Norman’s face was as cold as stone, his voice even colder.
“I see no reason why I can’t attend a meeting with Harper, if that’s what you want,” he said at last.
* * *
Jupe beamed the whole time he was climbing into Bob’s red VW and riding to the Shoremont campus.
He had already phoned President Harper to tell him the case was solved. He asked Harper to summon Coach Duggan to his office and to invite John Hemingway Powers as well. Now the Three Investigators were driving to Shoremont, with Barry Norman following them in his own car.
When they arrived at Harper’s office, Duggan and Powers were already there.
The college president greeted and shook hands with each of the Three Investigators, but Jupe barely paid attention to him. He was too busy watching John Hemingway Powers’s reaction as Barry Norman walked in the door behind the three teenagers. Surprise, anger, fear, puzzlement, and belligerence all passed over the man’s face. Then he stared hard at the Investigators.
“Jupiter,” said President Harper, “we’re all very eager to hear what you’ve learned. You three must be very good detectives to have solved this case in just two weeks — and you have my gratitude. Now please tell us what you’ve found.”
“Detectives? I’m missing something,” grumbled Coach Duggan from his chair by the window. “I don’t see detectives. I see our school parrot and ” — he pointed at Pete — “a high school kid.”
Jupe stepped to the center of the room. “In fact, all three of us are detectives and high school students, Coach Duggan,” he explained. “I have only been posing as a Shoremont student.”
“Coach,” said President Harper, “you’ll understand in a minute. Come on, Jupiter. Tell us.”
Jupe was not in a hurry. He thought of John Hemingway Powers as a chestnut: very hard nut, with a shell impossible to peel off — unless you roasted it first. Once Powers was hot enough, worried enough, Jupe hoped he would crack.
“It was a difficult case to solve,” Jupe said. “Some things came easily. For example, this man, Barry Norman, offered Pete money and a Porsche to play basketball for Shoremont College.”
“What?” shouted the coach.
“Don’t interrupt, Duggan,” said President Harper sternly. “You’ll have your chance to explain in a minute.”
Everyone in the room could hear that President Harper was accusing Coach Duggan. Powers let a small smile creep into the corners of his mouth.
“I’m afraid you’ve jumped to a wrong conclusion,” Jupe told the college president. “We’re certain now that Coach Duggan is entirely innocent in this matter.”
“Well, then, who is guilty?” Harper was losing his patience.
“I’ll tell you in just a moment, but first let me ask Mr. Powers just one question,” Jupe said. “Mr. Powers, who is Luke Braun?”
Powers looked at Jupe cautiously.
“Who is Luke Braun?” Powers repeated.
“Yes,” Jupe said. “You know who he is, don’t you?”
Powers thought a moment, trying to find the trap. But he obviously couldn’t see it.
“Well, I think he’s a high school basketball player,” Powers said. “I’ve seen his name on Coach Duggan’s scouting reports. He’s supposed to be darned good.”
Everyone looked at the quiet, sullen coach. “Luke Braun? Never heard of him,” said Coach Duggan.
Powers looked confused. “But I saw your scouting report,” he insisted. “You said he was the next Magic Johnson!”
“No,” interrupted Jupe. “I said that. You see, Mr. Powers, Luke Braun doesn’t exist. I made him up and entered his name in Coach Duggan’s computer, knowing that you would read it. And knowing that you would send Michael Anthony — Barry Norman, here — to see him. We erased the file minutes after you left, Mr. Powers, so we know you were the only person who read the report. I’m afraid our proof is conclusive.”
Powers’s face looked suddenly tired and old.
“Is this true, Mr. Norman?” asked President Harper.
“I’d like to help you out here,” Barry Norman said. “But first I need some assurances that my role in this matter will be kept confidential. I’d like to propose a deal. My cooperation in exchange for your promise to keep my name out of the media coverage of the story.”
“Fine,” President Harper said. “If that’s the price of your information, I’m willing to pay it. Now tell me, are the Three Investigators right?”
Norman looked right at Powers and nodded. “Yes. John Hemingway Powers has been my client. He’s the one behind this bribery scheme.”
“All right, it’s true! So what?” Powers said almost proudly. “I don’t happen to believe there’s anything wrong with giving guys extra incentives to attend this fine school and join its basketball team.”
President Harper’s brow wrinkled as he scowled. “John, what you happen to believe is against every rule of college recruitment ethics.”
“It’s easy for you to sit up here and talk ethics,” Powers said. “You’ve only been here three years. You didn’t graduate from this school. You don’t know the traditions and the history. You didn’t see the good years. You didn’t have to watch the athletic program dissolve into mediocrity, watch as year after year talented players chose the big schools with the big names and the big TV coverage of their games. There had to be some way for me to restore this school to what it was — I knew
“Only since you hired Duggan,” answered Powers. “The idea came to me when I heard the rumors about Duggan paying his players in Boston. Did I think it was true? I didn’t care. All I knew was that it sounded like a great idea. One thing I know: Money talks and people listen. I figured if the payoffs were ever exposed, Duggan would take the blame.”
“So that’s why you offered me more money for Duggan’s budget,” President Harper said. “Just to try to incriminate him further?”
“I had to, Chuck. When these kids started tailing Barry and asking my players lot of questions, I smelled trouble.” Then Powers turned his fierce stare on Pete. “Who would have guessed we’d recruit a detective?”
Pete didn’t know what to say.
“Powers, you’re an egotist and an embarrassment to the sport.” Duggan spat out the words.
“Wake up, Duggan,” Powers said, snapping his fingers like a hypnotist. “Champion teams are bought, not coached! Our team is in the play-offs for the first time in a decade. And we can win. All of you should be thanking
“Well, Powers,” Harper said sadly. “It’s over.”
“That’s for sure,” the coach chimed in. “I’m kicking every one of your pets off the team, Powers.”
“Don’t be absurd,” Powers said. “The play-offs are tomorrow night. No one has to know about this.”
“We may be the best team your money can buy, John,” said President Harper, twisting a paper clip between his fingers, “but that’s not how I want our athletic program run. And please don’t tell me that you’re withdrawing your financial support for the gym, because I wouldn’t take any of your money now. This school has no use for you anymore.”
Powers stood up to give everyone in the room one last stare. Then he marched out.
“Thanks, you guys,” President Harper said, giving the Three Investigators a weak smile but a firm hand-shake. “This school is about to go through a tough, embarrassing time. But at least we’ll be able to take some pride in exposing our problems and fixing them ourselves instead of covering them up.”
“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
“Really?” Pete said. “So
“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,
“
“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
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...
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!”