The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen (27 page)

“You had two cereal bars,” Mr. Garvey said. “Two. And having that food handy saved us valuable time. We wouldn’t have won if we’d stopped off for lunch somewhere.”

“We didn’t win,” Jake said. “Not until Simon says we did.”

“We’ll see about that,” Mr. Garvey said. “Go get your food. I’ll watch the table.”

So the boys got in the long line for food. Dmitri Simon had, as usual, pulled out all the stops. There were three grills serving up all kinds of picnic fare, but before you even got there, there were two tables stocked with salads and side dishes. The mood wasn’t as celebratory as Simon surely had hoped, but everything looked delicious.

They waited patiently in line, paper plates and plastic utensils in hand. As they approached the grills, Jake said, “Look over there.”

Across the field, Brendan Root had a picnic table to himself. He was slouched over, head in hands. His teacher was gone, and his teammates, the two brothers, were sticking to themselves. Winston wondered how Brendan was even going to get home.

“Let me get a hot dog, too, please,” Winston said to the man serving the food.

A few minutes later, bearing an extra plate and a can of soda, Winston said to Brendan, “I brought you some food.”

Brendan looked up. His eyes were red—he’d been crying. He had stopped now, but his great and happy enthusiasm was a long way off. “Thanks,” he said dimly. “I’m not really hungry.”

“Maybe you will be later,” Winston said as he sat down. Jake and Mal had gone back to Mr. Garvey.

Brendan watched Winston work on his burger for a few moments and pushed the food around on his own plate. “People think I cheated,” he said.

“No, they don’t,” Winston said. “I know you didn’t. It was your teacher.”

“He asked us to guess who might be on other teams. ‘It’s always good to be prepared,’ he said. I didn’t know what he meant by that. Anyway, I knew you were going to be here—I mean, it’s a giant puzzle event!—but I called you just to make sure. I told my teacher your name, and he wrote it down.”

“It’s okay,” Winston said.

“The next day I saw a picture of you on his desk,” Brendan continued.

“A picture?” Now this was a surprise.

“The one from the newspaper,” Brendan said. “After you found that last treasure.”

“Oh. That,” Winston said. That made sense. The local newspaper wrote a story about the previous treasure hunt and included a picture of Winston and his friends. Carl Lester must have tracked that down and given it to the cheater so he would know what they looked like. How very creepy.

“Even when I saw your picture on his desk,” Brendan said, “I never guessed what he was going to do. Why did he do it?”

Winston could only shake his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess he really wanted to win.”

“So did I,” Brendan said sadly.

Winston didn’t know how to make Brendan feel any better. He wasn’t sure if that was even possible right now, so soon after the grand prize had slipped away. At least Brendan took a bite of his hot dog. Winston looked around for Brendan’s teammates, but they were nowhere in sight. Then he started looking at the picnic tables. His eyes jumped from table to table, his mind calculating. Brendan was temporarily forgotten.

“What are you looking at?” Brendan asked.

Winston laughed. “I think I found a puzzle.”

Brendan looked around. “You did? Where?”

“The picnic tables. Look! Starting from where we’re sitting, we can walk in a straight line to another table, and from there to
another
table. You can trace a path that hits every picnic table by walking in a straight line horizontally or vertically. When you hit a table, you can turn or keep going straight. If you do it right, you’ll hit each table exactly once.”

Brendan looked a little better after solving the puzzle, so Winston invited him back over to his picnic table. Brendan thought about it and shook his head. “Everyone probably thinks I’m as much a cheater as my teacher.” He looked startled for a moment and said, “Hey, those two words are anagrams of each other!”

“What?”

“
Teacher
and
cheater
. You can scramble the letters of one to get the other.”

Winston was amused when Brendan laughed his old happy laugh. He’d been trying to think how to make Brendan feel better, and all it took was some scrambled letters. When Winston again invited him to sit with Mal and Jake, Brendan came along, carrying his plate of food.

His friends instinctively understood that Brendan needed a lot of cheering up. They greeted him like a long-lost relative. “Hey, Brendan!” Mal said with an over-the-top happiness. Jake stood up and clapped Brendan on the shoulder, welcoming him to their picnic table like it was a secret society for only the very coolest people. Brendan soon looked more like his old self.

“Where’s Mr. Garvey?” Winston asked.

Jake gestured with his chin, and Winston turned around. Mr. Garvey was talking with Dmitri Simon and three of Simon’s men.

“They called him over?” Winston said. “I thought they were going to speak to all of us.”

“No,” Mal said. “He went over by himself. He said they had to be told that another team had solved the final puzzle.”

They watched Mr. Garvey, who was talking as much with his hands as with his mouth, passionately trying to convince Dmitri Simon that there was another winning team ready to claim the grand prize. Simon’s expression was unreadable from this distance.

“Your team solved the final puzzle, too?” Brendan said.

“Yeah,” Winston said. “Took us a while. Think square . . . I had no idea what that meant.”

“Well, if somebody else wins, I hope it’s you guys,” Brendan said seriously.

“We might,” Mal said. “Maybe they’ll let us have it just to stop Mr. Garvey from talking to them anymore.” He imitated a desperate potato chip executive: “Yes! Please! Take our money! Take whatever you want! Just go away!”

They all snickered at that.

Jake said, “Do you think he’s telling the full story?”

“What do you mean?”

Jake leaned in and spoke softly. “We’re supposed to split the prize money with the girls. Do you think he’s telling them that? We never got to submit the answer with the computer, so there’s no proof we made that deal with Bethany’s team.”

They thought about that as they watched Mr. Garvey talking to the other men.

“You think he’s trying to claim the entire prize?” Mal said. “You think he’s cutting the girls out?”

“I don’t think he’s arguing to give them
more
money.”

“What’s your teacher doing?” said a new voice, and Winston spun around to see Bethany standing there, arms crossed, glaring down at him. Giselle and Elvie stood behind her like backup singers.

“I don’t know. We were just talking about that.”

Bethany pointed sharply at Winston, as if Mr. Garvey was Winston’s misbehaving pet dog. “Dmitri Simon already interviewed my team. We told him exactly what happened—that we were going to split the money,” she said. “If he’s over there saying something different, they might decide we’re
all
lying. They might not award the prize to anybody!”

They continued to watch the men talking. Winston said, “I’m sure he wouldn’t do that.” He didn’t believe the words coming from his own mouth.

Nobody else did, either. Bethany snorted.

Jake snorted, too. “He would totally do that,” he said.

“But what can he tell them?” Winston asked. “What can he say to make them think we deserve the prize money all by ourselves?”

Bethany made an exasperated sound. “It’s easy. It’s totally easy. All he has to do is say your computer broke after it beeped and said another team won. Then you gave us a hint to solve the last puzzle because it was all over anyway.”

“Is that what happened?” Brendan asked.

“What?” Bethany said. “No! That’s what I’m saying!”

“Sorry. I just got here,” Brendan said.

“That’s the bunch of lies their teacher is telling Dmitri Simon right now,” Bethany said.

They all looked over to Mr. Garvey, who was still at it, giving his complicated version of events to Simon and his men. Now, as they watched, Mr. Garvey pointed back to the picnic table. Dmitri Simon turned to look at Winston and his friends. Simon said something else and then turned and began to walk toward them. Mr. Garvey tried to follow, but one of Simon’s men put a hand up and stopped him. What was that about?

Dmitri Simon reached their table. He was all smiles. “Hello again, girls,” he said to Bethany’s team. “I’d like to talk with these fellas for a few minutes.”

“What did that teacher say to you?” Bethany asked. “Because if he said anything about—”

Dmitri Simon raised a hand, and Bethany quieted down. “I just need to speak to these boys for a minute. Please.”

Bethany bit her lower lip as if to keep a lock on the many things she wanted to say. She finally muttered, “Sure. Okay.” She gave Winston one of her patented glares as she led Giselle and Elvie away.

Brendan stood up, too. “I guess I’ll go get another hot dog. Okay?”

“Sounds great, Brendan,” said Simon. “I’m sorry again for everything you’ve been through today. It’s not fair that your teacher did this. I mean, it’s not fair to
you.
”

“I still had fun,” Brendan said. “You know. Up until—”

“I know,” Simon said, patting Brendan on the shoulder. Brendan left to get his second helping.

Simon took a deep breath and sat down. The bench groaned with displeasure at the sudden extra weight. “What a day, huh?” Simon said to the three boys. He shook his head with something like amusement. “I figured once a team had gotten that sixth answer, there was no need to continue the game. I had the computers programmed to summon everybody back to the factory after somebody won. It didn’t occur to me that the winning team might self-destruct so spectacularly.” He looked more carefully at Jake’s bruised face. “I guess you’re the one who made direct contact with the cheater.”

“I made direct contact, all right,” Jake said ruefully.

“Are you okay?” Simon asked.

“It still hurts a little. Not too bad.”

Winston said, “Did you talk to Carl Lester? Did he tell you why he did all this?”

Simon gave a snort of laughter. “Yeah. The guy was so nervous about getting caught, he told us the whole thing before he even knew what he was saying. Apparently, our friend Mr. Lester likes to gamble. He owed a bunch of people a lot of money. He thought if he won my contest, he could use his power as vice principal to funnel that money to himself. He was going to steal it all.”

Jake said, “And who was the other guy?”

“A buddy from one his card games,” Simon said. “Mr. Lester was going to give him a cut. We’ve got his name, and the police are going to his house right now. Personally, I can’t wait to meet him.”

Mr. Garvey was still standing at a distance, staring at them, held back by one of Simon’s partners. Simon gestured over there and said, “So. Your teacher tells me you figured out the sixth and final answer.” Simon looked at the three boys. “Is that true?”

This was apparently the big moment. “Yes,” said Winston.

“Tell me about it. Tell me how you solved the puzzle.” Simon sat back, ready to hear the story, that friendly smile remaining on his face.

Winston glanced at his friends and then started to talk. It was clear what was happening: Dmitri Simon wanted to verify what Mr. Garvey had said.

And what
had
their teacher said? Had Mr. Garvey tried to cut the girls out of their half of the prize money? Winston had to admit it was possible. Sure. Mr. Garvey might have decided it wasn’t fair that the girls should get so much money just because they hadn’t broken their computer. It’s not like the girls would be able to prove he’d promised them anything. And it would mean twenty-five thousand extra dollars for the school.