinclair wasn't going to be as easy as we had thought. Nobody could think up a plan that would fool anyone.

"If only I still had Wiggins's wallet," I said. "I could plant it in her desk."

"Maybe you could steal something else and plant it," offered Melanie.

"I'm not a thief!"

"I didn't mean that you were," said Melanie. "I meant borrow. If you BORROWED something from somebody else and planted it in her desk—"

"Forget it," I snapped. "I'm not going to take any chances. It would be just my luck that Curtis Trowbridge would see me.
I look guilty enough as it is."

"What if I called Wiggins and disguised my voice?" said Beth. "I could say that I was a friend and that I knew that Taffy Sinclair was the thief. She would never know it was me."

"Oh, yeah?" said Christie. "Wiggins is pretty smart. She'd know your voice in a minute."

"No, she wouldn't," Beth insisted.

"Wait a minute, you guys," I said. "I think I have an idea."

Everybody got quiet. Including Beth, who hardly ever shuts up, even in an emergency.

"Remember how Taffy writes? She makes her letters with squiggly little curliques."

Everybody nodded.

"I think I can fake her handwriting. I'll bet that I could write a note, showing that Taffy was the thief, sign her name, and drop it on the floor beside Wiggins's desk. She'd be sure to find it there. Wiggins goes berserk over kids passing notes, so you know she'd pick it up to see who wrote it."

"How could you fake her handwriting?" asked Christie. "Do you really think you could fool Wiggins? Like you said, she's pretty smart."

"Ordinarily I couldn't write like Taffy, but I still have the note she wrote me the day she started blackmailing me. You know. The one telling me to meet her by the swings. I can trace her letters off that and fake the ones that aren't on it. Nobody writes like Taffy. Even if I didn't get all of her letters right, Wiggins would still think it was Taffy's handwriting."

"You're right," sai
d Beth. "It IS a perfect plan."

"Wait," cautioned Katie. "Who would Taffy write a note like that to?"

I thought a minute. "Mona Vaughn. Who else? Mona is the only friend she has."

I took a sheet of paper out of my notebook and got some tracing paper out of my desk that was left over from a school project. Then I dug around in my jacket pocket until I found the note Taffy had written. I studied it for a few minutes, and while my friends watched, I traced her handwriting exactly and wrote a fabulous note.

Dear Mona,

I've done it again! I stole all the dollar bills out of the lunch money box. It was even easier than taking Miss Wiggins's wallet, and nobody will ever know it was me.

Love,
Taffy Sinclair

It took me quite a wh
ile to write that note, but when I finished and my friends and I looked it over, we knew it was a masterpiece.

"Can you imagine what Wiggins will do when she sees this?" asked Beth. "Taffy will really get it."

"She'll have to pay back every cent of the money," said Melanie.

"I'll bet my mother will suspend her from school for at least a week," bragged Christie.

"I can't wait!" I said. "After all the terrible things Taffy has done to me, it will be fun to see her get what she deserves."

Katie had gotten awfully quiet. She shook her head. "I still can't figure out what Taffy's motive was for taking Wiggins's wallet," she said. "Every criminal has a motive."

"Maybe she'll plead temporary insanity," Melanie said with a giggle.

"And another thing," said Katie. "Remember that Wiggins said that the thief came into the room at least ten minutes before the bell rang. You know Taffy Sinclair. She always hangs around on the school ground flirting with the boys until practically the last bell.
Then she waits until everybody is in their seats to make a grand entrance."

"Who cares?" I said
. "Taffy has to be the thief. W
ho else could it be?"

Nobody could answer that.

After my friends had all gone home and I had put the fake note from Taffy Sinclair into my knapsack to take to school on Monday morning, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Everything was going to work out okay after all. Taffy Sinclair would never be able to humiliate me and make me fake being her friend or treat me like her slave again. Best of all, I wouldn't have to go to jail. Other parts of my life were going to be better, too. I would be able to look Randy Kirwan in the eye again without worrying that he thought I was a terrible person. And then there was my father. He would be able to love me and be proud of me and not think that his daughter was a thief. Getting back at Taffy Sinclair was definitely going to be worth it.

Mom knocked on my door a few minutes later. "Jana, would you like to go out to the mall with me?" she called.

I started to say no. Ordinarily I never pass up a chance to go to the mall with Mom. We always stop at the ice cream shop that has forty-five different flavors before we come home. But this time I was still a little angry with her for
saying that my father's visit w
as only temporary. Still, I had to admit that I didn't like it when we weren't getting along, and she was probably trying to make up by inviting me to go with her. "Sure," I said, jumping off my bed and grabbing my jacket from the back of my chair.

We didn't talk much as we got the bus to the mall and then went from store to store. Mom said she had to get new shoes for work because her old ones had a hole in them. I knew Mom couldn't afford much right now since she had sent most of our extra money to my father, so I tried not to look at all the super clothes displayed in the store windows. She couldn't buy me anything right now. Then I thought about Taffy Sinclair. She got everything she wanted, and she had the most gorgeous wardrobe in the entire school.

I was looking at a sweater display in a store window while Mom priced shoes in another store and thinking about Taffy Sinclair when I noticed Mona Vaughn. Mona was in the store standing beside one of the sweater counters. As usual, she looked awful. She had on baggy jeans that were about three sizes too big and a faded sweatshirt.

I was standing there thinking that Mona always wore old, faded clothes and that it was no wonder she worshipped Taffy Sinclair when I noticed what she was doing. She was buying a sweater. It had to be an expensive sweater because it was a beautiful shade of blue with tiny pearls sewn in a design on the front. I blinked a couple of times. What was Mona Vaughn doing buying a sweater like that when she never wore anything half that nice?

I blinked again and looked closer. Mona glanced around the store nervously. Then she very slowly counted out the money for the salesclerk in dollar bills!

I ducked away from the window and hurried out into the center of the mall before Mona could spot me. My pulse was hammering in my ears. The stolen lunch money was in dollar bills, and I had seen Mona in the hall around the time it had been taken!

I
couldn't think about anything but Mona Vaughn for the rest of the weekend. I even turned down ice cream at the mall to get back home and try to figure out what to do.

Deep down inside I knew Mona was the thief. I had seen her give the salesclerk all those dollar bills for a sweater that was more expensive than anything she owned. On the other hand, I also knew that if I told on her, then she would be the one to get caught instead of me. Once that happened, I wouldn't have to worry about getting in trouble, and Taffy Sinclair wouldn't be able to blackmail me anymore.

Wasn't that all that mattered? I kept asking myself. Getting Taffy Sinclair off my back and staying out of jail?

My mind kept jumping back to Taffy. Why couldn't she be the thief? She was so horrible and snotty that she deserved to get in trouble, and I had dreamed of getting even with her practically forever. Mona Vaughn would never blackmail anyone. She was nice. She couldn't help it that she wasn't pretty and couldn't afford to wear nice clothes.

It made me furious to think that Taffy Sinclair was the reason Mona stole the money out of Wiggins's wallet and the dollar bills out of the lunch money box. Or as Katie would say, Taffy was her motive. She was trying to look nice so that Taffy would pay attention to her.
Poor Mona!
She was miserable enough. What would she do if I got her in trouble? On the other hand, I was the only one who knew about Mona. I could go ahead and frame Taffy Sinclair and nobody would ever know the difference.

Mom hadn't said any more about my father since her talk the day before. She's pretty good about not driving a subject into the ground. Usually. But the closer it got to Saturday night and her date with Pink, the more nervous I got about what he would say when he came to pick her up. I couldn't help wondering what he was thinking. Was he jealous of my father? Was that why Pink was looking for a different place for him to stay?

When the doorbell rang at a quarter to six, I
raced to open the door. There w
as Pink, tall and blond, with his usual grin
spread across his face. If he was worried about my father, it didn't show.

"Hi, Jana," he said, pushing a pizza box toward me. "Here's your bribe for letting me take your gorgeous mother bowling tonight.
"

Pink is an absolute bowling nut, and they go bowling almost every Saturday night. I took the pizza, sniffed the delicio
us aroma, and said thanks. It would be deep-
dish pepperoni, gr
een pepper and mushroom. That w
as my favorite, and he brought me one practically every time they went out.

I took my pizza to
the kitchen and dug right in w
hile it was still hot. I was so absorbed in eating that I forgot all about what Pink thought about my father until I heard him say three words
: "Alcoholism treatment center.
"

I put dow
n my pizza slice and listened. "I've called every one in the area," he was saying to my mother. "They're all booked up for at least a month, and a couple of them have long waiting lists."

Then Mom said something about talking about it on the way to the bow
ling alley, called good-by
e to me, and they left. I sat there staring a
t the door and thinking about w
ha
t Pink had said. He had been try
ing to get my father into an alc
oholism treatment center. That wa
s like a hospital. I had seen them advertised on TV. I wanted to think that Pink was trying to get
rid of him, but down deep I knew
that he was really trying to help. Still, he had said that they were all full. I couldn't help being glad. There would be plenty of time for my father to go to the hospital if he had to after we were a real family again.

My pizza was getting cold, so I started eating it and thinking about the predicament I was in. Why did everything have to happen at once? My father coming. Taffy blackmailing me. And now, finding out that Mona Vaughn was the real thief. I couldn't tell on Mona. I just couldn't. If only there were more time. Then maybe she would confess, or quit stealing, or at the very worst, someone else would find out and tell on her. Then I wouldn't have to. But there wasn't more time. My life was going to end on Monday when the police came to Mark Twain Elementary and later, at six o'clock in the evening, when my father's bus pulled into Bridgeport.

When Monday morning finally came, I checked for the hundredth time to be sure the fake note was in my knapsack. There was only one thing I could do, and I would do it all by myself so that if it backfired no one would get in trouble except me.

I got to school earlier than usual. There were a few kids from the lower grades milling around the front door, but nobody from my class was anywhere in sight. I had planned it that way. I tugged on the front door. It was open. I pulled it some more, stuck my head through the opening, and looked in. The coast was
clear. My scalp was tingling w
ith excitement. All I had to do was go inside, plant that note beside Wiggins's desk, and I was home free.

"Hi, Jana. What are you doing here so early?"

I jumped
so hard that I nearly caught my
neck in the door. It was Curtis Trowbridge, and he had come up behind me.

"I just felt like coming to school early," I lied. I certainly couldn't tell him the truth, and I couldn't t
hink of anything else to say. "Wh
at about you?"

The grin that had been on Curtis's face changed to an expression of concern. "I'm still working on the case," he said. "And there are a couple of kids I couldn't reach on the phone. Joel Murphy's house didn't answer all weekend, and I got a recorded message saying that Mona Vaughn's phone had been disconnected. I thought maybe I could talk to them before the bell. I hope one of them can give me some clues. Nobody else knows anything."

"I hope so, too, Curtis. See you around." I ducked into the building and away from Curtis as fast as I could. I knew why Mona Vaughn's phone had been disconnected. Her family couldn't afford it, which meant she could never afford to buy that sweater, either—unless she stole the money. If I ever had any doubts that she was the thief, they were all gone now. Not only that, but she might tell Curtis about seeing me in the hall. I only had one chance to get out of this mess. I had to sneak into the classroom and plant that note.

I tiptoed up the hall and stopped in front of the door. The room was dark, which meant that Wiggins wasn't there yet. My hands were shaking as I pulled that note out of my knapsack and folded it up. Then I pitched it underhand and smiled as it landed right beside Wiggins's desk. So what if Taffy Sinclair wasn't the real thief? It was still the right thing to do.

I sneaked back outside, confident that nobody had seen me go inside the building. More kids had arrived on the school ground, but it was such a beautiful morning that everyone was staying outside.

"Hey, Jana."

It was Chris
tie. She and Beth and Melanie w
ere just coming onto the playground. I waved and hurried toward them. Just then Katie came up. All my friends were there and I was bursting to let them in on my secret.

"Come over by the fence," I said. "Have I got something to tell you!"

I explained about seeing Mona buying the sweater and realizing that s
he had a motive, but that she w
as too nice to rat on. "I decided to frame Taffy anyway," I said confidently. "She deserves it. I just planted the note beside Wiggins's desk."

Everybody just stared at me for a moment, and then they started giggling. "Morgan, I'm proud of you!" shouted Beth, slapping me on the back.

"I think you're doing the right thing," said Melanie. "Taffy Sinclair treats Mona badly, too. Sometimes she's
friendly to her and lets her follow her around, and sometimes she just acts snotty and snubs her."

"Yeah," said Christie. "Yo
u're really doing Mona a favor."

Katie didn't say anything. I could tell she was thinking it over.

"Would you rather that I got in trouble instead?" I demanded.

"Of course not, " said Katie. "It's just that it would be better
if Taffy really were the thief.
"

Leave it to Katie to put a damper on things. I wasn't feeling nearly so confident about what I had done when the bell rang. I forgot about my doubts when I got to my locker, though. There was Mona Vaughn at her locker across the hall from mine. She was taking off a corduroy jacket that was so old and wor
n out that the elbows were shiny
. Underneath it was the beautiful blue sweater with the pearl design on the front.

She hung up her jacket and then she started rearranging the books and papers and things in her locker. I knew what she was doing. She was kil
ling time. She was waiting for
Taffy Sinclair to come by so that she could show off her new sweater. I would be willing to bet on it. Poor Mona.

I started rearranging things in my locker, too. I had to be sure. I didn't have long to wait. A couple of minutes later Taffy Sinclair came prancing up the hall on her way to the classroom.

"Hi, Taffy," Mona called out. Then she turned and sort of puffed out her chest so that Taffy couldn't help but see her new sweater.

Taffy gave her a bored look and didn't even slow down. "Hi, Mona," she
said barely above a whisper. T
hen she went sailing on by.

I thought I could see tears in Mona's eyes. That Taffy Sinclair was the worst fink in the world.

"Hi, Mona," I called as cheerfully as I could. "I thought the math homework was hard this time. Did you have trouble with problem seven?" I don't know why I said that. The math homework was easy, and I didn't even remember what problem seven was. The truth was, I wanted to say something to Mona. Anything to make her forget about Taffy Sinclair.

Mona gave me a surprised look. Then she smiled shyly and said, "I didn't have much trouble with the homework. You can look at my problem seven if you want to."

I said thanks and walked with her to the room. Mona looked around proudly when we walked in together. I knew she wanted everybody to see that she had a friend. My heart was just about breaking for her. The Fabulous Five would have to be nicer to her from now on.

Wiggins was already seated at her desk, shuffling through some papers. I ducked into my own seat. This was it. The big day. I glanced toward the spot where I had put the fake note. It was gone! Wiggins had found it. Taffy Sinclair's doom was sealed at last. She would never blackmail anyone again. My friends had noticed it, too, and Beth turn
ed around and gave me a thumbs-
up victory sign.

Now all I had to do was wait for Wiggins to announce that the thief had been caught. Or for Mrs. Winchell to come into the room with the police. I was so excited I couldn't sit still.

Wiggins made all the announcements and collected the lunch money without saying a thing. I couldn't believe it. Could somebody else have found the note? I thought about that for a while. Wiggins was always the first one in the room in the morning. And I had left it right beside her desk where she couldn't miss it.

That was the longest morning of my life. Wiggins conducted class as if nothing had happened. We went through a boring social studies lesson and forty-two spelling words before recess. I kept waiting for her to say something, but she didn't.

Then the recess bell rang. Wiggins held up her hand and got slowly to her feet. "I'd like to see Taffy Sinclair in the room during recess," she said calmly.

This was it! Wiggins
had
found the note, after all. Taffy's eyes were wide and she had a puzzled look on her face. I stuck my nose in the air when I walked past her. I had done it. I had gotten my revenge on Taffy Sinclair. It was the most wonderful moment of my life.

I felt j
ust about nine feet tall as I w
ent out for recess. I couldn't even feel the ground beneath my feet. I would never have to worry about what anyone thought of me again. I could look Randy straight in the eye. I wasn't guilty of anything bad, and what was more, no one could convince him that I was.

I thought about my father, too, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Now he could be proud of me, and if he and Mom decided to get married again, I'd be the best daughter anyone could ever be.

When I got to the playground my friends were all clustering around me. "You did it!" shouted Christie. We started jumping up and down and laughing.

Suddenly I stopped. "I wonder what Wiggins is doing to Taffy Sinclair right now?" I couldn't forget about her for even one second.

"Probably giving her a lecture about stealing," said Christie.

"And Taffy is crying and sobbing and carrying on," Melanie said gleefully.

"And Wiggins is holding the fake note under her nose and ordering her to confess that she's the thief!" I cried.

"What fake note?"

My friends and I all froze on the spot. In our excitement we hadn't noticed Mona Vaughn standing close by. She must have thought that I was her new friend and had followed
me out of the room. Now she w
as standing about three feet from us, and she was looking at us as if she couldn't believe what she had just heard.